Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Folded Architecture for Digital Gammatone Filter Used in Speech Processor of Cochlear Implant

Emerging trends in the area of digital very large scale integration (VLSI) signal processing can lead to a reduction in the cost of the cochlear implant. Digital signal processing algorithms are repetitively used in speech processors for filtering and encoding operations. The critical paths in these algorithms limit the performance of the speech processors. These algorithms must be transformed to accommodate processors designed to be high speed and have less area and low power. This can be realized by basing the design of the auditory filter banks for the processors on digital VLSI signal processing concepts. By applying a folding algorithm to the second‐order digital gammatone filter (GTF), the number of multipliers is reduced from five to one and the number of adders is reduced from three to one, without changing the characteristics of the filter. Folded second‐order filter sections are cascaded with three similar structures to realize the eighth‐order digital GTF whose response is a close match to the human cochlea response. The silicon area is reduced from twenty to four multipliers and from twelve to four adders by using the folding architecture.
Modification of the n-3 fatty acid profile of meat-and liver-type geese tissues

26 week old meat-type geese (Kolos) were fed maize or a mixture of 90% maize and 10% linseed for 6 weeks. In a second experiment 9 week old liver-type geese (Grimaud G36) were force fed for 20 days either maize or the same mixture of maize and linseed as described above. Linseed incorporation into maize in meat-type geese significantly decreased final body weight, the relative liver weight and abdominal fat pad content, but failed to change the fat content of liver, breast meat and the relative abdominal fat percentage. Feeding linseed however, increased significantly the total n-3 fatty acid content of liver and breast meat. Force feeding with 10% linseed decreased significantly, by 51% the fatty liver weight and by 50% the fat content of liver. No significant effect of dietary treatment was found in the breast meat fat and abdominal fat contents. Using linseed during force-feeding increased the total n-3 fatty acid, linolenic acid, DPA and DHA contents of liver by 4-8 times and total n-3 fatty acids and linolenic acid content of breast meat by 2 times. According to these results n-3 fatty acids inhibit hepatic lipogenesis dramatically in overfed liver-type geese. The modification of fatty acid profile of goose tissues can be more successful with meat-type birds.
The determinants of the adoption of Internet Banking by Chinese consumers

With the development of computer technology and the ubiquitousness of the Internet, Internet Banking (IB) has become more popular among Chinese consumers. However, due to constraints on its adoption and the size of the Chinese market, there is still scope for significant IB adoption Focusing on Chinese IB market conditions and the features of consumers, this paper analyzes the determinants of consumers' IB adoption based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). It employs Structural Equation Modelling to explore the factors that influence IB use, from Attitude to IB Adoption (AIBA), Subjective Norms (SN) and Perceived Adoption Behavior Control (PABC).
ESTROGEN RECEPTOR BETA REGULATES THE EXPRESSION OF TRYPTOPHAN-HYDROXYLASE 2 mRNA WITHIN SEROTONERGIC NEURONS OF THE RAT DORSAL RAPHE NUCLEI

Dysfunctions of the brain 5-HT system are often associated with affective disorders, such as depression. The raphe nuclei target the limbic system and most forebrain areas and constitute the main source of 5-HT in the brain. All 5-HT neurons express tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2), the brain specific, rate-limiting enzyme for 5-HT synthesis. Estrogen receptor (ER) beta agonists have been shown to attenuate anxietyand despair-like behaviors in rodent models. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that ERbeta may contribute to the regulation of gene expression in 5-HT neurons of the dorsal raphe nuclei (DRN) by examining the effects of systemic and local application of the selective ERbeta agonist diarylpropionitrile (DPN) on tph2 mRNA expression. Ovariectomized (OVX) female rats were injected s.c. with DPN or vehicle once daily for 8 days. In situ hybridization revealed that systemic DPN-treatment elevated basal tph2 mRNA expression in the caudal and mid-dorsal DRN. Behavioral testing of all animals in the open field (OF) and on the elevated plus maze (EPM) on days 6 and 7 of treatment confirmed the anxiolytic nature of ERbeta activation. Another cohort of female OVX rats was stereotaxically implanted bilaterally with hormone-containing wax pellets flanking the DRN. Pellets contained 17-beta-estradiol (E), DPN, or no hormone. Both DPN and E significantly enhanced tph2 mRNA expression in the mid-dorsal DRN. DPN also increased tph2 mRNA in the caudal DRN. DPNand E-treated rats displayed a more active stress-coping behavior in the forced-swim test (FST). No behavioral differences were found in the OF or on the EPM. These data indicate that ERbeta acts at the level of the rat DRN to modulate tph2 mRNA expression and thereby influence 5-HT synthesis in DRN subregions. Our results also suggest that local activation of ERbeta neurons in the DRN may be sufficient to decrease despair-like behavior, but not anxiolytic behaviors. © 2009 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Levothyroxine Substitution in Patients with Subclinical Hypothyroidism and the Risk of Myocardial Infarction and Mortality

