Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiple Open-Circuit Fault Diagnosis Method in NPC Rectifiers Using Fault Injection Strategy

This article proposes an open-circuit fault diagnosis method in power semiconductors of three-level neutral-point-clamped (3L-NPC) rectifiers by using a fault injection strategy. To enhance the anti-interference ability of the diagnosis method, an improvement is made in the traditional calculation method of phase-to-phase pole voltage residuals by selectively adopting the quantifying operation according to the current level. Then, the normalized and quantified residuals are obtained as the diagnosis variables. All signals for calculations are derived from the controller and pre-existing sensors, avoiding the requirement of extra hardware. To improve the diagnosis accuracy and speed, a fault injection strategy is designed. A preidentification method provides guidance for choosing the type of fault to inject. On this basis, the fault injection is implemented by revising the switching signals sent from the modulation module for a short time. In this way, inner-switch faults and outer-switch faults are easier to be differentiated, and the misdiagnosis of simultaneous multiple-switch faults is avoided. Therefore, the proposed diagnosis method is accessible to detect single-switch faults as well as multiple-switch faults in 3L-NPC rectifiers more accurately and fast. The experiments are carried out to confirm the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed fault diagnosis method.
Ultra-High Frequency Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions for Detection of Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

Several studies have suggested that distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) may be an early marker not only of hearing loss (HL) but also of tinnitus. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether DPOAEs measured up to 16 kHz are affected by the presence of tinnitus. Pure tone thresholds and DPOAEs were measured in two groups: 55 patients with tinnitus and 63 subjects without tinnitus. The subjects were divided into three groups according to their audiometric results—better than 25 dB HL at all tested frequencies from 0.125 to 16 kHz, better than 25 dB up to 8 kHz, and hearing impaired. Receiver operator characteristics (ROCs) were used to test whether DPOAEs could differentiate between normal hearing, hearing loss, and tinnitus. Comparison of tinnitus subjects with the control group, matched accurately according to thresholds, did not yield any significant difference in DPOAEs. However, in both these groups hearing loss was accompanied by a decrease in DPOAEs, specifically, at 2–6 kHz and 16 kHz. The results suggest that any decrease in DPOAEs seems to be related only to hearing loss and there is no additional effect from tinnitus.
Effect of Soil Amendments Application on Juice Quality and Sugar Yields of Sugar Beet Grown under Saline Soil Conditions

Soil salinity adversely affects quality parameters of sugar beet juice leading to a reduction in recoverable sugar yield. Improving the physical and chemical properties of salt affected soils is essential for sustainable cultivation and production of sugar beet in Egypt. A field experiment was carried out at the Delta Sugar Company to evaluate soil amendments, i.e., Phosphogypsium (PG), Desaline, humic acid and treated filter cake and molasses application on roots quality and sugar yield of sugar beet. Application of molasses at a rate of 50 L/fed. significantly increased sugar content (Pol%) only in the first growing season, while soil amendments do not have any significant in sugar content increment and the highest sugar content was produced from plants in the control treatment. Application of soil amendments in particular 1 ton/fed. of treated filter cake significantly reduced Na%, K% and α-amino-N in root juice in both growing seasons. Soil amendments application significantly increased sugar beet juice quality, theoretical sugar yield (TSY) and recoverable sugar yield (RSY) in both growing seasons. The highest value of quality index was produced from the application of 1 ton/fed. of treated filter cake. The application of either treated filter cake or 50 L/fed. of molasses significantly enhances both theoretical and recoverable sugar yields. The effect of soil amendments and molasses application on sugar loss yield was barely significant, and varietal and environmental dependent. 134 Mohsen A. Gameh, et. al. (2020), Egyptian Sugar Journal, ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
Extending Our Knowledge about the 229Th Nuclear Isomer

The first nuclear excited state in 229Th possesses the lowest excitation energy of all currently known nuclear levels. The energy difference between the ground- and first-excited (isomeric) state (denoted with 229mTh) amounts only to ≈8.2 eV (≈151.2 nm), which results in several interesting consequences: Since the excitation energy is in the same energy range as the binding energy of valence electrons, the lifetime of 229mTh is strongly influenced by the electronic structure of the Th atom or ion. Furthermore, it is possible to potentially excite the isomeric state in 229Th with laser radiation, which led to the proposal of a nuclear clock that could be used to search for new physics beyond the standard model. In this article, we will focus on recent technical developments in our group that will help to better understand the decay mechanisms of 229mTh, focusing primarily on measuring the radiative lifetime of the isomeric state.
Experimental investigation of oxygen transfer efficiency in hydraulic jumps, plunging jets and plunging breaking waves

