Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-Tuning MPPT Scheme Based on Reinforcement Learning and Beta Parameter in Photovoltaic Power Systems

Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is required in PV power systems for the highest solar energy harvest. This article proposes a self-tuning scheme to improve the MPPT performance in terms of high accuracy and speed. The scheme adopts the reinforcement learning (RL) and Beta parameter for the highest MPPT performance. The tracking speed and accuracy are significantly improved since the RL algorithm is enhanced for high convergence speed, meanwhile, the guiding variable $\beta$ is introduced to constrain the exploration space. Simulation and experimental test are applied to validate the superior performance of the proposed solution following the EN50530 dynamic test procedure.
Structure and Dynamics of Energy Materials from Machine Learning Simulations: A Topical Review

Energy materials featuring the capability to store and release chemical energy reversibly involve generally complex geometrical structures with multiple elements. It has been a great challenge to establish the quantitative relationship between the structure of materials and their dynamic physico-chemical properties. In recent years, machine learning (ML) technique has demonstrated its great power in accelerating the research on energy materials. This topical review introduces the key ingredients and typical applications of ML to energy materials. We mainly focus on the ML based atomic simulation via ML potentials in different architectures/implementations, including high dimensional neural networks (HDNN), Gaussian approximation potential (GAP), moment tensor potentials (MTP) and stochastic surface walking global optimization with global neural network potential (SSW-NN) method. Three cases studies, namely, Si, LiC and LiTiO systems, are presented to demonstrate the ability of ML simulation in assessing the thermodynamics and kinetics of complex material systems. We highlight that the SSW-NN method provides an automated solution for global potential energy surface data collection, ML potential construction and ML simulation, which boosts the current ability for large-scale atomic simulation and thus holds the great promise for fast property evaluation and material discovery.
Novel β-Cyclodextrin Functionalized Core-Shell Fe3O4 Magnetic Nanoparticles for the Removal of Toxic Metals from Water

Herein we report the synthesis and characterization of β-CD functionalized core-shell Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles which were used as an adsorbent for removal of Lead (II) and Copper (II) ions from aqueous solution. Various characterization techniques including FTIR, TGA analysis, SEM, TEM, X-Ray diffraction patterns (XRD) and nitrogen adsorption- desorption measurements were employed to investigate the properties of the synthesized material. The influence of pH, contact time, metal ion concentration, adsorbent dosage of Lead (II) and Copper (II) ion removal were also studied. The isotherm models for both ions showed a fit to the Langmuir model. Thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs free energy were also evaluated and the negative values of ΔH for both Lead (II) and Copper (II) ions indicated the exothermic nature their sorption.
Learning styles in medical education: a scoping review

Objectives The literature on learning styles is conflicting. Systematic reviews over the past 10 years have found no benefit to their use in education, but positive mentions of learning styles continue to be prevalent in the literature, and the clinician looking to expand their understanding of learning and teaching can easily miss the few critical articles that exist. We aimed to find out exactly how learning styles are interpreted and discussed in the medical education literature. Methods We conducted a scoping review, using the Arksey and O’Malley framework, to "map" the literature; producing an overview of the research area and its key concepts, without restrictions about the type or quality of study included Results 176 studies were included in the final analysis, of which only 28 expressed any reservations about learning styles. Publications in 2015 were double that of 2008 and came from every continent of the world. 122 studies stated as fact that different students have different learning styles, and 67 studies, that teaching should be matched to learning style. In only approximately half of these was this assertion supported by reference to another source. This positive view was maintained in many cases despite researchers’ own findings to the contrary. Conclusions Learning styles persist in the medical education literature, despite a lack of evidence to support their use and are often discussed as a scientific fact. The volume of work that mentions learning styles as an accepted fact inspires further work, which then plays its part in reinforcing acceptance of the theory. This uses time and money that could more usefully be spent researching other topics. Sometimes learning styles are used as a reason to advocate for a move to a more varied, student-centred curriculum, which results in good outcomes for the students despite the questionable theoretical argument for the change. This scoping review presents a critical review of the use of Davies-Kabir M, Aitken G MedEdPublish https://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2021. 000169.1 Page | 2 learning styles in the medical education literature, and questions, despite increasing evidence to the contrary, the near ubiquity of their acceptance.
Reduced H3K27me3 Suppresses Wnt/β-catenin Signaling by S-adenosylmethionine Deficiency in Neural Tube Development

