Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of an Adaptive Nonlinear Interference Suppressor for Wireless Multimode Transceivers

In multimode transceivers, the transmitter for one communication standard may induce strong interference in the receiver for another standard, often exceeding the desired signal by many tens of decibels. To linearly suppress this interference, the receiver requires a very large linear dynamic range, resulting in excessive power consumption. In a recent paper, a nonlinear block, which requires an adaptation signal proportional to the envelope of the received interference, has been used to strongly suppress the interference. In that work, the required adaptation signal for the nonlinear block has been determined analytically. In this paper, we quantify the required accuracy for the adaptation signal to properly suppress the interference while keeping the degradation to the receiver symbol error rate (SER) negligible. To provide the required accuracy, we propose a closed-loop method that calculates the adaptation signal based on a model, which describes the received interference in terms of the locally available baseband interference. We propose a method to adapt this model during the operation of the transceiver such that the power of the residual interference at the output of the nonlinear block is minimized. Our analysis shows that the proposed method can strongly suppress the interference while a SER close to that of an exactly linear receiver is achieved. Simulation results for a practical scenario validate this analysis.
Human Adipose Tissue Macrophages Display Activation of Cancer-related Pathways*

Background: Obesity increases the risk for cancer development, suggesting that adipose tissue dysfunctions might play a crucial role therein. Macrophages infiltrate adipose tissue as well as tumors. Results: Human adipose tissue macrophages (ATM) resemble human tumor-associated macrophages (TAM). Conclusion: ATM may modulate cancer cell function. Significance: ATM may be potential contributors to cancer development in obese subjects. Obesity is associated with a significantly increased risk for cancer suggesting that adipose tissue dysfunctions might play a crucial role therein. Macrophages play important roles in adipose tissue as well as in cancers. Here, we studied whether human adipose tissue macrophages (ATM) modulate cancer cell function. Therefore, ATM were isolated and compared with monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) from the same obese patients. ATM, but not MDM, were found to secrete factors inducing inflammation and lipid accumulation in human T47D and HT-29 cancer cells. Gene expression profile comparison of ATM and MDM revealed overexpression of functional clusters, such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction (especially CXC-chemokine) signaling as well as cancer-related pathways, in ATM. Comparison with gene expression profiles of human tumor-associated macrophages showed that ATM, but not MDM resemble tumor-associated macrophages. Indirect co-culture experiments demonstrated that factors secreted by preadipocytes, but not mature adipocytes, confer an ATM-like phenotype to MDM. Finally, the concentrations of ATM-secreted factors related to cancer are elevated in serum of obese subjects. In conclusion, ATM may thus modulate the cancer cell phenotype.
Evolution, Development and Environment Toward Adaptation through Phenotypic Plasticity and Exploitation of External Information

Biological organisms have an inherent ability to respond to environmental changes. The response can emerge as organisms that can develop into structural and behavioural different phenotypes. To achieve such properties in an artificial developmental setting external environmental information is included in the gene regulation of the developmental model. This implies interplay between evolution, development and the environment. An experimental approach is taken to investigate this interplay. The test case chosen is evolution of robustness to environmental fluctuations. Development models with and without environmental information included in the gene regulation are compared. Further, the developing organisms of the two models are exposed to environmental fluctuations for a more extensive investigation. The results indicate that including external information in the gene regulation can be favourable and exploitable, particularly for organisms developing in a dynamic environment.
Use of Complementary Therapies for Health Promotion Among Older Adults

This article describes the types of complementary therapies used by older adults for health promotion, and delineates the predisposing, enabling, and need factors associated with their use. One-hundred ninety-five African American and White participants (age 65+) completed a baseline interview and up to six sets of three daily follow-up interviews at monthly intervals. Complementary therapies for health promotion included home remedies, specific foods or beverages, herbs, supplements, vitamins, over-the-counter (OTC) medicine, prayer, exercise, and being active. Although gender, ethnicity, education, and trust in doctors were associated with the use of complementary therapies for health promotion, health information seeking was the predisposing factor most often associated. The enabling factors were also associated with their use. Health information seeking, which reflects a wellness lifestyle, had the most consistent associations with complementary therapy use for health promotion. This health self-management for health promotion may have positive effects on future medical expenditures.
Identification of Molecular Targets of the Oligomeric Nonprenylated Acylphloroglucinols from Myrtus communis and Their Implication as Anti-Inflammatory Compounds

