bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Antiobesity and antidiabetic effects of the dairy bacterium Propionibacterium freudenreichii MJ2 in high-fat diet-induced obese mice by modulating lipid metabolism
Authors: An Mirae , Park Yeon-Hee , Lim Young-Hee 
Published: January 2021

AbstractObesity can cause chronic metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the antiobesity and antidiabetic effects of the dairy bacterium P. freudenreichii MJ2 isolated from raw milk using 3T3-L1 cells and high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice. Lipid accumulation and the expression levels of genes related to lipid metabolism, such as preadipocytic gene (Pref-1), adipogenic genes (PPARγ and C/EBPα), and lipogenic genes (FAS, SCD-1, and ACC), significantly decreased in heat-killed P. freudenreichii MJ2 (hkMJ2)-treated adipocytes. Live P. freudenreichii MJ2 (MJ2), hkMJ2, and Lactobacillus plantarum (LP) decreased body weight gain in HFD-induced obese mice compared with the model group. The liver and epididymal white adipose tissue weights in the MJ2-, hkMJ2- and LP-treated groups were significantly lower than those in the model group. The expression levels of genes and proteins related to adipogenesis and lipogenesis significantly decreased and lipolysis (HSL and ATGL) increased in the MJ2-, hkMJ2-, and LP-treated groups. The expression levels of genes related to fatty acid β-oxidation (CPT-1α and ACOX1) increased in the MJ2-, hkMJ2-, and LP-treated groups. In addition, blood glucose and fasting insulin levels in the MJ2- and hkMJ2-treated groups decreased compared with those in the model group. P. freudenreichii MJ2 ameliorate insulin resistance by obesity. In conclusion, both MJ2 and hkMJ2 alleviate obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Predicting the probability of Gaucher disease in subjects with splenomegaly and thrombocytopenia
Authors: Motta Irene , Consonni Dario , Stroppiano Marina , Benedetto Christian , Cassinerio Elena , Tappino Barbara , Ranalli Paola , Borin Lorenza , Facchini Luca , Patriarca Andrea , Barcellini Wilma , Lanza Federica , Filocamo Mirella , Cappellini Maria Domenica ,   Splenomegaly Gaucher group, Farina Francesca , Codeluppi Katia , Rivolti Elena , Simonetti Federico , Lunghi Francesca , Perrone Tommasina , Sgherza Nicola , Carrai Valentina , Cafro Anna Maria , Cairoli Roberto , Amendola Angela , Trabacchi Elena , Vallisa Daniele , Burgo Ilaria , Federici Augusto Bramante , Carbone Cecilia , D’Adda Mariella , Mannina Donato , Di Giacomo Valeria , Lupparelli Giulia , Lombardo Alessandra 
Published: January 2021

AbstractHematologists are frequently involved in the diagnostic pathway of Gaucher disease type 1 (GD1) patients since they present several hematological signs. However, GD1 is mainly underdiagnosed because of a lack of awareness. In this multicenter study, we combine the use of a diagnostic algorithm with a simple test (β-glucosidase activity on Dried Blood Spot) in order to facilitate the diagnosis in a population presenting to the hematologist with splenomegaly and/or thrombocytopenia associated with other hematological signs. In this high-risk population, the prevalence of GD1 is 3.3%. We propose an equation that predicts the probability of having GD1 according to three parameters that are routinely evaluated: platelet count, ferritin, and transferrin saturation.
Reactive plasma cleaning and restoration of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers
Authors: Marinov Daniil , de Marneffe Jean-François , Smets Quentin , Arutchelvan Goutham , Bal Kristof M. , Voronina Ekaterina , Rakhimova Tatyana , Mankelevich Yuri , El Kazzi Salim , Nalin Mehta Ankit , Wyndaele Pieter-Jan , Heyne Markus Hartmut , Zhang Jianran , With Patrick C. , Banerjee Sreetama , Neyts Erik C. , Asselberghs Inge , Lin Dennis , De Gendt Stefan 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe cleaning of two-dimensional (2D) materials is an essential step in the fabrication of future devices, leveraging their unique physical, optical, and chemical properties. Part of these emerging 2D materials are transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). So far there is limited understanding of the cleaning of “monolayer” TMD materials. In this study, we report on the use of downstream H2 plasma to clean the surface of monolayer WS2 grown by MOCVD. We demonstrate that high-temperature processing is essential, allowing to maximize the removal rate of polymers and to mitigate damage caused to the WS2 in the form of sulfur vacancies. We show that low temperature in situ carbonyl sulfide (OCS) soak is an efficient way to resulfurize the material, besides high-temperature H2S annealing. The cleaning processes and mechanisms elucidated in this work are tested on back-gated field-effect transistors, confirming that transport properties of WS2 devices can be maintained by the combination of H2 plasma cleaning and OCS restoration. The low-damage plasma cleaning based on H2 and OCS is very reproducible, fast (completed in a few minutes) and uses a 300 mm industrial plasma etch system qualified for standard semiconductor pilot production. This process is, therefore, expected to enable the industrial scale-up of 2D-based devices, co-integrated with silicon technology.
4-Mercaptobenzoic acid as a MALDI matrix for highly sensitive analysis of metals
Authors: Sun Qianqian , Zhang Shasha , Huang Weini , Wang Ran , Chen Zihan , Cai Zongwei , Lin Zian 
Published: January 2021

