Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The carbon and nitrogen budget of Desmophyllum dianthus—a voracious cold-water coral thriving in an acidified Patagonian fjord

In the North Patagonian fjord region, the cold-water coral (CWC) Desmophyllum dianthus occurs in high densities, in spite of low pH and aragonite saturation. If and how these conditions affect the energy demand of the corals is so far unknown. In a laboratory experiment, we investigated the carbon and nitrogen (C, N) budget of D. dianthus from Comau Fjord under three feeding scenarios: (1) live fjord zooplankton (100–2,300 µm), (2) live fjord zooplankton plus krill (>7 mm), and (3) four-day food deprivation. In closed incubations, C and N budgets were derived from the difference between C and N uptake during feeding and subsequent C and N loss through respiration, ammonium excretion, release of particulate organic carbon and nitrogen (POC, PON). Additional feeding with krill significantly increased coral respiration (35%), excretion (131%), and POC release (67%) compared to feeding on zooplankton only. Nevertheless, the higher C and N losses were overcompensated by the threefold higher C and N uptake, indicating a high assimilation and growth efficiency for the krill plus zooplankton diet. In contrast, short food deprivation caused a substantial reduction in respiration (59%), excretion (54%), release of POC (73%) and PON (87%) compared to feeding on zooplankton, suggesting a high potential to acclimatize to food scarcity (e.g., in winter). Notwithstanding, unfed corals ‘lost’ 2% of their tissue-C and 1.2% of their tissue-N per day in terms of metabolism and released particulate organic matter (likely mucus). To balance the C (N) losses, each D. dianthus polyp has to consume around 700 (400) zooplankters per day. The capture of a single, large krill individual, however, provides enough C and N to compensate daily C and N losses and grow tissue reserves, suggesting that krill plays an important nutritional role for the fjord corals. Efficient krill and zooplankton capture, as well as dietary and metabolic flexibility, may enable D. dianthus to thrive under adverse environmental conditions in its fjord habitat; however, it is not known how combined anthropogenic warming, acidification and eutrophication jeopardize the energy balance of this important habitat-building species.
Biallelic ANGPT2 loss-of-function causes severe early-onset non-immune hydrops fetalis

Background Hydrops fetalis, a pathological fluid accumulation in two or more body compartments, is aetiologically heterogeneous. We investigated a consanguineous family with recurrent pregnancy loss due to severe early-onset non-immune hydrops fetalis. Methods and results Whole exome sequencing in four fetuses with hydrops fetalis revealed that they were homozygous for the angiopoietin-2 (ANGPT2) variant Chr8 (GRCh37/Hg19): 6385085T>C, NM_001147. 2:c.557A>G. The substitution introduces a cryptic, exonic splice site predicted to result in loss of 10 nucleotides with subsequent shift in reading frame, leading to a premature stop codon. RNA analysis in the heterozygous parents demonstrated loss of detectable mutant allele, indicative of loss-of-function via nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. Serum ANGPT2 levels were reduced in the parents. In a pregnancy with a healthy, heterozygous child, transiently increased fetal nuchal translucency was noted. Conclusion Pathogenic heterozygous ANGPT2 missense variants were recently shown to cause autosomal dominant primary lymphoedema. ANGPT2 is a ligand of the TIE1-TIE2 (tyrosine kinase with immunoglobulin-like and epidermal growth factor-like domains 1 and 2) pathway. It is critical to the formation and remodelling of blood and lymphatic vessels and is involved in vessel maintenance. ANGPT2 knockout mice die from generalised lymphatic dysfunction. We show here that a homozygous pathogenic variant causes loss-of-function and results in severe early-onset hydrops fetalis. This is the first report of an autosomal recessive ANGPT2-related disorder in humans.
WHISPER: Wireless Home Identification and Sensing Platform for Energy Reduction

Many regions of the world benefit from heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to provide productive, comfortable, and healthy indoor environments, which are enabled by automatic building controls. Due to climate change, population growth, and industrialization, HVAC use is globally on the rise. Unfortunately, these systems often operate in a continuous fashion without regard to actual human presence, leading to unnecessary energy consumption. As a result, the heating, ventilation, and cooling of unoccupied building spaces makes a substantial contribution to the harmful environmental impacts associated with carbon-based electric power generation, which is important to remedy. For our modern electric power system, transitioning to low-carbon renewable energy is facilitated by integration with distributed energy resources. Automatic engagement between the grid and consumers will be necessary to enable a clean yet stable electric grid, when integrating these variable and uncertain renewable energy sources. We present the WHISPER (Wireless Home Identification and Sensing Platform for Energy Reduction) system to address the energy and power demand triggered by human presence in homes. The presented system includes a maintenance-free and privacy-preserving human occupancy detection system wherein a local wireless network of battery-free environmental, acoustic energy, and image sensors are deployed to monitor homes, record empirical data for a range of monitored modalities, and transmit it to a base station. Several machine learning algorithms are implemented at the base station to infer human presence based on the received data, harnessing a hierarchical sensor fusion algorithm. Results from the prototype system demonstrate an accuracy in human presence detection in excess of 95%; ongoing commercialization efforts suggest approximately 99% accuracy. Using machine learning, WHISPER enables various applications based on its binary occupancy prediction, allowing situation-specific controls targeted at both personalized smart home and electric grid modernization opportunities.
Australian wood heaters currently increase global warming and health costs

