Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microwave-coupled superconducting devices for sensing and quantum information processing

Superconducting circuits and devices have unique properties that make them interesting from both theoretical and practical perspective. In a superconductor cooled below its critical temperature, electrons bound in Cooper pairs have the ability to carry current without dissipation. A structure where the Cooper pairs are coherently tunneling across a weak link is called a Josephson junction (JJ). The dissipationless and non-linear character of the JJ has found applications, e.g., in microwave amplifiers and quantum circuits. These two subjects are closely related since superconducting quantum bits (qubits) are artificial atoms with a transition spectrum in the microwave range. Mediated by microwave photons, qubit readout in circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architecture requires signal boosting with a low-noise preamplifier. In this thesis, a new type of ultrasensitive JJ microwave amplifier was characterized and its noise performance was found to be close to a bound set by quantum mechanics. The amplifier uses the intrinsic negative differential resistance of a current-biased JJ. This work also addressed a challenge related to the scalability of the cQED architecture when the qubits are weakly anharmonic. In a frequencycrowded multi-qubit system, driving individual qubits may cause leakage into non-computational levels of the others. Leakage-avoiding single-qubit Wah-Wah control was implemented. At maximum gate speed corresponding to the frequency crowding, microwave control of two transmon qubits on a 2D cQED quantum processor was decoherence limited. The results disclose the usefulness of Wah-Wah in a future quantum computing platform. Quasiparticles are excitations from the paired superconducting ground state of conduction electrons. As the third topic, the generation-recombination dynamics of quasiparticles was employed in sensing. In electrodynamical terms, superconducting thin films have kinetic inductance from the inertia of the Cooper pairs and resistive dissipation from the quasiparticles. If the film is a part of an electrical resonator, quasiparticle density steers its microwave eigenfrequency and quality factor. In this work, submillimetre-wave radiation and external magnetic field were first converted into quasiparticlegenerating temperature variations and screening currents in a superconductor, respectively. In the two devices called kinetic inductance bolometer and magnetometer, the corresponding changes in resonator parameters
An Experimental Analysis of Possibilistic Default Reasoning

This article provides an experimental analysis of the possibilistic handling of default rules. Three different nonmonotonic consequence relations are considered: minimum specificity inference (MSP), lexicographical closure (LC), and epsilon-belief functions (LCD). The latter was initially proposed within the belief function framework; it is rephrased here within a possibility theory framework. These three consequence relations share some properties but differ on others, which allows for an experimental test of their psychological plausibility. Actual human reasoning is shown to manifest properties which are similar to those of LC but not to those of MSP or LCD.
Laparoscopic sterilization vs. open method sterilization in dogs: a comparison of two techniques

Ten clinically healthy, adult male dogs randomly equally divided into 2 groups (I and II) were subjected to laparoscopic sterilization and open method castration under xylazine-ketamine anesthesia. In group I laparoscopic vasectomy by cauterization and cutting of the vas deferens was performed and in group II conventional open castration by the pre-scrotal approach was done. Insufflation of the abdominal cavity was achieved with CO 2 (2 L/min) at 10 mmHg pressure gradient. Two ports were needed to carry out the operation. Clinical observations revealed no significant changes. Differential leukocyte count (DLC) revealed significant neutrophilia and comparative lymphopenia on the 3rd postoperative day in both the groups. A significant increase (P < 0.05) in plasma alkaline and acid phosphatase level was observed in both the groups on day 3 postoperatively. Indices of oxidative stress viz. lipid peroxidation (LPO), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione activity and acute phase protein, and ceruloplasmin level in plasma did not reveal any major significant changes. Plasma cortisol level did not show any significant change in group I whereas in group II the level increased significantly (P < 0.01) after the operation. No significant change in testosterone level was observed in group I whereas in group II a significant decrease (P < 0.01) was observed immediately after the operation. On the basis of the parameters studied it can be concluded that early healing and better cosmoses were achieved by laparoscopic sterilization (vasectomy) in male dogs as compared to the conventional open method of castration and the technique can be successfully applied for mass sterilization programs.
Air‐sea boundary layer dynamics in the presence of mesoscale surface currents