4-Mercaptobenzoic acid was first introduced as a MALDI matrix for metal analysis. The developed method was successfully applied to the rapid screening and sensitive determination of metals in PM2.5 samples.
Exploring the mechanism of aidi injection for lung cancer by network pharmacology approach and molecular docking validation
Authors: Zhuang Zhenjie , Lin Tong , Luo Lixia , Zhou Weixin , Wen Junmao , Huang Haifu , Liu Zhanhua , Lin Lizhu 
Published: January 2021

Abstract
Background. Aidi injection (ADI) is an effective Traditional Chinese medicine preparation widely used for lung cancer. However, the pharmacological mechanisms of ADI on lung cancer remain to be elucidated. Methods. A network pharmacology (NP)-based approach and the molecular docking validation were conducted to explore underlying mechanisms of ADI on lung cancer. The compounds and target genes were screened by Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database and Bioinformatics Analysis Tool for Molecular mechANism of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Batman-TCM) database. The STRING database was utilized for protein interaction network construction. The R package clusterProfiler was used for bioinformatics annotation of hub target genes. The gene expression analysis and survival analysis were performed based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The Autodock Vina was used for molecular docking validation. Results. A total of five key compounds with 324 putative target genes were screened out, and 14 hub target genes were identified for treating lung cancer. Six hub genes could influence the survival of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Of these hub genes, the expression pattern of EGFR, MYC, PIK3CA, and SMAD3 were significantly higher in the LUSC, while PIK3CA and RELA expressed lower in the LUAD group and LUSC group, respectively. These six hub genes had good docking affinity with the key compounds of ADI. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that ADI may exert therapeutic effects on lung cancer by regulating critical pathways including the thyroid hormone signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Conclusions. The present study explored the potential pharmacological mechanisms of ADI on lung cancer, promoting the clinical application of ADI in treating lung cancer, and providing references for advanced researches.
Examining the Relationship Between the Readability and Comprehensibility of Practice Test Questions and Failure Rates on Learner's Permit Knowledge Tests
Authors: Flint Kaitlyn , Spaulding Tammie J. 
Published: January 2021

Purpose
The readability and comprehensibility of Learner's Permit Knowledge Test practice questions and the relationship with test failure rates across states and the District of Columbia were examined.

Method
Failure rates were obtained from department representatives. Practice test questions were extracted from drivers' manuals and department websites and examined for readability using Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level and comprehensibility using Question Understanding Aid. The influence of readability and comprehensibility on test failure rates was explored.

Results
The average failure rate from reporting jurisdictions was 42.76%. In total, 11 out of 28 jurisdictions reported that test takers fail more than half the time, while 25 out of 28 reported that test takers fail at least a quarter of the time. While 33.09% of the variability in failure rates could be accounted for by syntactic complexity of the questions, 54.18% could be accounted for by the reading ease.

Discussion
With few exceptions, test failure rates are systematically high across the United States. The current findings suggest that these tests may be inappropriately biased against individuals with lower levels of literacy and language ability. Implications for test developers and clinicians are discussed.
One‐to‐one non‐linear transformation for RSS‐based localization with unknown transmit power
Authors: Danaee Meysam Raees 
Published: January 2021

AbstractFor most of the positioning algorithms, based on the received signal strength, the objective function of the estimator is linearized so that the conventional least square algorithm can be executed. This would necessitate using a data model containing many noisy elements which implicitly violates the least squares assumptions. To avoid this violation, an optimized data modelling would have to be set up as shown in this paper. The authors then trivially provide the solution of this new least square problem which is still a primary coarse position estimation because of ignoring the non‐linear relationships existing among parameters of the estimation. To extract quantitative information from these non‐linear relationships, the authors also propose two new signal space points for using Taylor‐series expansion as effectively as possible in accordance of the new data model. The proposed algorithms work without any knowledge about the transmit power. The performance evaluation of the proposed idea indicates that the new suggested estimators perform significantly better than the other existing linear position estimators for a large range of noise variance and path‐loss exponent values.
A full‐reference stereoscopic image quality assessment index based on stable aggregation of monocular and binocular visual features
Authors: Si Jianwei , Yang Huan , Huang Baoxiang , Pan Zhenkuan , Su Honglei 
Published: January 2021

