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The analysis of data stored in multiple sites has become more popular, raising new concerns about the security of data storage and communication. Federated learning, which does not require centralizing data, is a common approach to preventing heavy data transportation, securing valued data, and protecting personal information protection. Therefore, determining how to aggregate the information obtained from the analysis of data in separate local sites has become an important statistical issue. The commonly used averaging methods may not be suitable due to data nonhomogeneity and incomparable results among individual sites, and applying them may result in the loss of information obtained from the individual analyses. Using a sequential method in federated learning with distributed computing can facilitate the integration and accelerate the analysis process. We develop a data-driven method for efficiently and effectively aggregating valued information by analyzing local data without encountering potential issues such as information security and heavy transportation due to data communication. In addition, the proposed method can preserve the properties of classical sequential adaptive design, such as data-driven sample size and estimation precision when applied to generalized linear models. We use numerical studies of simulated data and an application to COVID-19 data collected from 32 hospitals in Mexico, to illustrate the proposed method., Comment: 22 pages

Autosomal genetic analyses of blood lipids have yielded key insights for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, X chromosome genetic variation is understudied for blood lipids in large sample sizes. We now analyze genetic and blood lipid data in a high-coverage whole X chromosome sequencing study of 65,322 multi-ancestry participants and perform replication among 456,893 European participants. Common alleles on chromosome Xq23 are strongly associated with reduced total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (min P = 8.5 × 10−72), with similar effects for males and females. Chromosome Xq23 lipid-lowering alleles are associated with reduced odds for CHD among 42,545 cases and 591,247 controls (P = 1.7 × 10−4), and reduced odds for diabetes mellitus type 2 among 54,095 cases and 573,885 controls (P = 1.4 × 10−5). Although we observe an association with increased BMI, waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI is reduced, bioimpedance analyses indicate increased gluteofemoral fat, and abdominal MRI analyses indicate reduced visceral adiposity. Co-localization analyses strongly correlate increased CHRDL1 gene expression, particularly in adipose tissue, with reduced concentrations of blood lipids.

38th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 119-123, For silicon solar cells, screen-printing has long been favored by the manufacturers due to its simplicity and high throughput. Over decades of technology advancement, screen-printing has almost pushed to its material and equipment limits (e.g. high-aspect ratio of finger, material impacts on cell etc.). However, in recent years, the increasing silver prices, reducing wafer thickness, and emerging new cell designs continue introducing challenges to this mature technology. Those issues have provided incentives to seek metallization alternatives. Among various metallization techniques, Ni/Cu plated contacts could be the most promising candidate due to its scaling up potential. However, there has been a delay of market share increase versus the ITRPV predication. The lack of readily available appropriate equipment and process standard could be the key reason to cause this. Here, we presented the developing UNSW bifacial plating technology. The special designed industrial prototype has greatly improved the plating uniformity and product stability. Moreover, double sides of the cell could be simultaneously plated thereby effectively reducing the processing time. In this paper, the design consideration and engineering solutions were plainly reviewed. The robust cell metallization process has been demonstrated on 6-inch industrial bifacial PERC precursors and primary intergraded with hydrogenation technology successfully. Despite that, this plating prototype could also be applied on other cell structures such as TOPCon, HJT and tandem structure. This innovative technology would remarkably optimize the processing engineering of plating metallization and may promote the utilization of plated contacts in solar cells manufacturing.

Human brain inherently exhibits latent mental processes which are likely to change rapidly over time. A framework that adopts a fuzzy inference system is proposed to model the dynamics of the human brain. The fuzzy inference system is used to encode real-world data to represent the salient features of the EEG signals. Then, an unsupervised clustering is conducted on the extracted feature space to identify the brain (external and covert) states that respond to different cognitive demands. To understand the human state change, a state transition diagram is introduced, allowing visualization of connectivity patterns between every pair of states. We compute the transition probability between every pair of states to represent the relationships between the states. This state transition diagram is named as the Fuzzy Covert State Transition Diagram (FCOSTD), which helps the understanding of human states and human performance. We then apply FCOSTD on distracted driving experiments. FCOSTD successfully discovers the external and covert states, faithfully reveals the transition of the brain between states, and the route of the state change when humans are distracted during a driving task. The experimental results demonstrate that different subjects have similar states and inter-state transition behaviour (establishing the consistency of the system) but different ways to allocate brain resources as different actions are being taken.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-jdr-10.1177_00220345211024634 for Degradable RGD-Functionalized 3D-Printed Scaffold Promotes Osteogenesis by P.-C. Chang, Z.-J. Lin, H.-T. Luo, C.-C. Tu, W.-C. Tai, C.-H. Chang and Y.-C. Chang in Journal of Dental Research