In the presence of surface currents, a shear stress at the air-sea interface is induced by the surface currents. In the case of a unidirectional current, a quadratic stress law leads to a stress curl proportional to and opposing the surface current vorticity even with a uniform wind. This causes a spindown effect on the surface vorticity field at a rate proportional to the wind speed. In the steady state, or in slowly varying processes which can be treated as parametrically developing quasi-steady states, the surface-layer potential vorticity modulation causes upwelling and downwelling patterns associated with the surface-current vorticity. These effects are analyzed for an idealized jet current, and for a physical situation characteristic of a Gulf Stream boundary ring along the Florida Keys, where the induced transport patterns may be important for onshore transport of fish and spiny lobster larvae, as well as for onshore transport to the Florida Keys of general flotsam transported past them by the Gulf Stream. The spindown time scale (t*) for a 1.5-layer system is H/( ρ′cdVa) for a surface jet on the deformation radius scale (where H is the thickness of the surface layer, Va the surface wind speed, ρ′ the air to water density ratio and cd the surface drag coefficient) and increases for large horizontal scales in proportion to the current width squared. For a typical wind speed of 5 m/s and a density normalized drag coefficient ρ′cd= 2 × 10−6, t* is on the order of 1 month for a 30-m surface layer. In the more general case of a stratified interior water column, the vorticity spindown directly affects only the potential vorticity of the surface layer and generally leads to subsurface velocity and vorticity maxima for mesoscale eddies and jets.
Deterioration of semantic associative relationships in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer Disease

ABSTRACT The aim of this research was to study semantic abilities and their loss in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and in dementia, while analyzing efficiency in the use of associative relations, within verbal and visuoperceptual modalities. Participants were split into 4 groups: 19 participants with amnestic MCI, 16 patients with mild Alzheimer disease (AD), 20 patients with moderate AD, and 20 healthy controls (HCs). All participants performed standardized neuropsychological tests and experimental (naming and semantic associations) tasks to evaluate verbal and visuoperceptual semantic abilities. We analyzed 4 associative relations (part/whole, function, superordinate, and contiguity) in both verbal and visuoperceptual code. Our results suggest a progressive impairment in semantic categorization knowledge, with worse performance in the AD groups relative to the MCI and HC groups. Our data show a different pattern in the 4 associative relations and the involvement of associative semantic relations already in the early stage of disease, as well as a different pattern of deterioration between verbal and visuoperceptual modalities. Our data indicate that the visuoperceptual semantic network appears to be less deteriorated than the verbal network in AD. The verbal semantic network may be more sensitive in detecting patients at an early stage of the disease.
Ex vivo 2D and 3D HSV-2 infection model using human normal vaginal epithelial cells

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infects human genital mucosa and establishes life-long latent infection. It is unmet need to establish a human cell-based microphysiological system for virus biology and anti-viral drug discovery. One of barriers is lacking of culture system of normal epithelial cells in vitro over decades. In this study, we established human normal vaginal epithelial cell (HNVEC) culture using co-culture system. HNVEC cells were then propagated rapidly and stably in a defined culture condition. HNVEC cells exhibited a normal diploid karyotype and formed the well-defined and polarized spheres in matrigel three-dimension (3D) culture, while malignant cells (HeLa) formed disorganized and nonpolar solid spheres. HNVEC cells had a normal cellular response to DNA damage and had no transforming property using soft agar assays. HNVEC expressed epithelial marker cytokeratin 14 (CK14) and p63, but not cytokeratin 18 (CK18). Next, we reconstructed HNVEC-derived 3D vaginal epithelium using air-liquid interface (ALI) culture. This 3D vaginal epithelium has the basal and apical layers with expression of epithelial markers as its originated human vaginal tissue. Finally, we established an HSV-2 infection model based on the reconstructed 3D vaginal epithelium. After inoculation of HSV-2 (G strain) at apical layer of the reconstructed 3D vaginal epithelium, we observed obvious pathological effects gradually spreading from the apical layer to basal layer with expression of a viral protein. Thus, we established an ex vivo 2D and 3D HSV-2 infection model that can be used for HSV-2 virology and anti-viral drug discovery.
Silver chalcogenide based memristor devices