Myrtucommulone (MC) and semimyrtucommulone (S-MC) are unique oligomeric, nonprenylated acylphloroglucinols contained in the leaves of myrtle (Myrtus communis). Although extracts of myrtle have been traditionally used in folk medicine for the treatment of various disorders, studies addressing select cellular or molecular pharmacological properties of these extracts or specific ingredients thereof are rare. Here, we show for the first time that MC and S-MC potently suppress the biosynthesis of eicosanoids by direct inhibiting cyclooxygenase-1 and 5-lipoxygenase in vitro and in vivo at IC50 values in the range of 1.8 to 29 μM. Moreover, we show that MC and S-MC prevent the mobilization of Ca2+ in polymorphonuclear leukocytes, mediated by G protein signaling pathways at IC50 values of 0.55 and 4.5 μM, respectively, and suppress the formation of reactive oxygen species and the release of elastase at comparable concentrations. The isobutyrophenone core of MC as well as S-MC was much less potent or even not active at all. In addition, MC or S-MC only partially inhibited peroxide formation or failed to block Ca2+ mobilization and elastase release when polymorphonuclear leukocytes were challenged with ionomycin that circumvents G protein signaling for cell activation. We conclude that, in view of their ability to suppress typical proinflammatory cellular responses, the unique acylphloroglucinols MC and S-MC from myrtle may possess an anti-inflammatory potential, suggesting their therapeutic use for the treatment of diseases related to inflammation and allergy.
A Scalable Interconnection Architecture for Future Many-Core Systems

In this thesis, a scalable interconnection architecture for many-core systems is proposed and the tradeoffs in the design of this architecture are described. Using this model we investigate how the other aspects of network architecture like routing strategy, routing algorithms, buffer space and traffic pattern impact the performance of interconnection network. This report also discusses the simulation environment and the trace-driven simulation approach used for the simulation. The traces are obtained from NAS parallel benchmark using the MPICH application. The simulation is performed for two network models 2-d MESH and CMESH. These models are then subjected to two different approaches of traffic injection: inject as fast as you can, and follow casual order for the injection. The performance of these network models is then compared for the worst case scenario: inject as fast as you can, network backpressure maintains the flow of traffic into network. The variable message size, buffer space and routing algorithm are the variables for which the network performance is measured. This study shows that the choice of network architecture depends upon the priority of the network design. Had it been just achieving lower average message latency regardless of area occupied, power consumed and requirement of buffer space, MESH is a better choice. On the other hand, for the on-chip interconnection architecture where space, power constraints and bufferspace plays a major role; CMESH presents a better choice with the expense of little more router computation complexity and greater average message latency.
Electron Devices Based on Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Author(s): Tosun, Mahmut | Advisor(s): Javey, Ali | Abstract: Integrated circuits consists of building blocks called transistors. A transistor is a switch that enables logic operations to perform computing. Since the invention of the first integrated circuit, transistors have been scaled down in their dimensions to increase the density of transistors per unit area to enable more functionality. Transistor scaling is continued by introducing novel device structures and materials at each technology node. Due to the challenges such as short channel effects and the power consumption issues, novel materials are investigated as a candidate for next generation transistors. In this thesis, 2-dimensinal layered semiconductors, namely transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are studied to assess their electronic material properties as a candidate channel material for next generation electronic devices.Chapter one, introduces the challenges in the state of the art MOSFET devices. Then the motivation for the use of TMDCs in MOSFETs is explained. In chapter two, doping of the TMDCs is studied to be able to probe the intrinsic electronic properties of the devices fabricated using these materials. Contact resistance can be decreased by doping and TMDC MOSFETs with near-ideal performance metrics are demonstrated. In chapter three the CMOS integration of the devices using TMDCs are examined. Logic operations are conducted by fabricating WSe2 n-FETs and p-FETs on the same flake. Then vertical 3-dimensional integration of n-FETs and p-FETs are demonstrated using the same gate. These transistors are connected as a CMOS inverter and logic operations are performed. Chapter four presents the band structure engineering study using TMDCs. Mono-multilayer MoS2 junctions are found to have a type-I heterojunction. Optoelectronic properties of this junction are investigated and the junction is shown to have a photoresponse that dominates the photoresponse coming from the contacts. In chapter five, the tunneling devices using TMDCs are studied. Dual-gated heterojunctions and homojunctions are studied. Gate-tunable diode characteristics of these structures are shown. Then p-TFETs are examined using black phosphorus homojunction devices.
An Extension of Wilkinson's Algorithm for Positioning Tick Labels on Axes

