Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Techniques for Low Leakage nanoscale VLSI Circuits: a Comparative Study

Since the last two decades, the trend of device miniaturization has increased to get better performance with a smaller area of the logic functions. In deep submicron regime, the demand of fabrication of nanoscale Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) VLSI circuits has increased due to evaluation of modern successful portable systems. Leakage power dissipation and reliability issues are major concerns in deep submicron regime for VLSI chip designers. Power supply voltage has been scaled down to maintain the performance yield in future deep submicron regime. The threshold voltage is the critical parameter to trade-off the performance yield and leakage power dissipation in nanoscaled devices. Low threshold voltage improves the device characteristics with large leakage power in nanoscaled devices. Several leakage reduction techniques at different levels are used to mitigate the leakage power dissipation. Lower leakage power increases the reliability by reducing the cooling cost of the portable systems. In this article, we are presenting the explanatory general review of the commonly used leakage reduction techniques at circuit level. We have analyzed the NAND3 gate using HSPICE EDA tool for leakage power dissipation at different technology nodes in active as well as standby modes. Process, voltage and temperature effects are checked for reliability purpose. Our comparative results and discussion of different leakage reduction techniques are very useful to illustrate the effective technique in active and standby modes.
Use of a Simulated Work Setting to Study Behavior-Based Safety

Abstract A need exists for a controlled examination of the variables that may affect the results of a behavior-based safety program. These include the rate of risky behaviors and how they relate to a contingent bonus payout (Experiment 1), and the relative amounts of honesty in injury reporting and rule following (Experiment 2). A simple task consisting of moving a computer-generated image within a grid was used to simulate working behavior. Participants were awarded small monetary payments in an effort to further simulate reality. Results indicate that participants were more dishonest in reporting simulated injuries when: (1) a contingency for low rates of reportingof injuries was present and (2) in some cases, when not given proper training (or a rule) on how to work most safely. Considering the recent growth of behavioral safety programs in business and industry, the utility of an examination of the important and relevant variables within a controlled environment becomes apparent.
Insulin-Producing Cells Generated from Dedifferentiated Human Pancreatic Beta Cells Expanded In Vitro

Background Expansion of beta cells from the limited number of adult human islet donors is an attractive prospect for increasing cell availability for cell therapy of diabetes. However, attempts at expanding human islet cells in tissue culture result in loss of beta-cell phenotype. Using a lineage-tracing approach we provided evidence for massive proliferation of beta-cell-derived (BCD) cells within these cultures. Expansion involves dedifferentiation resembling epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Epigenetic analyses indicate that key beta-cell genes maintain open chromatin structure in expanded BCD cells, although they are not transcribed. Here we investigated whether BCD cells can be redifferentiated into beta-like cells. Methodology/Principal Finding Redifferentiation conditions were screened by following activation of an insulin-DsRed2 reporter gene. Redifferentiated cells were characterized for gene expression, insulin content and secretion assays, and presence of secretory vesicles by electron microscopy. BCD cells were induced to redifferentiate by a combination of soluble factors. The redifferentiated cells expressed beta-cell genes, stored insulin in typical secretory vesicles, and released it in response to glucose. The redifferentiation process involved mesenchymal-epithelial transition, as judged by changes in gene expression. Moreover, inhibition of the EMT effector SLUG (SNAI2) using shRNA resulted in stimulation of redifferentiation. Lineage-traced cells also gave rise at a low rate to cells expressing other islet hormones, suggesting transition of BCD cells through an islet progenitor-like stage during redifferentiation. Conclusions/Significance These findings demonstrate for the first time that expanded dedifferentiated beta cells can be induced to redifferentiate in culture. The findings suggest that ex-vivo expansion of adult human islet cells is a promising approach for generation of insulin-producing cells for transplantation, as well as basic research, toxicology studies, and drug screening.
Making the role of African languages in higher education a reality

Institutions of Higher Education in South Africa are increasingly opting for education through the medium of English only. Teaching and learning through the medium of English in Higher Education is also prevalent in many countries in Africa, despite the fact that this is the second or third language of most of the learners on this continent. The arguments in favour of teaching and learning through the medium of only English, especially with regards to speakers of the African languages, rely heavily on issues of practicality and use the discourse of globalisation and empowerment as their main point of departure. In the South African context various authors have challenged the 'myths' around the so-called problems related to bilingual and multilingual education, at school level and in Higher Education, and have debunked the arguments with regard to globalisation and empowerment at a conceptual level. However, it is important to come up with practical suggestions as to how such alternatives will work, especially in countries where intensive research into the development of the indigenous languages for science and commerce still needs to take place. The authors of this article suggest ways in which bi-/multilingualism can be accommodated within Higher Education, and discuss a possible framework for implementation. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 19(6) 2005: 1089-1107
Improved perfect secrecy of distributed storage systems using interference alignment