We have fabricated two-terminal chalcogenide-based devices containing Ge2Se3 and Ag that function as memristors. These devices have been electrically characterized at room temperature using quasi-static DC methods, AC sinusoidal methods, and AC pulse testing methods. In all cases, the devices exhibit memristive behavior.
A rare finding of brown fat in bone marrow as a mimic for metastatic disease

A 54-year-old woman presented with newly elevated CA 27.29, a tumor marker for breast cancer, which rose from 32 U/mL (9 months prior) to 61 U/mL (reference range 0–39 U/mL) and was verified on repeat testing. She had a significant history of bilateral breast carcinoma, both right-sided ductal carcinoma and left-sided lobular carcinoma, status post bilateral mastectomies five years prior. Her surgical history also included a remote resection for Stage I renal cell carcinoma, and resections for multiple parathyroid adenomas. Additionally, her medical history included hypertension, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, osteopenia secondary to hyperparathyroidism, and prior lithium toxicity resulting in Stage III/IV chronic kidney disease. Persistent elevation in the tumor marker prompted a PET-CT scan, which revealed a sclerotic lesion within the right sacral ala (Image 1A). A CT-guided biopsy was performed to rule-out metastatic disease. Histopathologic examination unexpectedly revealed a focus of brown adipose tissue. No carcinoma was seen. One-third of the core length displayed trilineage hematopoietic marrow with an age-appropriate cellularity of 30–40% (Image 1B, left half). The remaining core length was hypocellular, and largely devoid of hematopoietic precursors, with an abrupt transition to interstitial brown fat cells present singly and with focal clustering (Image 1B, right half & inset). There appeared to be prominent background vascularity, focal bony remodeling, and some stromal damage. Sections of the marrow clot showed hematopoietic elements with occasional scattered brown fat cells. Immunohistochemical stains were performed to show that these cells were immunoreactive for S100 (Image 1C) and negative for macrophage marker CD68 (Image 1D), consistent with brown adipocytes. CD20 and CD3 stained a subset of background lymphocytes; no lymphoid aggregates were appreciated. Mast cell tryptase highlighted few scattered mast cells, with no clustering. CD117 also highlighted mast cells, as well as normal myeloid elements. Cytokeratin was negative. Brown fat is a form of fetal/neonatal adipose tissue involved in thermoregulation. It gradually disappears with age, but can persist in adults, primarily in the interscapular region, axilla, chest wall, mediastinum, and retroperitoneum. These are sites where hibernomas normally arise. Hibernomas are benign tumors of brown fat, equivalent to lipomas in white fat. While white fat is a normal component of bone marrow, the finding of Image 1. A: CT scan showing sclerotic lesion of the right sacral ala. B: Bone biopsy, H&E: Trilineage hematopoiesis with abrupt transition (marked by black arrows) to brown fat. Inset (top right) shows high power image of adipocytes with multiple small cytoplasmic vacuoles (brown adipocytes). C,D: Immunohistochemical stains show that these cells are immunoreactive for S100 (C) and negative for macrophage marker CD68 (D), consistent with brown adipocytes. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com. ]
Minimum duration outage for cellular systems with reception diversity

The notion of minimum duration outage was introduced by Mandayam, Chen and Holtzman (see Proceedings of IEEE VTC, vol.2, p.879-83, Atlanta, 1996), where outage was defined as the signal staying below a level for a certain minimum duration. We extend this concept to a scenario where there is diversity in reception. Thus, there is a minimum duration outage only when two signals are simultaneously below the threshold for a minimum duration. The minimum duration outage is related to the mobile speed, correlation distance, and time dependence of signals. We analyze the outage performance with reception diversity by studying the dynamics of the signal to interference ratio (SIR) levels from two different signals going simultaneously below a certain level.
Trypanosome Infection Establishment in the Tsetse Fly Gut Is Influenced by Microbiome-Regulated Host Immune Barriers

Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) vector pathogenic African trypanosomes, which cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in domesticated animals. Additionally, tsetse harbors 3 maternally transmitted endosymbiotic bacteria that modulate their host's physiology. Tsetse is highly resistant to infection with trypanosomes, and this phenotype depends on multiple physiological factors at the time of challenge. These factors include host age, density of maternally-derived trypanolytic effector molecules present in the gut, and symbiont status during development. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms that result in tsetse's resistance to trypanosomes. We found that following parasite challenge, young susceptible tsetse present a highly attenuated immune response. In contrast, mature refractory flies express higher levels of genes associated with humoral (attacin and pgrp-lb) and epithelial (inducible nitric oxide synthase and dual oxidase) immunity. Additionally, we discovered that tsetse must harbor its endogenous microbiome during intrauterine larval development in order to present a parasite refractory phenotype during adulthood. Interestingly, mature aposymbiotic flies (Gmm Apo) present a strong immune response earlier in the infection process than do WT flies that harbor symbiotic bacteria throughout their entire lifecycle. However, this early response fails to confer significant resistance to trypanosomes. Gmm Apo adults present a structurally compromised peritrophic matrix (PM), which lines the fly midgut and serves as a physical barrier that separates luminal contents from immune responsive epithelial cells. We propose that the early immune response we observe in Gmm Apo flies following parasite challenge results from the premature exposure of gut epithelia to parasite-derived immunogens in the absence of a robust PM. Thus, tsetse's PM appears to regulate the timing of host immune induction following parasite challenge. Our results document a novel finding, which is the existence of a positive correlation between tsetse's larval microbiome and the integrity of the emerging adult PM gut immune barrier.
Level shifter planning for timing constrained multi-voltage SoC floorplanning

To implement multi-voltage technique in SoC designs, level shifters (LSs) are essential modules which translate signals among different voltage domains. However, inserting LSs requires non-negligible area and timing overhead. In this paper, we study LS planning (LSP) method for timing constrained multi-voltage SoC floorplanning problem. The design flow consists of two phases. In phase I, to reserve the desired white space for the placement of LSs, the netlist is modified by assigning virtual LSs in the nets. In phase II, the main floorplanning loop is implemented. Different from previous works which do voltage assignment without physical information feedback, we build an inner loop between voltage assignment and LS placement under the constraints of both timing and physical layout. Experimental results on Gigascale Systems Research Center (GSRC) benchmark suites indicate the proposed approach can improve power saving by 15% with 4% area increase.
The Arabidopsis Mediator CDK8 module genes CCT (MED12) and GCT (MED13) are global regulators of developmental phase transitions

Temporal coordination of developmental programs is necessary for normal ontogeny, but the mechanism by which this is accomplished is still poorly understood. We have previously shown that two components of the Mediator CDK8 module encoded by CENTER CITY (CCT; Arabidopsis MED12) and GRAND CENTRAL (GCT; Arabidopsis MED13) are required for timing of pattern formation during embryogenesis. A morphological, molecular and genomic analysis of the post-embryonic phenotype of gct and cct mutants demonstrated that these genes also promote at least three subsequent developmental transitions: germination, vegetative phase change, and flowering. Genetic and molecular analyses indicate that GCT and CCT operate in parallel to gibberellic acid, a phytohormone known to regulate these same three transitions. We demonstrate that the delay in vegetative phase change in gct and cct is largely due to overexpression of miR156, and that the delay in flowering is due in part to upregulation of FLC. Thus, GCT and CCT coordinate vegetative and floral transitions by repressing the repressors miR156 and FLC. Our results suggest that MED12 and MED13 act as global regulators of developmental timing by fine-tuning the expression of temporal regulatory genes.
Thin-film microstrip lines for MM and sub-MM/wave on-chip interconnects

