Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EXPLORING RECONFIGUR ABILITY; TOWARDS A FUTURE OF SPECTRUM RENTAL

This paper focuses on the area of dynamic spectrum management and explores how reconfigurable radio can play a major role in its realization. In particular the paper presents a case study based on IRIS (Implementing Radio in Software), which introduces software radio configurations that can be used for new spectrum allocation and spectrum management regimes. IRIS is a general-purpose processor based system for creating reconfigurable radios.
Occupant Protection Issues Among Older Drivers and Passengers: Volume I Final Report

With the older adult population of the United States growing at a rapid pace, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned with highway safety issues affecting this age group. NHTSA initiated a three-stage research study in order to gain a better understanding of the factors that contribute to seat belt use or nonuse among people 65 and older. The first stage included a literature review; discussions with experts in the fields of aging, vehicle design, law enforcement, physical mobility and human factors; and analyses of several national databases. This background research was followed by a series of 15 focus groups with older adults in four States. Participants discussed experiences and difficulties associated with seat belt use. Relevant topics included issues with comfort and convenience, effects of physiological conditions, trip and vehicle characteristics, presence of other passengers, types of media and communication tools to increase belt use among their peers, and a discussion of various seat-belt-related aftermarket devices. These focus groups pointed to a series of common seat-belt-related concerns and complaints among this select population. The final stage of the project was a human factors field study that provided detailed observation and measurement of seat belt use and acceptability among older occupants targeting comfort, convenience, and usability issues. Fifty-four older adults were exposed to six different seat belt systems and provided ratings regarding comfort, convenience, and likelihood of use. Participants also gave detailed descriptions of their experiences with the different systems, pointing out specific problems with usability and comfort. Conclusions include information to support the development of strategies to increase seat belt use among older adults and ideas for future related research on this topic.
Strict efficiency conditions for nonsmooth optimization with inclusion constraint under Hölder directional metric subregularity

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate the higher-order optimality conditions for strict efficient solutions to a nonsmooth optimization problem subject to inclusion constraint. A concept of higher-order contingent derivative type for set-valued maps, some main calculus rules of which are obtained, is proposed and employed with the Robinson–Ursescu open mapping theorem to get a Karush–Kuhn–Tucker condition under assumptions of Hölder direction metric subregularity. Sufficient conditions for these solutions are established without convexity assumptions and possibly without the existence of derivatives. As an application, we extend some optimality conditions for a nonsmooth optimization problem subject to generalized inequality constraint. Another application is presented for necessary and sufficient conditions for robust local strict efficient solutions in uncertain vector optimization. Some examples are provided to illustrate our theorems as well. Our results are new and improve the existing ones in the literature substantially.
The Effect Of Direct Yaw Moment On Human Controlled Vehicle Systems

Advances in computing technology have had a profound impact on the design and development of modern vehicle systems. These advances have provided the basis for virtual design and testing in simulated environments, as well as the development of active control systems capable of providing improved vehicle safety, efficiency, and performance. Continued developments in hybrid powertrains and on-board computing will provide for greater amounts of control, through the integration of larger numbers of actuators and more complex control schemes. The intention of this research is to investigate the effects of advanced vehicle dynamics controls on the human operated vehicle system. Hybrid electric vehicle systems incorporating multiple electric drive motors are capable of actively distributing drive and braking torque to the individual wheels of the vehicle. The modulation of these torques can be used to optimize or alter the dynamic response of the vehicle, through the application of a direct yaw moment. A control structure capable of determining and dynamically allocating appropriate control signals for over-actuated vehicle systems is proposed. A dynamic simulation of a virtual prototype BMW 330i is utilized to evaluate the effects of active drive torque vectoring on vehicle response. The effects of the proposed system on the human operator are also evaluated, through the use of driver model in-the-loop simulations. The results presented indicate the promising potential of direct yaw moment control in modulating the response of human operated vehicle systems. The interactions between the human driver model and control systems were shown to be favourable. The scientific contributions and implications of the research are detailed, including application of closed-loop simulation to engineering education. Conclusions on the efficacy of developed models, methodologies and systems are given. Finally, recommendations on potential improvements and future research regarding vehicle modelling and motion control are provided.
Full-wave Nonlinear Inverse Scattering for Acoustic and Electromagnetic Breast Imaging.

