Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling Architecture for Units Integration within a GALS NoC

In complex embedded applications, optimization and adaptation at run time of both dynamic and leakage power have become an issue at SoC coarse grain. For power reduction, voltage and frequency scaling techniques have been applied successfully to CPUs but never with a generic approach for all IPs within a SoC. Network-on-Chip architecture combined with a globally asynchronous locally synchronous paradigm is a natural enabler for easy IP unit integration. GALS NoC provides scalable communications and a clear split between timing domains. We propose in this paper a complete dynamic voltage and frequency scaling architecture for IP units integration within a GALS NOC. The proposed DVFS architecture is based on the association of local clock generator and VDD-hopping between two given voltages. No fine control software is required during any voltage and frequency re-programming. As a result, minimal latency cost is observed. The power efficiency of the proposed system has been evaluated close to 95%.
Team-based learning: A practical guide: AMEE Guide No. 65

Team-based learning™ (TBL) is an instructional strategy developed in the business school environment in the early 1990s by Dr Michaelsen who wanted the benefits of small group learning within large classes. In 2001, a US federal granting agency awarded funds for educators in the health sciences to learn about and implement the strategy in their educational programs; TBL was put forward as one such strategy and as a result it is used in over 60 US and international health science professional schools. TBL is very different from problem-based learning (PBL) and other small group approaches in that there is no need for multiple faculty or rooms, students must come prepared to sessions, and individual and small groups of students (teams) are highly accountable for their contributions to team productivity. The instructor must be a content-expert, but need not have any experience or expertise in group process to conduct a successful TBL session. Students do not need any specific instruction in teamwork since they learn how to be collaborative and productive in the process. TBL can replace or complement a lecture-based course or curriculum.
Postamputation pain: studies on mechanisms.

Amputation is followed by both painful and non-painful phantom phenomena in a large number of amputees. Non-painful phantom sensations rarely pose any clinical problem, but 60-80% of all amputees also experience painful sensations (i.e. phantom pain) located to the missing limb. The severity of phantom pain usually decreases with time, but severe pain persists in 5-10% of patients. Pain in the residual limb (i.e. stump pain) is another consequence of amputation. Both stump and phantom pain can be very difficult to treat. Treatment guidelines used for other neuropathic pain conditions are probably the best approximation, especially for the treatment of stump pain. The aim of the present doctoral thesis was to explore some of the mechanisms underlying pain after amputation. Ten studies were carried out (I-X). My PhD thesis from 1998 dealt with pain before the amputation and showed that preamputation pain increases the risk of phantom pain after amputation (I). A perioperative epidural blockade, however, did not reduce the incidence of pain or abnormal sensory phenomena after amputation (II, III). The importance of sensitization before amputation for the subsequent development of pain is supported by study IV, in which pressure pain thresholds obtained at the limb before amputation were inversely related to stump and phantom pain after 1 week. Afferent input from the periphery is likely to contribute to postamputation pain as sodium channels were upregulated in human neuromas (VI), although neuroma removal did not always alleviate phantom pain (V). Sensitization of neurons in the spinal cord also seems to be involved in pain after amputation as phantom pain was reduced by ketamine, an NMDA-receptor antagonist. Another NMDA-receptor antagonist, memantine, and gabapentin, a drug working by binding to the δ2α-subunit of voltage-gated calcium channels, had no effect on phantom pain (VII-IX). Supraspinal factors are also important for pain after amputation as catastrophizing was associated with phantom pain (X). In conclusion, the present doctoral thesis confirmed and expanded the findings by others that several mechanisms are involved in the development and maintenance of phantom pain. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms will hopefully lead to improved treatment of pain after amputation in the future.
Aldosterone Inhibits Antifibrotic Factors in Mouse Hypertensive Heart

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is involved in the arterial hypertension-associated cardiovascular remodeling. In this context, the development of cardiac fibrosis results from an imbalance between profibrotic and antifibrotic pathways, in which the role of aldosterone is yet not established. To determine the role of intracardiac aldosterone in the development of myocardial fibrosis during hypertension, we used a double transgenic model (AS-Ren) of cardiac hyperaldosteronism (AS) and systemic hypertension (Ren). The 9-month–old hypertensive mice had cardiac fibrosis, and hyperaldosteronism enhanced the fibrotic level. The mRNA levels of connective tissue growth factor and transforming growth factor-&bgr;1 were similarly increased in Ren and AS-Ren mice compared with wild-type and AS mice, respectively. Hyperaldosteronism combined with hypertension favored the macrophage infiltration (CD68+ cells) in heart, and enhanced the mRNA level of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, osteopontin, and galectin 3. Interestingly, in AS-Ren mice the hypertension-induced increase in bone morphogenetic protein 4 mRNA and protein levels was significantly inhibited, and B-type natriuretic peptide expression was blunted. The mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist eplerenone restored B-type natriuretic peptide and bone morphogenetic protein 4 levels and decreased CD68 and galectin 3 levels in AS-Ren mice. Finally, when hypertension was induced by angiotensin II infusion in wild-type and AS mice, the mRNA profiles did not differ from those observed in Ren and AS-Ren mice, respectively. The aldosterone-induced inhibition of B-type natriuretic peptide and bone morphogenetic protein 4 expression was confirmed in vitro in neonatal mouse cardiomyocytes. Altogether, we demonstrate that, at the cardiac level, hyperaldosteronism worsens hypertension-induced fibrosis through 2 mineralocorticoid receptor-dependent mechanisms, activation of inflammation/galectin 3–induced fibrosis and inhibition of antifibrotic factors (B-type natriuretic peptide and bone morphogenetic protein 4).
One-Stage Transanal Soave Pullthrough for Hirschsprung Disease: A Multicenter Experience With 141 Children

