Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
2-Mb Embedded Phase Change Memory With 16-ns Read Access Time and 5-Mb/s Write Throughput in 90-nm BCD Technology for Automotive Applications

This letter presents a 2-Mb embedded phase change memory (ePCM) macrocell designed in 90-nm BJT-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) technology able to address the next generation of automotive and smart-power products exploiting an ePCM cell based on a Ge-rich chalcogenide alloy. The optimized memory allows 16-ns random access time and 5-Mbit/s write throughput from −40 °C to 175 °C, with 100 kcycle endurance. The sense amplifier, the programming circuitry, and the data processing logic able to meet automotive requirements are described. The silicon results are provided.
COSMETIC SURGICAL REPAIR OF CONTAMINATED WOUNDS VERSUS TRADITIONAL LOOSE APPROXIMATION: DOES IT INCREASE THE RATE OF WOUND INFECTIONS?

Background: The cosmetic result of the surgical scar has long been consid- ered by surgeons as an important factor for patient satisfaction. On the other hand, there has been an old teaching that perfect closure of contaminated wounds increases the rate of infection. We decided to look into this matter and see if this is a fact or a myth. Methods: In this prospective randomized study conducted on 200 patients with suppurative or gangrenous appendicitis, we closed the wounds with a cosmetic subcuticular suture of 4/0 nylon in 100 patients and in the other 100 patients the wound was approximated loosely with a few stitches of 3/0 nylon in vertical mattress fashion during a 14-month period. Results: There was no significant difference in the rate of wound infection between these two groups. Conclusions: This study shows that perfect closure of the wound with sub- cuticular closure, which gives a very good cosmetic result in comparison with traditional loose closure, does not increase the rate of wound infection.
On spectral embeddings for supervised binaural source localization

Advances in data-driven signal processing have resulted in impressively accurate signal and parameter estimation algorithms in many applications. A common element in such algorithms is the replacement of hand-crafted features extracted from the signals, by data-driven representations. In this paper, we discuss low-dimensional representations obtained using spectral methods and their application to binaural sound localization. Our work builds upon recent studies on the low-dimensionality of the binaural cues manifold, which postulate that for a given acoustic environment and microphone setup, the source locations are the primary factors of variability in the measured signals. We provide a study of selected linear and non-linear spectral dimensionality reduction methods and their ability to accurately preserve neighborhoods, as defined by the source locations. The low-dimensional representations are then evaluated in a nearest-neighbor regression framework for localization using a dataset of dummy head recordings.
Simulation of a stochastic inventory model for a hybrid manufacturing-remanufacturing system

The supply chain is a system where activities are linked together. The organization and the management of these activities are primordial for the proper functioning of the chain. In fact, the supply chain management consists of restructuring the flows while optimizing the costs as much as possible. Nowadays, the world is interested in the reverse supply chain which includes the product returns and their disposition. But the integration of the reverse flow in the supply chain complicates more the functioning of the system. In this paper, we focus on studying the inventory control for a system which includes remanufacturing in a production system. We consider a hybrid manufacturing-remanufacturing system performed by a single machine for two types of demands. The demands of remanufactured and new products are fulfilled from separated stocks. Three types of stocks for returned, remanufactured, and new products exist independently. Both, manufacturing and remanufacturing are executed by a single machine that is subject to random failures and repairs. All returned products are accepted and supplied by a collection center and no disposal option is allowed. The performance of the system model is evaluated by studying the effect of the stocks level threshold on the long term average global costs using discrete-event simulation and then validated using comparison with a regression model.
FACTORS AFFECTING LOW ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF MEDICAL STUDENTS IN THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE, CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY

The objective of this study was to determine the related factors influencing low academic achievement of medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University during 2000. Method The data was collected by interviewing parents and medical students from the first to sixth year, who had low academic achievement, i.c. who failed or had to re-take the exam. The results were analyzed by descriptive statistical methods. Results found that 69 medical students had low academic achievement (6.6% of the total). The male to female ratio was 2:1. Three groups of factors associated with low academic achievement were identified. The first factor was related to the students themselves (79.3%). They included frequent absence from classes, male, old age students, students from the Rural Doctor Project, mental illness, lack of academic motivation in studying medicine and personality disorders. The second factor was related to the university environment (15.5%) and consisted of numerous extra-curricular activities, bad attitude towards the course, and relationships with and adjustment to teachers and friends. The last factor (5.2%) was associated with the students’ family (5.2%) and consisted of attitude toward up-bringing such as overprotection and overcontrol. Chiang
Improving medication-related outcomes for patients with psychiatric and neurologic disorders: Value of psychiatric pharmacists as part of the health care team