Full-wave Nonlinear Inverse Scattering for Acoustic and Electromagnetic Breast Imaging by Mark S Haynes Chair: Mahta Moghaddam Acoustic and electromagnetic full-wave nonlinear inverse scattering techniques are explored in both theory and experiment with the ultimate aim of noninvasively mapping the material properties of the breast. There is evidence that benign and malignant breast tissue have different acoustic and electrical properties and imaging these properties directly could provide higher quality images with better diagnostic certainty. In this dissertation, acoustic and electromagnetic inverse scattering algorithms are first developed and validated in simulation. The forward solvers and optimization cost functions are modified from traditional forms in order to handle the large or lossy imaging scenes present in ultrasonic and microwave breast imaging. An antenna model is then presented, modified, and experimentally validated for microwave S-parameter measurements. Using the antenna model, a new electromagnetic volume integral equation is derived in order to link the material properties of the inverse scattering algorithms to microwave S-parameters measurements allowing direct comparison of model predictions and measurements in the imaging algorithms.
Synthesis and evaluation of phase codes for pulse compression radar

SUMMARY The problem of the synthesis of pulse compression radar signals is examined. A family of waveforms suitable for digital compression is identified in digital (or discrete) chirp. Such a code, obtained through sampling and quantisation of known chirp waveforms, has attractive features such as relative insensitivity to frequency shift (Doppler effect) and low sidelobes. Within the digital pulse compression technique, with compression ratio higher than a few tens, digital chirp codes perform better than other codes suggested.
Approche sémantique de gestion de ressources d’Information pour le contrôle de processus industriels : application au processus de fabrication chez STMicroelectronics

In order to ensure the manufacturing of conforming products with the least waste, the manufacturing process control has ever more become a major issue in industries nowadays. The complexity of the information systems in industries and the permanent evolution of the business needs make difficult the retrieval of the resources that provide manufacturing information related to the process control. In addition, the use of commercial software platforms in industries for the processing of data, does not facilitate the access to the information produced, because these platforms do not support the semantic management of information.This thesis argues the need to reduce the distance between the used resources in industries and the business needs of the experts that ensure the control of the manufacturing processes.The S3 approach is proposed to support the control of the manufacturing processes through an original resource management system. This system is intended for both resource description and retrieval. The S3 approach relies on two complementary retrieval strategies: a bottom-up strategy enabling the creation of semantic descriptors of resources, and a top-down strategy enabling the capture of business needs in search patterns. Two semantic structures are proposed to support the resource description and retrieval mechanisms: a manufacturing process ontology and a process control dictionary. Basing on these semantic structures, each retrieval strategy provides different levels of description to the resources, and enables the alignment of different types of business knowledge. The experimentation of the approach within STMicroelectronics showed promising results.
Anticancer Mechanism of Withania Somnifera and Its Bioactive Compounds : A Short Review Along with Computational Molecular Docking Study

Withania somnifera, known as Aswogondha in Bangladesh and some part of India, is a shrub of Solanceae family. Parts of this plant is used as alternative medicine in this region to cure diseases from bronchitis to insomnia. Although such use of the plant is not supported by clinical research, recent studies have found anticancer activity of some proteins derived from w. somnifera. The purpose of this study is to summarize the anticancer activity of medicinal plant Withania somnifera and its bioactive compounds as well as to predict the interaction between phytochemicals (Withanolide, Withaferin-A) and macromolecules that are responsible for cancer cell proliferation. Studies suggested that Withanolide and Withaferin-A from W. somnifera can be used as a cancer chemotherapeutic agent for cancerous cell lines in mice models through modulating various signaling pathway including inhibition, autophagy, apoptosis, radiopreventive pathway and reactive oxygen species pathway. Molecular docking of Withanolide and Withaferin-A against 9 types of vital protein mediators concluded that 3A8X (Protein kinase C iota type) and 1A9U (MAP KINASE P38) are the most active receptor for binding and interacting with Withanolide and Withaferin-A for the prevention and treatment of cancer. On the basis of this review and docking study, it can be concluded that Withania somnifera as well as its derivatives Withanolide and Withaferin-A may be considered as a promising anticancer agent.
FlexMolds

We present FlexMolds, a novel computational approach to automatically design flexible, reusable molds that, once 3D printed, allow us to physically fabricate, by means of liquid casting, multiple copies of complex shapes with rich surface details and complex topology. The approach to design such flexible molds is based on a greedy bottom-up search of possible cuts over an object, evaluating for each possible cut the feasibility of the resulting mold. We use a dynamic simulation approach to evaluate candidate molds, providing a heuristic to generate forces that are able to open, detach, and remove a complex mold from the object it surrounds. We have tested the approach with a number of objects with nontrivial shapes and topologies.
Motion and Illumination Resistant Facial Video based Heart Rate Estimation Method using Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm Optimized Undercomplete Independent Component Analysis

