Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A 23.4 mW 68 dB Dynamic Range Low Band CMOS Hybrid Tracking Filter for ATSC Digital TV Tuner Adopting RC and Gm-C Topology

In this paper, a 48-200 MHz CMOS hybrid tracking low-pass filter with low power and high dynamic range is presented to solve a local oscillator harmonic-mixing problem for Advanced Television Systems Committee terrestrial digital TV tuner integrated circuits. For low power consumption, the first-order passive RC filter and the second-order transconductor-C filter are combined to implement the third-order Chebyshev tracking low-pass filter. A transconductor linearization technique based on a method of multiple gated transistors is adopted to achieve high dynamic range. Fabricated in a 0.18 μm CMOS process, it achieves a maximum in-band input-referred noise density of 5.1 nV/√Hz and maximum in-band output-referred third-order intercept point of 17.3 dBm, while dissipating 23.4 mW with 1.8 V. The total chip area is 0.6 mm × 0.4 mm.
Impact of the Hydraulic Retention Time on the Performance of a Sulfidogenic Bioreactor

Treatment of acidic Fe (II)- and sulfate-rich mine waters represents a major problem in many areas of the world. Therefore, a process was developed which utilises naturally occurring sulfate-reducing microorganisms for the elimination of sulfate and of part of the acidity from the acidic mine water. In order to improve the performance of this biological sulfate reduction process an in-depth analysis of the microbial diversity and activity in dependence of the hydraulic retention time (HRT) and other process parameters used to run the bioreactors was undertaken. This comparison demonstrated a positive correlation between shorter HRT and increasing sulfate reduction rates. The improvement in performance with decreasing HRT was paralleled by an increase of the total enzymatic activity (measured as hydrolase activity) of the microbial community and of the biomass (measured as protein concentration) in the bioreactors. A partial taxonomic identification of the microbial community in the bioreactors was achieved via nucleotide sequence analysis of a clone library of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments prepared from a sample of the microbial biofilm in the bioreactor. Additionally, the genetic fingerprint technique T-RFLP was used to assess temporal changes of the microbial community in the biofilm within the reactor.
Investigation of Various Matrix Factorization Methods for Large Recommender Systems

Matrix factorization (MF) based approaches have proven to be efficient for rating-based recommendation systems. In this work, we propose several matrix factorization approaches with improved prediction accuracy. We introduce a novel and fast (semi)-positive MF approach that approximates the features by using positive values for either users or items. We describe a momentum-based MF approach. A transductive version of MF is also introduced, which uses information from test instances (namely the ratings users have given for certain items) to improve prediction accuracy. We describe an incremental variant of MF that efficiently handles new users/ratings, which is crucial in a real-life recommender system. A hybrid MF--neighbor-based method is also discussed that further improves the performance of MF.The proposed methods are evaluated on the Netflix Prize dataset, and we show that they can achieve very favorable Quiz RMSE (best single method: 0.8904, combination: 0.8841) and running time.
A complex of nuclear pore proteins required for pore function

A family of proteins bearing novel N-acetylglucosamine residues has previously been found to be required to form functional nuclear pores. To begin to determine which of the proteins in this family are essential for pore function, antisera were raised to each of three members of the family, p62, p58, and p54. With these antisera, it was possible to deplete nuclear reconstitution extracts of the proteins and to test the depleted nuclei for nuclear transport. In the course of the experiments, it was found that the three proteins exist as a complex; antisera to any one, while specific on a protein blot, coimmunoprecipitated all three proteins. This complex of pore proteins is stable to 2 M salt, 2 M urea, and the detergent Mega 10, indicating the presence of specific and tight protein-protein interactions. By gel filtration, the complex has a molecular mass of 550-600 kD. Nuclei containing pores depleted of the complex are found to be defective for nuclear transport; moreover, we observe a strict linear correlation between the amount of complex present in nuclei and the amount of nuclear transport of which those nuclei are capable. Thus, the p62-p58- p54 complex defines a group of proteins with strong protein-protein interactions that form a unit of pore structure essential for pore function.
Application of the Sample Entropy for Discrimination between Seizure and Seizure-Free EEG Signals