Psychiatric pharmacists have specialized knowledge, skills, and training or substantial experience working with patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders. As part of the collaborative team with a physician, psychiatric pharmacists can provide comprehensive medication management (CMM), a direct patient care service, to patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders. CMM is a standard of care in which all medications for an individual patient are assessed to determine appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, and adherence. Studies have shown that when psychiatric pharmacists are included as part of the collaborative team with a physician, medication-related outcomes for patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders improve. Despite the evidence supporting the value of psychiatric pharmacists as part of the health care team, the very limited mechanisms for compensation for CMM limit the numbers of patients with psychiatric or neurologic disorders who have access to services provided by a psychi.
Fast and Accurate Thermal Modeling of Magnetic Components by FEA-Based Homogenization

The use of three-dimensional (3D) thermal simulations of magnetic components for power converters is limited to validation of final designs due to time consumption. A two-step homogenization is proposed to simplify them, while keeping good accuracy. The required equations and some guidelines are described in this paper. It can be applied to solid round wire, litz wire, or foil wound magnetic components. Considerations to extend its use to transformers, including the use of interleaving techniques and insulating tape, are explained. This method can reduce the computation time of 3-D simulations (seven times faster than usual simulations) while the convergence is assured even for complex structures or cases with litz wire. Finally, the method is experimentally validated with DC and AC excitation.
Unilateral Twin Ectopic Pregnancy (Diamniotic-Dichorionic): A Rare Case

Unilateral twin ectopic is a rare condition. Only 100 cases reported till date in the literature. A 34-year-old woman having secondary infertilityreported to emergency with amenorrhea of one and half months and pain in abdomen. Her urine pregnancy test was positive andultrasonography showed multiple (twin) ectopic gestational sacs in left adenexa. Color Doppler showed ring of fire sign encircling both thegestational sacs suggestive of twin ectopic pregnancy (diamniotic-dichorionic) in left adenexa. Exploratory laparotomy confirmed thediagnosis.
Association of Obesity Indices with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract India is the diabetes capital of the world. Asian Indians have an increased predilection not only to diabetes but also to coronary artery disease (CAD). Obesity is an independent risk factor for the development of diabetes and CAD. Body mass index (BMI), waist/hip ratio (WHR), waist circumference (WC) and percent body fat (%BF) are the various variables used to measure obesity. The present study was attempted to clarify whether these obesity measures are associated with CAD in diabetic patients of Amritsar (Punjab). This study included 190 subjects divided into four groups: 47 patients with type 2 diabetes and CAD, 50 patients having only type 2 diabetes (without CAD), 46 CAD patients (without diabetes) and 47 healthy age and sex-matched controls. Student’s t-test was used to compare the means of various variables and Pearson’s correlation coefficient of all the variables with CAD was calculated. Significant difference was observed for BMI, WHR, WC and % BF between non-diabetic CAD patients and controls. On the other hand, only % BF showed significant difference when diabetic patients with and without CAD were compared. BMI, WHR, WC and % BF showed significant correlation with CAD in non-diabetic subjects. However, only % BF showed a significant correlation with CAD in diabetic patients. Therefore, % BF can be used as a CAD marker in diabetic as well as non-diabetic subjects. BMI, WHR and WC can act as indicators of CAD in the nondiabetic population but not in the diabetic subjects. Larger prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.
Multi-Grid based decision making at Roundabout for Autonomous Vehicles

Maintaining safety in roundabouts is crucial in autonomous vehicles (AV) controlling and path planning. The number of vehicles in a roundabout at a time and the rules they must obey can make it a very complex traffic environment. Before an AV starts entering a roundabout, oncoming vehicles must be identified, and it could be done by determining their position, speed and direction. To address that, this paper extends some of our previous works in AV decision making in roundabouts and proposes a multi-grid-based image processing approach using multiple cameras (MGC). Particularly, it utilises a fine grid to determine speed and direction of approaching vehicles, whilst the position is evaluated using a larger grid. Besides, using multiple cameras allows the system to mimic the real drivers’ view and perception in approaching the real roundabouts, hence a human- like decision can be made. Three different classifiers including SVM, ANN and kNN were examined using 460 video clips of real roundabout-drive circumstances. The highest score was obtained by SVM at nearly 97% accuracy rate, with the making decision time is only around one second. That promising result indicates the applicability of the MGC system in real traffic situations.
Analysis of nematodes in coffee crops at different altitudes using aerial images

Precision agriculture presents several challenges, amongst them the detection of diseases and pests in agricultural environments. This paper describes a methodology capable of detecting the presence of the nematode pest in coffee crops and also analyzing the behavior of this pest in several altitudes using aerial images. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is used to obtain high-resolution RGB images of a Brazilian coffee farm. The proposed methodology uses Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) with U-Net and PSPNet architectures to classify areas into two classes: pests and non-pests. Results demonstrate the viability of the proposed methodology, with an average F-measure of 0.69 for the U-Net architecture with the image resolution 640 × 480.
Modelling and Analysis of 3-D Cellular Networks Using A Matern Cluster Process

