Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Self-Organizing Algorithm for Vector Quantizer Design Applied to Signal Processing

Vector quantization plays an important role in many signal processing problems, such as speech/speaker recognition and signal compression. This paper presents an unsupervised algorithm for vector quantizer design. Although the proposed method is inspired in Kohonen learning, it does not incorporate the classical definition of topological neighborhood as an array of nodes. Simulations are carried out to compare the performance of the proposed algorithm, named SOA (self-organizing algorithm), to that of the traditional LBG (Linde-Buzo-Gray) algorithm. The authors present an evaluation concerning the codebook design for Gauss-Markov and Gaussian sources, since the theoretic optimal performance bounds for these sources, as described by Shannon's Rate-Distortion Theory, are known. In speech and image compression, SOA codebooks lead to reconstructed (vector-quantized) signals with better quality as compared to the ones obtained by using LBG codebooks. Additionally, the influence of the initial codebook in the algorithm performance is investigated and the algorithm ability to learn representative patterns is evaluated. In a speaker identification system, it is shown that the the codebooks designed by SOA lead to higher identification rates when compared to the ones designed by LBG.
The antibody response to myoglobin is independent of the immunized species. Analysis in terms of replacements in the antigenic sites and in environmental residues of the cross-reactions of fifteen myoglobins with sperm-whale myoglobin antisera raised in different species.

The recent determination of the entire antigenic structure of sperm-whale myoglobin with rabbit and goat antisera has permitted the examination of whether the antigenic structure recognized by antibodies depends on the species in which the antisera are raised. Also, by knowledge of the antigenic structure, the molecular factors that determine and influence antigenicity can be better understood in terms of the effects of amino acid substitutions occurring in the antigenic sites and in the environmental residues of the sites. In the present work, the myoglobins from finback whale, killer whale, horse, chimpanzee, sheep, goat, bovine, echidna, viscacha, rabbit, dog, cape fox, mouse and chicken were examined for their ability to cross-react with antisera to sperm-whale myoglobin. By immunoadsorbent titration studies with radioiodinated antibodies, each of these myoglobins was able to bind antibodies to sperm-whale myoglobin raised in goat, rabbit, chicken, cat, pig and outbred mouse. It was found that the extent of cross-reaction of a given myoglobin was not dependent on the species in which the antisera were raised. This indicated that the antibody response to sperm-whale myoglobin (i.e. its antigenic structure) is independent of the species in which the antisera are raised and is not directed to regions of sequence differences between the injected myoglobin and the myoglobin of the immunized host. Indeed, in each antiserum from a given species examined, that antiserum reacted with the myoglobin of that species. The extent of this auto-reactivity for a given myoglobin was comparable with the general extent of cross-reactivity shown by that myoglobin with antisera raised in other species. The cross-reactivities and auto-reactivities (both of which are of similar extents for a given myoglobin) can be reasonably rationalized in terms of the effects of amino acid substitutions within the antigenic sites and within the residues close to these sites. These findings confirm that the antigenicity of the sites is inherent in their three-dimensional locations.
Regional mechanical properties of human pulmonary root used for the Ross operation.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY Significant dilation of the pulmonary autograft after the Ross operation is problematic and requires reoperation. Autograft remodeling occurs in response to the immediate rise in pressure and consequent wall stress. The stress-strain response of the pulmonary root plays an important role in understanding the structural and functional changes of the autograft following the Ross procedure. At present, limited data are available on the mechanical properties of fresh human pulmonary roots; hence, the study aim was to determine the regional mechanical properties of human pulmonary roots. METHODS Eighteen fresh healthy specimens of human pulmonary root were obtained from the California Transplant Donor Network (Oakland, CA, USA). Five regions of the pulmonary root--anterior and posterior pulmonary artery (PA), and each of the three sinuses--were subjected to displacement-controlled equibiaxial stretch testing within 24 h of cross-clamp time. Comparisons between the different regions of the pulmonary root were made based on tissue stiffness at physiologic stress. Histologic analyses were also performed of the fibrous structures of the PA and sinuses. RESULTS Human PA and sinuses demonstrated a nonlinear response to loading, with no directional dependency to biaxial loading. The anterior PA was significantly more compliant than the posterior PA and the three sinuses in both circumferential and longitudinal directions (p < 0.04). However, there was no significant difference between the stiffness of the posterior PA and that of the three sinuses (p > 0.43), or among the three sinuses (p > 0.30) in the two directions. A tight, more dense weave of elastin was found in the anterior PA than in either the posterior PA or the sinuses. CONCLUSION Significant inherent differences in compliance were demonstrated among different regions of the human pulmonary root. These regional differences may impact upon pulmonary autograft remodeling following the Ross operation, and also influence late autograft dilation.
Different responses of ecosystem carbon exchange to warming in three types of alpine grassland on the central Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Abstract Climate is a driver of terrestrial ecosystem carbon exchange, which is an important product of ecosystem function. The Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau has recently been subjected to a marked increase in temperature as a consequence of global warming. To explore the effects of warming on carbon exchange in grassland ecosystems, we conducted a whole‐year warming experiment between 2012 and 2014 using open‐top chambers placed in an alpine meadow, an alpine steppe, and a cultivated grassland on the central Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. We measured the gross primary productivity, net ecosystem CO 2 exchange (NEE), ecosystem respiration, and soil respiration using a chamber‐based method during the growing season. The results show that after 3 years of warming, there was significant stimulation of carbon assimilation and emission in the alpine meadow, but both these processes declined in the alpine steppe and the cultivated grassland. Under warming conditions, the soil water content was more important in stimulating ecosystem carbon exchange in the meadow and cultivated grassland than was soil temperature. In the steppe, the soil temperature was negatively correlated with ecosystem carbon exchange. We found that the ambient soil water content was significantly correlated with the magnitude of warming‐induced change in NEE. Under high soil moisture condition, warming has a significant positive effect on NEE, while it has a negative effect under low soil moisture condition. Our results highlight that the NEE in steppe and cultivated grassland have negative responses to warming; after reclamation, the natural meadow would subject to loose more C in warmer condition. Therefore, under future warmer condition, the overextension of cultivated grassland should be avoided and scientific planning of cultivated grassland should be achieved.
Annular reconfigurable metasurface for omnidirectional dual-pol leaky-wave antennas

