Search

Clinical, biomedical, and translational science has reached an inflection point in the breadth and diversity of available data and the potential impact of such data to improve human health and well-being. However, the data are often siloed, disorganized, and not broadly accessible due to discipline-specific differences in terminology and representation. To address these challenges, the Biomedical Data Translator Consortium has developed and tested a pilot knowledge graph-based "Translator" system capable of integrating existing biomedical data sets and "translating" those data into insights intended to augment human reasoning and accelerate translational science. Having demonstrated feasibility of the Translator system, the Translator program has since moved into development, and the Translator Consortium has made significant progress in the research, design, and implementation of an operational system. Herein, we describe the current system's architecture, performance, and quality of results. We apply Translator to several real-world use cases developed in collaboration with subject-matter experts. Finally, we discuss the scientific and technical features of Translator and compare those features to other state-of-the-art, biomedical graph-based question-answering systems.

This paper presents ocean wave energy control using the Aquila optimization (AO) technique. An oscillating water column (OWC)-type wave energy converter has been considered that is fitted with a Wells turbine and doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). To achieve maximum power point tracking (MPPT), the rotor speed of the DFIG must be controlled as per the MPPT law. The MPPT law is designed in such a way that the Wells turbine flow coefficient remains within the threshold limit. It avoids the turbine from stalling which generates the maximum power. The MPPT law provides the reference rotor speed which is followed by the actual rotor speed. For this, a backstepping controller (BSC)-based rotational speed control strategy has been designed using the Lyapunov stability theory. The BSC has unknown control parameters which should be selected such that tracking errors are minimum. Hence, the objective of this work is to find the unknown control parameters using an optimization approach. The optimization approach of selecting BSC control parameters for an OWC plant has not been explored yet. To achieve this, an integral square error (ISE)-type fitness function has been defined and minimized using the AO technique. The results achieved using the AO technique have been compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and a genetic algorithm (GA), validating its superior performance. The rotor speed error maximum peak overshoot is least for AO-BSC as compared to PSO-BSC and GA-BSC. The fitness function value for AO comes out to be least among all the optimization methods applied. However, all tested methods provide satisfactory results in terms of turbine flow coefficient, rotor speed and output power. The approach paves the way for future research on ocean wave energy control.

The electrification of public transport is an overwhelming trend, representing the first step in the energy transition of the transport sector. The transport sector is characterized by the prevalence of public ownership and the significant influence of the public sector. Accordingly, tendering procedures are widely utilized to identify the most efficient bus delivery options. This paper compares, evaluates, and identifies the differences in criteria used in tenders for battery electric buses and diesel buses in Poland based on a deep bus market analysis supported by in-depth individual interviews. The article also attempts to determine whether the weight of the “vehicle price” criterion corresponds to the share of the vehicle price in its life cycle cost or total cost of ownership. The results indicate no significant difference in the tender criteria between battery electric buses and diesel buses. In the vast majority of cases, institutions that had previously developed diesel bus acquisition patterns transferred these patterns to tenders for battery electric bus purchases. Therefore, the criteria and their weights used in tenders do not consider the advantages and disadvantages of both technologies. Tendering procedures are adapted to local conditions and operational requirements. Electric buses often replace conventionally powered vehicles on existing routes and schedules. Thus, operational requirements are known. As a result, the necessary number of vehicles and the basic technical and operational parameters (e.g., selection of the optimal charging method and battery capacity) can be determined. In turn, the charging method will influence the total cost of ownership, with overnight charging favored for shorter assignments and opportunity charging favored for longer mileages.

Here, we propose a broad concept of 'Clinical Outcome Pathways' (COPs), which are defined as a series of key molecular and cellular events that underlie therapeutic effects of drug molecules. We formalize COPs as a chain of the following events: molecular initiating event (MIE) → intermediate event(s) → clinical outcome. We illustrate the concept with COP examples both for primary and alternative (i.e., drug repurposing) therapeutic applications. We also describe the elucidation of COPs for several drugs of interest using the publicly accessible Reasoning Over Biomedical Objects linked in Knowledge-Oriented Pathways (ROBOKOP) biomedical knowledge graph-mining tool. We propose that broader use of COP uncovered with the help of biomedical knowledge graph mining will likely accelerate drug discovery and repurposing efforts.

This deliverable provides the achieved results in the deployment of PoCs and Demos for the different trials, including the technical validation of iNGENIOUS use cases. It follows the plan defined in D6.1 – Initial Planning for Testbeds and the set-up and development and integration activities defined in D6.2 PoC Development, Platform and Test-bed Integration.

