Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase Error Accumulation Methodology for On-Chip Cell Characterization

This paper describes the design of new method of propagation delay measurement in micro and nanostructures during characterization of ASIC standard library cell. Providing more accuracy timing information about library cell to the design team we can improve a quality of timing analysis inside of ASIC design flow process. Also, this information could be very useful for semiconductor foundry team to make correction in technology process. By comparison of the propagation delay in the CMOS element and result of analog SPICE simulation. It was implemented as digital IP core for semiconductor manufacturing process. Specialized method helps to observe the propagation time delay in one element of the standard-cell library with up-to picoseconds accuracy and less. Thus, the special useful solutions for VLSI schematic to parameters extraction, basic cell layout verification, design simulation and verification are announced. Keywords—phase error accumulation methodology, gate propagation delay, Processor Testing, MEMS Testing
Popular Culture and Geography Education

According to a range of commentators, school life is becoming increasingly marginal to how young people inform, present and position themselves as social actors. This suggests that the 'geographical imaginations' of the students taught in schools are largely shaped outside of the classroom, through television, films, travel and consumption. This paper offers some reflections on the implications of such a 'cultural pedagogy' for school geography. It discusses the erosion of the boundaries between schooling and popular culture and the ways in which geography has traditionally been suspicious of popular knowledges. The paper considers the potential of recent work in cultural geography to develop a geography education that engages with popular culture, and goes on to discuss the type of pedagogy that might be suited to such a task.
Success effort and other statistics for performance comparisons in genetic programming

This paper looks at the statistics used to compare variations to the genetic programming method. Previous work in this area has been dominated by the use of mean best-of-run fitness and Koza's minimum computational effort. This article re-introduces a statistic we name success effort and analyses two methods to produce confidence intervals for the statistic. We then compare success effort and four other performance measures and conclude that success effort is a sometimes more powerful statistic than computational effort and a more desirable measure than the other statistics.
Irreducibility to the One-More Evaluation Problems: More May Be Less

For a random-self-reducible function, the evaluation problem is irreducible to the one-more evaluation problem, in the following sense. An irreduction algorithm exists that, given a reduction algorithm from the evaluation to the one-more evaluation problem, solves a separator problem: the evaluation problem itself. Another irreduction shows that if the computational Diffie-Hellman problem is reduced to the gap Diffie-Hellman problem, then the decision DiffieHellman problem is easy. Irreductions are primarily of theoretical interest, because they do not actually prove inequivalence between problems. What these irreductions suggest, though, is that one-more variants of the RSA and discrete logarithm problems may be easier than the standard variants, and that the gap Diffie-Hellman problem may be easier than the standard Diffie-Hellman problem.
A stochastic approach for clustering in object bases

Object clustering has long been recognized as important to the performance of object bases, but in most work to date, it is not clear exactly what is being optimized or how optimal are the solutions obtained. We give a rigorous treatment of a fundamental problem in clustering: given an object base and a probabilistic description of the expected access patterns, what is an optimal obJect clustering, and how can this optimal clustering be found or approximated? We present a system model for the clustering problem and discuss two models for access patterns in the system. For the first, exact optimal clustering strategies can be found; for the second, we show that the problem is NP-complete, but that it is an instance of a well-studied graph partitioning problem. We propose a new clustering algorithm based upon Kernighan’s heuristic graph partitioning algorithm, and present a preliminary experimental comparison of this new clustering algorithm with several previously proposed clustering algorithms.
Parameterized Complexity of Optimal Planning: A Detailed Map

The goal of this paper is a systematic parameterized complexity analysis of different variants of propositional STRIPS planning. We identify several natural problem parameters and study all possible combinations of 9 parameters in 6 different settings. These settings arise, for instance, from the distinction if negative effects of actions are allowed or not. We provide a complete picture by establishing for each case either paraNP-hardness (i.e., the parameter combination does not help) or W[t]-completeness with t ∈ {1, 2} (i.e., fixed-parameter intractability), or FPT (i.e., fixed-parameter tractability).
Efficacy of Silver Diamine Fluoride for Arresting Caries Treatment

Arresting Caries Treatment (ACT) has been proposed to manage untreated dental caries in children. This prospective randomized clinical trial investigated the caries-arresting effectiveness of a single spot application of: (1) 38% silver diamine fluoride (SDF) with tannic acid as a reducing agent; (2) 38% SDF alone; (3) 12% SDF alone; and (4) no SDF application in primary teeth of 976 Nepalese schoolchildren. The a priori null hypothesis was that the different treatments have no effect in arresting active cavitated caries. Only the single application of 38% SDF with or without tannic acid was effective in arresting caries after 6 months (4.5 and 4.2 mean number of arrested surfaces; p < 0.001), after 1 year (4.1 and 3.4; p < 0.001), and after 2 years (2.2 and 2.1; p < 0.01). Tannic acid conferred no additional benefit. ACT with 38% SDF provides an alternative when restorative treatment for primary teeth is not an option.
Effects of mannanoligosaccharide and fructooligosaccharide on the response of broilers to pathogenic Escherichia coli challenge

