Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new system design methodology for wire pipelined SoC

Wire pipelining (WP) has been proposed in order to limit the impact of increasing wire delays. In general, added pipeline elements alter the system such that architectural changes are needed to preserve functionality. We illustrate a proposal that, while allowing the use of IP blocks without modification, takes advantage of a minimal knowledge of the IP's communication profile to increase performance dramatically. We show the formal equivalence between the IP and the original system and prove the higher performance achievable through a relevant case study.
Role of neo-adjuvant hormonal therapy in the treatment of breast cancer: a review of clinical trials

The clinical benefits of endocrine therapy for patients with hormonosensitive breast cancer are well established. For many years, 5 years of tamoxifen was the gold standard of adjuvant treatment. The recent development of new endocrine agents provides physicians with a more effective therapeutic approach. Nevertheless, the success of neoadjuvant endocrine therapy is much more recent and less reported in the literature. This article reviews the studies published about neoadjuvant endocrine treatment (tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors). According to the literature, neoadjuvant endocrine therapy seems to be effective. In contrast to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, neoadjuvant endocrine therapy is well tolerated, with very few patients having to discontinue the treatment because of side effects. It does not constitute a standard treatment but could have potential for elderly women with operable, hormonosensitive, well differentiated and slowly progressing (SBR I) tumor or for patients with lobular MSBR 1 carcinoma (low chemosensitivity). The newer generation of aromatase inhibitors (letrozole, anastrozole, exemestane) appears to be more active (in terms of overall response rates and conservative surgery rate) than tamoxifen. Patients with an estrogen receptor Allred score of 6 and over are more likely to respond and gain a clinical benefit. The optimal duration of neoadjuvant therapy has not yet been investigated in detail. These preliminary results should be confirmed by further studies.
An Adaptive Metrics Center White Paper The Balanced Scorecard : Developments and Challenges

As the years have passed, the Balanced Scorecard, in some sense of this phrase, has been adopted on a worldwide basis. But the variations in conceptualizing and implementing it are so great that it is not always clear what, exactly, is being adopted and whether an intervention using the name "balanced scorecard" is having the impact its sponsors have envisioned. In this White Paper, I'll provide • a retrospective on the balanced scorecard, and • an overview of its successes and problems. RETROSPECTIVE Since the late 1980s, those developing the balanced scorecard approach have, step-by-step, gradually filled in a more and more sophisticated vision of its full implications. The approach has developed in a number of stages or generations, as some have called it
A Typology of Hybrid Governance : Proposal and Empirical Validation

Firms are increasingly selecting hybrid governance in interfirm relationships to execute a wide range of activities. To aid cumulative theory building, we propose a typology of hybrid governance identifying four types characterized by the levels of two types of asset specificity pertaining to intangible assets: process specificity and expertise specificity. We validate the typology this using data from 218 interfirm relationships.
Autoantibodies in Melanoma-Associated Retinopathy Target TRPM1 Cation Channels of Retinal ON Bipolar Cells

Melanoma-associated retinopathy (MAR) is characterized by night blindness, photopsias, and a selective reduction of the electroretinogram b-wave. In certain cases, the serum contains autoantibodies that react with ON bipolar cells, but the target of these autoantibodies has not been identified. Here we show that the primary target of autoantibodies produced in MAR patients with reduced b-wave is the TRPM1 cation channel, the newly identified transduction channel in ON bipolar cells. Sera from two well characterized MAR patients, but not from a control subject, stained human embryonic kidney cells transfected with the TRPM1 gene, and Western blots probed with these MAR sera showed the expected band size (∼180 kDa). Staining of mouse and primate retina with MAR sera revealed immunoreactivity in all types of ON bipolar cells. Similar to staining for TRPM1, staining with the MAR sera was strong in dendritic tips and somas and was weak or absent in axon terminals. This staining colocalized with GFP in Grm6-GFP transgenic mice, where GFP is expressed in all and only ON bipolar cells, and also colocalized with Gαo, a marker for all types of ON bipolar cells. The staining in ON bipolar cells was confirmed to be specific to TRPM1 because MAR serum did not stain these cells in a Trpm1−/− mouse. Evidence suggests that the recognized epitope is likely intracellular, and the sera can be internalized by retinal cells. We conclude that the vision of at least some patients with MAR is compromised due to autoantibody-mediated inactivation of the TRPM1 channel.
Mean Reversion, Partial Adjustment, and Expected Earnings