Introduction: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have played a critical role in identifying many thousands of loci associated with complex phenotypes and diseases. This has led to several translations of novel disease susceptibility genes into drug targets and care. This however has not been the case for analyses where sample sizes are small, which suffer from multiple comparisons testing. The present study examined the statistical impact of combining a burden test methodology, PrediXcan, with a multimodel meta-analysis, cross phenotype association (CPASSOC). Methods: The analysis was conducted on 5 addiction traits: family alcoholism, cannabis craving, alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis dependence and 10 brain tissues: anterior cingulate cortex BA24, cerebellar hemisphere, cortex, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens basal ganglia, caudate basal ganglia, cerebellum, frontal cortex BA9, hypothalamus, and putamen basal ganglia. Our sample consisted of 1,640 participants from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Family Alcoholism Study. Genotypes were obtained through low pass whole genome sequencing and the use of Thunder, a linkage disequilibrium variant caller. Results: The post-PrediXcan, gene-phenotype association without aggregation resulted in 2 significant results, HCG27 and SPPL2B. Aggregating across phenotypes resulted no significant findings. Aggregating across tissues resulted in 15 significant and 5 suggestive associations: PPIE, RPL36AL, FOXN2, MTERF4, SEPTIN2, CIAO3, RPL36AL, ZNF304, CCDC66, SSPOP, SLC7A9, LY75, MTRF1L, COA5, and RRP7A; RPS23, GNMT, ERV3-1, APIP, and HLA-B, respectively. Discussion: Given the relatively small size of the cohort, this multimodel approach was able to find over a dozen significant associations between predicted gene expression and addiction traits. Of our findings, 8 had prior associations with similar phenotypes through investigation of the GWAS Atlas. With the onset of improved transcriptome data, this approach should increase in efficacy.

Social media is a platform where people communicate, share content, and build relationships. Due to the current pandemic, many people are turning to social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc., to express their feelings. In this paper, we analyse the sentiments of Indian citizens about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination drive using text messages posted on the Twitter platform. The sentiments were classified using deep learning and lexicon-based techniques. A lexicon-based approach was used to classify the polarity of the tweets using the tools VADER and NRCLex. A recurrent neural network was trained using Bi-LSTM and GRU techniques, achieving 92.70% and 91.24% accuracy on the COVID-19 dataset. Accuracy values of 92.48% and 93.03% were obtained for the vaccination tweets classification with Bi-LSTM and GRU, respectively. The developed models can assist healthcare workers and policymakers to make the right decisions in the upcoming pandemic outbreaks.

This document describes the final solution of iNGENIOUS interoperable layer and gives a detailed technical description of how components coming from different existing and forthcoming IoT technologies are integrated.

Decision making is a complex cognitive process that recruits a distributed network of brain regions, including the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh). Recent work suggests that communication between these structures, as well as activity of cells expressing dopamine D2 receptors (D2R) in the NAcSh, are necessary for some forms of decision making; however, the contributions of this circuit and cell population during decision making under risk of punishment are unknown. The current experiments addressed this question using circuit- and cell type-specific optogenetic approaches in rats during a decision-making task involving risk of punishment. In Experiment 1, Long-Evans rats received intra-BLA injections of halorhodopsin or mCherry (control) and in Experiment 2, D2-Cre transgenic rats received intra-NAcSh injections of Cre-dependent halorhodopsin or mCherry. Optic fibers were implanted in the NAcSh in both experiments. Following training in the decision-making task, BLA→NAcSh or D2R-expressing neurons were optogenetically inhibited during different phases of the decision process. Inhibition of the BLA→NAcSh during deliberation (the time between trial initiation and choice) increased choice of the large, risky reward (increased risk taking). Similarly, inhibition during delivery of the large, punished reward increased risk taking, but only in males. Inhibition of D2R-expressing neurons in the NAcSh during deliberation increased risk taking. In contrast, inhibition of these neurons during delivery of the small, safe reward decreased risk taking. These findings extend our knowledge of the neural dynamics of risk taking, revealing sex-dependent circuit recruitment and dissociable activity of selective cell populations during decision making.

The transport sector generates more than 35% of total CO2 emissions. Electric vehicles are the future of transportation systems, and the demand for electric vehicles has grown considerably in the last few years due to government support. Companies worldwide are investing heavily in electric car charging stations based on renewable energy. This research study presents a complete design (including an appropriate energy management strategy) for a photovoltaic energy-based electric vehicle charging station (EVCS) with or without the support of a fuel cell and electrolyzer system. The parameters considered for designing the necessary capacity of the battery pack to support the required load are relative to the location-specific solar radiation (using RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software, Version 9.0, Government of Canada, Toronto, Canada), the efficiency of the solar panel, the used strategy, etc. The battery capacity in the EVCS design based on a power-following strategy is about 20 times smaller than that resulting in the reference design. Additionally, the cost for an EVCS design based on a power-following strategy is almost half that resulting in the reference design. An analysis of the power-following strategy was carried out according to three EVCS operating scenarios.

Accurate indoor positioning for wireless communication systems represents an important step towards enhanced reliability and security, which are crucial aspects for realizing Industry 4.0. In this context, this paper presents an investigation on the real-world indoor positioning performance that can be obtained using a deep learning (DL)-based technique. For obtaining experimental data, we collect power measurements associated with reference positions using a wireless sensor network in an indoor scenario. The DL-based positioning scheme is modeled as a supervised learning problem, where the function that describes the relation between measured signal power values and their corresponding transmitter coordinates is approximated. We compare the DL approach to two different schemes with varying degrees of online computational complexity. Namely, maximum likelihood estimation and proximity. Furthermore, we provide a performance comparison of DL positioning trained with data generated exclusively based on a statistical path loss model and tested with experimental data., Comment: Published in: GLOBECOM 2022 - 2022 IEEE Global Communications Conference

