Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An inductorless Ka-band SiGe HBT ring oscillator

An inductorless Ka-band silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) ring oscillator is presented. The Ka-band operation is achieved with the addition of a cross-coupled pair to the simple differential inverting amplifier of a single-stage ring oscillator. Implemented with 120-GHz SiGe HBTs, the circuit occupies an extremely compact active area of only 0.0108mm/sup 2/ due to lack of inductors. The frequency is tunable from 28.36 to 31.96GHz, and the single-sideband phase noise is -85.33 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset from 31.96GHz. Operating on a -3-V supply, the total power consumption is 87 mW. The resulting oscillator figure-of-merit is -156 dBc/Hz. To our knowledge, this oscillator achieves the best figure-of-merit while occupying the least active area, when compared with other state-of-the-art inductorless ring oscillators operating over a similar frequency range.
Dental implants placed simultaneously with bone grafts in horizontal defects: a clinical retrospective study with 37 patients.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate the 1-year success rate and marginal bone loss for dental implants placed simultaneously with bone grafts. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study sample comprised 37 patients treated with dental implants placed simultaneous with intraoral block bone grafts. The block grafts were harvested from the chin, retromolar area, or maxillary tuberosity. Complications with the bone grafts were categorized as minor or major and, for the graft success rate, the Barone and Covani criteria were used. The definition of implant success was based on the clinical and radiographic criteria of Albrektsson et al. Peri-implant bone loss was measured after 1 year of prosthetic loading. RESULTS The study involved 39 bone grafts (17 maxillary and 22 mandibular) and 129 implants (73 implants in grafted areas) in 37 patients. No complications were observed at the donor sites. A part of the onlay bone graft was exposed in eight sites; six sites showed spontaneous reepithelialization following chlorhexidine application, but two grafts became infected and had to be removed. Three implants were lost in the grafted areas; the success rate for implants with simultaneous bone grafting was therefore 95.9%. No complications were found at 12 months after prosthesis placement. The mean overall bone loss after 1 year of loading was 0.64 mm. CONCLUSION In patients meeting the inclusion criteria, simultaneous placement of bone grafts and implants shortens treatment time without increasing complications or reducing the success rate.
Methods to assess gastric motility and sensation

Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Solna, Sweden, Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden, Karolinska Institutet, Department of Surgery, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Huddinge, Sweden, National Centre for Ultrasound in Gastroenterology, Haukeland University Hospital, Institute of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, Department of Medicine, University Hospital, Umea University, Sweden, Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Huddinge, Sweden, Department of Medicine, Ersta Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, and Department of Medicine, University Hospital Malmö, Sweden, and Department of Medicine, Trelleborg Hospital, Sweden
Joint modeling tumor burden and time to event data in oncology trials

The tumor burden (TB) process is postulated to be the primary mechanism through which most anticancer treatments provide benefit. In phase II oncology trials, the biologic effects of a therapeutic agent are often analyzed using conventional endpoints for best response, such as objective response rate and progression‐free survival, both of which causes loss of information. On the other hand, graphical methods including spider plot and waterfall plot lack any statistical inference when there is more than one treatment arm. Therefore, longitudinal analysis of TB data is well recognized as a better approach for treatment evaluation. However, longitudinal TB process suffers from informative missingness because of progression or death. We propose to analyze the treatment effect on tumor growth kinetics using a joint modeling framework accounting for the informative missing mechanism. Our approach is illustrated by multisetting simulation studies and an application to a nonsmall‐cell lung cancer data set. The proposed analyses can be performed in early‐phase clinical trials to better characterize treatment effect and thereby inform decision‐making. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Relation of mean right atrial pressure to echocardiographic and Doppler parameters of right atrial and right ventricular function.

BACKGROUND A paucity of data exists as to the relation of mean right atrial pressure (RAP) to Doppler parameters of right atrial and ventricular filling. Furthermore, whether echocardiographic parameters of right atrial and right ventricular function and inferior vena cava improve the relation of Doppler filling dynamics with RAP has not been explored. METHODS AND RESULTS Doppler and echocardiographic studies were performed simultaneously with measurements of mean RAP in consecutive patients who either had a central venous catheter in the Intensive Care Unit or underwent catheterization of the right side of the heart. The initial population consisted of 35 patients with a mean age (+/-SD) of 60+/-15 years; 34% were on mechanical ventilation. Mean RAP averaged 9+/-5.7 mm Hg (range, 2 to 28 mm Hg). Among tricuspid inflow parameters, the strongest relation with RAP was observed with the ratio of early to late velocity (r=.66). For hepatic venous flow, systolic filling wave indexes had the best relation with atrial pressure, the highest being for systolic filling fraction (r=-.86). Weaker relations were noted with the use of right atrial volumes, right ventricular function, and inferior vena caval diameters. The addition of any of these variables did not improve the relation of systolic filling fraction with RAP. The regression equation (RAP=21.6-24 systolic filling fraction) was tested prospectively in the estimation of atrial pressure 50 patients. The correlation coefficient was . 89 in the prospective group and . 88 in the total group of 85 patients. The mean difference between predicted and actual pressures in the whole population was -0.2+/-2.6 mm Hg. The sensitivity and specificity for mean RAP>8 mm Hg were 86% and 92%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Among echocardiographic and Doppler parameters of right atrial and right ventricular function, hepatic venous flow dynamics relate best to mean atrial pressure and can be used clinically to estimate mean RAP.
The Hsp70 interdomain linker is a dynamic switch that enables allosteric communication between two structured domains

