Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LCMV beamforming applied to a time-modulated reflector-array: Concept and simulations

An adaptive nulling scheme for a time-modulated reflector-array (TMRA) based on linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) beamforming is introduced and investigated. Compared to conventional phased arrays or reflector arrays, a TMRA is potentially simpler to implement in hardware as it does not require a complex feed structure or the use of phase shifters. Linearly constrained minimum variance algorithm is used in various applications of array signal processing and in this contribution we apply the scheme to a TMRA. A simple example of 8 element linear TMRA is analysed using Fourier series and array-factor theory. The switching sequence applied to the TMRA is derived from a LCMV algorithm to produce a prescribed scattering pattern at harmonic frequencies. The performance of a theoretical TMRA model consisting of switchable elements is compared to that of a conventional phased array with phase shifters. A TMRA based on bowtie dipole design were constructed and simulated using full-wave simulator to show adaptive nulling at harmonic frequencies.
Lexical Query Paraphrasing for Document Retrieval

We describe a mechanism for the generation of lexical paraphrases of queries posed to an Internet resource. These paraphrases are generated using WordNet and part-of-speech information to propose synonyms for the content words in the queries. Statistical information, obtained from a corpus, is then used to rank the paraphrases. We evaluated our mechanism using 404 queries whose answers reside in the LA Times subset of the TREC-9 corpus. There was a 14% improvement in performance when paraphrases were used for document retrieval.
Clustering climate reconstructions

Abstract. A systematic coherence analysis is presented for the set of the most prominent millennial reconstructions of northern hemispheric temperature. The large number of mutual coherences underwent a clustering analysis that revealed five significant, mutually incoherent ("inconsistent") clusters. The use of multiple proxies seems to be causing the clustering, at least in part, but not in an easily definable, physical way. Alternatively, a multidimensional scaling is performed on the same set of coherences. This results in a graphic, two-dimensional rendering of the reconstructions whose geometry (location and distance) is given by the coherences. Both approaches offer complementary ways in dealing with the inconsistencies.
Deaf adults and health care: Giving voice to their stories

Purpose: Deaf adults often experience significant healthcare disparities. This article gives voice to nine Deaf adults as they describe their lifelong experiences with health care. Data sources: Qualitative, hermeneutic interviews with nine culturally Deaf adults. Each participant was interviewed three times, aided by a certified American Sign Language interpreter. Conclusions: Participants recalled childhood memories of painful and frightening procedures to investigate the deafness, which frequently overshadowed emotional needs. Communication barriers between Deaf patients and providers left the patients not understanding the diagnosis or treatment, medication use, or side effects. Descriptions included distressing or embarrassing interactions, and cries for help gone unanswered. Consequently, minimal health promotion occurs and most participants rely on the emergency department for health care. Implications for practice: Deaf patients should be screened for physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at every healthcare encounter. Assessments should include social support and social resources. Specific questions about pain, sleep, appetite changes, suicidal thoughts, and interest may help to identify manifestations of illness and health. Certified interpreters may be useful during the healthcare encounter, but ultimately the Deaf patient is best positioned to identify the most comfortable or meaningful means of communication between patient and healthcare provider.
Advances in Pulsed-Laser Atom Probe: Instrument and Specimen Design for Optimum Performance

The performance of the pulsed-laser atom probe can be limited by both instrument and specimen factors. The experiments described in this article were designed to identify these factors so as to provide direction for further instrument and specimen development. Good agreement between voltage-pulsed and laser-pulsed data is found when the effective pulse fraction is less than 0.2 for pulsed-laser mode. Under the conditions reported in this article, the thermal tails of the peaks in the mass spectra did not show any significant change when produced with either a 10-ps or a 120-fs pulsed-laser source. Mass resolving power generally improves as the laser spot size and laser wavelength are decreased and as the specimen tip radius, specimen taper angle, and thermal diffusivity of the specimen material are increased. However, it is shown that two of the materials used in this study, aluminum and stainless steel, depend on these factors differently. A one-dimensional heat flow model is explored to explain these differences. The model correctly predicts the behavior of the aluminum samples, but breaks down for the stainless steel samples when the tip radius is large. A more accurate three-dimensional model is needed to overcome these discrepancies.
Screening for UGT1A1 Genotype in Study A5257 Would Have Markedly Reduced Premature Discontinuation of Atazanavir for Hyperbilirubinemia

