Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tropical Cirrus in Global Storm‐Resolving Models: 2. Cirrus Life Cycle and Top‐of‐Atmosphere Radiative Fluxes

Cirrus clouds of various thicknesses and radiative characteristics extend over much of the tropics, especially around deep convection. They are difficult to observe due to their high altitude and sometimes small optical depths. They are also difficult to simulate in conventional global climate models, which have coarse grid spacings and simplified parameterizations of deep convection and cirrus formation. We investigate the representation of tropical cirrus in global storm‐resolving models (GSRMs), which have higher spatial resolution and explicit convection and could more accurately represent cirrus cloud processes. This study uses GSRMs from the DYnamics of the Atmospheric general circulation Modeled On Non‐hydrostatic Domains (DYAMOND) project. The aggregate life cycle of tropical cirrus is analyzed using joint albedo and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) histograms to assess the fidelity of models in capturing the observed cirrus cloud populations over representative tropical ocean and land regions. The proportions of optically thick deep convection, anvils, and cirrus vary across models and are portrayed in the vertical distribution of cloud cover and top‐of‐atmosphere radiative fluxes. Model differences in cirrus populations, likely driven by subgrid processes such as ice microphysics, dominate over regional differences between convectively active tropical land and ocean locations.
Management of Adults with Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation with and without CKD

Significance Statement Atrial fibrillation (AF) is highly prevalent in CKD and is associated with worse cardiovascular and kidney outcomes. However, data are limited on use of AF pharmacotherapies and AF-related procedures by CKD status. This paper examined a large “real-world” contemporary population with incident AF, and found that CKD severity was significantly associated with lower receipt of rate control agents, anticoagulation, and AF-related procedures. Additional data on efficacy and safety of AF therapies in CKD populations are needed to inform management strategies. Visual Abstract Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is highly prevalent in CKD and is associated with worse cardiovascular and kidney outcomes. Limited data exist on use of AF pharmacotherapies and AF-related procedures by CKD status. We examined a large “real-world” contemporary population with incident AF to study the association of CKD with management of AF. Methods We identified patients with newly diagnosed AF between 2010 and 2017 from two large, integrated health care delivery systems. eGFR (≥60, 45–59, 30–44, 15–29, <15 ml/min per 1.73 m2) was calculated from a minimum of two ambulatory serum creatinine measures separated by ≥90 days. AF medications and procedures were identified from electronic health records. We performed multivariable Fine–Gray subdistribution hazards regression to test the association of CKD severity with receipt of targeted AF therapies. Results Among 115,564 patients with incident AF, 34% had baseline CKD. In multivariable models, compared with those with eGFR >60 ml/min per 1.73 m2, patients with eGFR 30–44 (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.91; 95% CI, 0.99 to 0.93), 15–29 (aHR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.75 to 0.82), and <15 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (aHR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.58–0.70) had lower use of any AF therapy. Patients with eGFR 15–29 ml/min per 1.73 m2 had lower adjusted use of rate control agents (aHR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.67), warfarin (aHR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.84 to 0.94), and DOACs (aHR, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.19 to 0.27) compared with patients with eGFR >60 ml/min per 1.73 m2. These associations were even stronger for eGFR <15 ml/min per 1.73 m2. There was also a graded association between CKD severity and receipt of AF-related procedures (vs eGFR >60 ml/min per 1.73 m2): eGFR 30–44 ml/min per 1.73 (aHR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70 to 0.87), eGFR 15–29 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (aHR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.88), and eGFR <15 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (aHR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.31 to 0.74). Conclusions In adults with newly diagnosed AF, CKD severity was associated with lower receipt of rate control agents, anticoagulation, and AF procedures. Additional data on efficacy and safety of AF therapies in CKD populations are needed to inform management strategies.
An Integrative Literature Review on Older Adults, Their eHealth Literacy and Use of Telehealth

Healthcare is challenged by providing high-quality, equitable and timely access to care for older adults. Telehealth can address these challenges, however, a level of eHealth literacy is required. This integrative literature review sought to understand the experiences of older adult patients with poor eHealth literacy who use telehealth. Results include that older adults with less eHealth literacy have many concerns engaging with telehealth and irrespective of their eHealth literacy, most need support to use telehealth.
BogieBot: A Climbing Robot in Cluttered Confined Space of Bogies with Ferrous Metal Surfaces

Proactive inspection is essential for prediction and prevention of rolling stock component failures. The conventional process for inspecting bogies under trains presents significant challenges for inspectors who need to visually check the tight and cluttered environment. We propose a miniature multi-link climbing robot, called BogieBot, that can be deployed inside the undercarriage areas of trains and other large vehicles for inspection and maintenance purposes. BogieBot can carry a visual sensor or manipulator on its main body. The novel compact design utilises six identical couple joints and two mechanically switchable magnetic grippers that together, empower multi-modal climbing and manipulation. The proposed mechanism is kinematically redundant, allowing the robot to perform self-motions in a tight space and manoeuvre around obstacles. The mechanism design and various analyses on the forward and inverse kinematic, work-space, and self-motions of BogieBot are presented. The robot is demonstrated to perform challenging navigation tasks in different scenarios involving simulated complex environments.
Local landscape character assessment: An evaluation of community-led schemes in cheshire