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is an invaluable measurement for the purpose of assessing brain activities. The detection of epileptic seizures based on EEG signal is very useful in diagnostics. In this paper, we present a new method for discrimination between seizure and seizure-free EEG signals. The proposed method is based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) process. We investigated that the sample entropy of the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) generated by EMD process have potential to discriminate seizure from the seizure-free EEG signals. We have shown that the sample entropy measurement of IMFs is able to characterize the irregularity of the seizure EEG signals. The sample entropy measured from the IMFs has been used as a feature in order to discriminate seizure and seizure-free EEG signals. The sample entropy measurement of IMFs has provided better discrimination performance. The proposed approach based on EMD and sample entropy is better than sample entropy based approach for EEG signal discrimination.
RECOGNISING ACOUSTIC SCENES WITH LARGE-SCALE AUDIO FEATURE EXTRACTION AND SVM

This work describes our contribution to the IEEE AASP Challenge on classiﬁcation of acoustic scenes. From the 30 second long highly variable recordings, spectral, cepstral, energy and voicing-related audio features are extracted. A sliding window approach is used to obtain statistical functionals of the low-level features on short segments. SVM are used for classiﬁcation of these short segments, and a majority voting scheme is employed to get a decision for the whole recording. On the ofﬁcial development set of the challenge, an accuracy of 73% is achieved. A feature analysis using the t-statistic showed that mainly Mel spectra were the most relevant features.
The Leadership Dimension of Coping with Technostress

One pathway to alleviate the consequences of technology-induced stress may lie in the role that supervisors may or may not play in mitigating the negative consequences of ICT usage. Based on survey research with 491 salespersons using ICT in their work environment, and tested with structural equation modelling, we discuss the impact of two forms of leadership on individual and organizational outcomes. We differentiate between supervisor influence on ICT use and general leadership, and their influence on ICT-strain (i.e. techno stress) as well as on general strain (i.e. work exhaustion). The data show that, in the context of ICT-induced stress, leadership has a significant compensatory influence on work exhaustion and on job satisfaction. The results lead us to the interpretation that leadership constitutes a potential further instrument to ease the negative outcomes of ICT usage in work contexts, and to propose further study into the role of ICT specific supervisor influence.
A fill-unit approach to multiple instruction issue

Multiple issue of instructions occurs in superscalar and VLIW machines. The paper investigates a third type of machine design, which combines the advantages of code compatibility as in superscalars and the absence of complex dependency-checking logic from the decoder as in VLIW. In this design, a stream of scalar instructions is executed by the hardware and is simultaneously compacted into VLIW-type instructions, which are then stored in a structure called a shadow cache. When a shadow cache line contains the instructions requested by the fetch unit, the scalar instruction stream is preempted and all operations in the shadow cache line are simultaneously issued and executed. The mechanism that compacts instructions is called a fill unit, and was first proposed for dynamically compacting macrooperations into large executable units by Melvin, Shebanow, and Patt in 1988. We have extended their approach to directly handle data dependencies, delayed branches, and speculative execution (using branch prediction). This approach is evaluated using the MIPS architecture, and a six-functional-unit machine is found to be 52 to 108% faster than a single-issue processor for unrecompiled SPECint92 benchmarks.
Immune-Inspired Quantum Genetic Optimization Algorithm and its Application

Artificial immune systems (AIS), inspired by the natural immune systems, are an emerging kind of soft computing methods. This paper brings forward an immune-inspired quantum genetic optimization algorithm (IQGOA) based on clonal selection algorithm. The IQGOA is an evolutionary computation method inspired by the immune clonal principle of human immune system. To show the versatility and flexibility of the proposed IQGOA, some examples are given. Experimental results have shown that IQGOA is superior to clonal selection algorithm and Genetic Algorithm (GA) on performance.
Taming TCP incast throughput collapse in data center networks

