Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Useful Integration of Extra Nodes and the Leakage Current in Digital Circuits

VLSI circuit with higher performance and more functionality can cover wider cross-sections in applications. Designing such circuits requires additional peripherals and thus more nodes to be integrated with the mother circuit. Miniaturization of device channel length to sub-100nm dimension can allow high performance VLSI circuit design. However, such devices have a drawback of significantly higher leakage current. In VLSI circuit, an increase in number of node and leakage current leads to significant increase in its power dissipation. Over the past years, both at device, and circuit and system, level of design hierarchy, various guidelines have been proposed to address the issue. In this work, we have shown using simulations that despite the above facts, one can design economically ultra-low power digital circuits with extra nodes and such leakage current. CMOS inverter and SRAM cell while designed with our proposed technique results in 98.18% and 88.2 % reduction in static and writing power dissipation, respectively, as compared with their conventional design. The proposed technique also results in better noise margins in these circuits.
Linking fluctuations in rainfall to nonbreeding season performance in a long-distance migratory bird, Setophaga ruticilla

Research on long-distance migratory birds has yielded some of the strongest evidence that shifts in climate are changing ecosystem processes. Much of this work has focused on under- standing whether rising temperatures on temperate breeding grounds are advancing migration phe- nology and limiting reproductive success. However, conditions on tropical nonbreeding quarters can also shape these processes, yet few studies have directly measured bird responses to climate during this part of the annual cycle. We tested the hypothesis that variation in winter rainfall can influence food availability and the nonbreeding season performance of American redstarts Setophaga ruticilla occupying 2 contrasting habitats: wet, mangrove forest and dry, second-growth scrub. From 2002 to 2005, food availability, body mass, and spring departure schedules of birds in both habitats were highly dependent on rainfall. Food availability in mangrove forest was higher than in second-growth scrub in 3 out of 4 yr, allowing birds in this habitat to maintain better physical condition through the winter and depart earlier on spring migration. However, abundant rainfall in the spring of 2004 led to abnormally high food availability in scrub and early departure of birds in both habitats. These results suggest that rainfall on tropical wintering areas can have major effects on the nonbreeding season performance of migratory birds, and that the timing of rainfall within the dry season, not just the absolute amount, may be critical for orchestrating migratory departure schedules. Because rainfall in tropical regions is projected to decline drastically over the next 50 yr, migratory birds could face increasingly severe food shortages prior to spring migration. Such conditions could force departure schedules to become delayed and constrain adaptation to selection for earlier breeding in response to rising temperatures at breeding areas.
OpenStreetMap Street Graph Preparation Road Network Raster GAN Training Noise Image Road Network Raster Post-Processing Vector Road Network Patches Offline Stage Online Stage Generator Network Weights : Generator Weights : Generator

We propose a novel example-based approach for road network synthesis relying on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), a recently introduced deep learning technique. In a pre-processing step, we first convert a given representation of a road network patch into a binary image where pixel intensities encode the presence or absence of streets. We then train a GAN that is able to automatically synthesize a multitude of arbitrary sized street networks that faithfully reproduce the style of the original patch. In a post-processing step, we extract a graph-based representation from the generated images. In contrast to other methods, our approach does neither require domainspecific expert knowledge, nor is it restricted to a limited number of street network templates. We demonstrate the general feasibility of our approach by synthesizing street networks of largely varying style and evaluate the results in terms of visual similarity as well as statistical similarity based on road network similarity measures.
Measuring Volatility in Dairy Commodity Prices

The policy environment facing the EU dairy industry continues to undergo considerable change under WTO and CAP reform. Movement away from supply management by the EU and a more liberal global agricultural trading system will involve greater price volatility for dairy commodities. It is anticipated that EU dairy prices will more closely align with world prices. World prices are both lower and more volatile than EU prices and it is further assumed that this increased volatility will be transmitted to EU prices. Price volatility is a concern for a number of reasons as it adds challenges for business planning, debt repayment, and, in some cases, solvency. Representative EU and world butter and SMP (Skim Milk Powder) prices are considered and using the ARMA and GARCH framework their volatility is quantified.
V(CLV): Examining Variance in Models of Customer Lifetime Value

