Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Propagation Characteristics of Distributed Transmission with Two Synchronized Transmitters

The distributed radio transmission scheme can improve signal coverage, as the single frequency network (SFN) for DTV broadcasting. However, the propagation characteristics of the distributed transmission in SFN have to be studied carefully for they are different from conventional single transmission cases. In this paper, the field measurement carried out in a rural SFN with two synchronized transmitters is reported. It is found that, on the one hand, the radio signal coverage of the distributed transmission scheme has been distinctly improved with the total transmitted power by multi-transmitters as same as compared single transmitter system; and, on the other hand, the power delay profile (PDP) has shown rather different features than the single transmission cases, in which there are long delay "echoes" and could not be modeled simply by exponential decays because of the existence of distributed transmitters. The parameter called "transmission gain" has been introduced in order to extend the concept of "path gain" to the distributed transmission cases and, the tapped delay line is used to model the average PDP in the distributed transmission cases
Chaotic mixed excitation source for speech synthesis

Linear Prediction (LP) analysis has proven to be very powerful and widely used method in speech analysis and synthesis. Synthesis by LP-based approach is carried by exciting an all-pole model (whose parameters are derived by LP analysis). Synthesis is carried by using mixed excitation source consisting of a sequence of impulses for voiced regions and white - noise source for unvoiced regions. In this paper, we present novel chaotic excitation source using chaotic titration method. The voiced and unvoiced regions in speech are modeled by chaos which is quantified by adding noise of known standard deviation (determined using chaotic titration method). It is observed that on an average for synthesized voices (both male and female ) , MOS increases from 2 to 2.4 , DMOS from 2.1 to 2.4 and preference is increased from 39 % to 61 % via A/B test. PESQ score increases from 1 to 1.5 and MCD score decreases from 4.06 to 4.03, relatively for voices synthesized by proposed chaotic mixed excitation source. The relatively better performance of proposed approach is may be due to the novel chaotic mixed source of excitation.
Finite Element Modeling of Polarization Rotation Around an Elongated Elliptic Cavity

Electromechanical loading of piezoelectric devices with high electric field and mechanical stress concentrations near electrode and crack tips may lead to a localized inhomogeneous polarization switching response which is responsible for device degradation. We present an approximate constitutive law for polarization rotation of fully poled materials in load cases which do not initiate depolarization of the material. In other words, the local poling direction is changed but the material remains poled to saturation. The structure of the constitutive law resembles incremental plasticity theory: The “yield surface” is postulated, based on an energy criterion for 90°-switching of the randomly oriented crystallites in a material point, and the energy barrier of polarization switching corresponds to the yield stress. The constitutive model is implemented into the finite element code PSU and validated for the plane sample problem of an elongated elliptic cavity in a ferroelectric material. Some implications for crack shielding models are discussed.
Recreational drug misuse: issues for the cardiologist

Alcohol and tobacco are the two legally available recreational drugs that are commonly misused in the United Kingdom, and their adverse effects on cardiovascular function have been extensively documented. In addition, many illegal recreational drugs are freely available, and their use has reached epidemic proportions in British society. Almost one in four people have used illegal drugs at some time during their life, with a proportionately higher rate of use in younger age groups. A 1996 Home Office survey showed that more than three million British people use an illegal drug every month. In addition to the problems posed by self administration of these agents, massive overdose can occur in individuals (“body packers”) who attempt to smuggle drugs by ingesting packets which rupture accidentally in the gastrointestinal tract. It is therefore inevitable that doctors will have to manage the ill effects associated with these drugs. Many of these agents have profound effects on the heart and circulation that are responsible for a large proportion of drug related deaths. Our purpose in this article is to review the cardiovascular side effects of the commonly misused non-prescription illegal recreational drugs, and provide guidelines for the management of these potentially lethal cardiovascular complications, based on the best available evidence. Cocaine, amphetamine, and ecstasy have similar adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, predominantly related to activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Cocaine and its free base form “crack” are absorbed from all mucous membranes of the body, and can be smoked, inhaled, or injected. Cocaine is an indirectly acting sympathomimetic drug that inhibits the reuptake of noradrenaline (norepinephrine) and dopamine at sympathetic nerve terminals, and can also act through central pathways to release noradrenaline from the adrenal medulla.1 Circulating catecholamine concentrations can be raised as much as fivefold in cocaine users.2 At …
Social Support and Social Undermining as Explanatory Factors for Health-Related Quality of Life in People Living With HIV/AIDS