Cellular networks are usually modelled as a Poisson point process (PPP). However, in urban area, the small base stations (SBSs) are ordinarily clustered around hotspots rather than be uniformly distributed. In addition, the existing models are widely used in two-dimensional (2-D) space which is not suitable for the three-dimensional (3-D) environment in dense urban area. In this paper, a new 3-D model is proposed in which the SBSs follow a Matern cluster process (MCP). Then the expressions of the average coverage probability and the energy efficiency (EE) are derived, especially the new formula of the conditional probability generating function (PGFL). The numerical results show the accuracy of our derivation.
A Compact Reconfigurable Millimeter-Wave Antenna Measurement System Based Upon an Industrial Robot

Echodyne has recently completed and qualified a new millimeter-wave antenna measurement system for characterization of beam-steering antennas such as our Metamaterial Electronic Steering Arrays (MESAs). Unlike most far-field systems that employ a standard Phi/Theta or Az/El positioner, we use a six-axis industrial robot that can define an arbitrary AUT coordinate system and center of rotation. In different operational modes, the robot is used as an angular AUT positioner (e.g., Az/El) or configured for linear scan areas. This flexible positioning system allows us to characterize the range illumination and quiet zone reflections without modification to the measurement system. With minor modifications, the system could also be used in a planar-near field configuration. Range alignment can be easily performed by redefining the coordinate system of the AUT movement in software. The approximate 5.2-meter range length is within the radiating near-field of many arrays of interest, so we employ spherical near-field (SNF) correction when necessary, using internally-developed code. Specialty tilted absorber was installed in the chamber to improve quiet zone performance, over standard absorber treatment for similar aspect ratio ranges. Narrower ranges often have specular reflections that exceed 60° and benefit from the specialty tilted absorber designed to reduce the angle of incidence. We present an overview of the measurement system and some initial measurement data, along with lessons learned during design and integration.
Requirements for Measurement Dashboards and Their Benefits: A Study of Start-ups in an Emerging Ecosystem

Metrics, often visualized with dashboards, are considered crucial to help software start-ups focus on the right aspects during the first years. However, earlier research indicates, metric choices in emerging ecosystems are not necessarily the same as in literature, which mostly focuses on developed countries. More knowledge is required to provide dashboards that suite East African software startups. The aim of this study is to identify key requirements for measurement dashboards for early software start-ups that can be used to monitor the daily health of a start-up and how these dashboards are expected to benefit the start-ups. We performed semi-structured interviews with 36 software start-ups in Uganda and Kenya to identify and categorize requirements for measurement dashboards as well as hopes associated with the use of such dashboards. Our results show that most start-ups want measurements dashboards to visualise performance.
Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in patients with liver cirrhosis: Spectrum and prevalence of lesions

Aim: This was to describe the different types of lesions that can be found in patients with liver cirrhosis during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Patients and Methods: Consecutive patients with liver cirrhosis who gave their consent to participate in the study were recruited. The diagnosis of liver cirrhosis was made by clinical and radiological features and a total of 56 patients were recruited. After taking informed consent, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed on all the patients. Results: The patients consisted of 43 (76.8%) males and 13 (23.2%) females. Mean age was 45.5 ΁ 13.8 years (range: 20-77 years). Analysis showed that 21 (37.5%) patients were less than 40 years of age, 16 (28.6%) were between 40 years and 49 years, and 19 (33.9%) were 50 years and above. Esophageal varices was diagnosed in 54 (96.4%) patients. The esophageal mucosal findings observed were erosions (7.1%), ulcer (1.8%), candidiasis (8.9%) while one (1.8%) patient had both esophageal erosions and candidiasis. Gastric varices were observed in 11 (19.6%) patients and the analysis showed that the most frequent form was isolated gastric varices type 1 (IGV1) was recorded in six (10.7%) patients. Portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) was seen in 45 (80.4%) patients. Other gastric mucosal lesions were erosions (12.5%) and ulcers (10.7%). Duodenal varices were not seen in any of the patients. Other lesions seen were duodenitis, duodenal erosions, and duodenal ulcers in one (1.8%) patient, one (1.8%) patient, and four (7.1%) patients, respectively. Conclusion: This study has revealed different pattern of lesions that can be seen in patients with liver cirrhosis apart from varices.
Reciprocity Enhancement in V2V Key Generation System by using HPK Method

Vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication is a current technological innovation that allows two vehicles to communicate with each other through ad-hoc networks. However, security issues in ad-hoc networks are very high, allowing attacks to take control of vehicles or stealing confidential messages by irresponsible third parties. Therefore, a high security system is needed in ad-hoc networks. The implementation of secret key generation by utilizing Received Signal Strength (RSS) between two vehicles can overcome this problem by generating random key bits. We use HPK (Hybrid Polynomial Regression and Kalman Filter) method to improve RSS correlation and Modified Multi-Bit (MMB) quantization combined with Level Crossing algorithm. Testing is conducted by comparing the performance between HPK method that proposed with another method to increase the reciprocity. The test results show that the HPK method and the combination of proposed quantization can increase the KGR value with a low KDR value. In addition, the secret key bits generated can meet the NIST statistical test.
MobiCardio: A Clinical-grade Mobile Health System for Cardiovascular Disease Management

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading death factor in China. Mobile Health (mHealth) has been proven as a promising solution for CVD management. However, mHealth for CVD management in Chinese healthcare system has not been widely adopted. In this paper, we introduce our holistic CVD management mHealth system, MobiCardio, which enables the efficient management of CVD patients specialized for clinical scenarios, by the integration of multi-sensor wearable technologies, machine-learning-based sleep analytics, and electronic health records (EHRs) information. Several ongoing featured clinical validation projects are described.
A Switched-Capacitor Interleaved Bidirectional Converter With Wide Voltage-Gain Range for Super Capacitors in EVs

A switched-capacitor interleaved bidirectional dc–dc converter that combines a three-phase interleaved structure with switched-capacitor cells is proposed. The converter features a wide voltage-gain range, low-current ripple on the low-voltage side, low voltage stresses across power switches, an absolute common ground between input and output, and can be easily extended into a topology family. The operating principle and power switch voltage and current stresses are analyzed in detail. An 800 W prototype with a wide voltage-gain range (Uhigh = 400 V, Ulow = 30–100 V) is described, demonstrating a maximum efficiency of 95.8% in the step-up mode and 95.9% in the step-down mode.
The Comparison of Eucalyptus Aqueous Extract and Insulin on Blood Sugar, and Liver Enzymes in Diabetic Male Rats

Article history: Received: 13 Nov 2011 Accepted: 18 Jan 2012 Available online: 29 Oct 2012 ZJRMS 2013; 15(6): 25-28 Background: Since eucalyptus is a traditional plant which has been consumed as antidiabetic in herbal medicines, the aim of this survey was to compare the effect of eucalyptus aqueous extract and insulin on serum blood sugar and liver enzymes in streptozotocin (STZ) diabetic male rats. Material & Methods: The experiment was performed on four groups of rats: sham control (A), diabetic control (B), diabetic (C) which received insulin and diabetic group (D) which consumed Eucalyptus aqueous extract in drinking water for 4 weeks (n=8). Sham control and B group did not receive any agents. At the end, animals were deep anesthetized by diethyl ether, sacrificed and blood samples were collected. Blood sugar, serum lipids and liver enzymes were measured by ordinary methods. Obtained data were analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey tests. Results were expressed as mean±SD. Statistical difference of p<0.05 was recognized significant. Results: Results showed that blood sugar in group C significantly decreased compared with that of group B but ALT, AST and ALP activity value significantly increased compared with those of other groups. Conclusion: These results indicated that Eucalyptus aqueous extract caused decreased blood sugar but increased liver enzymes activity in STZ diabetic male rats Copyright © 2013 Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.
A 130-nm CMOS Dual Input-Polarity DC–DC Converter for Low-Power Applications

This letter presents a dc–dc converter realized in a 130-nm CMOS technology that features the same conversion gain as a standard boost converter, but it is able to process a dual polarity input with a magnitude down to 60 mV. The circuit prototypes feature a regulated output voltage of 1.2 V, an efficiency up to 88% and a maximum output power of 6 mW, while limiting the number of required off-chip components to two capacitors and one inductor.
Intelligent Multiple-Vehicular-Attributes (iMVA) Broadcast Protocol for VANETs

Any vehicular network attributes in VANETs (e.g., sender-receiver distance and number of neighboring vehicles) can be used to determine candidate rebroadcast vehicles. The use of only limited number of attributes, however, may rule out potential broadcast candidates. For example, a counter-based scheme broadcast will never take specific nodes (vehicles) into consideration even though they have great sender-receiver distance. This research employs multiple vehicular attributes to tackle such an issue. The use of naïve-Bayes probability in our protocol combines the individual strengths of the incorporated vehicular attributes to obtain a broadcast decision. The results suggest that the proposed method is intelligent to the variation of node density and its performance outperformed both the distance-based scheme and the Efficient Counter-based Scheme (ECS) broadcast scheme at any network densities experimented. Our broadcast method contributes to the increase of 1.8% average reachability, 30.3% saving on rebroadcast tries, 5% reduction on delivery cost and shortens the total delay time by about 19.6% over the ECS scheme. An analytical model justifies the simulated reachability and saved-rebroadcast results showing similar trends over network density experimented.