Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Multimode Transmitter in 0.13 $\mu\hbox{m}$  CMOS Using Direct-Digital RF Modulator

This paper presents a system-independent transmitter architecture based on a direct-digital RF-modulator which combines the D/A conversion, up-conversion, unwanted sideband rejection, power control, and part of the digital image-rejection filtering into a single mixed-signal circuit block. The multimode capability of the architecture is demonstrated with WCDMA, EDGE, and WLAN system requirements. The modulator achieves 90 dB of power control range and with an external power amplifier module, WCDMA EVM of less than 2% from signal powers of -20 dBm to +25 dBm. The noise floor level defined by the quantization noise at 190 MHz offset from the carrier is -150 dBc/Hz measured at the output of the PA with +25 dBm signal power. The analog power consumption with the maximum signal power level is 92 mW and scales down to 46 mW when reducing the signal level to -43 dBFS. The digital power consumption is 65 mW. The chip is implemented with a standard 0.13 mum 1.2 V digital CMOS with total silicon area of 4 mm2.
Bottom-Up Corporate Governance

In many instances, 'independently-minded' top-ranking executives can impose strong discipline on their CEO, even though they are formally under his authority. This paper argues that the use of such a disciplining mechanism is a key feature of good corporate governance. We provide robust empirical evidence consistent with the fact that firms with high internal governance are more efficiently run. We empirically label as 'independent from the CEO' a top executive who joined the firm before the current CEO was appointed. In a very robust way, firms with a smaller fraction of independent executives exhibit (1) a lower level of profitability and (2) lower shareholder returns after large acquisitions. These results are unaffected when we control for traditional governance measures such as board independence or other well-studied shareholder-friendly provisions.
Learning Indexed Families of Recursive Languages from Positive Data by

In the past 40 years, research on inductive inference has developed along different lines, concerning different formalizations of learning models and in particular of target concepts for learning. One common root of many of these is Gold’s model of identification in the limit. This model has been studied for learning recursive functions, recursively enumerable languages, and recursive languages, reflecting different aspects of machine learning, artificial intelligence, complexity theory, and recursion theory. One line of research in this context focuses on so-called indexed families of recursive languages—classes of recursive languages described in a representation scheme for which the question of membership for any string in any of the given languages is effectively decidable with a uniform procedure. Such language classes are of high relevance, since their naturalness makes them interesting for many applications. The survey at hand picks out important studies on learning indexed families (including basic as well as recent research), summarizes and illustrates the corresponding results, and points out links to related fields such as grammatical inference, machine learning, or artificial intelligence in general.
Cannabinoids Inhibit the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Pathway in Gliomas

Cannabinoids inhibit tumor angiogenesis in mice, but the mechanism of their antiangiogenic action is still unknown. Because the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway plays a critical role in tumor angiogenesis, here we studied whether cannabinoids affect it. As a first approach, cDNA array analysis showed that cannabinoid administration to mice bearing s.c. gliomas lowered the expression of various VEGF pathway-related genes. The use of other methods (ELISA, Western blotting, and confocal microscopy) provided additional evidence that cannabinoids depressed the VEGF pathway by decreasing the production of VEGF and the activation of VEGF receptor (VEGFR)-2, the most prominent VEGF receptor, in cultured glioma cells and in mouse gliomas. Cannabinoid-induced inhibition of VEGF production and VEGFR-2 activation was abrogated both in vitro and in vivo by pharmacological blockade of ceramide biosynthesis. These changes in the VEGF pathway were paralleled by changes in tumor size. Moreover, intratumoral administration of the cannabinoid Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol to two patients with glioblastoma multiforme (grade IV astrocytoma) decreased VEGF levels and VEGFR-2 activation in the tumors. Because blockade of the VEGF pathway constitutes one of the most promising antitumoral approaches currently available, the present findings provide a novel pharmacological target for cannabinoid-based therapies.
Polymerization of Aniline in the Solutions of Strong and Weak Acids: The Evolution of Infrared Spectra and Their Interpretation Using Factor Analysis