Background Subclinical hypothyroidism is associated with a number of cardiovascular risk factors, yet only limited data exist on long-term outcome of levothyroxine treatment of this condition with respect to hard end-points. The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to determine effects of levothyroxine treatment on myocardial infarction (MI), cardiovascular death and all-cause mortality, in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism. Methods and Results Primary care patients aged 18 years and older that underwent thyroid function tests between 2000 and 2009 were enrolled. Participants were identified by individual-level linkage of nationwide registers. Patients with subclinical hypothyroidism at baseline were included in the study. Exclusion criteria included a history of thyroid disease, related medication or medication affecting thyroid function. The total cohort comprised 628,953 patients of which 12,212 (1.9%) had subclinical hypothyroidism (mean age 55.2 [SD ± 18.8] years; 79.8% female). Within the first six months 2,483 (20.3%) patients claimed a prescription for levothyroxine. During a median follow-up of 5.0 (IQR: 5.2) years, 358 MI’s and 1,566 (12.8%) deaths were observed. Out of these, 766 of the deaths were cardiovascular related. No beneficial effects were found in levothyroxine treated patients on MI (IRR 1.08 [95% CI: 0.81 to 1.44]), cardiovascular death (IRR 1.02 [95% CI: 0.83 to 1.25]) or all-cause mortality (IRR 1.03 [95% CI: 0.90 to 1.19]), except in patients under the age of 65 years (IRR 0.63 [95% CI: 0.40 to 0.99]). Conclusion Levothyroxine substitution in subclinical hypothyroid patients does not indicate an association with lower mortality or decreased risk of MI.
DETECTION OF PITTING CORROSION OF ALUMINIUM ALLOYS BY ACOUSTIC EMISSION TECHNIQUE

Aluminum and its alloys are widely used in chemical, aeronautical and food industries. However, in-situ control of their localized corrosion remains a problem, especially when pitting corrosion is concerned. In this work, Acoustic Emission (AE) is used as an evaluation method to detect and study the behavior and development of pitting corrosion on aluminum alloy 2024 T351. Pits are developed by potentiostatic polarization in a neutral Na2SO4 solution with a precise quantity of Cl ions (10 to 200 ppm). The initiation and the propagation steps of the pits were studied versus Cl concentration through AE monitoring. It appears that the initiation step of pitting corrosion is not significantly emissive, whereas the propagation step is characterized by two waveforms: one of impulse type, the other of resonant type. These two kinds of AE signals are representative of the development of the pits, within which the evolution of hydrogen bubbles appears to be the emissive phenomenon.
High-Performance Tensor Contraction without BLAS

Tensor computations–in particular tensor contraction (TC)–are important kernels in many scientific computing applications (SCAs). Due to the fundamental similarity of TC to matrix multiplication (MM) and to the availability of optimized implementations such as the BLAS, tensor operations have traditionally been implemented in terms of BLAS operations, incurring both a performance and a storage overhead. Instead, we implement TC using the much more flexible BLIS framework, which allows for reshaping of the tensor to be fused with internal partitioning and packing operations, requiring no explicit reshaping operations or additional workspace. This implementation achieves performance approaching that of MM, and in some cases considerably higher than that of traditional TC. Our implementation also supports multithreading using an approach identical to that used for MM in BLIS, with similar performance characteristics. The complexity of managing tensorto-matrix transformations is also handled automatically in our approach, greatly simplifying its use in SCAs.
DETERMINANTS OF FERTILIZER USE AMONG SMALLHOLDER FOOD CROP FARMERS IN ONDO STATE , NIGERIA

Fertilizer is an important technology in increasing food production. In this study, cross-sectional data from 110 smallholder food crop farmers were used to examine fertilizer use and the influencing factors among smallholder farmers in Ondo state, Nigeria. Descriptive statistics and Tobit regression model were used for the analysis. The results showed that 60.91% of the farmers are male and in their active age. Majority of the respondents (78.18%) are fertilizer users. The result of the Tobit model showed that years of education, distant to the nearest fertilizer market, membership of registered farmers’ group, farm size, credit access and fertilizer price were significant factors influencing fertilizer use among the farmers. All the significant variables except distance to the nearest market and price of fertilizer influenced fertilizer use positively. The results suggested that in order to enhance fertilizer use, human capital such as education should be emphasized and formation of cooperatives that offer micro-finances and loans to farmers should be encouraged. Government should also ensure that the subsidized fertilizer reaches the farmers at the subsidized price.
The effects of inflation targeting on macroeconomic performance