Background: S-adenosylmethionine as a major methyl donor play a key role in methylation modification in vivo, and its disorder was closely related to neural tube defects. However, the underlying mechanism between SAM deficiency and NTDs remained unclear.Methods: we investigated the association between histone methylation modification and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in NTDs induced by SAM deficiency. The levels of SAM and SAH were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The expressions of H3K27me3 and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway specific markers were demonstrated by western blotting, reverse transcription, and quantitative PCR and immunofluorescence in ethionine induced E11.5 mouse NTDs and NSCs models. Results: we found that the incidence rate of NTDs induced by ethionine were 46.2%, post treatment of ethionine combined with SAM, the incidence rate of NTDs was reduced to 26.2%. The level of SAM was significantly decreased (P<0.05) and a reduction in the SAM/SAH ratio was observed. The SAM depletion caused the reduction of both H3K27me3 modifications and UTX activity, and inhibited the marker proteins (β-catenin, TCF-4, Axin-2, p-GSK-3β, CyclinD1, and C-myc) in Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway (P<0.05). The differentiations of neural stem cells into neurons and oligodendrocytes were inhibited under SAM deficiency (P<0.05). Conclusions: These results indicated that the depletion of SAM led to reduced H3K27me3 modifications, prevented the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and NSCs differentiation, which provided an understanding of the novel function of epigenetic regulation in NTDs.
A Novel Hybrid LDC Converter Topology for the Integrated On-Board Charger of Electric Vehicles

Recently, the integrated On-Board Charger (OBC) combining an OBC converter with a Low-Voltage DC/DC Converter (LDC) has been considered to reduce the size, weight and cost of DC-DC converters in the EV system. This paper proposes a new integrated OBC converter with V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) and auxiliary battery charge functions. In the proposed integrated OBC converter, the OBC converter is composed of a bidirectional full-bridge converter with an active clamp circuit and a hybrid LDC converter with a Phase-Shift Full-Bridge (PSFB) converter and a forward converter. ZVS for all primary switches and nearly ZCS for the lagging switches can be achieved for all the operating conditions. In the secondary side of the proposed LDC converter, an additional circuit composed of a capacitor and two diodes is employed to clamp the oscillation voltage across rectifier diodes and to eliminate the circulating current. Since the output capacitor of the forward converter is connected in series with the output capacitor of the auxiliary battery charger, the energy from the propulsion battery can be delivered to the auxiliary battery during the freewheeling interval and it helps reduce the current ripple of the output inductor, leading to a smaller volume of the output inductor. A 1 kW prototype converter is implemented to verify the performance of the proposed topology. The maximum efficiency of the proposed converter achieved by the experiments is 96%.
A New Energy-Efficient and High Throughput Two-Phase Multi-Bit per Cycle Ring Oscillator-Based True Random Number Generator

Oscillator-based elementary true random number generator (TRNG) uses a slow jittery ring oscillator (RO) to sample a fast RO. The ROs are always on but most of the oscillatory cycles of the fast RO are not sampled into random bits. In this paper, a new lightweight TRNG design is proposed to minimize the power wasted by the superfluous oscillations. Random bits are extracted from both phases of the slow ROs to increase the throughput and the fast RO is activated only during the narrow transition time difference between two symmetrically designed slow ROs. The slow jittery ROs are implemented using current starved inverters biased in the weak inversion region to reduce their power consumption. Their jitter amplitudes are increased by lowering the oscillation frequency and reducing the drain current of the transistors. The narrow jittery pulse generated by the differential pair of slow ROs is quantized by the fastest three-stage RO. Two random bits from each phase of the jittery ROs can be extracted by using a gigahertz dynamic toggled D flip-flop counter to count the number of oscillatory cycles of the fast RO. The proposed TRNG is fabricated in a standard 65 nm 1.2 V CMOS process. Measurement results of the fabricated chips show that the proposed TRNG consumes merely $260~\mu \text{W}$ at a bit rate of 52 Mbps. It outperforms the state-of-art on-chip jitter-based TRNGs with the best figure-of-merit of 5 pJ/bit and the smallest footprint of $366~\mu \text{m}^{2}$ . Its generated bit sequence passes the statistical randomness tests including National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) test, Auto Correlation Factor (ACF) test and bias. The mean redundancy of the ten tested chips is measured to be less than 10−5 bit/symbol.
An Improved Indoor Positioning Accuracy Using Filtered RSSI and Beacon Weight

Increasing the location accuracy of the objects in the Indoor Positioning System (IPS) has grasped great attention lately. With the recent developments in the fields of smartphones and mobile beacons, the accuracy of the IPS has achieved accuracy with less than a meter of accuracy. In this paper, we proposed and developed a Filtered RSSI and Beacon Weight Approach (FRBW) based on improved Received Signal Strength Indicator using Kalman filter. The developed algorithm takes the distance and the smoothed RSSI values between beacon nodes into consideration. We employ Kalman filtering on the RSSI measurements of the Beacon signals before applying FRBW algorithm. The developed FRBW algorithm was applied and validated in indoor environment using Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and the experimental results achieves accuracy of a few centimeters localization using cost-effective and easy to deploy beacons.
Comparing Asset Pricing Factor Models under Multivariate t-Distribution: Evidence from China

