Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tree-Based Broadcasting in Multihop Radio Networks

This paper considers the issue of broadcasting protocols in multihop radio networks. The objective of a broadcasting protocol is to deliver the broadcasted message to all network nodes. To efficiently achieve this objective the broad- casting protocol in this paper utilizes two basic properties of the multihop radio network. One is the broadcast nature of the radio which allows every single trasmission to reach all nodes that are in line of sight and within range of the transmitting node. The other, spatial reuse of the radio channel, which due to the multihop nature of the network allows multiple simultaneous transmissions to be received correctly. The proposed protocol incorporates these properties to obtain a collision free forwarding of the broadcasted message on a tree. Centralized and distributed algorithms for the tree construction are presented. The obtained trees are unique in incorporating radio oriented time ordering as part of their definition. In this way multiple copies of one or more broadcasted messages can be transmitted simultaneously without collision, requiring only a small number of message transmissions. Consequently, the protocol not only guarantees that the broadcasted message reaches all network nodes in bounded time, but also ensures that the broadcasting activity will use only limited channel bandwidth and node memory. The proposed broadcast protocol thus possesses the advantages of TDM solutions while allowing the channel bandwidth to be shared, concurrently with the broadcast, with other transmission activities as dictated, for instance, by data link protocols. Some NP-completeness proofs are also given.
Characterization of CYP2C19 and CYP2C9 from human liver: respective roles in microsomal tolbutamide, S-mephenytoin, and omeprazole hydroxylations.

Individuals with drug metabolism polymorphisms involving CYP2C enzymes exhibit deficient oxidation of important therapeutic agents, including S-mephenytoin, omeprazole, warfarin, tolbutamide, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. While recombinant CYP2C19 and CYP2C9 proteins expressed in yeast or Escherichia coli have been shown to oxidize these agents, the capacity of the corresponding native P450s isolated from human liver to do so is ill defined. To that end, we purified CYP2C19, CYP2C9, and CYP2C8 from human liver samples using conventional chromatographic techniques and examined their capacity to oxidize S-mephenytoin, omeprazole, and tolbutamide. Upon reconstitution, CYP2C19 metabolized S-mephenytoin and omeprazole at rates that were 11- and 8-fold higher, respectively, than those of intact liver microsomes, whereas neither CYP2C9 nor CYP2C8 displayed appreciable metabolic activity with these substrates. CYP2C19 also proved an efficient catalyst of tolbutamide metabolism, exhibiting a turnover rate similar to CYP2C9 preparations (2.0-6.4 vs 2.4-4.3 nmol hydroxytolbutamide formed/min/nmol P450). The kinetic parameters of CYP2C19-mediated tolbutamide hydroxylation (Km = 650 microM, Vmax = 3.71 min-1) somewhat resembled those of the CYP2C9-catalyzed reaction (Km = 178-407 microM, Vmax = 2.95-7.08 min-1). Polyclonal CYP2C19 antibodies markedly decreased S-mephenytoin 4'-hydroxylation (98% inhibition) and omeprazole 5-hydroxylation (85% inhibition) by human liver microsomes. CYP2C19 antibodies also potently inhibited (>90%) microsomal tolbutamide hydroxylation, which was similar to the inhibition (>85%) observed with antibodies to CYP2C9. Moreover, excellent correlations were found between immunoreactive CYP2C19 content, S-mephenytoin 4'-hydroxylase activity (r = 0.912; P < 0. 001), and omeprazole 5-hydroxylase activity (r = 0.906; P < 0.001) in liver samples from 13-17 different subjects. A significant relationship was likewise observed between microsomal tolbutamide hydroxylation and CYP2C9 content (r = 0.664; P < 0.02) but not with CYP2C19 content (r = 0.393; P = 0.184). Finally, immunoquantitation revealed that in these human liver samples, expression of CYP2C9 (88. 5 +/- 36 nmol/mg) was 5-fold higher than that of CYP2C19 (17.8 +/- 14 nmol/mg) and nearly 8-fold higher than that of CYP2C8 (11.5 +/- 12 nmol/mg). Our results, like those obtained with recombinant CYP2C enzymes, indicate that CYP2C19 is a primary determinant of S-mephenytoin 4'-hydroxylation and low-Km omeprazole 5-hydroxylation in human liver. Despite its tolbutamide hydroxylase activity, the low levels of hepatic CYP2C19 expression (relative to CYP2C9) may preclude an important role for this enzyme in hepatic tolbutamide metabolism and any polymorphisms thereof.
International Hedging Under Concurrent Risks of Input/Output Prices and Exchange Rate:The Case of Korean Oil Refinery 에너지경제연구원(WORKING PAPER9703)