An increasing number of countries have adopted inflation targeting since New Zealand first adopted this framework in early 1990. Currently there are 21 countries using inflation targeting in every continent of the world. This paper discusses the economic effects of inflation targeting. The main conclusion is that inflation targeting has largely been a success. The new framework has made central banks, which previously lacked credibility, able to change the way they do monetary policy towards what is commonly considered best practice. In many respects they have even been leading in creating a new benchmark for how to formulate monetary policy.
Evaluation the effect of cultural media and IBA on rooting characters of Night Jessamine ( Cestrum nocturnum ) stem cutting 1

In order to evaluate the effect of media type and indule butyric acid (IBA) on rooting of Night Jessamine (Cestrum nocturnum) cuttings, this study was performed as factorial arrangement in randomized complete block design in mist greenhouse. For this purpose was prepared 15 cm long semi-woody cuttings and was cultured in sand and peat-moss media after treating by 0, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 4000 mg/L IBA. Each treatment had 4 replications and each replication had 5 cuttings. After 70 days was recorded rooting percent, grown cutting percent, root number in each cutting, root length, root fresh and dry weight. Based on results, sand medium had significant influence on rooting percent and grown cutting percent in 5% level. Also 2000 and 4000 mg/L IBA had the greatest influence on evaluated characters.
KNEE SWING-INITIATION AND ANKLE PLANTAR FLEXION CONTROL USING AN ACTIVE PROSTHESIS ACROSS WALKING SPEEDS AND USERS

Lower-limb amputees commonly experience abnormal gait characteristics, chronic pain and joint disorders [for review, see 1]. These behaviors are attributed to the absence of muscles and use of prostheses that inadequately restore muscular functions. Moreover, the prevalence and/or intensity of these behaviors generally increase as the level of leg amputation increases [1]. Therefore, advancing prostheses to better emulate the biological system is important, in particular for individuals with a high level of amputation such as above-knee amputees.
Opportunistic routing for body area network

Wireless body area network (WBAN) is an interesting application of sensor networks which can revolutionize our interaction with the outside world. WBAN like any other sensor network suffers limited energy resources and hence preserving the energy of the nodes is of great importance. Unlike typical sensor networks WBANs have few and dissimilar sensors. In addition, the body medium has its own propagation characteristic which means that the existing solution for preserving energy in wireless sensor networks might not be efficient in WBANs. The quality of the links between the nodes in WBAN is changing frequently due to the moving nature of the body. This can pose a major problem especially in the energy efficiency merit. In this work we have proposed an opportunistic scheme to exploit the body movements during the walking to increase the life time of the network. The results show that comparing to the existing methods this work can increase the life time of the network.
Hybrid Sequencing Approach Applied to Human Fecal Metagenomic Clone Libraries Revealed Clones with Potential Biotechnological Applications

Natural environments represent an incredible source of microbial genetic diversity. Discovery of novel biomolecules involves biotechnological methods that often require the design and implementation of biochemical assays to screen clone libraries. However, when an assay is applied to thousands of clones, one may eventually end up with very few positive clones which, in most of the cases, have to be “domesticated” for downstream characterization and application, and this makes screening both laborious and expensive. The negative clones, which are not considered by the selected assay, may also have biotechnological potential; however, unfortunately they would remain unexplored. Knowledge of the clone sequences provides important clues about potential biotechnological application of the clones in the library; however, the sequencing of clones one-by-one would be very time-consuming and expensive. In this study, we characterized the first metagenomic clone library from the feces of a healthy human volunteer, using a method based on 454 pyrosequencing coupled with a clone-by-clone Sanger end-sequencing. Instead of whole individual clone sequencing, we sequenced 358 clones in a pool. The medium-large insert (7–15 kb) cloning strategy allowed us to assemble these clones correctly, and to assign the clone ends to maintain the link between the position of a living clone in the library and the annotated contig from the 454 assembly. Finally, we found several open reading frames (ORFs) with previously described potential medical application. The proposed approach allows planning ad-hoc biochemical assays for the clones of interest, and the appropriate sub-cloning strategy for gene expression in suitable vectors/hosts.
Retail Sector Concentration and Price Dynamics in the Euro Area: A Regional Analysis

We conduct a regional analysis of the relationship between market concentration and price dynamics in the grocery retail sector, focusing on a sample of five categories of goods belonging to the 12 COICOP aggregation and on a panel of countries that includes Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy, Austria and Portugal. Using a unique census-type dataset on retailers, we construct Herfindahl-Hirschman indices of concentration at the buying group, parent company and individual shop level for a sample of 118,540 large grocery stores and we study the association between these measures and regional price changes. Our results point to a positive association between retail market concentration and price growth in food and beverages, alcohol and tobacco and miscellaneous goods in the time span 2003-2010 at the buying, parental group and store level for the pooled sample of countries. The relation reverses sign for clothing and footwear and household equipment. This evidence is robust to different specifications of concentration indices.
Study on mercury adsorption by modified calcium-based sorbent

