Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An overview of integratable current sensor technologies

An overview is given of current sensing technologies that are suitable for packaging into integrated power electronics modules and integrated passive power processing units, such as integrated shunts and integratable Rogowski coils technologies. Technologies considered in this paper include: integrated current shunts, current transformers, Rogowski coils, Hall-effect current sensors, giant magneto resistive sensors (GMR) and magneto impedance sensors (MI). Each of these current sensing technologies is discussed separately along with their advantages, limitations and design trade-offs. Special emphasis is given to features that enhance or limit the technology's potential for being integrated in the packaging process.
Impact of Hydroxychloroquine Treatment of COVID-19 on Cardiac Conduction: The Beat Goes On

Objectives: Our study aimed to investigate the frequency of malignant cardiac arrhythmias in hospitalized patients receiving hydroxychloroquine alone and those receiving a combination of hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, as well as the quantitative extent of QT prolongation within Tisdale Risk Score (TRS) categories. Background: There have been over 33 million cases of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) resulting in over 600,000 deaths in the United States. As the current COVID-19 pandemic continues, numerous medications have been administered to attempt to treat patients afflicted by the disease. While hydroxychloroquine has been in use for decades for rheumatologic and infectious disease processes, it does have potential cardiotoxicity related to drug-induced QT prolongation. Drug-induced QT prolongation has an increased risk of arrhythmogenicity, potentially progressing into torsades de pointes (TdP) and increased patient mortality. The relationship between QT prolongation and TdP is complex and inexact, but there remains optimism regarding the use of these medications in the treatment of COVID-19 despite limited data on their true efficacy. Methods: We retrospectively identified 75 patients who were admitted with COVID-19 and underwent treatment with hydroxychloroquine for 5 days. The hydroxychloroquine protocol was defined as an initial dose of 400 mg BID for the first day, followed by 400 mg daily for the next 4 days. Baseline demographics, medications, medical histories, lab values, ECG QT intervals, and Tisdale Risk Categories were collected for all patients. Results: Seventy-four (98.7%) patients completed the full course of hydroxychloroquine. There were 41 males (54.7%) and 34 females (45.3%). Average length of stay was 8.9 days (95% CI: 7.5, 10.2). One patient who could not complete the course due to inability to swallow medication tablets. There were no reports of new arrythmias or incidence of torsades de pointes during the study. Seventy-two patients (96%) were taking at least 2 QT prolonging medications. The average corrected QT intervals were as follows: day 1 of admission was 421.62 milliseconds (n = 66, 95% CI: 412.19, 431.05), day 2 was 431.50 ms (n = 30, 95% CI: 416.34, 446.66), day 3 was 433.48 ms (n = 23, 95% CI: 413.34, 453.61), day 4 was 427.59 ms (n = 17, 95% CI: 400.83, 454.35), and day 5 was 444.28 ms (n = 18, 95% CI: 428.43, 460.12). The corrected QT interval prolonged by 22.66 ms from day 1 to day 5 (p = 0.03) in the overall population. Conclusion: There were no patients who experienced arrhythmogenicity or Torsades de Pointes despite a statistically significant increase in QTc intervals after patients received the 5-day course of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19.
Design of 60 Plus Gb/s Serial-Link Transmitters Using Filter Techniques

The demand for off-chip data bandwidth of serial-link transceivers have been pushed beyond 40-Gb/s/link. With the potential aggregate data rate, power consumption and area must be reasonable. State-of-the-art serial-link transmitters operating at data rates beyond 40-Gb/s can contribute up to 40-45% power consumption while the FFE is limited to 2 taps. The main design challenge comes from the fact that producing output signal levels using large devices at high frequency is very power hungry. It is critical to low the power of transmitter at high data rate to enable high performance serial links. This dissertation explores the potential of operating transmitters at data rates that approach the fundamental technology limit. Several circuit techniques are proposed to improve power efficiency and performance of serial-link transmitters. A LC-based feedforward equalizer (FFE) is proposed to eliminate the need of multiple MUXs. The design methodology of LC-ladder filter is proposed and applied to the FFE design to improve the bandwidth and the use of inductors. The serializer is power-optimized using a direct 4:1 multiplexer (MUX) at final stage with a novel 4:1 MUX design. An inverter-based digital-to-phase converter (DPC) using harmonic rejection filter is proposed to improve the phase linearity.To verify the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, a 64-Gb/s transmitter prototype and an 8-bit DPC are designed and measured in 65-nm CMOS technology. The optimal use of on-chip inductors improve the bandwidth and power efficiency significantly. The proposed transmitter prototype, achieves a maximum data rate of 64.5 Gb/s and an energy efficiency of 3.1 fJ/b. The DPC demonstrates a maximum INL and DNL of 1.33 and 0.52 LSB while consumes a power of 4.3 mW at 1.5 GHz.
Window blinds as a potential energy saver: a case study. Building science series (final). [Effects of building orientation]