Abstract Planning, especially with the increasing prominence given to community involvement, is a key vehicle for delivering sustainable development. Between 2003 and 2005 two community groups in Cheshire wrote parish landscape character assessments. The completed assessments were combined with an appropriate village design statement and subsequently approved as Supplementary Planning Guidance by Chester City and Vale Royal District Councils respectively. The experiences of these groups are critically appraised against the project aims, tangible and not-tangible costs and criteria relating to the enhancement of community engagement in sustainable development practice. The evaluation highlights the importance of the process as well as the product, the financial costs involved, the volunteer time commitment required, the skills required in the community, the issues associated with data acquisition and the importance of building a strong, open partnership between local authorities and the local community. These findings have relevance to others involved in community-led initiatives.
Design optimization for asymmetrical half-bridge converters

A zero-voltage switching (ZVS) technique employing a resonant-transition during a switching interval has been explored for many years. To ensure ZVS operation, two approaches were frequently chosen, separately or mixed. One is to have enough gap on the main core. The other is to add an external inductor in series with the main transformer. However, both approaches suffer from the parasitic ringing phenomena in the practical circuit. The parasitic ringing is generated by the leakage inductance/external inductor and the stray capacitance seen from the transformer primary winding. It introduces additional losses and EMI noise. To alleviate these problems, a ring-free mechanism is proposed. It can apply to most of the conventional zero-voltage switching topologies. The asymmetrical half-bridge converter with this mechanism is presented here. With 94% efficiency and 6 dB improvement on conducted EMI measurement were recorded using an offline 24 V/5 A prototype.
Estudo de movimentação de corrente multifásica em tubos utilizando ferramenta CFD

RESUMO – A descoberta de petroleo na camada do Pre-Sal fez com que a Petrobras invista cerca de 240 bilhoes de dolares. Por isso, o estudo de transporte aguaoleo e de grande importância. O objetivo aqui e estudar uma corrente agua-oleo em um tubo reto e em uma curva, com o intuito de gerar perfis de velocidades, pressoes e densidades. Para as simulacoes desenvolvidas sao considerados fluxo 2D, escoamento turbulento, isotermico, incompressivel e no estado estacionario. Foi realizado o estudo da convergencia de malha. Os residuos globais para pressao e velocidade caem pelo menos 2 ordens de grandeza. O modelo utilizado para representar a interacao entre as fases foi o IPSA, que resolve as equacoes de Navier-Stokes para cada fase. A turbulencia foi modelada utilizando o k-e padrao e o k-ω. As densidades geradas nas simulacoes em CFD foram comparadas visualmente com os resultados experimentais obtidos em trabalho anterior para fluxo core-flow. As simulacoes podem ser consideradas como pre-validadas.
Comparison of different Bidirectional Bipolar Switches for use in Sparse Matrix Converters

Bidirectional, bipolar switches up to now consisted of a combination of known power semiconductor switches - such as IGBTs and diodes - in differenttopologies; novel power semiconductor switches - such as reverse blocking or reverse conducting IGBTs - permit to simplify these circuits. The approach of this paper is to dene equally sized components incorporating the different topologies and semiconductors. It is thus possible to directly compare those various bidirectional, bipolar switches. An assessment of their properties is given with respect to the operational conditions in the sparse matrix converter.
Differences of Transport Activity of Arginine and Regulation on Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase and Oxidative Stress in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Model Cell Lines

L-Arginine, a semi-essential amino acid, was shown to delay dysfunction of motor neurons and to prolong the lifespan, upon analysis of transgenic mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We investigated the transport function of arginine and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) expression after pretreatment with L-arginine in NSC-34 hSOD1WT (wild-type, WT) and hSOD1G93A (mutant-type, MT) cell lines. [3H]L-Arginine uptake was concentration-dependent, voltage-sensitive, and sodium-independent in both cell lines. Among the cationic amino acid transporters family, including system y+, b0,+, B0,+, and y+L, system y+ is mainly involved in [3H]L-arginine transport in ALS cell lines. System b0,+ accounted for 23% of the transport in both cell lines. System B0,+ was found only in MT, and whereas, system y+L was found only in WT. Lysine competitively inhibited [3H]L-arginine uptake in both cell lines. The nNOS mRNA expression was significantly lower in MT than in WT. Pretreatment with arginine elevated nNOS mRNA levels in MT. Oxidizing stressor, H2O2, significantly decreased their uptake; however, pretreatment with arginine restored the transport activity in both cell lines. In conclusion, arginine transport is associated with system y+, and neuroprotection by L-arginine may provide an edge as a possible therapeutic target in the treatment of ALS.
Wood products used in the construction of low-rise nonresidential buildings in the United States, 2008

