Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statistical analysis of on-chip power grid networks by variational extended truncated balanced realization method

In this paper, we present a novel statistical analysis approach for large power grid network analysis under process variations. The new algorithm is very efficient and scalable for huge networks with a large number of variational variables. This approach, called varETBR for variational extended truncated balanced realization, is based on model order reduction techniques to reduce the circuit matrices before the variational simulation. It performs the parameterized reduction on the original system using variation-bearing subspaces. varETBR calculates variational response Gramians by Monte-Carlo based numerical integration considering both system and input source variations for generating the projection subspace. varETBR is very scalable for the number of variables and is flexible for different variational distributions and ranges as demonstrated in experimental results. After the reduction, Monte-Carlo based statistical simulation is performed on the reduced system and the statistical responses of the original system are obtained thereafter. Experimental results, on a number of IBM benchmark circuits [15] up to 1.6 million nodes, show that the varETBR can be 4500X faster than the Monte-Carlo method and is much more scalable than one of the recently proposed approaches.
Structure and Functional Diversity of GCN5-Related N-Acetyltransferases (GNAT)

General control non-repressible 5 (GCN5)-related N-acetyltransferases (GNAT) catalyze the transfer of an acyl moiety from acyl coenzyme A (acyl-CoA) to a diverse group of substrates and are widely distributed in all domains of life. This review of the currently available data acquired on GNAT enzymes by a combination of structural, mutagenesis and kinetic methods summarizes the key similarities and differences between several distinctly different families within the GNAT superfamily, with an emphasis on the mechanistic insights obtained from the analysis of the complexes with substrates or inhibitors. It discusses the structural basis for the common acetyltransferase mechanism, outlines the factors important for the substrate recognition, and describes the mechanism of action of inhibitors of these enzymes. It is anticipated that understanding of the structural basis behind the reaction and substrate specificity of the enzymes from this superfamily can be exploited in the development of novel therapeutics to treat human diseases and combat emerging multidrug-resistant microbial infections.
ERK1/2 phosphorylation, induced by electromagnetic fields, diminishes during neoplastic transformation

It has been suggested that electromagnetic (EM) fields can act as co‐promoters during neoplastic transformation. To examine this possibility, we studied the effects of 0.8‐, 8‐, 80‐, and 300‐μT 60‐Hz electromagnetic (EM) fields in INITC3H/10T1/2 mouse fibroblast cells. These cells are transformed carcinogenically by methylcholanthrene, but the neoplastic phenotype can be suppressed indefinitely by the presence of retinyl acetate (RAC) in the culture medium. The effects of EM field exposures were examined at three stages: (1) before initiation of transformation (i.e., RAC in the culture media); (2) early in the transformation process (4 days after withdrawal of RAC); and (3) at full of neoplastic transformation (10 days after withdrawal of RAC). EM field exposures induced significant increases in protein levels for hsp70 and c‐Fos and in AP‐1 binding activity. EM fields induced phosphorylation of MAPK/ERK1/2 before the onset of transformation, but these increases diminished during the transformation process. No phosphorylation in the other major extracellular stress pathway, SAPK/JNK, was detected in cells exposed to EM fields at any time before, during, or after neoplastic transformation. Human cells HL60, MCF7, and HTB124, exposed to EM fields, also showed MAPK/ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Cells treated with the phorbol ester, TPA, served as positive controls for AP‐1 activation, c‐Fos protein synthesis, and ERK1/2 phosphorylation. There was no indication that EM fields affected the rate of cell transformation or acted as a co‐promoter, under the conditions of this study. J. Cell. Biochem. 78:371–379, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Review of multidrug‐resistant and extensively drug‐resistant TB: global perspectives with a focus on sub‐Saharan Africa