This study develops an international hedging model which accounts for the multiple risks of input and output prices and exchange rates. We formulize simultaneous minimum variance hedge ratios, which reflects intercorrelations among prices. To utilize the dynamic nature of prices, time-varying conditional procedures are specified to estimate the relevant variance and covariance matrix. The time-varying representations of the variance and covariance matrix are statistically appropriate, in general. The separate hedge ratios are similar to the simultaneous hedge ratios for alternative procedures. The ex post hedging effectiveness indicate that there are substantial reduction in the variance of returns for all the procedures. The contribution of foreign currency futures is minimal due to the low correlation between commodities and exchange rates. Based on the traditional definition of hedging effectiveness, the time-varying conditional procedure provide little gain to the hedgers over a constant procedure in terms of the mean and the variance reduction. However, the performance of conditional procedures could be improved by accounting for the potential problems: misspecification problem, inappropriate definition of hedging effectiveness, and conflicts between theoretical derivation and estimation of hedge ratios.
A 12-GS/s 81-mW 5-bit time-interleaved flash ADC with background timing skew calibration

A 12-GS/s 5-bit time-interleaved flash ADC is realized in 65-nm CMOS. The design utilizes a background timing skew calibration technique to improve dynamic performance, and comparator offset calibration to reduce power dissipation. The experimental prototype achieves an SNDR of 25.1 dB at Nyquist and 27.5 dB for low frequency inputs. The circuit occupies an active area of 0.44 mm2 and consumes 81 mW from a 1.1-V supply.
An experimental comparison between ELM and C4.5 for classification problems with symbolic attributes

It is well known that feed-forward neural networks can be learnt from symbolic data although the learnt networks usually have poor performance. This paper explores the ability of a recently popular feed-forward neural network, i.e., Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) for modeling symbolic data. An experimental study is conducted to compare C4.5 (a very popular algorithm of learning from symbolic data) with ELM by using ten categorical data sets. The comparison involves three aspects, i.e., learning speed, testing accuracy and impact of training data numbers on testing accuracy. Some comparative results and comments which may provide new insights to ELM community are given.
Morphology and Phase Evolution in Microwave Synthesized Al/Fe3O4 System

Abstract Thermite reaction between Al/Fe3O4 raised by microwave (MW) heating under N2 atmosphere has been investigated, and compared with that by the electric furnace. In addition to the stoichiometric ratio for the production of metallic iron and alumina, mixture with slightly lower in Al content is also studied. As thermite reaction is highly exothermic, melting of reaction product and destruction of microstructure may occur, which corresponds to the enthalpy and adiabatic temperature of the reaction. Hence, to avoid this problem, reaction coupled with a smaller driving force by controlling the MW ignition condition at low temperature exotherm has been investigated. The phase and microstructure evolution during the reaction were analyzed by differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thermogram of the DTA analysis, irrespective of their mole ratio, recorded two exothermic peaks, one at ~ 1310oC and another one at ~ 1370oC. When heated by microwave at 955oC, the main products were identified as Al, FeO and Fe, minor amount of Fe3O4 and some Fe and alumina were detected. When heating to 1155oC, Al and Fe3O4 peaks disappeared, formation of Fe-Al alloy was observed. For sample heated at 1265°C, a porous body was obtained. Micron sized metal particles with complex morphology, irregular in size and shapes were formed, uniformly distributed within the spinel hercynite and/or alumina matrix. In contrast, conventional heating produced no porous products. Formation of alumina is also observed around the metal particles. Controlling of the reaction progress was possible while heating the sample by MW around the low temperature exotherm region, whereas the combustion wave could not be self-propagated.
Comparison of the  ${\mbi A}^{*}{-}{\mbi A}$ and ${\mbi T}, \Phi{-}\Phi$ Formulations for the 2-D Analysis of Solid-Rotor Induction Machines