RESUMO Embora o contexto de educação de surdos conte com legislação que reconhece a importância de se garantir o ensino do português como segunda língua, ainda são poucas as pesquisas que focalizam estratégias para esse ensino e poucos os materiais didáticos desenvolvidos considerando-se essas estratégias. Neste artigo, focalizamos o processo de elaboração de um material didático de Português como Segunda Língua para Surdos (PL2/Surdos) produzido no âmbito da disciplina Estágio Supervisionado em Português como Segunda Língua/Língua Estrangeira, que faz parte do currículo da licenciatura em Português Segunda Língua/Língua Estrangeira, oferecida no Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem, na Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Considerando o diálogo entre a prática e a meta-reflexão de fundamental importância tanto para a formação de pesquisadores quanto de professores, interessa-nos, mais especificamente, discutir como professoras em formação compreendem a operacionalização desse material didático a partir de uma perspectiva poscolonial e translíngue. Alinhadas à vertente crítica e indisciplinar da Linguística Aplicada (Moita Lopes, 2006), que tem no aparato da pesquisa qualitativo-interpretativa de viés etnográfico um de seus pilares, consideramos um corpus que, além de dados documentais, buscou focalizar as vozes das licenciandas, já que é nosso objetivo, aqui, iluminar questões relacionadas à formação de professores. Fazem parte desse corpus: (i) o programa de leitura da disciplina Estágio Supervisionado em PL2/LE oferecida no segundo semestre de 2021; (ii) trechos do material didático elaborado; (iii) excertos dos relatórios de estágio produzidos pelas licenciandas; (iv) excertos de uma das aulas teóricas da disciplina Estágio Supervisionado em PL2/LE. As reflexões realizadas pelas licenciandas apontam para a necessidade de (re)pensar a educação bilíngue de surdos a partir de projetos mais sensíveis à pluralidade cultural, social e linguística do mundo atual, tendo em vista o potencial heteroglóssico das práticas sociais de linguagem. ABSTRACT Although legislation recognizes the importance of guaranteeing the teaching of Portuguese as a Second Language in the context of deaf education, there are still few studies that focus on strategies for this teaching context and few teaching materials developed considering these strategies. In this article, we focus on the process of elaborating a teaching material for Portuguese as a Second Language to Deaf people produced within the scope of the Portuguese as a Second Language/Foreign Language (PSL/PFL) Pre-Service course. This course is part of the degree in Portuguese as a Second Language/Foreign Language offered at the Institute of Language Studies at the State University of Campinas. Considering the dialogue between practice and meta-reflection of fundamental importance for both the training of researchers and teachers, we are more specifically interested in discussing how teachers in pre-service period understand the operationalization of this teaching material from a postcolonial and translingual perspective. In line with the critical and interdisciplinary aspect of Applied Linguistics (Moita Lopes, 2006), which has the apparatus of qualitative-interpretative research with an ethnographic perspective as one of its pillars, we consider a corpus that, in addition to documentary data, sought to focus on the voices of the undergraduates, since our objective here is to illuminate issues related to teacher education. The following are part of the corpus: (i) the reading list for the PSL/PFL pre-service course offered in the second semester of 2021; (ii) excerpts from the didactic material that was prepared; (iii) excerpts from pre-service training reports produced by students; (iv) excerpts from one PSL/PFL pre-service course theoretical class. The reflections carried out by the undergraduates point to the need to (re)think bilingual education for deaf people departing from projects that are more sensitive to the cultural, social and linguistic plurality of today’s world, considering the heteroglossic potential of social language practices.

Chirp spread spectrum (CSS) is the modulation technique currently employed by Long-Range (LoRa), which is one of the most prominent Internet of things wireless communications standards. The LoRa physical layer (PHY) employs CSS on top of a variant of frequency shift keying, and non-coherent detection is employed at the receiver. While it offers a good trade-off among coverage, data rate and device simplicity, its maximum achievable data rate is still a limiting factor for some applications. Moreover, the current LoRa standard does not fully exploit the CSS generic case, i.e., when data to be transmitted is encoded in different waveform parameters. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to investigate the performance of CSS while exploring different parameter settings aiming to increase the maximum achievable throughput, and hence increase spectral efficiency. Moreover, coherent and non-coherent reception algorithm design is presented under the framework of maximum likelihood estimation. For the practical receiver design, the formulation of a channel estimation technique is also presented. The performance evaluation of the different variants of CSS is carried out by inspection of the symbol error ratio as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio together with the maximum achievable throughput each scheme can achieve., Summited to the IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2009.10421

O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar os efeitos da auriculoterapia (acupuntura auricular) na dor ocupacional em uma instituição de ensino superior do oeste catarinense. A pesquisa foi realizada de forma qualitativa e quantitativa, sendo utilizado o questionário para avaliação da dor e escala visual analógica, aplicados pré e pós-intervenção do tratamento. Após a avaliação inicial foram realizadas quatro sessões de aplicação da técnica de auriculoterapia com cristais radiônicos em pontos específicos no pavilhão auricular, com intervalo de sete dias entre cada sessão. Foi possível verificar no grupo analisado (18 funcionários), da faixa etária entre 18 e 40 anos, de ambos os sexos, os locais mais afetados pela dor ocupacional em relação aos setores de trabalho, sendo que todos apresentaram mais de uma região acometida. As principais regiões acometidas foram membros superiores, regiões cervical, lombar e dorsal. Antes das sessões, os funcionários apresentaram quadro álgico com média de intensidade de dor 6,2 e após a última aplicação referiram intensidade média de dor de 1,3. Considerando os valores referidos ao quadro álgico, foi possível verificar uma diminuição considerável das dores osteomusculares ocupacionais após o tratamento com auriculoterapia. Foi possível concluir que a aplicação de sessões de auriculoterapia causou uma melhora significativa na dor nas disfunções osteomusculares ocupacionais