A printed annular reconfigurable metasurface (ARM) comprised of concentric ring slots etched in a metal screen loaded by stubs and varactor diodes is proposed to realize two-dimensional leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) operating on a pair of azimuthally independent TM and TE cylindrical leaky modes. The metasurface, used as a superstrate for a grounded dielectric slab, is designed to achieve wavenumber equalization of the two modes. These are excited independently by means of a vertical coaxial probe and a horizontal microstrip loop, thus allowing for radiation of an omnidirectional conical beam with reconfigurable beam angle and polarization. Theoretical and numerical investigations are presented, including an ad-hoc moment-method approach for the calculation of the antenna far-field patterns.
Calculation and analysis of Hu moment of Continuous-Wave Terahertz reflecting image

Terahertz (THz) radiation can penetrate nonmetallic materials and nonpolar materials, and has low photon energy, therefore THz imaging has drawn more attention. The moment function of an image has wide applications on pattern recognition and target classification. The paper has applied image segmentation to Continuous-Wave THz point-to-point scanning reflecting image depending on Otsu's method. The Hu moments of the original image and the segmentation image were calculated, and the mean value and relative error were also obtained. It can provide technical support for THz image pattern recognition by use of moment invariants.
Factors Influencing Field Testing of Alcohol-Based Hand Rubs

BACKGROUND According to the World Health Organization guidelines, field tests, in the context of a bid for the supply of alcohol-based hand rubs, should take into account climatic region, test period, products already in use, and type of use (hygienic or surgical) when assessing tolerance. This laborious method is often contested. OBJECTIVE To conduct a post hoc analysis of the data of a large bid, including 5 factors, to validate the relevance of their inclusion. METHODS For the purposes of the bid, products were compared in terms of the 4 World Health Organization tolerance criteria (appearance, intactness, moisture content, sensation) during product testing and were separated into groups on the basis of the studied factors. The post hoc analysis method included (1) comparison of the mean before-and-after difference based on the self-evaluation of the skin with the 4 World Health Organization tolerance criteria, between climatic regions, periods, products in use, test product, and the type of use; (2) generalized linear models, taking into account all studied factors. RESULTS The analysis included data for 1,925 pairs of professionals. The means of the differences observed were independently and significantly associated with the test period (P<.001), the hygienic or surgical use (P=.010 to .041, not significant for appearance), the product already in use (significant for appearance P=.021), and the test product (P<.001). The association with climatic region was found to be significant only in the nonadjusted analysis. CONCLUSION The type of use, the test period, and the product in use should be taken into account when designing field tests of alcohol-based hand rubs. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014;00(0): 1–9
Low-Power, Phase-Slip Tolerant, Multilevel Coding for M-QAM