This study aimed to examine the influence of social support (from personal networks and health care providers) and social undermining (from personal networks) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL; general health perceptions, physical functioning, and depression). Specifically, the authors aimed to identify the nature of the effects (direct, mediating, or moderating) of social support and social undermining on HRQOL. A total of 344 people living with HIV/AIDS and who were patients in a federally funded clinic in New Mexico completed a self-report survey questionnaire. The major findings of this study are the following: (a) social support and social undermining had direct and indirect effects on HRQOL—there was no evidence of a moderating effect of social support and social undermining; (b) for direct effects, social undermining was a stronger predictor of HRQOL than social support with social support variables having positive relations and social undermining variables having negative relations with HRQOL; and (c) for indirect effects, providers' social support partially mediated the influence of unstable employment/unemployment and social undermining on HRQOL.
Strain Analysis of Dual Laminate Cylindrical Fiber Glass Reinforced Plastic Vessel

Strains in a dual laminate fiber reinforced plastic cylindrical vessel are measured when the internal pressure increases up to 0.96 MPa (140 psig). Laminate theory was used successfully in calculating the strains. Reason able agreement was obtained between experimental and theoretical results. A new formulation is developed to calculate optimal winding angles such that the ratio of strains along different directions is minimum. This would provide efficient strain limited designs.
Role of Gabapentin in Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Recent studies suggest that gabapentin has a neuroprotective effect in experimental models of motoneuron disease. We carried out a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial of gabapentin versus no treatment in 120 patients with type II or III spinal muscular atrophy for 12 months. We assessed maximum voluntary isometric contraction with a handheld myometer and calculated an arm megascore (summing elbow flexion, hand grip, and three-point pinch scores), and a leg megascore (summing knee flexion, knee extension, and foot extension scores). Forced vital capacity and timed tasks were also evaluated. Arm megascore improved by at least 30% in 24.6% of treated and 16.9% of untreated patients (relative risk = 1.45; 95% confidence interval = 0.71—2.97). The leg megascore improved by at least 30% in 37.7% of treated and 20.3% of untreated patients (relative risk = 1.85; 95% confidence interval = 1.02—3.37). We conclude that gabapentin produced a significant improvement in leg megascore at 6 months, which was more evident at 12 months, with a trend for improvement in arm megascore at 12 months. The treatment had no effect on forced vital capacity or timed functional tests. (J Child Neurol 2003;18:537—541).
Breaking off Engagement: Readers' Disengagement as a Function of Reader and Text Characteristics.

Engagement during reading can be measured by the amount of time readers invest in the reading process. It is hypothesized that disengagement is marked by a decrease in time investment as compared with the demands made on the reader by the text. In this study, self-paced reading times for screens of text were predicted by a text complexity score called formality; formality scores increase with cohesion, informational content/genre, syntactic complexity, and word abstractness as measured by the Coh-Metrix text-analysis program. Cognitive decoupling is defined as the difference between actual reading times and reading times predicted by text formality. Decoupling patterns were found to differ as a function of the serial position of the screens of text and the text genre (i.e., informational, persuasive, and narrative) but surprisingly not as a function of reader characteristics (reading speed and comprehension). This underscores the importance of mining text characteristics in addition to individual differences and task constraints in understanding engagement during reading.
Effect on Mechanical Strength of Tricalcium Phosphate Cement by Additions of Sodium Alginate