All equipment and devices utilized in various chemical and biochemical technologies are subject to external disturbances. In continuous flow systems, usually operating under steady-state conditions, these disturbances result in departure from the steady state. The paper reports on the process consequences of perturbations of the volumetric flow rate in a continuous stirred tank microbiological reactor, and on the automatic control of the liquid level by means of continuous P and PI controllers. The dynamics of the uncontrolled and controlled bioreactor were compared based on two kinetic models: an unstructured Haldane model and an one-parameter structured model. The paper investigates the effects of sudden step and oscillatory disturbances. It was shown that, for oscillatory variations in the feed rate, the biomass washout phenomenon depends on the period of oscillation, and occurs for oscillations with a sufficiently long period. This unfavorable phenomenon can be eliminated by applying liquid level control. Additionally, it was demonstrated that the use of a structured model gives a more reliable assessment of the dynamics of uncontrolled and controlled bioreactors subjected to step forcing. If the bioreactor is subjected to sinusoidal forcing, then the type of kinetic model used, i.e. structured or unstructured, made no difference.

This document covers energy-efficient smart sensor solutions, a highly-secure embedded computer architecture and the co-designed operating system M3 that turn these sensors into IoT devices.

The aims of this paper are to analyse how East Asian international students narrate tensions in Portuguese language, or Portugueses, through metacommentary, and to foster reflections on the counter-hegemonic potential that language learning comprises, particularly when thinking of the internationalisation agenda implemented by a Brazilian public university. To pursue that, we depart from audio-recorded semi-structured interviews, later manually transcribed, with a Korean and a Japanese undergraduate student during their sojourn. We observed that these tensions in Portugueses arose as students’ communicative repertoires were put to the test, either by them or their interlocutors, in different spaces. Our discussion foregrounds how students, when engaging in various social practices on campus and off-campus, manoeuvre sociolinguistic scales in comments made by themselves or by their interlocutors about ways of speaking Portuguese. We considered that, overall, students resort to ecological factors when doing scales, whilst indexing dominant language ideologies. Moreover, it was also possible to conceive that metacommentary from their interlocutors, particularly from Brazilians, impact (negatively) on students’ perception about their language learning and linguistic practices. To tackle these tensions, we advocate for an internationalisation agenda that envisages language education not only to international students, but also to home students and staff in order to promote different degrees of language and social justice awareness. RESUMO Os objetivos deste artigo são analisar como estudantes estrangeiros do leste asiático narram as tensões no português, ou nos portugueses, via metacomentário, e suscitar reflexões sobre o potencial contra-hegemônico que o aprendizado de línguas detém, principalmente no âmbito da agenda de internacionalização implementada em uma universidade pública brasileira. Para tal, partimos de entrevistas semiestruturadas, gravadas e posteriormente transcritas, com uma estudante coreana e um estudante japonês em intercâmbio acadêmico na graduação. Observamos que as tensões nos portugueses surgiam quando os repertórios comunicativos dos estudantes eram postos à prova, por seus interlocutores ou por eles mesmos, em diferentes espaços. Nossa discussão destaca como os estudantes, ao se envolverem em diferentes práticas sociais no campus e fora dele, manejaram escalas sociolinguísticas nos comentários deles mesmos ou de seus interlocutores sobre modos de falar português. Em geral, percebemos que os estudantes recorrem a fatores ecológicos ao construírem escalas, ao mesmo tempo que indexicalizavam ideologias de linguagem dominantes. Além disso, também foi possível observar que o metacomentário dos interlocutores, principalmente de brasileiros, impacta (negativamente) a percepção dos estudantes sobre o aprendizado da língua e sobre as práticas linguísticas. Portanto, a fim de lutar por diferentes níveis de consciência linguística e de justiça social, insistimos em uma agenda de internacionalização que considere a educação linguística não só para estudantes estrangeiros, mas também para estudantes brasileiros e aqueles que trabalham na universidade.