Low-rise nonresidential building construction is an important market for lumber, structural wood panels, nonstructural wood panels, and engineered wood products in the United States. This report examines low-rise nonresidential buildings of four or fewer stories only. Buildings with five or more stories are normally severely restricted by building code from being wood framed. In 2008, 1,758 million board feet of lumber, 56 million board feet of glulam timber, 2,677 million square feet, 3/8-in. basis, of structural panels, 79 million square feet, 3/8-in. basis of nonstructural panels, 68 million linear feet of wood I-joists, and 4 million cubic feet of structural composite lumber were used to construct nearly 84,400 new buildings or additions, and in the alterations and renovations of numerous existing buildings. Volumes include allowances for onsite waste and loss. Not included are the amounts of wood used for facilitation (concrete forms, shoring, etc.) and millwork. Farm construction and nonbuilding construction, such as bridges, dams, and highways, were not included in this study. Overall consumption of all wood products increased substantially over amounts reported in 2003.
Shape memory alloy clamping devices of a capsule for monitoring tasks in the gastrointestinal tract

This paper describes the development of an active clamping mechanism to be integrated into a swallowable pill for the diagnosis of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The clamping system allows us to stop the pill at desired sites of the GI tract for long monitoring purposes. After discussing the major technical constraints, the design of the core component, i.e. the gripper, based on FEA (finite element analysis), is illustrated as well as its fabrication process. Symmetric and asymmetric gripper designs are described. The actuation is provided by shape memory alloys (SMA), and it is driven by a dedicated electrical interface. Then the working prototypes have been tested in vitro: for both kinds of grippers a pull-back force up to 0.6 N has been measured. A preliminary theoretical model for the gripper has been derived and compared to the experimental results.
Fusion Models for Generalized Classification of Multi-Axial Human Movement: Validation in Sport Performance

We introduce a set of input models for fusing information from ensembles of wearable sensors supporting human performance and telemedicine. Veracity is demonstrated in action classification related to sport, specifically strikes in boxing and taekwondo. Four input models, formulated to be compatible with a broad range of classifiers, are introduced and two diverse classifiers, dynamic time warping (DTW) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are implemented in conjunction with the input models. Seven classification models fusing information at the input-level, output-level, and a combination of both are formulated. Action classification for 18 boxing punches and 24 taekwondo kicks demonstrate our fusion classifiers outperform the best DTW and CNN uni-axial classifiers. Furthermore, although DTW is ostensibly an ideal choice for human movements experiencing non-linear variations, our results demonstrate deep learning fusion classifiers outperform DTW. This is a novel finding given that CNNs are normally designed for multi-dimensional data and do not specifically compensate for non-linear variations within signal classes. The generalized formulation enables subject-specific movement classification in a feature-blind fashion with trivial computational expense for trained CNNs. A commercial boxing system, ‘Corner’, has been produced for real-world mass-market use based on this investigation providing a basis for future telemedicine translation.
Diabetic Retinopathy Improved Detection Using Deep Learning

Diabetes is a disease that occurs when the body presents an uncontrolled level of glucose that is capable of damaging the retina, leading to permanent damage of the eyes or vision loss. When diabetes affects the eyes, it is known as diabetic retinopathy, which became a global medical problem among elderly people. The fundus oculi technique involves observing the eyeball to diagnose or check the pathology evolution. In this work, we implement a convolutional neural network model to process a fundus oculi image to recognize the eyeball structure and determine the presence of diabetic retinopathy. The model’s parameters are optimized using the transfer-learning methodology for mapping an image with the corresponding label. The model training and testing are performed with a dataset of medical fundus oculi images and a pathology severity scale present in the eyeball as labels. The severity scale separates the images into five classes, from a healthy eyeball to a proliferative diabetic retinopathy presence. The latter is probably a blind patient. Our proposal presented an accuracy of 97.78%, allowing for the confident prediction of diabetic retinopathy in fundus oculi images.
GiPS: Genomics-informed parent selection uncovers the breeding value of wheat genetic resources

The great efforts spent in the maintenance of past diversity in genebanks are rationalized by the potential role of plant genetic resources in future crop improvement – a concept whose practical implementation has fallen short of expectations. Here, we implement genomics-informed parent selection to expedite pre-breeding without discriminating against non-adapted germplasm. We collect dense genetic profiles for a large winter wheat collection and evaluate grain yield and resistance to yellow rust in representative coresets. Genomic prediction within and across genebanks identified the best parents for PGR x elite derived crosses that outyielded current elite cultivars in multiple field trials.
Peak displacement demand of small to moderate magnitude earthquakes in stable continental regions