Hsp70 molecular chaperones play key roles in cellular protein homeostasis by binding to exposed hydrophobic regions of incompletely folded or aggregated proteins. This crucial Hsp70 function relies on allosteric communication between two well-structured domains: an N-terminal nucleotide-binding domain (NBD) and a C-terminal substrate-binding domain (SBD), which are tethered by an interdomain linker. ATP or ADP binding to the NBD alters the substrate-binding affinity of the SBD, triggering functionally essential cycles of substrate binding and release. The interdomain linker is a well-structured participant in the interdomain interface in ATP-bound Hsp70s. By contrast, in the ADP-bound state, exemplified by the Escherichia coli Hsp70 DnaK, the interdomain linker is flexible. Hsp70 interdomain linker sequences are highly conserved; moreover, mutations in this region compromise interdomain allostery. To better understand the role of this region in Hsp70 allostery, we used molecular dynamics simulations to explore the conformational landscape of the interdomain linker in ADP-bound DnaK and supported our simulations by strategic experimental data. We found that while the interdomain linker samples many conformations, it behaves as three relatively ordered segments connected by hinges. As a consequence, the distances and orientations between the NBD and SBD are limited. Additionally, the C-terminal region of the linker forms previously unreported, transient interactions with the SBD, and the predominant linker-docking site is available in only one allosteric state, that with high affinity for substrate. This preferential binding implicates the interdomain linker as a dynamic allosteric switch. The linker-binding site on the SBD is a potential target for small molecule modulators of the Hsp70 allosteric cycle.
Continuity of care and other determinants of patient satisfaction with primary care

AbstractOBJECTIVE: The patient-clinician relationship is a central feature of primary care, and recent developments in the delivery of health care have tended to limit continuity of care. The objective of this study was to evaluate the extent to which continuity of care and other factors are related to patient satisfaction. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, mailed questionnaire study. SETTING: Primary care clinics at 7 Veterans Affairs medical centers. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: Patients (N=21,689) participating in the Ambulatory Care Quality Improvement Project who returned the baseline Seattle Outpatient Satisfaction Questionnaire (SOSQ). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We evaluated the association between self-reported continuity and satisfaction, after adjusting for characteristics of patients, clinics, and providers. The humanistic scale of the SOSQ measures patient satisfaction with communication skills and humanistic qualities of providers, whereas the organizational scale measures satisfaction with delivery of health care services. The mean adjusted humanistic score for patients who reported always seeing the same provider was 17.3 (95% confidence interval [CI], 15.5 to 19.1) points higher than for those who rarely saw the same provider. Similarly, the mean adjusted organizational score was 16.3 (95% CI, 14.5 to 18.1) points higher for patients who always saw the same provider compared to rarely. Demographic factors, socioeconomic status, health status, clinic site, and patient utilization of services were all associated with both the adjusted humanistic and organizational scores of the SOSQ. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported continuity of care is strongly associated with higher patient satisfaction. This suggests that improving continuity of care may improve patient satisfaction with providers as well as with their health care organization.
Antecedents of relationship between customer and organization developed through social networking sites