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global emergency and is responsible for 1.7 million deaths annually. Widespread global misuse of isoniazid and rifampicin over three decades has resulted in emergence of the ominous spread of multidrug‐resistant TB (MDR‐TB) and extensively drug‐resistant TB (XDR‐TB) globally. These difficult to treat resistant forms of TB are increasingly seen in Asia, Eastern Europe, South America and sub‐Saharan Africa, disrupting TB and HIV control programmes. We review the latest available global epidemiological and clinical evidence on drug‐resistant TB in HIV‐infected and uninfected populations, with focus on Africa where data are scanty because of poor diagnostic and reporting facilities. The difficult management and infection control problems posed by drug‐resistant TB in HIV‐infected patients are discussed. Given the increasing current global trends in MDR‐TB, aggressive preventive and management strategies are urgently required to avoid disruption of global TB control efforts. The data suggest that existing interventions, public health systems and TB and HIV programmes must be strengthened significantly. Political and funder commitment is essential to curb the spread of drug‐resistant TB.
Investigation of optical processes in InGaN-based light-emitting diodes using electroreflectance and photocurrent spectroscopies

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are considered as the most promising candidate for the next-generation lighting. They are also widely used as backlight units (BLU) for displays and light sources for various other applications. To extend the range of applications of the LEDs, the improvement of the LED performance is required. Since LEDs are optoelectronics devices that convert the electrical power into the optical power, the understanding of how photons generated in LEDs behave is most important. In this paper, we have investigated the optical processes in InGaN-based LEDs using electroreflectance (ER) and photocurrent (PC) spectroscopies. We have chosen some factors that affects the optical transition in LEDs and performed the ER and PC spectroscopies by changing those factors.
Neoclassical Models of Endogenous Growth : The E ff ects of Fiscal Policy , Innovation and Fluctuations

Despite its role as the centerpiece of modern growth theory, the Solow model is decidedly silent on some of its basic questions: Why is average growth in per capita income so much higher now than it was 200 years ago? Why is per capita income so much higher in the member countries of the OECD than in the less developed countries (LDC) of the world? The standard implementation of the Solow model really has no answers for these questions except, perhaps for differences, across time and across countries in the production possibility set. This is typically summarized by differences in Total Factor Productivity (TFP). The fundamental reasons for why TFP might be different in different countries, or in different time periods is left open for speculation. If these differences are supposed to be due to differences in innovations, it is not made clear why access to these innovations should be different, nor is it noted that these innovations themselves are economic decisions they have costs and beneÞts, and are made by optimizing, private agents. This basic weakness in the Solow model (and its followers) was the driving force behind the development of the class of endogenous growth models. This literature has been wide and varied, with the models developed ranging from perfectly competitive, convex models to ones featuring a range of types of market failures (e.g., increasing returns, external effects, imperfectly competitive behavior by Þrms, etc.). But, a common feature that has been emphasized throughout is knowledge, or human capital, and its production and dissemination. In come cases, this has been
GPU Acceleration of Integer Wavelet Transform for TIFF Image

In publishing and printing of network version field, there are enormous number of TIFF format (CMYK) images which requires too huge space for storing and enough bandwidth for transmitting. Therefore, common need to manipulate huge amount of data brought about the issue of fast lossless compression. 2D integer wavelet transform can be used for lossless compression of static image, such as, 5/3 lifting wavelet is lossless compression of JEPG2000. Today, Multi-core (dual, four or eight cores) CPU technology help to accelerate wavelet transform speed. However, current multi-more is limit for acceleration. In this article, it presents acceleration of 2D integer wavelet transform by CUDA. Using of the NVIDIA graphics processor unit (GPU), multiple thread parallelization give attractive features than traditional CPU computation. Under the dual cores CPU and the CUDA device, the article accelerates HARR and 5/3 lifting wavelet on TIFF format images. For HARR wavelet, analysis and comparison have been done for original image matrix and matrix of transform result. which indicates adjacent four pixels of original image matrix can directly construct the corresponding four pixels of transform result. In addition, the adjacent four pixels have nothing to do with other pixels of transform result. Therefore, parallel HARR wavelet transform can be achieved by CUDA, the unit of kernel is based on four pixels. For 5/3 lifting wavelet, there are four groups of experiments, each of group have two kinds CUDA memory method(global and texture memory). Therefore, there are eight experiments. Firstly, the kernel uses only row transform and transpose computation by unit of row. Secondly, without transpose, the kernel uses both row and column by unit of row. Thirdly, it also computes row and transpose, however, the transform unit is based on single pixel. At last, it computes row and column without transpose, whose unit is also single pixel. The experiment Experimental results on an NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT and an dual cores CPU indicates that the GPU acceleration is obvious with the image resolution increasing whether it is HARR or 5/3 lifting wavelet. For 5/3 lifting wavelet, the second group experiment under texture memory increases about 15 times faster than CPU, and time-consuming decrease 5000ms.
Characteristics of an Environmentally Monitored Prolonged Type 2 Vaccine Derived Poliovirus Shedding Episode that Stopped without Intervention