Window usage at the National Bureau of Standards was studied by photographing venetian blind positions in offices at different times of the day and year. While blind positions were quite stable during the week of each study phase, they were quickly altered by the room occupants when deliberately set at extreme positions by the researchers. Significant differences were observed among blinds depending on compass orientation of the window, view type, season, and nature of experimental treatment. The greatest determinant of blind position was orientation, with blinds on north-facing windows being more open than on the south. The results suggest that energy conservation programs which rely on the activities of building occupants may be feasible. Suggestions are made for improvements in blind use and design.
Public and Situated Displays: Social and Interactional Aspects of Shared Display Technologies

Public and situated display technologies can have an important impact on individual and social behaviour and present us with particular interesting new design considerations and challenges. While there is a growing body of research exploring these design considerations and social impact this work remains somewhat disparate, making it difficult to assimilate in a coherent manner. This book brings together the perspectives of key researchers in the area of public and situated display technology. The chapters detail research representing the social, technical and interactional aspects of public and situated display technologies. The underlying concern common to these chapters is how these displays can be best designed for collaboration, coordination, community building and mobility. Presenting them together allows the reader to examine everyday display activities within the context of emerging technological possibilities.
Frame-based bandwidth allocation for agile all-photonic networks

The term "agility" in optical networks describes the ability to deploy bandwidth on demand at fine granularity that allows carriers to provision and deploy services rapidly. An overlaid star all-photonic WDM network, called the Agile All-Photonic Network (AAPN), can provide such agility through multiplexing over each wavelength in the time domain. The AAPN consists of a number of hybrid photonic/electronic edge nodes connected together via a number of optical core nodes. Each of the core nodes consists of a number of buffer-less transparent photonic space switches, one for each wavelength, and links to all edge nodes via optical fibers. Each edge node aggregates traffic in buffers, segments it as slots (i.e. units), and transmits the slots in photonic form across the network. For bandwidth sharing, the core nodes are required to perform reconfiguration periodically according to the traffic demand information sent by the edge nodes. In this thesis, it is studied how the core nodes distribute the bandwidth to adapt to the traffic in the edge nodes and how the edge nodes perform routing in the AAPN so that the traffic is less congested and can reach the destination with short delay. For the former problem, the alternating projections method and the quick Birkhoff-von Neumann decomposition method are proposed which provide a simple and efficient bandwidth allocation scheme for the AAPN core nodes. For the second problem, a routing method is proposed which provides a trade-off between the delay and the blocking probability, i.e. the method improves the delay performance of the network dramatically under the low load while not affecting the blocking performance at high load.
Accelerated failure time modelling of Tuberculosis predictors in HIV/AIDS patients in Albert Luthuli Municipality of South Africa

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most common opportunistic diseases and leading cause of death among Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) patients. There has been a drastic rise of TB infection associated with the pandemic occurrence of HIV/AIDS infection in South Africa and other resource-limited countries world-wide. South Africa faces an immense burden on health care systems posed by diagnostic and therapeutic challenges resulting from the concomitant HIV and TB epidemics. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and the factors associated with TB and HIV co-infection for patients attending clinical care at rural public health facilities in Albert Luthuli municipality of South Africa. Methods: A cohort of HIV/AIDS patients was retrospectively followed from inception in 2010 to 2017 until TB was diagnosed or until the end of the study. Accelerated Failure Time (AFT) model was used to analyse survival data on HIV/AIDS patients. Factors associated to TB were modelled using log-logistic AFT model and further analysis of the significant factors was done using Kaplan-Meier, log-rank and hazard ratios. Results: From 357 HIV/AIDS patients, 65 patients (18.2%) had TB. Out of the 65 HIV/AIDS patients with TB, 15 (23.1%) of them died. Thus, of the 41 HIV/AIDS patients who died during the follow-up period, 15 of them (36.6%) had TB. Log-logistic AFT model determined factors associated with TB at significance level of 0.05 as: hospital, WHO stage, treatment (regimen 1), ART adherence, follow-up CD4 count, baseline haemoglobin, follow-up white blood cell count, baseline viral load, baseline sodium and follow-up alanine transaminase. Discussion: Although antiretroviral therapy is effective in reducing the risk of developing TB, the overall burden of TB in HIV/AIDS community may not substantially diminish.Conclusion: TB/HIV co-infection is one of the serious public health problems in Albert Luthuli municipality. Collaborative TB/HIV activities in form of early diagnosis of both TB and HIV need a holistic approach in order to reduce drug resistance, drug toxicity, co-morbidities and mortalities which are associated with TB/HIV co-infection.
Tooth Development in Human Evolution and Bioarchaeology: Human evolution, pace of development and life history

