Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and Analysis of 2.4 GHz $30~\mu \text{W}$ CMOS LNAs for Wearable WSN Applications

To meet the requirements of wearable wireless sensor networks, the power dissipation of the RF transceiver has to be drastically reduced. This paper presents two ultra-low power low noise amplifiers (LNAs) with RF performance exceeding the requirement of the intended application. In the first LNA, by reusing the current several times and employing passive gm boosting, the LNA input impedance is reduced by a factor of 24 compared with a single transistor using the same current. The feasibility of passive gm boosting for designing an ultra-low supply voltage LNA is also investigated. Limitations of both LNAs, including NF, non-linearity, and stability in a 40-nm CMOS technology are also investigated. The proposed LNAs consume only $30~\mu \text{W}$ of power, operate with 0.8 V and 0.18 V and show NF of 3.3 and 5.2 dB, respectively. Using a widely accepted figure-of-merit for LNAs, the proposed circuit is almost three times better than the best previously reported sub-mW LNA.
Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus reduces feed efficiency in nursery pigs

Abstract Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) infects enterocytes and in nursery pigs, results in diarrhea, anorexia, and reduced performance. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine how PEDV infection influenced growth performance and repartitioning of amino acids and energy in nursery pigs. A total of 32 barrows and gilts, approximately 1 wk post-wean (BW = 8.46 ± 0.50 kg), and naïve for PEDV were obtained, weighed, and allotted based on sex and BW to one of two treatments: 1) Control, PEDV naïve and 2) PEDV-inoculated (PEDV) with eight pens of two pigs each per treatment. On day post-inoculation (dpi) 0, PEDV pigs were inoculated via intragastric gavage with PEDV isolate (USA/Iowa/18984/2013). Pig and feeder weights were recorded at dpi −7, 0, 5, and 20 in order to calculate ADG, ADFI, and G:F. Eight pigs per treatment were euthanized on dpi 5 and 20, and tissues and blood were collected. At dpi 5, all PEDV pigs were PCR positive for PEDV in feces. Overall, PEDV pigs tended (P < 0.10) to increase ADFI, which resulted in reduced (P < 0.05) feed efficiency. At dpi 5, PEDV pigs had reduced (P < 0.05) villus height and increased (P < 0.05) stem cell proliferation in the jejunum compared with Control pigs. Pigs inoculated with PEDV had increased (P < 0.05) serum haptoglobin and increased insulin-to-glucose ratios compared with Control pigs at dpi 5. Markers of muscle proteolysis were not different (P > 0.05) between treatments within dpi; however, at dpi 5, 20S proteasome activity was increased (P < 0.05) in longissimus dorsi of PEDV pigs compared with Control pigs. Liver and jejunum gluconeogenic enzyme activities were not different (P > 0.05) between treatments within dpi. Overall, PEDV-inoculated pigs did recover the absorptive capacity that was reduced during PEDV infection by increasing proliferation of intestinal stem cells. However, the energy and nutrients needed to recover the epithelium may be originating from available luminal nutrients instead of muscle proteolysis and gluconeogenesis. This study provides insight into the effects of an enteric coronavirus on postabsorptive metabolism in nursery pigs.
Dilute-Nitride Low-Dimensional Nanostructures Formed on Non-Planar Substrates

Keywords: semiconductor ; heterostructure ; nanostructure ; epitaxy ; MOVPE ; nanoscale ; quantum well ; quantum wire ; quantum dot ; nitrogen ; dilute nitride ; GaAs ; GaAsN ; InGaAsN ; V-groove ; pyramid ; vicinal substrate ; photoluminescence ; InP ; Monte-Carlo ; symmetry elevation ; 1. 3µm These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 5814 (2013)Programme doctoral PhysiqueFaculte des sciences de baseInstitut de physique de la matiere condenseeLaboratoire de physique des nanostructuresJury: N. Grandjean (president), A. Fontcuberta i Morral, M. Hopkinson, A. Rastelli Public defense: 2013-7-22 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-5814Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2013-07-22, modified on 2017-05-12
The biological properties of different Epstein-Barr virus strains explain their association with various types of cancers