1. The effects of mannanoligosaccharide (MOS, Bio-Mos, Alltech Inc.) on the growth performance and digestive system, particularly gut microflora, were tested and compared with fructooligosaccharide (FOS, Raftilose P95, Orafti) using 1-d-old birds in an Escherichia coli challenge model. The experiment lasted for 3 weeks and zinc bacitracin (ZnB) was used as a positive control. 2. Dietary MOS had positive effects on body weight gain (BWG) or/and feed conversion efficiency (FCE) of the challenged birds compared to the negative control at the end of weeks 1 and 3. Similar results were obtained for ZnB treatment. In contrast, FOS supplementation improved only the BWG of the challenged birds at 21 d of age. Within the unchallenged birds, a large improvement in BWG was noticed for FOS treatment at the end of the experiment, with the BWG of birds on ZnB and MOS treatments being intermediate. The FCE of the unchallenged birds was not affected by the dietary additives. 3. The addition of MOS reduced the number of mucosa-associated coliforms in the jejunum of the challenged birds on d 7. On d 21, FOS tended to increase the number of jejunal mucosa-associated lactobacilli in both the challenged and unchallenged birds. The number of Clostridium perfringens in the gut lumen was reduced by only ZnB. 4. Dietary MOS reduced the jejunal crypt depth of birds on d 7, regardless of the challenge. The FOS supplement did not affect the gut morphology, however, the concentration of lactic acid in the ileum was increased and, depending on the challenge, the intestinal pH was decreased by FOS at different ages. 5. In conclusion, the effects of MOS or FOS on the composition and activities of gut microflora and mucosal morphology of birds were related to E. coli challenge as well as the age of birds, which may be involved in the observed different growth-improving effects of the tested dietary additives.
Java applet on computation of thermodynamic properties of steam and R134a refrigerant

This paper describes the application of Java programming on the computation of thermodynamic properties of steam and the HFC‐134a, 1,1,1,2‐tetrafluoroethane (R134a) refrigerant through the Java applets. The Java applets can compute thermodynamic properties of steam and R134a refrigerant, such as specific volume, internal energy, enthalpy, and entropy in the phases of saturated mixture, compressed liquid, and superheated vapor. The calculated values are accurate compared to the standard reference properties tables for steam and refrigerant. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 11: 211–225, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.10049
The role of Finance Information Systems in anti financial corruptions: A theoretical review

In recent years, computerization and anti corruption were attracting a lot of attention around the world. Many governments have worked to fight corruptions in their actions. This paper intends to provide a better understanding of the Finance Information Systems (FISs) and their impact on fighting financial corruptions in the public sector. In a number of nations, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have received considerable attention as convenient means to reduce corruption. But FISs have not been widely considered, although it has been used in many prominent efforts to reduce corruption. The paper explores academic and non-academic literature. First, it explores the theoretical background of the concepts; corruption and the coalition of anti-corruption. Second, we illustrate the existing information of FISs and the effort to build it. An examples of some FISs are given, which contribute significantly in reducing financial corruption in different countries. This paper concludes that the financial information systems can become one of the key components of a broader anti corruption strategy.
A single-stage single-switch transformerless buck-buck converter with constant input power factor in the entire operational range

A single-stage single-switch (S4) converter integrating a buck-type power factor correction (PFC) cell and a buck-type dc-dc output cell is presented in this paper. The most attractive feature of the proposed S4 converter is that, its input power factor (PF) always keeps in constant even when the input voltage and the load change. Besides, the proposed converter also preserves the advantages of those existent S4 converters, such as the low voltage stress across the intermediate capacitor, low current stress of the switch and high step-down output voltage. These advantages make it cost-efficient and highly suitable for the low power and non-isolated applications. In this paper, the operational modes and circuit design are given, and a prototype is also built to show the validity of the analysis.
Uniform Detection in Social Image Streams

