Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Bandwidth Enhanced Doherty Power Amplifier With a Compact Output Combiner

This letter introduces a broadband and compact output combiner for Doherty power amplifier (DPA). A grounded quarter Wavelength <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(\lambda/4)$</tex-math></inline-formula> line is added to the output of the peaking amplifier, which helps to compensate for the bandwidth limiting effect that happens in the conventional combiner. Frequency response analysis indicates that stable impedance is achieved across a wide band for the carrier PA. For demonstration, a DPA prototype based on the proposed structure is implemented using two 10 W GaN HEMT transistors. At 6 dB back-off power, over 42% drain efficiency is obtained from 1.5 GHz to 2.5 GHz, accounting for 50% fractional bandwidth. In addition, a minimum of 55% drain efficiency is maintained at saturation in the same frequency band.
Buckled cantilever 3D microstructures for transducer applications

A surface micro-machined cantilever that can be assembled out-of-plane to create transducers is presented in this thesis. The buckled cantilever is designed and fabricated using a polymer-based fabrication technology. Assembly of the cantilever can be done by an unidirectional push using microprobe or wirebonder tip. The out-of-plane height and angle can be controlled by the amount of displacement of the cantilever tip. Numerical analysis and finite element analysis were used to model and predict the shape of the buckled structure. By attaching sensor plates to the cantilever structure, three-axis thermal accelerometers prototypes are also designed. Different designs of the thermal accelerometers were fabricated, packaged, and tested. Measurements show that the thermal accelerometers have good sensitivity in all three axes.
Responses of Guava Plants to Inoculation with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Soil Infested with Meloidogyne enterolobii

In the Northeast of Brazil, expansion of guava crops has been impaired by Meloidogyne enterolobii that causes root galls, leaf fall and plant death. Considering the fact that arbuscular mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) improve plant growth giving protection against damages by plant pathogens, this work was carried out to select AMF efficient to increase production of guava seedlings and their tolerance to M. enterolobii. Seedlings of guava were inoculated with 200 spores of Gigaspora albida, Glomus etunicatum or Acaulospora longula and 55 days later with 4,000 eggs of M. enterolobii. The interactions between the AMF and M. enterolobii were assessed by measuring leaf number, aerial dry biomass, CO2 evolution and arbuscular and total mycorrhizal colonization. In general, plant growth was improved by the treatments with A. longula or with G. albida. The presence of the nematode decreased arbuscular colonization and increased general enzymatic activity. Higher dehydrogenase activity occurred with the A. longula treatment and CO2 evolution was higher in the control with the nematode. More spores and higher production of glomalin-related soil proteins were observed in the treatment with G. albida. The numbers of galls, egg masses and eggs were reduced in the presence of A. longula. Inoculation with this fungus benefitted plant growth and decreased nematode reproduction.
A Peer-to-Peer Multicast Architecture for Supporting Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) in Medicine

Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) can improve the way remote users interact with one another while learning or training skills on a given task. One CVE's application is the possibility of simulating medical procedures in which a group of remote users can train and interact simultaneously. It is important that networking issues and performance evaluation of CVEs allows us to understand how such systems can work in the Internet, as well as the requirements for multisensorial and real-time data. Thus, this paper discloses implementation issues of a peer-to-peer multicast network architecture on the collaborative module of the CyberMed VR framework. The multicast protocol is known to provide better scalability and decrease the use of bandwidth on CVEs, allowing better Quality of Experience (QoE). Finally it presents the results of a performance evaluation experiment.
Contraction times and fibre types in intact human muscle.