Background. Some patients are not prescribed atazanavir because of concern about possible jaundice. Atazanavir-associated hyperbilirubinemia correlates with UGT1A1 rs887829 genotype. We examined bilirubin-related discontinuation of atazanavir in participants from AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study A5257. Methods. Discriminatory properties of UGT1A1 T/T genotype for predicting bilirubin-related atazanavir discontinuation through 96 weeks after antiretroviral initiation were estimated. Results. Genetic analyses involved 1450 participants, including 481 who initiated randomized atazanavir/ritonavir. Positive predictive values of rs887829 T/T for bilirubin-related discontinuation of atazanavir (with 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) were 20% (CI, 9%–36%) in Black, 60% (CI, 32%–84%) in White, and 29% (CI, 8%–58%) in Hispanic participants; negative predictive values were 97% (CI, 93%–99%), 95% (CI, 90%–98%), and 97% (CI, 90%–100%), respectively. Conclusions. Bilirubin-related discontinuation of atazanavir was rare in participants not homozygous for rs887829 T/T, regardless of race or ethnicity. We hypothesize that the higher rate of discontinuation among White participants homozygous for rs887829 T/T may reflect differences in physical manifestations of jaundice by race and ethnicity. Selective avoidance of atazanavir initiation among individuals with T/T genotypes would markedly reduce the likelihood of bilirubin-related discontinuation of atazanavir while allowing atazanavir to be prescribed to the majority of individuals. This genetic association will also affect atazanavir/cobicistat.
The diphenylpyrazole compound anle138b blocks Aβ channels and rescues disease phenotypes in a mouse model for amyloid pathology

Alzheimer's disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disease eventually leading to dementia. An effective treatment does not yet exist. Here we show that oral application of the compound anle138b restores hippocampal synaptic and transcriptional plasticity as well as spatial memory in a mouse model for Alzheimer's disease, when given orally before or after the onset of pathology. At the mechanistic level, we provide evidence that anle138b blocks the activity of conducting Aβ pores without changing the membrane embedded Aβ‐oligomer structure. In conclusion, our data suggest that anle138b is a novel and promising compound to treat AD‐related pathology that should be investigated further.
O R I G I N a L a R T I C L E Open Access

An organic acid-tolerant HAA1-overexpression mutant of an industrial bioethanol strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its application to the production of bioethanol from sugarcane molasses Abstract Bacterial contamination is known as a major cause of the reduction in ethanol yield during bioethanol production by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Acetate is an effective agent for the prevention of bacterial contamination, but it negatively affects the fermentation ability of S. cerevisiae. We have proposed that the combined use of organic acids including acetate and lactate and yeast strains tolerant to organic acids may be effective for the elimination of principally lactic acid bacterial (LAB) contamination. In a previous study employing laboratory S. cerevisiae strains, we showed that overexpression of the HAA1 gene, which encodes a transcriptional activator, could be a useful molecular breeding method for acetate-tolerant yeast strains. In the present study, we constructed a HAA1-overexpressing diploid strain (MAT a/α, named ER HAA1-OP) derived from the industrial bioethanol strain Ethanol Red (ER). ER HAA1-OP showed tolerance not only to acetate but also to lactate, and this tolerance was dependent on the increased expression of HAA1 gene. The ethanol production ability of ER HAA1-OP was almost equivalent to that of the parent strain during the bioethanol production process from sugarcane molasses in the absence of acetate. The addition of acetate at 0.5% (w/v, pH 4.5) inhibited the fermentation ability of the parent strain, but such an inhibition was not observed in the ethanol production process using ER HAA1-OP.
Modulation rate study in spin torque oscillator based wireless communication system