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 383-387, Selective emitter approach has been developed and well quantified to overcome the electrical performance limits in conventional screen-printed solar cells. Among different methods for creating a selective emitter pattern, laser doping might be the most suitable for mass production due to its simplicity. Moreover, instead of using screen-printing paste contacts, SE allows narrower fingers growing on via plating metallization thereby may further reduce the shading loss. Replacing expensive silver with plated copper significantly reduces the cell manufacturing cost. However, the plating quality could be strongly influenced by the cell surface conditions after laser doping. In general, to make an appropriate plating surface, the laser doping should perfectly remove the dielectrics above the silicon, effectively diffuse the dopants with negligible damage, and result in a smooth surface to allow uniform nucleation of metal during the plating process. UV laser (355nm) and green laser (532nm) are two common wavelengths used in laser doping. Two types of laser sources have different advantages and drawbacks. In this paper, we studied the effect of using different wavelengths laser to make bifacial Ni/Cu plated LDSE solar cell. It was found HF pretreatment conditions play the key role in improving the contact formation on different laser doping processing selective emitters. Critical contact properties such as contact adhesion, contact resistance and contact recombination have been systemically evaluated. This finding highlights the importance of dopant activation in plating metallization. Furthermore, it suggests the plating metallization could be less limited by the doping profile as well as thermal damage. This work provides a useful guideline, from laser doping surface morphology, dopant activation requirement to plating conditions, for those aiming to make use of plating metallization on either n-type or p-type surface.

We present a hierarchical neural-fuzzy system for precision coordination of multiple mobile agents for simultaneous arrival at their destination positions in a cluttered urban environment. We assume that each agent is equipped with a 2D scanning LiDAR to make movement decisions based on local distance and bearing information. Two solution approaches are considered and compared. Both of them are structured around a hierarchical arrangement of controller modules to enable synchronisation of the agents arrival times while avoiding collision with obstacles. The first approach is based on cascading SONFIN (Self-Organizing Neural Fuzzy Inference Network) controllers, and the second approach considers the use of an LSTM (Long ShortTerm Memory) recurrent neural network module alongside SONFIN modules. Parameters of all the controllers are optimised using the Particle Swarm optimization algorithm. A physics-based simulator, Webots, is used as a training and testing environment for the two learning models to facilitate the deployment of codes to hardware which will follow in the next phase of our research.

36th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1241-1246, Silver is one of the most valuable and scarce materials used in photovoltaic manufacturing hence attracts much attention to be recycled when these solar cells enter end-of-life. Here, we demonstrate a novel method for rapid recycling of front silver metallisation from decommissioned silicon photovoltaic devices. The externally applied electric field accelerates the dissolution of silver into the recycling bath and drives the simultaneous deposition of silver on a recycling object. This single-step recycling method can recover more than 75% silver from these retired devices within a short time. Recycled silver has a high purity (> 99%) to be reused in the industry. Furthermore, life cycle assessment results show that this accelerated process has low environmental impacts, because it uses low quantities of chemical and electricity. These impacts can be further decreased by recirculating the chemical and improving the electric current efficiency. The low-impact silver recycling process presented in this paper is very simple and timeefficient thereby has a great potential for commercial PV recycling applications.

This paper proposes a new multiobjective optimization approach to designing a fuzzy logic system (FLS) using process data and applies it to the wall-following control of a mobile robot. The objectives considered include both the interpretability and control performance of the FLS. It is assumed that no off-line training data are available in advance, and the rule base is initially empty. All rules are generated through an online clustering and fuzzy set merging (OCFM) algorithm using data generated online during the FLS evaluation process. The OCFM builds a reference rule base that flexibly partitions the input space with distinguishable fuzzy sets (FSs). Based on the reference rule base, a new multiobjective front-guided continuous ant-colony optimization (MO-FCACO) algorithm is proposed to optimize the FLS structure and parameters. In addition to the objective functions defined to evaluate the FLS control performance, a transparency-oriented objective function is defined with constraints imposed on the FS parameters to obtain an interpretable FLS with transparent FSs. The MO-FCACO solves the constrained multiobjective optimization problem by optimizing all of the free parameters in an FLS through ant-path selection, sampling operation, and front-guided optimization processes. The multiobjective FLS design approach is applied to control the orientation and moving speed of a mobile robot in performing the wall-following task. Optimization performance of the MO-FCACO is verified through comparisons with various multiobjective population-based optimization algorithms. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of the designed FLSs in controlling a real robot.