Vaccine derived poliovirus (VDPV) type 2 strains strongly divergent from the corresponding vaccine strain, Sabin 2, were repeatedly isolated from sewage in Slovakia over a period of 22 months in 2003–2005. Cell cultures of stool specimens from known immune deficient patients and from an identified putative source population of 500 people failed to identify the potential excretor(s) of the virus. The occurrence of VDPV in sewage stopped without any intervention. No paralytic cases were reported in Slovakia during the episode. According to a GenBank search and similarity plotting-analysis, the closest known relative of the first isolate PV2/03/SVK/E783 through all main sections of the genome was the type 2 poliovirus Sabin strain, with nucleotide identities in 5′UTR, P1, P2, P3, and 3′UTR parts of the genome of 88.6, 85.9, 87.3, 88.5, and 94.0 percent, respectively. Phenotypic properties of selected Slovakian aVDPV strains resembled those of VDPV strains isolated from immune deficient individuals with prolonged PV infection (iVDPV), including antigenic changes and moderate neurovirulence in the transgenic mouse model. One hundred and two unique VP1 coding sequences were determined from VDPV strains isolated from 34 sewage specimens. Nucleotide differences from Sabin 2 in the VP1 coding region ranged from 12.5 to 15.6 percent, and reached a maximum of 9.6 percent between the VDPV strains under study. Most of the nucleotide substitutions were synonymous but as many as 93 amino acid positions out of 301 in VP1 showed substitutions. We conclude that (1) individuals with prolonged poliovirus infection are not as rare as suggested by the studies on immune deficient patients known to the health care systems and (2) genetic divergence of VDPV strains may remain extensive during years long replication in humans.
An Enhanced Type-Reduction Algorithm for Type-2 Fuzzy Sets

Karnik and Mendel proposed an algorithm to compute the centroid of an interval type-2 fuzzy set efficiently. Based on this algorithm, Liu developed a centroid type-reduction strategy to carry out type reduction for type-2 fuzzy sets. A type-2 fuzzy set is decomposed into a collection of interval type-2 fuzzy sets by -cuts. Then, the Karnik-Mendel algorithm is called for each interval type-2 fuzzy set iteratively. However, the initialization of the switch point in each application of the Karnik-Mendel algorithm is not a good one. In this paper, we present an improvement to Liu's algorithm. We employ the previously obtained result to construct the starting values in the current application of the Karnik-Mendel algorithm. Convergence in each iteration, except the first one, can then speed up, and type reduction for type-2 fuzzy sets can be carried out faster. The efficiency of the improved algorithm is analyzed mathematically and demonstrated by experimental results.
Characterisation and in vitro simulation of the natural hip