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is etiologically associated with the development of multiple types of tumors, but it is unclear whether this diversity is due to infection with different EBV strains. We report a comparative characterization of SNU719, GP202, and YCCEL1, three EBV strains that were isolated from gastric carcinomas, M81, a virus isolated in a nasopharyngeal carcinoma and several well-characterized laboratory type A strains. We found that B95-8, Akata and GP202 induced cell growth more efficiently than YCCEL1, SNU719 and M81 and this correlated positively with the expression levels of the viral BHRF1 miRNAs. In infected B cells, all strains except Akata and B95-8 induced lytic replication, a risk factor for carcinoma development, although less efficiently than M81. The panel of viruses induced tumors in immunocompromised mice with variable speed and efficacy that did not strictly mirror their in vitro characteristics, suggesting that additional parameters play an important role. We found that YCCEL1 and M81 infected primary epithelial cells, gastric carcinoma cells and gastric spheroids more efficiently than Akata or B95-8. Reciprocally, Akata and B95-8 had a stronger tropism for B cells than YCCEL1 or M81. These data suggest that different EBV strains will induce the development of lymphoid tumors with variable efficacy in immunocompromised patients and that there is a parallel between the cell tropism of the viral strains and the lineage of the tumors they induce. Thus, EBV strains can be endowed with properties that will influence their transforming abilities and the type of tumor they induce.
Design of 2.45 GHz microwave wireless power transfer system for battery charging applications

A compact 2.45 GHz receiver module for wireless charging at far distance has been developed. The module consists of receiving antenna array, rectifier and power management circuit. The design, fabrication and testing of the receiving antenna, rectifier and power management circuits will be described. By integrating the 3 by 4 rectenna array and the power management circuit, the total weight of the complete module is around 500 g, making it feasible to mount on any system with rechargeable battery. Its functionality to receive and convert the microwave power to DC power for charging an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) battery is demonstrated. Using the developed system and through careful experimental study, the feasibility of charging a UAV battery at varying distance of 1 to 4 m is studied. It is demonstrated that at a test distance of 2m, the UAV battery can be turned on and its power charging mode is activated, under the illumination of microwave through a horn transmitting antenna when its transmitting power is about 130W. By increasing the distance to 4m, the UAV battery can be turned on and power charging mode is activated the transmitting power reaches about 170W. At a closer distance of 1m, the maximum charging current of 190mA is achievable when the transmitting power is 500W, which is the maximum output power limit of the power amplifier. According to the test results of the receiver module and theoretical calculation, it can be estimated that a transmitting power of 12kW is needed to charge the UAV's battery under the flying mode at the distance of 4 m.
H∞ control for fuzzy time-delay systems via dynamic output feedback

This paper focuses on the design of H∞ control for T-S fuzzy systems with input time-varying delay via dynamic output feedback. Based on the recently developed reciprocally convex approach, some less conservative delay-dependent sufficient conditions for the existence of the fuzzy controllers are given in terms of linear matrix inequalities(LMIs). Finally, a practical example is provided to show the advantages and effectiveness of the present results.
The shaping of social perception by stimulus and knowledge cues to human animacy

Although robots are becoming an ever-growing presence in society, we do not hold the same expectations for robots as we do for humans, nor do we treat them the same. As such, the ability to recognize cues to human animacy is fundamental for guiding social interactions. We review literature that demonstrates cortical networks associated with person perception, action observation and mentalizing are sensitive to human animacy information. In addition, we show that most prior research has explored stimulus properties of artificial agents (humanness of appearance or motion), with less investigation into knowledge cues (whether an agent is believed to have human or artificial origins). Therefore, currently little is known about the relationship between stimulus and knowledge cues to human animacy in terms of cognitive and brain mechanisms. Using fMRI, an elaborate belief manipulation, and human and robot avatars, we found that knowledge cues to human animacy modulate engagement of person perception and mentalizing networks, while stimulus cues to human animacy had less impact on social brain networks. These findings demonstrate that self–other similarities are not only grounded in physical features but are also shaped by prior knowledge. More broadly, as artificial agents fulfil increasingly social roles, a challenge for roboticists will be to manage the impact of pre-conceived beliefs while optimizing human-like design.
Efficient Processing of XML Path Queries Using the Disk-based F&B Index

With the proliferation of XML data and applications on the Internet, efficient XML query processing techniques are in great demand. Answering queries using XML indexes is a natural approach. A number of XML indexes have been proposed in the literature: among them, FB the result is a disk-based F&B Index with good clustering properties. In addition, novel query processing algorithms exploiting the physical organization of the disk-based F&B Indexes are proposed. Experimental results verify that our disk-based F&B Index can scale up for large data size with good query performance compared with state-of-the-art XML query processing algorithms.
High-Temperature Transport in Lanthanum Telluride and Other Modern Thermoelectric Materials

