Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A PND (PMOS-NMOS-Depletion MOS) Type Single Poly Gate Non-Volatile Memory Cell Design with a Differential Cell Architecture in a Pure CMOS Logic Process for a System LSI

A novel PND (PMOS-NMOS-Depletion MOS) technology for a single poly gate non-volatile memory cell design has been reported for the first time. This technology features memory cell design with a differential cell architecture which enables to provide the higher performance for the key specifications such as programming time, erasing time, and endurance characteristics. This memory cell consists of 3-Transistors, PMOS, NMOS, and Depletion MOS transistors (hereafter PND). The DMOS in this cell is used for the tunneling device in the erasing operation, while the NMOS and the PMOS are used for the tunneling device and the coupling capacitor in the programming operation, respectively. The proposed PND design can allow lower applied voltage of the erase-gate (EG) and control-gate (CG) in the erasing and the programming operations so that the endurance characteristics can be improved because the DMOS suppresses the potential of floating-gate (FG) and hence the effective potential difference between the EG and the FG can be increased in the erasing operation. Based on the measured data, it can be expected that the erasing speed of the PND cell can be 125-fold faster than that of our previously reported work (PN type). Therefore, high performance and high reliability CMOS non-volatile memory without any additional process can be realized using this proposed PND technology.
Is Genetic Evolution Predictable?

Ever since the integration of Mendelian genetics into evolutionary biology in the early 20th century, evolutionary geneticists have for the most part treated genes and mutations as generic entities. However, recent observations indicate that all genes are not equal in the eyes of evolution. Evolutionarily relevant mutations tend to accumulate in hotspot genes and at specific positions within genes. Genetic evolution is constrained by gene function, the structure of genetic networks, and population biology. The genetic basis of evolution may be predictable to some extent, and further understanding of this predictability requires incorporation of the specific functions and characteristics of genes into evolutionary theory.
Formation Models in Static and Dynamic Social Networks

We study models of opinion formation on static as well as dynamic networks where interaction among individuals is governed by widely accepted social theories. In particular, three models of competing opinions based on distinct interaction mechanisms are studied. A common feature in all of these models is the existence of a tipping point in terms of a model parameter beyond which a rapid consensus is reached. In the first model that we study on a static network, a node adopts a particular state (opinion) if a threshold fraction of its neighbors are already in that state. We introduce a few initiator nodes which are in state ‘1’ in a population where every node is in state ‘0’. Thus, opinion ‘1’ spreads through the population until no further influence is possible. Size of the spread is greatly affected by how these initiator nodes are selected. We find that there exists a critical fraction of initiators pc that is needed to trigger global cascades for a given threshold φ. We also study heuristic strategies for selecting a set of initiator nodes in order to maximize the cascade size. The structural properties of networks also play an important role in the spreading process. We study how the dynamics is affected by changing the clustering in a network. It turns out that local clustering is helpful in spreading. Next, we studied a model where the network is dynamic and interactions are homophilic. We find that homophily-driven rewiring impedes the reaching of consensus and in the absence of committed nodes (nodes that are not influenceable on their opinion), consensus time Tc diverges exponentially with network size N . As we introduce a fraction of committed nodes, beyond a critical value, the scaling of Tc becomes logarithmic in N . We also find that slight change in the interaction rule can produce strikingly different scaling behaviors of Tc. However, introducing committed agents in the system drastically improves the scaling of the consensus time regardless of the interaction rules considered. Finally, a three-state (leftist, rightist, centrist) model that couples the dynamics of social balance with an external deradicalizing field is studied. The mean-field
A Simply Stabilized Running Model

The spring-loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP), or monopedal hopper, is an archetypal model for running in numerous animal species. Although locomotion is generally considered a complex task requiring sophisticated control strategies to account for coordination and stability, we show that stable gaits can be found in the SLIP with both linear and ``air'' springs, controlled by a simple fixed-leg reset policy. We first derive touchdown-to-touchdown Poincare maps under the common assumption of negligible gravitational effects during the stance phase. We subsequently include and assess these effects and briefly consider coupling to pitching motions. We investigate the domains of attraction of symmetric periodic gaits and bifurcations from the branches of stable gaits in terms of nondimensional parameters.
A probabilistic model to assess surface irrigation water resources.