While accurate point estimation of customer lifetime value (CLV) has been the target of a large body of academic research, few have focused on the variance of CLV (V(CLV)), which represents the degree of uncertainty associated with a customer's expected CLV. This is ironic because academics have long known that V(CLV) is one of the most important characteristics that defines and differentiates customers from one another, affecting firms on many fundamental levels. No closed-form, forward-looking statistical procedures have been derived to estimate individual-level V(CLV). For the first time, the authors derive, predict, and validate V(CLV) using a powerful combination of stochastic models for the flow of transactions over time and the company's profit on each transaction. They provide these estimates for 561,100 customers of an omnichannel retailer tracked over a 2.25-year period, making this one of the largest-scale CLV analyses to date. They highlight the importance of V(CLV), analyze its relationship to observable summary statistics such as recency, frequency, and monetary value, and uncover many substantive variance-related insights regarding customer segmentation, scoring, targeting, and more.
Evaluation of different methods to estimate understorey light conditions in tropical forests

The suitability of several methods for estimating light conditions in the understorey of tropical forests, and of different sampling schedules was evaluated. Light conditions at 16 understorey sites in a Panamanian lowland forest were continuously measured for 9 mo with quantum sensors and photodiodes. Light conditions at the sites were also assessed indirectly with hemispherical fisheye photographs, plant canopy analysis, 38-mm photographs, 24-mm photographs and a spherical densiometer. Estimates from all indirect methods, except the spherical densiometer, were highly correlated with the direct measurements. Short-term direct light measurements for a day or a week also correlated with long-term light conditions. The indirect measures differed by up to c. 70% from the direct measures relative to single site measurements. Hence, the indirect methods are inadequate where single site light conditions have to be assessed accurately. However, because light conditions encountered in the understorey varied up to 13-fold, the indirect methods were found to be well suited to rank understorey light conditions among a large number of sites. The results from frequent and infrequent sampling schedules differed only slightly, suggesting that taking indirect measures at the beginning and the end of a study offers a reasonable compromise between accuracy and sampling effort.
Studying teamwork and team climate by using a business simulation. How communication and innovation can improve group learning and decision-making performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how dimensions related to teamwork and team climate can influence decision making and learning of teams (performance). In order to understand which factors are more effective, several relevant group and team characteristics drawn from classical literature on groups and more recent empirical team simulation research have been considered. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents the results of a longitudinal study carried out during four months. A total of 183 Italian participants, divided into 50 teams of three (n=24), four (n=19) and five (n=7) members, have been involved in a business game developed by several European savings banks and simulating a real stock market environment. The aim of each team is not only to earn virtual money, but also learning long-term strategies to develop profitable investments without losing sight of economic factors. Findings – Based on literature review, the authors tested three group levels (intragroup relations level, self-member level and group-design level) by making three hypotheses concerning the teams involved in the simulation and investigated the communication and innovation (CI) dimension from the Italian version of the team climate inventory (TCI) by Ragazzoni et al. A correlation between team performance and CI was found (r=0.301 p=0.048), which is in line with the hypothesis that such factors as communication and support for innovation can affect the decision-making performance. Originality/value – The results presented in the paper let practitioners understand which dynamics characterize teamwork activities and how such aspects as communication and support for innovation can lead to group learning and decision-making performance. The simulation used in this research is an empirical way to study team performance and group learning without other noise variables.
Removal of Unwanted Hand Gestures using Motion Analysis

This work presents an effective method for hand gesture recognition under non-static background conditions and removal of certain unwanted gestures from the video. For this purpose, we have developed a new approach which mainly focuses on the motion analysis of hand. For the detection and tracking of hand, we have made some small innovations in the existing methods, while for recognition, the local and the global motion of the detected hand region is analyzed by using optical flow. The system is initially trained for a gesture and the motion pattern of the hand for that gesture is identified. This pattern is associated with this gesture and is searched for in the test videos. The system thoroughly trained and tested on 20 videos, filmed on 4 different people, reported a success rate of 90%.
Optimal conditions for freezing CHO‐S and HEK293‐EBNA cell lines: Influence of Me2SO, freeze density, and PEI‐mediated transfection on revitalization and growth of cells, and expression of recombinant protein