The TCP incast problem attracts a lot of attention due to its wide existence in cloud services and catastrophic performance degradation. Some effort has been made to solve it. However, the industry is still struggling with it, such as Facebook. Based on the investigation that the TCP incast problem is mainly caused by the TimeOuts (TOs) occurring at the boundary of the stripe units, this paper presents a simple and effective TCP enhanced mechanism, called GIP (Guarantee Important Packets), for the applications with the TCP incast problem. The main idea is making TCP aware of the boundaries of the stripe units, and reducing the congestion window of each flow at the start of each stripe unit as well as redundantly transmitting the last packet of each stripe unit. GIP modifies TCP a little at the end hosts, thus it can be easily implemented. Also, it poses no impact on the other TCP-based applications. The results of both experiments on our testbed and simulations on the ns-2 platform demonstrate that TCP with GIP can avoid almost all of the TOs and achieve high goodput for applications with the incast communication pattern.
A retrospective postlicensure survey of FEIBA efficacy and safety

Summary. Patients with haemophilia who develop inhibitors have unique treatment needs; bypassing agents such as Factor Eight Inhibitor Bypassing Activity, Anti‐Inhibitor Coagulant Complex (FEIBA; Baxter AG, Vienna, Austria) are part of this therapeutic armamentarium. This study sought to increase comprehension of the full therapeutic profile of FEIBA by evaluating its safety and efficacy in the settings of acute bleeding, surgery, and prophylaxis. Information was collected through a postmarketing surveillance study; questionnaire booklets were distributed to 72 treatment centers in the United States and Europe. The booklets contained questions related to patient demographics, inhibitor titre determinations, and FEIBA treatment. Information comprising 200 FEIBA treatment periods and representing >4500 infusions was available for 63 patients with inhibitors (n = 60, haemophilia A; n = 3, haemophilia B). Twelve patients were in more than one treatment group. Efficacy was determined by a subjective global evaluation and was good or excellent in 82% of all acute, and 91% of all surgical, treatments. Additionally, prophylactic treatment resulted in improved or stabilised clinical orthopaedic status in 11 of 13 patients (85%). Based on available data, FEIBA was judged safe in all treatment situations by the small number of adverse events (<0.04%). No thrombotic complications occurred during any treatment episode. Results indicated that FEIBA was safe and effective in acute, surgical, and prophylactic treatment settings, supporting the utility of FEIBA as a treatment option for patients with inhibitors. However, prospective studies are advised.
Comparatives in Context

We propose a model of semantic interpretation of comparatives which is based on a mechanism for semantic copying. Besides common phrasal and clausal forms of comparatives, our model also incorporates the analysis of referential and textual phenomena that interact with the interpretation of comparatives, viz. metonymies and omitted complements. In order to allow for efficient processing, guidance from syntactic, semantic, contextual and world knowledge sources is supplied.
The Sodium Glucose Cotransporter Type 2 Inhibitor Empagliflozin Preserves β-Cell Mass and Restores Glucose Homeostasis in the Male Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rat