RESUMO Este texto apresenta o número especial de DELTA “Pensando com Marilda Cavalcanti: Reinvenção da linguística aplicada, grupos minoritarizados e complexidade sociolinguística”. Em particular, o texto revisita a produção acadêmica e política de Marilda Cavalcanti, docente e pesquisadora que, ao longo de sua carreira no Departamento de Linguística Aplicada da Universidade Estadual de Campinas, colaborativamente participou da produção de conceitos (e.g., educação linguística ampliada, Cavalcanti, 2013), metáforas (e.g., “línguas como caleidoscópios de recursos”, César & Cavalcanti, 2007; Cavalcanti & Maher, 2018), campos de pesquisa (e.g., educação indígena, práticas de linguagem em cenários sociolinguisticamente complexos) e instituições (e.g., a Associação de Linguística Aplicada do Brasil (ALAB), o Departamento de Linguística Aplicada do Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL) da Unicamp), os quais, historicamente, ajudaram a firmar o campo aplicado como área vibrante e promissora de produção de conhecimento sobre a linguagem em sociedade. Além desse panorama histórico, o texto detalha as contribuições ao número especial: dezesseis artigos de pesquisa que não apenas homenageiam o trabalho de Marilda Cavalcanti, mas também ajudam a ampliar o seu legado. ABSTRACT This text presents the special issue of DELTA entitled “Thinking with Marilda Cavalcanti: Reinvention of applied linguistics, minoritized groups and sociolinguistic complexity”. In particular, it revisits the academic and political production of Marilda Cavalcanti, a professor and researcher who over the course of her career in the Department of Applied Linguistics at the State University of Campinas collaboratively participated in producing concepts (e.g., extended language education, Cavalcanti, 2013), metaphors (e.g., “languages as kaleidoscopes of resources”, César & Cavalcanti, 2007; Cavalcanti & Maher, 2018), fields of research (e.g., indigenous education, language practices in sociolinguistically complex settings), and institutions (e.g., the Brazilian Association of Applied Linguistics (ALAB), the Department of Applied Linguistics at the Institute of Language Studies (IEL) at Unicamp) that have historically been central to consolidating applied linguistics as a vibrant and promising area of knowledge production about language in society in Brazil. In addition to this historical overview, the text details the contributions to the special issue: sixteen research articles that do not just pay homage to Marilda Cavalcanti’s work, but also help expand on her legacy.

International audience; Wind farms are subject to the so-called "wake effect", where upstream turbines facing the wind create sub-optimal wind conditions for turbines located downstream. One strategy to address this issue is to use yaw actuators to misalign the wind turbines with regard to the incoming wind direction, thus deflecting wakes away from downstream turbines. Tractable models for yaw optimization are however subject to inaccuracies, ignore wake dynamics and lack adaptability. This incentivizes the use of model-free methods. In this paper, we propose a delay-aware decentralized Q-learning algorithm for yaw control on wind farms. We introduce a strategy to handle delayed cost collection, and show that our method significantly increases power production in simulations with realistic wake dynamics. We validate our results for two farm layouts on midfidelity wind farm simulator FAST.Farm.

This work designs a powerful new nonlinear method using synergetic control (SC), proportional-integral (PI) controller, and genetic algorithm (GA) for multi-rotor wind energy (MRWE) conversion systems, whereby an asynchronous generator is used to achieve optimal energy extraction. The direct power control (DPC) is used based on the proposed synergetic-PI-GA (SPI-GA) method to control the generator in a MRWE system, where this new nonlinear technique is used to achieve stable control characteristic under random changes in wind speed and to provide great robustness against modeling uncertainties. Moreover, the pulse width modulation (PWM) technique is used to control the generator inverter due to its simplicity and ease of implementation. In this proposed DPC-SPI-GA method, we need to measure current and voltage to estimate the active power and the reactive power. Also, inner loops are not used in this proposed DPC-SPI-GA method as is the case in the field-oriented control (FOC) method, where the proposed system in this work is characterized by an integrated structure. Three different tests are proposed to study and verify the behavior of the designed DPC-SPI-GA strategy compared to the DPC technique.

This document describes the technical work and solutions of iNGENIOUS on air interface and device connectivity for next generation Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. In short, this deliverable targets at explaining the communication performance evaluation and analysis of IoT technologies and devices, the proposed innovations for efficient air interface and versatile communication applied to heterogeneous IoT networks, the relationship of these technical efforts to the project’s architecture and use cases, as well as their exploitation potential.

This deliverable describes the smart end-to-end IoT system proposed within iNGENIOUS. The system integrates under a central architecture the heterogeneous RAN landscape of the current and forthcoming IoT technologies fulfilling the requirements of different traffic classes. The deliverable is divided into three main parts. Namely, smart multi-technology IoT radio access network, smart IoT core network, and edge IoT orchestration and network slicing.

This article deals with implementing a rule-based control method and startup sequence of a hybrid electric vehicle powered by a modular fuel cell system as its primary energy source and a lithium-ion battery system as its secondary energy source. The modular fuel cell system is composed of two separate fuel cell systems, electrically coupled to a one-power converter, using a programmable device. Depending on the vehicle’s operating mode, either both systems are used or just one of them. The vehicle’s fuel efficiency is improved by operating at constant power in the peak efficiency range of each fuel cell system. The experimental results show that the proposed system can significantly improve the fuel economy of a fuel cell vehicle and extend the driving range, while avoiding start/stop cycles. Additionally, this solution can increase the fuel cells’ lifecycle.

Neuroscience has a rich history of studies focusing on neurobiology of aging. However, much of the aging studies in neuroscience occur outside of the gerosciences. The goal of this primer is 2-fold: first, to briefly highlight some of the history of aging neurobiology and second, to introduce to geroscientists the broad spectrum of methodological approaches neuroscientists use to study the neurobiology of aging. This primer is accompanied by a corresponding geroscience primer, as well as a perspective on the current challenges and triumphs of the current divide across these 2 fields. This series of manuscripts is intended to foster enhanced collaborations between neuroscientists and geroscientists with the intent of strengthening the field of cognitive aging through inclusion of parameters from both areas of expertise.

