Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PCB Rogowski Coil With DC Sensing for Double Pulse Test Applications

Accurately measuring the switching current behavior of wide bandgap devices requires a current sensor with a wide bandwidth covering dc to high frequency ranges. However, traditional Rogowski coils (RCs) for current sensing either lack the dc measurement capability or the inclusion of dc sensor largely increases the insertion inductance. This article presents a concept of combining a shielded RC with a dc sensor to improve the dc measurement capability without interfering with the power loop area of a double pulse test (DPT) circuit. The RC and dc sensor are positioned at different locations to capture the high-frequency and low-frequency components, respectively. An analog circuit combines the output of both sensors to recreate the signal. Frequency domain analysis of the prototype confirms the improved dc measurement of the probe. This article also presents the results of a DPT of a half-bridge SiC power module to demonstrate the enhanced dc measurement of the shielded RC, without any parasitic interference in the power loop area.
Performance of a Prosthetic Arm Using Mindwave Neurosky Sensor

Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) are technologies that enable the execution of actions on a computer based on brainwaves. Brainwaves are recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) to facilitate computer processing. In this study, the Neurosky Mindwave device was employed as the input signal for brainwave-controlled manipulation of a 3D-printed prosthetic arm, constructed and assembled using adult human arm proportions and structure. The device captures electrical signals through sensors and measures various brainwave types, including Gamma, Delta, Theta, Alpha, and Beta waves. This device wirelessly transmits data to a personal computer (PC) via Bluetooth. Consequently, the acquired signals can be processed and classified into motion categories using MATLAB's graphical user interface (GUI). The classified data is then forwarded to an Arduino Uno, which controls the robotic arm's motors. System testing demonstrated the potential to employ human brainwaves for performing fundamental motions with the prosthetic arm, achieving a success rate of up to 90% following training. The average success rate, determined to be nearly 80% during the experimentation, indicates that the Neurosky Mindwave device holds promise as a viable option for the development of such prosthetic devices.
Biophysical Regulation of Carbon Flux in Different Rainfall Regime in a Northern Tibetan Alpine Meadow

Abstract: Inter-annual variability in total precipitation can lead to significant changes in carbon flux. In this study, we used the eddy covariance (EC) technique to measure the net CO2 ecosystem exchange (NEE) of an alpine meadow in the northern Tibetan Plateau. In 2005 the meadow had precipitation of 489.9 mm and in 2006 precipitation of 241.1 mm, which, respectively, represent normal and dry years as compared to the mean annual precipitation of 476 mm. The EC measured NEE was 87.70 g C m-2 yr-1 in 2006 and –2.35 g C m-2 yr-1 in 2005. Therefore, the grassland was carbon neutral to the atmosphere in the normal year, while it was a carbon source in the dry year, indicating this ecosystem will become a CO2 source if climate warming results in more drought conditions. The drought conditions in the dry year limited gross ecosystem CO2 exchange (GEE), leaf area index (LAI) and the duration of ecosystem carbon uptake. During the peak of growing season the maximum daily rate of NEE and Pmax and α were approximately 30%–50% of those of the normal year. GEE and NEE were strongly related to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) on half-hourly scale, but this relationship was confounded by air temperature (Ta), soil water content (SWC) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD). The absolute values of NEE declined with higher Ta, higher VPD and lower SWC conditions. Beyond the appropriate range of PAR, high solar radiation exacerbated soil water conditions and thus reduced daytime NEE. Optimal Ta and VPD for maximum daytime NEE were 12.7°C and 0.42 KPa respectively, and the absolute values of NEE increased with SWC. Variation in LAI explained around 77% of the change in GEE and NEE. Variations in Re were mainly controlled by soil temperature (Ts), whereas soil water content regulated the responses of Re to Ts.
Drone With Integrated Moving Baseline System and Time-Domain Autofocus Algorithm for High-Resolution SAR Images

