Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A 4.2-mW 77.1-dB SNDR 5-MHz BW DT 2-1 MASH $\Delta \Sigma $ Modulator With Multirate Opamp Sharing

This paper presents a discrete time 2-1 MASH Delta-Sigma ( $\Delta \Sigma )$ modulator with multirate opamp sharing for analog-to-digital converters, targeting the optimization of power efficiency in active blocks, such as opamps and quantizers. Through the allocation of different settling times to the opamps and by adopting the multirate technique, the power of the shared opamps is utilized more efficiently, and the 4-b successive approximation register quantizer and the data weighted averaging block in the first stage enjoy additional operation time. Moreover, a detailed analysis and related simulations are presented to validate the enhanced opamp power efficiency in the proposed sharing scheme. The 65-nm CMOS experimental chip running at multirate 120/240 MHz achieves a mean signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) of 77.1 dB for a 5-MHz bandwidth, consuming 4.2 mW from a 1.2 V supply and occupying 0.066-mm2 core area. It exhibits a Walden figure of merit (FoM) of 69.7 fJ/conv-step and a Schreier FoM of 167.9 dB based on SNDR.
Map-matching for low-sampling-rate GPS trajectories

Map-matching is the process of aligning a sequence of observed user positions with the road network on a digital map. It is a fundamental pre-processing step for many applications, such as moving object management, traffic flow analysis, and driving directions. In practice there exists huge amount of low-sampling-rate (e.g., one point every 2--5 minutes) GPS trajectories. Unfortunately, most current map-matching approaches only deal with high-sampling-rate (typically one point every 10--30s) GPS data, and become less effective for low-sampling-rate points as the uncertainty in data increases. In this paper, we propose a novel global map-matching algorithm called ST-Matching for low-sampling-rate GPS trajectories. ST-Matching considers (1) the spatial geometric and topological structures of the road network and (2) the temporal/speed constraints of the trajectories. Based on spatio-temporal analysis, a candidate graph is constructed from which the best matching path sequence is identified. We compare ST-Matching with the incremental algorithm and Average-Fréchet-Distance (AFD) based global map-matching algorithm. The experiments are performed both on synthetic and real dataset. The results show that our ST-matching algorithm significantly outperform incremental algorithm in terms of matching accuracy for low-sampling trajectories. Meanwhile, when compared with AFD-based global algorithm, ST-Matching also improves accuracy as well as running time.
Extensive Gene Diversity in Septicemic Escherichia coli Strains

ABSTRACT Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli strains (ExPEC) are the cause of a diverse spectrum of invasive infections in humans and animals, and these infections often lead to septicemia. Strains of serogroups O2 and O78 of E. coli are involved in human urinary tract infections and newborn meningitis and also constitute the major serotypes involved in avian colisepticemia. In the present study we compared the unique genomic sequences of two such septicemic strains, strains O2-1772 and O78-9, obtained by suppression subtractive hybridization. Evaluation of the degree of similarity between these two strains, which cause the same disease, revealed a high degree of diversity, with only a few shared genes. Subsequently, additional strains of each serogroup of human and animal origin were screened by PCR, and the results provided further evidence for the existence of a high degree of genome plasticity. These results were unexpected, in view of data showing that the two O157:H7 strains that have been sequenced are nearly identical in terms of virulence factors. Furthermore, the data obtained for the septicemic strains suggest that each step in the infection can be mediated by a number of alternative virulence factors, indicating the existence of a mix-and-match combinatorial system. Although whole-genome comparisons of E. coli strains causing different diseases have shown great differences in gene contents, we show that such differences exist even within strains that cause the same disease and that target the same host tissues. Moreover, in addition to the high level of genome plasticity, we show that the large pool of virulence genes in the septicemic strains is independent of the host, implying a high degree of zoonotic risk.
Biomarker capturing platform using LC-ESI/MS/MS coupled aptamer microarray

