Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CMOS high-frequency switched-capacitor filters for telecommunication applications

A digitally programmable high-frequency switched-capacitor filter for use in a switched digital video (SDV/VDSL) link is described. The highest available clock frequency in the system is 51.84 MHz (f/sub s/=2f/sub clock/=103.68 MHz for double sampling) while the three desired low-pass corner frequencies (f/sub c/) are 8,12, and 20 MHz. The double-sampling, bilinear, elliptic, fifth-order switched-capacitor filter meets the desired -40-dB attenuation at 1.3 f/sub c/, and -30 dB at 1.25 f/sub c/. For the 12-MHz corner frequency setting, given the 2V/sub pp/ differential input, the measured worst case total harmonic distortion is -60 dB, with signal-to-noise ratio of 54 dB. The analog power dissipation is 125 mW from a 5-V power supply. The test results indicate that the clock frequency can be increased to 73 MHz without any ill effects. More measurements verify that an all-digital CMOS implementation, utilizing metal-sandwich capacitors, performs as well as the special-layer analog capacitors implementation, with a small reduction in the absolute corner frequencies. The prototype IC's are fabricated in a 0.35-/spl mu/m 5-V (0.48 /spl mu/m drawn) CMOS process.
The Importance of Ease of Use, Usefulness, and Trust to Online Consumers: An Examination of the Technology Acceptance Model with Older Customers

This research examines electronic commerce participation and attitudes by older Americans. Questionnaires were distributed at a large re-tirement community and several senior centers located in Pennsylvania. The sample of 110 respondents ranged in age from 52 to 87. Fifty-nine percent reported purchasing an item online in the last 6 months. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used and modified to exam - ine the impact attitudes concerning ease of use, usefulness and trust had on electronic commerce usage. Usefulness and trust were found to have a positive, direct affect on usage. Ease of use had significant impacts on usefulness and trust had a significant impact on both ease of use and use - fulness. The article concludes with a discussion of these results, study limitations, and directions for future research.
Potential Responsiveness in the Bureaucracy: Views of Public Utility Regulation

To whom is the bureaucracy responsive? A study of public utility regulation in 12 states helps to answer that question. To assess potential responsiveness in the bureaucracy, we examine indicators of attitudinal concurrence. Whether we look at issue priorities or value priorities, public utility commissioners are more responsive to staff members and utility company executives than to governmental consumer advocates. However, bureaucratic responsiveness to citizens varies unexpectedly across stages of the policymaking process. Concurrence between commissioners and citizen activists is relatively high on issue priorities, relatively low on value priorities. Success at the agenda-setting stage does not guarantee success in policy formulation. In practice, agenda responsiveness may be little more than an exercise in symbolic politics.
Cleaning Products and Work-Related Asthma

To describe the characteristics of individuals with work-related asthma associated with exposure to cleaning products, data from the California-, Massachusetts-, Michigan-, and New Jersey state-based surveillance systems of work-related asthma were used to identify cases of asthma associated with exposure to cleaning products at work. From 1993 to 1997, 236 (12%) of the 1915 confirmed cases of work-related asthma identified by the four states were associated with exposure to cleaning products. Eighty percent of the reports were of new-onset asthma and 20% were work-aggravated asthma. Among the new-onset cases, 22% were consistent with reactive airways dysfunction syndrome. Individuals identified were generally women (75%), white non-Hispanic (68%), and 45 years or older (64%). Their most likely exposure had been in medical settings (39%), schools (13%), or hotels (6%), and they were most likely to work as janitor/cleaners (22%), nurse/nurses’ aides (20%), or clerical staff (13%). However, cases were reported with exposure to cleaning products across a wide range of job titles. Cleaning products contain a diverse group of chemicals that are used in a wide range of industries and occupations as well as in the home. Their potential to cause or aggravate asthma has recently been recognized. Further work to characterize the specific agents and the circumstances of their use associated with asthma is needed. Additional research to investigate the frequency of adverse respiratory effects among regular users, such as housekeeping staff, is also needed. In the interim, we recommend attention to adequate ventilation, improved warning labels and Material Safety Data Sheets, and workplace training and education.
On the role of experience and age-related effects: Evidence from the Spanish CP