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical model of how content-related factors, social factors and perceptual factors influence consumer engagement in brand social networking sites (SNSs) pages and further how consumer engagement behavior influences the customer–organization relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis study used an online and offline questionnaire to conduct empirical research and collected and analyzed data of 430 samples by using the structural equation modeling approach.FindingsThe result showed that all three factors, i.e. content-related factors, social factors and perceptual factors, had positive influence on consumer engagement. Further, the result also showed a positive influence of consumer engagement on the customer–organization relationship. Another important thing the study found was that social media users mostly engage in consuming the content and contributing.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has considered one popular SNS: Facebook. As the usage purpose and features of different SNSs vary, the future research should be directed by taking other popular SNSs, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, to gain a broader insight of consumer engagement on other brand SNS pages. Further, the present study has stressed on the exploring the quality of customer–organization relationship as the major outcome of consumer engagement on brand SNS pages. Therefore, the future study should be directed toward measuring the relationship between consumer engagement and other important outcomes, such as brand advocacy behaviors, positive word-of-mouth behaviors and brand loyalty.Practical implicationsThis paper suggests strategies for consumer engagement through SNSs, especially Facebook advertisements. First, the study has identified content-related factors, social factors and perceptual factors which will help the managers to set strategies for engaging new and prospective consumers on brand SNS pages. Second, it also describes how the online activities of consumers on brand SNS pages strengthen the relationship between customer and organizations. This conception will definitely help marketing managers to develop quality relationship with their existing and new customers.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study is that it attempts to explore the combined effect of content-related factors, social factors and perceptual factors on consumer engagement and also explores the nature and specific types of engagement behavior on brand SNS pages.
Adjusting for treatment effects in studies of quantitative traits: antihypertensive therapy and systolic blood pressure

A population‐based study of a quantitative trait may be seriously compromised when the trait is subject to the effects of a treatment. For example, in a typical study of quantitative blood pressure (BP) 15 per cent or more of middle‐aged subjects may take antihypertensive treatment. Without appropriate correction, this can lead to substantial shrinkage in the estimated effect of aetiological determinants of scientific interest and a marked reduction in statistical power. Correction relies upon imputation, in treated subjects, of the underlying BP from the observed BP having invoked one or more assumptions about the bioclinical setting. There is a range of different assumptions that may be made, and a number of different analytical models that may be used. In this paper, we motivate an approach based on a censored normal regression model and compare it with a range of other methods that are currently used or advocated. We compare these methods in simulated data sets and assess the estimation bias and the loss of power that ensue when treatment effects are not appropriately addressed. We also apply the same methods to real data and demonstrate a pattern of behaviour that is consistent with that in the simulation studies. Although all approaches to analysis are necessarily approximations, we conclude that two of the adjustment methods appear to perform well across a range of realistic settings. These are: (1) the addition of a sensible constant to the observed BP in treated subjects; and (2) the censored normal regression model. A third, non‐parametric, method based on averaging ordered residuals may also be advocated in some settings. On the other hand, three approaches that are used relatively commonly are fundamentally flawed and should not be used at all. These are: (i) ignoring the problem altogether and analysing observed BP in treated subjects as if it was underlying BP; (ii) fitting a conventional regression model with treatment as a binary covariate; and (iii) excluding treated subjects from the analysis. Given that the more effective methods are straightforward to implement, there is no argument for undertaking a flawed analysis that wastes power and results in excessive bias. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Anticipating their future

Adolescent future values—beliefs about what will matter to them in the future—may shape their adult behavior. Utilizing a national longitudinal British sample, this study examined whether adolescent future values in six domains (i.e., family responsibility, full-time job, personal responsibility, autonomy, civic responsibility, and hedonistic privilege) predicted adult social roles, civic behaviors, and alcohol use. Future values positively predicted behaviors within the same domain; fewer cross-domain associations were evident. Civic responsibility positively predicted adult civic behaviors, but negatively predicted having children. Hedonistic privilege positively predicted adult alcohol use and negatively predicted civic behaviors. Results suggest that attention should be paid to how adolescents are thinking about their futures due to the associated links with long-term social and health behaviors.
Ross and Ross-Konno procedures in infants, children and adolescents: a 13-year experience.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY Due to hemodynamic performance and potential for growth of the pulmonary autograft, the Ross operation is considered to be the surgery of choice for irreparable aortic valve disease in pediatric patients. The study aim was to analyze the long-term clinical and echocardiographic results of the Ross operation. METHODS Between February 1993 and July 2006, 55 consecutive patients (mean age 10.0 +/- 6.2 years; range: 3 months to 18 years) underwent eithera Ross operation (n=46) or a Ross-Konno procedure (n=9). The underlying left ventricular outflow tract pathology was mainly congenital (n=47). Among patients, 23 (42%) had undergone a previous aortic valve procedure. Concomitant procedures were performed in 16 patients (29%). The Ross operation was performed as a root replacement in all cases; the mean cross-clamp time was 132 min (range: 100-188 min). The autograft diameter was indexed to the body surface area and compared to normal values. The mean follow up was 5.5 +/- 3.8 years, and was 100% complete. RESULTS There was one early death (2%) and two late deaths (4%). The actuarial patient survival was 93% at 10 years. None of the patients developed moderate or severe autograft regurgitation. All measured maximal root diameters were above the 90th percentile of normal aortic diameter, without correlation to autograft regurgitation. Five patients (9%) had a mean homograft gradient > or = 40 mmHg, and two (4%) were reoperated on. The freedom from reoperation for homograft degeneration was 91% at 10 years. CONCLUSION Autograft regurgitation after the Ross and Ross-Konno procedures is uncommon, and the risk of homograft degeneration appears low. Autograft dilatation is common but does not correlate with autograft regurgitation. When considering long-term freedom from autograft and homograft degeneration, the results of the present study confirm the Ross operation as the surgery of choice for irreparable aortic valve disease in infants, children and young adults.
Against Pathology the New Psychiatry and its Critics