The demand for drone-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems is growing, especially for applications in cases where satellites or airborne systems are not sufficiently flexible. However, the combination of a long operating range and high spatial resolution causes the atmosphere to pose challenges for these systems. In this article, we present our $K$-band drone system that has a long range sensibility through modification to a commercially available radar. In addition, a moving baseline configuration has been integrated to ensure accurate attitude data, especially the heading. The desired spatial resolution is achieved by our proposed autofocus algorithm based on image sharpness. It is designed to also work in challenging cases of nonlinear flight paths and can be integrated into a processing framework based on back-projection. Several experiments were conducted to demonstrate the drone system's capabilities. These included a comparison with an established airborne radar: MIRANDA35. The obtained results demonstrate the ability of the drone SAR system to map wide areas at high spatial resolution.
Towards an Annual Terrawatt Photovoltaics Market - Comparison of the Social Acceptance in Various IEA PVPS Countries

Over the last two decades, grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems have increased from a niche market to one of the leading power generation capacity additions annually. In spring 2022 the total installed photovoltaic electricity generation capacity broke the 1 TW barrier and it is expected that the annual market will reach 1 TW towards the end of the decade. This development has significant implications for the economy, society and the environment. Social acceptance of the necessary economic activities with regards to raw material extraction, component manufacturing and deployment is becoming a key topic to enable the industry and market to grow to the required multi TW level in the next decade. This paper gives an overview about the current situation in a number of IEA PVPS countries.
The Application of Ejaculate-Based Shotgun Proteomics for Male Infertility Screening

Problems with the male reproductive system are of both medical and social significance. As a rule, spermatozoa and seminal plasma proteomes are investigated separately to assess sperm quality. The current study aimed to compare ejaculate proteomes with spermatozoa and seminal plasma protein profiles regarding the identification of proteins related to fertility scores. A total of 1779, 715, and 2163 proteins were identified in the ejaculate, seminal plasma, and spermatozoa, respectively. Among these datasets, 472 proteins were shared. GO enrichment analysis of the common proteins enabled us to distinguish biological processes such as single fertilization (GO:0007338), spermatid development (GO:0007286), and cell motility (GO:0048870). Among the abundant terms for GO cellular components, zona pellucida receptor complex, sperm fibrous sheath, and outer dense fiber were revealed. Overall, we identified 139 testis-specific proteins. For these proteins, PPI networks that are common in ejaculate, spermatozoa, and seminal plasma were related to the following GO biological processes: cilium movement (GO:0003341), microtubule-based movement (GO:0007018), and sperm motility (GO:0097722). For ejaculate and spermatozoa, they shared 15 common testis-specific proteins with spermatogenesis (GO:0007283) and male gamete generation (GO:0048232). Therefore, we speculated that ejaculate-based proteomics could yield new insights into the peculiar reproductive physiology and spermatozoa function of men and potentially serve as an explanation for male infertility screening.
Public trust deficit in democratic state and political institutions: Ominous Signposts for South Africa

This paper uses politico-social capital theorisation of the relationship between public trust and democracy in order to demonstrate the interdependence of the African National Congress’ (ANC’s) declining electoral fortunes and the increasing public trust deficits in South Africa’s state, constitutional democracy and political institutions. As desktop-based research, the paper conducts literature survey to distils the relationship between public trust, as social capital, in institutions of society, and electoral performance and formation of societal leadership vacuum, within complexities of the political-economy and political culture and system such as those entrenched in South Africa under the ANC’s 28-year rule. The paper analyses statistical evidence from Afrobarometer’s 2022 survey about South Africans’ public trust in state and political institutions from 2006 to 2021, as well as national, provincial and local government election results from the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) from 1994 to 2019, to corroborate its theoretical framing. It makes three findings, thus: there is a direct relationship between the ANC’s declining electoral fortunes and the erosion of public trust in institutions of society; the ANC’s 28-years of state governance has created an ominous societal leadership vacuum, setting South Africa’s democracy on the precipice of civil strife; and, the ANC’s declining electoral fortunes will persist into the foreseeable future because public trust is hard to regain and sustain once eroded.
Vegetation of the Stjuža coastal lagoon in Strunjan landscape park (Slovenia) : a draft history, mapping and nature-conservancy evaluation

