Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel Cuffless Blood Pressure Estimation Method Using a Bayesian Hierarchical Model

Continuous blood pressure (BP) monitoring is important for the prevention and early diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Cuffless BP estimation using pulse arrival time (PAT) via a mathematical model which enables continuous BP measurement has recently become a popular research topic. In this study, simultaneous biomedical signals from ten healthy subjects were acquired by electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensors and the continuous reference BP data were collected by a cuff-based Finometer PRO BP monitor. A hierarchical model was applied to estimate the parameters of a nonlinear model which in turn is used to estimate systolic blood pressure (SBP) using PAT with few calibration measurements. The mean absolute difference (MAD) between the estimated SBP and reference SBP is 4.35±1.43 mmHg using the proposed hierarchical model with three calibration measurements and is 4.36±1.17 mmHg with a single calibration measurement.
Analysis of Facial Electromyography Signals Using Linear and Non-Linear Features for Human-Machine Interface

In this work, an attempt has been made to analyze the facial electromyography (facial EMG) signals using linear and non-linear features for the human-machine interface. Facial EMG signals are obtained from the publicly available, widely used DEAP dataset. Thirty-two healthy subjects volunteered for the establishment of this dataset. The signals of one positive emotion (joy) and one negative emotion (sadness) obtained from the dataset are used for this study. The signals are segmented into 12 epochs of 5 seconds each. Features such as sample entropy and root mean square (RMS) are extracted from each epoch for analysis. The results indicate that facial EMG signals exhibit distinct variations in each emotional stimulus. The statistical test performed indicates statistical significance (p<0.05) in various epochs. It appears that this method of analysis could be used for developing human-machine interfaces, especially for patients with severe motor disabilities such as people with tetraplegia.
A CONCEPTUAL STUDY ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

In today’s competitive scenario consumer satisfaction is the first priority. Customer satisfaction and service quality both are most widely studied constructs. Organizations are working hard to provide the quality of service to their customers in order to attain their satisfaction and loyalty. This study was destined to find the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction. Organizations to increase the number of their customers, their loyalty, revenue, profit and market share and subsequently increased survival, attempt to assess customer satisfaction in their business. The organization should aim not only at satisfying the consumer but also focus on the delighting them. Customer satisfaction moderates impact of service quality on behavioral intentions of customers. Quality of service is an important element in determining the success of an enterprise service. Factor "satisfaction" depends on the service provider's ability to meet the norms and expectations of customers.
Emil.Hillberg@ri.se Alternative network development – need for flexible solutions for operation and planning of distribution and transmission grids

Power systems around the world are faced with a wide range of challenges to meet the objective of integrating an increased amount of renewable energy in the electricity grids. As the amount of renewable energy sources increase in distribution grids, together with electrification of the transport sector, the grid operation becomes increasingly challenging with temporary congestions and fluctuating voltage profiles. In addition, the uncertainties in future development lead to increased risk of stranded investments if traditional investment procedures are followed. Development of alternative, and agile, solutions are therefore required to cope with these situations in a sustainable manner.
Unsupervised Chunking as Syntactic Structure Induction with a Knowledge-Transfer Approach

In this paper, we address unsupervised chunking as a new task of syntactic structure induction, which is helpful for understanding the linguistic structures of human languages as well as processing low-resource languages. We propose a knowledge-transfer approach that heuristically induces chunk labels from state-of-the-art unsupervised parsing models; a hierarchical recurrent neural network (HRNN) learns from such induced chunk labels to smooth out the noise of the heuristics. Experiments show that our approach largely bridges the gap between supervised and unsupervised chunking. 1
Brain Functional Connectivity as Biomarker for Propofol-Induced Alterations of Consciousness

Understanding neural correlates of consciousness and its alterations poses a grand challenge for modern neuroscience. Even though recent years of research have shown many conceptual and empirical advances, the evolution of a system that can track anesthesia-induced loss of consciousness is hindered by the lack of reliable markers. The work presented herein estimates the functional connectivity (FC) between 21 scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings to evaluate its utility in characterizing changes in brain networks during propofol sedation. The sedation dataset in the University of Cambridge data repository was used for analyses. FC was estimated using the debiased estimator of the squared Weighted Phase Lag Index (dWPLI2). Spectral FC networks before, during, and after sedation was considered for 5 EEG sub-bands. Results demonstrated significantly higher alpha band FC during baseline, mild and moderate sedation, and recovery stages. A striking association between frontal brain activity and propofol-sedation was also noticed. Furthermore, inhibition of frontal to parietal and frontal to occipital connections were observed as characteristic features of propofol-induced alterations in consciousness. A random subspace ensemble framework using logistic model tree as the base classifier, and 18 functional connections as features, yielded a cross-validation accuracy of 98.75% in discriminating baseline, mild and moderate sedation, and recovery stages. These findings validate that EEG-based FC can reliably distinguish altered conscious states associated with anaesthesia.
Design of a region-wise fuzzy sliding mode controller with fuzzy tuner

