Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of power quality transient phenomena of DC railway traction supply

DC railways are considered as an example of a complex distribution network, featuring distributed supply and moving loads. The Power Quality phenomena affecting traction voltage are many, steady and transient, depending on the converter operations at substations and on-board vehicles. A classification is proposed and a discussion follows of the correct methods for their quantification, with reference to related standards and to the vast background related to ac networks. The characterization of PQ is related on one side to ripple and fluctuation of the pantograph variables for supply purposes, and on the other side to the appearance of specific components relevant for interference to signalling on the track. Considerations and conclusions are based on a large amount of measured waveforms, recorded on the Italian railway networks, and are aimed at contributing to the forthcoming standards on traction supply quality.
Diego Paredes - Laser driver design in 65-nm CMOS technology for IFoF optical links

Broadband mobile networks have experimented an accelerated growth in the passed five decades culminating this development with 5G networks. This evolution demands an efficient and not expensive solution for optical-wireless front-end. Thus, information delivered by mobile stations is repeated over a Distributed Antenna System (DAS), where Remote Antenna Unit (RAU) integer optical and wireless modules. A non-linear response from light source means a major problem for an analog signal in comparison with digital one. The main problem with non linearity is signal dispersion giving as result alteration of signal shape form. In this direction there are some options from IC electronic design to interact with optical source, first the use of a linear drive circuit that delivers a certain amount of electric current for a voltage input signal, the second option is the use of pre-distortion or post-distortion electronic blocks to guarantee a lineal response from optical source. This work supposes a first approach and design of a linear laser driver in 65-nm CMOS technology that includes layout design. Technological Requeriments The scheme for uplink stablishes some requirements for the block before VCSEL (vertical-cavity surfaceemitting laser) or any other inbuilding light source employed to transmit a modulated analog signal represented by a certain range of optical power. A laser driver provides to VCSEL an adequate bias level in addition to an optimal coupling of impedances due to the fact that input impedance of VCSEL is 50 Ω. On the other hand, is convenient to achieve a good performance with the laser without any control loop stage, this means that linear laser driver desig, consider AC, DC and transient analysis for open loop. Nevertheless, a control loop is needed for practical implementation, where temperature and age can alterate output response of light source (Säckinger 2005). The structure proposed in this work is based in a degenerated differential pair, where a current mirror provide a linear characteristic for a stable operating point and a wide dynamic range for an input voltage (Ahmad et al. 2017). The laser driver block (LD) in RAU is showed in Figure 1.
Objektverfolgung bei einer vollständigen Fahrzeugumfeldüberwachung mittels Radar

Abstract. Fur modernste Fahrerassistenzsysteme ist zunehmend eine vollstandige Rundumuberwachung des fliesenden Verkehrs erforderlich. In diesem Artikel wird ein Ansatz zur Uberwachung des gesamten umliegenden Verkehrs mittels Radarsystemen prasentiert. Hierfur wurde ein Versuchsfahrzeug mit insgesamt sechs Radarsensoren ausgerustet, um eine moglichst hohe Umfeld-Uberwachung zu ermoglichen. Fur diese Konfiguration wird ein auf GPDA basierendes Trackingsystem vorgestellt. Es wird auf das Problem ausgedehnter Ziele eingegangen, welches auftritt wenn sich ein Fremdfahrzeug neben dem Versuchsfahrzeug befindet, da hier Reflektionen von verschiedenen Reflektionszentren des Ziels aufgefangen werden. Dieser Effekt wird ausgenutzt, um mittels einer Track-zu-Track Fusion eine Langenschatzung des vorbeifahrenden Fahrzeugs zu ermoglichen.
Re-framing planning decision-making: increasing flood resilience in Jakarta