Wireless transmission requires a circuitry to generate GHz range signal. Spin transfer torque devices are one of the promising candidates for generating stable signal in the GHz range through collective precession of the local spins in one of the ferromagnetic layer, known as free layer. Another ferromagnetic layer, fixed layer, acts as a medium to convert the incoming electric current into spin polarized current. This spin polarized current drives local spins of the free layer into constant precession. Factors like high linewidth, low output power and modulation rate are yet to be optimized to make these devices ready for use in practical wireless communication system. Recently, H. S. Choi et al. , has demonstrated the first ever complete wireless communication system using spin torque nano-oscillators (STNOs) through the amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation. Here, we present a more detailed study of wireless communication as a function of the modulation frequency and distance between receiver and transmitting antennas (Tx) in order to determine modulation rate limits.
Modelling layered protocols in LOOPN

LOOPN is a language and simulator for specifying systems in terms of coloured timed Petri nets. It includes object-oriented features such as subtyping, inheritance and polymorphism which allow for the convenient modularisation of complex specifications. This paper briefly describes LOOPN and considers its application to the modelling of layered network protocols. <<ETX>>
Automatic construction of sparse data flow evaluation graphs

In this paper, we present an algorithm that constructs sparse evaluation graphs for forward or backward monotone data flow problems. The sparse graph combines information as early as possible, yet directly connects nodes that generate and use information. This allows problems from the large, general class of monotone data flow problems to err joy the advantages of solutions based on Static Single Assignment (SSA) form.
Sphere Decoding for Spatial Modulation

In this paper, Sphere Decoding (SD) algorithms for Spatial Modulation (SM) are developed to reduce the computational complexity of Maximum--Likelihood (ML--) optimum detectors, which foresee an exhaustive search of the whole search space and have a complexity that linearly increases with the product of number of transmit--antenna, receive--antenna, and size of the modulation scheme. Three SDs specifically designed for SM are proposed and analyzed in terms of Bit Error Probability (BEP) and computational complexity. By judiciously choosing some key parameters, e.g., the radius of the sphere centered around the received signal, it is shown that the proposed algorithms offer the same BEP as ML--optimum detection, with a significant reduction of the computational complexity. Also, it is shown that none of the proposed SDs is always superior to the others, but the best SD to use depends on the system setup, i.e., the number of transmit--antenna, receive--antenna, and the size of the modulation scheme. The computational complexity trade--off offered by the proposed solutions is studied via analysis and simulation, and numerical results are shown to validate our findings.
A novel matrix converter topology with simple commutation

The matrix converter is very simple in structure and has powerful controllability. However, the commutation problem and complicated PWM method keep it from being utilized in industry. This paper discloses a novel matrix topology with advantages over the usual matrix converter topology. Firstly, it has the same performance as a conventional matrix converter in terms of voltage transfer ratio capacity, four quadrant operation, unity input power factor, no DC capacitor and pure sine waveforms with only high order harmonics in both line and load side. Secondly, the PWM method utilized for the conventional inverter can be used, which can largely simplify its control complexity. Thirdly, all the switches at the line side turn on and turn off at zero current; the converter does not have any commutation problems as required by the conventional matrix converter. Theoretical analyses and simulation results are provided to verify its feasibility.
Surgery of Occlusive Cerebrovascular Disease