This paper outlines a probabilistic modeling proposal of the components and processes involved in surface water availability and demand of an irrigation system of Chile’s central zone. The objective is aimed to develop a methodology for field water balance studies oriented to optimize available water resources allocation. The model includes relevant variables related to soil, crop, water availability, climatic data and hydraulic infrastructure. Hydrologic modeling tools are used for estimating water availability, describing time and spatial variation of surface water resources. A probability distribution model is applied for estimating flow rates associated to occurrence probabilities. Also, atime and spatial model for water requirements for the irrigation system studied has been developed,calculating different probabilities of excedence based on the Penman-Monteith equation, recently adopted and recommended by the FAO for the calculation of the reference crop evapotranspiration.The simulation model developed, is used both to obtain a better knowledge about the irrigation systemactual situation and its water supply confidence, as well as for the evaluation of future situations and alternatives to promote the efficient use of water resources and optimize surface water availability. Este trabajo describe una propuesta metodologica para modelar en forma probabilistica los componentes y procesos involucrados en la disponibilidad de agua superficial y la demanda hidrica para sistemas de riego en la zona central de Chile. El objetivo fue desarrollar una metodologia para estudiar el balance hidrico en campos agricolas que permita optimizar la asignacion del agua disponible. Con este proposito se desarrollo un modelo de distribucion probabilistica que estimo los flujos hidricos asociados a probabilidades de ocurrencia. Asimismo, se desarrollo un modelo espacial y temporal para simular los requerimientos hidricos de los cultivos, que permitio calcular las probabilidades de excedencia basadas en el modelo Penman–Monteith sugerido por la FAO. El modelo incluyo las caracteristicas fisico-hidricas de los suelos, la evolucion temporal de los requerimientos hidricos de la vid ( Vitis vinifera ), la variabilidad temporal y espacial de los recursos hidricos disponibles y de la demanda evaporativa de la atmosfera, asi como las capacidades fisicas de la infraestructura hidraulica disponible. El modelo de simulacion desarrollado en este trabajo se utilizo para evaluar la situacion actual y la seguridad de riego en vinedos (Alto Jahuel, Region Metropolitana, Chile), y para evaluar futuros escenarios y alternativas de inversiones en nuevos equipos de riego mecanico y en nuevas plantaciones para promover el uso eficiente de los recursos hidricos y para optimizar la disponibilidad de agua superficial. El modelo obtenido permitio decidir la superficie maxima que la empresa puede plantar con nuevos vinedos, decidir las inversiones alternativas en nuevos equipos de riego, con una consideracion probabilistica de diferentes escenarios de disponibilidad de recursos de agua.
Improved Prediction of Gestational Age in the Late Third Trimester

A variety of formulas have been published for predicting GA in the second and third trimesters. We assessed these formulas for the presence of systematic errors. Our study population consisted of 1036 obstetrical sonograms at 14 to 42 weeks' gestation in patients with highly accurate dating based on a prior first trimester scan. Most formulas had mean errors (mean value of the difference between predicted and true GA) of no more than 1 week between 14 and 38 weeks' gestation. At 38 to 42 weeks, however, all formulas had large systematic underestimation biases, with mean negative errors in the range of 1.6 to 3 weeks. By regressing ln(GA) against one or more measurements, we developed new formulas that eliminate this underestimation bias, with mean errors of no more than 0.6 week throughout the entire 14 to 42 week period. As with current formulas, however, our formulas have wide 95% confidence ranges of +/‐ 3 weeks or greater at 38 to 42 weeks as a result of inherent biological variability. We recommend the use of these formulas in clinical practice, as they may prevent errors in diagnosis late in pregnancy.
Dialysis Software Architecture Design Experiences

