Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermal performance of 3D ICs: Analysis and alternatives

3D ICs are assumed to suffer from stronger thermal issues when compared to equivalent implementations in traditional single-die integration technologies. Based on this assumption, heat dissipation is frequently pointed as one of the remaining challenges in the promising 3D integration technology. This work brings an overview of the thermal impact of the 3D integration technology, providing means to investigate causes and alternative solution for the existing thermal issues in 3D ICs. A complete chip-package-board system is used to evaluate the thermal performance of a memory-on-logic 3D circuit. Thermal simulations and silicon measurements from two fabricated versions of a SoC instrumented with integrated heaters and thermal sensors are compared to reveal the temperature profile changes resulting from 3D integration. This work also provides a comprehensive discussion of the four main aspects differentiating heat dissipation in 3D ICs: chip footprint, die thickness, inter-die interface and TSVs. This study demonstrates, for instance, that non-thinned stacked dies may act as heat spreaders and help to alleviate hotspot issues while TSVs are in fact not effective for thermal mitigation. Lastly, this work proposes the use of graphite-based heat spreaders as an alternative to compensate the poor heat dissipation properties exhibited in 3D ICs. Simulation results show a temperature reduction of up to 45μC and suggest this is a potential cost-effective method for thermal management. The discussion presented in this work aims to understand the thermal impact of technology parameters inherent in 3D integration and supports system architects and designers to take early design decisions and prevent thermal issues.
1976 and 2009 H1N1 influenza virus vaccines boost anti-hemagglutinin stalk antibodies in humans.

BACKGROUND Infection with pandemic H1N1 influenza A viruses (IAVs) containing hemagglutinin (HA) proteins with globular heads that differ substantially from seasonal strains results in a boost in broadly cross-reactive antibodies that bind to the HA stalk. Boosting these antibodies has become an attractive strategy for creating a universal IAV vaccine. Therefore, it was essential to determine whether vaccines containing H1N1 viruses whose head domains differ substantially compared to seasonal strains could also achieve this boost. METHODS Prospective samples of subjects who had received the A/New Jersey/1976 (NJ/76) vaccine and healthy, age-matched controls were assessed for the presence of anti-HA stalk antibodies before and after receiving the A/California/04/2009 (Cal/09) vaccine between October 2009 and January 2010. RESULTS Individuals who received either the NJ/76 vaccine or the Cal/09 vaccine experienced a robust boost in HA stalk-reactive, neutralizing antibodies similar to what has been observed in individuals infected with Cal/09. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that vaccines containing viruses whose HA head domains that differ substantially from seasonal strains are capable of boosting titers of HA stalk antibodies. Furthermore, anti-HA stalk antibodies elicited by vaccination appear to be long-lived and therefore could be targeted for the generation of a universal IAV vaccine.
Identification of Cutpoints for Acceptable Health Status and Important Improvement in Patient-Reported Outcomes, in Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, and Ankylosing Spondylitis

Objective. To identify cutpoints reflecting Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) and Minimal Clinically Important Improvement (MCII) in patient-reported multi-attribute health status classification systems and health status measurements among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Methods. We identified patients with RA, AS, and PsA from the Norwegian disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) register (NOR-DMARD). The patients (n = 4225) had started with DMARD and responded to the PASS and MCII anchoring questions at the 3-month followup examination. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves with 80% specificity and the 75th percentile approach were used to identify PASS and MCII cutpoints in the EuroQol-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) and the Short-Form-6 Dimensions (SF-6D) indexes, but also in other patient-reported outcomes (joint pain and patient global visual analog scale and Modified Health Assessment Questionnaire). Results. The PASS cutpoints estimated with 80% specificity were around 0.70 in EQ-5D in all diseases and around 0.65 in SF-6D. The cutpoints were around 0.65 and 0.60, respectively, when the 75th percentile approach was used. The MCII cutpoints assessed by 80% specificity varied from 0.10 to 0.19 in EQ-5D and from 0.07 to 0.10 in SF-6D. Conclusion. The cutpoints for PASS in EQ-5D and SF-6D indicate that PASS corresponds to a health-related quality of life that is far from perfect health. Somewhat different cutpoints were identified for both PASS and MCII with 80% specificity versus the 75th percentile method.
Crystal Structure of Aminopeptidase N (Proteobacteria Alanyl Aminopeptidase) from Escherichia coli and Conformational Change of Methionine 260 Involved in Substrate Recognition*

