Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toward Generic Fully IntegratedGate Driver Power Supplies

An original method to power supply gate drivers has been previously developed. This solution takes advantage of power switch commutations to recharge periodically a storage capacitor, and then to create the necessary floating power supply, useful for many power electronic converters. It is a low cost solution that can be integrated, but it presents some disadvantages: the storage capacitor must be adjusted with respect to the ON state time duration, and a permanent ON state operation is forbidden. Moreover, with the existing solution, a low frequency operation is problematic, because a large storage capacitor would be required. The proposed work presents here an improvement of the solution, in order to a allow flexible or even permanent ON state time duration operation of a self powered metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor, using few additional elements. This solution exhibits unexpected and fairly good efficiency levels and presents a high ability for a simple implementation and monolithic integration. Added to these new features, smaller values for the storage capacitor can be used for this self powered driver power supply, allowing from very low up to high frequency operation and high duty cycle operation. This particular solution may simplify the integration of the storage capacitor, in the same substrate as the main switch and its self powering circuits.
Dominating 2-broadcast in graphs: complexity, bounds and extremal graphs

Limited dominating broadcasts were proposed as a variant of dominating broadcasts, where the broadcast function is upper bounded. As a natural extension of domination, we consider dominating $2$-broadcasts along with the associated parameter, the dominating $2$-broadcast number. We prove that computing the dominating $2$-broadcast number is a NP-complete problem, but can be achieved in linear time for trees. We also give an upper bound for this parameter, that is tight for graphs as large as desired.
A Practical Framework for Measuring and Modeling the Appearance of Strongly Anisotropic Materials

We present a practical sparse measurement technique and a novel parameter fitting approach for the appearance of strongly anisotropic materials, with application to finished wood. Our approach makes use of bilateral symmetry arguments to reduce the amount of input data required to capture a spatially varying BRDF. This significantly decreases the necessary acquisition and computation time to recover the model parameters, with an observed speedup close to an order of magnitude over previous work, while achieving significantly improved results. We validate the quality of the rendered results from the new approach using additional dense ground truth measurements obtained using a 4-DoF spherical gantry. We also demonstrate a field measurement system using a portable hoop with individually addressable LEDs. The device is inexpensive, simple to build, fast in operation, and fully compatible with the proposed acquisition technique. We provide a database of wood BRDFs and an implementation of the model and optimization fitting pipeline under Mitsuba [24] to demonstrate the results.
A stroke-based method for automated generation of schematic network maps

This article deals with the graphic simplification of a network by schematization. A new method employing a stroke-based and progressive strategy is proposed to generate schematic network maps. This method treats a stroke (which is a long line with segments concatenated together) as a basic unit for the implementation. The procedure is as follows: (a) strokes are formed from line segments, (b) the strokes are re-orientated along grid lines and/or diagonals, and (c) two endpoints and all intersection points on (sub-)strokes are projected onto re-oriented straight lines, and (d) spatial inconsistency is detected and resolved. A methodology for each of these steps is described. This new method has been tested with a set of real-life road network data and evaluated by fractal analysis and empirical study. Experimental results show that this new method is more effective than segment-based methods and is able to produce graphics with great simplicity and clarity. Based on the results obtained, the stroke-based schematization with four primary directions is recommended.
Comparison of Thallium‐201 Scanning in Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Severe Coronary Artery Disease

To determine whether cardiomyopathy could be distinguished from coronary artery disease, we used thallium scanning to study 25 patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction and chronic heart failure. Ten patients had normal coronary arteries and idiopathic cardiomyopathy (ejection fraction 20 ± 5%), and 15 patients had multivessel coronary disease and left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction 25 ± 6%). The exercise time and maximal heart rate were similar in the two groups. Two patients with cardiomyopathy and 11 with coronary artery disease had a positive exercise ECG (p < 0.05). Thallium scans showed perfusion defects in all 25 patients. The perfusion defects were complete in nine coronary artery disease patients (60%) and in one patient (10%) with cardiomyopathy (p < 0.05). Extensive defects involving more than 40% of the left ventricular circumference, the number of segments involved, redistribution on the 4-hour scan, lung uptake and ventricular size were similar in the two groups. Perfusion defects on thallium scanning can occur in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and chronic heart failure. Thallium scanning cannot be reliably used in patients with chronic heart failure to distinguish coronary artery disease from cardiomyopathy unless complete defects are present.
STUDIES IN BOVINE MASTITIS