This study develops a dynamic multi-objective programming (DMOP) approach to handle problems of optimization under conditions of uncertainty typified by multiple goals and dynamic subsystems. The proposed approach seamlessly integrates multi-objective programming, fuzzy set theory, and system dynamics tools to conduct optimal land use planning in dynamic and complex environmental systems. Based on the DMOP approach, this study constructs an interactive dynamic multi-objective programming model, investigates the connection between land use and future urban development, and incorporates the preferences of decision makers using a compromise index. A case study from Taiwan shows that the proposed modeling framework can accommodate more complete information, allowing improvements to be made in strategic planning for land use.

BACKGROUND Mucositis is a highly significant, and sometimes dose-limiting, toxicity of cancer therapy. The goal of this systematic review was to update the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer and International Society of Oral Oncology (MASCC/ISOO) Clinical Practice Guidelines for mucositis. METHODS A literature search was conducted to identify eligible published articles, based on predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. Each article was independently reviewed by 2 reviewers. Studies were rated according to the presence of major and minor flaws as per previously published criteria. The body of evidence for each intervention, in each treatment setting, was assigned a level of evidence, based on previously published criteria. Guidelines were developed based on the level of evidence, with 3 possible guideline determinations: recommendation, suggestion, or no guideline possible. RESULTS The literature search identified 8279 papers, 1032 of which were retrieved for detailed evaluation based on titles and abstracts. Of these, 570 qualified for final inclusion in the systematic reviews. Sixteen new guidelines were developed for or against the use of various interventions in specific treatment settings. In total, the MASCC/ISOO Mucositis Guidelines now include 32 guidelines: 22 for oral mucositis and 10 for gastrointestinal mucositis. This article describes these updated guidelines. CONCLUSIONS The updated MASCC/ISOO Clinical Practice Guidelines for mucositis will help clinicians provide evidence-based management of mucositis secondary to cancer therapy. © 2014 The Authors. Cancer published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Cancer Society.

We make use of the time-dependent density functional theory to derive a new formally exact expression for the dc resistivity of metals with impurities. This expression takes fully into account the dynamics of electron-electron interactions. Correction to the conventional $T$-matrix (phase-shifts) theory is treated within hydrodynamics of inhomogeneous viscous electron liquid. As a first application, we present calculations of the residual resistivity of aluminum as a function of the atomic number of the impurities. We show that the inclusion of many-body corrections considerably improves the agreement between theory and experiment., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

Journal of Geophysical Research, 117, C11026, 2012. The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012JC007996

A transfer-matrix algorithm is presented herein as a beginning to study the transmission characteristics of coherent light through three-dimensional periodic microstructures, in which the structures are treated as two-dimensional-layer stacks and multiple reflections are considered negligible. The spatial-correlated noise is further introduced layer by layer to realize the actual decoherence of the light and allows for statistical investigation of the partial spatially coherent optics in transparent mediums. Numerical analyses show comparable results to the Gaussian Schell model in free-space cases, indicating the validity of the algorithms., 15 pages, 7 figures

The scalar $f_{xc}$ and tensor $\hat{f}_{xc}$ exchange-correlation (xc) kernels are key ingredients of the time-dependent density functional theory and the time-dependent current density functional theory, respectively. We derive a comparatively simple relation between these two kernels under the assumption that the dynamic xc can be considered "weak". We expect our formula to serve as a convenient bridge between the scalar $f_{xc}$ which directly enters many applications and the tensor $\hat{f}_{xc}$ which, due to its locality in space, is much easier to approximate., Comment: 8 pages, Submitted to Journal of Chemical Physics

We present a device concept for a spintronic transistor based on the spin relaxation properties a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The device design is very similar to that of the Datta and Das spin transistor. However, our proposed device works in the diffusive regime rather than in the ballistic regime. This eases lithographical and processing requirements. The switching action is achieved through the biasing of a gate contact, which controls the lifetime of spins injected into the 2DEG from a ferromagnetic emitter, thus allowing the traveling spins to be either aligned with a ferromagnetic collector or randomizing them before collection. The device configuration can easily be turned into a memory and a readout head for magnetically stored information.