The sensitive detection of molecular biomarkers in clinical samples is crucially important in disease diagnosis. In this study, we propose and develop aptamer microarray platform combined with novel sol-gel technology to identify low abundance targets from complex solution, such as serum. Due to nanoporous structure of sol-gel, it entraps a large number of active aptamers and allows aptamers to bind target molecules with high sensitivity. TBP (TATA Box Protein) and their specific aptamers (aptamer #12 and #24) were chosen for a model system to a proof of concept. Broad ranges of sensing capability (from few nM to mM) with good linearity up to 400 nM were shown in our aptamer microarray platform by sandwich assay. Moreover, TBP protein can be identified by ESI/MS, electrospray mass spectrometry on the platform.
Collegiality in Business Schools: Development of a Collegiality Measure and Evaluations of its Implications.

Purpose – While collegiality is often discussed and touted as a critical aspect of academia, there is little research that empirically examines collegiality in university business schools. One cause of the paucity of research is the lack of a reliable scale to measure collegiality (Sabharwal, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale that measures collegiality at the departmental level for university faculty, and then uses it to understand the implications of collegiality within an academic department within a business school. Design/methodology/approach – The present study uses a scale development process consisting of: defining the domain of the construct; item generation; and psychometric assessment of the scale’s reliability and validity. Items were adapted for a university business school context from Shah (2011) and Seigel and Miner-Rubino (2009). The scale was administrated using a convenience non-random sample design drawn from active marketing and entrepreneurship academics who subsc.
Absorptive capacity: Valuing a reconceptualization

Zahra and George (2002) suggested a reconceptualization of the absorptive capacity construct in order to reduce ambiguity in empirical studies. A rereading of the seminal Cohen and Levinthal (1990) article in light of current research on learning and innovation directs our attention to serious ambiguities and omissions in Zahra and George's reconceptualization. We suggest a reintroduction of “recognizing the value,” an alternative understanding of “transformation,” a clarification of “potential absorptive capacity,” an elaboration of the impact of socialization mechanisms, an investigation of the role of “power relationships,” and an inclusion of feedback loops in a dynamic model of absorptive capacity.
Stable Feedback Structure for NonlinearAdaptive Filtering and Identi cationAli

|This paper proposes a feedback structure for the design of l 2-stable algorithms for nonlinear adaptive lter-ing and identiication, and establishes explicit connections between classical schemes in IIR modeling and more recent results in H 1-theory. In particular, two algorithms due to Feintuch (1976) and Landau (1979), as well as the so-called pseudo-linear regression and Gauss-Newton algorithms, are discussed within the framework proposed herein. Additional examples and simulation results are included to illustrate the applicability of the approach to several nonlinear scenarios .
Increased vasoconstriction predisposes to hyperpnea and postural faint.

Our prior studies indicated that postural fainting relates to splanchnic hypervolemia and thoracic hypovolemia during orthostasis. We hypothesized that thoracic hypovolemia causes excessive sympathetic activation, increased respiratory tidal volume, and fainting involving the pulmonary stretch reflex. We studied 18 patients 13-21 yr old, 11 who fainted within 10 min of upright tilt (fainters) and 7 healthy control subjects. We measured continuous blood pressure and heart rate, respiration by inductance plethysmography, end-tidal carbon dioxide (ET(CO(2))) by capnography, and regional blood flows and blood volumes using impedance plethysmography, and we calculated arterial resistance with patients supine and during 70 degrees upright tilt. Splanchnic resistance decreased until faint in fainters (44 +/- 8 to 21 +/- 2 mmHg.l(-1). min(-1)) but increased in control subjects (47 +/- 5 to 53 +/- 4 mmHg.l(-1). min(-1)). Percent change in splanchnic blood volume increased (7.5 +/- 1.0 vs. 3.0 +/- 11.5%, P < 0.05) after the onset of tilt. Upright tilt initially significantly increased thoracic, pelvic, and leg resistance in fainters, which subsequently decreased until faint. In fainters but not control subjects, normalized tidal volume (1 +/- 0.1 to 2.6 +/- 0.2, P < 0.05) and normalized minute ventilation increased throughout tilt (1 +/- 0.2 to 2.1 +/- 0.5, P < 0.05), whereas respiratory rate decreased (19 +/- 1 to 15 +/- 1 breaths/min, P < 0.05). Maximum tidal volume occurred just before fainting. The increase in minute ventilation was inversely proportionate to the decrease in ET(CO(2)). Our data suggest that excessive splanchnic pooling and thoracic hypovolemia result in increased peripheral resistance and hyperpnea in simple postural faint. Hyperpnea and pulmonary stretch may contribute to the sympathoinhibition that occurs at the time of faint.
Comparison of superimposed pilot schemes in iterative receivers for OFDM systems