Traditional educational policy, drawing on pedagogical sciences, is based on teaching methods developed over the centuries and constantly assessed in terms of their current usefulness. So, one may ask if anything else can be done to improve the quality of education, including economics education? Due to certain features of the learners not always acting rationally, it is justified to introduce several behavioral incentives (nudges). Their effectiveness has been previously positively verified outside of education. Therefore, we may assume that similar intervention will also be effective in teaching-focused activities. The proposed approach is relatively cheap and, in principle, does not constrain the discretion of the interested parties, which makes it very powerful. In other words, the methods used, with acceptable or without any inconvenience for most people, force some persons to react in specific terms and induce the desired type of action to achieve the expected goals. The article aims to introduce the concept of nudging as the tool of stimulating the learners' behavior in the context of broadly understood economics education and demonstrate that their skillful use enables the improvement of the quality of teaching and the transfer of economic knowledge.

Obesity is routinely considered as a single disease state, which drives a “one-size-fits-all” approach to treatment. We recently convened the first annual University of North Carolina Interdisciplinary Nutrition Sciences Symposium to discuss the heterogeneity of obesity and the need for translational science to advance understanding of this heterogeneity. The symposium aimed to advance scientific rigor in translational studies from animal to human models with the goal of identifying underlying mechanisms and treatments. In this review, we discuss fundamental gaps in knowledge of the heterogeneity of obesity ranging from cellular to population perspectives. We also advocate approaches to overcoming limitations in the field. Examples include the use of contemporary mouse genetic reference population models such as the Collaborative Cross and Diversity Outbred mice that effectively model human genetic diversity and the use of translational models that integrate -omics and computational approaches from pre-clinical to clinical models of obesity. Finally, we suggest best scientific practices to ensure strong rigor that will allow investigators to delineate the sources of heterogeneity in the population with obesity. Collectively, we propose that it is critical to think of obesity as a heterogeneous disease with complex mechanisms and etiologies, requiring unique prevention and treatment strategies tailored to the individual.

Um mapeamento da cobertura florestal e dos diferentes usos da terra proporciona informações fundamentais para a gestão territorial visando ao desenvolvimento social e econômico, planejamento e controle ambiental e proteção dos recursos naturais. Neste artigo, é apresentado um novo mapeamento, valendo-se de sinergias entre os dados de campo do Inventário Florístico Florestal de Santa Catarina (IFFSC) e o uso de recursos de sensoriamento remoto. Imagens do satélite Landsat-8 OLI do ano de 2017 foram classificadas, utilizando o algoritmo Random Forest. A legenda é composta por 12 classes temáticas; a área mínima mapeada é de 0,5 hectare. O mapa tem acurácia geral de 95%, com intervalo de confiança de 1,0% (alfa=0,05). A acurácia média por classe varia entre 90% (agricultura) e 97% (restinga). Para a classe floresta, o mapa apresentou coincidência de 96,2% com os pontos amostrais do IFFSC. A cobertura florestal nativa (florestas a partir do estágio médio de regeneração) está presente em 38,05% do território, reflorestamentos em 10,46%, agricultura em 16,73% (incluídos 1,77% de culturas de arroz irrigado), pastagens e campos naturais em 29,24%. A área da extensão original da restinga foi determinada em 1.773km², dos quais 814,5km² (ou 45,9%) cobertos por remanescentes naturais, praias e dunas. O mapeamento constitui a base para a tomada de decisão de agentes públicos envolvidos em atividades de planejamento e gestão territorial e servirá como linha-base para o monitoramento contínuo da extensão da cobertura florestal do estado.

Considerando a evolução das tecnologias para o ensino, a inclusão do Pensamento Computacional (PC) como um componente curricular da Educação Básica, bem como o crescente uso de jogos por crianças e jovens, este trabalho apresenta uma coleção de minigames voltado ao ensino de diversas áreas do saber que contém algum dos pilares do PC tornando o aprendizado lúdico. Para o game design dos minigames utilizou-se o framework SSM que define que todo o jogo possui três camadas, Sistema, História e Modelo Mental. Após o desenvolvimento dos três minigames, aplicou-se um pré-teste com alguns alunos com o objetivo de validar a solução inicial concebida, para que posteriormente sejam realizados testes com turmas da educação básica.

Because of the lack of upstream grid support and low inertia, independent microgrids are very susceptible to load variations and uncertainty in the generation of renewable energy sources. Disruption of microgrid frequency stability causes severe damage to various system equipment and frequency-sensitive loads. By taking into account the effects of electric vehicles (EVs), this paper introduces an innovative control strategy with a master-slave configuration for frequency control of interconnected microgrids. In the proposed configuration, an integer-order controller serves as the master, while a merely fractional-order integrator acts as the slave controller. The master and slave controllers are concurrently optimized by the JAYA intelligent algorithm to achieve robust effectiveness. Additionally, nonlinearities in the system are implemented, such as diesel generator operating limits, signal controllers, and sending/receiving time delays. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy in a two-area microgrid, six basic scenarios are investigated: sudden load changes, perturbations at the inputs of renewable energy-based units, parametric uncertainties, time-delay effects as a nonlinear factor, complicated working conditions, and EVs impacts. Moreover, the controller’s performance on a simple closed-loop system has been carried out in order to confirm the viability of its practical implementation, and a comparison of experimental and simulation findings has also been provided. Studies demonstrate the proposed controller’s robustness as well as its fast-response capability. Besides, this controller features a simple structure that allows extra design flexibility.

