Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A 4Ω 2.65W Class-D Audio Amplifier With Embedded DC-DC Boost Converter, Current Sensing ADC and DSP for Adaptive Speaker Protection

In this paper a class-D smart speaker driver is presented that can deliver 2.65 W at 1% THD into a 4Ω load. Maximal output power is maintained at low battery voltage by supplying the class-D amplifier from a DC-DC boost converter. Speaker damage is avoided by a speaker protection algorithm that runs on an embedded DSP. The protection algorithm estimates the membrane excursion and voice coil temperature using a speaker model that tracks the speaker impedance which is determined by measuring the speaker current with less than 2% relative error. A sample & hold technique is presented that rejects the load current ripple by sampling at the moments where the instantaneous load current equals the average current. At full output power the combined efficiency of the class-D amplifier and DC-DC boost converter is higher than 80%. The complete system is implemented on a single chip that measures 6.6 mm2 and is fabricated in a 0.14 μm CMOS technology with a 5 V gate-oxide option.
Extension Youth Educators' Technology Use in Youth Development Programming.

The purpose of this descriptive-correlational study was to determine the use of technology in youth programming by Extension youth development educators in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Data were collected via e-mail and a SurveyMonkey© questionnaire. Extension educators are using some technology in youth development programming. More than threefourths of Extension youth educators are using Facebook; however, less than one fourth of Extension youth educators are using Twitter which contradicts previous research. Having technology available for use explains a medium amount of the technology use among Extension youth educators; however, perceived barriers, anxiety, age, gender, years of experience, and sources of technology training do not explain Extension youth educators technology use in their programming. Extension youth educators fit the description of digital immigrants who assume that today’s learners acquire knowledge the same way they learned when they were in school.
The anti‐immunity system of phage‐plasmid N15: identification of the antirepressor gene and its control by a small processed RNA

N15 is a temperate virus of Escherichia coli related to lambdoid phages. However, unlike all other known phages, the N15 prophage is maintained as a low copy number linear DNA molecule with covalently closed ends. The primary immunity system at the immB locus is structurally and functionally comparable to that of lambdoid phages, and encodes the immunity repressor CB. We have characterized a second locus, immA, in which clear plaque mutations were mapped, and found that it encodes an anti‐immunity system involved in the choice between the lytic and the lysogenic cycle. Three open reading frames at the immA locus encode an inhibitor of cell division (icd ), an antirepressor (antA) and a gene that may play an ancillary role in anti‐immunity (antB ). These genes may be transcribed from two promoters: the upstream promoter Pa is repressed by the immunity repressor CB, whereas the downstream promoter Pb is constitutive. Full repression of the anti‐immunity system is achieved by premature transcription termination elicited by a small RNA (CA RNA) produced by processing of the leader transcript of the anti‐immunity operon. The N15 anti‐immunity system is structurally and functionally similar to the anti‐immunity system of bacteriophage P1 and to the immunity system of satellite phage P4.
New Target Genes in Endometrial Tumors Show a Role for the Estrogen‐Receptor Pathway in Microsatellite‐Unstable Cancers

Microsatellite instability (MSI) in tumors results in an accumulation of mutations in (target) genes. Previous studies suggest that the profile of target genes differs according to tumor type. This paper describes the first genome‐wide search for target genes for mismatch repair‐deficient endometrial cancers. Genes expressed in normal endometrium containing coding repeats were analyzed for mutations in tumors. We identified 44 possible genes of which seven are highly mutated (>15%). Some candidates were also found mutated in colorectal and gastric tumors. The most frequently mutated gene, NRIP1 encoding nuclear receptor‐interacting protein 1, was silenced in an endometrial tumor cell line and expression microarray experiments were performed. Silencing of NRIP1 was associated with differences in the expression of several genes in the estrogen‐receptor network. Furthermore, an enrichment of genes related to cell cycle (regulation) and replication was observed. We present a new profile of target genes, some of them tissue specific, whereas others seem to play a more general role in MSI tumors. The high‐mutation frequency combined with the expression data suggest, for the first time, an involvement of NRIP1 in endometrial cancer development.
De Novo Sequencing of Peptides from High‐Resolution Bottom‐Up Tandem Mass Spectra using Top‐Down Intended Methods

Despite high‐resolution mass spectrometers are becoming accessible for more and more laboratories, tandem (MS/MS) mass spectra are still often collected at a low resolution. And even if acquired at a high resolution, software tools used for their processing do not tend to benefit from that in full, and an ability to specify a relative mass tolerance in this case often remains the only feature the respective algorithms take advantage of. We argue that a more efficient way to analyze high‐resolution MS/MS spectra should be with methods more explicitly accounting for the precision level, and sustain this claim through demonstrating that a de novo sequencing framework originally developed for (high‐resolution) top‐down MS/MS data is perfectly suitable for processing high‐resolution bottom‐up datasets, even though a top‐down like deconvolution performed as the first step will leave in many spectra at most a few peaks.
Systematic review of blood biomarkers in cystic fibrosis pulmonary exacerbations.

