Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermal-Aware Methodology for Repeater Insertion in Low-Power VLSI Circuits

In this paper, the impact of thermal effects on low-power repeater insertion methodology is studied. An analytical methodology for thermal-aware repeater insertion that includes the electrothermal coupling between power, delay, and temperature is presented, and simulation results with global interconnect repeaters are discussed for 90- and 65-nm technology. Simulation results show that the proposed thermal-aware methodology can save 17.5% more power consumed by the repeaters compared to a thermal-unaware methodology for a given allowed delay penalty. In addition, the proposed methodology also results in a lower chip temperature, and thus, extra leakage power savings from other logic blocks.
Differential patterns of nestin and glial fibrillary acidic protein expression in mouse hippocampus during postnatal development

Intermediate filaments, including nestin and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), are important for the brain to accommodate neural activities and changes during development. The present study examined the temporal changes of nestin and GFAP protein levels in the postnatal development of the mouse hippocampus. Mouse hippocampi were sampled on postnatal day (PND) 1, 3, 6, 18, and 48. Western blot analysis showed that nestin expression was high at PND 1 and markedly decreased until PND 18. Conversely, GFAP expression was acutely increased in the early phase of postnatal development. Nestin immunoreactivity was localized mainly in the processes of ramified cells at PND 1, but expression subsequently decreased. In contrast, GFAP was evident mainly in the marginal cells of the hippocampus at PND 1, but immunoreactivity revealed satellite, radial, or ramified shapes of the cells from PND 6-48. This study demonstrates that the opposing pattern of nestin and GFAP expressions in mouse hippocampus during postnatal development occur in the early development stage (PND 1-18), suggesting that the opposing change of nestin and GFAP in early postnatal development is important for neural differentiation and positioning in the mouse hippocampus.
Adverse lithium‐neuroleptic interactions—are there permanent effects?

An interaction between lithium and neuroleptics may occur, at least when the latter are given in high dosage: however, the four cases described by Cohen and Cohen, although the first reported, can hardly be considered representative. Permanent brain damage is not a distinctive feature of a lithium‐neuroleptic interaction.
BER Performance of Polar Coded OFDM in Multipath Fading

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has gained a lot of popularity over the years. Due to its popularity, OFDM has been adopted as a standard in cellular technology and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) communication systems. To improve the bit error rate (BER) performance, forward error correction (FEC) codes are often utilized to protect signals against unknown interference and channel degradations. In this paper, we apply soft-decision FEC, more specifically polar codes and a convolutional code, to an OFDM system in a quasi-static multipath fading channel, and compare BER performance in various channels. We investigate the effect of interleaving bits within a polar codeword. Finally, the simulation results for each case are presented in the paper.
THE 6-MINUTE WALK TEST AND OTHER ENDPOINTS IN DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY: LONGITUDINAL NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS OVER 48 WEEKS FROM A MULTICENTER STUDY

Introduction: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) subjects ≥5 years with nonsense mutations were followed for 48 weeks in a multicenter, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled trial of ataluren. Placebo arm data (N = 57) provided insight into the natural history of the 6‐minute walk test (6MWT) and other endpoints. Methods: Evaluations performed every 6 weeks included the 6‐minute walk distance (6MWD), timed function tests (TFTs), and quantitative strength using hand‐held myometry. Results: Baseline age (≥7 years), 6MWD, and selected TFT performance are strong predictors of decline in ambulation (Δ6MWD) and time to 10% worsening in 6MWD. A baseline 6MWD of <350 meters was associated with greater functional decline, and loss of ambulation was only seen in those with baseline 6MWD <325 meters. Only 1 of 42 (2.3%) subjects able to stand from supine lost ambulation. Conclusion: Findings confirm the clinical meaningfulness of the 6MWD as the most accepted primary clinical endpoint in ambulatory DMD trials. Muscle Nerve 48: 343–356, 2013
Determinants of bank profitability in developing economies: empirical evidence from the South Asian banking sectors

This study seeks to examine the performance of 77 Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Pakistani commercial banks between 1997 and 2008. The empirical findings suggest that bank specific characteristics – in particular, liquidity, non-interest income, credit risk, and capitalization – have positive and significant impacts on bank performance, while cost is negatively related to bank profitability. As for the impact of macroeconomic indicators, the results suggest that economic growth has positive and significant impact, while inflation has no significant impact on bank profitability. During the period under study, the empirical findings indicate that private investment is positively related to bank profitability, while private consumption expenditure exhibits negative impact. However, the impact is not uniform across the countries studied.
Reflecting on an ideal: student teachers envision a future identity