The scope of the paper is to analyse the different similarities of air entrainment among the hydraulic jumps, plunging jets, and plunging breaking waves and to discuss current practices. The measured data are reexamined and scrutinised to investigate the gas exchange phenomena through an air-water interface. In particular, oxygen transfer efficiency and penetration depth by air bubbles are discussed. The calculated results highlight that the oxygen transfer efficiency is decreased with the increase of energy dissipation rate both in plunging jets and breaking waves. In contrast, it is shifted almost parallel in the case of hydraulic jumps. In addition, the aeration lengths in the hydraulic jumps and penetration depths both in plunging jets and plunging breaking waves were dependent on the jet impact velocity.
Prognostic Significance of SPARC Expression in Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis and Bioinformatics Analysis

Secreted protein, acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC, also known as osteonectin), is a small molecule glycoprotein associated with cell secretions. The purpose of our research is to clarify the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of SPARC expression in breast cancer. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis and bioinformatics analysis using the PubMed, Web of Science, Wanfang Data, and CNKI databases. The meta-analysis showed that SPARC expression was elevated in breast cancer tissue, compared with normal tissue, while SPARC expression in tumor stromal cells was higher than that of tumor cells. The expression of SPARC was positively correlated with histological grade and TNM staging. The Kaplan-Meier plotter showed that low SPARC expression was negatively correlated with the overall, postprogression, and distant metastasis survival rates of patients. According to Oncomine database, SPARC expression was upregulated in breast cancer than normal tissues. In TCGA database, univariate analysis showed that lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and TNM staging were negatively correlated with patient prognosis in breast cancers. Cox multivariate analysis showed that age, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and TNM staging were important factors affecting the survival time of breast cancer patients. SPARC expression can be employed as a good indicator of prognosis of breast cancer patients, which will provide new methods and ideas of preventive treatment.
Underlying the mechanisms of changes in cancer prevalence among the U.S. Medicare beneficiaries: contributions of incidence, survival, and ascertainment at early stages.

Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate contributions of trends in incidence, relative survival, and stage at diagnosis to the dynamics in the prevalence of major cancers (lung, prostate, colon, breast, urinary bladder, ovaries, stomach, pancreas, esophagus, kidney, liver, and skin melanoma) among older U.S. adults age 65+. Methods: Trend partitioning was applied to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program data for 1973-2016. Results: Growth of cancer prevalence in older adults decelerated or even decreased over time for all studied cancers due to decreasing incidence and improving survival for most of cancers, with a smaller contribution of the stage at cancer diagnosis. Changes in prevalence of cancers of lung, colon, stomach, and breast were predominantly due to decreasing incidence, increasing survival and more frequent diagnoses at earlier stages. Changes in prevalence of some other cancers demonstrated adverse trends such as decreasing survival in localized and regional stages (urinary bladder and ovarian) and growing impact of late-stage diagnoses (esophageal cancer). Conclusion: While decelerating or decreasing prevalence of many cancers were due to a beneficial combination of decreasing incidence and increasing survival, there are cancers for which decelerating prevalence is due to the lack of improvement in their stage-specific survival and/or increasing frequency of diagnosis at advanced stages. Overall, if the observed trends persist, it is likely that cancer burden due to its prevalence in older U.S. population will be lower than it was projected in earlier studies.
Partial identification of a peptide from Lacticaseibacillus casei using MALDI TOF and it’s cytotoxic activity against MDA-MB-231 cell line

The current study focused to extract and purify the peptide of interest efficaciously from Lacticaseibacillus casei. The peptide of interest was partially identified and checked for anti-cancer activity using MDA-MB-231 triple negative breast cancer cell line. To begin with, it was purified via ammonium sulfate precipitation, ultrafiltration, and gel filtration chromatography. It was partially identified using mass matrix assisted laser desorption/ ionization-mass spectrometry (MS-MALDI) and checked for cytotoxic activity using (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide) assay. As an outcome, the active part collected after ultra-filtration, 880 μg/ml of protein content with 15 mm zone diameter, was loaded on sephadexG50 column. The purified protein content was found to be 118 μg/ml with 15 mm of zone of inhibition against Listeria monocytogenes. A peak was obtained at a retention time of 9.371 minutes on subjected to high performance liquid chromatography. The result of MS-MALDI revealed it as an unnamed peptide with 75% query sequence similarity with the hypothetical protein of Lactobacillus reuteri. The cytotoxic study revealed its potential as an anti-cancer peptide, with the IC50 value of 108 μg/ml for MDA-MB-231 cancer cell line. In conclusion, this is the first report of this unknown peptide which showed both antibacterial and cytotoxic activity. It may act as a promising agent and can be further explored in future.
Modeling and Mitigation of Soft Errors in Nanoscale SRAMs