The progress of the oxidative polymerization of aniline with ammonium peroxydisulfate in an aqueous medium has been monitored in situ by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The growth of polyaniline film at the crystal surface, as well as the changes proceeding in the surrounding aqueous medium, are reflected in the spectra. The evolution of the spectra during aniline polymerization in the presence of acetic or sulfuric acid was studied with the aim of understanding the influence of acidity on the observed morphology of the final polyaniline films, granular or nanotubes. The changes occurring during polymerization are discussed with the help of differential spectra. Several processes connected with the various stages of aniline oxidation, the evolution of film morphology, or protonation, were distinguished by using factor analysis applied to a large number of spectra obtained in the course of aniline polymerizations on the crystal.
Attributes And Consumer Acceptance Of Yoghurt Flavoured With Non - Cultivated Indigenous Swazi Fruits

The value of non-cultivated indigenous fruits as flavouring agents for yoghurt has not been given sufficient attention in Swaziland. Consequently, commercial cultivated fruits are used as yoghurt flavours, resulting in higher production costs for the dessert. A study of sensory and physical characteristics of yoghurt flavoured with selected non-cultivated indigenous fruits was done. Fruit purees were made from tincozi, tineyi, and umfomfo, along with mixtures of strawberry, tincozi and tineyi; umfomfo and strawberry; and umfomfo and passion fruit. The physico–chemical properties measured were pH, titratable acidity and potential for syneresis. Sensory evaluation was done by an untrained panel consisting of available, local consumer folks used to doing sensory evaluation and the organoleptic characteristics assessed were appearance, texture and general acceptability. In all cases there were no significant (P > 0.05) changes in pH after 7 days of storage at 4oC. Using indigenous fruit purees did not negatively affect the titratable acidity content of yoghurt. Indigenous fruit flavoured yoghurt had a lower acidity than plain and strawberry flavoured yoghurt. Using indigenous fruits as flavouring agents reduced potential for syneresis significantly (P Keywords : Indigenous fruits, yoghurt, sensory evaluation. AJFAND Vol. 9 (1) 2009: pp. 637-651
Role of Apamin-Sensitive Calcium-Activated Small-Conductance Potassium Currents on the Mechanisms of Ventricular Fibrillation in Pacing-Induced Failing Rabbit Hearts

Background— Ventricular fibrillation (VF) during heart failure is characterized by stable reentrant spiral waves (rotors). Apamin-sensitive small-conductance calcium-activated potassium currents (IKAS) are heterogeneously upregulated in failing hearts. We hypothesized that IKAS influences the location and stability of rotors during VF. Methods and Results— Optical mapping was performed on 9 rabbit hearts with pacing-induced heart failure. The epicardial right ventricular and left ventricular surfaces were simultaneously mapped in a Langendorff preparation. At baseline and after apamin (100 nmol/L) infusion, the action potential duration (APD80) was determined, and VF was induced. Areas with a >50% increase in the maximum action potential duration (&Dgr;APD) after apamin infusion were considered to have a high IKAS distribution. At baseline, the distribution density of phase singularities during VF in high IKAS distribution areas was higher than in other areas (0.0035±0.0011 versus 0.0014±0.0010 phase singularities/pixel; P=0.004). In addition, high dominant frequencies also colocalized to high IKAS distribution areas (26.0 versus 17.9 Hz; P=0.003). These correlations were eliminated during VF after apamin infusion, as the number of phase singularities (17.2 versus 11.0; P=0.009) and dominant frequencies (22.1 versus 16.2 Hz; P=0.022) were all significantly decreased. In addition, reentrant spiral waves became unstable after apamin infusion, and the duration of VF decreased. Conclusions— The IKAS current influences the mechanism of VF in failing hearts as phase singularities, high dominant frequencies, and reentrant spiral waves all correlated to areas of high IKAS. Apamin eliminated this relationship and reduced VF vulnerability.
An Analysis of Random Projection for Changeable and Privacy-Preserving Biometric Verification