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by impaired β-cell function associated with progressive reduction of insulin secretion and β-cell mass. Evidently, there is an unmet need for treatments with greater sustainability in β-cell protection and antidiabetic efficacy. Through an insulin and β cell–independent mechanism, empagliflozin, a specific sodium glucose cotransporter type 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor, may potentially provide longer efficacy. This study compared the antidiabetic durability of empagliflozin treatment (10 mg/kg p.o.) against glibenclamide (3 mg/kg p.o.) and liraglutide (0.2 mg/kg s.c.) on deficient glucose homeostasis and β-cell function in Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats. Empagliflozin and liraglutide led to marked improvements in fed glucose and hemoglobin A1c levels, as well as impeding a progressive decline in insulin levels. In contrast, glibenclamide was ineffective. Whereas the effects of liraglutide were less pronounced at week 8 of treatment compared with week 4, those of empagliflozin remained stable throughout the study period. Similarly, empagliflozin improved glucose tolerance and preserved insulin secretion after both 4 and 8 weeks of treatment. These effects were reflected by less reduction in β-cell mass with empagliflozin or liraglutide at week 4, whereas only empagliflozin showed β-cell sparing effects also at week 8. Although this study cannot be used to dissociate the absolute antidiabetic efficacy among the different mechanisms of drug action, the study demonstrates that empagliflozin exerts a more sustained improvement of glucose homeostasis and β-cell protection in the ZDF rat. In comparison with other type 2 diabetic treatments, SGLT-2 inhibitors may through insulin-independent pathways thus enhance durability of β-cell protection and antidiabetic efficacy.
A Novel Missense Mutation Asp506Gly in Exon 13 of the F11 Gene in an Asymptomatic Korean Woman with Mild Factor XI Deficiency

Factor XI (FXI) deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive coagulation disorder most commonly found in Ashkenazi and Iraqi Jews, but it is also found in other ethnic groups. It is a trauma or surgery-related bleeding disorder, but spontaneous bleeding is rarely seen. The clinical manifestation of bleeding in FXI deficiency cases is variable and seems to poorly correlate with plasma FXI levels. The molecular pathology of FXI deficiency is mutation in the F11 gene on the chromosome band 4q35. We report a novel mutation of the F11 gene in an 18-year-old asymptomatic Korean woman with mild FXI deficiency. Pre-operative laboratory screen tests for lipoma on her back revealed slightly prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (45.2 sec; reference range, 23.2-39.4 sec). Her FXI activity (35%) was slightly lower than the normal FXI activity (reference range, 50-150%). Direct sequence analysis of the F11 gene revealed a heterozygous A to G substitution in nucleotide 1517 (c.1517A>G) of exon 13, resulting in the substitution of aspartic acid with glycine in codon 506 (p.Asp506Gly). To the best of our knowledge, the Asp506Gly is a novel missense mutation, and this is the first genetically confirmed case of mild FXI deficiency in Korea.
Procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND The utility of procalcitonin to manage patients with infections is unclear. A systematic review of comparative studies using procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy in patients with infections was performed. METHODS Randomized, controlled trials comparing procalcitonin-guided initiation, intensification, or discontinuation of antibiotic therapy to clinically guided therapy were included. Outcomes were antibiotic usage, morbidity, and mortality. MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Database, National Institute for Clinical Excellence, the National Guideline Clearinghouse, and the Health Technology Assessment Programme were searched from January 1, 1990 to December 16, 2011. RESULTS Eighteen randomized, controlled trials were included. Data were pooled into clinically similar patient populations. In adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients, procalcitonin-guided discontinuation of antibiotics reduced antibiotic duration by 2.05 days (95% confidence interval [CI]: -2.59 to -1.52) without increasing morbidity or mortality. In contrast, procalcitonin-guided intensification of antibiotics in adult ICU patients increased antibiotic usage and morbidity. In adult patients with respiratory tract infections, procalcitonin guidance significantly reduced antibiotic duration by 2.35 days (95% CI: -4.38 to -0.33), antibiotic prescription rate by 22% (95% CI: -41% to -4%), and total antibiotic exposure without affecting morbidity or mortality. A single, good quality study of neonates with suspected sepsis demonstrated reduced antibiotic duration by 22.4 hours (P = 0.012) and reduced the proportion of neonates on antibiotics for ≥ 72 hours by 27% (P = 0.002) with procalcitonin guidance. CONCLUSION Procalcitonin guidance can safely reduce antibiotic usage when used to discontinue antibiotic therapy in adult ICU patients and when used to initiate or discontinue antibiotics in adult patients with respiratory tract infections.
D2D cooperative communications for disaster management