The present study examines and compares the extent to which advanced L2 learners of Spanish and Spanish heritage speakers acquire the syntactic and semantic properties that regulate the grammatical representation of double complementizer questions in Spanish, a CP-related structure not present in English. Results from an aural sentence completion task, an acceptability judgment task, and a preference task indicate significant differences between the two experimental groups and the monolingual controls. However, the heritage speakers outperformed the L2 learners in their target use and interpretation, which suggests a linguistic benefit for earlier exposure and use of Spanish during childhood. We propose that the differences observed among the L2 learners and the heritage speakers can be accounted for in terms of cross-linguistic influence from the dominant language as well as language experience and age of onset of bilingualism as an interrelated dimension in L2 and heritage language development.
Survival after rectal cancer: differences between hospital catchment areas. A nationwide study in Sweden

BACKGROUND The quality of rectal cancer surgery at small units has been debated. No national studies of this issue have been undertaken and most studies have been based on insufficient data to clarify the controversy. It has been claimed that observed differences in outcomes between specialised centres and smaller hospitals are confounded by differences in stage/severity. AIM To compare survival after rectal cancer between hospital catchment areas. PATIENTS All patients with rectal cancer notified to the Swedish Cancer Register in 1973–1992 (n = 30 811) were followed up by record linkage to the nationwide Death Register. METHODS Relative survival—that is, ratio of observed to expected survival—was computed as a measure of excess mortality attributable to rectal cancer. Multivariate analysis was then performed to estimate the independent effects of hospital catchment area categories and age, year of diagnosis, and duration of follow up. RESULTS One year relative survival among rectal cancer patients residing in catchment areas of large regional hospitals was 76%, compared with 72% for small local hospitals (p<0.001). A difference was already noted after 30 days and remained five years after diagnosis. Relative survival improved considerably overall, but the differences between catchment area categories persisted. These were not reduced by adjustment for age, time after diagnosis, or time period in multivariate models. CONCLUSION The differences in outcome between catchment area categories could not be explained by differences in age, time period, or duration of follow up after diagnosis. They are unlikely to be explained by differences between catchment area populations with regard to the average stage of the disease at which symptoms lead to diagnosis. The differences may therefore be attributable to different strategies for diagnosing and managing patients with rectal cancer.
Microemulsion Liquid Chromatographic Method for Simultaneous Determination of Simvastatin and Ezetimibe in Their Combined Dosage Forms

A rapid HPLC procedure using a microemulsion as an eluent was developed and validated for analytical quality control of antihyperlipidemic mixture containing simvastatin (SIM) and ezetimibe (EZT) in their pharmaceutical preparations. The separation was performed on a column packed with cyano bonded stationary phase adopting UV detection at 238 nm using a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The optimized microemulsion mobile phase consisted of 0.2 M sodium dodecyl sulphate, 1% octanol, 10% n-propanol, and 0.3% triethylamine in 0.02 M phosphoric acid at pH 5.0. The developed method was validated in terms of specificity, linearity, lower limit of quantification (LOQ), lower limit of detection (LOD), precision, and accuracy. The proposed method is rapid (8.5 min), reproducible (RSD < 2.0%) and achieves satisfactory resolution between SIM and EZT (resolution factor = 2.57). The mean recoveries of the analytes in pharmaceutical preparations were in agreement with those obtained from a reference method, as revealed by statistical analysis of the obtained results using Student's t-test and the variance ratio F-test.
A Calculation of the Heegard-Berger Rate-distortion Function for a Binary Source