Heart Rate (HR) estimation is of utmost need due to its applicability in diverse fields. Conventional methods for HR estimation require skin contact and are not suitable for scenarios such as sensitive skin or prolonged unobtrusive HR monitoring. Therefore remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) methods have been an active area of research. These methods utilize the facial videos acquired using a camera followed by extracting the Blood Volume Pulse (BVP) signal for heart rate calculation. The existing rPPG methods either used a single color channel or weighted color differences, which has limitations dealing with motion and illumination artifacts. This study considers BVP extraction as an undercomplete problem and proposed a method U-LMA. First, a non-linear Cumulative Density Function (CDF) approximated by a hyperbolic tangent (tanh) was used to deal with the non-linearity associated with rigid and non-rigid motions and illumination variations. Then, the entropy of the proposed non-linear CDF was optimized using a customized LMA for BVP signal extraction, followed by maximum peak estimation for HR calculation. The performance of the proposed method was tested under three scenarios: constrained, motion, and illumination variations scenarios. High Pearson correlation coefficient values and smaller lower-upper statistical limits of bland-altman plots , justified the good performance of the U-LMA. Comparative analysis of U-LMA with undercomplete ICA with negentropy (U-neg) and other state-of-the-art methods demonstrated its best performance of U-LMA by achieving the lowest error and highest correlation values (0.01 significance level) . Additionally, higher accuracy satisfying the clinically accepted error differences also justified its clinical relevance.
Oral cavity lesions in COVID-19 patient- a neglected and morbid clinical entity in current pandemic

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is highly contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 infections are usually associated with acute respiratory symptoms along with fever, myalgia, fatigue, altered taste and smell sensation. However, some oral cavity manifestations have been found in COVID-19 patients. There is debate whether these oral cavity manifestations are due to SARS-CoV-2 infection or secondary to patient’s systemic condition. Currently research shows that SARS-CoV-2 affect the respiratory tract and other organs those have angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. ACE2 receptors are abundantly present in the oral cavity tissues which prone for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The oral cavity lesions in COVID-19 patient ranges from ulcers in the oral cavity to candidiasis, recurrent herpes simplex, geographical tongue, mucositis and petechiae. COVID-19 infection significantly affects the oral cavity and salivary glands. Gustatory dysfunction or dysgeusia is a common oral cavity manifestation of COVID-19 patient. Clinicians should keep in mind about different lesions of the oral cavity and taste disturbances of the COVID-19 patients which will help the early diagnosis, treatment and avoid morbidity of the patient. There is still debate on exact cause for oral manifestations of the COVID-19 infections and its impact. This review article discusses the details of this neglected clinical entity such as oral cavity lesions in COVID-19 patients.
Determining optimal bus service provision: the role of quality in the service mix

This chapter reports on the findings of a case study of bus operations on a radial route in a large provincial city in Great Britain. It makes use of a revised version of the Quality Bus Model developed for the United Kingdom’s (UK) Department of Transport in order to illustrate the significance in terms of welfare maximization of bus service quality. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 covers some background information on Quality Bus Partnerships (QBPs). Section 3 outlines the simulation mode and case study characteristics, while Section 4 provides a list of scenario tests to be run and Section 5 presents the modeling results. Section 6 draws some conclusions.
Reply on RC2

(R2.1) My main concern is about vulnerability and resilience. The vulnerability variables used in this study can be regarded as resilience variables. Is it reasonable? And, the impact index is a very complex issue in the evaluation of the risks. I think you should be careful about the selection of Variables. Some variables maybe not that representative or maybe there is relationship between variables which make these variables used more than once in the computation of the flood index.
Dual-band Microwave Components And Their Applications

In general, Dual-Band technology enables microwave components to work at two different frequencies. This thesis introduces novel dual-band microwave components and their applications. Chapter 2 presents a novel compact dual-band balun (converting unbalanced signals to balanced ones). The ratio between two working frequencies is analyzed. A novel compact microstrip crossover (letting two lines to cross each other with very high isolation) and its dual-band application is the subject of chapter 3. A dual-frequency cloak based on lumped LC-circuits is introduced in chapter 4. In chapter 5, a dual-band RF device to detect dielectric constant changes of liquids in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic channels has been presented. Such a device is very sensitive, and it has significantly improved the stability. Finally, conclusion of this thesis and future works are given in chapter 6.
Integrative Analysis of Gene Expression Based on Multi-Omics Databases Identified CXC Chemokines as Immune Prognostic Biomarkers of Rectal Adenocarcinoma