Hemolytic streptococci produce more or less severe inflammations of the udders of cows. Frequently infected quarters are swollen, firm, hot, and tender. In a number of instances it has not been possible to detect gross changes in the mammary gland. The streptococci isolated from the invaded quarters have produced clear zones of hemolysis immediately surrounding the colonies when cultivated in horse blood agar plate cultures. The hemolytic zone has varied from a clear, narrow band up to zones 1.7 to 2 mm. wide. When the streptococci are classified according to their action upon carbohydrates, they fall into two broad groups: the larger consists of nineteen strains fermenting dextrose, lactose, saccharose, maltose, and salicin; and a smaller number comprising ten species produces acid in dextrose, lactose, saccharose, and maltose and fails to ferment salicin. One of the non-salicin-fermenting strains did not attack saccharose. In no instance was acid production noted in raffinose, inulin, or mannite. All streptococci except three were agglutinated by an antiserum obtained from a rabbit immunized with a single strain. Freshly isolated cultures when injected intravenously into rabbits possess but slight pathogenicity. Localizations in the joints occurred in two instances. The others either failed to affect the general condition of the animals or produced only a slight febrile reaction.
Signaling Dependent and Independent Mechanisms in Pemphigus Vulgaris Blister Formation

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is an autoimmune epidermal blistering disease caused by autoantibodies directed against the desmosomal cadherin desmoglein-3 (Dsg3). Significant advances in our understanding of pemphigus pathomechanisms have been derived from the generation of pathogenic monoclonal Dsg3 antibodies. However, conflicting models for pemphigus pathogenicity have arisen from studies using either polyclonal PV patient IgG or monoclonal Dsg3 antibodies. In the present study, the pathogenic mechanisms of polyclonal PV IgG and monoclonal Dsg3 antibodies were directly compared. Polyclonal PV IgG cause extensive clustering and endocytosis of keratinocyte cell surface Dsg3, whereas pathogenic mouse monoclonal antibodies compromise cell-cell adhesion strength without causing these alterations in Dsg3 trafficking. Furthermore, tyrosine kinase or p38 MAPK inhibition prevents loss of keratinocyte adhesion in response to polyclonal PV IgG. In contrast, disruption of adhesion by pathogenic monoclonal antibodies is not prevented by these inhibitors either in vitro or in human skin explants. Our results reveal that the pathogenic activity of polyclonal PV IgG can be attributed to p38 MAPK-dependent clustering and endocytosis of Dsg3, whereas pathogenic monoclonal Dsg3 antibodies can function independently of this pathway. These findings have important implications for understanding pemphigus pathophysiology, and for the design of pemphigus model systems and therapeutic interventions.
Long Time Behavior of Solutions to the 3D Compressible Euler Equations with Damping

Abstract The effect of damping on the large-time behavior of solutions to the Cauchy problem for the three-dimensional compressible Euler equations is studied. It is proved that damping prevents the development of singularities in small amplitude classical solutions, using an equivalent reformulation of the Cauchy problem to obtain effective energy estimates. The full solution relaxes in the maximum norm to the constant background state at a rate of t −(3/2). While the fluid vorticity decays to zero exponentially fast in time, the full solution does not decay exponentially. Formation of singularities is also exhibited for large data.
Human Beta-Defensin-1, -2, and -3 Exhibit Opposite Effects on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Proliferation

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of human beta-defensins (hBDs) on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) proliferation and hBD expression in vitro. BHY-OSCC cell lines were stimulated with hBD-1, -2, and -3. Proliferation of BHY cells was ascertained and hBD-mRNA expression was evaluated by real-time PCR. Proliferation of BHY cells decreased by 25% in response to hBD-1 stimulation but increased after stimulation with hBD-2 and -3. HBD-1 stimulation enhanced hBD-3 expression, whereas HBD-2 stimulation decreased early hBD-3 expression. HBD-3 stimulation enhanced hBD-1 expression. HBDs profoundly impact on OSCC proliferation and hBD expression in vitro. Therefore, hBD-1 might function as a tumor suppressor gene in OSCCs, while hBD-2 and -3 might be protooncogenes.
Local Receptive Fields Based Extreme Learning Machine

Extreme learning machine (ELM), which was originally proposed for "generalized" single-hidden layer feedforward neural networks (SLFNs), provides efficient unified learning solutions for the applications of feature learning, clustering, regression and classification. Different from the common understanding and tenet that hidden neurons of neural networks need to be iteratively adjusted during training stage, ELM theories show that hidden neurons are important but need not be iteratively tuned. In fact, all the parameters of hidden nodes can be independent of training samples and randomly generated according to any continuous probability distribution. And the obtained ELM networks satisfy universal approximation and classification capability. The fully connected ELM architecture has been extensively studied. However, ELM with local connections has not attracted much research attention yet. This paper studies the general architecture of locally connected ELM, showing that: 1) ELM theories are naturally valid for local connections, thus introducing local receptive fields to the input layer; 2) each hidden node in ELM can be a combination of several hidden nodes (a subnetwork), which is also consistent with ELM theories. ELM theories may shed a light on the research of different local receptive fields including true biological receptive fields of which the exact shapes and formula may be unknown to human beings. As a specific example of such general architectures, random convolutional nodes and a pooling structure are implemented in this paper. Experimental results on the NORB dataset, a benchmark for object recognition, show that compared with conventional deep learning solutions, the proposed local receptive fields based ELM (ELM-LRF) reduces the error rate from 6.5% to 2.7% and increases the learning speed up to 200 times.
The salt conundrum: a hypothesis.