AbstractIn stereoscopic image quality assessment, human visual system has been universally taken into account to detect perceptual characteristics. A novel full‐reference stereoscopic image assessment metric by considering both monocular and binocular visual features of human visual system is proposed. In particular, a new region segmentation algorithm is firstly proposed to divide 3D images into occluded and non‐occluded regions. The just noticeable difference model is employed on the occluded regions to formulate the monocular vision, while the binocular just noticeable difference model is applied to the non‐occluded regions to reveal the binocular vision of the human visual system. In the proposed region segmentation, disparity information and Euclidean distance between stereo pairs are both adopted to solve the unstable segmentation problem of traditional methods. A new pooling strategy based on global edge features is then presented to aggregate the just noticeable difference and binocular just noticeable difference evaluation maps. In addition, some local image features as supplementary of just noticeable difference to describe visual characteristics of the human visual system are also extracted. Finally, an overall quality score is calculated based on the above‐mentioned features to measure the visual quality of distorted stereo pairs. Experimental results show that the proposed metric achieves high consistency with the human visual system, and outperforms state‐of‐the‐art algorithms on stereoscopic image quality assessment.
Single‐active switch high‐voltage gain DC–DC converter using a non‐coupled inductor
Authors: Mizani Amirreza , Ansari Sajad A. , Shoulaie Abbas , Davidson Jonathan N. , Foster Martin P. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractA single‐active switch high‐voltage gain non‐coupled inductor DC–DC converter is presented. The introduced converter achieves high step‐up gain without using any coupled inductors or transformers, provides high efficiency, and has a simple control system. The converter also achieves low voltage stress on the switch and diodes without clamping circuits, reducing cost, conduction losses, and complexity. The input current of the introduced converter is continuous with low ripple, and is therefore suitable for renewable energy applications in which the fast dynamic response of the converter is necessary. The principle of operation and design considerations of the introduced converter are investigated. A 200 W prototype circuit with 40 kHz switching frequency, 40 V input voltage, and 250 V output voltage is implemented. The prototype operates at 93.2% efficiency, with voltage and current error of less than 4% compared to theoretical values.
A distributed control for accurate active‐power sharing in islanded microgrids subject to clock drifts
Authors: Alfaro Carlos , Castilla Miguel , Camacho Antonio , Marti Pau , Velasco Manel 
Published: January 2021

AbstractInverters‐based islanded microgrids are operated by local digital signal processors, driven by their own local clocks. These local clocks have drifts affecting the clock signals which are used to control the inverters in real time. In this scenario, a steady‐state deviation is observed in active power sharing, degrading the microgrid performance. This paper presents a new control scheme that improves the microgrid performance by cancelling the active power sharing error due to clock drifts. The study includes a theoretical stability analysis and a design procedure of the control parameters based on the dynamic characteristics. Finally, selected experimental results are obtained in a laboratory microgrid with four inverters. In this setup, each inverter was equipped with its digital signal processor with drifting local clock.
A new quasi‐Z‐source switched‐boost four‐switch three‐phase inverter with independent shoot‐through and non‐shoot‐through modulation indexes
Authors: Babaee Vandishi Mohammad , Lahooti Eshkevari Alireza , Salemnia Ahmad , Mosallanejad Ali 
Published: January 2021