Changeability and privacy protection are important factors for widespread deployment of biometrics-based verification systems. This paper presents a systematic analysis of a random-projection (RP)-based method for addressing these problems. The employed method transforms biometric data using a random matrix with each entry an independent and identically distributed Gaussian random variable. The similarity- and privacy-preserving properties, as well as the changeability of the biometric information in the transformed domain, are analyzed in detail. Specifically, RP on both high-dimensional image vectors and dimensionality-reduced feature vectors is discussed and compared. A vector translation method is proposed to improve the changeability of the generated templates. The feasibility of the introduced solution is well supported by detailed theoretical analyses. Extensive experimentation on a face-based biometric verification problem shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Defective Guanine Nucleotide Exchange in the Elongation Factor-like 1 (EFL1) GTPase by Mutations in the Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome Protein*

Background: EFL1 and the protein mutated in the Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SBDS) participate in the maturation of the 60S ribosomal subunit. Results: SBDS increases the dissociation constant of EFL1 for GDP 60-fold. SBDS S143L disease mutation disrupts the interaction with EFL1. Conclusion: SBDS favors GDP dissociation from EFL1 and disease mutations abolishe this function. Significance: SBDS disease mutations prevent the nucleotide exchange regulation on EFL1. Ribosome biogenesis is orchestrated by the action of several accessory factors that provide time and directionality to the process. One such accessory factor is the GTPase EFL1 involved in the cytoplasmic maturation of the ribosomal 60S subunit. EFL1 and SBDS, the protein mutated in the Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SBDS), release the anti-association factor eIF6 from the surface of the ribosomal subunit 60S. Here we report a kinetic analysis of fluorescent guanine nucleotides binding to EFL1 alone and in the presence of SBDS using fluorescence stopped-flow spectroscopy. Binding kinetics of EFL1 to both GDP and GTP suggests a two-step mechanism with an initial binding event followed by a conformational change of the complex. Furthermore, the same behavior was observed in the presence of the SBDS protein irrespective of the guanine nucleotide evaluated. The affinity of EFL1 for GTP is 10-fold lower than that calculated for GDP. Association of EFL1 to SBDS did not modify the affinity for GTP but dramatically decreased that for GDP by increasing the dissociation rate of the nucleotide. Thus, SBDS acts as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for EFL1 promoting its activation by the release of GDP. Finally, fluorescence anisotropy measurements showed that the S143L mutation present in the Shwachman-Diamond syndrome altered a surface epitope for EFL1 and largely decreased the affinity for it. These results suggest that loss of interaction between these proteins due to mutations in the disease consequently prevents the nucleotide exchange regulation the SBDS exerts on EFL1.
MultiJava: Design rationale, compiler implementation, and applications

MultiJava is a conservative extension of the Java programming language that adds symmetric multiple dispatch and open classes. Among other benefits, multiple dispatch provides a solution to the binary method problem. Open classes provide a solution to the extensibility problem of object-oriented programming languages, allowing the modular addition of both new types and new operations to an existing type hierarchy. This article illustrates and motivates the design of MultiJava and describes its modular static typechecking and modular compilation strategies. Although MultiJava extends Java, the key ideas of the language design are applicable to other object-oriented languages, such as C# and C++, and even, with some modifications, to functional languages such as ML.This article also discusses the variety of application domains in which MultiJava has been successfully used by others, including pervasive computing, graphical user interfaces, and compilers. MultiJava allows users to express desired programming idioms in a way that is declarative and supports static typechecking, in contrast to the tedious and type-unsafe workarounds required in Java. MultiJava also provides opportunities for new kinds of extensibility that are not easily available in Java.
The Formal Specification Language mCRL2

We introduce mCRL2, a specification language that can be used to specify and analyse the behaviour of distributed systems. This language is the successor of the mCRL specification language. The mCRL2 language extends a timed basic process algebra with the possibility to define and use abstract data types. The mCRL2 data language features predefined and higher-order data types. The process algebraic part of mCRL2 allows a faithful translation of coloured Petri nets and component based systems: we have introduced multiactions and we have separated communication and parallelism.
The differential effects of 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 on Salmonella‐induced interleukin‐8 and human beta‐defensin‐2 in intestinal epithelial cells