Reflection is generally acknowledged as an important part of teacher education and a central activity in teacher development. The close connection between reflection and identity development has been noted in literature on teacher education. This paper will focus on the interplay among the concepts of reflection, identity and the ideal, and will report the results of a pilot study which attempted to elicit from student teachers their reflections on an ideal identity for their future lives as teachers. The implications of such reflection for teacher education programmes will be indicated.
A Dual-Threshold Power Saving Mechanism in WiMAX

This paper considers making balance on the tradeoff between power consumption and extra delay in WiMAX Power Saving. Though it seems quite well understood in case of Poisson traffic, the tradeoff between energy and delay has not been adequately studied in existing literature. We therefore investigate in this work to propose a mechanism of tuning the tradeoff such that users/applications can make their choices to get various QoS requirements satisfied. In this paper, we introduce a new Dual-Threshold mechanism which is derived from Markov analysis. Our mechanism is able to offer different energy and delay performance by moving the initial windows according to the pre-defined best performance thresholds. Through extensive simulations, we’ve both verified the correctness of the analysis and the effectiveness of the mechanism. Result shows that it has a superior performance in comparison with other existing ones under the assumption of Poisson arrival. Besides, the dual-threshold mechanism is designed fully with standard-compatibility, which indicates that it can be easily adopted in reality.
What Factors are Related to a Negative Outcome of Self‐Injurious Behaviour During Childhood in Pervasive Developmental Disorders?

Aim To explore the factors related to the outcome of self-injurious behaviour (SIB) in children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). Method Children with PDD were assessed on individual and environmental variables at time 1 and 3 years later. A questionnaire about the presence or absence of SIB was also administered at both times in order to examine the early course of SIB. Results Our findings suggest an association between a negative outcome and several aspects of the children’s behaviour. Children with a negative outcome differed from the others in having greater speech impairment, more cognitive and adaptive deficits, and more severe signs of autism. When these variables were entered into a multivariate model for predicting the outcome of SIB, only speech deficits (ORa 3.5, CI 95% 1.13–13.4) and autism severity (ORa 1.1, CI 95% 1.03–1.18) were significant risk factors. Discussion The importance of these findings for improving our understanding of SIB is discussed.
Can task modifications influence children's performance on false belief tasks?

Theory of mind (ToM) is commonly measured in young children by the false belief task. Many researchers claim that 3-year-olds' failure on false belief tasks is due to task constraints. Experiment 1 empirically tested the claim made by Wellman, Cross, and Watson (2001), that even when variables that enhance performance on the false belief task (deception; participation in transformation; salience; and item not real and present) are included in one task, 3-year-olds will still fail to perform above chance level. On the standard task 4-year-olds did perform significantly better than 3-year-olds, although there was no significant difference on the adapted task. Compared to the standard task, 3-year-olds performed better on the adapted task, although this improvement was not significant and performance was still not above chance level. Experiment 2 examined the influence of two additional variables; presence of protagonist at the time when the false belief question is asked, and the order in which test questions are asked (memory preceding false belief or vice versa). Results found no significant effects of either presence of the protagonist or question order on the performance of participants. Results are discussed with reference to reasons behind the failure of some children on false belief tasks.
An Arginine Involved in GABA Binding and Unbinding But Not Gating of the GABAA Receptor

GABAA receptor function can be conceptually divided into interactions between ligand and receptor (binding) and the opening and closing of the ligand-bound channel (gating). The relationship between binding, gating, and receptor structure remains unclear. Studies of mutations have identified many amino acid residues that contribute to the GABAbinding site. Most of these studies assayed changes in GABA dose–response curves, which are macroscopic measures that depend on the interplay of many processes and cannot resolve individual microscopic transitions. Understanding the microscopic basis of binding and gating is critical, because kinetic transition rates predict how receptors will behave at synapses. Furthermore, microscopic rates are directly related to the molecular interactions underlying receptor function. Here, we focused on a residue (β2-R207) previously identified as lining the GABA-binding site that, when mutated to cysteine, greatly reduces apparent GABA affinity and was predicted to affect both binding and gating. To better understand the role of β2-R207, we expressed α1β2 and α1β2-R207C receptors in human embryonic kidney 293 cells and studied receptor kinetics using fast solution applications. The mutation accelerated deactivation by 10-fold, without altering desensitization in the presence of saturating GABA. Maximum open probability and single-channel open times were also unaltered by the mutation, but the GABA-binding rate was reduced eightfold. Therefore, the effects of this mutation in a predicted binding site residue are solely attributable to changes in GABA-binding and unbinding kinetics, with no changes in channel gating. Because β2-R207 stabilizes GABA in the binding pocket, it may directly contact the GABA molecule.
Compressed sensing Block MAP-LMS adaptive filter for sparse channel estimation and a Bayesian Cramer-Rao bound