This manuscript discusses the materials physics of thermal and electrical transport in the solid state. In particular, the focus is on thermoelectric materials, which enable the direct conversion between thermal and electrical energy. The ability of simple approximations and semiclassical models to describe transport is explored in a variety of systems. In some cases, the traditional models provide a very accurate description of the transport for the compositions of interest to thermoelectric applications. This is the case for n-type Ba8Ga16-xGe30+x, where a single, parabolic band model captures the electrical transport and thus allows the accurate prediction of optimal composition for energy conversion. This is not found to be true in La3-xTe4, and more than one parabolic conduction band is required to describe the electrical transport. In this case, the use of ab initio electronic band structure calculations provided critical knowledge for physical models to be developed. The influence of structure on thermal transport is also examined in detail. The compounds considered typically possess low lattice thermal conductivity, with values often being less than or equal to 1 W/m/K at 300 K. This can generally be associated with large unit cells, where the high number of atoms per unit cell results in a large number of optical modes, which carry little heat due to their low group velocities. Phonon scattering is also considered, and the cation vacancies in La3-xTe4 are found to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity by over 100% at room temperature. Finally, the resulting thermoelectric efficiency is discussed, where leg efficiencies near 20% of the Carnot efficiency are predicted in segmented legs. The work detailed here has led to the continued development of La3-xTe4 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where it is a top candidate for future use in deep-space power-generation systems.
Formulation, General Features and Global Calibration of a Bioenergetically-Constrained Fishery Model

Human exploitation of marine resources is profoundly altering marine ecosystems, while climate change is expected to further impact commercially-harvested fish and other species. Although the global fishery is a highly complex system with many unpredictable aspects, the bioenergetic limits on fish production and the response of fishing effort to profit are both relatively tractable, and are sure to play important roles. Here we describe a generalized, coupled biological-economic model of the global marine fishery that represents both of these aspects in a unified framework, the BiOeconomic mArine Trophic Size-spectrum (BOATS) model. BOATS predicts fish production according to size spectra as a function of net primary production and temperature, and dynamically determines harvest spectra from the biomass density and interactive, prognostic fishing effort. Within this framework, the equilibrium fish biomass is determined by the economic forcings of catchability, ex-vessel price and cost per unit effort, while the peak harvest depends on the ecosystem parameters. Comparison of a large ensemble of idealized simulations with observational databases, focusing on historical biomass and peak harvests, allows us to narrow the range of several uncertain ecosystem parameters, rule out most parameter combinations, and select an optimal ensemble of model variants. Compared to the prior distributions, model variants with lower values of the mortality rate, trophic efficiency, and allometric constant agree better with observations. For most acceptable parameter combinations, natural mortality rates are more strongly affected by temperature than growth rates, suggesting different sensitivities of these processes to climate change. These results highlight the utility of adopting large-scale, aggregated data constraints to reduce model parameter uncertainties and to better predict the response of fisheries to human behaviour and climate change.
Hsp90 N- and C-terminal double inhibition synergistically suppresses Bcr-Abl-positive human leukemia cells

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) contains amino (N)–terminal domain, carboxyl(C)-terminal domain, and middle domains, which activate Hsp90 chaperone function cooperatively in tumor cells. One terminal occupancy might influence another terminal binding with inhibitor. The Bcr-Abl kinase is one of the Hsp90 clients implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Present studies demonstrate that double inhibition of the N- and C-terminal termini can disrupt Hsp90 chaperone function synergistically, but not antagonistically, in Bcr-Abl-positive human leukemia cells. Furthermore, both the N-terminal inhibitor 17-AAG and the C-terminal inhibitor cisplatin (CP) have the capacity to suppress progenitor cells; however, only CP is able to inhibit leukemia stem cells (LSCs) significantly, which implies that the combinational treatment is able to suppress human leukemia in different mature states.
Microstructure and Properties of TiC/Ni3Al Composites Prepared by Pressureless Melt Infiltration with Porous TiC/Ni3Al Preforms

In this article, porous TiC/Ni3Al preforms were fabricated by self-propagating high-temperature combustion synthesis (SHCS). Then, the porous TiC/Ni3Al preforms were densified with infiltrated Ni3Al melt via the conventional pressureless infiltration, and TiC/Ni3Al composites were prepared. The composites were characterized by microstructure observation and mechanical property measurements. The results demonstrate that the wetting ability of liquid Ni3Al to porous TiC/Ni3Al preforms is better than that of liquid Ni3Al to TiC preforms. The porous TiC/Ni3Al preforms can be completely infiltrated by Ni3Al melt via pressureless infiltration technique, and then densified TiC/Ni3Al composites without defects can be obtained. During the infiltration process, both Ni3Al and TiC/Ni3Al preforms were thermally and chemically stable, and the infiltration resulted in no new phases. Comparing the similar composites prepared with TiC preforms infiltrated by melt Ni3Al via pressureless infiltration, bending strength of the TiC/Ni3Al composites of this work was much improved with higher reliability. The interfaces between TiC particles and the intermetallic compound Ni3Al were the main points of failure in the composites. Strengthening mechanism of the TiC/Ni3Al composites consisted of mainly pullout of TiC particles from the matrix and crack deflection surrounding Ni3Al particles.
Aligot: cryptographic function identification in obfuscated binary programs