Aminopeptidase N from Escherichia coli is a broad specificity zinc exopeptidase belonging to aminopeptidase clan MA, family M1. The structures of the ligand-free form and the enzyme-bestatin complex were determined at 1.5- and 1.6-Å resolution, respectively. The enzyme is composed of four domains: an N-terminal β-domain (Met1-Asp193), a catalytic domain (Phe194-Gly444), a middle β-domain (Thr445-Trp546), and a C-terminal α-domain (Ser547-Ala870). The structure of the catalytic domain exhibits similarity to thermolysin, and a metal-binding motif (HEXXHX18E) is found in the domain. The zinc ion is coordinated by His297, His301, Glu320, and a water molecule. The groove on the catalytic domain that contains the active site is covered by the C-terminal α-domain, and a large cavity is formed inside the protein. However, there exists a small hole at the center of the C-terminal α-domain. The N terminus of bestatin is recognized by Glu121 and Glu264, which are located in the N-terminal and catalytic domains, respectively. Glu298 and Tyr381, located near the zinc ion, are considered to be involved in peptide cleavage. A difference revealed between the ligand-free form and the enzyme-bestatin complex indicated that Met260 functions as a cushion to accept substrates with different N-terminal residue sizes, resulting in the broad substrate specificity of this enzyme.
Finite Projective Dimension and the Vanishing of Ext R (M, M)

We show that for a finitely generated module M over a complete intersection R, the vanishing of for a certain number of consecutive values of i starting at n forces the projective dimension of M to be at most n − 1. In particular, if and only if the projective dimension of M over R is at most one. We also verify a conjecture of Auslander and Reiten for modules over commutative rings with certain typical behaviors, which augments the recent literature.
Roundup® and amphibians: The importance of concentration, application time, and stratification

The widespread use of pesticides raises the possibility that non‐target organisms might also be affected. To assess this, the traditional approach has been to conduct short‐term laboratory experiments spanning a range of lethal concentrations and some longer‐duration experiments at sublethal concentrations. While this approach has been very useful, less attention has been paid to the timing of exposure and the impacts of multiple, small exposures versus single, large exposures. We examined the role of application amount, timing, and frequency using outdoor mesocosm communities containing larval amphibians (Rana sylvatica and Bufo americanus) and using a commercial formulation of the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup Original MAX®). Consistent with past studies, exposures of up to 3 mg acid equivalent (a.e.)/L caused substantial amphibian death. However, the amount of death was considerably higher when the herbicide was applied earlier in the experiment than later in the experiment. Single, large applications (at different times) had larger effects on tadpole mortality and growth than multiple, small applications (of the same total amount). The results may reflect an acclimation to the herbicide over time. In treatments with high tadpole mortality, there was no resulting increase in periphyton, suggesting that the reduction in tadpole herbivory might have been offset by direct negative impacts of the herbicide. We also discovered that temperature stratification caused herbicide stratification, with higher concentrations near the surface. Such stratification has important implications to the habitat choices of ectotherms that might prefer surface waters for thermoregulation or prefer deeper waters to avoid predators. Collectively, the present study demonstrates the importance of examining multiple applications times and frequencies to understand the impacts of pesticides on organisms. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2010;29:2016–2025. © 2010 SETAC
Taxane-mediated gene induction is independent of microtubule stabilization: induction of transcription regulators and enzymes that modulate inflammation and apoptosis.

Pharmacological traits of the antineoplastic agent taxol may originate in part from its effects on gene expression and not simply from its effects on microtubule assembly. This prompts three questions. First, how extensive is gene induction by taxol? Second, is gene induction confined to taxol itself, or does it occur with other taxane analogs? Third, do the functions of any induced genes correspond with known attributes of taxol or taxane analogs? We report that taxol induces numerous early-response genes, not just cytokine genes. Previously unidentified taxol-induced genes include genes coding transcription factors with tumor suppressor effects (krox-24) and enzymes that govern proliferation, apoptosis, and inflammation (2'5'-oligoadenylate synthase, cyclooxygenase-2, and an IkappaB kinase termed chuk). Taxotere, a potent analog of taxol, did not induce any of these genes, implying that taxol modulates gene expression by a mechanism that is distinct from microtubule stabilization and cell cycle arrest. Other taxane analogs induce some of the same genes as taxol, indicating that this process is not unique to taxol. Functional changes coincided with changes in gene expression. For instance, induction of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) accentuated apoptosis in cells treated with taxol compared with corresponding cells treated with taxotere. The functions of several induced genes (e.g., krox-24 and cyclooxygenase-2) are self-consistent with beneficial and adverse effects encountered during taxol administration. These results may be relevant to the safe and effective use of taxol or its analogs in oncology and other areas of medicine.
Grey Matter Correlates of Three Language Tests in Non-demented Older Adults