A draft history of the artificial Stjuža coastal lagoon was reconstructed on the basis of old maps (1804 and 1873); and compared with the present-day situation using GIS. The current data were simplified to obtain comparable caregories (landscape units) with old maps. The following major landscape units were distinguished: lagoon, salt marshes, mainland, brackish rivers and estuaries, ditches and canals, salt-pans, embankment, villages and roads. On current map, a total of 47 habitat types according to PHYSIS typology occurring in 206 polygons, which cover an area of 41.6 ha, were identified and described. Habitats with greater nature-conservancy value cover 26.7 ha of the total research area and constitute 40% of the polygons described. 55.6% of these belong to halophilous scrubs - Sarcocornetea fruticosi (= Arthrocnemetea fruticosi) - and 25.9% to annual salt pioneer sward communities, dominated by Salicornia europaea. Mediterranean salt swamps (Juncion maritimi) are present to a small extent only. It could be concluded that the artificial Stjuža lagoon, constructed for fish farming purposes, developed in habitat diverse coastal wetland area after partial abandonment.
Morton Effect Induced Instability in Mid-Span Rotorâ Hydrodynamic Bearing Systems

The Morton Effect in the rotor bearing systems may lead to an unstable operation. Up to the present, most of the established research efforts have been focused on the overhung rotor systems. In this dissertation, a systematic study on the Morton Effect induced instability in midspan rotor systems is presented. First, the mechanism study is conducted. The simplified rotor models with isotropic linear bearing supports are adopted for the derivation of analytical expressions. The threshold speeds of instability in simple forms are obtained for the systems with the thermal imbalance acting concurrent with or perpendicular to the direction of the response displacement. For a perspective view of the system stability, a stability map for the damped rigid mid-span rotors with the thermal imbalance having arbitrary phase difference has been generated. It shows that the stable operating regions of the system are bounded by two curves of threshold of instability. The results show that the Morton Effect induced instability thresholds are actually affected by both the magnitude and relative phase of the thermal imbalance. The mechanism of the Morton Effect induced thermal instability of mid-span rotors supported by linear isotropic bearings can be explained through the fact that the Morton Effect introduces either negative stiffness or negative cross-coupled stiffness.
Identifying Defects without a priori Knowledge in a Room-Temperature Semiconductor Detector Using Physics Inspired Machine Learning Model

Room-temperature semiconductor radiation detectors (RTSD) such as CdZnTe are popular in Computed Tomography (CT) imaging and other applications. Transport properties and material defects with respect to electron and hole transport often need to be characterized, which is a labor intensive process. However, these defects often vary from one RTSD to another and are not known a priori during characterization of the material. In recent years, physics-inspired machine learning (PI-ML) models have been developed for the RTSDs which have the ability to characterize the defects in a RTSD by discretizing it volumetrically. These learning models capture the heterogeneity of the defects in the RTSD—which arises due to the fabrication process and the energy bands of elements in the RTSD. In those models, the different defects of RTSD—trapping, detrapping and recombination for electrons and holes—are present. However, these defects are often unknown. In this work, we show the capabilities of a PI-ML model which has been developed considering all the material defects to identify certain defects which are present (or absent). Additionally, these models can identify the defects over the volume of the RTSD in a discretized manner.
CREB Is Indispensable to KIT Function in Human Skin Mast Cells—A Positive Feedback Loop between CREB and KIT Orchestrates Skin Mast Cell Fate