Pilot-aided techniques are classically used to accomplish channel estimation in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. However, those pilots occupy an important bandwidth which could have been allocated to data instead. Superimposed pilots have been proposed as substitutes to classical pilots and showed that with properly designed receivers, they are able to provide a satisfactory performance in terms of channel estimation and BER. Recently, a data nulling superimposed pilot (DNSP) scheme for OFDM has been proposed where interference from data on channel estimation is completely eliminated. This proposal motivated us to initiate a comprehensive comparison study between the classical superimposed pilot (CSP) scheme and the DNSP scheme. First, we address the channel estimation and bit error rate (BER) performance of the two schemes. We then provide a complexity comparison in terms of complex multiplications required by each scheme. Finally, insights about the channel capacity for each scheme are provided. Simulation results reveal that the CSP scheme has a faster convergence while the DNSP scheme has a better BER performance at the cost of higher complexity.
A Transcultural Wisdom Bank in the Classroom: Making Cultural Diversity a Key Resource in Teaching and Learning

This article presents an account of how the author has made cultural diversity a powerful pedagogical resource for teaching rather than a burden. It is suggested that such an approach can deliver real educational benefits, rather than simply being a protocol to meet the requirements of “political correctness” or commercial imperatives. The issues addressed include how and why the author (a) mobilises cultural diversity and a comparative perspective in her curriculum; (b) proposes the notion of a “transcultural wisdom bank”; (c) brings cultural diversity into students’ active learning, which is achieved with intellectual depth and personal engagement; and (d) demonstrates with a learning infrastructure of group work and a “super-structure” of cultural contrasts to generate surprises and provoke new thoughts and discovery.
Using the PyMOL application to reinforce visual understanding of protein structure

Visualization of chemical concepts can be challenging for many students. This is arguably a critical skill for beginning students of biochemistry to develop, since new information is often presented visually in the form of textbook figures. It is recommended that visual literacy be explicitly taught in the classroom rather than assuming that students will develop this skill on their own. The activity described here is designed to assist students in their development of understanding of basic representations of protein three‐dimensional structure as well as various types of ligands (small molecules, ions) through the use of the iPad application PyMOL. It has been used as a laboratory exercise but can also be used in a typical 50‐minute class period with a portion of the activity assigned as homework. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 44(5):433–437, 2016.
Psychological reactions to Israeli occupation: Findings from the national study of school-based screening in Palestine

Children exposed to violent war-like and repeated political violence often experience a continued threat to life and their sense of safety, as well as a disruption of daily functioning. The purpose of the study was to examine the psychological impact of exposure to Israeli occupation on Palestinian school children in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestine. We assessed the association between exposure to occupation and the severity of posttraumatic symptoms and the inter-relationship between posttraumatic symptoms, functional impairment, somatic complaints, and coping strategies in school children. Palestinian students (n = 2100) from grades 9—11 were screened from both the West Bank (n = 1235) and Gaza (n = 724) and responded to self-report questionnaires. Results showed that extensive exposure to violence was associated with higher levels of posttraumatic distress and more somatic complaints in both the West Bank and Gaza regions. More Gaza than West bank students reported symptoms meeting the criteria for PTSD, and more girls than boys in both groups reported somatic complaints. Thus, school-based screening can be an effective method for case identification of students showing PTSD symptoms as a result of exposure to political violence.
Early parenting and the urban experience: risk, community, play and embodiment in an East London neighbourhood