The large amount of fossil fuel consumption has increased Hg emission into atmosphere and the related Hg emission has attracted more and more attention. Based on the disadvantages of active carbon sorbent injection, this research has proposed using low-cost calcium-based sorbent which prepared by Ca(OH)2 and fly ash to capture mercury in flue gas. Experiments were carried out in a fixed-bed facility with gaseous elemental mercury which produced by a permeation tube and other simulated flue gas composition. The experiment results indicated that the adsorption performance of hydrated lime is relatively poor. The presence of SO2 in the simulated flue gas can enhance the Hg0 removal efficiency. The Hg0 removal efficiency of modified calcium-based sorbent which have additive is higher than hydrated lime. The Hg0 removal efficiency of modified calcium-based sorbent decreased when SO2 exist in the simulated flue gas. The use of modified calcium-based sorbent can achieve simultaneous removal of SO2 and Hg0 by relatively low cost.
Modeling collaborations with dynamic structural adaptation in mechatronic UML

The next generation of advanced mechatronic systems is expected to behave more intelligently than today's systems. These systems are expected to enhance their functionality and improve their performance by building communities of autonomous agents which exploit local and global networking. Such mechatronic systems will therefore include complex coordination protocols which require execution in real-time and reconfiguration of the locally employed control algorithms at runtime to adjust their behavior to the changing system goals leading to self-adaptation. In this paper we will present an extension of the MECHATRONIC UML approach which will enable us to model collaborations between components which include structural adaptation and multi-ports. Besides the modeling of complex collaborations and the rules to join and leave these collaborations via ports and multi-ports, we propose to employ hierarchical state machines with a dynamic number of submachines to model the behavior of the multi-ports. For the collaborations this involves the related protocols, while for the components we have to refine this behavior to ensure a proper synchronization with other parts of the component behavior.
Cholesterol-lowering Effect of Rice Protein by Enhancing Fecal Excretion of Lipids in Rats

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of isolated protein from white rice on lipid metabolism in a hypercholesterolemic animal model. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups and fed either a normal diet or a high-cholesterol diet (HCD) containing either casein or isolated rice protein for 4 weeks. Compared with rats fed a HCD with casein, the total cholesterol (TC) level in the plasma was significantly reduced in the rats fed rice protein. However, no significant differences were observed in the triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and glucose levels among the experimental groups. Hepatic total lipids and TC levels were significantly decreased by supplementation with rice protein. In addition, rice protein significantly increased the levels of TC and bile acids in the feces. These results suggest that rice protein may improve HCD-induced hypercholesterolemia by enhancing fecal excretion of cholesterol.
VERIFICATION OF A MODIFIED VERSION OF THE FEMWATER 3 D SATURATED-UNSATURATED , VARIABLE-DENSITY FLOW AND TRANSPORT CODE

The groundwater flow and transport code FEMWATER was selected for modelling saturated-unsaturated, variabledensity flow and brine transport at the ten tailings management areas (TMA) associated with potash mining in Saskatchewan. FEMWATER was originally developed for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and later updated and adopted as one of the codes supported by the U.S. Department of Defence groundwater modelling system (GMS). For application to TMA problems, the GMS-release of the FEMWATER code (version 2.1) was modified to allow porepressure response to total stress changes as a result of pile-loading at the surface to be modelled. The changes made it necessary to independently verify the revised code by running an extensive series of benchmark simulations. The benchmark solutions were compared with analytic solutions and numerical simulations using independent codes (such as FEFLOW, SEAWAT, SUTRA and TOUGH2). A large number of benchmark problems were assembled involving steadystate and transient flow, variable-density flow, variably saturated flow and pore-pressure dissipation and generation involving soil consolidation. Various aspects of the performance of FEMWATER are discussed as they relate to general problems and pitfalls encountered in code validation. RÉSUMÉ The groundwater flow and transport code FEMWATER was selected for modelling saturated-unsaturated, variabledensity flow and brine transport at the ten tailings management areas (TMA) associated with potash mining in Saskatchewan. FEMWATER was originally developed for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and later updated and adopted as one of the codes supported by the U.S. Department of Defence groundwater modelling system (GMS). For application to TMA problems, the GMS-release of the FEMWATER code (version 2.1) was modified to allow porepressure response to total stress changes as a result of pile-loading at the surface to be modelled. The changes made it necessary to independently verify the revised code by running an extensive series of benchmark simulations. The benchmark solutions were compared with analytic solutions and numerical simulations using independent codes (such as FEFLOW, SEAWAT, SUTRA and TOUGH2). A large number of benchmark problems were assembled involving steadystate and transient flow, variable-density flow, variably saturated flow and pore-pressure dissipation and generation involving soil consolidation. Various aspects of the performance of FEMWATER are discussed as they relate to general problems and pitfalls encountered in code validation.