The non-data components of a visualization, such as axes and legends, can often be just as important as the data itself. They provide contextual information essential to interpreting the data. In this paper, we describe an automated system for choosing positions and labels for axis tick marks. Our system extends Wilkinson’s optimization-based labeling approach to create a more robust, full-featured axis labeler. We define an expanded space of axis labelings by automatically generating additional nice numbers as needed and by permitting the extreme labels to occur inside the data range. These changes provide flexibility in problematic cases, without degrading quality elsewhere. We also propose an additional optimization criterion, legibility, which allows us to simultaneously optimize over label formatting, font size, and orientation. To solve this revised optimization problem, we describe the optimization function and an efficient search algorithm. Finally, we compare our method to previous work using both quantitative and qualitative metrics. This paper is a good example of how ideas from automated graphic design can be applied to information visualization.
Improving the energy efficiency of hardware-assisted watchpoint systems

Hardware-assisted watchpoint systems enhance the execution of numerous dynamic software techniques, such as memory protection, module isolation, deterministic execution, and data race detection. In this paper, we show that previous hardware proposals may introduce significant energy overheads, and propose WatchPoint Filtering (WPF), a novel filtering mechanism that eliminates unnecessary watchpoint checks. We evaluate WPF on two state-of-the-art proposals for hardware-assisted watchpoints using two common memory checkers. WPF eliminates 83% of the watchpoint checks (up to 99.7%) and reduces 57% of the dynamic energy overhead (up to 78%) on average, without introducing additional performance execution overhead.
Metabolically healthy obesity: a friend or foe?

Obesity is associated with a reduced life expectancy, largely because obese individuals are at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and several types of cancer. Much interest has recently focused on the concept of “all obesity is not created equally. ” Obese individuals without the metabolic abnormalities that commonly accompany excess adiposity, a condition known as metabolically healthy obesity (MHO), account for a substantial proportion of the obese adult population. Numerous possible mechanisms underlying MHO have been suggested, including adipose tissue distribution and inflammation. However, the prognostic value of MHO is controversial and considerably challenging. The lack of a standard definition for metabolic health and obesity as well as the dynamic properties of MHO may have contributed to these inconsistent results. This review aimed to present several current issues regarding MHO including its definition, epidemiology, natural course, suggested mechanisms, and clinical implications in the context of patient prognosis.
Integrating global position estimation and position tracking for mobile robots: the dynamic Markov localization approach

Localization is one of the fundamental problems of mobile robots. In order to efficiently perform useful tasks such as office delivery, mobile robots must know their position in their environment. Existing approaches can be distinguished according to the type of localization problem they are designed to solve. Tracking techniques aim at monitoring the robot's position. They assume that the position is initially known and cannot recover from situations in which they lost track of the robot's position. Global localization techniques on the other hand, are able to estimate the robot's position under complete uncertainty. We present the dynamic Markov localization technique as a uniform approach to position estimation, which is able (1) to globally estimate the position of the robot, (2) to efficiently track its position whenever the robot's certainty is high, and (3) to detect and recover from localization failures. The approach has been implemented and intensively tested in real-world environments. We present several experiments illustrating the strength of our method.
Symmetric bidirectional expansion algorithm to remove artifacts for view synthesis based DIBR

Virtual view synthesis is the key technology of the current Three-dimensional Video applications and future Free Viewpoint Television. And virtual viewpoint synthesis based on depth image by using two adjacent reference two-dimensional viewpoint color images and corresponding depth images to render the intermediate view is the most potential algorithm for virtual view rendering. First, a modified algorithm proposed which is based on DIBR aimed at solving visibility and resampling problems occurred after the process of three-dimensional warping in DIBR. Second, based on this algorithm, a symmetric bidirectional expansion algorithm was developed which could effectively remove the artifacts of the virtual view image and the presented visual perception was in good performance. Last, the corresponding image fusion algorithm was put forward to improve the PSNR performance. Theoretical analysis and a series of experiments show that the proposed method can generate eventual virtual viewpoint image with high subjective and objective quality.
Histomorphometric changes of small intestine in pregnant rat

Food intake of rats increases during pregnancy. This requires changes in the structure of the small intestine to absorb additional food. The aim of the present study was to investigate the morphological changes in the layers of small intestine in rats during pregnancy. Duodenum, jejunum and ileum of 18 pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats (day 7, 14 and 21 of pregnancy) were collected. Villous height and width and thickness of lamina propria, tunica muscularis entirely and separately (circular and longitudinal layers) were measured on transverse sections. During pregnancy increasing villi length and muscular layer thickness was observed in duodenum. Furthermore, along with the progress of gestation greatest histomorphometric change in small intestine was observed in the jejunum. The reduction in the ileum histomorphologic indices was observed during pregnancy. In conclusion, increase in histomorphologic indices of duodenum and jejunum supplies more capacity of duodenum to digest food intake during pregnancy and decrease in these indices in ileum controls the absorption of excess produced amino acids and glucose by hyperphagia.
The Incentive for Non-Price Discrimination by an Input Monopolist