Background: Rectal adenocarcinoma (READ) is one of the most frequent malignancies with a high recurrence rate. CXC chemokines, as indispensable components of the immune system, are considered broadly involving in tumorigenesis by orchestrating the immune cell chemotaxis and thus affect the prognosis of READ patients. However, the values of CXC chemokines as prognostic biomarkers and potential regulatory mechanisms for READ remain unclear.Results: The expression levels of CXCL3, CXCL12, and CXCL13 were aberrant in both TCGA and ONCOMINE databases. Lower expression of CXCL3 and CXCL13 predicted poor survival of READ patients. Additionally, both CXCL3 and CXCL13 were associated with several clinicopathological features. CXCL3 and CXCL13 expressions were significantly correlated with the tumor infiltration levels of immune cells in READ tissue. CeRNA networks of mRNA-miRNA-lncRNA were constructed to reveal the potential mechanisms that regulated the expressions of CXCL3 and CXCL13. Furthermore, GSEA revealed the association between immune-related pathways and CXCL3 as well as CXCL13.Conclusions: CXCL3 and CXCL13 could be valuable prognostic biomarkers in READ. CXCL3/miR-425-5p/chr22-38_28785274–29006793.1 was identified as the most potential ceRNA network in READ. Our results might provide novel insights in READ immunotherapy.
Partial discharge in a high voltage experimental test assembly

This study was initiated when a new type of breakdown occurred in a high voltage experimental test assembly. An anomalous current pulse was observed, which indicated partial discharges, some leading to total breakdowns. High voltage insulator defects are shown along with their effect on the electrostatic fields in the breakdown region. OPERA electromagnetic field modeling software is used to calculate the fields and present a cause for the discharge. Several design modifications are investigated and one of the simplest resulted in a 25% decrease in the field at the discharge surface.
New Warehouse Designs: Angled Aisles and Their Effects on Travel Distance

In supply chain and logistics systems, warehouses and third-party logistics centers have become the backbone of distribution networks that store and deliver goods. However, these facilities are still built to look much as they have been for the past fifty years (Gue and Meller, 2009). This dissertation builds on some recent research that challenges traditional ways of organizing picking aisles and cross aisles in unitload warehouses. The designs in this dissertation, and the models that produced them, offer to the research and practicing communities a new and fundamentally different way to extract cost and improve the performance of industrial warehouses. For warehouses with one, two and three cross aisles, we develop closed form, single-command travel distance functions in a continuous warehouse space. We use these functions to minimize expected travel distance in a unit-load warehouse with a centrally located pickup and deposit (P&D) point under randomized storage. We propose three optimal unit-load warehouses with respect to the inserted cross aisles, the Chevron, the Leaf and the Butterfly. In order to provide a more accurate model and to analyze the wasted space for angled aisle designs, we build a discrete model of aisles and pallet locations that better represents warehouse designs. We develop a general warehouse design tool that models aisles, pallet locations and dock doors as discrete objects. The tool implements a network representation of the warehouse, a shortest path algorithm to determine travel distances, and a particle swarm meta-heuristic to search for the best arrangement of aisles. To illustrate the use of model, we define five design problems that are differentiated by the locations of multiple P&D points. We propose improved non-traditional aisle designs for each design problem with one and two inserted cross aisles.
The Emperor's New Clothes: Prospective Observational Evaluation of the Association between Initial Vancomycin Exposure and Failure Rates among Adult Hospitalized Patients with MRSA Bloodstream Infections (PROVIDE).

BACKGROUND Vancomycin is the most commonly administered antibiotic in hospitalized patients, but optimal exposure targets remain controversial. To clarify the therapeutic exposure range, this study evaluated the association between vancomycin exposure and outcomes in MRSA bacteremic patients. METHODS Prospective, multicenter (n=14), observational study of 265 hospitalized adults with MRSA bacteremia treated with vancomycin. The primary outcome was treatment failure (TF), defined as 30-day mortality or persistent bacteremia ≥7 days. Secondary outcomes included acute kidney injury (AKI). The study was powered to compare TF between patients who achieved or did not achieve day-2 area under the curve to minimum inhibitory concentration (AUC/MIC) thresholds previously found to be associated with lower incidences of TF. The thresholds, analyzed separately as co-primary endpoints, were AUC/MIC by broth microdilution ≥650 and AUC/MIC by Etest ≥320. RESULTS Treatment failure and AKI occurred in 18% and 26% of patients, respectively. Achievement of the pre-specified day-2 AUC/MIC thresholds was not associated with less TF. Alternative day-2 AUC/MIC thresholds associated with lower TF risks were not identified. A relationship between the day-2 AUC and AKI was observed. Patients with day-2 AUC ≤515 experienced the best global outcomes (no TF and no AKI). CONCLUSIONS Higher vancomycin exposures did not confer a lower TF risk but were associated with more AKI. The findings suggest that vancomycin dosing should be guided by the AUC and day-2 AUCs should be ≤515. As few patients had day-2 AUCs <400, further study is needed to define the lower bound of the therapeutic range. TRIAL REGISTRATION Registration was not required for this study.