This document provides an overview of the iNGENIOUS cross-layer architecture. The focus is on component groups within the overall architecture and how their integration and cooperation enable the related iNGENIOUS innovations.

The study addresses one of the fundamental issues in the mathematical modeling and quantitative process analysis of complex multicomponent diffusion in meso- and microporous materials. The model presented here incorporates combined molecular diffusion, Knudsen diffusion, viscous flow, and surface diffusion. A methodology and algorithm for the determination of steady states of such complex diffusive processes are proposed. The adopted form of the surface diffusion model does not require the calculation of the thermodynamic factor matrix. The method was verified by comparing the profiles of the state variables with those obtained from the dynamic model for sufficiently long diffusion times. The application of the method is illustrated for two diffusion processes involving three components. In the first one, all components are subject to adsorption. In the other, one gaseous component is an inert and is therefore not adsorbed and does not participate in surface diffusion. It is shown that the presence of inerts as well as their number does not impede the application of the proposed algorithm for the determination of steady states.

In this paper, we present an analysis of important aspects that arise during the development of neural network applications. Our aim is to determine if the choice of library can impact the system’s overall performance, either during training or design, and to extract a set of criteria that could be used to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each library under consideration. To do so, we first extracted the previously mentioned aspects by comparing two of the most popular neural network libraries—PyTorch and TensorFlow—and then we performed an analysis on the obtained results, with the intent of determining if our initial hypothesis was correct. In the end, the results of the analysis are gathered, and an overall picture of what tasks are better suited for what library is presented.

Altered decision making at advanced ages can have a significant impact on an individual’s quality of life and the ability to maintain personal independence. Relative to young adults, older adults make less impulsive and less risky choices; although these changes in decision making could be considered beneficial, they can also lead to choices with potentially negative consequences (e.g., avoidance of medical procedures). Rodent models of decision making have been invaluable for dissecting cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to age-related changes in decision making, but they have predominantly used costs related to timing or probability of reward delivery and have not considered other equally important costs, such as the risk of adverse consequences. The current study therefore used a rat model of decision making involving risk of explicit punishment to examine age-related changes in this form of choice behavior in male rats, and to identify potential cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to these changes. Relative to young rats, aged rats displayed greater risk aversion, which was not attributable to reduced motivation for food, changes in shock sensitivity, or impaired cognitive flexibility. Functional MRI analyses revealed that, overall, functional connectivity was greater in aged rats compared with young rats, particularly among brain regions implicated in risky decision making such as basolateral amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventral tegmental area. Collectively, these findings are consistent with greater risk aversion found in older humans, and reveal age-related changes in brain connectivity.

In this paper, a novel improved gravitational search algorithm–binary particle swarm optimization (IGSA-BPSO) driven proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is proposed to deal with issues of automatic generation control (AGC) of interconnected multi-source (thermal-hydro-gas) multi-area deregulated power systems. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller is compared and analyzed with GSA and PSO-driven PID controllers. The simulated and mathematically formulated results show the superiority of the proposed IGSA-BPSO driven PID controller compared with the other two techniques in settling time, overshoot, and convergence time. The two-area test system considered in this article is integrated with a thermal, hydro, and gas turbine power plant. Integral time multiplied by absolute error (ITAE) is used as the objective function (minimization) by optimization techniques for getting optimum parameters of PID controllers installed in each area. The system’s dynamics are examined using poolco, bilateral, and contract violation cases under a deregulated environment, and the comparative results are shown to analyze the efficacy of the proposed concept. Physical constraints such as generation rate constraints (GRC) and time-delay (TD) have been considered in the system as a realistic approach. This paper considers an accurate AC-DC tie-link model for the proposed AGC mechanism. Dynamic load change condition is tested and verified. The variations of different parameters will be used in the robustness analysis of the proposed system. The comparison shows that the designed controllers are more robust and produce better results than those considered as references.

This study investigates an auxiliary technique for the integration of inductive coil connectors (AIIC) within a single switched DC converter with high voltage gain for renewable energy source applications. The aim is to develop and improve the rate of voltage gain for both coils by using inductive coil connectors (coupling inductance) on the input side that goes through the ratio operator of both inductive coils of the high frequency transformer by having the prototype power circuit operate at a switching frequency 80 kHz. Experimental results show that the output power is at 125 W, output voltage is at 325 V, and input voltage is at 36 V. Furthermore, the duration of change of critical waves of the duty condition was analyzed to confirm that the results were consistent with the proposed technique.