Regenerating codes based on the approach of interference alignment for wireless interference channel achieve the cut-set bound for distributed storage systems (DSS). These codes are especially important for efficient repair of a failed node in a minimum storage regenerating (MSR) codes. Moreover, they achieve perfect security against the eavesdropper attacks, i.e., the observer can not reveal the whole message. Here the aim is information protection of individual files and small groups from the entire message, when the attacker has access to a limited number of storage nodes. This paper considers improving the perfect security in such DSS. The enhanced secrecy is presented by performing explicit code construction by using an outer and an inner code. The proposed construction code model includes coset code as an outer code or pre-coding step that ensures the security of the system and an MSR interference alignment code as an inner one that performs an efficient reconstruction and repair process. Using this construction we show that the eavesdropper can not reveal the message, and, that he can not access any subset of individual information from the original message, without any significant loss in the storage capacity.
Sensory discrimination capabilities in patients with focal hand dystonia

To explore the concept that dystonia may result from dysfunction of the sensory system, 14 patients with focal hand dystonia were tested during two somatosensory discrimination tasks. Compared with controls, patients had a higher threshold in a task involving discrimination of two electric stimuli closely related temporally, an abnormality that correlated with the degree of severity of dystonia. There was no significant difference in a single‐touch, gross localization task. The possible relevance of these findings to the pathogenesis of dystonia is discussed. Ann Neurol 2000;47:377–380
Real-Time Twitter Sentiment toward Midterm Exams

Twitter is the most popular microblogging service today, with millions of its uers posting short messages (tweets) everyday. This huge amount of user-generated content contains rich factual and subjective information ideal for computational analysis. Current research findings suggest that Twitter data could be utilized to gain accurate public sentiment on various topics and events. With help of Twitter Stream API, we collected 260,749 tweets on the subject of midterm exams from students on Twitter for two consecutive weeks (Oct 17-Oct 30, 2011). Our aim was to investigate the real-time Twitter sentiment on midterm exams by hour, day, and week for these two weeks, using a sentiment predictor built from an opinion lexicon augmented for this specific domain. At different levels of temporal granularity, our analysis revealed the variation of sentiment. The average sentiment of the first week (Oct 17-23) was more negative than the second week (Oct 24-30). For both weeks, the overall trend curves of sentiment increased from Monday to Sunday. For each weekday, there was a period around 9:00 am-5:00 pm EST that had maximum sentimet. On each weekend, the sentiment values during a day reached their maximum between 5:00 am to 8:00 am, and then decreased after 8:00 am. Furthermore, we observed some consistent group behavior of Twitter users based on seemingly random behavior of each individual. The lowest number of tweets always occured around 5:00 am-6:00 am each day, and the maximum number was around 1:00 pm except Sunday. The minimum of tweet lengths happened usually around 9:00 am and the maximum length was around 4:00 am everyday. Twitter users with positive sentiment appeared to have more friends and followers than those carrying negative sentiment. Also, users who shared the same sentiment inclined to have similar ratios of friends and followers, which is not true for general users.
Gene Expression Profiling during Murine Tooth Development

The aim of this study was to describe the expression of genes, including ameloblastin (Ambn), amelogenin X chromosome (Amelx), and enamelin (Enam) during early (pre-secretory) tooth development. The expression of these genes has predominantly been studied at post-secretory stages. Deoxyoligonucleotide microarrays were used to study gene expression during development of the murine first molar tooth germ at 24 h intervals, starting at the 11th embryonic day (E11.5), and up to the 7th day after birth (P7). The profile search function of Spotfire software was used to select genes with similar expression profile as the enamel genes (Ambn, Amelx, and Enam). Microarray results where validated using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR), and translated proteins identified by Western-blotting. In situ localization of the Ambn, Amelx, and Enam mRNAs were monitored from E12.5 to E17.5 using deoxyoligonucleotide probes. Bioinformatics analysis was used to associate biological functions with differentially expressed (DE; p ≤ 0.05) genes. Microarray results showed a total of 4362 genes including Ambn, Amelx, and Enam to be significant DE throughout the time-course. The expression of the three enamel genes was low at pre-natal stages (E11.5–P0) increasing after birth (P1–P7). Profile search lead to isolation of 87 genes with significantly similar expression to the three enamel proteins. These mRNAs were expressed in dental epithelium and epithelium derived cells. Although expression of Ambn, Amelx, and Enam were lower during early tooth development compared to secretory stages enamel proteins were detectable by Western-blotting. Bioinformatic analysis associated the 87 genes with multiple biological functions. Around 35 genes were associated with 15 transcription factors.
The young numerical mind: When does it count?