We provide an explicit calculation of the rate-distortion function for the doubly-symmetric binary source (DSBS), when the side information may be absent at the decoder. The rate-distortion function for general discrete memoryless source was characterized by Heegard and Berger in 1985 [IT-31(6)], who showed that a two-stage coding structure is in fact optimal. However, an explicit characterization of the rate-distortion function for DSBS, and more importantly the optimal forward testing channel structure for this source, was not found despite several attempts. In this work, we resolve this open problem. It is shown that in the two-stage coding structure, the optimal testing channel for the first stage decoder (who does not have side information) is the same as the optimal testing channel for the ordinary symmetric binary source, and this confirms a conjecture made by Fleming and Effros.
Tree shrew, a potential animal model for hepatitis C, supports the infection and replication of HCV in vitro and in vivo

The tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis), a small animal widely distributed in Southeast Asia and southwest China, has the potential to be developed as an animal model for hepatitis C. To determine the susceptibility of the tree shrew to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in vitro and in vivo, a well-established HCV, produced from the J6/JFH1-Huh7.5. 1 culture system, was used to infect cultured primary tupaia hepatocytes (PTHs) and tree shrews. The in vitro results showed that HCV genomic RNA and HCV-specific nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) could be detected in the PTH cell culture from days 3–15 post-infection, although the viral load was lower than that observed in Huh7.5. 1 cell culture. The occurrence of five sense mutations [S391A, G397A, L402F and M405T in the hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) of envelope glycoprotein 2 and I2750M in NS5B] suggested that HCV undergoes genetic evolution during culture. Fourteen of the 30 experimental tree shrews (46.7 %) were found to be infected, although the HCV viremia was intermittent in vivo. A positive test for HCV RNA in liver tissue provided stronger evidence for HCV infection and replication in tree shrews. The results of an immunohistochemistry assay also demonstrated the presence of four HCV-specific proteins (Core, E2, NS3/4 and NS5A) in the hepatocytes of infected tree shrews. The pathological changes observed in the liver tissue of infected tree shrews could be considered to be representative symptoms of mild hepatitis. These results revealed that the tree shrew can be used as an animal model supporting the infection and replication of HCV in vitro and in vivo.
The Communication of “Pure” Group-Based Anger Reduces Tendencies Toward Intergroup Conflict Because It Increases Out-Group Empathy

The communication of group-based anger in intergroup conflict is often associated with destructive conflict behavior. However, we show that communicating group-based anger toward the out-group can evoke empathy and thus reduce intergroup conflict. This is because it stresses the value of maintaining a positive long-term intergroup relationship, thereby increasing understanding for the situation (in contrast to the communication of the closely related emotion of contempt). Three experiments demonstrate that the communication of group-based anger indeed reduces destructive conflict intentions compared with (a) a control condition (Experiments 1-2), (b) the communication of group-based contempt (Experiment 2), and (c) the communication of a combination of group-based anger and contempt (Experiments 2-3). Moreover, results from all three experiments reveal that empathy mediated the positive effect of communicating “pure” group-based anger. We discuss the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of communicating emotions in intergroup conflicts.
Aging and Self-Attitude: A Conditional Relationship