Social media mining from Internet has been an emerging research topic. The problem is challenging because of massive data contents from various sources, especially image data from user upload. In recent years, dictionary learning based image classification has been widely studied and gained significant success. In this paper, we propose a framework for automatic detection of interested uniforms in image streams from social networks. The systems is composed of a powerful feature extraction module based on dense SIFT feature and a state-of-the-art discriminative dictionary learning approach. Beside that, a parallel implementation of feature extraction is deployed to make the system work real time. An extensive set of experiments has been conducted on four real-life datasets. The experimental results show that we can obtain the detection rate up to 100% on some datasets. We also get real time performance with a speed of image stream of about 40 images per second. The framework can be applied to emerging applications such as uniform detection, automated image tagging, content base image retrieval or online advertisement based on image content.
Stuck data, dead data, and disloyal data: the stops and starts in making numbers into social practices

Indicators with long social histories, such as the Consumer Price Index, often serve as nodes of calculative infrastructures. They create a field of social action, making some relations between people, institutions, and materials possible, and other relations less possible. By reflecting on two experiments in do-it-yourself sensor data, this article explores the tensions that occur when indicators have not yet become stable entities. When the conditions of possibility for the indicator's continued existence are less assured, the labor it takes to build numbers into something socially meaningful becomes surprisingly visible. This labor proceeds in stops and starts, as the various material and epistemological and social resistances reveal themselves. Sensors shape these starts and stops. Sensors give their users an indication of a possible whole entity whose contents they cannot fully imagine, and either must create or abandon. Far from producing certainty, sensor data often provokes a sense of vagueness that is worked on until it becomes either clarity or action, failure or indifference. Through this view of numbers in the making, we can see just how remarkable it is that indicators become part of calculative infrastructures at all.
Rethink Targeting: Detect 'Smart Cheating' in Online Advertising through Causal Inference

In online advertising, one of the central questions of ad campaign assessment is whether the ad truly adds values to the advertisers. To measure the incremental effect of ads, the ratio of the success rates of the users who were and who were not exposed to ads is usually calculated to represent ad effectiveness. Many existing campaigns simply target the users with high predicted success (e.g. purchases, searches) rate, which often neglect the fact that even without ad exposure, the targeted group of users might still perform the success actions, and hence show higher ratio than the true ad effectiveness. We call such phenomena `smart cheating'. Failure to discount smart cheating when assessing ad campaigns may favor the targeting plan that cheats hard, but such targeting does not lead to the maximal incremental success actions and results in wasted budget. In this paper we define and quantify smart cheating with a smart cheating ratio (SCR) through causal inference. We apply our approach to multiple real ad campaigns, and find that smart cheating exists extensively and can be rather severe in current advertising industry.
Under fives counselling – opportunities for growth, change and development for children and parents

This paper presents a transformative approach to understanding and working with the problems of early childhood. The approach takes as its starting point the recognition that the most enduring outcomes in clinical work involve a shift not only in the behaviour of the child but also a change in the parents' perspective of themselves and their personal history. Parents are perceived as ‘growing into their own childhood’ at the critical point that they become parents. The paper describes through clinical examples how the common problems of early childhood such as sleeping, feeding, toileting and behavioural problems can be conceptualized as zonal, geographic and task confusions that throw light on the interactive nature of the relationship between young children and their parents. The paper, written by a child psychotherapist working in Australia, goes on to reflect on the implications of separation, loss and trauma from the perspective of a country founded by indigenous Aborigines and migrants from many cul.
Handling feature interactions in process-planning

Abstract The development of a successful approach to the integration of computer-aided design and computer-aided process-planning will require solutions to several fundamental problems in planning and geometric reasoning. In this article, we consider two such problems, both of which arise from interactions among machinable features. The first problem is that interactions can lead to several alternative interpretations of what the machinable features are. We address this problem by developing an algebra of features. The second problem is that interactions among features can cause problems in optimizing the process plans. For this problem, we have developed a branch-and-bound optimization algorithm with good heuristics to guide the search. This article presents the theory and mathematical framework for both problems and also the details of the implementation and experimental results.
Whose dying? A sociological critique of the 'good death'

This paper aims to describe and analyse the ideology of the 'good death'; an ideology central to the modern hospice movement and underpinning many of the challenges to the medical management of dying and death. The development of the concept of the 'good death' will be traced from the work of the French historian, Aries, through the influential writings of Kubler-Ross, to the contemporary contributions within the sociology of dying and death. The good death concept now holds a diversity of definitions and meanings that unify around the ideal of dying with dignity, peacefulness, preparedness, awareness, adjustment and acceptance. The paper has as a central concern the dominance of the 'good death' ideology, leading to the labelling of 'good' and 'bad' patients, and consequent attempts by caregivers to shape the lives of dying people. This paper suggests that the ideology of the good death legitimates a new form of social control within which socially approved dying and death are characterized by proscribed.
White matter abnormalities in bipolar disorder: a voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging study.