1 Authors’ queries p. 129, line 46 Update? p. 130, line 1 Identify Wh p. 130, line 40 Update? p. 133, line 49 Confirm spelling here and in refs. p. 136, line 42 Pls. clarify sentence p. 137, line 48 Update? p. 139, line 18 Update? p. 140, col. 2, line 7 Cite in text or delete here. In preparation? p. 140, col. 2, line 11 Publisher? p. 141, col. 1, line 4 Verify no. p. 142, col. 1, line 1 Conference location, dates? p. 142, col. 2, line 14 Verify no. p. 142, col. 2, line 17 Verify no. p. 142, col. 2, line 45 Update? The Young Numerical Mind When Does It Count?
Recursive interlocking puzzles

Interlocking puzzles are very challenging geometric problems with the fascinating property that once we solve one by putting together the puzzle pieces, the puzzle pieces interlock with one another, preventing the assembly from falling apart. Though interlocking puzzles have been known for hundreds of years, very little is known about the governing mechanics. Thus, designing new interlocking geometries is basically accomplished with extensive manual effort or expensive exhaustive search with computers. In this paper, we revisit the notion of interlocking in greater depth, and devise a formal method of the interlocking mechanics. From this, we can develop a constructive approach for devising new interlocking geometries that directly guarantees the validity of the interlocking instead of exhaustively testing it. In particular, we focus on an interesting subclass of interlocking puzzles that are recursive in the sense that the assembly of puzzle pieces can remain an interlocking puzzle also after sequential removal of pieces; there is only one specific sequence of assembling, or disassembling, such a puzzle. Our proposed method can allow efficient generation of recursive interlocking geometries of various complexities, and by further realizing it with LEGO bricks, we can enable the hand-built creation of custom puzzle games.
Norepinephrine Reuptake Is Impaired in Skeletal Muscle of Hypertensive Rats In Vivo

Certain forms of experimental hypertension are characterized by organ-specific alterations of catecholaminergic pathways. The purpose of this study was to evaluate, in the same awake and freely moving normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) before and after the development of arterial hypertension, the norepinephrine (NE) turnover and, in particular, the neuronal NE reuptake activity that ends its effects once released from nerve terminals, in subcutaneous adipose tissue and in skeletal muscle, whose sympathetic efferents are respectively independent or dependent from baroreflexes. Plasma and tissue interstitial NE and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylethylene glycol (DHPG), its major deaminated metabolite, were measured before and after blockade of NE reuptake by tissue perfusion of desipramine through microdialysis probes. Arterial pressure and plasma NE in SHR were similar to those in WKY at 5 weeks of age but increased at 16 weeks of age. In contrast, plasma DHPG was already higher in young SHR. Basal interstitial NE and DHPG were increased in both tissues of young and old SHR compared with age-matched WKY. Desipramine induced a higher rise of interstitial NE in SHR of both ages, with a lesser increase in the skeletal muscle of old compared with young SHR. These results indicate an increased NE turnover in prehypertensive and hypertensive SHR in both baroreflex-dependent and -independent tissues, not shown by plasma NE levels in young SHR. In the skeletal muscle, where sympathetic efferents are baroreflex dependent, the reduced interstitial NE reuptake contributes to the higher availability of interstitial NE for postsynaptic effects in old SHR.
Patent Pools and Cross-Licensing in the Shadow of Patent Litigation

This paper develops a framework to analyze the incentives to form a patent pool or engage in cross-licensing arrangements in the presence of uncertainty about the validity and coverage of patents that makes disputes inevitable. It analyzes the private incentives to litigate and compares them with the social incentives. It shows that pooling arrangements can have the effect of sheltering invalid patents from challenges. This result has an antitrust implication that patent pools should not be permitted until after patentees have challenged the validity of each other’s patents if litigation costs are not too large.
A discretization approach to the analysis of yet another H2 norm of LTI sampled-data systems

This paper is concerned with linear time-invariant (LTI) sampled-data systems together with their yet another H2 norm introduced recently as an alternative to the two well-known definitions. Taking account of the linear periodically time-varying nature of LTI sampled-data systems, this norm is defined as the supremum of the L2 norms of all the t-dependent responses for the impulse inputs occurring at the instant t in the sampling interval We first review the closed-form expression of this new H2 norm derived through the lifted representation of LTI sampled-data systems. We next develop a discretization method of the continuous-time generalized plant, by which the new H2 norm of LTI sampled-data systems can be characterized by using the discrete-time H2 norm. We then reinterpret the closed-form expression of the H2 norm, and derive a computable upper bound together with a lower bound of the norm. We further show that the gap between the upper and lower bounds converges to 0 at the rate of 1/N, where N is the gridding approximation parameter. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the computation method.
Crohn's disease and carcinoma of colon.