This paper examines expectations of earnings mean reversion implied by share prices. Those expectations are individually inaccurate, though correct on the market average. Investors generally expect slightly slower mean reversion rate (15% to 30%) than is ex-post observed (18% to 35%). They expect large abnormal profits to perish fast, which lifts the overall expectations, but median expectation of mean reversion rate is close to zero. That gives both the random-walk and the mean-reversion (or partial-adjustment) advocates partly the truth. Moreover I find that mechanical mean reversion model provides unbiased mean reversion estimates compared to partial adjustment models in economic environment with economic cycles present.
Gender Differences in Occupation of Employment within Australia

Occupational segregation by sex is a persistent phenomenon in contemporary labour markets, and widely assumed to contribute to ongoing gender earnings inequality. In spite of continuing change in the occupational composition of labour markets and legislative efforts to proscribe sex discrimination in employment processes, only limited changes in overall indices of occupational segregation have been recorded in Australia over recent decades. This paper uses disaggregated data to show that even this modest level of integration is underpinned by trends that are not unequivocally favourable for women. Our analysis emphasises the influence of men's increased representation in part-time work, the impact of employment over female share effects, and highlights increased feminisation in some areas alongside integrating trends in others. Overall, we emphasise the continuation of marked differences between men's and women's occupational distribution, particularly at a disaggregated level.
Fiscal fragmentation in decentralized countries : subsidiarity, solidarity and asymmetry

Contents: Preface Part I: Introduction Part II: Federal Industrial Countries Part III: New Federal Countries Part IV: Countries in Transition Part V: Developing Countries Part VI: Postconflict Index Contributors include: B. Bayenet, R.M. Bird, B. Brodjonegoro, B. Dafflon, P. de Bruycker, R.D. Ebel, J. Ford, W. Fox, T. Garcia-Mila, S. Gianci, R. Manasan, J. Martinez-Vazquez, T.J. McGuire, M.G. Rao, S. Sehili, N. Singh, P.B. Spahn, F. Vaillancourt, C. Wallich, J. Werner, C. Wong
The Role of Integrins in Cancer and the Development of Anti-Integrin Therapeutic Agents for Cancer Therapy

Integrins have been reported to mediate cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, and migration programs. For this reason, the past few years have seen an increased interest in the implications of integrin receptors in cancer biology and tumor cell aggression. This review considers the potential role of integrins in cancer and also addresses why integrins are present attractive targets for drug design. It discusses of the several properties of the integrin-based chemotherapeutic agents currently under consideration clinically and provides an insight into cancer drug development using integrin as a target.
Orthogonal Security with Cipherbase

This paper describes the design of the Cipherbase system. Cipherbase is a full-fledged SQL database system that achieves high performance and high data confidentiality by storing and processing strongly encrypted data. The Cipherbase system incorporates customized trusted hardware, extending Microsoft’s SQL Server for efficient execution of queries using both secure hardware and commodity servers. This paper presents the design of the Cipherbase secure hardware and its implementation using FPGAs. Furthermore, this paper shows how we addressed hardware / software co-design in the Cipherbase system.
Comparing esthetic smile perceptions among laypersons with and without orthodontic treatment experience and dentists

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine whether orthodontic treatment experience affects the individual's perception of smile esthetics and to evaluate differences among orthodontically treated laypersons, non-treated laypersons, and dentists by using computerized image alterations. Methods A photograph of a woman's smile was digitally altered using a software image editing program. The alterations involved gingival margin height, crown width and length, incisal plane canting, and dental midline of the maxillary anterior teeth. Three groups of raters (orthodontically treated laypersons, non-treated laypersons, and dentists) evaluated the original and altered images using a visual analog scale. Results The threshold for detecting changes in maxillary central incisor gingival margin height among laypersons was 1.5 mm; the threshold of dentists, who were more perceptive, was 1.0 mm. For maxillary lateral incisor crown width and height, the threshold of all three groups was 3.0 mm. Canting of the incisal plane was perceived when the canting was 3.0 mm among non-treated laypersons, 2.0 mm among treated laypersons, and 1.0 mm among dentists. Non-treated laypersons could not perceive dental midline shifts; however, treated laypersons and dentists perceived them when the shift was ≥ 3.0 mm. Conclusions Laypersons with and without orthodontic treatment experience and dentists have different perceptions of smile esthetics. Orthodontically treated laypersons were more critical than non-treated laypersons regarding incisal plane canting and dental midline shifts. Based on these findings, it is suggested that orthodontic treatment experience improved the esthetic perceptions of laypersons.
Hippocampal control of repetition effects for associative stimuli