A new design of a triple band perfect metamaterial absorber based on Pythagorean fractal geometry is proposed and analyzed for terahertz sensing applications. The proposed design showed an enhanced sensing performance and achieved three intensive peaks at 33.93, 36.27, and 38.39 THz, corresponding to the absorptivity of 98.5%, 99.3%, and 99.6%, respectively. Due to the symmetrical nature of the recommended design, the structure exhibited the characteristics of independency on the incident wave angles. Furthermore, a parametric study was performed to show the effects of the change in substrate type, resonator material, and substrate thickness on the absorption spectrum. At a fixed analyte thickness (0.5 μm), the resonance frequency of the design was found to be sensitive to the refractive index of the surrounding medium. The proposed design presented three ultra-sensitive responses of 1730, 1590, and 2050 GHz/RIU with the figure of merit (FoM) of 3.20, 1.54, and 4.28, respectively, when the refractive index was changed from 1.0 to 1.4. Additionally, the metamaterial sensor showed a sensitivity of 1230, 2270, and 1580 GHz/μm at the three resonance frequencies, respectively, when it was utilized for the detection of thickness variation at a fixed analyte refractive index (RI) of 1.4. As long as the RI of the biomedical samples is between 1.3 and 1.4, the proposed sensor can be used for biomedical applications.

A new controller based on a fractional-order synergetic controller (FOSC) is proposed for a three-level T-type inverter using a shunt active power filter (SAPF). The SAPF is designed to compensate for the reactive power and eliminate the current harmonics caused by non-linear loads, in cases of distorted or unbalanced source voltages. The proposed FOSC technique with the designed parameters and defined macro-variable is a robust control technique that operates well in both transient and steady-state scenarios, ensuring fast convergence and closed-loop system stability. The FOSC technique utilizes a phase-locked loop (PLL) technique on a self-tuning filter (STF) to enhance the SAPF’s ability to compensate current harmonics and reactive power in all situations involving non-linear loads and source voltage variations according to IEEE Std. 519. The proposed control was implemented and verified using Matlab software, where the obtained results were compared with the results of the conventional control based on proportional-integral (PI) controllers in different operating conditions. The results indicate that the proposed FOSC technique outperformed the traditional control in terms of DC voltage tracking and the minimization of the total harmonic distortion of the current.

Background Having a positive childbirth experience is an increasingly valued outcome. Few studies evaluated the women’s satisfaction with childbirth through face-to-face interviews out of the health service environment. The objective of this study was to identify factors associated with a higher level of satisfaction with the childbirth experience among Brazilian women. Methods This cross-sectional study involved 287 women giving birth in two hospitals in southern Brazil. Women who gave birth to healthy newborns at term were randomly selected. Face-to-face interviews were conducted 31–37 days after delivery, at the mothers’ homes, using a structured questionnaire. Satisfaction with the childbirth experience was measured using a Likert-type scale ranging from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. Prevalence ratios (PR) were estimated using Poisson regression with robust variance. Results Following hierarchical multivariate analysis, the following factors remained associated with a higher level of satisfaction with the childbirth experience: being satisfied with antenatal care (PR = 1.30; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 1.06−1.59), understanding the information provided by health professionals during labor and delivery (PR = 1.40; 95%CI = 1.01−1.95), not having reported disrespect and abuse (PR = 1.53; 95%CI = 1.01−2.31), and having had the baby put to the breast within the first hour of life (PR = 1.63; 95%CI = 1.26−2.11). No association was observed with type of delivery or hospital status (public or private). Conclusions A higher level of satisfaction with the childbirth experience is related to satisfactory antenatal care, a non-abusive, respectful, and informative environment during childbirth, and to the opportunity to breastfeed the baby within the first hour of life. In clinical practice, greater attention to these basic principles of care during pregnancy and delivery could provide more positive experiences during birth.

objective: The aim of our research was to find out, if university students of humanities and social sciences at five Slovak public universities have theoretical prerequisites for intercultural competencies mainly needed in multicultural healthcare. These concrete theoretical prerequisites are dealing with knowledge regarding Islamic teachings on: family; female infanticide; reproduction; usage of assisted reproduction technologies; and induced abortion. design: Research study. Participants: Overall 1000 students at 5 Slovak public universities (at each n=200). methods: Empirical research was done using our own questionnaire. Verification of our three hypotheses has been done using the method of statistical testing for testing hypotheses on equality of parameters of two alternative divisions with large selection ranges. results: Responses to questions concerning definition of marriage in Islam (Questions #1 - 3) have shown, that both male and female students have proved better knowledge of this issue than in the case of the area concerning possibilities of use of reproductive medicine achievements in Islam. Responses to question (Question #4) regarding Muhammad´s attitude to feminine infanticide have shown that men, in comparison to women, have manifested more radical (more numerous) inclination to the answer that Muhammad entrusted fathers with decision on its performance. Responses to questions dealing with possibilities to use reproductive medicine achievements in Islam (Questions #5-7) have shown that female, in comparison to male students, have manifested more radical (more numerous) rejective position. conclusion: Knowledge of marriage and reproductive issues in Islam among students stays at historical level, what causes a problem not to be able to understand and respect contemporary needs of Muslim patients in the frame of an holistic approach in multicultural healthcare and social work in Slovakia. Improvements in current curriculum concerning students´ intercultural competencies mainly connected to an understanding of standpoints of Muslim believers concerning their social foundations, health and entire well-being are inevitable.