Abstract Firewood production is often considered to be CO 2 –neutral, if the carbon dioxide emitted by burning the wood is absorbed by replacement trees. However, burning firewood in the domestic heaters that are currently available in Australia produces methane and black carbon particles that increase global warming. The aim of this study was to estimate the amount of global warming from wood heating in Australia and evaluate ways in which this might be reduced. Methane from the average wood heater in Brisbane, Perth or Sydney is estimated to cause at least as much global warming as gas central heating an entire house with floor area of 160 m 2 . In the colder climates of Canberra and Melbourne, a wood heater in the living area plus supplementary heating in other rooms is also estimated to cause more global warming than gas, or reverse cycle air–conditioning. Australia’s annual contribution to global warming would be reduced by at least 8.7 million tonnes of CO 2 –equivalent (the same as removing about 21% of Australian passenger cars from the roads, or generating electricity from 5.8 million household 1 kW rooftop photovoltaic systems) if the 4.5 to 5 million tonnes of firewood currently burned in domestic wood heaters were instead used to replace coal in power stations and domestic wood heaters replaced by gas or reverse cycle air–conditioning. Replacement with pellet heaters would also reduce global warming and the health cost of PM 2.5 emissions, estimated to exceed $3 800 per wood heater per year. However, even greater reductions could be achieved if domestic wood heaters were replaced by innovative developments such as solar air heaters or local combined heat and power units that burn cleanly with minimal methane emissions, providing electricity and hot water as well as domestic heating.
2021 ESC Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and 
Chronic Heart Failure

An engaging session on the newly revised European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure (HF) was conducted on the first day of the 2021 ESC virtual congress. Chaired by Colin Baigent, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Oxford, UK, the session also explored the classification and management of HF, and addressed questions from the congress audience.
A Satellite-Based Remote-Sensing Framework to Quantify the Upwelling Radiation Due to Tropical Cyclones

We present a framework to quantify the radiation from tropical cyclones (TCs) in shortwave (SW, wavelength smaller than 3 micron) and longwave (LW, wavelength larger than 3 micron) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The framework includes two stages: segmentation of TC clouds and calculation of the radiation effects attributable to TC clouds. The segmentation task is accomplished by an algorithm which takes a time series of brightness temperature images of TCs and uses image processing techniques to acquire segmentation for each image in a semisupervised manner. The radiation is calculated by combining the segmentation results with the cloud and earth's radiant energy system dataset via a coordinate-matching scheme due to their difference in resolution. The framework was implemented to analyze the net contribution of TCs to the upwelling radiation in 2016 and in summer months between 2015 and 2019 at regional and global scales. Results show that both the magnitude and the variability of radiation contribution by TCs are of an order of magnitude that could have a significant effect on the overall earth's energy balance.
Laser technology for cross-section survey in ancient buildings: a study for S. M. Maggiore in Bergamo

Urban landscape complexity points out the increasing importance of a detailed geometric knowledge, mostly for buildings with a historical and architectural value. So, an accurate building survey is needed, both for morphologic and dimensional documentations and for structural and material aspects. A study for monitoring and analyzing building structure becomes of easy approach, thanks to periodical testing of its level of safety which can be realized through modern geo-technologies, referring to non-contact, often automatic, metric sensors. This way, it’s possible to acquire 2D-3D models of representation, to be used interactively for morphologic study, building preservation and risk assessment.
An Analysis of the Articles in the Journal of Engineering Education

Twenty issues of the Journal of Engineering Education from 1993 through 1997 were analyzed. The most common keywords used were teaching, design, and computers. An average of 10.4 percent of the articles require discipline specific knowledge for complete understanding. Approximately 60 percent of the articles included a teaching component, and most of these articles included an assessment. Only 13.4 percent of the articles used an educational theory. Women comprised 22 percent of all authors, but only 15.3 percent of authors who had a degree in engineering, computer science or engineering technology were women. The average number of usable references per article was 15.2. The mean number of times a source was cited is one. Only 20 sources were cited five or more times. Twenty‐four authors or organizations were cited 10 or more times. Of the most‐cited authors 48 percent do not have a degree in engineering, computer science or engineering technology. The keyword and citation analyses showed that the Journal has great breadth of both content and sources for references. The mean number of times articles published in the Journal during 1993 and 1994 were later cited in the Journal was zero. The content of the Journal has become more professional and the quality has improved in the five years studied.
FINANCE-BASED SCHEDULING FOR MULTIPLE PROJECTS WITH MULTIMODE ACTIVITIES