The notion of ‘pathology’ presumes an experiential and socially embedded frame of reference which is at variance with some recent attempts to understand the procedures and subject matter of psychiatry. Psychiatric theories remain bound by individual and historical contingencies whose compelling urgency obfuscates the inter-relationship of phenomenon, social context, response, and explanatory model.
How effective and efficient are social programs on food and nutritional security

The analysis of the impact assessment of social programs allows to identify whether they fulfil the established objectives and evidencing the weaknesses to be strengthened in future actions, and modify or propose new intervention strategies. In Peru, the substantial economic progress since the 90s decade promoted dramatical investments in the social sector, especially on children well-being, as around 30% of the total Peru population are children under the age of 15, being the age group most affected by poverty in the country. This review was aimed to present an overview of the current situation of social programs in Peru in terms of food (and nutritional) security (FS), emphasizing on the institutional framework and the impact of the social programs implemented by the Government, as well as some social programs implemented by nongovernmental organizations. To this end, information available on the world wide web, including peer-reviewed papers on databases (mainly SciELO and LiLACs for their relevance for the Latin American region) regarding FS in Peru from 1989 onwards, and information published by the Peruvian official organisms directly involved in FS, was used. Studies addressing at least four of the seven points of the food and nutritional security in Peru analyzed in this paper (access, availability, consumption, biological use, stability, current situation, and institutionality) were considered. It was concluded that investment and resources should be used to improve social programs strategies designed according to the reality of each focused area, as in Peru, the achievements show an enormous potential for replicability of the interventions. Children must be prioritized through child-sensitive programs, instead of considering them just as indicators and investments for the future—especially in rural areas whipped by the past internal conflicts—in order to contribute to the sustainable development of the country and assuring FS.
T-helper 1-like subset selection in Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin-infected resistant and susceptible mice.

The Bcg gene has been shown to control natural resistance of mice to intravenous infection with low doses of Mycobacterium bovis (bacillus Calmette-Guérin; BCG). In the present study, we evaluated the impact of the Bcg gene on the development of T-cell reactivity during the early stages of infection. Congenic strains of mice, bearing 'r' and 's' alleles of the Bcg gene on B10.A and BALB/c backgrounds, were studied at different time-points for 2 weeks after infection. The in vitro proliferative response of spleen cells, induced by mycobacteria or concanavalin A, was depressed in the Bcgs mice compared to the Bcgr congenic mice 14 days after infection with 10(5) colony-forming units (CFU) of BCG. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methodology was used to compare the level of lymphokine gene expression in the spleens of infected congenic mice both ex vivo and after in vitro stimulation. In both cases, preferential expression of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), lymphotoxin, interleukin-2 (IL-2) and IL-2 receptor genes was observed. The lymphokine gene expression profiles indicated that T lymphocytes activated in the course of the BCG infection preferentially expressed the T-helper 1-specific pattern, irrespective of the allele of the Bcg gene. We showed that this bias in T-cell differentiation could not be attributed to either down-regulation of IL-4 gene expression or modulation of the macrophage co-stimulatory activity by live M. bovis BCG. We conclude that the mechanism of phenotypic expression of the Bcg gene resides in the differential ability of macrophages to be activated by lymphokines produced by protective T cells, rather than in the lack of these lymphokines in susceptible animals.
Fast approach to speaker identification for large population using MLLR and sufficient statistics

In speaker identification, most of the computational processing time is required to calculate the likelihood of the test utterance of the unknown speaker with respect to the speaker models in the database. When number of speakers in the database is in the order of 10,000 or more, then computational complexity becomes very high. In this paper, we propose a Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression (MLLR) based fast method to calculate the likelihood from the speaker model using the MLLR matrix. The proposed technique will help to quickly find the best N speakers during identification. After that final speaker identification task can be done within the N selected speakers using any conventional method of speaker identification. The comparative study of the proposed method is done in terms of processing time with the state-of-the-art GMM-UBM based system on NIST 2004 SRE. The proposed technique performs faster than GMM-UBM based system with some degradation in system accuracy.