BACKGROUND Biomarkers reflective of disease activity in cystic fibrosis (CF) have the potential to improve patient care, particularly during CF pulmonary exacerbations (CFPEs). Although blood-based biomarkers have been studied in CFPE for nearly 3 decades, none have been integrated into routine clinical practice. To facilitate progress in this area, we performed a systematic review evaluating blood-based biomarkers during CFPE. METHODS MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL were searched to identify relevant studies published from January 1995 to August 2012. We included all full-text studies examining systemic (blood-based) biomarkers to aid in the diagnosis of CFPE, predict outcomes of CFPE, and/or monitor the response to CFPE treatment. RESULTS Seventy-eight unique blood-based biomarkers have been studied to date, mainly inflammatory cytokines, acute phase reactants, and markers of oxidative stress. C-reactive protein (CRP) consistently correlated with disease activity, with a statistically significant increase from stable to exacerbation state in five of six studies, and changes in response to CFPE treatment, with a statistically significant decrease from the beginning to the end of CFPE treatment in 18 of 20 studies. Other promising biomarkers of CFPE disease activity include neutrophil elastase antiproteinase complex, IL-6, myeloperoxidase (MPO), lactoferrin, and calprotectin. CONCLUSIONS Although there are several blood-based biomarkers with evidence for application within the CFPE setting, CRP has been the most widely studied biomarker demonstrating the potential for clinical usefulness. Further validation studies and clinical trials are required to determine whether blood-based biomarkers can be used to ultimately improve health outcomes in the setting of a CFPE.
Thermogenic drugs for the treatment of obesity: sympathetic stimulants in animal models

1. Thirty-three drugs known to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system have been screened for thermogenic properties. The results presented are for seven of them. 2. The drugs were tested in five animal models of obesity (genetic (mice and rats), hypothalamic (mice) and dietary (mice and rats)) as well asin leanmice. Energy-balance studies were undertaken using thecomparative-carcass technique as well as by measurement of daily oxygen consumption. 3. All seven drugs in obese animals tended to reduce body-weight and fat without loss of body protein: they acted by increasing metabolic rate without increasing food intake. They were much less effective in lean animals. These findings lend support to the concept that obesity is due to a diminished activity of the sympathetic nervous system. 4. Differences in the effectiveness of the drugs are discussed in relation to differences between the animal models of obesity. Ephedrine and tranylcypromine were found to be the most effective drugs in this series of experiments and a prima facie case is made for human clinical trials.
Evaluating Power and Energy Efficiency of Bitonic Mergesort on Graphics Processing Unit

Excessive power consumption is expected to be the major obstacle to achieve exascale performance within a reasonable power budget in the upcoming years. In addition, graphics processing units (GPUs) are expected to become a significant ingredient in the pursuit of exascale computing due to their fine-grained, highly parallel architecture and advancements in performance and power efficiency. To address the power obstacle of exascale systems, we suggest evaluating power and energy consumption of the fundamental software building blocks. We experimentally investigate power consumption, energy consumption, and kernel runtime of Bitonic Mergesort (a promising sort for parallel architectures) under various workloads on NVIDIA K40 GPU. The results show some insights in terms of power and energy consumption advantage of Bitonic Mergesort compared with NVIDIA’s Advanced Quicksort (a highly optimized parallel quicksort).
Citizen Expectations and Satisfaction Over Time: Findings From a Large Sample Panel Survey of Public School Parents in Denmark

Expectations are thought to affect how citizens form their attitudes and behavior toward public services. Such attitudes may include citizen satisfaction, where expectations play a fundamental role, and relevant behaviors include choice of services and the decision to voice opinions about them. However, there are few investigations into what drives citizen expectations and even fewer that consider these relationships across time. This article tests whether prior expectations, perceived performance, and citizen satisfaction influence future expectations, using a unique dataset that follows individual citizens across two subsequent school satisfaction surveys from 2011 and 2013. The results show that prior expectations have a large and consistent influence on future expectations, as predicted by the literature, whereas the influence from prior perceived performance seems less consistent. Prior satisfaction may also influence future expectations, although the effect is minor. The results indicate that citizens’ expectations are rather stable across time and may contain normative values and beliefs about how public services should perform.
A Randomized Phase II Trial of Two Regimens of Moderate Dose Chemoradiation Therapy for Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Not Suitable for Curative Therapy: Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Study TROG 03.07