NUMEROUS studies may be cited which report significant associations between independent measures of negative self-attitude (self-derogation in its most extreme form) and “psychopathological” patterns. These patterns include anxiety, depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, paranoid schizophrenia, suicide, juvenile delinquency, psychopathy, and homosexuality (Wylie, 1961; Parker and Kleiner, 1966; Arieti, 1967; Rubington and Weinberg, 1968; Gordon and Gergen, 1968; Kaplan and Pokorny, 1969; Kaplan and Meyerowitz, 1970) whether the latter patterns are interpreted as expressions of, or modes of adaptation to, self-derogatory feelings. In view of these observations, it has been suggested that investigations of factors associated with the development of negative or positive selffeelings (Wylie, 1961; Hamachek, 1965; Rosenberg, 1965; Coopersmith, 1967) would at the same time contribute to the understanding of the etiology of various forms of psychologically (and socially) defined deviance (Kaplan, 1970). Among the variables which investigators have hypothesized to be related to self-attitude is aging. Unlike the reports focusing upon the negative consequences of the aging process for aspects of mental health status (Hoch and Zubin, 1961; Srole, et al., 1962; Davis, 1965; Ford, 1965; Cameron, 1967; Mayo Clinic, 1967; Ziller and Grossman, 1967) in the case of self-attitude other investigations have indicated that older age groups tend to be more positive in self-feelings than younger age groups (Parker and Kleiner, 1966, 178, 187; Grant, 1969, 717). Data reported in a national survey by Gurin and his associates (1960) are also consistent with this conclusion in that older subjects were less likely to indicate felt inadequacy in performance of marital and parental roles. Grant (1969) suggests that the association of older age with positive self-attitudes admits of several interpretations including the view that aging is perceived as a desirable stage in life and involves voluntary withdrawal from many life activities. The result might also be interpreted as reflecting an increase in the “tendency toward denial” or “confirmation of a need to expand continually one’s horizons. ” However, not all studies investigating the relationships between aging and self-attitudes have reported the same results. Some reports have indicated that no significant relationship was observed between age and self-feelings (Downing and
Promoting teachers’ knowledge sharing. The fostering roles of occupational self-efficacy and Human Resources Management

Teachers’ professional development is nowadays seen as key in efforts to improve education. Knowledge sharing is a learning activity with which teachers not only professionalize themselves, but contribute to the professional development of their colleagues as well. This paper presents two studies, aimed to explain knowledge sharing by teachers’ occupational self-efficacy and Human Resources Management (HRM). In the first study we examined the impact of HRM from a ‘content perspective’, and focused on a bundle of Human Resources Management practices, namely, high-commitment Human Resources Management (HC-HRM). Multilevel analyses of survey data from 410 teachers, from 30 teams, in one school, showed that high-commitment Human Resources Management strengthened the relationship between occupational self-efficacy and knowledge sharing. The second study examined the moderating impact of Human Resources Management from a ‘process perspective’. In this study we focused on ‘distinctive’ Human Resources Management: employees perceptions of a visible Human Resources Management within the school. Multilevel analyses of survey data from 282 teachers, from 47 teams, in four schools, showed that a distinctive Human Resources Management strengthened the relationship between occupational self-efficacy and knowledge sharing. Although the findings are encouraging and enabled us to formulate some practical implications, the study limitations also gave rise to suggestions for further research.
Avestan studies in Imperial Germany

This article sheds new light on late-19th-century debates about the organization of knowledge through its emphasis on German orientalism and comparative linguistics. Centering on Friedrich Carl Andreas’ (1846–1930) controversial reconstruction of the Avestan language and its sacred literary corpus, I highlight a shift from the history of texts to an engagement with ‘living’ language in the decades around 1900. Andreas is shown to have inherited aspects of two schools, which collectively defined the landscape of 19th-century philological research – one traditional and the other comparative. The long-standing struggle between these schools demonstrates that ‘the humanities’ were no monolithic foil to the rise of natural sciences during the second half of the 19th century. Instead, I argue that alternative conceptual frameworks were cultivated within German philology – concepts that were taken up in broader disciplinary debates, though they were not narrowly the products of them.
Toward the Performance Versus Feedback Tradeoff for the Two-User MISO Broadcast Channel