Background: The surgical management of Hirschsprung's disease (HD) has evolved from the original 3-stage approach to the recent introduction of minimal-access single-stage techniques. We reviewed the early results of the transanal Soave pullthrough from 6 of the original centers to use it. Methods: The clinical course of all children with HD undergoing a 1-stage transanal Soave pullthrough between 1995 and 2002 were reviewed. Children with a preliminary stoma or total colonic disease were excluded. Results: There were 141 patients. Mean time between diagnosis and surgery was 32 days, and mean age at surgery was 146 days. Sixty-six (47%) underwent surgery in the first month of life. Forty-seven (33%) had the pathologic transition zone documented laparoscopically or through a small umbilical incision before beginning the anal dissection. Mean blood loss was 16 mL, and no patients required transfusion. Mean time to full feeding was 36 hours, mean postoperative hospital stay was 3.4 days, and 87 patients (62%) required only acetaminophen for pain. Early postoperative complications included perianal excoriation (11%), enterocolitis (6%), and stricture (4%). One patient died of congenital cardiac disease. Mean follow-up was 20 months; 81% had normal bowel function for age, 18% had minor problems, and 1% had major problems. Two patients required a second operation (twisted pullthrough, and residual aganglionosis). One patient developed postoperative adhesive bowel obstruction. Conclusion: To date, this report represents the largest series of patients undergoing the 1-stage transanal Soave pullthrough. This approach is safe, permits early feeding, causes minimal pain, facilitates early discharge, and presents a low rate of complications.
How Not to Select Ideas for Innovations: A Critique of the Scoring Method

We are interested in the problem of evaluating and selecting one or more ideas to be pursued in the idea stage of the innovation process. The so-called scoring method, which is based on Multi-Attribute Utility Theory is very commonly used for this task. We know of many corporations that select their innovation projects using this technique. We present original arguments from three different sources that illustrate some of the severe difficulties associated with this method: theoretical considerations, simulation experiments and laboratory studies. We conclude that the scoring method should not be used for this task and consider instead the little-known lexicographic approach, which does not suffer from the disadvantages of the scoring method. We suggest that the lexicographic method may be the method of choice for the given application.
System Level Analysis of Interference Aware LMMSE Chip Equalization in HSDPA Network

In this paper we present a system level performance analysis of ideally interference aware linear minimum mean squared error (LMMSE) chip-level equalizer capable of both intra-cell and inter-cell interference suppression with high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). The evaluation is performed with and without receive diversity, having the intra-cell interference suppressing LMMSE equalizer as a reference. The study is performed with fully dynamic system simulator which includes the modeling of LMMSE equalizer, HSDPA functionality, UE mobility and the most fundamental radio resource management algorithms. The used system scenario is HSDPA network with proportional fair scheduler. The results indicate that having ideal knowledge of interference in LMMSE equalizer would provide benefits for the end user by increasing the achievable data rates at the cell edges but having a minor effect to the average system performance.
Approach of Locally Advanced Nonmetastatic Breast Cancer Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in the Combined Modality