In this paper, a region-wise fuzzy sliding mode controller (RFSMC) is proposed. We firstly employ the sliding mode control techniques to design the fuzzy control rules, and to obtain the fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC). Next, we adopt the concepts of region-wise linear fuzzy controller to design the FSMC, namely the region-wise fuzzy sliding mode controller (RFSMC). Then based on the state values of the controlled plant, a fuzzy tuner is used to tune the output scaling factors for the RFSMC. Finally, a genetic algorithm is applied to search the optimal parameters of the RFSMC. The simulation results show that the proposed RFSMC has the following advantages: 1) the fuzzy control rules of the RFSMC are efficiently reduced; and 2) it exhibits better performance than that of FSMC.
RESEARCH ISSUES, CHALLENGES, ARCHITECTURE, PLATFORMS AND APPLICATIONS IN CLOUD COMPUTING

: Cloud computing is the development of parallel computing, distributed computing, grid computing and virtualization technologies which define the shape of a new era. Cloud computing is an emerging model of business computing. In this paper, we explore the concept of cloud architecture and compares cloud computing with grid computing. We also address the characteristics and applications of several popular cloud computing science. We introduce to the issues of cloud computing. We identified several challenges from the cloud computing adoption perspectives and we also highlighted the cloud interoperability issues that deserve substantial further research and development. However, security and privacy issues present a strong barrier for users to adapt into cloud computing systems.
Volt-second-based control method for discontinuous conduction mode flyback micro-inverters to improve total harmonic distortion

Flyback-type micro-inverter is an attractive solution for photovoltaic ac-module applications because of several advantages; such as simple current control, working without ac current sensor and potentially low cost. However, it suffers from the dc-link voltage ripple that causes it to merge with the third and fifth harmonics on the output current. For this reason, a very smooth dc-link voltage is essential in order to keep total harmonic distortion (THD) at a low level. However, the voltage ripple is inevitable in practise for single-phase inverters because of pulsating instantaneous power. This study presents a new volt-second-based current control method for flyback micro-inverters which improves THD caused by the voltage ripple. The proposed method works effectively up to approximately 20% of the dc-link voltage ripple. In addition, the volt-second-based control method is able to allow reduction of the power decoupling capacitor value. Experimental results validating the proposed method are also presented.
Batch fabrication of a double-layer metamaterial resonator using scalloping structures

We propose a batch fabrication method for a double-layer microscale metamaterial resonator operating in the terahertz (THz) region. The proposed method takes advantage of scalloping structures formed by a general deep etching process. The scalloping structures function as a shadow mask. The shadow mask structure allows for the simultaneous fabrication of multiple metal layers with only a one-time evaporation step. The evaporated metal layers are electrically isolated from each other. In this paper, we fabricated a double-layer split-ring resonator (SRR) on a silicon substrate. The typical length of an arm of the SRRs was 40 µm, and the interlayer distance was 4 µm. Using energy-dispersive x-ray analysis, we confirmed that there was a nonevaporation area between the two SRR layers. We also confirmed that the fabricated sample functioned as a metamaterial in the THz region by transmittance measurements and simulation. These results prove that our method could lead to the realization of multilayer metamaterials.
A simulation method for bit-error-rate-performance estimation for arbitrary angle of arrival channel models

In this paper, a model for performing bit-error-rate (BER) analysis of various channel models is presented. Traditional simulation methods model the mobile radio channel as having Rayleigh fading, and are focused on the fluctuation of the amplitude of the received signal. Modern spatial models include information such as the angle of arrival of the incoming signals, the time-delay spread, and the number of multipath components. A simulation tool is developed that exploits the spatial statistical characteristics of the channel in order to derive estimates of the expected BER performance. The specific case of the geometrically based single-bounce elliptical model (GBSBEM) is presented and compared to the Rayleigh model. The impact of the employment of antenna arrays at the receiver is also examined. The possibility of determining the BER performance of communication systems, assuming arbitrary channel models, is justified.
Dual-operation Q-switched erbium-doped fibre laser for distributed fibre sensing

A Q-switched erbium-doped fibre laser has been developed and configured to provide narrowband and broadband operation using an all-fibre optical switch for distributed fibre sensing based on the Landau-Placzek ratio. Narrowband operation allows filtering of the Brillouin and Rayleigh signals and broadband operation minimises coherent Rayleigh noise.
Techno-economic assessment of the potential of intelligent transport systems to reduce CO 2 emissions