The Calcium Phosphate Cement (CPC) are bone substitutes with great potential for use in orthopedics, traumatology and dentistry due to its biocompatibility, bioactivity and osteoconductivity, and form a paste that can be easily shaped and placed into the surgical site. However, CPCs have low mechanical strength, which equals the maximum mechanical strength of trabecular bone. In order to assess the strength and time to handle a CPC composed primarily of alpha phase, were added sodium alginate (1%, 2% and 3% wt) and an accelerator in an aqueous solution. The cement powder was mixed with liquid of setting, shaped into specimens and evaluated for apparent density and porosity by Archimedes method, X-ray diffraction and compressive strength. A significant increase in compressive strength by adding sodium alginate was verified.
Job and Industry Classifications Associated With Sarcoidosis in a Case–Control Etiologic Study of Sarcoidosis (ACCESS)

Objectives: Objective: To determine whether specific occupations and industries may be associated with sarcoidosis. Methods: A Case Control Etiologic Study of Sarcoidosis (ACCESS) obtained occupational and environmental histories on 706 newly diagnosed sarcoidosis cases and matched controls. We used Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) to assess occupational contributions to sarcoidosis risk. Results: Univariable analysis identified elevated risk of sarcoidosis for workers with industrial organic dust exposures, especially in Caucasian workers. Workers for suppliers of building materials, hardware, and gardening materials were at an increased risk of sarcoidosis as were educators. Work providing childcare was negatively associated with sarcoidosis risk. Jobs with metal dust or metal fume exposures were negatively associated with sarcoidosis risk, especially in Caucasian workers. Conclusions: In this study, we found that exposures in particular occupational settings may contribute to sarcoidosis risk.
Towards On-the-Road Implementation of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control

This paper presents a setup for cooperative adaptive cruise control for which feasibility of the actual implementation is one of the main objectives. The approach considers communication with the directly preceding vehicle only, can deal with heterogeneous traffic, accounts for communication delay, and enables graceful degradation to standard adaptive cruise control if communication fails. The stability of a string of vehicles is analyzed using a frequency-domain approach.
TAO: regular expression based high-level testability analysis and optimization

In this paper, we present TAO, a novel methodology for high-level testability analysis and optimization of register-transfer level controller/data path circuits. Unlike existing high-level testing techniques that cater restrictively to certain classes of circuits or design styles, TAO exploits the algebra of regular expressions to provide a unified framework for handling a wide variety of circuits including application-specific integrated circuits, application-specific programmable processors, application-specific instruction processors, digital signal processors and microprocessors. We also augment TAO with a design-for-test framework that can provide a low-cost testability solution by examining the trade-offs in choosing from a diverse array of testability modifications like partial scan or test multiplexer insertion in different parts of the circuit. Test generation is symbolic and, hence, independent of bit-width. Experimental results on benchmark circuits show that TAO is very efficient, in addition to being comprehensive. The fault coverage obtained is above 99% in all cases. The average area and delay overheads for incorporating testability into the benchmarks are only 3.3% and 1.1%, respectively. The test application time is comparable to that associated with gate-level sequential test generators.
The temperature dependence of the far-infrared–radio correlation in the Herschel-ATLAS