We have treated 76 patients with locally advanced breast cancer, 31 with stage IIIA, 41 with stage 1MB. and 4 with stage IV disease, with primary induction chemotherapy including an attempted hormonal syn chronization in 70 patients. All were treated to maximum objective clinical response before proceeding to any local therapy. Patients achieving a complete response with a negative repeat biopsy generally received radiation therapy while patients with residual disease, partial response (PR) or no change (NC) status received debulking surgery prior to radiation therapy. Regardless of response to induction chemotherapy, patients received at least 6 additional months of chemotherapy following local therapy. Initial doses of combination chemotherapy were escalated to targeted myelosuppression. The objective response rate to induction chemotherapy was 93% with 49% complete response (CR), 44% PR, and 7% NC. The median numbers of cycles of chemotherapy to achieve a CR, PR, or NC were 5, 3, and 5, respectively. Three patients who currently have PRs are still on chemotherapy with continued tumor regression. Of 37 patients achieving a CR to chemotherapy, 35 were assessed by biopsies to determine pathological evidence of response. Twenty-three of the 37 patients (62%) were proven to be complete responders with negative biopsies. Twenty-four patients have relapsed, 6 with stage IIIA, 16 with stage HIB, and 2 with stage IV. Five patients have had locoregional relapses alone, 4 locoregional and distant, and 15 distant alone. Median time to progression is 35.9 months for stage IIIA and 34.2 months for stage III IÂ». Median survival is 35.3 months for stage IIIB and is indeterminate for stage IIIA. This aggressive primary che motherapy regimen with hormonal synchronization followed by local therapy appears to provide excellent local control and encouraging early results on systemic disease control.
The Distally Based Superficial Sural Artery Flap

The distally based superficial sural artery flap, first described as a distally based neuroskin flap by Masquelet et al., is a skin island flap supplied by the vascular axis of the sural nerve. The aim of this paper is to refine the surgical technique in order to establish the reliability of this flap. We treated 20 patients with 21 distally based superficial sural artery flaps, including 2 fascial flaps. All flaps survived. Most flaps showed slight venous congestion. In the largest flap (10 cm wide by 13 cm long), edema lasted 2 months. In the flap whose pedicle was raised without the deep fascia, there was necrosis at the distal tip of the flap. The advantages are the following: The blood supply is reliable, elevation is easy and quick, and major arteries are not sacrificed. This new flap may be useful in selected circumstances. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 93: 1012, 1994.)
Design and Evaluation of Mechanisms for a Multicomputer Object Store

Multicomputers have traditionally been viewed as powerful compute engines. It is from this perspective that they have been applied to various problems in order to achieve significant performance gains. There are many applications for which this compute intensive approach is only a partial solution. CAD, virtual reality, simulation, document management and analysis all require timely access to large amounts of data. This thesis investigates the use of the object store paradigm to harness the large distributed memories found on multicomputers. The design, implementation, and evaluation of a distributed object server on the Fujitsu AP1000 is described. The performance of the distributed object server under example applications, mainly physical simulation problems, is used to evaluate solutions to the problems of client space recovery, object migration, and coherence maintenance. The distributed object server follows the client-server model, allows object replication, and uses binary semaphores as a concurrency control measure. Instrumentation of the server under these applications supports several conclusions: client space recovery should be dynamically controlled by the application, predictively prefetching object replicas yields benefits in restricted circumstances, object migration by storage unit (segment) is not generally suitable where there are many objects per storage unit, and binary semaphores are an expensive concurrency control measure in this environment.
Two-stage radical gastrectomy for perforated gastric cancer.

INTRODUCTION Perforation represents a severe complication of gastric cancer. Because it is rare, only few data are available regarding treatment and prognosis. METHODS Patients with perforated gastric cancer were identified from two prospective registers of gastric cancer and of gastroduodenal ulcer. RESULTS Between February 1982 and June 1999 23 patients with perforated gastric cancer were treated surgically. This corresponds to only 1.8% of 1273 patients presenting with gastric cancer, but to 14% of 161 patients presenting with gastric perforation during this time period. Overall, post-operative mortality was 13% (3/23). Initially, 21 patients had palliative operations. Two patients had a potentially curative procedure at the emergency operation and one of the two died post-operatively. Another six patients had potentially curative gastrectomy at a second stage and no patient died post-operatively. The 5-year overall survival was estimated at 50% for all eight curatively-treated patients. Median survival of palliatively treated patients was 6 months. CONCLUSIONS Perforation of the stomach should raise suspicion of malignancy, particularly in elderly patients. At the time of perforation radical gastrectomy with lymphadenectomy is mostly not advised, either because a diagnosis of gastric cancer is not confirmed or because the patient's condition does not allow extended surgery. In this situation it is suggested to consider a two-stage procedure and direct the primary operation at the treatment of perforation and peritonitis. Tumour staging can be completed when the patient has recovered and a radical operation with curative intent can be planned without compromising long-term prognosis. Our observations and a review of the literature confirm that perforation of gastric cancer does not preclude long-term survival per se in a substantial number of patients.
Implanted Adult Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells Induce Endogenous Axon Guidance