Language has been extensively investigated by functional neuroimaging studies. However, only a limited number of structural neuroimaging studies have examined the relationship between language performance and brain structure in healthy adults, and the number is even less in older adults. The present study sought to investigate correlations between grey matter volumes and three standardized language tests in late life. The participants were 344 non-demented, community-dwelling adults aged 70-90 years, who were drawn from the population-based Sydney Memory and Ageing Study. The three language tests included the Controlled Oral Word Association Task (COWAT), Category Fluency (CF), and Boston Naming Test (BNT). Correlation analyses between voxel-wise GM volumes and language tests showed distinctive GM correlation patterns for each language test. The GM correlates were located in the right frontal and left temporal lobes for COWAT, in the left frontal and temporal lobes for CF, and in bilateral temporal lobes for BNT. Our findings largely corresponded to the neural substrates of language tasks revealed in fMRI studies, and we also observed a less hemispheric asymmetry in the GM correlates of the language tests. Furthermore, we divided the participants into two age groups (70-79 and 80-90 years old), and then examined the correlations between structural laterality indices and language performance for each group. A trend toward significant difference in the correlations was found between the two age groups, with stronger correlations in the group of 70-79 years old than those in the group of 80-90 years old. This difference might suggest a further decline of language lateralization in different stages of late life.
ClimbSense: Automatic Climbing Route Recognition using Wrist-worn Inertia Measurement Units

Today, sports and activity trackers are ubiquitous. Especially runners and cyclists have a variety of possibilities to record and analyze their workouts. In contrast, climbing did not find much attention in consumer electronics and human-computer interaction. If quantified data similar to cycling or running data were available for climbing, several applications would be possible, ranging from simple training diaries to virtual coaches or usage analytics for gym operators. This paper introduces a system that automatically recognizes climbed routes using wrist-worn inertia measurement units (IMUs). This is achieved by extracting features of a recorded ascent and use them as training data for the recognition system. To verify the recognition system, cross-validation methods were applied to a set of ascent recordings that were assessed during a user study with eight climbers in a local climbing gym. The evaluation resulted in a high recognition rate, thus proving that our approach is possible and operational.
Male soy food intake was not associated with in vitro fertilization outcomes among couples attending a fertility center

Male factor etiology may be a contributing factor in up to 60% of infertility cases. Dietary intake of phytoestrogens has been related to abnormal semen quality and hormone levels. However, its effect on couple fecundity is still unclear. Intake of soy products was assessed in 184 men from couples undergoing infertility treatment with in vitro fertilization. Couples were recruited between February 2007 and May 2014 and prospectively followed to document treatment outcomes including fertilization, implantation, clinical pregnancy and live birth. Multivariate generalized linear mixed models with random intercepts, binomial distribution and logit link function were used to examine this relation while accounting for repeated treatment cycles and adjusting for potential confounders. Male partner's intake of soy foods and soy isoflavones was unrelated to fertilization rates, the proportions of poor quality embryos, accelerated or slow embryo cleavage rate, and implantation, clinical pregnancy and live birth. The adjusted live birth rates per initiated cycle (95% CI) for partners of men in increasing categories of soy food intake were 0.36 (0.28–0.45), 0.42 (0.29–0.56), 0.36 (0.24–0.51), and 0.37 (0.24–0.52), respectively. Soy food intake in men was not related to clinical outcomes among couples presenting at an infertility clinic. Data on the relation between phytoestrogens and male reproductive potential remain scarce and additional research is required to clarify its role in human reproduction.
Divergent climate response on hydraulic-related xylem anatomical traits of Picea abies along a 900-m altitudinal gradient.

Climate change can induce substantial modifications in xylem structure and water transport capacity of trees exposed to environmental constraints. To elucidate mechanisms of xylem plasticity in response to climate, we retrospectively analysed different cell anatomical parameters over tree-ring series in Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.). We sampled 24 trees along an altitudinal gradient (1200, 1600 and 2100 m above sea level, a.s.l.) and processed 2335 ± 1809 cells per ring. Time series for median cell lumen area (MCA), cell number (CN), tree-ring width (RW) and tree-ring-specific hydraulic conductivity (Kr) were crossed with daily temperature and precipitation records (1926-2011) to identify climate influence on xylem anatomical traits. Higher Kr at the low elevation site was due to higher MCA and CN. These variables were related to different aspects of intra-seasonal climatic variability under different environmental conditions, with MCA being more sensitive to summer precipitation. Winter precipitation (snow) benefited most parameters in all the sites. Descending the gradient, sensitivity of xylem features to summer climate shifted mostly from temperature to precipitation. In the context of climate change, our results indicate that higher summer temperatures at high elevations will benefit cell production and xylem hydraulic efficiency, whereas reduced water availability at lower elevations could negatively affect tracheids enlargement and thus stem capacity to transport water.
Organizational Climate and Culture: Reflections on the History of the Constructs in the Journal of Applied Psychology