Background: There are patients with stage I–III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are not suitable for curative radical chemoradiation therapy. There are patients with an isolated solitary extracranial metastasis who have improved outcomes compared with those with cranial or multiple metastases. Patients of good performance status receiving moderate dose radiation therapy have improved survival. Two regimens of moderate dose chemoradiation therapy for such patients were compared in a randomized phase II trial. Methods: Patients were eligible if they had stage I–IIIB NSCLC, unsuitable for curative therapy, or stage IV with a PET-detected extracranial solitary metastasis. Patients were randomized to the following groups—arm A: 40 Gy/20 fractions/4 weeks with concurrent weekly vinorelbine 25 mg/m2 + cisplatin 20 mg/m2 or arm B: 30 Gy/15 fractions/3 weeks with concurrent weekly gemcitabine 200 mg. Primary end points were feasibility, response rates, and toxicity. Secondary end points were progression-free survival, overall survival, and quality of life. Results: Eighty-four patients were randomized. Compliance was above 90% for both arms. The overall response rate was 51% in arm A and 38% in arm B (p = 0.147). Grade 3/4 toxicity in both arms was acceptable. There was no difference in median progression-free survival between the two arms (5.5 versus 5.0 months, p = 0.19). Patients in arm A had longer median survival but this did not reach statistical significance (13.1 versus 8.3 months, p = 0.25). No difference in quality of life was observed. Conclusions: Arm A was chosen for a future phase II comparison with radiation therapy alone as it demonstrated a response rate greater than 50%, and data suggested that arm A had superior survival to arm B.
A 21 Nucleotide Duplication on the α1- and α2-Globin Genes Involves a Variety of Hypochromic Microcytic Anemias, From Mild to Hb H Disease

Abstract α-Thalassemia (α-thal) is a common genetic disorder in Iran and many parts of the world. Genetic defects in the α-globin gene cluster can result in α-thal that may develop into a clinical phenotype varying from almost asymptomatic to a lethal hemolytic anemia. Loss of one functional α gene, indicated as heterozygous α+-thal, shows minor hematological abnormalities. Homozygosity for α+- or heterozygosity for α0-thal have more severe hematological abnormalities due to a markedly reduced α chain output. At the molecular level, the absence of three α-globin genes resulting from the compound heterozygous state for α0- and α+-thal, lead to Hb H disease. Here we present a 21 nucleotide (nt) duplication consisting of six amino acids and 3 bp of intronic sequence at the exon-intron boundary, in both the α-globin genes, detected by direct DNA sequencing. This duplication was identified in three patients originating from two different Iranian ethnic groups and one Arab during more than 12 years. The clinical presentation of these individuals varies widely from a mild asymptomatic anemia (heterozygote in α1-globin gene) to a severely anemic state, diagnosed as an Hb H individual requiring blood transfusion (duplication on the α2-globin gene in combination with the – –MED double α-globin gene deletion). The third individual, who was homozygous for this nt duplication on the α1-globin gene, showed severe hypochromic microcytic anemia and splenomegaly. In the last decade, numerous α-globin mutations have demonstrated the necessity of prenatal diagnosis (PND) for α-thal, and this study has contributed another mutation as important enough that needs to be considered.
Molecular Defect (Gla+14 +Lys) and Its Functional Consequences in a Hereditary Factor X Deficiency (Factor X “Vorarlberg”)*

From the $Departments of Medicine and Pathology, and Center for Thrombosis and Hemostasis, University of North Carolina, Chupel Hill, North Carolinu 27599, IjMerck, Sharp, cmd Dohme Reseurch Laborutories, West Point, Pennsylvunia 19486, YlDepurtment of Celhdur und Structural Biology, Uniuersity of Texas Health Sciences Center, Sun Antonio, Texas 78284, §First Department of Medicine, University of Vienna, Vienna A-1090 and **Municipal Hospital, Feldkirch A-6800, Austria
Can the Whole Be More Than the Sum of the Parts? Bottom-Up versus Top-Down Multifactor Portfolio Construction

Rules-based factor portfolios combining multiple factors have become increasingly popular in recent years. One often-asked question concerning portfolio construction is whether combining individual factor portfolios is equivalent to building a bottom-up multifactor portfolio. The latter approach has theoretical merit, because each security’s weight in the portfolio will depend on how well it ranks on multiple factors simultaneously. The former approach, combining single-factor portfolios, may miss cross-sectional interaction between the factors at the security level. The authors analyze the magnitude of these effects and find that these interaction effects can in fact have a significant impact on portfolio performance. Both intuition and empirical evidence favor bottom-up multifactor portfolio construction.
Transnational environmental standards in Eastern Europe: an assessment of companies in Lithuania and their adoption motives