Twitches were recorded in situ in muscles of normal humans by small transducers connected to a needle in the tendon. The twitches were elicited by stimuli in the endplate zone, the force of the smallest twitches corresponding to the average of one or two motor units. The time to peak contraction was measured of 20–30 bundles of fibres in each muscle examined. The histograms of contraction times agreed with histochemical findings; contraction times longer than 60 msec corresponded to the proportion of fibres rich in mitochondria. Thus, long contraction times predominated in the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles, comprised half the times in the anterior tibia], a third in the brachial biceps (long head) and a few per cent in the brachial triceps muscle (lateral head). Bundles of fibres with short contraction times, those poor in mitochondria had a higher temperature coefficient of the time to peak than bundles with long contraction times. During hypoxia the contraction times shortened. The contraction time of motor units first activated voluntarily lay near the mean of bundles activated electrically. The contraction times of fasciculating fibres were in the range of electrically evoked twitches; the force was about three times that of voluntarily activated units.
Microvascular Responses to Alterations in Oxygen Tension

The changes in microvascular diameter and perivascular oxygen tension resulting from alterations in suffusion solution Po2 were investigated in a study of the participation of oxygen in the regulation of blood flow. Diffusion gradients for oxygen were altered by changing the Po2 of a solution covering the surface of the hamster cheek pouch. As the solution Po2 was raised from a low of 11 mm Hg, perivascular Po2 of the large arterioles initially decreased to a minimum at approximately 40 mm Hg and then increased progressively as solution Po2 was elevated further. Arterial capillary and tissue Po2 remained relatively constant over a range of solution oxygen tensions between 11 and 40 mm Hg, suggesting that either the precapillary sphincters or the terminal arterioles were active in regulating tissue Po2 as the input of O2 from the solution was increased. The arterioles constricted as solution Po2 was elevated. Average arteriolar diameter decreased by 13% as solution Po2 increased from 11 to 47 mm Hg. A more pronounced constriction of 20% occurred when solution Po2 was increased from 11 to 84 mm Hg. These experiments indicated that the response of large and small arterioles was not mediated by a direct effect of oxygen on the vascular smooth muscle, since decreases in perivascular oxygen tension were coincident with decreases in vascular diameter in these vessels over a range of solution Po2 between 11 and 47 mm Hg. The data did not distinguish between a direct and an indirect effect of oxygen on the vascular smooth muscle of the terminal arterioles and precapillary sphincters. However, the oxygen tensions measured at these sites (18−30 mm Hg) required that the vascular smooth muscle cells respond to altered oxygen tension at levels higher than those which have been demonstrated experimentally.
Acute increase of α-synuclein inhibits synaptic vesicle recycling evoked during intense stimulation

This is the first study to show the direct effects of α-synuclein on synaptic vesicle trafficking and to elucidate the underlying structural mechanisms. Acutely increasing α-synuclein severely inhibits synaptic vesicle recycling from the plasma membrane. The endocytic defects require a properly folded N-terminal α-helical domain of α-synuclein.
Bit-Precise Reasoning Beyond Bit-Blasting

In the field of hardware and software verification, many applications require to determine satisfiability of first-order-logic with respect to one or more background theories, also referred to as Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT). The majority of these applications relies on bit-precise reasoning as provided by SMT solvers for the quantifier-free theory of fixed-size bit-vectors, often combined with arrays and uninterpreted functions. Fixed-size bit-vectors provide a natural way to model circuits and programs and arrays allow to reason about memory and array data structures. Uninterpreted functions, on the other hand, are useful as abstraction for irrelevant or too complex details of a system. In this thesis, our main focus is on SMT procedures for bit-vector logics. In the context of quantifier-free bit-vector formulas in SMT, current state-of-theart is a flattening technique referred to as bit-blasting, where the input formula is eagerly translated into propositional logic and handed to an underlying SAT solver. While efficient in practice, in particular for increasing bit-widths, bitblasting may not scale if the input size can not be reduced sufficiently during preprocessing. In this thesis, we propose alternative approaches for bit-vector logics based on local search that do not require bit-blasting or an underlying SAT solver and yield a substantial gain in performance, in particular in combination with bit-blasting within a sequential portfolio setting. In the context of combining quantifier-free bit-vectors with arrays and uninterpreted functions, current state-of-the-art SMT procedures are based on lazy rather than eager techniques. One such lazy technique is the Lemmas on Demand (LOD) approach, which refines full candidate models of a formula abstraction with lemmas until convergence. Full candidate models, however, include irrelevant parts of the input formula, which may introduce unnecessary overhead. In this thesis, we propose an optimization of LOD where focusing refinement on relevant parts of the input formula considerably improves performance. We implemented all of our techniques within our SMT solver Boolector, which contributed to Boolector winning several tracks of recent SMT competitions. Boolector supports the quantifier-free theories of fixed-size bit-vectors, arrays and uninterpreted functions and natively handles non-recursive first-order lambda terms. It is a complex piece of software with correctness, robustness and high performance as its key requirements. and in this thesis, we address automated testing and debugging techniques for SMT solver development that we consider as crucial to reach this goal.
Scene recognition with omnidirectional vision for topological map using lightweight adaptive descriptors