Lack of financing and cash deficit is considered as a primary threat to contractor’s financial management. Therefore, in case of insufficient cash, many contractors find it difficult to stick with the project schedule leading to extra overhead costs and liquidated damages. Mainly contractors deal with the project scheduling and financing as two independent functions of construction project management. Thus, the main objective of this research is to develop a multi-objective elitist Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) for solving finance-based scheduling problem of multi-projects with multi-mode activities. A CPM scheduling model is constructed with its associated cash flow to calculate the values of the multiple objectives. The problem involves the minimization of conflicting objectives: duration of multiple projects, financing costs, and maximum negative cumulative balance. The designed optimization model performs operations of NSGA-II in three main phases: (1) Population initialization; (2) Fitness evaluation; and (3) Generation evolution. An application example is analyzed to illustrate the use of the model and to demonstrate its capabilities in generating optimum solutions. The model can be considered relevant for practitioners to use in large construction projects to make decisions regarding financing.
Robust computer control of an inverted pendulum

This article illustrates the design of a robust digital controller using a blend of state space and frequency response methods. The specific application is that of balancing an inverted pendulum on a moving cart while controlling the cart position. This work investigates issues regarding robust stability and disturbance attenuation. Furthermore, the effectiveness of a simple nonlinear compensation scheme for counteracting the Coulomb friction is studied. The controller design is based on an approximate discrete-time linear model of the pendulum-cart system. Design calculations and analysis are carried out using Matlab/toolboxes and M-files developed by the author.
FPGA Based Low Power ROM Design Using Capacitance Scaling

An ideal capacitor will not dissipate any power, but a real capacitor will have some power dissipation. In this work, we are going to design capacitance scaling based low power ROM design. In order to test the compatibility of this ROM design with latest i7 Processor, we are operating this ROM with frequencies (2.9GHz, 3.3GHz, 3.6GHz, 3.8GHz and 4.0GHz) supported by i7 processor.By using different capacitance there comes is reduction in I/O Power and Total power but not in other Powers like Clock, and Leakage (almost negligible). When capacitance goes from 30pF to 5pF, there is a saving of 28.12% occur in I/O Power, saving of 0.2% occur in Leakage Power, there will be a saving of 11.54% occur in Total Power. This design is implemented on Virtex-5 FPGA using Xilinx ISE and Verilog.
Implante transcateter de valva aórtica: resultados atuais do desenvolvimento e implante de um nova prótese brasileira

OBJECTIVE: Aortic valve replacement is a routine procedure with acceptable risk, but in some cases, such risk can justify contraindication. Minimally invasive transcatheter aortic valve implantation has emerged as an alternative, with lower morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was clinical, safety and efficacy assessment. METHODS: Thirty-three high risk patients underwent transcatheter balloon expandable aortic valve implantation. Mean Logistic EuroScore risk was 39.30% and STS score 30.28%. Eight patients presented with dysfunctional bioprosthesis, remaining ones presented calcified aortic stenosis. Procedures were performed in a hybrid OR under fluoroscopic and echocardiography guidance. Using a left minithoracotomy the prosthesis were implanted trough the ventricular apex under rapid ventricular pacing or hemorrhagic shock. Echocardiographic and angiographic controls were performed. RESULTS: Implant was feasible in 30 cases. Three conversions occured. There was only one case of operative death. Median transvalvular aortic gradient reduced from 43.58 mmHg to 10.54 mmHg. Left ventricular function improved in the first 7 postoperative days. Paravalvular aortic regurgitation was mild and present in 30.30%. One case presented major vascular complication and another one permanent pacemaker implant. One major stroke case occurred. Overall 30-day mortality was 18.18%. CONCLUSION: The transapical implantation of catheter mounted bioprosthesis is a safe procedure with acceptable midterm results. Long term follow-up with increased sample power is mandatory in order to access hemodynamic, life quality and survival
Resting-state functional connectivity in adolescents experiencing subclinical and clinical symptoms of depression: A mini-review of recent evidence.