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to re-frame planning decision-making to address risks of flooding and to increase community resilience. Rapid urbanisation, fragmented governance and recurrent flooding complicate resolution of DKI Jakarta’s chronic housing shortage. Failure to effectively implement planning decision-making processes poses potential human rights violations. Contemporary planning policy requires the relocation of households living in floodplains within 15 m of DKI Jakarta’s main watercourses, further constraining land availability and potentially requiring increased densification. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a preliminary scoping study for a technologically enhanced participatory planning method, incorporating synthesis of existing information on urbanisation, governance and flood risk management in Jakarta. Findings – Responsibility for flood risk management in DKI Jakarta is fragmented both within and across administrative boundaries. Decision-making is further.
Analysis and Evaluation on NBTI-Induced Circuit Aging

Aging effects degrade circuit performance with time, inducing reliability problem. Accurate prediction of circuit aging can help designer determine the reasonable design margin, avoiding the over-design of the circuit. Based on the physical understanding of aging mechanism, an analysis framework is proposed to predict NBTI-induced circuit aging. The analysis framework starts at the worst case prediction, which assumes the extremely operational conditions. Then, the impacts of different workloads and logic topology of the circuit on the aging-induced degradation are incorporated into the analysis framework to make the predicted result be closer to the practical scenario. Experimental results demonstrate that the effectiveness of the proposed analysis framework.
Exploring the Impact of Flavonoids on Symptoms of Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Recent evidence suggests that diet modifies key biological factors associated with the development of depression. It has been suggested that this could be due to the high flavonoid content commonly found in many plant foods, beverages and dietary supplements. Our aim was to conduct a systematic review to evaluate the effects of dietary flavonoids on the symptoms of depression. A total of 46 studies met the eligibility criteria. Of these, 36 were intervention trials and 10 were observational studies. A meta-analysis of 36 clinical trials involving a total of 2788 participants was performed. The results showed a statistically significant effect of flavonoids on depressive symptoms (mean difference = −1.65; 95% C.I., −2.54, −0.77; p < 0.01). Five of the 10 observational studies included in the systematic review reported significant results, suggesting that a higher flavonoid intake may improve symptoms of depression. Further studies are urgently required to elucidate whether causal and mechanistic links exist, along with substantiation of functional brain changes associated with flavonoid consumption.
Spontaneous and Perturbational Complexity in Cortical Cultures

Dissociated cortical neurons in vitro display spontaneously synchronized, low-frequency firing patterns, which can resemble the slow wave oscillations characterizing sleep in vivo. Experiments in humans, rodents, and cortical slices have shown that awakening or the administration of activating neuromodulators decrease slow waves, while increasing the spatio-temporal complexity of responses to perturbations. In this study, we attempted to replicate those findings using in vitro cortical cultures coupled with micro-electrode arrays and chemically treated with carbachol (CCh), to modulate sleep-like activity and suppress slow oscillations. We adapted metrics such as neural complexity (NC) and the perturbational complexity index (PCI), typically employed in animal and human brain studies, to quantify complexity in simplified, unstructured networks, both during resting state and in response to electrical stimulation. After CCh administration, we found a decrease in the amplitude of the initial response and a marked enhancement of the complexity during spontaneous activity. Crucially, unlike in cortical slices and intact brains, PCI in cortical cultures displayed only a moderate increase. This dissociation suggests that PCI, a measure of the complexity of causal interactions, requires more than activating neuromodulation and that additional factors, such as an appropriate circuit architecture, may be necessary. Exploring more structured in vitro networks, characterized by the presence of strong lateral connections, recurrent excitation, and feedback loops, may thus help to identify the features that are more relevant to support causal complexity.
Common Foundations between Control Engineering and Manufacturing Management.

SUMMARY A number of international studies have suggested that good performance in manufacturing companies is usually correlated with the employment of good quality engineering graduates in senior production management posts. This suggests that engineering courses should be designed with the expectation that many students will be engaged in decision making at the managerial level in situations involving considerable uncertainty. It is therefore important to establish which engineering disciplines provide skills with high potential for ‘carry-over’ into management. The conclusion reached in this paper is that control systems is such a subject, especially as a philosophy can be established in which mathematical models move from the general to the particular.
A modified Delphi approach to enhance nurturing of professionalism in postgraduate medical education in Singapore.