Energetic particle (alpha particle, cosmic neutron, etc.) induced single event data upset or soft error has emerged as a key reliability concern in SRAMs in sub-100 nanometre technologies. Low operating voltage, small node capacitance, high packing density, and lack of error masking mechanisms are primarily responsible for the soft error susceptibility of SRAMs. In addition, since SRAM occupies the majority of die area in system-on-chips (SoCs) and microprocessors, different leakage reduction techniques, such as, supply voltage reduction, gated grounding, etc., are applied to SRAMs in order to limit the overall chip leakage. These leakage reduction techniques exponentially increase the soft error rate in SRAMs. The soft error rate is further accentuated by process variations, which are prominent in scaled-down technologies. In this research, we address these concerns and propose techniques to characterize and mitigate soft errors in nanoscale SRAMs. We develop a comprehensive analytical model of the critical charge, which is a key to assessing the soft error susceptibility of SRAMs. The model is based on the dynamic behaviour of the cell and a simple decoupling technique for the non-linearly coupled storage nodes. The model describes the critical charge in terms of NMOS and PMOS transistor parameters, cell supply voltage, and noise current parameters. Consequently, it enables characterizing the spread of critical charge due to process induced variations in these parameters and to manufacturing defects, such as, resistive contacts or vias. In addition, the model can estimate the improvement in critical charge when MIM capacitors are added to the cell in order to improve the soft error robustness. The model is validated by SPICE simulations (90nm CMOS) and radiation test. The critical charge calculated by the model is in good agreement with SPICE simulations with a maximum discrepancy of less than 5%. The soft error rate estimated by the model for low voltage (sub 0.8 V) operations is within 10% of the soft error rate measured in the radiation test. Therefore, the model can serve as a reliable alternative to time consuming SPICE simulations for optimizing the critical charge and hence the soft error rate at the design stage. In order to limit the soft error rate further, we propose an area-efficient multiword based error correction code (MECC) scheme. The MECC scheme combines four 32 bit data words to form a composite 128 bit ECC word and uses an optimized 4-input transmission-gate XOR logic. Thus MECC significantly reduces the area overhead for check-bit storage and the delay penalty for error correction. In addition, MECC interleaves two composite words in a row for limiting cosmic neutron induced multi-bit errors. The ground potentials of the composite words are controlled to minimize leakage power without compromising the read data stability. However, use of composite words involves a unique write operation where one data word is written while other three data words are read to update the check-bits. A power…
Current Knowledge on the Oxidative-Stress-Mediated Antimicrobial Properties of Metal-Based Nanoparticles

The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in recent years has been alarming and represents a major public health problem. The development of effective antimicrobial agents remains a key challenge. Nanotechnologies have provided opportunities for the use of nanomaterials as components in the development of antibacterial agents. Indeed, metal-based nanoparticles (NPs) show an effective role in targeting and killing bacteria via different mechanisms, such as attraction to the bacterial surface, destabilization of the bacterial cell wall and membrane, and the induction of a toxic mechanism mediated by a burst of oxidative stress (e.g., the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS)). Considering the lack of new antimicrobial drugs with novel mechanisms of action, the induction of oxidative stress represents a valuable and powerful antimicrobial strategy to fight MDR bacteria. Consequently, it is of particular interest to determine and precisely characterize whether NPs are able to induce oxidative stress in such bacteria. This highlights the particular interest that NPs represent for the development of future antibacterial drugs. Therefore, this review aims to provide an update on the latest advances in research focusing on the study and characterization of the induction of oxidative-stress-mediated antimicrobial mechanisms by metal-based NPs.
Tooth Loss and the Incidence of Ischemic Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Generally, as the population is aging, ischemic stroke is imposing rising social and economic burdens. On that basis, the early intervention and prevention of ischemic stroke turns out to be a major public health issue. Extensive studies have reached mixed conclusions regarding the correlation between tooth loss and ischemic stroke, as well as transient ischemic attack (TIA). In this paper, a systematic review and meta-analysis is presented where we have aimed to examine whether tooth loss is correlated with a higher incidence of ischemic stroke and TIA in adults. The systematical search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and The Cochrane library from the inception dates to September 23, 2021, by employing the keywords (i.e., tooth loss and ischemic stroke). Observational studies conducted in adults were included, in which people with and without tooth loss (Exposition and Comparison) were observed to determine the incidence of ischemic stroke/TIA (Outcome). The data were extracted, and the study quality was assessed by two reviewers independently. Moreover, a meta-analysis was conducted to obtain the risk ratios (RRs) and 95% CIs by adopting random-effects models. The major outcome was the incidence of ischemic stroke/TIA in adults with and without tooth loss. On the whole, four cohort studies and three case-control studies were covered, which involved 4,625,514 participants with 33,088 ischemic stroke/TIA cases. In cohort (adjusted RR = 2.58, 95% CI: 2.39–2.79, P < 0.00001, I2 = 31%) and case-control studies (adjusted MD = −4.15, 95% CI: −6.09−(−2.22), P < 0.001, I2 = 77%), a significant correlation was identified between tooth loss and ischemic stroke. The subgroup analyses reported that the results in case-control studies were generally consistent regardless of the selection of controls. This meta-analysis indicated a certain correlation between tooth loss and ischemic stroke.
Preparation of layering-structured magnetic fluorescent liposomes and labeling of HepG2 cells.