We present two eddy-current field potential formulations to solve rotating electrical machine problems by applying the finite-element method (FEM) using the motional A *- A-potential formulation and the motional T, Phi-Phi-potential formulation. We use the single-phase and three-phase solid-rotor induction motors of Problem No. 30a of TEAM Workshops to compare the potential formulations. We have solved both problems in the time domain and the frequency domain.
Colon Cleanout Preparations in Children and Adolescents

To determine the effectiveness and associated side effects of a variety of bowel cleansing preparations before colonoscopy, 52 children, ages 4 months to 18 years, were evaluated. Data gathered included type of cleanout preparation used, adequacy of the preparations, and side effects. Twenty-two combinations of laxatives, lavages, enemas, and rectal suppositories were used. Side effects were reported in 90% of patients. In 79% of the patients the colon was clean or clean with some liquid feces, allowing a complete examination of the colon. Formed feces were present in 21 % of the subjects, and cleanout preparations were so inadequate in 9% of the subjects that the procedure had to be rescheduled. The most effective preparations were X-Prep liquid + Adult Fleet enema, GoLYTELY, and GoLYTELY + Adult Fleet enema, all of which allowed a complete examination of the colon. Pediatric Fleet ready-to-use enema was the least effective when used alone. X-Prep liquid + Adult Fleet enema caused the highest number of side effects (18%), while Pediatric Fleet ready-to-use enema alone caused the least (4%). The most effective cleanout preparation with the fewest side effects was GoLYTELY, used alone or in combination with enemas. These results suggest that many typical cleanout preparations yield inadequate results, wasting time or money, and argue in favor of the use of more effective preparations with fewer side effects, such as GoLYTELY.
Database and system design for data collection of crying related to infant's needs and diseases

In this paper we have focused on designing and collecting an infant crying database. The data have been collected using an in-house developed acquisition system. The study has involved 136 infants aged between 0 and 3 months. Seven types of cries have been collected: hunger, pain, eructation, tiredness, discomfort, colic and pathology. Some of the data (about 750 audio/video recordings meaning about 13000 cries) have been collected from the maternity of the “Sf. Pantelimon” Emergency Hospital and the other part (over 340 audio/video recordings meaning about 5100 cries) have been collected at newborns' home. All the data have been labeled by neonatal experts. This infant crying database will be used to develop new methods for infant cry recognition.
Influence of duration of litter separation and boar exposure on estrous expression of sows during and after lactation.

The influence of litter separation (LS) that included a change in housing environment and social status of sows, boar exposure (BE), and parity on estrous expression by sows during and after lactation was examined in two experiments utilizing 140 crossbred sows. In Exp. 1 (Yorkshire X Duroc sows), limiting duration of LS to 6 or 3 h/d during the last 8 d of lactation in two trials, while maintaining 1 h BE, resulted in similar proportions of sows in estrus during lactation (65 vs 79% for 3- and 6-h sows). However, 6-h LS tended to reduce (P = .08) the interval to estrus by . 6 d for those sows that expressed a preweaning estrus. Postweaning intervals to estrus were unaffected by duration of LS in the remaining sows. In Exp. 2, sows (Yorkshire X Duroc X Chester White) were assigned to four treatment groups during the last 8 d of lactation: 1) BE (1 h/d), 2) LS (6 h/d), 3) LS + BE and 4) no LS + no BE (control). Only nine sows expressed estrus during lactation; four of 28 LS sows and five of 28 LS + BE sows. No sows were in estrus before weaning during August 1985 and only one sow (LS group) was in estrus before weaning during October 1986. Postweaning intervals to estrus were reduced (P less than .05) by . 9 d after preweaning BE compared with controls. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Inflation, output growth and their uncertainties in South Africa: empirical evidence from an asymmetric multivariate GARCH-M model