Thin-film microstrip lines with a polymer dielectric between ground and signal conductor are proven to be an attractive alternative to coplanar waveguides for (sub)-MM-wave interconnects. Both simulation and electrooptic characterization reveal negligible modal dispersion up to 1000 GHz and low attenuation even if the lines are realized on low-resistivity substrates.
Occupational Choice , Income Risk and Preference Heterogeneity

This paper presents a framework to empirically study how uninsurable income risk affects occupational choices. I use a rich German panel data set to estimate income risk-parameters, transitory and permanent, across occupations. The data also includes information on individuals’ attitudes to risk, implying substantial heterogeneity. I find evidence for self-selection into occupations on risk-preferences, as more risk-tolerant work in occupation, with more permanent and transitory risk. A dynamic incomplete markets model featuring partial insurance is used to derive welfare expressions in terms of previously estimated individual-occupation specific wage growth rates and occupation specific income risk. I estimate a random utility mixed-logit model, allowing for heterogeneous non-pecuniary preferences for occupations, using the welfare expressions. Eliminating uninsurable income risk in a counterfactual experiment is found to have a negligible impact on occupational choices. Calibrating the welfare expression with imputed heterogeneous coefficients on risk-aversion fits the data better than the same model assuming homogeneous risk-preferences.
Rethinking Financial Deepening : Stability and Growth in Emerging Markets

The global financial crisis experience shone a spotlight on the dangers of financial systems that have grown too big too fast. This note reexamines financial deepening, focusing on what emerging markets can learn from the advanced economy experience. It finds that gains for growth and stability from financial deepening remain large for most emerging markets, but there are limits on size and speed. When financial deepening outpaces the strength of the supervisory framework, it leads to excessive risk taking and instability. Encouragingly, the set of regulatory reforms that promote financial depth is essentially the same as those that contribute to greater stability. Better regulation—not necessarily more regulation—thus leads to greater possibilities both for development and stability.
Soil microbial communities in bioenergy cropping systems: unearthing relationships across a heterogeneous agroecosystem

xii CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 Thesis Organization 4 References 6 CHAPTER 2. PHYSIOLOGICAL SHIFTS IN THE MICROBIAL COMMUNITY DRIVE CHANGES IN ENZYME ACTIVITY IN A PERENNIAL AGROECOSYSTEM 8 Abstract 8 Introduction 9 Methods 12 Results 17 Discussion 20 Conclusions 26 Acknowledgements 26 References 27 Tables 36 Figures 38 Supplementary Materials 41 Supplementary Materials (not included in publication) 42 CHAPTER 3. A MODIFIED INCUBATION METHOD REDUCES ANALYTICAL VARIATION OF SOIL HYDROLASE ASSAYS 44 Abstract 44 Introduction 45 Materials and methods 46 Results 49 Discussion 50 Acknowledgements 52
Branch Prediction, Instruction-Window Size, and Cache Size: Performance Trade-Offs and Simulation Techniques

Design parameters interact in complex ways in modern processors, especially because out-of-order issue and decoupling buffers allow latencies to be overlapped. Trade-offs among instruction-window size, branch-prediction accuracy, and instruction- and data-cache size can change as these parameters move through different domains. For example, modeling unrealistic caches can under- or overstate the benefits of better prediction or a larger instruction window. Avoiding such pitfalls requires understanding how all these parameters interact. Because such methodological mistakes are common, this paper provides a comprehensive set of SimpleScalar simulation results from SPECint95 programs, showing the interactions among these major structures. In addition to presenting this database of simulation results, major mechanisms driving the observed trade-offs are described. The paper also considers appropriate simulation techniques when sampling full-length runs with the SPEC reference inputs. In particular, the results show that branch mispredictions limit the benefits of larger instruction windows, that better branch prediction and better instruction cache behavior have synergistic effects, and that the benefits of larger instruction windows and larger data caches trade off and have overlapping effects. In addition, simulations of only 50 million instructions can yield representative results if these short windows are carefully selected.