INTRODUCTION Nurturing professional identities instils behavioural standards of physicians, in turn facilitating consistent professional attitudes, practice, and patient care. Identities are socioculturally constructed efforts, thus we must account for the social, cultural, and local healthcare factors that shape physicians' roles, responsibilities and expectations. This study aims to forward a program to nurture professionalism amongst physicians in Singapore. METHODS A 3-phased-evidenced-based-approach was used. First, a systematic scoping review (SSR) was conducted to identify professionalism elements. Second, a questionnaire was created drawing from the SS's findings. Third, a modified Delphi involving local experts identifying socioculturally appropriate elements to nurture professionalism was conducted. RESULTS The 124 included articles in the SSR revealed definitions, knowledge, skills, and approaches to nurturing professionalism. The modified Delphi identified professional traits, virtues, communication, ethical, self-care, teaching and assessment methods, and support mechanisms. CONCLUSION Results formed the basis to a holistic and longitudinal program focused on instilling professional traits and competencies over time through personalised and holistic support of physicians. Findings will be of interest to medical communities in the region and beyond.
Prenatal Exposure to Chemical Mixtures and Inhibition among Adolescents

Inhibition, one of the building blocks of executive function, is the ability to focus one’s attention despite interference from external stimuli. It undergoes substantial development during adolescence and may be susceptible to adverse impacts of prenatal exposure to chemical mixtures, yet few studies have explored this association. The New Bedford Cohort (NBC) is a birth cohort of residents living near the New Bedford Harbor Superfund site in Massachusetts. Among adolescents from the NBC, we investigated the association of biomarkers of prenatal exposure to organochlorines (DDE, HCB, PCBs) and metals (Pb, Mn) with inhibition, assessed with the Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System Design Fluency (non-verbal task) and Color–Word Interference (verbal task) subtests. An exploratory mixtures analysis using Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) informed a traditional multivariable regression approach. NBC adolescents are diverse with 29% non-white and 31% in a low-income household at birth. Cord serum organochlorine concentrations and cord blood metals concentrations were generally similar to other birth cohorts. In BKMR models, we observed a suggestive adverse association of the chemical mixture with Color–Word Interference but not Design Fluency. In covariate-adjusted linear regression models including all five chemical exposure measures, a doubling of cord blood Mn was associated with poorer Color–Word Interference completion time scaled scores (difference = −0.74; 95% CI: −1.34, −0.14). This study provided evidence of an adverse joint association between prenatal exposure to a five-chemical mixture and verbal inhibition in adolescence with exposure to Mn potentially driving this overall association.
Dipping fresh-cut apples in citric acid before plasma integrated low-pressure cooling improves Salmonella and polyphenol oxidase inactivation.

BACKGROUND Ready-to-eat fruit and vegetable products have gained tremendous popularity in recent years. The main challenges associated with these minimally processed products are their short shelf life and high food safety concerns. In this study, our goal was to develop an integrated process to both reduce the Salmonella population by > 5 log CFU/g) and to reduce polyphenol oxidase activity, followed by quickly cooling the product. We compared the effect of a sequential treatment of dipping in citric acid (CA) followed by cold plasma (CP) treatment on the inactivation of Salmonella Typhimurium, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, browning, total phenolic content, and the moisture loss of cut apples during the Plasma integrated Low-Pressure Cooling (PiLPC) process. RESULTS The greatest inactivation of Salmonella (5.68 log CFU/g) and the highest PPO inactivation (78 %) were observed after dipping cut apples in 5 % CA followed by 3 min of CP treatment. The color of cut apples remained relatively unchanged with a fresh-like appearance during 7 days of storage at 4 °C after this combined treatment. Although the low-pressure cooling time was increased when samples were pre-dipped in CA, related to those undipped, the moisture loss was reduced by more than 50 % during the PiLPC process. No significant reduction in phenolic content was observed during the PiLPC when the samples were pre-dipped in 5 % CA. CONCLUSION These results indicate the potential of this integrated process for the inactivation of endogenous food enzymes and bacterial pathogens in fresh-cut apples. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
A dual-band excitation LSP codec for very low bit rate transmission