The study examines the relationships between inflation uncertainty and output growth uncertainty, and analyzes their effects on the level of inflation and output growth in South Africa. An asymmetric multivariate GARCH-M model suggested by Grier et al. (2004) is applied. The findings suggest that while uncertainty about growth is detrimental to output growth, inflation uncertainty is not. The findings further reveal that Cukierman and Meltzer (1986) hypothesis of a positive impact of inflation uncertainty on the level of inflation is supported, and there exists a negative impact of output growth uncertainty on inflation. No association could be found between inflation uncertainty and output growth uncertainty. The findings imply that output growth and its uncertainty should not be treated separately as it is usually suggested by business cycle models. In addition, both output growth uncertainty and inflation uncertainty should be considered as part of the determinants of output growth in South Africa.
Hybrid Model for Early Diabetes Diagnosis

Diabetes Mellitus (silent killer or sugar disease) is a metabolic disease characterized by high glucose levels, either in a body with insufficient insulin to breakdown glucose, or body that is resistant to effects of insulin. To improve early diagnosis, data-mining tools are used to help physicians effectively classify the disease. Study presents a hybrid fuzzy, genetic algorithm trained neural network model as a decision support system for diabetes classification. Adopted data is split into: training, cross validation and testing to aid model validation with appropriate weights and biases set for each variables. Results indicate that age, obesity and family relations (in first and second degree), environmental conditions are critical factors to be watched, While in gestational diabetes, mothers with or without a previous case of GDM is confirmed if there is: (a) history of babies with weight > 4.5kg at birth, (b) resistant to insulin showing polycystic ovary syndrome, and (c) have abnormal tolerance to insulin.
Stock return volatility, global financial crisis and the monthly seasonal effect on the Nigerian stock exchange

This paper investigated the monthly seasonal effect in the Nigerian stock market using the EGARCH-in-mean model in the light of banking reforms, insurance reform, stock market crash and the global financial crisis using daily returns over the period 4 January 2004 to March 2, 2009.The result shows the absence of monthly effect in stock returns but there exists the July and August effects in stock volatility. It is found that, in the Nigerian stock market, returns show persistence in the volatility and clustering and asymmetric properties. The results show that volatility is persistent and there is a leverage effect supporting the work of Nelson (1991). The study found little evidence on the relationship between stock returns and risk as measured by its own volatility.
Rapid protein kinase C‐dependent reduction of rat skeletal muscle voltage‐gated sodium channels by ciliary neurotrophic factor

The ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), known to exert long‐term myotrophic effects, has not yet been shown to induce a rapid biological response in skeletal muscles. The present in vitro study gives rise to the possibility that CNTF could affect the sodium channel activity implied in the triggering of muscle fibre contraction. Therefore, we investigated the effects of an external CNTF application on macroscopic sodium current (INa) in rat native fast‐twitch skeletal muscle (flexor digitorum brevis, FDB) by using a cell‐attached patch‐clamp technique. The INa peak amplitude measured at a depolarizing pulse from −100 to −10 mV is rapidly reduced in a time‐ and dose‐dependent manner by CNTF (0.01–20 ng ml−1). The maximal decrease is 25% after 10 min incubation in 2 ng ml−1 CNTF. There was no alteration in activation or inactivation kinetics, or in activation curves constructed from current–voltage relationships in the presence of CNTF. In contrast, the relative INa inhibition induced by CNTF is accompanied by a hyperpolarizing shift in the midpoint of the inactivation curves: −6 and −10 mV for the steady‐state fast and slow inactivation, respectively. Furthermore, CNTF induces a 5 mV hyperpolarization of the resting membrane potential of the fibres. The effects of CNTF are similar to those of 1‐oleoyl‐2‐acetyl‐sn‐glycerol (OAG), a protein kinase C (PKC) activator, when no effect is observed in the presence of chelerythrine, a PKC inhibitor. These results suggest that, in skeletal muscle, CNTF can rapidly decrease sodium currents by altering inactivation gating, probably through an intracellular PKC‐dependent mechanism that could lead to decreased membrane excitability. The present study contributes to a better understanding of the physiological role of endogenous CNTF.
The U1traSPARC T1: A Power-Efficient High-Throughput 32-Thread SPARC Processor