OBJECTIVES In bipolar disorder (BD), dysregulation of mood may result from white matter abnormalities that disrupt fronto-subcortical circuits. In this study, we explore such abnormalities using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), an imaging technique capable of detecting subtle changes not visible with conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and voxel-based analysis. METHODS Thirty-six patients with BD, all but two receiving antidepressants or mood stabilizers, and 28 healthy controls matched for age and gender were studied. Diffusion-weighted echoplanar images (DW-EPI) were obtained using a 1.5T scanner. Voxel-based analysis was performed using SPM 2. Differences between the groups in mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy (FA) were explored. RESULTS In the patient group, mean diffusivity was increased in the right posterior frontal and bilateral prefrontal white matter, while FA was decreased [corrected] in the inferior, middle temporal and middle occipital regions. The areas of increased mean diffusivity overlapped with those previously found to be abnormal using volumetric MRI and magnetization transfer imaging (MTI) in the same group of patients. CONCLUSIONS White matter abnormalities, predominantly in the fronto-temporal regions, can be detected in patients with BD using DTI. The neuropathology of these abnormalities is uncertain, but neuronal and axonal loss, myelin abnormalities and alterations in axonal packing density are likely to be relevant. The neuroprotective effects of some antidepressants and mood stabilizers make it unlikely that medication effects could explain the abnormalities described here, although minor effects cannot be excluded.
Implementing Panel-Corrected Standard Errors in R: The pcse Package

Time-series - cross-section (TSCS) data are characterized by having repeated observations over time on some set of units, such as states or nations. TSCS data typically display both contemporaneous correlation across units and unit level heteroskedasity making inference from standard errors produced by ordinary least squares incorrect. Panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) account for these these deviations from spherical errors and allow for better inference from linear models estimated from TSCS data. In this paper, we discuss an implementation of them in the R system for statistical computing. The key computational issue is how to handle unbalanced data.
Aquaporin-4 Autoantibodies in Neuromyelitis Optica: AQP4 Isoform-Dependent Sensitivity and Specificity

Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease, characterized by the presence of autoantibody (NMO-IgG) to Aquaporin-4 (AQP4). NMO-IgG identification supports NMO diagnosis and several diagnostic tests have been developed, but their sensitivity is too variable, and some assay show low sensitivity. This impairs correct diagnosis of NMO. By cell based assay (CBA) we here evaluate the efficacy of different strategies to express AQP4 in mammalian cells in terms of: a) AQP4 translation initiation signals; b) AQP4 isoforms (M1 and M23) and fluorescent tag position; c) NMO serum concentration and AQP4 degradation. Our results demonstrate that when using AQP4-M1, the nucleotide in position −3 of the AUG greatly affects the AQP4-M1/M23 protein ratio, NMO-IgG binding, and consequently test sensitivity. Test sensitivity was highest with M23 expressing cells (97.5%) and only 27.5% with AQP4-M1. The fluorescent tag added to the N-terminus of AQP4-M23 considerably affected the NMO-IgG binding, and test sensitivity, due to disruption of AQP4 suprastructures. Furthermore, sera used at high concentration resulted in AQP4 degradation which affected test sensitivity. To further evaluate the reliability of the M23 based CBA test, samples of one NMO patient collected during about 2 years clinical follow-up were tested. The results of serum titer correlated with disease activity and treatment response. In conclusion, we provide a molecular explanation for the contrasting CBA test data reported and suggest the use of M23 with a C-terminus fluorescent tag as the proper test for NMO diagnosis.
'It's Pretty Difficult to Fail': The reluctance of lecturers to award a failing grade

Graduates from initial teacher education institutions in New Zealand are assumed to be fit to take up positions as beginning teachers. To this end lecturers make judgements at various stages during the teacher education programme about the quality of student performance with regard to coursework and teaching practice. Findings from a field-based project at a large metropolitan college of education in New Zealand revealed that making such judgements was not a straightforward activity. In particular, there was a reluctance to award failing grades. The college's published guidelines referred to the passing and failing of courses and the programme as dependent on the quality of submitted work or demonstrated performance. The everyday discourse and observed practice of lecturers and student teachers suggested, however, that both groups construed a fail grade as a judgement of personal worth. This shift from judgements about performance to judgements about personal worth was associated with the utilisation of criteria other than those outlined in published documents. The use of 'other' criteria enabled positive judgements to be made about students who did not meet course requirements and/or whose work failed to meet the minimum standard. Lecturers thus appeared to be reluctant to act as gatekeepers to an initial beginning teacher position.