ABSTRACT During the last few decades, many environmental certification schemes were developed to enhance transparency and traceability within commodity chains. Most of them are transnational schemes, which means that they were created by non-governmental organizations and/or the private sector, independently from governments. This article aims to examine how local certified companies assess the functioning of such private environmental certification. It presents the results of an empirical research about the expectations and satisfaction of certified companies in Lithuania. Empirical data were collected through a survey with 90 companies certified by one of the three major transnational environmental standards: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for the forestry and logging, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for fishing and aquaculture, and Oeko-Tex for the production of textiles. The results revealed that most companies have adopted these standards quite recently, indicating that it is generally a new trend in Lithuania. The findings suggest that the overall expectations with the standards’ functions, such as sending signals to clients or getting more market share, were higher than the satisfaction in all cases. The main transnational environmental standard adoption motive was the client demand. It turned out, however, that later after the certification procedure the majority of the companies were most satisfied with the market opportunities that opened up. Furthermore, the companies expected certification to operate best as a market-based mechanism; but most satisfactory performance was accredited to the signalling mechanism. Research suggests that certification provides various benefits for the companies, but the expectations might be rather exaggerated.
An assessment of Florida Community College Presidents' acceptance of quality indicators

This report describes a study that was conducted to determine the perceived degree of usefulness the indicators of progress toward excellence have for the presidents of Florida's 28 community colleges. This study reports this degree of perceived usefulness by using a survey instrument that identified quality indicators developed by the State Board of Community Colleges, Florida Department of Education. Based on a project design and format adapted by the Florida Community/Junior College Inter-institutional Research Council, this study proposed to identify what information (indicators of progress toward excellence) is considered most valid to the presidents of Florida's community colleges in making quality-evaluation decisions about programs or services offered by their colleges. In addition, this study identified similarities and differences in the usefulness ratings of the indicators for the presidents by the program area in whiGh they most closely associate themselves; by type of institution in which they serve and by other selected personal and institutional classifications. Chapter I includes an introduction to the study, its purposes, rationale, and scope. Chapter II reviews the literature in the area of quality indicators for education and the evaluation of educational quality. Chapter III contains a review of the problem, design of the study, development of the study questionnaire and outlines the design and methodology used in the study. Chapter IV . contains the results of a survey of all 28 of Florida's community ii college presidents and presents these findings in sections dealing with respondents' characteristics, results for all respondents, results by quality indicator groups, and by selected institutional characteristics. Chapter V contains a summary of the study, its results, conclusions, and recommendations. Appendices include the classifications used in the data analysis, the questionnaire, detailed survey results, additional indicators with ratings, and survey follow-up responses.
Randomized evaluation of fluid resuscitation with crystalloid (saline) and colloid (polymer from degraded gelatin in saline) in pediatric septic shock.

OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy of crystalloid (Normal saline) and colloid (polymer from degraded Gelatin in saline Haemaccel) intravenous fluid in restoration of circulating volume in children with septic shock. DESIGN Prospective, randomized, open-label trial. SETTING Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Unit of a tertiary care referral and teaching hospital. SUBJECTS AND INCLUSION CRITERIA: Sixty patients, between 1 month to 12 years of age, with septic shock, without clinical evidence of organ failure at admission or underlying immunodeficiency. INTERVENTION Resuscitation with normal saline or polymer from degraded gelatin (Haemaccel) in the boluses rate of 20 mL/kg till hemodynamic stabilization or if central venous pressure (CVP) exceeded 10 mmHg (fluid requirement beyond 40 mL/kg guided by BP and CVP). METHODS Hemodynamic parameters (heart rate, capillary filling time, pulse volume, and blood pressure) were recorded before and during resuscitation, and then 2 hourly for 12 hours. Central venous pressure line was placed within first hour, soon after starting fluids. Estimation of plasma volume and body water was done at the end of first hour of fluid resuscitation. OUTCOME MEASURES Hemodynamic stabilization (heart rate, capillary refill time, systolic BP in normal range), plasma volume at the end of fluid resuscitation and incidence of organ dysfunction. RESULTS 31 patients were randomized to normal saline and 29 to gelatin polymer. Both the groups were similar with respect to age, gender, primary diagnosis, initial hemodynamic parameters and PRISM score. Pneumonia (n = 22; 36%), gut-associated sepsis (n = 13), and dengue hemorrhagic fever (n = 11) were the common primary diagnosis. Initial hemodynamic stabilization was achieved in all. The mean (SD plasma volume (saline--53.4 (2.0 mL/kg, gelatin polymer--53.2 (1.9 mL/kg), extracellular fluid volume, total body water and interstitial fluid volume at the end of first hour of resuscitation were similar. The requirement of inotropes, incidence of organ dysfunction and case fatality rate (Saline--29%, gelatin polymer--31%), were similar in two groups. CONCLUSION Both normal saline and gelatin polymer solution were equally effective as resuscitation fluid with respect to restoration of plasma volume and hemodynamic stability. Normal saline upto 110 mL/kg, and gelatin polymer solution upto 70 mL/kg may be required in first hour for successful fluid resuscitation of septic shock in children.