This paper suggests to use a Block MAP-LMS (BMAP-LMS) adaptive filter instead of an Adaptive Filter called MAP-LMS for estimating the sparse channels. Moreover to faster convergence than MAP-LMS, this block-based adaptive filter enables us to use a compressed sensing version of it which exploits the sparsity of the channel outputs to reduce the sampling rate of the received signal and to alleviate the complexity of the BMAP-LMS. Our simulations show that our proposed algorithm has faster convergence and less final MSE than MAP-LMS, while it is more complex than MAP-LMS. Moreover, some lower bounds for sparse channel estimation is discussed. Specially, a Cramer-Rao bound and a Bayesian Cramer-Rao bound is also calculated.
Whole-Genome Sequencing in Newborn Screening—Attitudes and Opinions of Bulgarian Pediatricians and Geneticists

Objective The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes and opinions on the potential use of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in conjunction with the traditional newborn screening (NBS). We conducted an online survey among pediatricians and geneticists from Bulgaria. The study was based on the concept of non-selective WGS for all newborns and analysis of all genes. Results/conclusion In total, 120 out of 299 invited participants completed the survey, with an overall response rate of 40.1%. While half of the pediatricians surveyed supported population-based non-selective WGS in NBS, 65.2% of the geneticists expressed concerns. Most participants underlined that ethical issues were as important as medical ones and called for a stricter protection of affected individuals against any abuse of their personal data. Extensive genetic counseling and psychological support to families were mentioned as key elements in this potential activity. Nevertheless, both pediatricians and geneticists considered that NBS in Bulgaria could be further developed, with selective WGS being suggested as a potential option. While non-selective WGS for all newborns is not currently perceived as feasible, pediatricians and geneticists do believe that selective WGS could strengthen current NBS programs. Cross-border project collaborations may set the stage for generating experience and evidence on these complex issues.
Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects

Popular technologies offer new and exciting ways to capitalize on the strengths of authentic writing, the power of the writing process, and the engagement of collaborative writing. Blogs are one of those technologies. Blogs are websites that allow individuals to create personal webpages of text, pictures, graphics, videos, and other multimedia with the same ease as creating a word processing document. Unlike traditional websites, however, they provide a space where people can post comments and engage in online conversations. Collaborative Internet projects are another way to use technology in the classroom. Such activities can result in increased motivation and literacy engagement as students read, write, create, and produce for meaningful and authentic purposes.
Implantation of endovascular stents for hypoplasia of the transverse aortic arch

Abstract Hypoplasia of the transverse aortic arch is commonly associated with aortic coarctation. Persistent or recurrent obstruction can occur at this level after successful repair of the native coarcted segment. The purpose of this report is to present a new technique to treat such lesions, namely with implantation of a balloon-expandable stent. This approach was used successfully in 4 children with such hypoplasia occurring after repair of coarctation. Implantation led to both anatomical and physiological relief of obstruction in all. The patients tolerated the procedure, and there were no major adverse events.
Contextual behavior and neural circuits

Animals including humans engage in goal-directed behavior flexibly in response to items and their background, which is called contextual behavior in this review. Although the concept of context has long been studied, there are differences among researchers in defining and experimenting with the concept. The current review aims to provide a categorical framework within which not only the neural mechanisms of contextual information processing but also the contextual behavior can be studied in more concrete ways. For this purpose, we categorize contextual behavior into three subcategories as follows by considering the types of interactions among context, item, and response: contextual response selection, contextual item selection, and contextual item–response selection. Contextual response selection refers to the animal emitting different types of responses to the same item depending on the context in the background. Contextual item selection occurs when there are multiple items that need to be chosen in a contextual manner. Finally, when multiple items and multiple contexts are involved, contextual item–response selection takes place whereby the animal either chooses an item or inhibits such a response depending on item–context paired association. The literature suggests that the rhinal cortical regions and the hippocampal formation play key roles in mnemonically categorizing and recognizing contextual representations and the associated items. In addition, it appears that the fronto-striatal cortical loops in connection with the contextual information-processing areas critically control the flexible deployment of adaptive action sets and motor responses for maximizing goals. We suggest that contextual information processing should be investigated in experimental settings where contextual stimuli and resulting behaviors are clearly defined and measurable, considering the dynamic top-down and bottom-up interactions among the neural systems for contextual behavior.
Quantum changes in Helicobacter pylori gene expression accompany host-adaptation