For millennia, salt has had an intimate history with human social, economic, and political relationships. In earlier times man’s work value was paid in salt as gauged by body weight, social stature was dictated by assigned position at the table nearest to the salt, and its etymological root still remains in common parlance.1 Early last century, however, the relationship between salt intake and health was recognized.2 Initially, this relationship was made with the association between magnitude of salt intake and hypertension; but more recently two achievements make a major impact on this subject, the quantitative measurement of dietary sodium intake and repeated recognition that the greater the daily sodium intake, the higher the prevalence of hypertension in populations. The vital importance of the salt-hypertension relationship remains today even though several concerns exist (albeit with some controversy). Thus, despite the direct relationship between salt consumption and prevalence of hypertension in populations, when increased sodium intake of one specific patient exists, arterial pressure may not necessarily increase; and, therefore, establishment of a direct cause–effect clinical relationship has been difficult to fully appreciate. Therefore, to my way of thinking, the term “salt-dependent” hypertension has been inadequate to explain the clinical relationship between salt-loading and response of arterial pressure. Indeed, sodium-dependent hypertension so-defined exists only in about one-third patients with essential hypertension.3 So why is there such close correlation between salt and hypertension? 4,5 Conversely, why has it been so difficult to demonstrate that an individual hypertensive patient is sodium-dependent? What can explain this conundrum? Some astute clinicians have suggested that the sodium sensitivity of a patient may be demonstrated by reduction of arterial pressure with sodium withdrawal6; but this concept also has not been tested formally. To my way of thinking, effects of salt need not be defined …
Glucose-Potentiated Chemotaxis in Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Is Dependent on Cross-Talk Between the PI3K and MAPK Signaling Pathways

Atheroma formation involves the movement of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) into the subendothelial space. The aim of this study was to determine the involvement of PI3K and MAPK pathways and the importance of cross-talk between these pathways, in glucose-potentiated VSMC chemotaxis to serum factors. VSMC chemotaxis occurred in a serum gradient in 25 mmol/L glucose (but not in 5 mmol/L glucose) in association with increased phosphorylation (activation) of Akt and ERK1/2 in PI3K and MAPK pathways, respectively. Inhibitors of these pathways blocked chemotaxis, as did an mTOR inhibitor. VSMC expressed all class IA PI3K isoforms, but microinjection experiments demonstrated that only the p110&bgr; isoform was involved in chemotaxis. ERK1/2 phosphorylation was reduced not only by MAPK pathway inhibitors but also by PI3K and mTOR inhibitors; when PI3K was inhibited, ERK phosphorylation could be induced by microinjected activated Akt, indicating important cross-talk between the PI3K and ERK1/2 pathways. Glucose-potentiated phosphorylation of molecules in the p38 and JNK MAPK pathways inhibited these pathways but did not affect chemotaxis. The statin, mevinolin, blocked chemotaxis through its effects on the MAPK pathway. Mevinolin-inhibited chemotaxis was restored by farnesylpyrophosphate but not by geranylgeranylpyrophosphate; in the absence of mevinolin, inhibition of farnesyltransferase reduced ERK phosphorylation and blocked chemotaxis, indicating a role for the Ras family of GTPases (MAPK pathway) under these conditions. In conclusion, glucose sensitizes VSMC to serum, inducing chemotaxis via pathways involving p110&bgr;-PI3K, Akt, mTOR, and ERK1/2 MAPK. Cross-talk between the PI3K and MAPK pathways is necessary for VSMC chemotaxis under these conditions.
[18F]MK‐9470 PET measurement of cannabinoid CB1 receptor availability in chronic cannabis users