Abnormal hip joint morphology, associated with diseases such as femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) or developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), is thought to be a precursor of osteoarthritis (OA) in the hip. Changes in joint morphology alter the loading pattern through the hip, which results in damage to the tribological interface, including labral tears and/or labral- cartilage separation. Evidence shows that early intervention to repair the labrum is more beneficial than labral excision; however scientific understanding of the tissue and the effect of surgical treatments are limited. It is hypothesised that an in vitro natural hip simulation system could be used in biomechanical testing of hip joint tissues as well as generating labral damage which could be used to assess current and new surgical treatment methods for the labrum. Initial quantitative assays revealed human and porcine labral tissue to have higher collagen content but lower water and GAG content than articular cartilage. Histological staining identified the structure of collagen within the labrum and cartilage, as well as the dispersion of GAGs, in human and porcine tissue. Slight differences were seen between the two species with the human labrum containing more connective tissue compared to the porcine labrum, which was primarily composed of fibrocartilage, and less GAGs. Mechanical tests identified little variation between the compressive properties of the human and porcine labrum however, larger differences were identified in the tissues tensile properties, where by the human labrum was stronger than the porcine labrum. Labral tissue was also found to be weaker in compression in comparison to cartilage tissue. An in vitro natural hip model was successfully developed using clinically relevant conditions. The cup inclination angle was set at 45 °, a full ISO14242 gait cycle was applied to the joint with a peak load of 750 N, to account for porcine tissue. No labral or cartilage damage was observed after 10800 cycles. In vitro labral damage was also successfully developed, by increasing the acetabular cup angle to 60 ° and increasing the load by 50 %. The model was run through the full gait cycle for a minimum of 10800 cycles. Damage was classified using the Outerbridge and Lage systems. All types of labral damage outlined in the Lage classification system were identified within the model. Labral damage was found to progress from labral flattening, to radial fibrillation followed by longitudinal peripheral tears. The methodology and findings within this study can be used in future studies and can be advanced to mechanically test the soft tissues of the hip in situ, as well as the effect of labral damage on the functions of the hip joint and potential labral treatments.
Diphone collection and synthesis

In this paper, we describe the design and collection of corpora for diphone synthesis, the voice building process, and our experience in the creation of a new, publically available database of ten diphone sets of one American English speaker for the Festival Speech Synthesis System [3], using the FestVox document and tools [1]. In support of our goal to make the tools and techniques available for anyone to build their own synthetic voices, we have generalized and streamlined the tasks involved from what were once arcane anecdotes, half-written one-off scripts, and partial descriptions, to detailed, complete instructions that others have followed with good results.
Travel Recommendation System Using Geotagged Photos

Recently in multimedia, web services contain a huge volume of geo-tagged photos. The users who upload these photos are sharing their travel experiences through them. Geo-tagged photos have crucial information imbibed within them, like location, time, tags and weather. Travel Recommendation methods that exist do not take into consideration user preferences and weather all at once. In this paper, a travel recommendation system is proposed for tourists in Mumbai according to their preferences, weather and live events. The preferences are obtained according to the prior travel history of user(s) and recommendations are suggested. Dataset is collected from the Flickr API and the technique is examined for Mumbai, an Indian metropolitan city. The effectiveness of the proposed method can be seen from the experimental results, which shows an average of 15% improvement in the accuracy with respect to the existing methods.
Performance Analysis of Multiuser Massive MIMO With Spatially Correlated Channels Using Low-Precision ADC

In this letter, we analyze the uplink performance of a multiuser massive MIMO system with spatially correlated channels using low-precision analog-to-digital convertors (ADCs) at the base station. A tight closed-form approximated sum rate for receivers with imperfect channel state information is derived. We further investigate the impact of the spatial correlation on the rate loss caused by low-precision ADC and find that this rate loss is currently overestimated for massive MIMO under spatially correlated channels. This observation promotes the use of low-precision ADC in practical massive MIMO with inherent spatial correlation.
Manufacturing polymer/clay nanocomposites through elongational flow technique