Salmonellosis or Salmonella, one of the most common food‐borne diseases, remains a major public health problem worldwide. Intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) play an essential role in the mucosal innate immunity of the host to defend against the invasion of Salmonella by interleukin (IL)−8 and human β‐defensin‐2 (hBD‐2). Accumulated research has unravelled important roles of vitamin D in the regulation of innate immunity. Therefore, we investigated the effects of 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3) on Salmonella‐induced innate immunity in IECs. We demonstrate that pretreatment of 1,25D3 results in suppression of Salmonella‐induced IL‐8 but enhancement of hBD‐2, either protein secretion and mRNA expression, in IECs. Furthermore, 1,25D3 enhanced Salmonella‐induced membranous recruitment of nucleotide oligomerization domain (NOD2) and its mRNA expression and activation of protein kinase B (Akt), a downstream effector of phosphoinositide 3‐kinase (PI3K). Inhibition of the PI3K/Akt signal counteracted the suppressive effect of 1,25D3 on Salmonella‐induced IL‐8 expression, while knock‐down of NOD2 by siRNA diminished the enhanced hBD‐2 expression. These data suggest differential regulation of 1,25D3 on Salmonella‐induced IL‐8 and hBD‐2 expression in IECs via PI3K/Akt signal and NOD2 protein expression, respectively. Active vitamin D‐enhanced anti‐microbial peptide in Salmonella‐infected IECs protected the host against infection, while modulation of proinflammatory responses by active vitamin D prevented the host from the detrimental effects of overwhelming inflammation. Thus, active vitamin D‐induced innate immunity in IECs enhances the host's protective mechanism, which may provide an alternative therapy for invasive Salmonella infection.
Neurotoxic Hippocampal Lesions Have No Effect on Odor Span and Little Effect on Odor Recognition Memory But Produce Significant Impairments on Spatial Span, Recognition, and Alternation

Recent work has shown that lesions of the hippocampus in monkeys cause deficits in the capacity to remember increasing numbers of objects, colors, and spatial locations (Beason-Held et al., 1999). However, others have observed that hippocampectomized monkeys can show intact memory for a list of objects or locations (Murray and Mishkin, 1998). We wished to explore the effects of hippocampal damage on the capacity of memory in the rodent and, to do so, developed novel “span” tasks in which a variable number of odors or locations had to be remembered. In the odor span task (experiment 1), rats were trained on a nonmatching to sample task in which increasing numbers of odors had to be remembered. Half of the trained rats received ibotenic acid lesions of the hippocampus. Postoperatively, hippocampectomized animals did not differ from control animals even when required to remember up to 24 odors. However, when tested on delayed retention of a list of 12 odors, rats with hippocampal lesions were impaired at a long delay. Also, these rats were impaired on a subsequent test of delayed spatial alternation. In a spatial span task (experiment 2), naive rats were trained on a nonmatching to sample task in which a variable number of locations had to be remembered. After this, half of the animals received ibotenic acid lesions. Postoperatively, hippocampectomized animals performed above chance levels when required to remember a single cup location, but were unable to remember more. Subsequent testing on another spatial delayed alternation task suggested that hippocampectomized rats could recognize, but could not inhibit their approach to previously visited locations.
Using articulatory position data in voice transformation

Articulatory position data is information about the location of various articulators in the vocal tract. One form of it has been made freely available in the MOCHA database [1]. This data is interesting in that it provides direct information on the production of speech, but there is the question of whether it actually provides information beyond what can be derived from the audio signal, which is much easier to collect. Although there has been some success in improving small-scale speech recognition and in demonstrating mappings between articulatory positions and spectral features of the audio signal, there are many problems to which this data has not been applied. This work investigates the possibility of using articulatory position data to improve voice transformation, which is the process of making speech from one person sound as if it had been spoken by another. After further investigation, it appears to be difficult to use articulatory position data to improve voice transformation using state-of-the-art voice transformation techniques as we only had a few positive results across a range of experiments. To achieve these results, it was necessary to modify our baseline voice transformation approach and/or consider features derived from the articulatory positions.
Efficient RNA 2′‐O‐methylation requires juxtaposed and symmetrically assembled archaeal box C/D and C′/D′ RNPs