This paper considers the incentive for non-price discrimination of amonopolist in an input market who also sells in an oligopoly downstreammarket through a subsidiary. Such a monopolist can raise the costs ofthe rivals to its subsidiary though discriminatory quality degradation.I find that the monopolist always, even when it is cost-disadvantaged,has the incentive to raise the costs of the rivals to its subsidiary ina discriminatory fashion, but does not have the incentive to raise coststo the whole downstream industry including its subsidiary. Moreover,increasing rivalsâ costs nullifies the effects of traditionalimputation floors, and prompts the creation of imputation floors thataccount for the artificial costs imposed on downstream rivals. Theresults of this paper raise concerns about the potentiallyanti-competitive effects of entry of local exchange carriers in longdistance service. The results may also suggest the imposition of certainunbundling and technical specification disclosure requirements tomonopolists in high technology industries.
Mutations that affect control of the methylesterase activity of CheB, a component of the chemotaxis adaptation system in Escherichia coli

Sensory adaptation by the chemotaxis system of Escherichia coli requires adjustments of the extent of methyl esterification of the chemotaxis receptor proteins. One mechanism utilized by E. coli to make such adjustments is to control the activity of CheB, the enzyme responsible for removing receptor methyl ester groups. Previous work has established the existence of a multicomponent signal transduction pathway that enables the chemotaxis receptor proteins to control the methylesterase activity in response to chemotactic stimuli. We isolated and characterized CheB mutants that do not respond normally to this control mechanism. In intact cells these CheB variants could not be activated in response to negative chemotaxis stimuli. Further characterization indicated that these CheB variants could not be phosphorylated by the chemotaxis protein kinase CheA. Disruption of the mechanism responsible for regulating methylesterase activity was also observed in cells carrying chromosomal deletions of either cheA or cheW as well as in cells expressing mutant versions of CheA that lacked kinase activity. These results provide further support for recent proposals that activation of the methylesterase activity of CheB involves phosphorylation of CheB by CheA. Furthermore, our findings suggest that CheW plays an essential role in enabling the chemotaxis receptor proteins to control the methylesterase activity, possibly by controlling the CheA-CheB phosphotransfer reaction.
An atomistic assessment of the impact of flaw orientation on the elastic and failure behavior of single-crystal Si nanometre-thick slabs

Abstract Failure of nanoscale Si thin films was examined using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations that employed the modified embedded atom method (MEAM) interatomic potential. Specifically, nanometre-thick slabs of different crystallographic orientations containing asymmetric, high aspect ratio surface flaws were subjected to uniaxial tensile strains with the strain applied perpendicular to the flaw major axis. The ensuing elastic response and failure behaviour were examined as a function of variation in crystallographic orientation relative to the surface flaw. For certain flaw orientations, crack propagation was accompanied by slip along preferred directions, while in other cases, failure was purely brittle. In addition, a significant dependence of the computed elastic constants and yield stress, on the relative orientation of the surface flaw was observed. This work offers new insights into the role of surface flaws on the mechanical failure of silicon-based, nanoscale, engineered structures.
From the Library

While it has become accepted practice in many developed countries to recommend routine colonoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer this practice is supported by only a few observational studies. Recently a public health expert in the United States has challenged this practice and has suggested that without a randomised trial of screening with colonoscopy we cannot know whether it is cost effective. (JAMA 2006;295:2411–2)
Evaluation of the distributed generators frequency protection due to changes in the anti-islanding requirements

This paper analyses the performance of the distributed generator frequency protection if the time required for islanding detection (this is the utility anti-islanding requirement) is increased. Such analysis considers synchronous generators and three types of frequency-based relays: vector surge, rate of change of frequency and under/over frequency relays. Moreover, the concept of performance curves of frequency-based relays is employed. The results show that increasing the time required for islanding detection can improve substantially the islanding detection capability if proper devices and settings are used
Design of a stable fuzzy controller for an articulated vehicle

This paper presents a backward movement control of an articulated vehicle via a model-based fuzzy control technique. A nonlinear dynamic model of the articulated vehicle is represented by a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model. The concept of parallel distributed compensation is employed to design a fuzzy controller from the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model of the articulated vehicle. Stability of the designed fuzzy control system is guaranteed via Lyapunov approach. The stability conditions are characterized in terms of linear matrix inequalities since the stability analysis is reduced to a problem of finding a common Lyapunov function for a set of Lyapunov inequalities. Simulation results and experimental results show that the designed fuzzy controller effectively achieves the backward movement control of the articulated vehicle.
The effects of background noise and test subject on the perceived amount of bass in phase-modified harmonic complex tones

ii Tiivistelmä (in Finnish) . iii Acknowledgements . iv