It is a privilege to review this single author masterpiece on childhood epilepsy. The volume is divided into four parts. It begins with a common sense discussion of the meaning of epilepsy, a definition of terms, the effect of age, and classification of epileptic seizures and epilepsies. The second part deals individually and critically with the best established epilepsies and epileptic syndromes, emphasising the clinical seizure descriptions and electroencephalographic features necessary for giving treatment and prognosis; infantile spasms and such like, LennoxGastaut syndrome and early myoclonic epilepsies, later childhood myoclonic epilepsies, progressive myoclonic epilepsies, epilepsies with typical absences, epilepsies with generalised tonic-clonic seizures, epilepsies with simple partial seizures (including the benign epilepsies), epilepsies with partial complex and affective seizures, and the syndrome of 'acquired aphasia' (too often diagnosed as elective mutism! ). In the third section the perspective is altered to consider epileptic manifestations in relation to age, duration, 'cause', and precipitation, with chapters on neonatal seizures, epilepsy in infants (still a goldmine for future research), febrile convulsions, other occasional convulsions, status epilepticus, stimulus sensitive epilepsies, post-traumatic epilepsy, and epilepsies as the presenting manifestation of brain tumours. The fourth part deals with selected aspects of diagnosis and differential diagnosis (including a critical analysis of anoxic seizures) and general aspects of prognosis and treatment that have not been covered already when discussing specific epilepsies or clinical situations. Sixty pages of the book are devoted to the bibliography, which is serially numbered in alphabetical order. Dr Aicardi states that he has attempted whenever possible to limit the review of the publications to books or articles of general interest that can serve as an introduction to further reading. Since one of the justifications of the book is the pooling together of information often available only in esoteric books, journals, or conference proceedings, however, it is no surprise that the references total around 1600. References up to 1986 are included, and some are 'in press'. My only serious criticism is of the index, which was not compiled by the author himself. It is by no means brief, having 880 entries, but even so several items either are missing from the index or irritatingly require looking up under several headings to find an entry. This problem derives from the immense wealth of material in the book and could be corrected in a future edition. Meanwhile, readers should not be put off if they wish to find the answer to an unindexed question-if necessary, read the book from cover to cover (again). Doctors who treat children with convulsions or epilepsy should have this book both on their own shelves and in their departmental libraries.
G-protein–gated TRP-like Cationic Channel Activated by Muscarinic Receptors

There is little information about the mechanisms by which G-protein–coupled receptors gate ion channels although many ionotropic receptors are well studied. We have investigated gating of the muscarinic cationic channel, which mediates the excitatory effect of acetylcholine in smooth muscles, and proposed a scheme consisting of four pairs of closed and open states. Channel kinetics appeared to be the same in cell-attached or outside-out patches whether the channel was activated by carbachol application or by intracellular dialysis with GTPγS. Since in the latter case G-proteins are permanently active, it is concluded that the cationic channel is the major determinant of its own gating, similarly to the KACh channel (Ivanova-Nikolova, T.T., and G.E. Breitwieser. 1997. J. Gen. Physiol. 109:245–253). Analysis of adjacent-state dwell times revealed connections between the states that showed features conserved among many other ligand-gated ion channels (e.g., nAChR, BKCa channel). Open probability (PO) of the cationic channel was increased by membrane depolarization consistent with the prominent U-shaped I-V relationship of the muscarinic whole-cell current at negative potentials. Membrane potential affected transitions within each closed-open state pair but had little effect on transitions between pairs; thus, the latter are likely to be caused by interactions of the channel with its ligands, e.g., Ca2+ and Gαo-GTP. Channel activity was highly heterogeneous, as was evident from the prominent cycling behavior when PO was measured over 5-s intervals. This was related to the variable frequency of openings (as in the KACh channel) and, especially, to the number of long openings between consecutive long shuttings. Analysis of the underlying Markov chain in terms of probabilities allowed us to evaluate the contribution of each open state to the integral current (from shortest to longest open state: 0.1, 3, 24, and 73%) as PO increased 525-fold in three stages.
Development of an electrospinning-based rapid prototyping for scaffold fabrication