Mobile robots rely on their ability of scene recognition to build a topological map of the environment and perform location-related tasks. In this paper, we describe a novel lightweight scene recognition method using an adaptive descriptor which is based on color features and geometric information for omnidirectional vision. Our method enables the robot to add nodes to a topological map automatically and solve the localization problem of mobile robot in realtime. The descriptor of a scene is extracted in the YUV color space and its dimension is adaptive depending on the segmentation result of the panoramic image. Furthermore, the descriptor is invariant to rotation and slight changes of illumination. The robustness of the scene matching and recognition is tested through real experiments in a dynamic indoor environment. The experiment is carried out on a mobile robot equipped with an omnidirectional camera. In our tests, the average processing time is 30 ms for each frame including feature extraction, matching, and the adding of new nodes.
Systematic Review on the Etiology and Antibiotic Treatment of Pneumonia in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-infected Children

Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children. Objectives and Methods: A systematic review of studies that were published between January 1990 and February 2009 on the etiology and antimicrobial or adjunctive systemic management of CAP in HIV-infected children. Results: Pneumocystis jirovecii had the strongest association with HIV infection, with a summary odds ratio of 10.1 (95% confidence interval [CI], 17.7–62.1) and 9.1 (95% CI, 2.5–33.1) in antemortem and postmortem studies, respectively. Cytomegalovirus was strongly associated with HIV positivity among fatal cases of pneumonia (summary odds ratio = 14.4 [95% CI, 6.7–30.8]). There was a trend toward a greater prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus (odds ratio, 2.5; 95% CI, 0.95–6.4) in HIV-infected children. Major limitations identified included substantial methodological heterogeneity across studies, limited sensitivity of assays for diagnosing bacterial pneumonia, and studies primarily being undertaken in the absence of antiretroviral treatment or cotrimoxazole prophylaxis. No a priori-planned randomized controlled trials on antimicrobial management of CAP in HIV-infected children were identified. Conclusions: A World Health Organization panel used this review as well as analysis of risks and benefits to revise recommendations for antimicrobial treatment of CAP. Ampicillin plus gentamicin or ceftriaxone is now recommended as first-line empiric regimens for treating severe and very severe CAP in HIV-infected children. In addition, treatment with cloxacillin or vancomycin is recommended in settings with a high incidence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus, and particularly if clinical or microbiological evidence of S. aureus pneumonia exist. Further studies in HIV-infected children on CAP etiology and antibiotic treatment are required in the era of antiretroviral treatment.
Digital dewaxing of Raman spectral images of paraffin-embedded human skin biopsies based on ICA and NCLS

A digital automatic dewaxing method of Raman spectral images acquired on paraffin-embedded human skin biopsies is proposed in this paper. This method is based on preprocessing steps specific to Raman spectra, on the estimation of the paraffin spectra by the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA), and on the estimation of the paraffin concentrations by the Nonnegatively Constrained Least Squares (NCLS) method. The proposed method allows the automatic extraction of skin signatures which depend on the acquisition points. By this way, further classification of a skin biopsy into tumoral, peritumoral and normal zones should be possible.
Agnostic System Identification for Monte Carlo Planning