This study assesses the technical feasibility, economic affordability and social acceptability of low-greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intelligent transport systems (ITS) that could be implemented in the European road infrastructure over the next 40 years for passenger and freight traffic. Three ITS applications are considered: driver assistance systems and the automated highway system (AHS) for passenger traffic and commercial vehicle operations for freight traffic. These technologies are anticipated to lead to a more efficient use of the existing road network, while potentially reducing GHG emissions generated by vehicles. The impact of ITS on road capacity and vehicle's CO2 emissions is determined. Assessment is based on a reference system, which consists of the average new vehicle in the road network of the EU-27 countries. The various opportunities offered by the selected ITS technologies are specified and the major constraints for reducing GHG emissions are identified. Cost-effectiveness and sensitivity analysis is carried out. The results are validated by a suitably designed expert-based survey. It is found that ITS have the potential to improve capacity and reduce emissions. The most significant benefits are offered by the deployment of AHS. Social acceptability issues such as privacy and liability need to be further addressed to facilitate wide deployment of ITS.
Design of L/X‐band shared aperture antenna array for SAR application

Design of a dual‐wideband dual‐polarized planar shared aperture microstrip antenna array is proposed in this article. Differential feeding method is used to enhance the isolation between polarizations of the antenna in both bands.Corporate feed network is used for good radiation pattern results. Further, the coupling between the feed networks the two orthogonal polarizations is minimized. This is achieved using the antenna elements to separate the feed networks for orthogonal polarizations. To verify the antenna design, a prototype is fabricated and measured. For VSWR, the antenna can cover from 1.07 to 1.24 GHz (14.7%) and from 8.3 to10.3 GHz (21.5%), respectively. The measured isolation between bands is higher than 30 dB and the isolation between polarizations is higher than 22.5 and 29.6 dB in L‐ and X‐band, respectively. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:2197–2204, 2015
The association of eye movements and performance accuracy in a novel sight-reading task

The present study investigated how eye movements were associated with performance accuracy during sight-reading. Participants performed a complex span task in which sequences of single quarter note symbols that either enabled chunking or did not enable chunking were presented for subsequent serial recall. In between the presentation of each note, participants sight-read a notated melody on an electric piano in the tempo of 70 bpm. All melodies were unique but contained four types of note pairs: eighth-eighth, eighthquarter, quarter-eighth, quarter-quarter. Analyses revealed that reading with fewer fixations was associated with a more accurate note onset. Fewer fixations might be advantageous for sight-reading as fewer saccades have to be planned and less information has to be integrated. Moreover, the quarter-quarter note pair was read with a larger number of fixations and the eighth-quarter note pair was read with a longer gaze duration. This suggests that when rhythm is processed, additional beats might trigger re-fixations and unconventional rhythmical patterns might trigger longer gazes. Neither recall accuracy nor chunking processes were found to explain additional variance in the eye movement data.
Occurrence of Airborne Bacteria and Fungi in Bayside Offices in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This paper provides the first published information on indoor concentrations of micro-organisms in a building in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The building in question was a 1,000 m2, twenty-nine-story building with a central air condi tioning system. Concentrations and genera of bacteria and fungi were deter mined in several offices using a 6-stage impactor (Andersen sampler) during the summer season. Several gram-positive (Micrococcus, Bacillus, Staphylo coccus, Streptococcus) and gram-negative (Pseudomonas, Serratia, Klebsiella) genus of bacteria were detected. Of the 13 fungi identified indoors, Cladospo rium, Penicillium, Trichoderma and Aspergillus were predominant. Total bac teria and fungi counts showed a definite pattern in a comparison of results for the indoor and outdoor air. Therefore, the source of these micro-organisms is probably the outdoor air, from where they were transported indoors.
Franchisestrategi i förändring - en studie utifrån industrilivscykelns faser

Denna uppsats amnar se huruvida det foreligger ett samband mellan den franchisestrategi foretag har och den fas i vilken namnda foretag befinner sig, samt till viss del aven se till de faktorer som kan ligga bakom detta eventuella samband. Stommen i uppsatsen har sin utgangspunkt i tva saker. For det forsta handlar det om att utreda begreppet franchising och se vad denna foretagsform har for egenskaper. For det andra handlar det om foretagens livscykel och vad den far for implikationer for foretagets franchisestrategi. Da franchising ar mest koncentrerad till detaljhandeln ar det dar tyngdpunkten av fallforetagen ligger. Av ca. 250 svenska franchiseforetag har vi slumpvis valt femton foretag. Fallforetagen har en stor spridning vad galler antalet franchiserade enheter; vissa foretag har nastintill alla enheter i egen regi medan andra har samtliga enheter franchiserade. Vi inser att det begransade urvalet kan medfora att resultatet ej har god reliabilitet. Teorin utgors av agentteorin samt ILC och mha. dessa har vi analyserat huruvida det sker en avveckling av franchiseenheter allteftersom foretagen forflyttar sig i livscykeln. Den traditionella bilden av franchise som statisk organisationsform tycks enligt analysen inte fa nagot stod. Vi tycker oss se ett samband mellan den franchisestrategi foretag har och den fas i industrilivscykeln i vilken foretagen befinner sig. Alltsa sker en forandring av franchisestrategin over industrilivscykeln.
Heavy metals in organic vegetable production connected to KRAV in the south of Skåne