Factor models provide a cornerstone for understanding financial asset pricing; however, research on China’s stock market risk premia is still limited. Motivated by this, this paper proposes a four-factor model for China’s stock market that includes a market factor, a size factor, a value factor, and a liquidity factor. We compare our four-factor model with a set of prominent factor models based on newly developed likelihood-ratio tests and Bayesian methods. Along with the comparison, we also find supporting evidence for the alternative t-distribution assumption for empirical asset pricing studies. Our results show the following: (1) distributional tests suggest that the returns of factors and stock return anomalies are fat-tailed and therefore are better captured by t-distributions than by normality; (2) under t-distribution assumptions, our four-factor model outperforms a set of prominent factor models in terms of explaining the factors in each other, pricing a comprehensive list of stock return anomalies, and Bayesian marginal likelihoods; (3) model comparison results vary across normality and t-distribution assumptions, which suggests that distributional assumptions matter for asset pricing studies. This paper contributes to the literature by proposing an effective asset pricing factor model and providing factor model comparison tests under non-normal distributional assumptions in the context of China.
Transfer learning‐based surrogate‐assisted design optimisation of a five‐phase magnet‐shaping PMSM

The National Key Research and Development Programme of China, Grant/Award Number: No. 2018YFB0606001 Abstract Multi‐phase permanent‐magnet synchronous machines (MPMSMs) with high reliability due to sufficient fault‐tolerant capability have considerable potential for transportation electrification applications. Here, an efficient surrogate‐assisted design optimisation method is proposed based on analytical model transfer learning for torque characteristic optimisation of a five‐phase magnet‐shaping PMSM. By employing transfer learning of the source domain analytical model data and the target domain finite element analysis (FEA) data in surrogate model training, the proposed method can achieve both high accuracy and high efficiency from the merits of FEA‐ and analytical‐based optimisations, respectively. The studied machine with five‐phases and harmonic injected surface‐ mounted PMs to enable harmonic injection for torque capability improvement is introduced and the analytical model is built based on the segmented PM and the complex conformal mapping methods. Besides, the optimal Latin hypercube design (LHD) and Taguchi methods are used to form the source and target domain datasets, respectively, so that data features can be efficiently captured over a wide range of optimisation variables. An optimal design is obtained by multi‐objective optimisation using the trained surrogate model, which is prototyped and measured to validate the proposed method.
Simultaneous determination of Aloin and Aloe-emodin in Aloe by HPLC

Aim: To set up a method for simultaneous determination of Aloin and Aloe-emodin in Aloe by HPLC.Methods:Using a column of ZORBAXSA-C18(5 μm,200 mm×4.6 mm) with a mobile phase of methanol-water(60:40,volume ratio),Aloin was detected at 360 nm and Aloe-emodin,at 430 nm.Results: It was shown that Aloin had a good linear relationship within the range of 0.002～0.050 mmol/L(r=0.999 74) and a good precision degree(RSD=0.24%),and the average recovery was 102.5%(RSD=1.1%);Aloe-emodin had a good linear relationship within the range of 0.001～0.040 mmol/L(r=0.999 77) and a good precision degree(RSD=0.39%),and the average recovery was 101.4%(RSD=1.0%). Conclusion: The method is rapid,simple and accurate,and could be used for the simultaneous determination of Aloin and Aloe-emodin in Aloe.
Fundamentals of an Extension Education Doctoral Specialization: The University of Florida Framework

Academic departments need to periodically assess their programs to ensure that students are developing the competencies needed for successful careers. Consistent with this goal, a new framework for guiding the doctoral specialization in extension education was developed by the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication at the University of Florida. A modified Delphi method was used to guide the project with a goal of achieving consensus regarding fundamentally important theories, knowledge, literature, and experiences for graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees specialized in extension education. The resulting framework can be used as a guide for recruiting, advising, and communicating job qualifications.
Small but perfectly (in)formed? Sustainable development of small heritage sites in Iran