Adolescence is a developmental period associated with major neural reorganization and the onset of many psychological disorders. Depression in particular is prevalent and impairing in adolescents, and rates have been rising in recent years. Recent advances in the neurobiology of adolescent depression contribute to a better understanding of functional connectivity among neural networks and represent a promising start for determining biomarkers of depression and potential areas of intervention.
400-channel arrayed-waveguide grating with 25 GHz spacing using 1.5%-Δ waveguides on 6-inch Si wafer

A large-scale arrayed-waveguide grating with a 400-channel and 25 GHz spacing using 1.5%-/spl Delta/ silica-based waveguides on a 6-inch Si wafer has been realised. Good demultiplexing properties have been obtained over the full Cand L-band range with an on-chip loss of 3.8 to 6.4 dB and a far-end crosstalk of -30 dB.
Teoria das Restrições, Lean Manufacturing e Seis Sigma: limites e possibilidades de integração

The objective of this study was to analyze points of convergence and divergence between the Theory of Constraints, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma, when used in an integrated manner for the continuous improvement of existing productive systems. The study's main focus was to search the literature and identify the characteristics of exclusion and the similarities between the three approaches when applied in an integrated manner to productive systems. A broad literature search encompassing the period 1995-2011 was conducted on the main national and international databases, seeking to identify the topic's state of the art research. The results of this study suggest that the Theory of Constraints, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma have many complementary elements that overlap their divergent points and that a vast field of research exists on this issue for future exploration. As a result, the study presents a critical analysis of 28 comparative criteria, relevant to the understanding of the three approaches, and concludes with a research agenda on the topic, based on identified gaps.
An FPGA-based Fully Digital Controller for Boost PFC Converter

This paper introduces a novel digital one cycle control (DOCC) boost power factor correction (PFC) converter. The proposed PFC converter realizes the FPGA-based DOCC control approach for single-phase PFC rectifiers without input voltage sensing or a complicated two-loop compensation design. It can also achieve a high power factor and the operation of low harmonic input current ingredients over universal loads in continuous conduction mode. The trailing triangle modulation adopted in this approach makes the acquisition of the average input current an easy process. The controller implementation is based on a boost topology power circuit with low speed, low-resolution A/D converters, and economical FPGA development board. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed PFC rectifier can obtain a PF value of up to 0.999 and a minimum THD of at least 1.9% using a 120W prototype.
Internet Addiction: The Role of Parental Care and Mental Health in Adolescence

Internet addiction in adolescence is a social issue which is being increasingly discussed worldwide. Hence, deepening the knowledge of its development is necessary to prevent short- and long-term negative outcomes. This study involving 266 adolescents (mean age = 16.1 years, SD = 1.4) aimed at analyzing the relationship between quality of parental care, Internet addiction and adolescents’ mental health, by means of the following self-report tools: the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Internet Addiction Test, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The findings, collected through structural equation model analyses, showed that perceived care from both father and mother had significant indirect effects on Internet addiction problems through adolescents’ mental health problems. Furthermore, Internet addiction problems were demonstrated to be negatively associated with maternal care but not with paternal care. The study provides empirical support to the need of family-based prevention and intervention programs to take care of Internet addiction.
Development of air-conditioning control algorithm for building energy saving

In office buildings, the requirement is that the room air-conditioning control system has to provide comfortable thermal feeling for the working people. While energy saving may sometimes conflict with comfort, it is possible to eliminate the wasteful use of energy associated with its overuse without prejudicing the comfort. The basic concept is that the target set values for the room temperature should be changed dynamically so as to suit the constantly changing room environment. The paper shows that the well-known comfort index PMV is useful for air-conditioning control systems aimed at both energy-saving and comfort.
Bubble evolution from transformer overload

Bubble evolution from the overloading of transformers is a concern due to possible dielectric failure. Since overloading is inevitable for short periods during peak demand periods, it is necessary to specify the limits of overloading with respect to winding hot spot temperature which determines bubble evolution. Through extensive coil model testing in the early 1990s, a mathematical equation was formulated to compute bubble evolution temperatures under a variety of conditions: moisture in insulation, gas content of oil, and the pressure in the system. This paper describes the coil models, test results and the mathematical formula. Also presented is a tentative mechanism of bubble formation.
Mapping macro/micro level critical links for integrating Six Sigma DMAIC steps as a part of company's existing QMS: an Indian SME case study

Industries are continuously facing fierce competition and the challenge of meeting increasing demands for higher quality products at economic costs. The success of an organisation is directly related to how effective its implementation of continuous improvement (CI) is. For any industry, quality management system (QMS) and Six Sigma are important CI methodologies. Effective understanding of these methodologies and their relationship will provide an industry with a competitive advantage. Many industrial organisations today are using either QMS or Six Sigma or both as the core for their CI efforts. As such, the relationship between QMS and Six Sigma is worth further investigation. In this paper, QMS and Six Sigma are introduced followed by a thorough comparison. More particularly, this work analyses Six Sigma-DMAIC methodology steps w. r. to QMS [viz. ISO 9000:2000, TS 16949, QS 9000] requirements and identified macro/micro level critical links between them. Further, managerial and operational level frameworks for the integration of the Six Sigma-DMAIC steps as a part of company's existing QMS is proposed. Finally, this case study based research work concludes that, integrating 'QMS + Six Sigma' is an effective and novel approach which will provide an improved approach for CI.