© S. Hillson 2014. Human children grow at a uniquely slow pace by comparison with other mammals. When and where did this schedule evolve? Have technological advances, farming and cities had any effect upon it? Addressing these and other key questions in palaeoanthropology and bioarchaeology, Simon Hillson examines the unique role of teeth in preserving detailed microscopic records of development throughout childhood and into adulthood. The text critically reviews theory, assumptions, methods and literature, providing the dental histology background to anthropological studies of both growth rate and growth disruption. Chapters also examine existing studies of growth rate in the context of human evolution and primate development more generally, together with implications for life history. The final chapters consider how defects in the tooth development sequence shed light on the consequences of biological and social transitions, contributing to our understanding of the evolution of modern human development and cognition.
Designing an Organisation to Activate Cross-sectoral Mass Collaboration Towards Sustainability

The purpose of this thesis is to design an organisation attempting to facilitate cross-sectoral, action-oriented collaboration to influence systemic change towards sustainability, and to create a Design Guide for achieving this objective. To answer this, we conducted a participatory action research with Smart Urbanism: London (SU:LDN) as a case study. This is a start-up organisation whose goal is to introduce the paradigm of complexity thinking to the planning, design and delivery of cities in order to create a new, responsive and sustainable urban fabric. They intend to faciitate a mass collaboration across the relevant sectors. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) was used as a lens for the overall research, the analysis of SU:LDN and the construction of the Design Guide.
The 1995 Attempted Derailing of the French TGV (High-Speed Train) and a Quantitative Analysis of 181 Rail Sabotage Attempts

This report is a case study of the attempt in 1995 by terrorists to derail the high-speed train between Lyon and Paris. It also analyzes 181 events where guerrillas or terrorists attempted to derail trains, 144 of them since January 1996. The distribution and modes of attack, the terrorists’ success or failure in derailing trains, and the consequences of their attacks in terms of casualties, are examined. Appendix A contains a chronology of events with brief descriptions. The report notes that although passenger trains pose attractive targets for terrorists since high body counts are possible, getting a bomb to explode at the intended time is difficult.
Technical Challenges of the U.S. Army's Ground Combat Vehicle Program

Abstract : The U.S. Army plans to spend about an additional $34 billion in 2013 dollars to develop and purchase a new armored vehicle for its infantry, the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV). The GCV is supposed to operate across the full range of potential conflict types while providing unprecedented levels of protection for the full squad of soldiers it will carry. To achieve the Army's goals, the GCV would weigh from 64 to 84 tons, making it the biggest and heaviest infantry fighting vehicle that the Army has ever fielded--as big as the M1 Abrams tank and twice as heavy as the Bradley, the Army's current infantry fighting vehicle. Designing such a vehicle presents important technical challenges. To aid the Congress in its oversight of the GCV program, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has prepared two reports. This CBO working paper provides background information for understanding the technical challenges that the program faces. It presents the Army's technical goals for the GCV program, examines the threats that the vehicle could face in combat, and explores the variety of approaches that vehicle designers can take to protect the vehicle and its passengers and to meet the Army's other requirements. A companion report, The Army's Ground Combat Vehicle Program and Alternatives, examines the GCV program (including the number of vehicles, the production schedule, and the cost) and alternative approaches that the Army could take that would cost less but still provide substantial improvements over today's fleet of combat vehicles.
Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy

From the Publisher: As paper-based communication and transaction mechanisms are replaced by automated ones, traditional forms of security such as photographs and handwritten signatures are becoming outdated. Most security experts believe that digital certificates offer the best technology for safeguarding electronic communications. They are already widely used for authenticating and encrypting email and software, and eventually will be built into any device or piece of software that must be able to communicate securely. There is a serious problem, however, with this unavoidable trend: unless drastic measures are taken, everyone will be forced to communicate via what will be the most pervasive electronic surveillance tool ever built. There will also be abundant opportunity for misuse of digital certificates by hackers, unscrupulous employees, government agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies, and so on. In this book Stefan Brands proposes cryptographic building blocks for the design of digital certificates that preserve privacy without sacrificing security. Such certificates function in much the same way as cinema tickets or subway tokens: anyone can establish their validity and the data they specify, but no more than that. Furthermore, different actions by the same person cannot be linked. Certificate holders have control over what information is disclosed, and to whom. Subsets of the proposed cryptographic building blocks can be used in combination, allowing a cookbook approach to the design of public key infrastructures. Potential applications include electronic cash, electronic postage, digital rights management, pseudonyms for online chat rooms, health care information storage, electronic voting, and even electronic gambling.
Software frameworks for artificial intelligence: comparsion of low-level and high-level approaches