In multiband excitation (MBE) vocoders, the excitation spectrum is a series of voiced/unvoiced (v/uv) bands. This allows each speech segment to be partially voiced and partially unvoiced. It has been found that excitation in low frequency region is mostly voiced whereas in high frequency area, it is usually unvoiced. Although dividing the excitation spectrum into several v/uv bands (12 bands are commonly used) provides better output speech quality, its implementation for very low bit rate transmission is very difficult, if not impossible. In the paper, a modified version called a dual-band excitation LSP vocoder is proposed. The excitation spectrum, in this case, contains either one or two v/uv bands. Line spectral pairs (LSP) are used to represent the spectral envelope because of its effectiveness. Speech quality at a transmission rate of 2 kbps has been found to be clear and intelligible. <<ETX>>
The communication subsystem of Masat-1, the first Hungarian satellite

The first Hungarian satellite, Masat-1 is designed and built at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Instead of working from pre-built components, the members develop the whole satellite, including design, implementation and testing. This paper introduces the key issues about designing a small satellite, with a detailed description of the Communication subsystem. In the paper, special attention is being paid for the digital signal processing part of the development, as it is the key to fulfill the easy detection constraint. The possible solutions are examined and there is a recommendation of a method which could easily fulfill the proposed requirements.
Neoadjuvant immunotherapy prior to surgery for mucosal head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Systematic review

Given the recent successes of anti‐PD‐1 immunotherapy, many clinical trials have sought to assess the safety and efficacy of this treatment modality in the neoadjuvant setting. This systematic review provides a comprehensive summary of findings from neoadjuvant head and neck cancer immunotherapy clinical trials with a focus on PD‐1/PD‐L1 axis blockade. Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and clinicaltrials.gov were systematically searched for all eligible neoadjuvant head and neck cancer immunotherapy clinical trials. Eight clinical trials met the inclusion criteria comprising a total of 260 patients. Study drugs included nivolumab, pembrolizumab, ipilimumab, durvalumab, and tremelimumab. The overall mean objective response rate (ORR) was 45.9 ± 5.7% with a 41.5 ± 5.6% single agent mean ORR. There were no deaths due to immune‐related toxicities. Neoadjuvant immunotherapy for mucosal head and neck squamous cell cancer has demonstrated favorable response rates with no unexpected immune‐related toxicities in phase I/II clinical trials.
Emergence, prevalence, and evolution of H5N8 avian influenza viruses in central China, 2020

ABSTRACT Highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N8) viruses have caused several worldwide outbreaks in birds and are able cross the species barrier to infect humans, posing a substantial threat to public health. After the first detection of H5N8 viruses in deceased swans in Inner Mongolia, we performed early warning and active monitoring along swan migration routes in central China. We isolated and sequenced 42 avian influenza viruses, including 40 H5N8 viruses, 1 H5N2 virus, and 1 H9N2 virus, in central China. Our H5N8 viruses isolated in swan stopover sites and wintering grounds showed high nucleotide homologies in the whole genome, revealing a common evolutionary source. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the H5 viruses of clade 2.3. 4.4b prevalent in 2020 have further diverged into two sub-clades: b1 and b2. The phylogeographic analysis also showed that the viruses of sub-clade b2 most likely originated from poultry in Russia. Notably, whooper swans were found to be responsible for the introduction of sub-clade b2 viruses in central China; whooper and tundra swans play a role in viral spread in the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, respectively. Our findings highlight swans as an indicator species for transborder spreading and monitoring of the H5N8 virus.
Design considerations for a combined RF/optical shared aperture