While model-based reinforcement learning is often studied under the assumption that a fully accurate model is contained within the model class, this is rarely true in practice. When the model class may be fundamentally limited, it can be difficult to obtain theoretical guarantees. Under some conditions the DAgger algorithm promises a policy nearly as good as the plan obtained from the most accurate model in the class, but only if the planning algorithm is near-optimal, which is also rarely the case in complex problems. This paper explores the interaction between DAgger and Monte Carlo planning, specifically showing that DAgger may perform poorly when coupled with a sub-optimal planner. A novel variation of DAgger specifically for use with Monte Carlo planning is derived and is shown to behave far better in some cases where DAgger fails.
White Matter Hyperintensities and Cognitive Dysfunction in Alzheimer Disease

The effect of white matter lesions in magnetic resonance imaging or vascular atherosclerosis on cognitive function is not fully understood in Alzheimer disease (AD). In this investigation, we examined the influence of white matter lesions on cognitive decline in AD. A total of 142 patients with AD (44 men, mean age 65.7 + 7.6 years; mean education period 7.8 + 5.0 years) were included. Patients were divided into 4 groups based on the severities of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) in brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) using Fazekas scale. Cognitive functions were determined using the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) and the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale before acetylcholinesterase inhibitors were administered. Of the 142 patients, 30% (43/142) had no white matter signal abnormality (grade 0). Fourteen percentage (20/142) were grade 1, 42% (59/142) grade 2, and 14% (20/142) were grade 3. Mean K-MMSE scores declined as MRI grades increased to grade 2 and 3 compared to grade 0 (P < .01). Clinical Dementia Ratings were also aggravated by MRI grade. These results remained significant after adjusting for compounding factors affecting cognitive functions; sex, age, number of years in full-time education, hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, smoking, and atrial fibrillation. The presence of WMHs were associated with score of MMSE and CDR impairment in patients with AD. These features could be a correctable factor hastening cognitive decline in AD.
EVEREST study report 2: imaging and grading protocol, and baseline characteristics of a randomised controlled trial of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

Purpose To describe the imaging standards, grading protocol and baseline characteristics of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) from the EVEREST study. Methods In a prospective, multicentre study, confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) was performed using a standardised imaging protocol. All images were graded using standardised, calibrated equipment by fellowship-trained ophthalmologists at the Central Reading Center. Results Sixty-one patients with PCV were included in the study. ICGA characteristics included: nodular appearance stereoscopically (56 eyes, 91.8%), hypofluorescent halo (42, 68.9%), abnormal vascular network (54, 88.5%) and pulsation of the polyps (4, 6.6%). Colour fundus photography revealed orange subretinal nodules (34, 55.7%) and massive submacular haemorrhage (8, 13.1%). The mean area of the PCV lesion was 3.11 mm2 (range, 0.2–10.7 mm2). The vascular channels filled within 7.3–32.0 s (mean: 17.9 s) while the mean filling time for polyps was 21.9 s (range, 7.3–40.4 s). Patients with massive submacular haemorrhage were less likely to have abnormal vascular channels seen on ICGA (28.6% vs 83.3% for those without massive haemorrhage, p=0.001). Conclusions The imaging and grading protocols and baseline characteristics of a multicentre, randomised controlled trial of PCV are described in detail, and may serve as reference for future randomised, controlled trials on PCV. Clinical trial number This work was supported by Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland grant number NCT00674323 (clinicaltrials.gov).
Scheduling and Optimization of Fault-Tolerant Embedded Systems with Transparency/Performance Trade-Offs

In this article, we propose a strategy for the synthesis of fault-tolerant schedules and for the mapping of fault-tolerant applications. Our techniques handle transparency/performance trade-offs and use the fault-occurrence information to reduce the overhead due to fault tolerance. Processes and messages are statically scheduled, and we use process reexecution for recovering from multiple transient faults. We propose a fine-grained transparent recovery, where the property of transparency can be selectively applied to processes and messages. Transparency hides the recovery actions in a selected part of the application so that they do not affect the schedule of other processes and messages. While leading to longer schedules, transparent recovery has the advantage of both improved debuggability and less memory needed to store the fault-tolerant schedules.
Genetic factors in open‐angle (simple and capsular) glaucoma