Skin mast cells (MCs) are critical effector cells in acute allergic reactions, and they contribute to chronic dermatoses like urticaria and atopic and contact dermatitis. KIT represents the cells‘ crucial receptor tyrosine kinase, which orchestrates proliferation, survival, and functional programs throughout the lifespan. cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), an evolutionarily well-conserved transcription factor (TF), regulates multiple cellular programs, but its function in MCs is poorly understood. We recently reported that CREB is an effector of the SCF (Stem Cell Factor)/KIT axis. Here, we ask whether CREB may also act upstream of KIT to orchestrate its functioning. Primary human MCs were isolated from skin and cultured in SCF+IL-4 (Interleukin-4). Pharmacological inhibition (666-15) and RNA interference served to manipulate CREB function. We studied KIT expression using flow cytometry and RT-qPCR, KIT-mediated signaling using immunoblotting, and cell survival using scatterplot and caspase-3 activity. The proliferation and cycle phases were quantified following BrdU incorporation. Transient CREB perturbation resulted in reduced KIT expression. Conversely, microphthalmia transcription factor (MITF) was unnecessary for KIT maintenance. KIT attenuation secondary to CREB was associated with heavily impaired KIT functional outputs, like anti-apoptosis and cell cycle progression. Likewise, KIT-elicited phosphorylation of ERK1/2 (Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 1/2), AKT, and STAT5 (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription) was substantially diminished upon CREB inhibition. Surprisingly, the longer-term interference of CREB led to complete cell elimination, in a way surpassing KIT inhibition. Collectively, we reveal CREB as non-redundant in MCs, with its absence being incompatible with skin MCs’ existence. Since SCF/KIT regulates CREB activity and, vice versa, CREB is required for KIT function, a positive feedforward loop between these elements dictates skin MCs’ fate.
A Model for Enhancing User Experience in an E-learning System: A Review on Student Behavior and Content Formatting

With the propagation of E-learning platforms, monitoring and evaluating student performance and providing targeted content to enhance student learning capabilities is a major concern. This review will mainly focus on student behavior extraction and content formatting in relation to E-learning platforms. The usage of different data mining techniques to extract user interactions with E-learning platforms and identify patterns of interest have also been reviewed. The targeted recommendation of content can be done to each individual student. The review will be open to the path for manipulating content such that the interest of the target individuals remains high, due to the use of content translations and formatting across multiple media. There are some highlights of both student behavior extraction and content formatting. In student behavior extraction, person-alized learning, increased satisfaction, and early intervention could be achieved. The content formatting of an E-learning management system should be added headings to indicate the main topics of the paragraph, break up the text into shorter paragraphs to make it easier to read, add images to illustrate key concepts, and use a consistent style throughout the paragraph. Finally, these extracted concepts can be formed into a model and then we present a model taking into account student behavior and content formatting aspects. This model is formed based on the review. The model can be used to deal with intelligent E-learning systems where the system will be able to identify the student behaviors and then accordingly the content formatting.
ICOLE 2009, Lessach, Austria