Purpose – This paper aims to present the development of an electrospinning-based rapid prototyping (ESRP) technique for the fabrication of patterned scaffolds from fine fiber. Design/methodology/approach – This ESRP technique unifies rapid prototyping (RP) and electrospinning to obtain the ability of RP to create a controllable pattern and of electrospinning to create a continuous fine fiber. The technique follows RP process of fused deposition modeling, but instead of using extrusion process for fiber creation, electrospinning is applied to generate a continuous fiber from a liquid solution. A machine prototype has been constructed and used in the experiments to evaluate the technique. Findings – Three different lay-down patterns: 0°/90°, 45°/135° and 45° twists were used in the experiments. According to the experimental results, stacks of patterned layers could be created with the ESRP technique, and the fabrication process was repeatable and reproducible. However, the existing machine vibration influen.
The MATCH Program: Long-Term Obesity Prevention Through a Middle School Based Intervention.

BACKGROUND Motivating Adolescents with Technology to CHOOSE Health™ (MATCH) has been provided for eight years in North Carolina middle schools with high obesity prevalence. METHODS Seventh grade teachers in two schools delivered MATCH lessons in 2009, with one control school. In 2013 students were remeasured and completed a health behavior survey. Outcomes include BMI, BMI z-score (zBMI), weight category, and self-reported behaviors. Comparisons used t tests (continuous measures), Fisher's exact test (categorical measures), and linear mixed models (trend between groups). RESULTS Of original participants, 104/189 (55%) of MATCH and 117/173 (68%) of control were remeasured. In the control group, retained participants had lower baseline BMI and were higher percent white. Among all participants, zBMI decreased in MATCH (mean change -0.15 with SD = 0.60) and increased in control (mean change 0.04 with SD = 0.52); between groups p = 0.02. In mixed models for the all overweight subgroup, MATCH had a downward trend in zBMI over time that was significantly different from control (slope MATCH -0.0036 versus control 0.0009; p = 0.01). For shifts in weight category: incidence of obesity was lower in MATCH (13%) versus control (39%); remission of overweight to healthy weight was greater in MATCH (40%) versus control (26%). MATCH participants self-reported lower frequency of intake of sweetened beverages and snacks and hours of weekday TV time than control students. CONCLUSIONS MATCH participation can result in long-term prevention of obesity compared to control, with differences in self-reported health behavior changes to support an underlying mechanism for the observed BMI differences.
Impact perforation of steel plates

The perforation of mild steel, stainless steel and high-strength steel plates subjected to impacts characterised as low-velocity (up to about 20 m/s) and moderate-velocity (20–300 m/s, approximately) are examined in this paper, wherein recent experimental data and some empirical equations have been compared. The threshold velocity for the normal perforation of metal plates focuses on cylindrical projectiles with various shaped impact faces, principally flat. A new criterion is suggested to distinquish between low-velocity and moderate-velocity impacts. Empirical equations are valuable for preliminary design purposes, and are sometimes adequate for final designs. Several empirical equations, which have been developed recently, are examined for their accuracy in estimating the perforation energy of plates in the two impact velocity regimes which have been examined in this article. It is noted that there is a paucity of experimental data when recognising the plethora of parameters which control the perforation of plates. This hinders the development of empirical equations, though surprisingly accurate predictions for perforation velocities are possible to achieve, even for practical problems. Nevertheless, numerical studies are therefore required to remove many of the restrictions on the validity of empirical equations, but these methods require a considerable amount of accurate experimental data on the dynamic material properties and failure criteria.
Spectral properties of ghost Neumann matrices

We continue the analysis of the ghost wedge states in the oscillator formalism by studying the spectral properties of the ghost matrices of Neumann coefficients. We show that the traditional spectral representation is not valid for these matrices and propose a new heuristic formula that allows one to reconstruct them from the knowledge of their eigenvalues and eigenvectors. It turns out that additional data, which we call boundary data, are needed in order to actually implement the reconstruction. In particular our result lends support to the conjecture that there exists a ghost three strings vertex with properties parallel to those of the matter three strings vertex.