In this paper, we investigate a disaster management system using D2D cooperative communications. Specifically, we consider two D2D cells, one is in healthy area and the other is in disaster area, where a user equipment (UE) in healthy area aims to assist a UE in the disaster area to recover wireless information transfer (WIT) via an energy harvesting (EH) relay. In the healthy area, a cellular base station (BS) shares the spectrum with the UE even though they may belong to different service providers. In return, this UE will have to provide some incentives to the BS by paying prices for causing interference and for trading energy. We formulate these processes as two Stackelberg games, interference pricing and energy trading, where their Stackelberg equilibriums are derived in closed-form solutions. Finally, numerical results are provided to validate our proposed schemes. It is shown that the energy trading scheme outperforms the interference pricing scheme in terms of assistance efficiency for the disaster area.
Hybridization and asymmetric reproductive isolation between the closely related bryophyte taxa Polytrichum commune and P. uliginosum

Based on genetic differentiation, the haploid dioecious bryophyte taxa Polytrichum commune and P. uliginosum have been inferred to be completely reproductively isolated. However, analysing diploid sporophytes from a sympatric population for three diagnostic microsatellite markers, we show here that reproductive isolation between these taxa is far more complex and highly asymmetric. Isolation between ♀‐P. commune×♂‐P. uliginosum seems to be complete and prezygotic (or early postzygotic) as no hybrid sporophytes were observed on P. commune females. In the other direction (♀‐P. uliginosum×♂‐P. commune) isolation was clearly postzygotic as high frequencies of hybrid sporophytes were found on P. uliginosum females. However, during maturation these sporophytes showed irregular development, indicating that hybrid sporophytes are unlikely to produce ripe spores. Mechanisms possibly underlying this asymmetric reproductive isolation pattern are discussed. Notwithstanding hybrid offspring being unlikely, the high frequency of hybrid sporophytes observed suggests that viable spores may be formed occasionally through such rare processes as chromosome nondisjunction, possibly giving rise to allodiploids. Allodiploids have been reported in Polytrichum (and other bryophyte genera). Studies such as the one presented here will therefore help to elucidate the evolutionary importance of interspecific hybridization and allodiploidization in bryophyte speciation.
Data management in real-time systems: a case of on-demand updates in vehicle control systems

Real-time and embedded applications normally have constraints both with respect to timeliness and freshness of data they use. At the same time it is important that the resources are utilized as efficient as possible, e.g., for CPU resources unnecessary calculations should be lowered as much as possible. This is especially true for vehicle control systems, which are our targeting application area. The contribution of this paper is a new algorithm (ODTB) for updating data items that can skip unnecessary updates allowing for better utilization of the CPU. Performance evaluations on an engine electronic control unit for automobiles show that a database system using the new updating algorithm reduces the number of recalculations to zero in steady states. We also evaluate the algorithm using a simulator and show that the ODTB performs better than well-established updating algorithms (up to 50% more committed transactions).
Influence of feeding level after drying off on incidence of mastitis and keratin plug formation in dairy cows

Two groups of 70 cows, including 51 identical twin sets, were grazed at either an unrestricted (14 kg dry matter intake/day; DMI/d) or restricted (6 kg DMI/d) daily pasture allowance for two weeks after drying off (DO). Incidence of new intramammary infection (IMI) and teat open/closed status was assessed at 7, 14 and 21 days after DO. Keratin plug formation was determined on a subset of 40 cows at 7 and 14 days after DO. Number of clinical mastitis (CM) cases and total new IMI did not differ between cows maintained on unrestricted or restricted DMI. However Streptococcus uberis was isolated from more new IMI in unrestricted animals than restricted animals (11.7% vs. 4.6 % of quarters respectively; P <0.01). At 7 and 14 days after DO, more teats were classified as open in the unrestricted group compared to the restricted animals (57% vs. 43% of quarters respectively; P <0.01). However weight of keratin collected from teat canals did not differ between nutritional treatments. Results suggest that unrestricted nutrition after DO did not increase risk of CM but does increase risk of S. uberis infection.