Abstract Helicobacter pylori is a highly successful gastric pathogen. High genomic plasticity allows its adaptation to changing host environments. Complete genomes of H. pylori clinical isolate UM032 and its mice-adapted serial derivatives 298 and 299, generated using both PacBio RS and Illumina MiSeq sequencing technologies, were compared to identify novel elements responsible for host-adaptation. The acquisition of a jhp0562-like allele, which encodes for a galactosyltransferase, was identified in the mice-adapted strains. Our analysis implies a new β-1,4-galactosyltransferase role for this enzyme, essential for Ley antigen expression. Intragenomic recombination between babA and babB genes was also observed. Further, we expanded on the list of candidate genes whose expression patterns have been mediated by upstream homopolymer-length alterations to facilitate host adaption. Importantly, greater than four-fold reduction of mRNA levels was demonstrated in five genes. Among the down-regulated genes, three encode for outer membrane proteins, including BabA, BabB and HopD. As expected, a substantial reduction in BabA protein abundance was detected in mice-adapted strains 298 and 299 via Western analysis. Our results suggest that the expression of Ley antigen and reduced outer membrane protein expressions may facilitate H. pylori colonisation of mouse gastric epithelium.
“Because It’s Worth It?”

The expansion of post–16 education in the United Kingdom makes young people more dependent, and for longer, on their parents. Generational change has been so great that parents with no history of postschool education are now expected to support children while they study. Some parents adhere to a working-class belief in selfsufficiency through employment. Others are taking an increasingly instrumental approach, believing that investment in education must pay dividends in job prospects. This article examines young people’s pathways between education and work and explores the motivations and pressures underlying choices about which path to take. It identifies uncertain transitions where choices are revised and pathways changed. The research finds that parents have increased power to affect their children’s transitions and that young people without parental support are severely disadvantaged. This study of parental support for transitions in youth involved interviews with young people and their parents in two contrasting English towns.
A Complex quest: The development and research of underachievement interventions for gifted students

The seeming lack of motivation of many academically gifted students is an area of frustration and concern for many parents, teachers, and psychologists. This article explores two studies in which researchers designed interventions to improve academic achievement. Both interventions were created using the Achievement-Orientation Model. The first study matched the intervention to the student and found that the students' grades increased over the intervention period, t(45) = 2.56, p = . 014, d = . 38. Students using treatments linked to goal valuation and environmental perceptions showed the greatest academic grade growth; the self-efficacy and self-regulation groups showed little or no grade improvement. Building on the finding that goal valuation was important, the second study used a mixed-methods design to pilot an intervention focused on goal valuation and student autonomy. The results of this study were mixed, as the intervention appeared to help two of the three students. Although these studies offer further insight into possibilities for promoting academic achievement among gifted students, further research examining how to best support and foster academic achievement in underachieving gifted students is needed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Comparative Study of Classification Methods For Microarray Data Analysis

In response to the rapid development of DNA Microarray technology, many classification methods have been used for Microarray classification. SVMs, decision trees, Bagging, Boosting and Random Forest are commonly used methods. In this paper, we conduct experimental comparison of LibSVMs, C4.5, BaggingC4.5, AdaBoostingC4.5, and Random Forest on seven Microarray cancer data sets. The experimental results show that all ensemble methods outperform C4.5. The experimental results also show that all five methods benefit from data preprocessing, including gene selection and discretization, in classification accuracy. In addition to comparing the average accuracies of ten-fold cross validation tests on seven data sets, we use two statistical tests to validate findings. We observe that Wilcoxon signed rank test is better than sign test for such purpose.
Determinants and performance effects of the allocation of ownership rights in consulting firms

This paper provides a joint assessment of the antecedents and the performance consequences of the allocation of ownership rights in professional service firms (PSFs). Drawing on established economic theory, we argue that the efficiency implications of alternative ownership arrangements drive the allocation of ownership rights. We test our arguments using a sample of 119 large and medium-sized consulting firms. The results confirm the significance of capital requirements, service standardization, business risk, and organization size as determinants of the allocation of ownership rights in these firms. We do not find ownership allocation per se to be a significant driver of performance. The results suggest that the optimal allocation of ownership rights is endogenously determined by the conditions under which consulting firms operate.