Recent findings suggest that repetition effects interact with episodic memory processes that are putatively supported by the hippocampus. Thus, the formation or refinement of episodic memories may be related to a modulating signal from the hippocampus to the neocortex which leads to sparser or more extended stimulus representations (repetition suppression or enhancement), depending on the type of stimulus and the brain site. This framework suggests that hippocampal activity during the initial presentation of a stimulus correlates with the magnitude of repetition effects. Here, we tested this hypothesis in an fMRI study in which associations between faces and buildings were presented twice. BOLD responses showed repetition suppression in fusiform face area (FFA) and parahippocampal place area (PPA), most likely due to a refinement of existing category representations. Hippocampal activity during the first presentations was correlated with the amount of repetition suppression, in particular in the FFA. Repetition enhancement effects were observed on BOLD responses in posterior parietal cortex, possibly related to the formation of new representations of associative stimuli. The magnitude of parietal BOLD repetition effects depended on successful memory formation. These findings suggest that both repetition enhancement and repetition suppression effects are influenced by a modulating signal from the hippocampus. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
OSA: a fast and accurate alignment tool for RNA-Seq

UNLABELLED Accurately mapping RNA-Seq reads to the reference genome is a critical step for performing downstream analysis such as transcript assembly, isoform detection and quantification. Many tools have been developed; however, given the huge size of the next generation sequencing datasets and the complexity of the transcriptome, RNA-Seq read mapping remains a challenge with the ever-increasing amount of data. We develop Omicsoft sequence aligner (OSA), a fast and accurate alignment tool for RNA-Seq data. Benchmarked with existing methods, OSA improves mapping speed 4-10-fold with better sensitivity and less false positives. AVAILABILITY OSA can be downloaded from http://omicsoft.com/osa. It is free to academic users. OSA has been tested extensively on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows platforms.
Survey of Current Medical Treatments for Childhood-Onset Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Japan

The prevalence of childhood-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus has increased dramatically over the past two or three decades in Japan, but epidemiological and clinical data remain limited. This survey was conducted to elucidate the current use of antidiabetic medications and the efficacy, safety and problems associated with the use of these agents. Clinical data on 259 children (younger than 18 yr of age; 121 boys and 138 girls) with type 2 diabetes treated at 42 medical centers throughout Japan between June and September 2003 were analyzed. Sixty-nine percent of all the type 2 diabetic patients (78% of the boys, 63% of the girls) were obese (percent overweight ≥ 20%) at the time of diagnosis. Overall, 172 subjects (66%) were treated using anti-hyperglycemic agents, including α-glucosidase inhibitors (α-GI), insulin, metformin and sulfonylureas (SUs). Many patients who were initially treated with a single medication eventually required insulin alone or in combination with an additional agent, suggesting that their diabetic control had deteriorated during the course of treatment. The HbA1c level of the 14 subjects who received only metformin decreased significantly without an improvement in obesity. Three cases with adverse events were reported, but causal relations with anti-hyperglycemic agents were not clear. In conclusion, mainly α-GI, insulin and metformin have been prescribed for childhood-onset type 2 diabetes patients in Japan. The results of this survey suggest that metformin is safe and effective for the treatment of type 2 diabetes with obesity in children and adolescents.
Molecules, ices and astronomy

Molecules in interstellar gas and in interstellar ices play a fundamental role in astronomy. However, the formation of the simplest molecule, molecular hydrogen, is still not fully understood. Similarly, although interstellar ice analogues have received much attention in the laboratory, the evolution of ices in the interstellar medium still requires further study. At UCL we have developed two separate experiments to address these issues and explore the following questions: How is H formed on dust-grain surfaces? What is the budget between internal, kinetic and surface energies in the formation process? What are the astronomical consequences of these results? For ices, we ask: How do molecules desorb from pure and from mixed ices in regions warmed by newly formed stars? What can molecules released from ices tell us about the star-formation process? We put our results in the context of other laboratory work and we describe their application to current problems in astronomy.
Interannual and Decadal Variations of Planetary Wave Activity, Stratospheric Cooling, and Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode

Using NCEP‐NCAR 51-yr reanalysis data, the interannual and decadal variations of planetary wave activity and its relationship to stratospheric cooling, and the Northern Hemisphere Annular mode (NAM), are studied. It is found that winter stratospheric polar temperature is highly correlated on a year-to-year basis with the Eliassen‐Palm (E‐P) wave flux from the troposphere, implying a dynamical control of the former by the latter, as often suggested. Greater (lower) wave activity from the troposphere implies larger (smaller) poleward heat flux into the polar region, which leads to warmer (colder) polar temperature. A similar highly correlated antiphase relationship holds for E‐P flux divergence and the strength of the polar vortex in the stratosphere. It is tempting to extrapolate these relationships found for interannual timescales to explain the recent stratospheric polar cooling trend in the past few decades as caused by decreased wave activity in the polar region. This speculation is not supported by the data. On timescales of decades the cooling trend is not correlated with the trend in planetary wave activity. In fact, it is found that planetary wave amplitude, E‐P flux, and E‐P flux convergence all show little statistical evidence of decrease in the past 51 yr, while the stratosphere is experiencing a cooling trend and the NAM index has a positive trend during the past 30 yr. This suggests that the trends in the winter polar temperature and the NAM index can reasonably be attributed to the radiative cooling of the stratosphere, due possibly to increasing greenhouse gases and ozone depletion. It is further shown that the positive trend of the NAM index in the past few decades is not through the inhibition of upward planetary wave propagation from the troposphere to the stratosphere, as previously suggested.
Can Agent Cheap Talk Mitigate Agency Problems in the Presence of a Noisy Performance Measure? An Experimental Test in a Single- and Multi-Period Setting