Heavy metals are substances that can contaminate our environment and damage our health. If one summarize the addition of heavy metals to the cultivated soil during the 20th century, there can be seen that the content of cadmium has increased with 30%, mercury 45%, lead 15% and other heavy metals with one or a few percent. The aim with this thesis was to investigate how heavy metals are dealt with in organic vegetable production on open field to prevent them from accumulate in the soil and taken up by the plants. Focus was laid upon KRAV, the control-association for organic production in Sweden. Questions were asked if KRAV have any regulations or praxis to keep heavy metals that enter the cultivated soils at a minimum level, and what the KRAV-certified growers are doing to prevent the accumulation of heavy metals. To reach the aim seven interviews were made with four different growers connected to KRAV, two KRAV-controllers and one person responsible for the regulations at KRAV. KRAV have good and quite strict regulations on heavy metals. But from the interviews it showed that the growers who are the ones that should implement these regulations doesn't seem to be particularly aware of heavy metals and what cultural practices they should use to prevent them from accumulate in the soil and taken up by the plants. The interviews with the KRAV-controllers also showed that they have a low prioritizing of controlling the amount of heavy metals that are applied to the cultivated soils by fertilization and that KRAV: s regulations on heavy metals are followed by the certified growers. However there were only four interviews done with KRAV-certified growers and they are all localised to Skane so these results might not accurately reflect on all growers connected to KRAV in Sweden.
Iris-based biometric recognition using dyadic wavelet transform

A biometric identification system, based on the processing of the human iris by the dyadic wavelet transform, has been introduced. The procedure to obtain an iris signature of 256 bits has been described, as well as the feature extraction block and the verification system. The results have shown that the system can achieve high rates of security.
Modality differences in ERP components between somatosensory and auditory Go/No-go paradigms in prepubescent children

We investigated modality differences in the N2 and P3 components of event-related potentials (ERPs) between somatosensory and auditory Go/No-go paradigms in eighteen healthy prepubescent children (mean age: 125.9±4.2 months). We also evaluated the relationship between behavioral responses (reaction time, reaction time variability, and omission and commission error rates) and amplitudes and latencies of N2 and P3 during somatosensory and auditory Go/No-go paradigms. The peak latency of No-go-N2 was significantly shorter than that of Go-N2 during somatosensory paradigms, but not during auditory paradigms. The peak amplitude of P3 was significantly larger during somatosensory than auditory paradigms, and the peak latency of P3 was significantly shorter during somatosensory than auditory paradigms. Correlations between behavioral responses and the P3 component were not found during somatosensory paradigms. On the other hand, in auditory paradigms, correlations were detected between the reaction time and peak amplitude of No-go-P3, and between the reaction time variability and peak latency of No-go-P3. A correlation was noted between commission error and the peak latency of No-go-N2 during somatosensory paradigms. Compared with previous adult studies using both somatosensory and auditory Go/No-go paradigms, the relationships between behavioral responses and ERP components would be weak in prepubescent children. Our data provide findings to advance understanding of the neural development of motor execution and inhibition processing, that is dependent on or independent of the stimulus modality.
Genomic regions associated with physiological, biochemical and yield-related responses under water deficit in diploid potato at the tuber initiation stage revealed by GWAS

Water deficit, which is increasing with climate change, is a serious threat to agricultural sustainability worldwide. Dissection of the genetic architecture of water deficit responses is highly desirable for developing water-deficit tolerant potato cultivars and enhancing the resilience of existing cultivars. This study examined genetic variation in response to water deficit in a panel of diploid potato and identified the QTL governing this trait via a genome-wide association study (GWAS). A panel of 104 diploid potato accessions were evaluated under both well-watered and water deficit treatments at tuber initiation stage. Drought stress index (DTI) was calculated to assess tolerance of the diploid potato genotypes to water deficit. The GWAS was conducted using a matrix of 47K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), recently available for this population. We are reporting 38 QTL, seven for well-watered conditions, twenty-two for water deficit conditions and nine for DTI which explain between 12.6% and 44.1% of the phenotypic variance. A set of 6 QTL were found to be associated with more than one variable. Marker WDP-9.21 was found associated with tuber fresh weigh under WD and gene annotation analysis revealed co-localization with the Glucan/water dikinase (GWD) gene. Of the nine QTL detected from DTI on chromosomes 2,3,5,8,10 and 12, three candidate genes with a feasible role in water deficit response were identified. The findings of this study can be used in marker-assisted selection (MAS) for water- deficit tolerance breeding in potato.