This article will critically examine theories of risk – referred to in this article as ‘pro-risk’ – as applied to parenting cultures in the UK through a case study of early years parenting, based in Walhamstow, East London. Common to all of these theories is an assertion that children are over-parented – a product of economic, social and cultural changes such as the decline of community as well as theories of child-centred parenting. Through the close examination of two examples where risk and community were contested, the article will argue that missing from these theories is an understanding of the embodiments of early years parenting, which underpin the way that parents handle the tensions between risk and development. Further, that parents sought to militate against isolation and the decline of community through local parenting networks.
Mini‐review: The nuclear protein HMGB1 as a proinflammatory mediator

The intranuclear architectural protein that is termed high mobility group box chromosomal protein 1 (HMGB1) was recently identified as a potent proinflammatory mediator when present extracellularly. HMGB1 has been demonstrated to be a long‐searched‐for nuclear danger signal passively released by necrotic, as opposed to apoptotic, cells that will induce inflammation. Furthermore, HMGB1 can also be actively secreted by stimulated macrophages or monocytes in a process requiring acetylation of the molecule, which enables translocation from the nucleus to secretory lysosomes. Subsequenttransport out of the cells depends on a secretion signal mediated by either extracellular lysophophatidyl‐choline or ATP. HMGB1 passively released from necrotic cells and HMGB1 actively secreted byinflammatory cells are thus molecularly different. Extracellular HMGB1 acts as a cytokine by signaling via the receptor for advanced glycated end‐products and via members of the Toll‐like receptor family. The initiated inflammatory responses include the production of multiple cytokines, chemoattraction of certain stem cells, induction of vascular adhesion molecules and impaired function of intestinalepithelial cells. Therapeutic administration of HMGB1 antagonists rescues mice from lethal sepsis, even when initial treatment is delayed for 24 h after the onset of infection, establishing a clinically relevant therapeutic window that is significantly wider than for other known cytokines.
Separation of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Paf1 Complex from RNA Polymerase II Results in Changes in Its Subnuclear Localization

ABSTRACT The yeast Paf1 complex (Paf1C), composed of Paf1, Ctr9, Cdc73, Rtf1, and Leo1, associates with RNA polymerase II (Pol II) at promoters and in the actively transcribed portions of mRNA genes. Loss of Paf1 results in severe phenotypes and significantly reduced levels of the other Paf1C components. In contrast, loss of Rtf1 causes relatively subtle phenotypic changes and no reduction in the other Paf1C factors but disrupts the association of these factors with Pol II and chromatin. To elucidate the fate of the Paf1C when dissociated from Pol II, we examined the localization of the Paf1C components in paf1 and rtf1 mutant yeast strains. We found that although the Paf1C factors remain nuclear in paf1 and rtf1 strains, loss of Paf1 or Rtf1 results in a change in the subnuclear distribution of the remaining factors. In wild-type cells, Paf1C components are present in the nucleoplasm but not the nucleolus. In contrast, in both paf1 and rtf1 strains, the remaining factors are found in the nucleolus as well as the nucleoplasm. Loss of Paf1 affects nucleolar function; we observed that expression of MAK21 and RRP12, important for rRNA processing, is reduced concomitant with an increase in rRNA precursors in a paf1 strain. However, these changes are not the result of relocalization of the Paf1C because loss of Rtf1 does not cause similar changes in rRNA processing. Instead, we speculate that the change in localization may reflect a link between the Paf1C and newly synthesized mRNAs as they exit the nucleus.
A Motion-from-Form Mechanism Contributes to Extracting Pattern Motion from Plaids