ABSTRACT: Given traditional agency theory assumptions and unobservable effort in a single-period setting, a moral hazard arises in which the agent is expected to shirk and provide the minimal possible effort after contracting with the principal. Traditional solutions to this agency problem include paying the agent a financial incentive tied to some noisy measure of performance or allowing the agent to develop a reputation over multiple periods. As the noisiness of the performance measure increases, however, these traditional solutions become increasingly costly and ineffective. In many single- and multi-period agency settings in the firm, however, the agent can communicate a promised level of effort to the principal prior to contracting. We document that this pre-contract communication, which is non-enforceable and therefore considered “cheap talk” by traditional economic theory, can be highly effective in mitigating the moral hazard problem in agency theory. In a repeating single-period experimental set.
Epithelioid Myofibroblastoma in an Old-Male Breast: A Case Report with MRI Findings

Myofibroblastoma of the breast (MFB) is a very rare benign stromal tumor. In recent years, increase in mammographic screenings has resulted in increased diagnosis of MFB. Most cases are old males and postmenopausal women. MFB may be confused as malignant, clinically, morphologically, or by imaging. Immunohistochemistry is essential for final diagnosis in these cases. We report a case of a pathologically diagnosed MFB in an 80-year-old male patient who had coexisting prostate cancer and describe its imaging characteristics, especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this paper, histopathological and MRI findings of the MFB were discussed.
The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect

Ending humanitarian atrocities has become as important for the United Nations as preventing interstate war. This book examines the transformation of UN operations, analysing its changing role and structure. Ramesh Thakur asks why, when and how force may be used, and argues that the growing gulf between legality and legitimacy is evidence of an eroded sense of international community. He considers the tension between the United States, with its capacity to use force and project power, and the United Nations, as the centre of the international law enforcement system. He asserts the central importance of the rule of law and a rules-based order focused on the United Nations as the foundation of a civilised system of international relations. This book will be of interest to students of the United Nations and international organisations in politics, law and international relations departments, as well as policymakers in governmental and non-governmental international organisations.
Is There a Human Right to Free Movement? Immigration and Original Ownership of the Earth

To what extent is a country allowed to regulate immigration into its territory, and thus to determine who lives there? Acts of immigration amount to changes in two distinct relationships. They amount to a change in political relationships, since the immigrant alters her political standing within one community and acquires a new political status in her country of admission. Immigration represents, however, also an alteration in physical relationship, since the individual acquires a relationship to a particular piece of territory, making a life for herself with the resources offered by a specific part of the earth. This last form of relationship, we contend, is worthy of independent examination from the standpoint of justice, and opening up that line of inquiry is what this study seeks to do. This inquiry begins from the relationship of people to property, and asks whether that relationship imposes independent moral constraints on immigration controls.
Museum DNA reveals the demographic history of the endangered Seychelles warbler

The importance of evolutionary conservation – how understanding evolutionary forces can help guide conservation decisions – is widely recognized. However, the historical demography of many endangered species is unknown, despite the fact that this can have important implications for contemporary ecological processes and for extinction risk. Here, we reconstruct the population history of the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) – an ecological model species. By the 1960s, this species was on the brink of extinction, but its previous history is unknown. We used DNA samples from contemporary and museum specimens spanning 140 years to reconstruct bottleneck history. We found a 25% reduction in genetic diversity between museum and contemporary populations, and strong genetic structure. Simulations indicate that the Seychelles warbler was bottlenecked from a large population, with an ancestral Ne of several thousands falling to <50 within the last century. Such a rapid decline, due to anthropogenic factors, has important implications for extinction risk in the Seychelles warbler, and our results will inform conservation practices. Reconstructing the population history of this species also allows us to better understand patterns of genetic diversity, inbreeding and promiscuity in the contemporary populations. Our approaches can be applied across species to test ecological hypotheses and inform conservation.