Box C/D ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes direct the nucleotide‐specific 2′‐O‐methylation of ribonucleotide sugars in target RNAs. In vitro assembly of an archaeal box C/D sRNP using recombinant core proteins L7, Nop56/58 and fibrillarin has yielded an RNA:protein enzyme that guides methylation from both the terminal box C/D core and internal C′/D′ RNP complexes. Reconstitution of sRNP complexes containing only box C/D or C′/D′ motifs has demonstrated that the terminal box C/D RNP is the minimal methylation‐competent particle. However, efficient ribonucleotide 2′‐O‐methylation requires that both the box C/D and C′/D′ RNPs function within the full‐length sRNA molecule. In contrast to the eukaryotic snoRNP complex, where the core proteins are distributed asymmetrically on the box C/D and C′/D′ motifs, all three archaeal core proteins bind both motifs symmetrically. This difference in core protein distribution is a result of altered RNA‐binding capabilities of the archaeal and eukaryotic core protein homologs. Thus, evolution of the box C/D nucleotide modification complex has resulted in structurally distinct archaeal and eukaryotic RNP particles.
Incremental Learning of Object Detectors without Catastrophic Forgetting

Despite their success for object detection, convolutional neural networks are ill-equipped for incremental learning, i.e., adapting the original model trained on a set of classes to additionally detect objects of new classes, in the absence of the initial training data. They suffer from “catastrophic forgetting”–an abrupt degradation of performance on the original set of classes, when the training objective is adapted to the new classes. We present a method to address this issue, and learn object detectors incrementally, when neither the original training data nor annotations for the original classes in the new training set are available. The core of our proposed solution is a loss function to balance the interplay between predictions on the new classes and a new distillation loss which minimizes the discrepancy between responses for old classes from the original and the updated networks. This incremental learning can be performed multiple times, for a new set of classes in each step, with a moderate drop in performance compared to the baseline network trained on the ensemble of data. We present object detection results on the PASCAL VOC 2007 and COCO datasets, along with a detailed empirical analysis of the approach.
Gender-specific impact of personal health parameters on individual brain aging in cognitively unimpaired elderly subjects

Aging alters brain structure and function. Personal health markers and modifiable lifestyle factors are related to individual brain aging as well as to the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study used a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based biomarker to assess the effects of 17 health markers on individual brain aging in cognitively unimpaired elderly subjects. By employing kernel regression methods, the expression of normal brain-aging patterns forms the basis to estimate the brain age of a given new subject. If the estimated age is higher than the chronological age, a positive brain age gap estimation (BrainAGE) score indicates accelerated atrophy and is considered a risk factor for developing AD. Within this cross-sectional, multi-center study 228 cognitively unimpaired elderly subjects (118 males) completed an MRI at 1.5Tesla, physiological and blood parameter assessments. The multivariate regression model combining all measured parameters was capable of explaining 39% of BrainAGE variance in males (p < 0.001) and 32% in females (p < 0.01). Furthermore, markers of the metabolic syndrome as well as markers of liver and kidney functions were profoundly related to BrainAGE scores in males (p < 0.05). In females, markers of liver and kidney functions as well as supply of vitamin B12 were significantly related to BrainAGE (p < 0.05). In conclusion, in cognitively unimpaired elderly subjects several clinical markers of poor health were associated with subtle structural changes in the brain that reflect accelerated aging, whereas protective effects on brain aging were observed for markers of good health. Additionally, the relations between individual brain aging and miscellaneous health markers show gender-specific patterns. The BrainAGE approach may thus serve as a clinically relevant biomarker for the detection of subtly abnormal patterns of brain aging probably preceding cognitive decline and development of AD.