Since the discovery of neurons selective for pattern motion direction in primate middle temporal area MT (Albright, 1984; Movshon et al., 1985), the neural computation of this signal has been the subject of intense study. The bulk of this work has explored responses to plaids obtained by summing two drifting sinusoidal gratings. Unfortunately, with these stimuli, many different mechanisms are similarly effective at extracting pattern motion. We devised a new set of stimuli, obtained by summing two random line stimuli with different orientations. This allowed several novel manipulations, including generating plaids that do not contain rigid 2D motion. Importantly, these stimuli do not engage most of the previously proposed mechanisms. We then recorded the ocular following responses that such stimuli induce in human subjects. We found that pattern motion is computed even with stimuli that do not cohere perceptually, including those without rigid motion, and even when the two gratings are presented separately to the two eyes. Moderate temporal and/or spatial separation of the gratings impairs the computation. We show that, of the models proposed so far, only those based on the intersection-of-constraints rule, embedding a motion-from-form mechanism (in which orientation signals are used in the computation of motion direction signals), can account for our results. At least for the eye movements reported here, a motion-from-form mechanism is thus involved in one of the most basic functions of the visual motion system: extracting motion direction from complex scenes. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Anatomical considerations led to the proposal that visual function is organized in separate processing streams: one (ventral) devoted to form and one (dorsal) devoted to motion. Several experimental results have challenged this view, arguing in favor of a more integrated view of visual processing. Here we add to this body of work, supporting a role for form information even in a function—extracting pattern motion direction from complex scenes—for which decisive evidence for the involvement of form signals has been lacking.
Subjective Invulnerability, Risk Behavior, and Adjustment in Early Adolescence

The current study investigated whether invulnerability manifests with adaptive and maladaptive outcomes during early adolescence. We sampled 248 (53% female; 63% Caucasian; [ X ¯ ] age = 13 . 2 years) early adolescents on the Adolescent Invulnerability Scale (AIS), and measures of drug use, delinquency, depressive symptoms, and mastery and coping. The AIS demonstrated a two-factor structure, which captured whether adolescents felt invulnerable to danger or psychological risks. Danger Invulnerability positively predicted delinquency and drug use. Conversely, Psychological Invulnerability negatively predicted depressive symptoms but positively predicted mastery and coping. These results suggest that felt invulnerability leads to both benefits and risks for early adolescents. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Incoherent Quantum Control

Conventional approaches for controlling open quantum systems use coherent control which affects the system's evolution through the Hamiltonian part of the dynamics. Such control, although being extremely efficient for a large variety of problems, has limited capabilities, e.g., if the initial and desired target states have density matrices with different spectra or if a control field needs to be designed to optimally transfer different initial states to the same target state. Recent research works suggest extending coherent control by including active manipulation of the non-unitary (i.e., incoherent) part of the evolution. This paper summarizes recent results specifically for incoherent control by the environment (e.g., incoherent radiation or a gaseous medium) with a kinematic description of controllability and landscape analysis.
A simple set of numerical invariants for the analysis of images

A new invariant, which captures some of the perceptual and conceptual features in an image is introduced. The effectiveness of the invariant is demonstrated empirically through applications to images. It is shown that extraneous objects in a texture environment can be detected and parts of a single image with distinct structural features are distinguished and separated. The invariants are not sensitive to local perturbations. Changes in the lighting or the orientation do not reduce their effectiveness. The method is based on the variation of local statistical properties of a single image and makes no use of memory or training. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 16, 240–248, 2006
Elaborating a conceptual model of young children's risk of unintentional injury and implications for prevention strategies

Abstract Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for young children. Although much research has identified risk factors for injury, integrating these findings into conceptual models that can guide prevention efforts has been limited. In this paper, we draw on empirical evidence to develop a conceptual model of injury risk and highlight the important role that causal attributions play in explaining parents’ decisions about whether or not to implement safety practices to prevent childhood injury. Implications of the model for injury-prevention programming are discussed.