The human central nervous system has limited capacity for regeneration. Stem cell‐based therapies may overcome this through cellular mechanisms of neural replacement and/or through molecular mechanisms, whereby secreted factors induce change in the host tissue. To investigate these mechanisms, we used a readily accessible human cell population, dental pulp progenitor/stem cells (DPSCs) that can differentiate into functionally active neurons given the appropriate environmental cues. We hypothesized that implanted DPSCs secrete factors that coordinate axon guidance within a receptive host nervous system. An avian embryonic model system was adapted to investigate axon guidance in vivo after transplantation of adult human DPSCs. Chemoattraction of avian trigeminal ganglion axons toward implanted DPSCs was mediated via the chemokine, CXCL12, also known as stromal cell‐derived factor‐1, and its receptor, CXCR4. These findings provide the first direct evidence that DPSCs may induce neuroplasticity within a receptive host nervous system. STEM CELLS 2009;27:2229–2237
The potential health and economic impact of improving stroke care standards for Australia

Background Evidence of the burden of suboptimal stroke care should expedite quality improvement. We aimed to estimate the health and economic impact of improving acute stroke management to best practice standards using Australia as a case study. Methods Hospital performance in Australia was estimated using data from the National Stroke Audit of Acute Services 2013. The percentage of patients provided evidence-based therapies in all hospitals was compared to that achieved in the aggregate of top performing benchmark hospitals (that included between them, a minimum contribution of 15% of all cases audited). The number of additional patients who would receive therapies if this performance gap was rectified was applied to a standardized economic simulation model that comprised stroke rates and resource-use estimates from the North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study applied to the 2013 Australian population. Results In 2013, 41,398 patients were estimated to have been hospitalized with stroke. If acute care was improved to that of Australian benchmarks, there would be an additional 15,317 patients accessing stroke units; 1960 receiving thrombolysis; and 4007 being treated with antihypertensive medication, 3082 with antiplatelet medication, 2179 with anticoagulant medication, and 3514 with lipid-lowering therapy. Approximately 9329 disability-adjusted life years could be avoided. This additional care provided would be cost effective at AUD 3304 per disability adjusted life year avoided. Conclusion The benefits of reducing evidence–practice gaps in Australia are considerable. Further investment in initiatives to optimize hospital care is justified.
Renal function and survival after renal artery stent revascularization may be influenced by embolic debris.

UNLABELLED Four years of follow-up renal function and survival data were obtained on 544 patients who underwent 714 successful renal artery stenosis (RAS) stent revascularizations. The mean serum creatinine (SCr) was unchanged at 4 years (1.6+/-1.0 mg/dl versus 1.6+/-0.9 mg/dl). The 2-year paired comparison analysis revealed no change in the reciprocal of the SCr (1/SCr), when compared with baseline or 1-year follow-up values. Simple linear regression analysis revealed flat post-procedure trend line slopes within all patient subsets, which implied renal functional stabilization. The 4-year mortality rate was 20%; variables directly affecting survival were presence of 1 or 2 kidneys, whether 1 or 2 renal arteries were stenotic [survival: unilateral 87%, bilateral 80%, and solitary kidney 60% (p<0.05)], as well as the degree of renal dysfunction [normal renal function patients had a significantly better (p<0.05) survival (88%) than those with moderate (60%) or severe dysfunction (47%)]. Surprisingly, medication controlled blood pressure (BP) patients fared worse than those with poorly controlled BP (56% versus 70%, respectively; p<0.05), with the worst outcomes in controlled BP patients with bilateral disease compared to poorly controlled BP patients (35% versus 69%, respectively; p<0.05). CONCLUSION Renal function remained stable following stent revascularization for RAS, and survival was adversely affected by the variables of unilateral or bilateral RAS, presence of one/two kidneys, renal function impairment and medically controlled BP. These data underscored the premise that the malignant nephropathy associated with RAS was more likely to be segmental than uniform, and resulted from recurrent debris embolization from the obstructing lesion rather than persistent ischemia. Thus, a randomized stent revascularization trial utilizing an embolic protection device, coupled with an effort to collect retrospective preoperative SCr values, may be able to demonstrate post-stent functional stabilization, halting of progressive functional deterioration and, potentially, improvement in survival.
Transbodied Spaces

Much of the scholarship around the notion of home draws on ethnographic and phenomenological studies. As a result, the emphasis is on presence, the physical and material existence of people, spaces, and objects. Through the experiences of six undocumented Mexicans living in Minnesota, this article expands inquiry into how private spatial realities intersect with homemaking processes and citizenship production. The argument is that absence is as critical in unraveling what home means as presence. Situating homemaking at the junctures of the presence and absence of bodies, spaces, and objects, the article positions homes as transbodied spaces. Conceiving of homes as transbodied spaces allows for an exploration of how “illegality” diversifies the domestic experience. The resulting production of a private landscape that accounts for presence and absence, endows some undocumented with an immigrant identity that is validated and spatially promoted. In parallel, the spatial constraints they endure can suppress their efforts to carve out meaning and identity, contributing to their “‘illegalization. ” Cognizant of “illegality’s” challenges and that social inequalities are partly spatially constructed at both the private and the public levels, and are therefore malleable, scholars and practitioners can rethink their approach to those “living in the shadows. ”