In this paper we present the experiences and architecture from a research project conducted in cooperation with two industry partners. The goal of the project was to reengineer an existing system for haemo dialysis machines into a domain specific software architecture [22]. Our main experiences are (1) architecture design is an iterative and incremental process, (2) software qualities require a context, (3) quality attribute assessment methods are too detailed for use during architectural design, (4) application domain concepts are not the best abstractions, (5) aesthetics guides the architect in finding potential weaknesses in the architecture, (6) it is extremely hard to decide when an architecture design is ready, and (7) documenting software architectures is a important problem. We also present the architecture and the design rational to give a basis for our experiences. We evaluated the resulting architecture by implementing a prototype application.
Induction of vesicular steatosis by amiodarone and tetracycline is associated with up‐regulation of lipogenic genes in heparg cells

Drug‐induced liver injury occurs in general after several weeks and is often unpredictable. It is characterized by a large spectrum of lesions that includes steatosis and phospholipidosis. Many drugs such as amiodarone and tetracycline have been reported to cause phospholipidosis and/or steatosis. In this study, acute and chronic hepatic effects of these two drugs were investigated using well‐differentiated human hepatoma HepaRG cells. Accumulation of typical lipid droplets, labeled with Oil Red O, was observed in hepatocyte‐like HepaRG cells after repeat exposure to either drug. Amiodarone caused the formation of additional intracytoplasmic vesicles that did not stain in all HepaRG cells. At the electron microscopic level, these vesicles appeared as typical lamellar bodies and were associated with an increase of phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine. A dose‐dependent induction of triglycerides (TG) was observed after repeat exposure to either amiodarone or tetracycline. Several genes known to be related to lipogenesis were induced after treatment by these two drugs. By contrast, opposite deregulation of some of these genes (FASN, SCD1, and THSRP) was observed in fat HepaRG cells induced by oleic acid overload, supporting the conclusion that different mechanisms were involved in the induction of steatosis by drugs and oleic acid. Moreover, several genes related to lipid droplet formation (ADFP, PLIN4) were up‐regulated after exposure to both drugs and oleic acid. Conclusion: Our results show that amiodarone causes phospholipidosis after short‐term treatment and, like tetracycline, induces vesicular steatosis after repeat exposure in HepaRG cells. These data represent the first demonstration that drugs can induce vesicular steatosis in vitro and show a direct relationship between TG accumulation and enhanced expression of lipogenic genes. (HEPATOLOGY 2011;)
Combinatorial optimization method with search strategy based on hierarchical interpretation of solution space

A "basin of attraction" is a set of solutions arriving at the same local optimal solution by Best-improvement Local Search. By utilizing the concept of basin of attraction in the solution space of combinatorial optimization problem, the solution space is interpreted as a higher structure, which is a set of basin of attraction, and a lower structure, which is a set of solutions, in this paper. Based on the hierarchical interpretation of the solution space, which consists of the higher structure and the lower structure, and basic strategy in metaheuristics, an optimization method with search strategy to find a basin of attraction to which superior local optimal solution belongs is proposed. The search performance of this method was evaluated through numerical experiments using benchmark problems. In addition, the search situation and influence on search by parameter of this method are considered.
Exploiting Spatial Redundancy of Image Sensor for Motion Robust rPPG

Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) techniques can measure cardiac activity by detecting pulse-induced color variations on human skin using an RGB camera. State-of-the-art rPPG methods are sensitive to subject body motions (e.g., motion-induced color distortions). This study proposes a novel framework to improve the motion robustness of rPPG. The basic idea of this paper originates from the observation that a camera can simultaneously sample multiple skin regions in parallel, and each of them can be treated as an independent sensor for pulse measurement. The spatial redundancy of an image sensor can thus be exploited to distinguish the pulse signal from motion-induced noise. To this end, the pixel-based rPPG sensors are constructed to estimate a robust pulse signal using motion-compensated pixel-to-pixel pulse extraction, spatial pruning, and temporal filtering. The evaluation of this strategy is not based on a full clinical trial, but on 36 challenging benchmark videos consisting of subjects that differ in gender, skin types, and performed motion categories. Experimental results show that the proposed method improves the SNR of the state-of-the-art rPPG technique from 3.34 to 6.76 dB, and the agreement (±1.96σ) with instantaneous reference pulse rate from 55% to 80% correct. ANOVA with post hoc comparison shows that the improvement on motion robustness is significant. The rPPG method developed in this study has a performance that is very close to that of the contact-based sensor under realistic situations, while its computational efficiency allows real-time processing on an off-the-shelf computer.
Rapid comparison of properties on protein surface

The mapping of physicochemical characteristics onto the surface of a protein provides crucial insights into its function and evolution. This information can be further used in the characterization and identification of similarities within protein surface regions. We propose a novel method which quantitatively compares global and local properties on the protein surface. We have tested the method on comparison of electrostatic potentials and hydrophobicity. The method is based on 3D Zernike descriptors, which provides a compact representation of a given property defined on a protein surface. Compactness and rotational invariance of this descriptor enable fast comparison suitable for database searches. The usefulness of this method is exemplified by studying several protein families including globins, thermophilic and mesophilic proteins, and active sites of TIM β/α barrel proteins. In all the cases studied, the descriptor is able to cluster proteins into functionally relevant groups. The proposed approach can also be easily extended to other surface properties. This protein surface‐based approach will add a new way of viewing and comparing proteins to conventional methods, which compare proteins in terms of their primary sequence or tertiary structure. Proteins 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Brainstem auditory-evoked potentials in two meditative mental states

Context: Practicing mental repetition of “OM” has been shown to cause significant changes in the middle latency auditory-evoked potentials, which suggests that it facilitates the neural activity at the mesencephalic or diencephalic levels. Aims: The aim of the study was to study the brainstem auditory-evoked potentials (BAEP) in two meditation states based on consciousness, viz. dharana, and dhyana. Materials and Methods: Thirty subjects were selected, with ages ranging from 20 to 55 years (M=29.1; ±SD=6.5 years) who had a minimum of 6 months experience in meditating “OM”. Each subject was assessed in four sessions, i.e. two meditation and two control sessions. The two control sessions were: (i) ekagrata, i.e. single-topic lecture on meditation and (ii) cancalata, i.e. non-targeted thinking. The two meditation sessions were: (i) dharana, i.e. focusing on the symbol “OM” and (ii) dhyana, i.e. effortless single-thought state “OM”. All four sessions were recorded on four different days and consisted of three states, i.e. pre, during and post. Results: The present results showed that the wave V peak latency significantly increased in cancalata, ekagrata and dharana, but no change occurred during the dhyana session. Conclusions: These results suggested that information transmission along the auditory pathway is delayed during cancalata, ekagrata and dharana, but there is no change during dhyana. It may be said that auditory information transmission was delayed at the inferior collicular level as the wave V corresponds to the tectum.
Meeting the Cool Neighbors. II. Photometry of Southern NLTT Stars

We present BVRI photometry of 180 bright, southern nearby-star candidates. The stars were selected from the New Luyten Two-Tenths proper-motion catalog based on optical/infrared colors, constructed by combining Luyten's mr estimates with near-infrared photometry from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Photometric parallaxes derived from V-Ks, V-I, and I-J colors, combined with the limited available astrometry, show that as many as 108 stars may lie within 20 pc of the Sun. Of these, 53 are new to nearby-star catalogs, including three within 10 pc of the Sun.
A new sodium/hydrogen exchange inhibitor, EMD 85131, limits infarct size in dogs when administered before or after coronary artery occlusion.