ABSTRACT World Heritage sites have been widely studied due to their position in attracting tourists. However, while small heritage sites do not match the popularity of World Heritage Sites, they can have many socio-economic benefits for local communities and help to transfer knowledge of the past to the next generation. Despite these potentials, small heritage sites have been relatively overlooked by researchers. This study, for the first time, conceptualizes the notion of small heritage site and examines the barriers to sustainable tourism development of small heritage sites in the historic city of Shiraz in Iran focusing on the views of various stakeholders and analyzing their responses to the challenges they face. Using a social constructionist frame and thematic analysis, data from interviews with 15 heritage tourism stakeholders – selected through purposive sampling – were analyzed and challenges were categorized into six themes of policy and planning, knowledge, resources, desire, marketing activities and awareness. The results revealed that the themes of policy and planning were the most commonly referred to issues by the participants. Given the scarcity of studies conducted in the area of small heritage sites, the findings of this study provide constructive suggestions for sustainable heritage tourism development in Iran and elsewhere.
Preparation and characterization of whey protein isolate/chitosan/microcrystalline cellulose composite films

A bio‐based composite film was prepared using whey protein isolate (WPI), chitosan (CS) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). The effects of film‐forming material concentration ratio, pH value and glycerin addition on the mechanical properties, water vapour permeability and transmittance of the composite film were investigated using response surface methodology. Optimum film‐forming process conditions were obtained, including a CS/MCC concentration ratio of 1.5:1, pH 3.6 and 30% glycerin addition. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy images showed that the surface of the WPI/CS/MCC composite films was flat, uniform and smooth. Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated that hydrogen bonds occurred between the film‐forming materials. The film‐forming materials were concluded to have good compatibility, while the WPI/CS/MCC composite film showed better mechanical properties and moisture barrier properties, which will provide a good application prospect and foundation for the food packaging industry.
Broadband Metamaterial-Based Dual-Polarized Patch Antenna With High Isolation and Low Cross Polarization

A broadband metamaterial-based dual-polarized (DP) patch antenna fed by a cross aperture coupling through striplines is investigated. A metamaterial-based radiating patch with $4\,\,\times4$ cells is designed to achieve broadband radiation by generating two resonant modes with the help of a cross aperture antenna. The cross aperture antenna fed by two orthogonal feed networks is arranged right underneath the patch to obtain DP operation. Both the feed networks based on striplines are sandwiched by a pair of parallel metallic plates to reduce cross-polarization. Vias are used to enhance the isolation by suppressing the coupling among cross apertures and stripline-based feed networks caused by parallel-plate mode. Moreover, the working mechanism of coupling reduction is analyzed by characteristic mode analysis (CMA) and electric field analysis. A prototype of the antenna has been fabricated. The measured results indicate that the DP patch antenna exhibits impedance bandwidths (voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) ≤2) of 46.9% for Port V and 45.8% for Port H. The cross-polarization levels above the ground plane are less than −28 dB, and the isolation better than 40 dB within the impedance bandwidth.
Polymodal Method of Improving the Quality of Photogrammetric Images and Models

Photogrammetry using unmanned aerial vehicles has become very popular and is already commonly used. The most frequent photogrammetry products are an orthoimage, digital terrain model and a 3D object model. When executing measurement flights, it may happen that there are unsuitable lighting conditions, and the flight itself is fast and not very stable. As a result, noise and blur appear on the images, and the images themselves can have too low of a resolution to satisfy the quality requirements for a photogrammetric product. In such cases, the obtained images are useless or will significantly reduce the quality of the end-product of low-level photogrammetry. A new polymodal method of improving measurement image quality has been proposed to avoid such issues. The method discussed in this article removes degrading factors from the images and, as a consequence, improves the geometric and interpretative quality of a photogrammetric product. The author analyzed 17 various image degradation cases, developed 34 models based on degraded and recovered images, and conducted an objective analysis of the quality of the recovered images and models. As evidenced, the result was a significant improvement in the interpretative quality of the images themselves and a better geometry model.
Implementation of constant current and constant voltage charging control of a wireless charging converter

ABSTRACT In this work, implementation of constant current (CC) and constant voltage (CV) control of the LC/S compensated wireless charging converter (WCC) is presented. The LC/S compensation topology, operating as load independent in CC mode, is used in the proposed WCC. The CC charging control mode of the WCC is achieved at the constant operation frequency providing the maximum power transfer. On the other hand, frequency modulation (FM) control method is applied to achieve the CV charging control operation. Thus, implementation of entire charge period of WCC using LC/S compensation is provided with a minimum frequency variation. The basic principles and the analytical analysis of the proposed WCC are presented. The analytical output regulation, during CC and CV charging control modes, is discussed based on power transfer efficiency. Finally, a prototype with 60 W output power is built to validate the presented analytical analysis. The efficiency variations of CC and CV charging control modes are extracted as function of the load condition. The misalignment performance of the proposed system is also evaluated based on the load condition. The maximum efficiency of the proposed system is measured as 86.6% at 70 mm air gap and 40 W output power.