Airlines are not able to conduct their businesses in the same way as other global transnational industries. They are inhibited by the foreign ownership restrictions in Air Services Agreements and national laws. Since the United Kingdom and the United States signed the first Bermuda agreement in 1946, the nationality clauses contained in virtually all bilaterals have limited the companies designated to provide services to those airlines owned and managed by nationals of the respective countries. A key reason why foreign ownership rules remain in place is that they protect national airlines. In doing so, they also limit the strategies available to governments whose carriers are in difficulties. The 57 years old bilateral system restricts the development of international air services, adversely affecting airlines and their users- travellers and the tourism and air freight industries. As time goes on, the rapidly changing air transport environment of privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation is forcing airlines to seek structural adjustments in order to survive in the new millennium. Airlines are asking to have more freedom for their strategies, in order to enhance their profitability. Pressures have been growing to ease the ownership rules contained in bilateral agreements to allow airlines greater commercial freedom. As there is no comprehensive research on the topic, this study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the impact of airline ownership rules. It will provide a point of reference for organisations like ICAO and nations to review the ownership issue in the future. This research starts with a review of the historical background, the current limitations in different countries and the pros and cons of ownership rules. It analyses how aviation markets have been influenced to date around the world and how governments and carriers have responded to these influences. It goes on to identify the main benefits and risks of foreign investment, and the motives for foreign investment in the EU and Asia- Pacific. It assesses the prospects for change in ownership rules under multilateral and plurilateral proposals, and develops a strategy for changing the current ownership rules. It concludes by predicting how airlines will react to such changes and makes suggestions for European Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region.

We show theoretically that a strongly spin-polarized current can be generated in semiconductors by taking advantage of the ferromagnetic phase of a quantum dot array (QDA). A Hubbard model with coupling to leads is used to study the tunneling current of the QDA system as a function of gate voltage. Due to the weak interdot coupling and strong Coulomb repulsion, it is found that a ferromagnetic phase exists in QDA within a window of gate voltage. Therefore QDA can be used as a spin filter to detect and control spin states in quantum information devices., Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures

Band Structures and optical matrix elements of quantum wires(QWR's) made of short-period superlattices(SPS) with strain-induced lateral ordering(SILO) are investigated theoretically via an effective bond-orbital model(EBOM) combined with a valence-force field(VFF) model. Valence-band anistropy, band mixing, and effects due to local strain distribution at the atomistic level are all taken into account. In particular, Ga(1-x)In(x)As QWR's grown by SILO process are considered. A VFF model is used to find the equilibrium atomic positions in the SILO QWR structure by minimizing the lattice energy. The strain tensor at each atomic(In or GA) site is then obtained and included in the calculations of electronic states and optical peroperties. It is found that different local arrangement of atoms leads to very different strain distribution, which in term alters the optical properties. In particular, we found that the optical anisotropy can be reversed due to the change in shear strain caused by the inter-change of atomic positions. Good agreement with the existing experimental data on band gap and optical anisotropy can be obtained when a 2D alloy structure with lateral composition modulation in the InAs/GaAs interface planes of the SPS is used. Our studies revealed the possibility of "shear-strain engineering" in SILO QWR light-emitting devices to achieve desired optical anisotropy., Comment: 15 pages and 25 figures, some figures are relabed

Texto completo. Acesso restrito. p. 481–498 Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-09-02T20:15:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 11111111111as.pdf: 533345 bytes, checksum: 689afc57190555c9001ba5f1c1c285ae (MD5) Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles(rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2013-10-15T15:14:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 11111111111as.pdf: 533345 bytes, checksum: 689afc57190555c9001ba5f1c1c285ae (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2013-10-15T15:14:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 11111111111as.pdf: 533345 bytes, checksum: 689afc57190555c9001ba5f1c1c285ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 1996 The concept of thermoalgebra, a kind of representation for the Lie-symmetries developed in connection with thermal quantum field theory, is extended to study unitary representations of the Galilei group for thermal classical systems. One of the representations results in the first-quantized Schönberg formalism for the classical statistical mechanics. Furthermore, the close analogy between thermal classical mechanics and thermal quantum field theory is analysed, and such an analogy is almost exact for harmonic oscillator systems. The other unitary representation studied results in a field-operator version of the Schönberg approach. As a consequence, in this case the counterpart of the thermofield dynamics (TFD) in classical theory is identified as both the first and second-quantized form of the Liouville equation. Non-unitary representations are also studied, being, in this case, the Lie product of the thermoalgebra identified as the Poisson brackets. A representation of the thermalSU(1, 1) is analysed, such that the tilde variables (introduced in TFD) are functions in a double phase space. As a result the equations of motion for dissipative classical oscillators are derived. Salvador