Administration of inhibitors of the Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE) have been shown to produce cardioprotective effects in a number of animal models of ischemia-reperfusion injury; however, controversy still exists as to the efficacy of these agents when administered just before reperfusion. To address this question, the efficacy of several doses of a new selective NHE-1 isoform inhibitor (IC50 for inhibition of 22Na uptake in NHE-1 expressing mouse fibroblast cells = 10.4 +/- 1.0 nM), EMD 85131 (2-methyl-5-methylsulfonyl-1-(1-pyrrollyl)-benzoyl-guanidine), was tested in a canine infarct model in which the left anterior descending coronary artery was occluded for 60 min followed by 3 hr of reperfusion. EMD 85131 (0.75 or 3.0 mg/kg) was infused for 15 min before left anterior descending occlusion or 15 min before reperfusion. Infarct size was determined by use of the triphenyltetrazolium chloride histochemical stain and was expressed as a percent of the area at risk. EMD 85131 (0.75 or 3.0 mg/kg) administered before left anterior descending occlusion produced a marked (*P < .05) and dose-related reduction in IS/AAR (24.3 +/- 3.6, control; 9.3 +/- 3.4%, EMD 0.75; 6.4 +/- 2.3%, EMD 3.0). These two doses of EMD also produced significant (*P < .05) reductions in infarct size/area at risk (12.2 +/- 2.1%, EMD 0.75; 13.0 +/- 2.9%, EMD 3.0) when administered 15 min before reperfusion. These results suggest that selective NHE-1 inhibitors are able to markedly reduce infarct size when given before or during ischemia and also suggest that these compounds may have clinical utility when administered after the initiation of an ischemic insult.
Academic Dishonesty in Online Education.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY IN ONLINE LEARNING Wren Allen Mills July 20,2010 This dissertation examined cheating attitudes and behaviors of undergraduates, especially those enrolled in online courses. While cheating is an established problem within the academy, it is also an issue on the job and has been in the spotlight in recent years, with ethics scandals in corporate America and plagiarism in the media. With this in mind, and the foundational philosophy of the Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education (Bureau of Education, 1928) and the American Council on Education's (1937) Student Personnel Point of View, this study sought insight into students' attitudes about cheating behaviors and practices of them in online courses in comparison with students in face-toface courses. A unique study design enabled examination of these ideas. In this deception study, a convenience sample of participants in face-to-face and online general education courses consented to a study on testing formats in online learning. They answered 18 items querying background information, took a 10-question reading quiz over an original topic, and answered 49 items about attitudes toward cheating and cheating behaviors. To mimic the drive for a good grade and encourage participants to do their best, the researcher offered a chance at a $400 incentive to those who scored high on the quiz. On the quiz, participants could answer only 7 of the 10 open-ended questions using the
The Role of Traditional Cardiovascular Risk Factors Among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective People with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared with the general population. We investigated the relative contribution of traditional cardiovascular risk factors to this elevated risk. Methods Fifty RA subjects and 150 age and sex matched controls attended a cardiovascular risk assessment clinic betweenMarch and July 2006. Traditional cardiovascular risk factors and the absolute risks of CVD (calculated from application of a Framingham risk equation) were compared between the 2 groups. Results Compared with the controls, RA subjects were more likely to smoke (p < 0.001), be physically inactive (p = 0.006), and have higher mean measurements of body mass index (p = 0.040) and waist circumference (p = 0.049). No significant differences were found in mean levels of plasma lipid or glucose, or in the prevalences of diabetes and hypertension. Overall, the mean absolute risk of CVD was higher in the RA group, even after excluding smokers (p = 0.036). Conclusion Smoking and physical inactivity are important risk factors in the management of cardiovascular risk among patients with RA. Subjects with RA seem to have higher absolute risks of CVD compared with controls, even independently of smoking. This highlights the importance of treating all modifiable risk factors in those with RA although, individually, few may be conspicuous.