Analyzing cryptographic implementations has important applications, especially for malware analysis where they are an integral part both of the malware payload and the unpacking code that decrypts this payload. These implementations are often based on well-known cryptographic functions, whose description is publicly available. While potentially very useful for malware analysis, the identification of such cryptographic primitives is made difficult by the fact that they are usually obfuscated. Current state-of-the-art identification tools are ineffective due to the absence of easily identifiable static features in obfuscated code. However, these implementations still maintain the input-output (I/O) relationship of the original function. In this paper, we present a tool that leverages this fact to identify cryptographic functions in obfuscated programs, by retrieving their I/O parameters in an implementation-independent fashion, and comparing them with those of known cryptographic functions. In experimental evaluation, we successfully identified the cryptographic functions TEA, RC4, AES and MD5 both in synthetic examples protected by a commercial-grade packer (AsProtect), and in several obfuscated malware samples (Sality, Waledac, Storm Worm and SilentBanker). In addition, our tool was able to recognize basic operations done in asymmetric ciphers such as RSA.
Emotional face recognition in individuals withattention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a review article

ABSTRACT This review focuses on facial emotion recognition (FER) in individuals with attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Behavioral studies of FER in ADHD have resulted in inconsistent findings. Here, we discuss the factors that vary across studies and the way that they influence FER processes in ADHD. Across reviewed studies, fear was the most deficient facial expression to be recognized. Our review suggested that FER deficit in ADHD does not alleviate across development and is partially distinct from ADHD symptoms. In conclusion, assessment of FER in ADHD and targeting that in interventional plans could lead to social skills improvement in ADHD.
Convergence of Proximal Iteratively Reweighted Nuclear Norm Algorithm for Image Processing

The nonsmooth and nonconvex regularization has many applications in imaging science and machine learning research due to its excellent recovery performance. A proximal iteratively reweighted nuclear norm algorithm has been proposed for the nonsmooth and nonconvex matrix minimizations. In this paper, we aim to investigate the convergence of the algorithm. With the Kurdyka–Łojasiewicz property, we prove the algorithm globally converges to a critical point of the objective function. The numerical results presented in this paper coincide with our theoretical findings.
Car microstrip GPS antenna

GPS is very widely used by the civil users who want to obtain location positioning, for scientific purposes and by the satellite navigation services. The antenna that provides continuous connection between a satellite transmitter and receiver is one of the most important components of the GPS. Today's GPS is using two carrier frequencies, namely L1 = 1575 GHz, L2 = 1227 GHz. The GPS antennas used by the Europe-wide eCall system and the American On-Star service intended for quick automatic notification about road accidents interact with the antennas of mobile phones of the drivers who have had an accident and need immediate assistance. The system allows the driver both to deliver information and to request the car positioning at the same time. The article presents a designed, constructed and tested model of GPS antenna fabricated using microstrip technique. The mobile GPS antenna model has been designed using the microstrip technique as a printed antenna with a rectangular radiator with undercuts to provide rotating polarization. In order to design the antenna transmission line model and CST simulation environment based on FTDT methodology were used. A 1.5 mm thick technoService FR-4 laminate metal-plated on both sides with dielectric permittivity εr = 4.6 was used in the design. The laminate is coated with 0.07 mm thick copper layer, whereas the loss tangent amounts to 0.02. Using the computer simulation method the following was determined: directional characteristics, input impedance, standing wave ratio, scattering matrix ratio S11, as well as polarization ellipse. The paper also provides the results of laboratory measurements of antenna parameters carried out in the anechoic chamber. A comparative analysis of the GPS antenna parameters obtained by means of the computer simulation method and laboratory measurements is presented. The antenna described has the right-hand rotating polarization. Due to its small dimensions the antenna model is perfect for applications in the motor-car sector. In terms of dimensions the antenna perfectly fits into its designated place, i.e. the car windshield. The impact of windshield parameters was also taken into account during the antenna designing process. The antenna may also be integrated with the single in-line package with other car antennas.
The Effect of Birth Cohort on Well-Being

In the present research, we examined the effects of age, cohort, and time of measurement on well-being across adulthood. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of two independent samples—one with more than 10,000 repeated assessments across 30 years (mean assessments per participant = 4.44, SD = 3.47) and one with nationally representative data—suggested that well-being declines with age. This decline, however, reversed when we controlled for birth cohort. That is, once we accounted for the fact that older cohorts had lower levels of well-being, all cohorts increased in well-being with age relative to their own baseline. Participants tested more recently had higher well-being, but time of measurement, unlike cohort, did not change the shape of the trajectory. Although well-being increased with age for everyone, cohorts that lived through the economic challenges of the early 20th century had lower well-being than those born during more prosperous times.