BACKGROUND At present, surgical resection and chemotherapy are still the main treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma and other cancers, but the curative effect and survival rate are not ideal. OBJECTIVE In this study, we aim to prepare a carrier with low toxicity, high biocompatibility and targeted transport for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS CdSe quantum dots (QDs) modified with oleic acid were synthesized. Then hydrophobic CdSe QDs and hydrophilic super-paramagnetic Fe3O4 particles were encapsulated into different layers of liposomes to form magnetic fluorescent liposomes (MFLs). MFLs in the aqueous would quickly drift towards the external magnet and the entire process was clearly observed with fluorescence microscope. The fluorescence spectra revealed that the fluorescence properties of MFLs were similar to that of CdSe QDs. RESULTS QDs had an average size of 3.32 nm with good fluorescence properties. The size of MFLs was about 100 nm (transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed the average size of MFLs was about 82.8 nm and dynamic light scattering (DLS) detection showed 111.9 nm). After being cultured with MFLs for 8 h, HepG2 cells were labeled by MFLs and good fluorescence images were obtained. MTT analysis also expressed their good biocompatibility. CONCLUSION The prepared MFLs had multi-function and could be used as ideal drug carriers.
A co-packaged photoelectric converter module

Microwave photonics technology (MWP), which has been applied to various radar, Telcom, Electronic Warfare systems, is now facing more and more challenging development trend of miniaturization and modular array for increasing node counts and system complexity. The hybrid-integration microassembly process, which could effectively realize the integrated system of photonic devices, microwave devices and electrical circuits, are utilized to achieve small volume and simple preparation technology for rapid engineering and miniaturization. In this paper, we introduced an ultra-compact photoelectric converter array module fabricated with hybrid-integration microassembly process, the practical test results showed a good optical coupling and S-parameters over a wide frequency range. Furthermore, this could be easily expanded for multi-channels MWP application scenarios.
Machine learning‐assisted industrial symbiosis: Testing the ability of word vectors to estimate similarity for material substitutions

A challenge of facilitating industrial symbiosis involves identifying novel uses of waste streams that can satisfy the demands of other industries. For these efforts, a variety of characteristics must often be considered. A mine of relevant knowledge has been gathered in resources such as academic journals and patent databases. However, in looking to harness the potential of such data to support facilitation, compiling information on expansive ranges of material properties and technical requirements from a variety of unstructured sources can pose a significant manual effort. To ameliorate this, we demonstrate and evaluate an automated system that, given a large collection of patents and academic articles related to waste valorization, is able to assist with the process of identifying which waste streams could potentially be used as substitute feedstocks. Instead of aiming to measure (potentially thousands of) material properties directly, we use word correlations as a proxy to reflect “common knowledge. ” Novel in furthering this approach is the application of word vectors, which have emerged as a promising natural language processing tool. The process employs a machine learning approach where words are represented as high‐dimensional vectors which encode latent features related to words that often appear around it. When this approach is assessed by comparing its suggestions to documented cases, the use of vectors shows potential to incorporate latent information in data‐based explorations. Further research into how this approach compares, and could be integrated with, established symbiosis development practices will be key to understanding its full potential and drawbacks.
Trends and Challenges: Chinese Students Studying at South Korean Universities

Abstract: South Korea is a popular destination for Chinese students studying overseas. Prior to the pandemic, Chinese students comprised the largest percentage of foreign students in South Korea. This paper provides insights into major trends germane to Chinese students studying in South Korea. In addition, it explores challenges that Chinese students encounter while studying in South Korean universities, which include socialization problems, Korean and English language barriers, academic difficulties, and discrimination and prejudice. It also examines historical and political issues that have an impact on Chinese people living in South Korea. Strategies for improving successful integration are discussed. These include having effective academic and social support systems, promoting intercultural communicative competence, advanced preparation before leaving China, mutual adjustment activities that enhance understanding and awareness between different cultural groups, reflective practice and quality improvement, and exposure to diverse viewpoints. Finally, practical implications, which could improve the overall adaptation of Chinese students in South Korean universities are discussed. Keywords: Chinese students, South Korean universities, intercultural communication, adaptation, cross-cultural communication