Throughput computing represents a new paradigm in processor design focusing on maximizing overall throughput of commercial workloads while addressing increasing demands for improved power and cooling in today's data centers. The first generation of "Niagara" SPARC processors implements a power-efficient chip multithreading (CMT) architecture, which combines eight 4-threaded 64 b cores, a high bandwidth interconnect crossbar, a shared 3 MB L2 Cache and four double-width DDR2 DRAM interfaces. Implemented in 90 nm CMOS technology, the 378 mm2 die consumes only 63 W at 1.2 GHz. The UltraSPARC Tl based systems are oriented to a wide variety of applications, including WebServers, data and application servers, Java applications, search, streaming video and Telco applications.
Determinants of Access to Legislative and Executive Branch Officials: Business Firms and Trade Policymaking in the U.S.

We examine the characteristics of business firms that gain access to legislative and executive branch officials in the trade policymaking area. Our empirical analysis of over 1200 manufacturers reveals that legislators were most attracted to firms with foreign market expertise, firms which actively participated in politics with outside lobbyists and campaign contributions, and firms with significant employment in the state and/or district. Executive branch officials were responsive to firms with foreign market expertise, firms from industries that had previously received tariff protection, firms using in-house government affairs specialists and outside lobbyists to convey information, and firms making campaign contributions to members of the trade oversight legislative committees. Our results largely support the political market framework and provide insights about the attractiveness of certain demanders to suppliers of trade policies from the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. federal government.
Memory Saving Feature Descriptor Using Scale and Rotation Invariant Patches around the Feature Ppoints

To expand the use of systems using a camera on portable devices such as tablets and smartphones, we have developed and propose a memory saving feature descriptor, the use of which is one of the essential techniques in computer vision. The proposed descriptor compares pixel values of pre-fixed positions in the small patch around the feature point and stores binary values. Like the conventional descriptors, it extracts the patch on the basis of the scale and orientation of the feature point. For memories of the same size, it achieves higher accuracy than ORB and BRISK in all cases and AKAZE for the images with textured regions. key words: image matching, feature descriptor, keypoints
Properties of inhibitory and excitatory synapses between hippocampal neurons in very low density cultures

The whole cell patch clamp technique was used to examine the electrophysiological properties of embryonic hippocampal neurons maintained in a very low density (VLD) culture prejparation. The goal of these experiments was to establish the viability of the VLD culture as a model system in which to study regulation of neurotransmission at single monosynaptic connections, in the absence of polysynaptic innervation. Depolarization of neurons in the VLD culture revealed voltage‐dependent sodium, calcium, and potassium currents which were blocked with, respectively, tetrodotoxin (TTX), cobalt, and tetraethylammonium and 4‐aminopyridine. When pairs of neurons were simultaneously recorded, action potentials evoked in presynaptic neurons elicited either excitatory or inhibitory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs or IPSCs, respectively). The dual component “EPSCs” were due to the activation of both types‐of postsynaptic, ionotropic glutamate receptors: N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) and non‐NMDA receptors. Evoked IPSCs were due to the activation of postsynaptic γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors. Both excitatory and inhibitory synapses exhibited short term depression in response to high frequency stimulation, although IPSCs were routinely decreased to a much greater degree than EPSCs. Spontaneous miniature EPSCs and IPSCs were found to persist in TTX, were blocked by the same pharmacological antagonists which blocked evoked responses, increased in frequency in response to hyperosmotic solution, and were unaffected by changes in extracellular calcium concentration. mIPSCS were found to occur at a significantly lower frequency than mEPSCs. These experiments indicated that neurotransmission in the VLD cultures occurs in a manner consistent with the quantal hypothesis and, therefore, the VLD culture is a good model for studying excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission between isolated pairs of neurons. In addition, these experiments, performed under comparable physiological conditions, demonstrated that there are fundamental differences underlying neurotransmitter release between excitatory and inhibitory neurons. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.