For a cost efficient, high capacity, coherent dense wavelength division multiplex transmission in data center interconnect applications, the number of optical interfaces should be minimized, the throughput of each modulated channel should be maximized, and the system density should be increased. These goals are supported by using high baud rates, spectrally efficient modulation, and low-power solutions. Allowing independent design of non-binary modulation and binary forward error correction (FEC) coding, bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) eases the system design for software-defined reach (or capacity) by combining a programmable modulation with a single binary FEC code. Unfortunately, as we demonstrate, the suboptimality of BICM implementations tends to increase both with the higher modulation order and also the higher FEC overhead. This motivates a search for alternatives to BICM. In this paper, we examine a low-power multilevel coding architecture for higher order quadrature amplitude modulation (M- QAM). Limiting ourselves to non-iterative low-power solutions, we show that two-level coding using a low-complexity convolutional code concatenated with a powerful hard decoded FEC may be an attractive approach. We demonstrate a pilot-free, phase-slip tolerant inner coding scheme with low complexity, attractive performance, and low latency. In a real-time prototype, we study the performance and implementation aspects for 64 QAM, resulting in 12.9 dB net coding gain with less than 1 W power dissipation per coded 100 G in 14 nm ASIC technology.
PA-Flow: Gradual Packet Aggregation at Virtual Network I/O for Efficient Service Chaining

A logical chaining of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) enables toy-blocking style composition of various network services. VNFs are generally based on Virtual Machines (VMs) running on commodity servers. However, such VM-based VNFs have poor packet forwarding performance because of the virtual network I/O overhead, and therefore virtualization of the core network functions can degrade overall network performance. In this paper, we propose a novel packet aggregation method (PA-Flow) that aggregates packets having a same next-hop VNF with no further latency. Unlike existing packet aggregation approaches, our method is effective for the virtual network I/O to reduce packet processing cost inside the host. Moreover, aggregated packets are further aggregated as going through the service chain, which drastically reduces traffic amount at the core network. We have implemented a PA-Flow module that works between a virtual switch and QEMU under the DPDK/vhost-user framework. PA-Flow showed 170% higher throughput than that of the default DPDK/vhost-user based system for a 2-VNF service chain. In addition, latency was also improved by about 2 us because of the packet amount reduction.
American Society of Clinical Oncology Technology Assessment: chemotherapy sensitivity and resistance assays.

PURPOSE To develop a technology assessment of chemotherapy sensitivity and resistance assays in order to define the role of these tests in routine oncology practice. METHODS The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) established a Working Group to develop the technology assessment. The Working Group collaborated with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) Technology Evaluation Center. The Working Group developed independent criteria for selecting articles for inclusion in the ASCO assessment, and developed a structured data abstraction tool to facilitate review of selected manuscripts. One Working Group member and an ASCO staff member independently reviewed the 1,139 abstracts identified by the BCBSA comprehensive literature search, and by an updated literature search performed by ASCO using the BCBSA search strategy (1966 to January 2004). Of the 12 articles included in this technology assessment, eight were identified by the original BCBSA systematic review, one was provided by industry, and three were identified by the ASCO updated literature review. RESULTS Review of the literature does not identify any CSRAs for which the evidence base is sufficient to support use in oncology practice. RECOMMENDATIONS The use of chemotherapy sensitivity and resistance assays to select chemotherapeutic agents for individual patients is not recommended outside of the clinical trial setting. Oncologists should make chemotherapy treatment recommendations on the basis of published reports of clinical trials and a patient's health status and treatment preferences. Because the in vitro analytic strategy has potential importance, participation in clinical trials evaluating these technologies remains a priority.
Quantitative analysis of split base station processing and determination of advantageous architectures for LTE

Centralization of the baseband processing in radio access networks may reduce radio site operations costs, reduce capital costs, and ease implementation of multi-site coordination mechanisms such as coordinated multipoint transmission and reception (CoMP). However, the initial architecture proposals for a centralized Long Term Evolution (LTE) deployment using transport of radio samples require a high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnection network. This may be uneconomical, or it may only be cost effective for a limited number of sites. To mitigate that deficiency without sacrificing the benefits of centralized processing, we identified alternative interfacing options between central and remote units. To do so we analyzed possible splits of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) baseband processing chain for their bandwidth and latency requirements. Next, we analyzed the operational impacts of potential splits based on a number of criteria including ease of CoMP introduction, the possibility of realizing pooling gains, and the ability to update the system and introduce new features. Based on our results, we propose architectures that can leverage the benefits of centralization at a much-reduced cost.
Effects of Asymmetric Quantum Wells on the Structural and Optical Properties of InGaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes

A metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy-grown InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) with three graded-thickness wells (the first-grown well had the greatest width) near the n-GaN was used as the active layer of an LED. For LEDs with an asymmetric quantum well (AQW), high-resolution X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopic reveal that the modified MQWs with a reasonable crystalline quality were coherently strained on the underlying GaN epilayers without any relaxation. In addition, the slight increase of indium segregation in the LED with an AQW may be attributed to variations in indium contents experienced during epitaxial growth of the wide well-containing MQWs. By preventing the energetic electrons from accumulating at the topmost quantum well nearest the p-GaN, the presence of light intensity roll-off in the LED with an AQW is shifted to higher currents and the corresponding maximum light output power is increased with a ratio 7.9% higher than that of normal LEDs. Finally, similar emission wavelengths were observed in the electroluminescence spectra of both LEDs, suggesting that light emitted mostly from the top quantum wells (near the p-GaN) while the emissions from the AQW region were insignificant.
Application of interval econometrics for crude oil price forecasting

The classical econometrics models and forecasting methods based on point data have poor forecasting quality because those models might neglect the important interval information of the price movement.A new interval method based on interval computing and interval econometrics to predict crude oil prices is applied.Compared with the confidence interval forecasts based AR-GARCH model,the interval econometrics method yields more accuracy ratio and much less forecast error.This study validates the interval econometrics method,and uncovers the important application to economic issues.
A 1-MHz on-chip relaxation oscillator with comparator delay cancelation

In this work, an improved topology of a relaxation oscillator is proposed, dealing with the non-idealities of the comparator stage. The oscillator test chips, manufactured in 0.35-μm CMOS process, have the nominal frequency of 1 MHz and typical power consumption of 210 μW. The area of the oscillator core is 0.04 mm2. The measured temperature variation of the output frequency is ±0.4% in the temperature range from −40 to 125 °C. The line sensitivity is 0.28 %/V with the supply ranging from 3.0 to 4.5 V. The output frequency stabilizes after one cycle.
Real-Time Analysis of Mucosal Flora in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in India

ABSTRACT Mucosa-associated bacterial flora from control individuals and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients were evaluated by real-time analysis using 16S rRNA-based genus-specific primers. Our data show a clear delineation in concentration of bacteria between the predominating and subdominating genera under disease conditions, indicating that the subsets of bacteria participating in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) are likely to be different.
Selected factors associated with diabetes mellitus in a rural Palestinian community.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution and association of selected risk factors for diabetes mellitus in a semi-rural Palestinian village. MATERIAL/METHODS We performed a cross-sectional, population-based study of 500 adults aged 30 to 65 in a semi-rural Palestinian village. The study included two phases: a household survey and an individual assessment utilizing the oral glucose tolerance test OGTT to determine the diabetes status of the participants, anthropometric measurements for body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR), blood biochemistry measurements for lipids, blood pressure measurement, and a standard questionnaire to assess demographic and other factors. RESULTS The association between various risk factors and diabetes status was explored by comparing statistical means and proportions and crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR). A multivariate logistic regression using sex and seven factors initially found to be significantly associated with diabetes identified four factors that remained significantly associated with diabetes after adjustment for age and sex. The four main factors are age (OR = 1.08, 95%CI = 1.05-1.12), positive family history of diabetes (OR = 3.09, 95%CI = 1.53-6.24), triglycerides (OR = 1.006, 95%CI = 1.002-1.009), and WHR (OR = 2.13, 95%CI =1.31-3.45). CONCLUSIONS Two factors associated with diabetes are potentially modifiable in this Palestinian population: WHR and triglyceride levels. These should be addressed by preventive health activities, including health promotion. The association between diabetes and age supports the conclusion that the prevalence of diabetes is expected to increase with the aging of the population.
Wideband Circularly Polarized 2 × 2 Antenna Array With Multibeam Steerable Capability

A circularly polarized (CP) switched-beam antenna array with the capability of generating nine steerable beams in the hemispherical space is presented in this letter. A single radiator is first constructed with two triangular-shaped dipoles crossing through printed rings, and four parasitic elements are introduced to enhance the CP operation bandwidth. For the beam steering operation, its array antennas are implemented in a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2 \times 2$</tex-math></inline-formula> arrangement and fed by a four-input port feeding network composed of four double-box branch-line couplers. With a suitable feed excitation mechanism, the proposed antenna can generate CP axial beams in nine directions. The antenna is fabricated with an overall size of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2{{\rm{\lambda }}_{\rm{o}}} \times 2{{\rm{\lambda }}_{\rm{o}}} \times 0.2{{\rm{\lambda }}_{\rm{o}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> (at 6 GHz), and the measured results demonstrate that the proposed design provided very wide −10-dB impedance and 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidths of 48.6% and 46.2%, respectively. Additionally, stable radiation patterns with a gain of approximately 11.5 dBic and radiation efficiency of greater than 90% were observed for every beam direction.