AbstractFour‐switch three‐phase inverters (FSTPI) are the cost‐optimised version of two‐level voltage source inverters (TL‐VSI), promoted for low‐power/low‐voltage machine drive systems. Adding impedance‐based networks to the input of conventional VSIs provides both step‐up and step‐down features; however, the shoot‐through (ST) modulation index limits the maximum attainable modulation index. Furthermore, in FSTPI, one switching leg has two series capacitors instead of power switches. Therefore, they are exposed to the voltage imbalance problem. This paper proposes a novel step‐up FSTPI with independent shoot‐through and non‐shoot‐through (NST) modulation indexes, improved boost factor, continuous input current, and high efficiency. This topology incorporates a quasi‐z‐source switched‐boost network with independent power switches and three duty ratios that affords two active states and one shoot‐through event. These features enhance the performance of this topology if compared with former FSTPI and quasi‐z‐source FSTPI. For evaluating the performance of this topology, simulation in MATLAB software and experiment on a prototype have been done. Simulation and experimentation results confirm the proposed topology.
Novel high voltage gain dc–dc converter with dynamic analysis
Authors: Ghaffarpour Mohammad , Ebrahimi Reza , Kojabadi Hossein Madadi , Chang Liuchen , Guerrero Josep M. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis study proposes a non‐isolated dc–dc converter based on a coupled inductor and switch‐capacitor–boosting techniques. The goal of the proposed topology is to increase the voltage gain with low‐duty cycle, so voltage stresses are decreased across power switches and diodes. The power switches are controlled by pulse width modulation. The common ground of input and output of the proposed converter makes it suitable for many applications such as photovoltaic systems. The proposed converter topology is discussed in continuous and discontinuous operation modes. A dynamic analysis of the proposed converter is also provided. Simulation and experimental verifications are presented to prove the effectiveness of the proposed topology.
Investigation of a bidirectional DC/DC converter with zero‐voltage switching operation for battery interfaces
Authors: Bhajana Veera Venkata Subrahmanya Kumar , Drabek Pavel , Jara Martin , Popuri Madhuchandra , Iqbal Atif , B. Chitti Babu 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis paper proposes a bidirectional DC–DC converter with soft‐switching capabilities. The main characteristic of this converter is that it can be operated in both boost and buck modes. The major advantages of this converter are high efficiency and reduced switching loss in high‐power and high‐voltage applications. The soft‐switching capability is obtained by additional dual auxiliary resonant circuits connected to the conventional non‐isolated bidirectional DC–DC converter. Except for the auxiliary switches, all main switches turn on with zero‐voltage switching in this proposed bidirectional DC–DC converter. The auxiliary switches turn off with zero current transition. The principle of operation, theoretical analysis and experimental results of a 175 V/385 V bidirectional DC–DC converter at 2 kW output power with switching frequency of 50 kHz are provided. The experimental results verified the zero‐voltage switching operation for boost and buck modes with efficiencies 96.5% and 96%, respectively, at full load.
Field orientation based three‐coil decoupled wireless transmitter for electric vehicle charging with large lateral receiver misalignment tolerance
Authors: Nie Shuang , Pathmanathan Mehanathan , Yakop Netan , Luo Zhichao , Lehn Peter W. 
Published: January 2021

AbstractA three‐coil decoupled transmitter is developed for the inductive power transfer system of electric vehicle charging. The three‐coil decoupled transmitter consists of three overlapping rectangular coils with magnetic mutual decoupling and is capable of overcoming large receiver lateral misalignment up to 20 cm. A current optimization method is advanced to derive transmitter coil currents for the multi‐phase system that minimizes the coil loss through optimizing the current distribution among transmitter coils. The optimized current distribution reduces the maximum leakage flux by around 40% compared to the best alternative excitation method. The compensation strategy provides unity power factor for high‐power transfer phases and allows a single set of compensation capacitors to be used regardless of receiver alignment. The three‐coil decoupled transmitter is compatible with a typical three‐phase inverter for industrial practical application, which halves the power electronic switches used with previous topologies. The simulation verification is performed at 3.3 kW, achieving 93.76% efficiency at perfect alignment and 92.54% efficiency at 20 cm misalignment. The experimental verification is implemented at 3.3 kW with 200 mm ground clearance, realizing a 92.97% efficiency at perfect alignment and 90.57% efficiency at 20 cm misalignment.
Experimental efficiency analysis of a solar panel electricity generation system using planar reflection
Authors: Duranay Mehmet , Turmus Ahmet , Tanyildizi Vedat 
Published: January 2021

AbstractSince energy consumption in all countries of the world is increasing day by day, the demand and interest on renewable energy resources are also increasing at the same rate. Using the current energy in the best way and searching for different energy sources have become an important field of study for countries. Studies on this area also continue in our country, which is lucky in terms of solar energy potential. In this experimental study, where the design and production stages were carried out interactively, the effect of reflected rays on the photovoltaic (PV) panel was observed and the comparison of reflected rays with direct rays was made. The system following the Sun and the system fixed at an appropriate angle was compared. Also, the theoretical and the experimental efficiency as a result of the experimental study of the movable and fixed system were calculated and compared for the direct and reflected radiation. The mechanism presented in this study allows more use of solar radiation by enhancing through reflection from surface‐to‐surface. With this experimental study more solar radiation will be provided with the panel placed on the back, in addition to the panel exposed to direct solar radiation. Thus, it will be possible to use double‐faced panels for a solar tracking system.
Distributed event‐triggered robust automatic generation control for networked power system with wind turbines
Authors: Huo Zhihong 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThis paper proposes an event‐triggered distributed networked control scheme and its robust stability analysis strategy for the automatic generation control of multi‐area interconnected power system with wind turbines. First, for the large‐scale distributed networked control systems, considering the networked control systems with parameters uncertainty, effective transmission bandwidth, and time‐varying networked‐induced delays, a new distributed networked control systems model is proposed. Then, by constructing Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional method, the sufficient conditions for asymptotical stability of the system are obtained, a design method of event‐triggered distributed networked control law based on linear matrix inequality is proposed. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, a multi‐area power system with wind turbines is considered, and the system performance under different load disturbances is simulated. The simulation results show that the scheme has reliable robust performance for multi‐area distributed networked power system and improves the anti‐interference ability of the power system.