mention of asbestos-like bodies in describing the effects in the lung of inhaled glass wool fibres in two animal species, including a species which consistently forms asbestos bodies when exposed to asbestos dust. There are few reports in the literature on the effects of glass fibre in man, but Murphy,5 in a human case of " fibre-glass pneumoconiosis," describes and illustrates numerous uncoated glass fibres in the lung tissues without mentioning asbestos-like bodies. It is also likely that, as used in industrial conditions, much of the dust derived from glass fibres consists of particles too large to be respirable. ' For these reasons I consider it is very unlikely that any of the "asbestos bodies" in my series can be attributed to glass fibres. The role of diatomaceous earth is likewise doubtful. Vigliani and Mottura' describe in detail the post-mortem histological appearances in the lungs of a man exposed to pure calcined diatomite dust without mentioning asbestos-like bodies. That they were aware of the possibility of finding such bodies is clear from their reference to the work of Nordmann,' who described asbestos-like bodies in lung tissue at necropsy in patients exposed to diatomaceous earth and quartz dust. Nordmann, however, is careful to distinguish between " pseudoasbestos bodies " present in two of his six cases and "true asbestos bodies " found in another two cases known to have been exposed to asbestos as well as diatomaceous earth. Some of the " pseudoasbestos" bodies he illustrates do not resemble asbestos bodies. Filamentous aluminium silicate has been shown in hamsters to evoke the formation of asbestos-like bodies, but I do not know of any human case in which the presence of such bodies has been attributed to this material. Furthermore, I understand that aluminium silicate has only been used as an insulator in this country for about the last three years (and then only in small quantities for specialized purposes), and thus it also seems unlikely to be an important source of confusion in my survey. None of the histological sections in my series showed any evidence of haemosiderosis of elastic fibres. By contrast, there is strong circumstantial evidence that many of the bodies I found are in fact true asbestos bodies. More than half of the patients for whom an occupational history is available had either worked with asbestos or had worked in an environment where incidental inhalation of asbestos at some time is virtually certain to occur. The fact that such evidence has been elicited by the comparatively crude methods employed in obtaining retrospective occupational histories from relatives of deceased patients suggests that occupational exposure is probably a more important source of asbestos fibres in the population than the general environmental contamination by asbestos suggested by previous writers. -I am, etc.,
Direct Numerical Simulation of Separated Low-Reynolds Number Flows around an Eppler 387 Airfoil

Low Reynolds number aerodynamics is important for various applications including micro-aerial vehicles, sailplanes, leading edge control devices, high-altitude unmanned vehicles, wind turbines and propellers. These flows are generally characterized by the presence of laminar separation bubbles. These bubbles are generally unsteady and have a significant effect on the overall resulting aerodynamic forces. In this study, the time-dependent unsteady calculations of low Reynolds number flows are carried out over an Eppler 387 airfoil in both twoand three-dimensions. Various instantaneous and time-averaged aerodynamic parameters including pressure, lift and drag coefficients are calculated in each case and compared with the available experimental data. An observed anomaly in the pressure coefficient around the location of the separation bubble in two-dimensional simulations is attributed to the lack of spanwise flow due to three-dimensional instabilities.
Modeling the current and future disease burden of hepatitis C among injection drug users in Scotland

Quantitative estimates of the current and future burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) disease are required to plan a public health response to the HCV epidemic with regard to both prevention and treatment. A forward projection model was used to estimate the numbers of both current and former injecting drug users (IDUs) who acquired HCV and progressed to moderate and severe disease in Glasgow and Scotland during 1960‐2030. The model was designed to synthesize information on the incidence and cessation of injecting drug use, the incidence of HCV infection among IDUs, the rate of HCV disease progression, and the annual number of IDUs developing HCV‐related decompensated cirrhosis. During 2003, a total of 17,400 and 42,900 HCV‐infected IDUs were estimated in Glasgow and Scotland, respectively; this compares with approximately 5,000 and 13,900 diagnosed, respectively, and 13,200 and 32,200 with chronic HCV, respectively. The number of IDUs developing HCV‐related decompensated cirrhosis in Scotland is estimated to double between 2000 and 2020. As many as 16% and 27% of former IDUs in 2005 aged 30‐39 and 40‐49 years, respectively, were estimated to have moderate disease, which highlights the potential benefit of targeting HCV testing at former IDUs who belong to these age groups. In conclusion, the identification and treatment of a larger proportion of former IDUs with HCV disease and education about the importance of minimal alcohol consumption are needed to help achieve a greater impact on the future morbidity and mortality of this disease. (HEPATOLOGY 2005;42:711–723.)
Selected Personality Characteristics of Student Naval Aviators and Student Naval Flight Officers

The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire and the Hand Test were administered to 129 naval aviation student (79 student naval aviators and 50 student naval flight officer) candidates while they were waiting to begin basic flight training. Results indicated that, although pilot and flight officer candidate scores departed significantly in the same direction from normative data, there were few significant differences between the 2 groups on personality dimensions. However, both groups were significantly different from normative data on some dimensions. Possible interpretations of the data are discussed.