The aim was to present their current research, discuss scientific questions, and exchange their ideas. The seminar centered around topics in Scheduling , Bioinformatics, and Machine Learning, covering fundamental theoretical aspects as well as recent applications, partially in the frame of international European projects or innovative industrial cooperations. This volume contains a collection of extended abstracts which accompany these talks to give some insight into the research presented in Lessach. The first six contributions in this volume center around scheduling problems. The adjacency of elegant mathematical modelling and innovative applications in scheduling is demonstrated in a contribution by J. Blazewicz et al. which models berth allocation for great harbors such as Hong Kong as a moldable task scheduling problem. Complex applications of scheduling in car manufactoring are presented in an approach by G. Pawlak et al. which proposes a model based on multi-agent systems particularly suited for make-to-order production. Similarly, a study of assembly line balancing to increase the production rate preseted by M. Morze et al. has direct applications to car manufactoring. Issues of implementation are highlighted in the context of revenue maximization for which different exact and heuristic algortihms are presented and implemented on parallel machines in a contribution by J. Juraszek et al. The relevance of scheduling for crisis management is demonstrated in the frame of work for the European project SIMCA in a contribution by M. Tanas et al., where scheduling tasks to restore safety and security after crisis are modeled in terms of classical FMS problems. A more theoretical view is taken in the contribution of P. Gawron and R. Walkowiak where the bin packing problem, which offers a suitable formalization e.g. in the context of parallel process scheduling, is tackled and a scheme to arrive at exact solutions using dynamic programming is developed. Problems in bioinformatics are the focus of the next six contributions in this volume. The problem to find functional regions in DNA sequences, more precisely to detect cis-regulatory modules is tackled within a flexible model accompanied by an efficient implementation and demonstration of the us-ability for the model plant A. thaliana in a contribution by K. Ecker. The same model plant is considered in a contribution by M. Milostan et al. which centers around protein structure prediction, in this case exemplary studies for dicer like proteins. Two further approaches address the problem of protein structures, one approach by M. Szachniuk et …
Spray-Assisted Passivation Strategy for Highly Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Despite the wide attention and remarkable power conversion efficiencies (~25%) for 3D-perovskite solar cells (PSCs), their commercialization is inhibited by poor stability and moisture ingress. This can be attributed to the irregular distribution of the defects in the crystal lattice and grain boundaries that hinders the charge transport and results in non-radiative recombination. This acts as a bottleneck towards achieving higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability. Herein, we report an unprecedented technique to form a 2D layer atop the 3D perovskite via spray-assisted passivation methodology using organic salt, n-octylammonium iodide as a bulky organic cation (BOC) forming a 3D-2D multidimensional perovskite. This defect passivation strategy is a promising route to further boost the PCE and stability thereby suppressing the defect states at the grain boundaries, resulting in a decrease in ion migration and recombination. The deposition of the thin 2D capping layer is further confirmed by advanced characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical absorbance spectroscopy.
Compact wideband MIMO mobile‐antenna system design using mode‐based decoupling techniques

This work focuses on designing small mobile antennas and their multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) applications. In this study, it was investigated that small mobile antennas can obtain high radiation performance only when a tight coupling with the ground plane is generated through ground‐mode tuning (GMT) of the ground plane. Furthermore, a novel mode‐based decoupling concept is presented for their MIMO applications, based on a four‐port network and by considering the ground‐mode effect. Consequently, the proposed mode‐based decouplers can effectively sustain high radiation performance and improve the isolation while providing low correlation by generating diagonally directed radiation patterns. In the proposed MIMO system, both GMT structures and mode‐based decouplers are implemented utilizing the metal rims around the ground plane, thereby occupying very compact clearance, and the measured MIMO antennas fully covered 0.69 to 1 GHz band with high isolation up to 20 dB and low envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) value below 0.5, sufficiently applicable in mobile devices.
A 16-32GHz RF Silicon Photonic Receiver with 22nm FD-SOI CMOS Driver

This paper presents an integrated radio-over-fiber (RoF) link including a CMOS driver and a silicon photonic MachZehnder Modulator (MZM). The RoF link covers an operating bandwidth of 16-32 GHz by co-designing the output matching networks with the bond wire and MZM.
Reliable Communication in a Multi-Transceiver Mobile Optical Wireless Network

In this paper, we investigate a mobile optical wireless networking system enabling reliable transfer of data among multiple nodes with no prior knowledge of node locations. Each node is equipped with a multi-transceiver optical wireless communication (OWC) module with electronic beam steering capability. The multi-transceiver design facilitates in establishing multiple simultaneous OWC links with different neighbor nodes. The proposed system ensures error-free data transfer through fast line-of-sight (LOS) discovery, robust maintenance of OWC links, and utilizing reliable communication protocols. We also present a preliminary prototype of our multi-transceiver multi-node OWC system. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system by analyzing the results obtained from testbed experiments using the developed prototype. The results demonstrate that the proposed system can effectively enable reliable communication among multiple mobile nodes.