We review the literature on organizational climate and culture paying specific attention to articles published in the Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP) since its first volume in 1917. The article traces the history of the 2 constructs though JAP has been far more important for climate than culture research. We distinguish 4 main periods: the pre-1971 era, with pioneering work on exploring conceptualization and operationalizations of the climate construct; the 1971–1985 era, with foundational work on aggregation issues, outcome-focused climates (on safety and service) and early writings on culture; the 1986–1999 era, characterized by solidification of a focused climate approach to understanding organizational processes (justice, discrimination) and outcomes (safety, service) and the beginnings of survey approaches to culture; and the 2000–2014 era, characterized by multilevel work on climate, climate strength, demonstrated validity for a climate approach to outcomes and processes, and the relationship between leadership and climate and culture. We summarize and comment on the major theory and research achievements in each period, showing trends observed in the literature and how JAP has contributed greatly to moving research on these constructs, especially climate, forward. We also recommend directions for future research given the current state of knowledge.
Biogeosciences Short-term response of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi to an abrupt change in seawater carbon dioxide concentrations

The response of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi to rising CO2 concentrations is well documented for acclimated cultures where cells are exposed to the CO 2 treatments for several generations prior to the experiment. The exact number of generations required for acclimation to CO2-induced changes in seawater carbonate chemistry, however, is unknown. Here we show that Emiliania huxleyi’s short-term response (26 h) after cultures (grown at 500 μatm) were abruptly exposed to changed CO 2 concentrations (∼190, 410, 800 and 1500 μatm) is similar to that obtained with acclimated cultures under comparable conditions in earlier studies. Most importantly, from the lower CO 2 levels (190 and 410 μatm) to 750 and 1500 μatm calcification decreased and organic carbon fixation increased within the first 8 to 14 h after exposing the cultures to changes in carbonate chemistry. This suggests that Emiliania huxleyirapidly alters the rates of essential metabolical processes in response to changes in seawater carbonate chemistry, establishing a new physiological “state” (acclimation) within a matter of hours. If this relatively rapid response applies to other phytoplankton species, it may simplify interpretation of studies with natural communities (e.g. mesocosm studies and shipboard incubations), where often it is not feasible to allow for a pre-conditioning phase before starting experimental incubations.
Analysis and design of wireless power transfer system with an intermediate coil for high efficiency

This paper presents a theoretical analysis, an optimal design method and experimental results for a wireless power transfer (WPT) system with an intermediate coil. The analytical expression of the DC voltage transfer function is presented and discussed. In a two coil WPT system, which has low coupling coefficient, the intermediate coil boosts the self-inductance and magnetizing inductance of the primary side at around the resonance frequency of the intermediate coil, so that the coupling coefficient is compensated. The coupling coefficient makes the system efficiency increase and induces bi-furcation phenomenon. From the analysis, this paper proposes an optimal design method using the second resonance frequency operation with the bi-furcation phenomenon and presents design procedure for high efficiency. A prototype of the WPT system with the intermediate coil is implemented and experimented to verify the validity of the analysis and the proposed design method. The prototype operates at 100 kHz switching frequency and has an air gap between primary and secondary side of 200mm. An overall system efficiency of 95.57% has been achieved at 6.6kW of output power.
KLHL1/MRP2 Mediates Neurite Outgrowth in a Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3β-Dependent Manner

ABSTRACT The actin-based cytoskeleton is essential for the generation and maintenance of cell polarity, cellular motility, and the formation of neural cell processes. MRP2 is an actin-binding protein of the kelch-related protein family. While MRP2 has been shown to be expressed specifically in brain, its function is still unknown. Here, we report that in neuronal growth factor (NGF)-induced PC12 cells, MRP2 was expressed along the neurite processes and colocalized with Talin at the growth cones. MRP2 mRNA and protein levels were up-regulated in PC12 cells following NGF stimulation. Moreover, treatment of PC12 cells with interfering RNAs for MRP2 and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) resulted in the inhibition of neurite outgrowth. A significant decrease in MRP2 expression levels was observed following GSK3β inhibition, which was correlated with the inhibited neurite outgrowth, while GSK3β overexpression was found to increase MRP2 expression levels. MRP2 interacted with GSK3β through its NH2 terminus containing the BTB domain, and these molecules colocalized along neurite processes and growth cones in differentiated PC12 cells and rat primary hippocampal neurons. Additionally, increased associations of MRP2 with GSK3β and MRP2 with actin were observed in the NGF-treated PC12 cells. Thus, this study provides, for the first time, insights into the involvement of MRP2 in neurite outgrowth, which occurs in a GSK3β-dependent manner.