To avoid the time consuming, labor intensive seed‐train expansion and to improve production reliability and consistency, portions of bulk cryopreserved cells from the same cultivation can be utilized as inocula or alternatively may be used to undertake transient transfections for large‐scale bioreactor production. In this study, the conditions for large‐scale freezing in cryobags were optimized utilizing a design of experiment approach. We showed that relatively high density of 30–40 × 106 cells/mL and relatively low Me2SO concentrations of 5–6% in the freezing media are optimal to freeze HEK293‐EBNA and CHO‐S cells in a controlled manner in order to achieve high viable cell recovery and growth post‐thawing. The immediate transfer of freshly thawed cells into culture medium resulted in better cell growth compared to cells that were centrifuged in order to remove Me2SO. This was the case as long as the residual Me2SO did not exceed 0.2–0.3%. The best time to perform transient 25 kDa polyethylenimine‐mediated transfection of pCEP4‐EGFP plasmid into freshly thawed, one‐step inoculated cells is after 72–96 h in culture. At this time point, the numbers of EGFP‐positive cells in the freshly thawed culture mimic perfectly that of cells grown continuously. Finally, our data showed that it is possible to freeze transiently polyethyleneimine‐transfected HEK293‐EBNA cells and maintain growth rate and expression of recombinant protein following thawing. The optimal time point for freezing cells was 4 h after transfection. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2008;100: 911–922. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Comparison of Three Methods to Estimate Plasma Bicarbonate in Critically Ill Patients: Henderson-Hasselbalch, Enzymatic, and Strong-Ion-Gap

We have previously found poor agreement between Henderson-Hasselbalch and enzymatic methods for estimating plasma bicarbonate concentration in critically ill patients. In this study we compared these two established methods with a new method for estimating bicarbonate using the strong-ion-gap equation. The strong-ion-gap is derived from the Stewart approach to acid-base physiology. One hundred data sets were collected from records of routine daily blood samples in critically ill patients. Bland-Altman analyses were used to compare the three methods. We proposed that bias greater than ±1 mmol/l and limits of agreement wider than bias ±2 mmol/l were clinically important. Comparing the Henderson-Hasselbalch method to the enzymatic method, the bias was 2.1 mmol/l and the limits of agreement were -1.8 mmol/l to 5.9 mmol/l. Comparing the Henderson-Hasselbalch method to the strong-ion-gap method, the bias was -9.1 mmol/l and the limits of agreement were -17.1 mmol/l to -1.1 mmol/l. Comparing the enzymatic to the strong-ion-gap method, the bias was -11.2 mmol/l and the limits of agreement were -18.2 mmol/l to -4.2 mmol/l. This study found poor agreement between the two established bicarbonate assays and worse agreement between the established assays and the strong-ion-gap method. The strong-ion-gap method is currently too inaccurate for clinical application, but may have future use.
Language Mapping Using fMRI and Direct Cortical Stimulation for Brain Tumor Surgery: The Good, the Bad, and the Questionable

Abstract Language functional magnetic resonance imaging for neurosurgical planning is a useful but nuanced technique. Consideration of primary and secondary language anatomy, task selection, and data analysis choices all impact interpretation. In the following chapter, we consider practical considerations and nuances alike for language functional magnetic resonance imaging in the support of and comparison with the neurosurgical gold standard, direct cortical stimulation. Pitfalls and limitations are discussed.
Put: language-based interactive manipulation of objects

Our approach to scene generation capitalizes the expressive power of natural language by separating its aptness in specifying spatial relations from the difficulties of understanding text. We are implementing an object-placement system called Put that uses a combination of linguistic commands and direct manipulation. The system is language-based, meaning that its design and structure are guided by natural language. Our approach (inspired by research in cognitive linguistics) is to analyze the natural use of spatial relations, define a well-understood class of fundamental relationships, and gradually build a coherent and natural spatial-manipulation system. Just a few simple spatial relationships, such as in, on, and at, parameterized by a limited number of environmental variables can provide comfortable object manipulation. These natural commands can be used to quickly prototype a complex scene and constrain object placement. We believe that we have an extensible, predictable, and computationally feasible environment for object manipulation. We have focused first on spatial relationships because they are fundamental to many conceptual domains beyond object placement, including motion and time. These particular domains are very important to areas of computer graphics such as animation. Uses of spatial relationships in these areas can be quite complex. We briefly introduce the complexities of understanding spatial relations and summarize related work. Then we describe the core of the Put placement system, followed by its linguistic, procedural, and interactive interfaces. We conclude by discussing future enhancements to the system.
Discretionary Accruals Behavior of Iranian Distressed Firms