We use 10 387 galaxies from the Herschel Astrophysical TeraHertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) to probe the far-infrared radio correlation (FIRC) of star-forming galaxies as a function of redshift, wavelength, and effective dust temperature. All of the sources in our 250 μm-selected sample have spectroscopic redshifts, as well as 1.4 GHz flux density estimates measured from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimetres (FIRST) survey. This enables us to study not only individual sources, but also the average properties of the 250 μm-selected population using median stacking techniques. We find that individual sources detected at ≥5σ in both the H-ATLAS and FIRST data have logarithmic flux ratios (i.e. FIRC qλ parameters) consistent with previous studies of the FIRC. In contrast, the stacked values show larger qλ, suggesting excess far-IR flux density/luminosity in 250 μm-selected sources above what has been seen in previous analyses. In addition, we find evidence that 250 μm sources with warm dust spectral energy distributions have a larger 1.4 GHz luminosity than the cooler sources in our sample. Though we find no evidence for redshift evolution of the monochromatic FIRC, our analysis reveals significant temperature dependence. Whilst the FIRC is reasonably constant with temperature at 100 μm, we find increasing inverse correlation with temperature as we probe longer PACS and SPIRE wavelengths. These results may have important implications for the use of monochromatic dust luminosity as a star formation rate indicator in star-forming galaxies, and in the future, for using radio data to determine galaxy star formation rates.
Multiple-goal management: An examination of simultaneous pursuit of a weight-loss goal with another goal

This study investigated the characteristics contributing to successful goal attainment of a weight-loss and a non-weight-loss goal simultaneously. Weight-loss and non-weight-loss goals, self-efficacy, persistence, temptations, intergoal interference and facilitation were measured via an online questionnaire (N = 103, Mage = 25.36 ± 6.9, 80% women). Weight-loss self-efficacy, persistence, temptations and intergoal facilitation significantly predicted weight-loss goal attainment. Those who were more successful in attaining both their goals simultaneously had higher self-efficacy and persistence and experienced less temptation towards both goals. This study provides an insight into the characteristics necessary for successful simultaneous management of a weight-loss goal with another goal.
Risk of Stroke, Transient Ischemic Attack, and Vessel Occlusion Before Endarterectomy in Patients With Symptomatic Severe Carotid Stenosis

Background and Purpose— We aimed to identify and determine the clinical relevance of parameters predictive of stroke recurrence and vessel occlusion before carotid endarterectomy. Methods— One hundred forty-three consecutive patients (105 men; mean age, 66.1±8 years) with symptomatic severe carotid artery stenosis were prospectively followed up until carotid endarterectomy. Patients had suffered an ischemic vascular event in the ipsilateral anterior circulation 9.6 days (median; range, 0 to 92 days) before presentation and assessment of stenosis. Admission examination included medical history, neurological status, extracranial and transcranial Doppler/duplex sonography, CT/MRI, ECG, and routine laboratory examination. All patients were reevaluated in the same way the day before surgery (without CT/MRI) and at recurrence of an ischemic event (including CT/MRI). Results— The end point of follow-up after 19.0 days (median; range, 0 to 118) was carotid endarterectomy in 120 patients, ipsilateral recurrent ischemia in 15 patients (7 transient events and 8 disabling strokes, with carotid occlusion in 4), and (asymptomatic) carotid occlusion in 8 patients. An exhausted cerebrovascular reactivity as determined by a Doppler CO2 test in the middle cerebral artery ipsilateral to the stenosis was the only independent predictive parameter for disabling stroke (odds ratio [OR], 9.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.1 to 44.1;P =0.003). Stroke rate in patients with exhausted reactivity was 27% per month compared with 5.2% in those with normal reactivity. Progression of stenosis toward occlusion was observed in 12 patients and correlated with decreased poststenotic peak systolic velocity (OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.90;P =0.002), poststenotic arterial narrowing (OR, 22.7; 95% CI, 3.6 to 141.6;P =0.001), and very severe stenosis (OR, 13.6; 95% CI, 2.2 to 83.7;P =0.005). In patients without hemodynamic compromise, occlusion was not associated with increased stroke risk. Conclusions— Patients with recently symptomatic high-grade carotid artery stenosis and ipsilateral hemodynamic compromise are at high risk for early disabling stroke. Assessment of the hemodynamic status is recommended after diagnosis of severe carotid stenosis in symptomatic patients to further investigate and evaluate whether these patients may benefit from early endarterectomy.
A HST study of the environment of the Herbig Ae/Be star LkHα 233 and its bipolar jet