ABSTRACT A novel processing technique that employs continuous elongational flow to fabricate polymer/clay nanocomposites has been developed and evaluated in this work. A self-made vane mixer has been used to supply the continuous elongational flow, while high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and organic montmorillonite (O-MMT) were used as the polymer matrix and clay, respectively. The morphology of resultant nanocomposites has been carefully revealed and studied by examining wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Intercalation effect and dispersion of O-MMT layers have been investigated by the morphology study. The results indicate that the elongational flow has a great potential in melt intercalation of O-MMT, and can lead to an orderly O-MMT layers’ distribution. Thermal properties of as-mixed nanocomposites that prepared under elongational flow have been determined by the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), which demonstrates that the introduction of O-MMT nano-sheets is bad for the crystal of HDPE matrix. The universal tensile test shows how O-MMT layers affect the mechanical properties of nanocomposites, including the tensile strength and elongation at break. The strain–stress relationship reveals that with continually adding O-MMT layers, the tensile strength increases at first, and then decreases. While the elongation at break shows the same trend.
A data-reuse aware accelerator for large-scale convolutional networks

This paper presents a clustered SIMD accelerator template for Convolutional Networks. These networks significantly outperform other methods in detection and classification tasks in the vision domain. Due to the excessive compute and data transfer requirements these applications benefit a lot from a dedicated accelerator. The proposed accelerator reduces memory traffic by loop transformations such as tiling and fusion to merge successive layers. Although fusion can introduce redundant computations it often reduces the data transfer, and therefore can remove performance bottlenecks. The SIMD cluster is mapped to a Xilinx Zynq FPGA, which can achieve 6.4 Gops performance with a small amount of resources. The performance can be scaled by using multiple clusters.
Angiogenesis Inhibitor Bevacizumab Increases the Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease Associated with Chemotherapy: A Meta-Analysis

Concerns have arisen regarding the risk of ischemic heart disease with the novel antiangiogenic agent bevacizumab, a recombinant humanised monoclonal antibody to the vascular endothelial growth factor that is widely used in cancer treatment. Currently, the role of bevacizumab in ischemic heart disease is controversial. This meta-analysis was therefore performed to assess the overall risk of ischemic heart disease associated with the use of bevacizumab. The databases of PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science were searched for English language studies of randomised controlled trials comparing bevacizumab with control therapy published through October 25, 2012. Summary incidence rates, relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using random-effects or fixed-effects models based on the heterogeneity of the included studies. A total of 4,617 patients from 7 randomised controlled trials were identified and included for analysis. Among those patients receiving bevacizumab, the summary incidence of ischemic heart disease was 1.0% (95% CI, 0.6%–1.4%). Patients treated with bevacizumab had a significantly increased risk of ischemic heart disease with an RR of 2.49 (95% CI, 1.37–4.52) compared with controls. In addition, both high doses and low doses of bevacizumab increased the risk of cardiac ischemia (low dose at 2.5 mg/kg per week: RR, 2.14 [95% CI, 1.09–4.19]; high dose at 5 mg/kg per week: RR, 4.81 [95% CI, 1.03–22.42]). Bevacizumab was also found to significantly increase the risk of cardiac ischemia in patients with colorectal cancer (RR, 2.13; 95% CI, 1.11–4.06) compared with controls. This meta-analysis shows the use of bevacizumab was associated with an increased risk of developing ischemic heart disease in colorectal cancer patients receiving this drug. Our conclusions are limited by the available data. Further evaluations of high-quality RCTs are needed.
Team Learning in Medical Education: Initial Experiences at Ten Institutions

Purpose. In the midst of curricular reforms that frequently call for reducing lectures and increasing small-group teaching, there is a crisis in faculty time for teaching. This paper describes the initial experiences of ten institutions with team learning (TL), a teaching method which fosters small-group learning in a large-class setting. Method. After initial pilot studies at one institution, nine additional institutions implemented TL in one or more courses. Results. Within 18 months, TL has been used in 40 courses (from .5% to 100% of the time) and all ten institutions will increase its use next year. Conclusions. We surmise that this relatively rapid spread of TL into the medical curriculum is due to the sound pedagogy and efficiency of TL as well as the modest financial resources and support we have provided to partner institutions.