As nearly every artificial intelligence application is based on a framework, using the best fitting one for the task is key in developing an efficient solution quickly. Since there are two main types of frameworks, based on low and high abstraction level approaches, these two types will get compared and evaluated throughout this paper using Tensorflow and Keras as representatives. Key features of artificial intelligence frameworks for industrial applications are performance, expandability, abstraction level and therefore ease of use for rapid prototyping. All those features are major factors to keep development time and costs as low as possible, while maximizing product quality. To evaluate both approaches by these criteria a neural network classifying handwritten digits is implemented.
How to be a Successful Student

Check your unit guides at the start of the semester and chart the due dates of every assignment from every class in a calendar (you can use the calendar in Learnline to do this). Then, work backwards to determine what you need to complete by certain dates. For example, if you have a 10page assignment due in a month, aim to have a full draft done a week before the due date, 5 pages written by the week before that and an outline the week before that. Treat these ‘milestones’ like regular assignments to avoid last-minute panic when major deadlines loom.
The series connection of IGBTs with optimised voltage sharing in the switching transient

This paper reviews the reasons that make series operation of IGBTs attractive and challenging. Then, a new approach which uses the IGBT's gate controlled active regime in place of large series sharing snubbers is proposed. This technique is shown to improve the voltage sharing during switching transients and may lead to more compact and efficient high voltage power modules. <<ETX>>
Quantitative ultrasound imaging during shear wave propagation for applicationrelated to breast cancer diagnosis

In the context of breast tissue characterization, one may wonder what the consideration of a quantitative ultrasound (QUS) feature of a scattering medium (such as a soft biological tissue) under propagation of a shear wave adds to its discriminant power. This work presents a study of the time varying behavior of three statistical parameters (the mean intensity, the structure parameter and the clustering parameter of scatterers) of a general model for the ultrasound backscattering echo envelope (i.e., the homodyned K-distribution) under shear wave propagation. Transient shear waves were generated using the supersonic shear imaging (SSI) method in three in-vitro macroscopically homogenous breast mimicking phantoms with different mechanical properties, and two ex-vivo heterogeneous phantoms with mice tumors included in an agargelatin surrounding medium. A comparison of the range of the three homodyned K-distribution parameters with and without shear wave propagation showed that the parameters were significantly (p < 0.001) affected by shear wave propagation in the in-vitro and ex-vivo experiments. The results also demonstrated that the dynamic range of the statistical parameters during shear wave propagation may help discriminate (with p < 0.001) the three in-vitro homogenous phantoms from each other, and also the mice tumors from their surrounding medium in the ex-vivo heterogeneous phantoms. Furthermore, a linear regression model was applied to relate the range of the mean intensity under shear wave propagation with the maximum displacement amplitude of speckle. The linear regression was found to be significant : in-vitro phantoms : R2 = 0.98, p < 0.001 ; ex-vivo tumors : R2 = 0.56, p = 0.013 ; ex-vivo surrounding medium : R2 = 0.59, p = 0.009. In contrast, the linear regression was not as significant between the mean intensity without shear wave propagation and mechanical properties of the medium : in-vitro phantoms : R2 = 0.07, p = 0.328, ex-vivo tumors : R2 =0.55, p = 0.022 ; ex-vivo surrounding medium : R2 = 0.45, p = 0.047. This novel approach may provide additional information to statistical QUS traditionally performed in a static framework (i.e., without shear wave propagation), for instance, in the context of ultrasound imaging for breast cancer classification.
Acute Effect of Physical Exercise on Negative Affect in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Pilot Study

Background Physical exercise is an evidence-based treatment to reduce symptoms and negative affect in several psychiatric disorders, including depressive, anxiety, and psychotic disorders. However, the effect of physical exercise on negative affect in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) has not yet been investigated. In this pilot study, we tested the safety, acceptability, and potential acute effects on negative affect of a single session of aerobic physical exercise in adults with BPD. Method After completing a negative mood induction procedure, 28 adults with BPD were randomly assigned to a 20-minute single session of stationary bicycle or a control condition (emotionally neutral video). Results No adverse effects attributed to the physical exercise were reported and it was considered acceptable to patients. Following the negative mood induction, both conditions decreased the level of negative affect with a medium effect size but there was no significant difference between them. Conclusion The results suggest that a single 20-minute session of physical exercise does not produce a reduction of negative affect in BPD. Future research should consider the duration and intensities of physical exercise with the greatest potential to reduce negative affect both acutely and in a more prolonged manner in this patient group.
Pump Thrombosis

This chapter reviews the mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatment strategies of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) thrombosis. Despite improving results, thrombosis continues to be an important postoperative complication of continuous-flow (CF) LVADs. When LVAD thrombosis is suspected, aggressive and timely evaluation and treatment is critical. This chapter also reviews data on newer generation LVADs which appear to be more hemocompatible, reducing the risk of thrombosis.