Data link antennas for use in air-to-air and air-to-ground communications of data at extremely high data rates have traditionally been X-Band and Ku-band dish antennas. These antennas are low-cost and provide efficient operation for the required application. Nine to 12 inch antennas are sufficiently large enough to support the required link margin at the data rates and with the associated RF power amplifiers. To increase the data transfer capacity would require more RF transmit power and/or larger antennas. RF power amplifiers are not very efficient and any increase in transmit power would result in a significant increase in power consumptions and would significantly increase the cost. In addition, any increase in antenna size would require larger radomes and this would impact aircraft performance and also increase the cost. An alternative would be to integrate an optical capability into to the RF system to augment the existing RF data link system and use a shared aperture (combined RF and optical) for the transmit/receive antenna for the optical and RF communication systems. With careful design the traditional dish antenna could be designed to accommodate the optical capability with little change in the form of the dish antenna. This would allow a retrofit to include the combined capability of RF and optical with minimal impact on the existing form of the dish antenna. This would also require a new radome design to include the transmit/receive of the optical signals in addition to the RF signals. This paper discusses several design options for the antenna, including coating designs to support simultaneous operation of RF and optical signals, feed systems for simultaneous operation, techniques for low-loss combining/splitting the RF and optical signals, and antenna configurations for simultaneous operation for RF and optical communications operation.
Deep Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Networks Ensemble for Remaining Useful Life Prediction of Aircraft Engine

Remaining useful life (RUL) prediction of aircraft engine (AE) is of great importance to improve its reliability and availability, and reduce its maintenance costs. This article proposes a novel deep bidirectional recurrent neural networks (DBRNNs) ensemble method for the RUL prediction of the AEs. In this method, several kinds of DBRNNs with different neuron structures are built to extract hidden features from sensory data. A new customized loss function is designed to evaluate the performance of the DBRNNs, and a series of the RUL values is obtained. Then, these RUL values are reencapsulated into a predicted RUL domain. By updating the weights of elements in the domain, multiple regression decision tree (RDT) models are trained iteratively. These models integrate the predicted results of different DBRNNs to realize the final RUL prognostics with high accuracy. The proposed method is validated by using C-MAPSS datasets from NASA. The experimental results show that the proposed method has achieved more superior performance compared with other existing methods.
Circ-SFMBT2 facilitates the malignant growth of acute myeloid leukemia cells by modulating miR-582-3p/ZBTB20 pathway.

BACKGROUND Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly heterogeneous hematological malignancy. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play crucial roles in AML progression. This study aimed to explore the function and potential mechanism of circRNA Scm like with four mbt domains 2 (circ-SFMBT2; hsa_circ_0017639) in AML. METHODS The levels of circ-SFMBT2, microRNA-582-3p (miR-582-3p) and zinc finger and BTB domain containing 20 (ZBTB20) were measured by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation, flow cytometry and transwell assays were used to evaluate cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion. Glycolysis was assessed by detecting glucose consumption, lactate production and ATP/ADP ratios. The related protein expression was examined by Western blot. The binding relationship between miR-582-3p and circ-SFMBT2/ZBTB20 was verified by dual-luciferase reporter assay. RESULTS Circ-SFMBT2 and ZBTB20 levels were elevated, while miR-582-3p level was reduced in AML patients and cells. Depletion of circ-SFMBT2/ZBTB20 impeded proliferation, migration, invasion and glycolysis and induced apoptosis in AML cells. Moreover, circ-SFMBT2 facilitated AML progression by sponging miR-582-3p, and miR-582-3p targeted ZBTB20 to hinder AML development. CONCLUSION Knockdown of circ-SFMBT2 suppressed AML progression by regulating the miR-582-3p/ZBTB20 axis, which might provide a potential therapeutic strategy for AML.