For the two-user MISO broadcast channel with imperfect and delayed channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT), the work explores the tradeoff between performance on the one hand, and CSIT timeliness and accuracy on the other hand. This paper considers a broad setting where communication takes place in the presence of a random fading process, and in the presence of a feedback process that, at any point in time, may provide CSIT estimates-of some arbitrary accuracy - for any past, current or future channel realization. This feedback quality may fluctuate in time across all ranges of CSIT accuracy and timeliness, ranging from perfectly accurate and instantaneously available estimates, to delayed estimates of minimal accuracy. Under standard assumptions, the work derives the degrees-of-freedom (DoF) region, which is tight for a large range of CSIT quality. This derived DoF region concisely captures the effect of channel correlations, the accuracy of predicted, current, and delayed-CSIT, and generally captures the effect of the quality of CSIT offered at any time, about any channel. This paper also introduces novel schemes which-in the context of imperfect and delayed CSIT-employ encoding and decoding with a phase-Markov structure. The results hold for a large class of block and nonblock fading channel models, and they unify and extend many prior attempts to capture the effect of imperfect and delayed feedback. This generality also allows for consideration of novel pertinent settings, such as the new periodically evolving feedback setting, where a gradual accumulation of feedback bits progressively improves CSIT as time progresses across a finite coherence period.
Exposure over the life course to an urban environment and its relation with obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in rural and urban Cameroon.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to assess the association between lifetime exposure to urban environment (EU) and obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in an adult population of Sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS We studied 999 women and 727 men aged > or =25 years. They represent all the adults aged > or =25 years living in households randomly selected from a rural and an urban community of Cameroon with a 98% and 96% participation rate respectively. Height, weight, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose were measured in all subjects. Current levels of physical activity (in metabolic equivalents [MET]) were evaluated through the Sub-Saharan African Activity Questionnaire. Chronological data on lifetime migration were collected retrospectively and expressed as the total (EUt) or percentage (EU%) of lifetime exposure to urban environment. RESULTS Lifetime EUt was associated with body mass index (BMI) (r = 0.42; P < 0.0001), fasting glycaemia (r = 0.23; P < 0.0001), and blood pressure (r = 0.17; P < 0.0001) but not with age. The subjects who recently settled in a city (< or =2 years) had higher BMI (+2.9 kg/m(2); P < 0.001), fasting glycaemia (+0.8 mmol/l; P < 0.001), systolic (+23 mmHg; P < 0.001) and diastolic (+9 mmHg; P = 0.001) blood pressure than rural dwellers with a history of 2 years EU. EU during the first 5 years of life was not, on its own, associated with glycaemia or BMI. However, both lifetime EUt and current residence were independently associated with obesity and diabetes. The association between lifetime EUt and hypertension was not independent of current residence and current level of physical activity. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that for the study of obesity and diabetes, in addition to current residence, both lifetime exposure to an urban environment and recent migration history should be investigated.
Classification with sparse grids using simplicial basis functions

Recently we presented a new approach [20] to the classification problem arising in data mining. It is based on the regularization network approach but in contrast to other methods, which employ ansatz functions associated to data points, we use a grid in the usually high-dimensional feature space for the minimization process. To cope with the curse of dimensionality, we employ sparse grids [52]. Thus, only O(h_n^{-1} n^{d-1}) instead of O(h_n^{-d}) grid points and unknowns are involved. Here d denotes the dimension of the feature space and h_n = 2^{-n} gives the mesh size. We use the sparse grid combination technique [30] where the classification problem is discretized and solved on a sequence of conventional grids with uniform mesh sizes in each dimension. The sparse grid solution is then obtained by linear combination. The method computes a nonlinear classifier but scales only linearly with the number of data points and is well suited for data mining applications where the amount of data is very large, but where the dimension of the feature space is moderately high. In contrast to our former work, where d-linear functions were used, we now apply linear basis functions based on a simplicial discretization. This allows to handle more dimensions and the algorithm needs less operations per data point. We further extend the method to so-called anisotropic sparse grids, where now different a-priori chosen mesh sizes can be used for the discretization of each attribute. This can improve the run time of the method and the approximation results in the case of data sets with different importance of the attributes. We describe the sparse grid combination technique for the classification problem, give implementational details and discuss the complexity of the algorithm. It turns out that the method scales linearly with the number of given data points. Finally we report on the quality of the classifier built by our new method on data sets with up to 14 dimensions. We show that our new method achieves correctness rates which are competitive to those of the best existing methods.