Abstract A nationwide record linkage of the Finnish Twin Cohort Study (FTCS) with the Hospital Discharge Registry and the Registry of Rights for Free medication is presented. This study consists of 108 pairs (114 individuals) of twins with chronic open‐angle glaucoma. Of the twin pairs 29 were monozygotic (MZ), while 79 pairs were dizygotic (DZ). Three monozygotic and 3 dizygotic pairs were concordant for chronic open‐angle glaucoma (OAG), while 26 monozygotic and 76 dizygotic pairs were discordant. Seventy‐three twins had chronic simple glaucoma, while 34 twins had capsular glaucoma, and in 7 patients chronic simple glaucoma was noted in one eye and capsular glaucoma in the second eye. The heritability of chronic open angle glaucoma was 13%. The higher O/E‐ratio of concordant twin pairs among MZ twins indicates that genetic factors play a role in this disease. The difference is anyhow surprisingly low compared to former estimates of heritability of open angle glaucoma. The steep rise in prevalence in older age groups was confirmed. The age‐adjusted prevalence of chronic open‐angle glaucoma in this study was 0.63%.
A Survey on FEC Codes for 100 G and Beyond Optical Networks

Due to the rapid increase in network traffic in the last few years, many telecommunication operators have started transitions to 100-Gb/s optical networks and beyond. However, high-speed optical networks need more efficient forward error correction (FEC) codes to deal with optical impairments, such as uncompensated chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion, and nonlinear effects, and keep the bit error rate (BER) at long distances sufficiently low. To address these issues, new FEC codes, called third-generation codes, have been proposed. A majority of these codes are based on soft-decision decoders and can provide higher coding gain as compared with their predecessors. This paper presents a thorough survey of third-generation FEC codes, suitable for 100 G and beyond optical networks. Furthermore, this paper discusses the main advantages and drawbacks of each scheme and provides a qualitative categorization and comparison of the proposed schemes based on their main features, such as net coding gain and BER. Information about the complexity of each scheme is given as well.
Optimization of Expression and Purification Methods for the Study of Protein-Based Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agents

Magnetic Resonance Imaging instruments rely on a contrast agent to provide high-resolution images of tissues in vivo. However, current clinical contrast agents are hindered by low relaxivity and fast correlation time, necessitating high injection dosages. These concerns, among others, have driven the development of a class of protein-based contrast agents (ProCAs), by design of lanthanide binding sites into a scaffold protein. ProCA1 has a higher reported relaxivity and dosage efficiency than current contrast agents. In this study, expression and Glutathione-STransferase purification procedures were optimized, and a refolding method for rapid production of ProCA1 has been developed to enable studies of conformation, metal binding, relaxivity, and in vivo applications. Several ProCA1 variants with 4-5 charged ligand residues were shown to have strong gadolinium binding affinity (Kd of 10 -12 M) and metal selectivity. Several options to improve ProCA1 have been explored, including addition of a polyethylene chain or a bombesin tag. INDEX WORDS: Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Contrast agents, Relaxivity, Gadolinium, GST, Refolding method, PEGylation. OPTIMIZATION OF EXPRESSION AND PURIFICATION METHODS FOR THE STUDY OF PROTEIN-BASED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING CONTRAST AGENTS
On the Convergence of Stochastic Integrals Driven by Processes Converging on account of a Homogenization Property

We study the limit of functionals of stochastic processes for which an homogenization result holds. All these functionals involve stochastic integrals. Among them, we consider more particularly the Levy area and those giving the solutions of some SDEs. The main question is to know whether or not the limit of the stochastic integrals is equal to the stochastic integral of the limit of each of its terms. In fact, the answer may be negative, especially in presence of a highly oscillating first-order differential term. This provides us some counterexamples to the theory of good sequence of semimartingales.