A theoretical fault‐slip model has been developed for predicting the notional peak displacement demand (PDD) of earthquakes based on a limiting natural period of 5 s, for application in stable continental regions (SCRs). The developed theoretical expression is simple and robust. Importantly, it envelops predictions arising from a number of existing empirical and seismological (stochastic) models included in the comparison. The notional PDD prediction has been made initially for hard rock crustal conditions and at a reference source–site distance of 30 km. Factors have accordingly been introduced to correct for different distances and geological conditions in completing the PDD prediction model. Assuming displacement‐controlled behaviour, the predicted notional PDD may be compared with the displacement capacity of a structure, or component, for purposes of seismic stability assessment. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
STATCOM helps to guarantee a stable system

Transmission system operators are governed by operational security standards that are applied in real time. During system disturbances, the system operators must rely on the installed protection and control equipment, prior to human intervention. New power electronic solutions bring rapid and repeatable responses to disturbances, which will help system operators to guarantee a stable system. Last year, ALSTOM completed the world's first competitively bid STATCOM to support the voltage on National Grid's 400 kV network that supplies London and the Southeast from the north of the UK. It is rated /spl plusmn/75 MVAr and forms part of a static VAr system (SVS) with a total rating of 0 to 225 MVAr. This paper describes the reasons for its size, location, its chain-link configuration and gives examples of its operating performance. The paper also describes the features that allow this STATCOM to deliver much more than reactive compensation in support of a wider transmission service objective, as system conditions require.
Asthma Phenotype with Metabolic Dysfunction

Asthma is chronic eosinophilic bronchitis with the dominancy of T helper 2 (Th2) inflammation. However, patients with asthma and metabolic dysfunction have pathogenic and pathological differences from those with Th2 inflammation. Metabolic dysfunction, typically presented as metabolic syndrome, has several important clinical components including central obesity, insulin resistance or glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia, and vitamin D deficiency. Data from large epidemiological studies support the significance of these components in the control of asthma and their contribution to airway remodeling, suggesting the presence of an asthma phenotype with metabolic dysfunction. These components are quite interactive with each other, so it is difficult to reveal the individual role of each. It is well known that asthma is difficult to treat in patients with obesity, due in part to inadequate response to inhaled corticosteroids. Additionally, vitamin D deficiency and insulin resistance have been regarded as aggravating factors of asthma control and airway remodeling. Recent clinical and in vivo studies have revealed the specific mechanisms of these components, which may aggravate asthma control and airway remodeling. In this review article, I summarize the recent studies and unmet needs for patients with asthma and metabolic dysfunction.
Hierarchical Semantic Segmentation Based Approach for Road Surface Damages and Markings Detection on Paved Road

Detection of road surface damages, such as potholes, cracks, and markings on a paved road from images captured by a dashcam is an essential issue in developing automatic road inspection systems. When we apply ordinary non-hierarchical semantic segmentation in this task, the system sometimes detects the potholes, cracks, and markings, outside the road area, e.g., in the sky, woods, etc. To address this issue, we propose a method to use a hierarchical structure on semantic segmentation. This method segments an input image in two levels of the layers. Firstly, the first level of the layer classifies the paved road and background. Next, the second level of the layer identifies potholes, cracks, and markings on a paved road area that is identified in the first level of the layer. To obtain a complete segmentation map, we apply the elementwise multiplication to the output of both levels of the layers. The U-Net was used in each semantic segmentation. We compared our method with ordinary non-hierarchical segmentation in terms of F1-score and Intersection over Union (IoU). Results show that our method outperforms the ordinary non-hierarchical segmentation for the overall classes in terms of F1-score and IoU. Compare to the ordinary non-hierarchical segmentation, our method improved the result; (i) from 76% to 85% of F1-score and 61% to 74% of IoU for potholes, (ii) from 62% to 68% of F1-score and 45% to 51% of IoU for cracks, (iii) from 89% to 90% of F1-score and 80% to 82% of IoU for markings.
Exact Linearization of an Induction Machine with Rotoric Flux Orientation

In this paper, we present the linearization control of an asynchronous machine. It allows decoupling and linearization of the system without including flux orientation. This non-linear control (NLC) applied to the asynchronous machine breaks up the system into two linear and independent mono systems. The speed and the Id current controls are carried out by traditional regulators PI. A qualitative analysis of the evolution of the principal variables describing the behaviour of the global system (IM-control) and its robustness is developed by several tests of digital simulation in the final stage. Numerous tests have been performed under Simulink/Matlab to show the control system performances. In recent years, asynchronous motors are more commonly used in the control processes that require different speeds and positions. The application of techniques of modern automation in electric machines control provides obtaining very high performances. The research in respective field is focused on the application of these techniques in the machine control.