The present study attempts to determine the earnings management behavior of Iranian firms prior to filing for bankruptcy. The hypotheses of this study posit that failing firms have particular discretionary accruals behavior. For this purpose, a sample composing of 68 bankrupt firms and 68 non-bankrupt firms (matched in terms of firms’ industry and size) were selected and the magnitude of discretionary accruals in a period of 5 years prior to bankruptcy for each firm was examined. The results suggested that: first, during the distressed period, failing firms were more engaged in earnings management than nonfailing firms were. Particularly, the earning management procedure in these firms was clearly evident in three years before bankruptcy. Second, discretionary accruals reached their highest level one year before bankruptcy. Finally, and most importantly, failing firms used decreasing earnings management, i.e. distressed firms used accruals for the understatement of income figures.
The Effects Of Cross-Border Bank Mergers And Acquisitions On The Productivity Of Credit Institutions

The purpose of the current research is to study bank mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and to see whether they have implications on the productivity of the target banks, and also for the bidder bank. The aim of this paper is to see if, during 2002-2008 period, three banks from the European banking system, Banca Comerciala Romana from Romania, Slovenskasporiteľňa from Slovakia and Erste Bank Group from Austria improved their productivity due to the fact that all of them were involved in a process of cross-border merger or acquisitions, even if the bank is the purchaser or the target. To reach our goal, we used DEA method, by estimating the productivity achieved by these three banks during the period pre-M&A, post M&A, but we also estimated the productivity for entire period of seven years. Using Malquist DEA method, we show that, on average, the merger or acquisition in which a bank was involved improved the Total Factor Productivity of all analyzed banks.
Healthcare funding: Rare diseases, a priority? AIM's proposals

About 5000 to 7000 rare diseases are recognised. These life-threatening or chronically debilitating diseases are complex and have low prevalence – defined as 2 not more than 5 people affected per 10000 – so general knowledge and expertise about them can be limited. The limited number of patients affected by rare diseases also makes research difficult and potentially unattractive for the pharmaceutical industry. People affected by rare diseases can have difficulties in getting local diagnoses, in referral to suitably specialised health professionals who may be abroad, and in getting good information about their disease in their own language. In some countries or health systems the socio-medical coverage may not be welladapted. These are some of the reasons why a ‘European’ approach – which includes cooperation and coordination – is needed, wanted and supported by all concerned parties and actors in the health sector. Affordability and financial access to specific treatments represent a major challenge for national health systems as well as affected patients and their families. Due to legislation in several continents to encourage the development of drugs for rare diseases, the number of registered socalled ‘orphan drugs’ is increasing and recent statistics show that the costs of such orphan drugs are increasing exponentially. Improving the financial affordability of tremendously high cost individual treatments remains a real challenge and AIM sees here a new opportunity for action at EU level.
Derivatives of Moloney murine sarcoma virus capable of being transcribed in embryonal carcinoma stem cells have gained a functional Sp1 binding site

The long terminal repeat (LTR) sequences of Moloney murine leukemia virus and its closely related derivative Moloney murine sarcoma virus (Mo-MSV) are incapable of directing transcription in embryonal carcinoma (EC) stem cells. The myeloproliferative sarcoma virus, a derivative of Mo-MSV, has several point mutations in the LTR and is transcribed more efficiently to allow productive infection of F9 EC cells. One of these mutations, at -166 with respect to the transcriptional start, creates a consensus binding site for the well-characterized mammalian transcription factor Sp1. We used gel retardation assays to demonstrate that F9 EC cell extracts form several complexes with the myeloproliferative sarcoma virus sequence around -166. One of these complexes involves a murine Sp1-like protein, which has immunoreactivity, DNA binding specificity, and electrophoretic mobility equivalent to those of purified human Sp1 protein. An equivalent complex forms on the corresponding Mo-MSV sequence but with a fivefold-lower affinity. Consistent with these observations, introduction of the single point mutation at -166 into the Mo-MSV LTR, creating a consensus Sp1 binding site, increases expression in F9 EC cells sixfold.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Universal Design for Learning Intervention in Postsecondary Education.

To date, a mere handful of studies have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of providing training to university instructors on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the impact this training has on student outcomes, especially for students with disabilities. While these studies offer some useful data, their results may be considered inconclusive because they did not use control groups and therefore had no comparative data regarding outcomes in courses where UDL was not implemented. This paper, which builds on a study published by these authors in a previous issue of JPED (Schelly, Davies, & Spooner, 2011), responds to the gap in the literature by measuring the effectiveness of instructor training regarding the principles of UDL and techniques for its implementation. It does so by comparing student perceptions of instructor teaching methods, as measured by a UDL questionnaire, completed before and after the instructors received UDL training and by comparing those results to a control group of students taking the same course in a different section where instructors did not receive UDL training.