Δ9‐Tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive component of cannabis, exerts its central effects through activation of the cerebral type 1 cannabinoid (CB1) receptor. Pre‐clinical studies have provided evidence that chronic cannabis exposure is linked to decreased CB1 receptor expression and this is thought to be a component underlying drug tolerance and dependence. In this study, we make first use of the selective high‐affinity positron emission tomography (PET) ligand [18F]MK‐9470 to obtain in vivo measurements of cerebral CB1 receptor availability in 10 chronic cannabis users (age = 26.0 ± 4.1 years). Each patient underwent [18F]MK‐9470 PET within the first week following the last cannabis consumption. A population of 10 age‐matched healthy subjects (age = 23.0 ± 2.9 years) was used as control group. Parametric modified standardized uptake value images, reflecting CB1 receptor availability, were calculated. Statistical parametric mapping and volume‐of‐interest (VOI) analyses of CB1 receptor availability were performed. Compared with controls, cannabis users showed a global decrease in CB1 receptor availability (−11.7 percent). VOI‐based analysis demonstrated that the CB1 receptor decrease was significant in the temporal lobe (−12.7 percent), anterior (−12.6 percent) and posterior cingulate cortex (−13.5 percent) and nucleus accumbens (−11.2 percent). Voxel‐based analysis confirmed this decrease and regional pattern in CB1 receptor availability in cannabis users. These findings revealed that chronic cannabis use may alter specific regional CB1 receptor expression through neuroadaptive changes in CB1 receptor availability, opening the way for the examination of specific CB1‐cannabis addiction interactions which may predict future cannabis‐related treatment outcome.
Culture-Independent Microbial Community Analysis Reveals that Inulin in the Diet Primarily Affects Previously Unknown Bacteria in the Mouse Cecum

ABSTRACT Inulin is a well-known fructose-based prebiotic which has been shown to stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria, a bacterial group generally considered beneficial for intestinal health. In the present study, we analyzed inulin-associated shifts in the total bacterial community of wild-type mice and mice carrying a genetically inactivated adenomatous polyposis coli tumor suppressor gene by using DNA-based approaches independent of bacterial culturability. Mice were fed a high-fat, nonfiber diet with or without inulin inclusion at a 10% (wt/wt) concentration. Cecal contents were analyzed after 0, 3, and 9 weeks on the experimental diets. Inulin inclusion significantly affected the total bacterial community structure of the cecum as determined by both a nonselective percent-guanine-plus-cytosine-based profiling analysis and a more specific 16S ribosomal DNA sequence analysis. The shifts included stimulation of bifidobacteria and suppression of clostridia, but sequence comparison revealed that the major shifts were within previously unknown bacterial taxa. Concomitantly, significantly higher bacterial densities, determined by flow cytometry, were observed with the inulin-amended diet, and the metabolism of the cecal bacterial community was altered, as indicated by higher levels of residual short-chain fatty acids, particularly lactic acid. With regard to all of the microbiological parameters measured, the wild-type mice and mice carrying a genetically inactivated adenomatous polyposis coli tumor suppressor gene were essentially identical. Studies of the implications of pre- and probiotics may need to be expanded to include careful analysis of their effects on the entire microbial community, rather than just a few well-known species. Further studies are needed to increase our understanding of the possible roles of currently unknown gastrointestinal bacteria in health and disease.
Detection of active kallikrein in induced blister fluids of hereditary angioedema patients

Six suction-induced blister fluids obtained from five patients with hereditary angioedema (HAE) contained active kallikrein, whereas only two blister fluids obtained from eight normal volunteers contained small amounts of this activity. Kallikrein was present in large amounts of HAE blister fluids as assessed by its ability to liberate smooth- muscle-contracting activity from purified high molecular weight kininogen. It was inhibited by purified antibodies specific for plasma prekallikrein and also by purified C1 inhibitor, but not by antibodies specific for C1s. These observations suggest that activation of the Hageman-factor-dependent pathways occurs in the tissues of HAE patients, and once generated, active kallikrein persists in these tissues.
Extended Dividend, Cash Flow and Residual Income Valuation Models - Accounting for Deviations from Ideal Conditions

Standard equity valuation approaches (i.e., DDM, RIM, and DCF model) are derived under the assumption of ideal conditions, such as infinite payoffs and clean surplus accounting. Because these conditions are hardly ever met, we extend the standard approaches, based on the fundamental principle of financial statement articulation. The extended models are then tested empirically by employing two sets of forecasts: (1) analyst forecasts provided by Value Line and (2) forecasts generated by cross-sectional regression models. The main result is that our extended models yield considerably smaller valuation errors. Moreover, by construction, identical value estimates are obtained across the extended models. By reestablishing empirical equivalence under non-ideal conditions, our approach provides a benchmark that enables us to quantify the errors resulting from individual deviations from ideal conditions, and thus, to analyze the robustness of the standard approaches. Finally, by providing a level playing field for the different valuation approaches, our findings have implications for other empirical settings, for example, estimating the implied cost of capital.