Context. LkHα 233 is a Herbig Ae/Be star with a collimated bipolar jet. As such, it may be a high-mass analogue to the classical T Tauri stars and their outflows. Aims. We investigate optical forbidden lines along the LkHα 233 jet to determine physical parameters of this jet (electron density ne, hydrogen ionisation fraction xe, electron temperature Te). The knowledge of these parameters allows us a direct comparison of a jet from a Herbig star with those from T Tauri stars. Methods. We present the results of HST/STIS and WFPC2 observations of LkHα 233 and its environment. These are the first observations of this object with a spatial resolution of ≤0. 1 at optical wavelengths. Our STIS data provide spectroscopic maps that allow us to reconstruct high angular resolution images of the bipolar jet from LkHα 233 covering the first ≈2000 AU from the star in the blueshifted outflow lobe and ≈4000 AU in the redshifted lobe. These maps are analysed with a diagnostic code that yields ne, xe, Te, and mass density nH within the jet. Results. The WFPC2 images in broad-band filters clearly show a dark lane caused either by a circumstellar disk or a dust torus. The circumstellar environment of LkHα 233 can be interpreted as a conical cavity that was cleared by a bipolar jet. In this interpretation, the maximum of the optical and near-infrared brightness distribution does not coincide with the star itself which is, in fact, deeply extincted. In the blueshifted lobe, ne is close to or above the critical density for [SII] lines (2.5 × 104 cm−3) in the first arcsecond and decreases with distance from the source. The ionisation xe ≈ 0.2−0.6 gently rises for the first 500 AU of the flow and shows two re-ionisation events further away from the origin. The electron temperature Te varies along the flow between 104 K and 3 × 104 K. The nH is between 3 × 103 and 105 cm−3, and the mass flux ˙M ≈ 10−8−10−7 M yr−1. The (radial) outflow velocities are ≈80−160 km s−1, and they appear to increase with distance from the source. In the redshifted lobe, the excitation conditions are quite different: Te, ne, xe, and nH are all lower than in the blueshifted lobe, but have the same order of magnitude. Conclusions. All these derived parameters are just beyond or at the upper limits of those observed for classical T Tauri star jets. This may indicate that the flows from the higher mass Herbig stars are indeed scaled-up examples of the same phenomenon as in T Tauri stars.
Translocation of Group 1 Capsular Polysaccharide in Escherichia coli Serotype K30

The late steps in assembly of capsular polysaccharides (CPS) and their translocation to the bacterial cell surface are not well understood. The Wza protein was shown previously to be required for the formation of the prototype group 1 capsule structure on the surface of Escherichia coli serotype K30 (Drummelsmith, J., and Whitfield, C. (2000) EMBO J. 19, 57–66). Wza is a conserved outer membrane lipoprotein that forms multimers adopting a ringlike structure, and collective evidence suggests a role for these structures in the export of capsular polymer across the outer membrane. Wza was purified in the native form and with a C-terminal hexahistidine tag. WzaHis6 was acylated and functional in capsule assembly, although its efficiency was slightly reduced in comparison to the native Wza protein. Ordered two-dimensional crystals of WzaHis6 were obtained after reconstitution of purified multimers into lipids. Electron microscopy of negatively stained crystals and Fourier filtering revealed ringlike multimers with an average outer diameter of 8.84 nm and an average central cavity diameter of 2.28 nm. Single particle analysis yielded projection structures at an estimated resolution of 3 nm, favoring a structure for the WzaHis6 containing eight identical subunits. A derivative of Wza (Wza*) in which the original signal sequence was replaced with that from OmpF showed that the native acylated N terminus of Wza is critical for formation of normal multimeric structures and for their competence for CPS assembly, but not for targeting Wza to the outer membrane. In the presence of Wza*, CPS accumulated in the periplasm but was not detected on the cell surface. Chemical cross-linking of intact cells suggested formation of a transmembrane complex minimally containing Wza and the inner membrane tyrosine autokinase Wzc.