Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time invariant analog processors for monolithic deep n-well CMOS pixel detectors

This work is concerned with the design of time invariant analog circuits for processing the signals from deep n-well monolithic CMOS sensors. As compared to the three-transistor front-end typically used in imaging applications, the schemes proposed here, which were conceived to be included in a binary readout channel, lend themselves to pixel-level sparsified readout and are expected to be capable of managing the large flow of data anticipated for the future high luminosity colliding machines. Various solutions complying with different power dissipation and point resolution constraints have been implemented in a 130 nm CMOS technology, paying particular attention to equivalent noise charge and threshold dispersion performance. This paper intends to describe and compare the features of the different approaches by means of theoretical analysis, simulation and experimental results.
Technological interweavement: a means of achieving innovation success

In this paper, results are presented of an empirical study of the Lake Constance region covering a sample of 848 manufacturing companies. Based upon multivariate analyses, the paper documents that the mobilization of external resources and know-how is a critical factor for a firm’s technological innovation success which in turn is the main determinant of commercial innovation success. The findings show that there are three kinds of technology-oriented external relationships, which prove to be of special importance: close contacts with customers, linkages to universities and research institutes and R&D-cooperations with other companies. innovation-pressure and raising expenditures for R&D accompanied by shortening product-life-cycles and time based competition. Especially in regard to innovation, relationships have potentials shown neither by market nor by hierar~hy:~ 0 Synergy effects of value: The combination of internal and external resources can result in a multicompetence-effect, which facilitates the development of products of superior quality. Furthermore, relationships constitute an instrument to reduce redundancies (e.g. parallel research activities) and accelerate innovation processes.
Partisan Waves: International Business Cycles and Electoral Choice

Pundits have often claimed, but scholars have never found, that partisan swings in the vote abroad predict electoral fortunes at home. Employing semiannual Eurobarometer data on vote intention in eight European countries, this article provides statistical evidence of international comovement in partisan vote intention and its provenance in international business cycles. Electoral support for “luxury parties,” those parties associated with higher spending and taxation, covaries across countries together with the business cycle. Both the domestic and international components of at least one economic aggregate—unemployment—proveastrongpredictorofshiftsindomesticvoteintention.Globalization,bydrivingbusiness cycle integration, is also synchronizing partisan cycles. bservers of politics have often remarked that international partisan sentiment seems to move in waves. Among developed democracies, the frequency of right-of-center governments rose in the 1980s, plummeted in the early 1990s, and rebounded after 2000. In the middle 1970s, only seven of the 19 wealthy democracies that then constituted the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had right-of-center governments; one year after the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, this number stood at 13 of 23. In 1992, prior to the election of Bill Clinton, 13 of the then 23 OECD members hosted right-of-center governments; within four years this figure dropped to six, only to rebound to 15 six years later. Within more geographically proximate areas, and finer data, this pattern of partisan comovement is even more distinct, begging two questions: (1) how independent is partisan sentiment from that of other countries? and (2) what, if anything, causes
Peptides From Milk Proteins and Their Properties

This review has attempted to study the literature pertaining to peptides derived from milk proteins. Hydrolysis of milk proteins to generate peptides has been practiced for a long time and it was recognized early on in this process that the taste of hydrolyzates might hinder use of these products in food formulations. Modification of protein is necessary to form a more acceptable or utilizable product, to form a product that is less susceptible to deteriorative reactions and to form a product that is of higher nutritionall quality. Modifications may be achieved by a number of chemical and enzymatic means. This review has considered only enzymatic modification of dairy proteins. Modified proteins contain peptides and some of these peptides have been purified and their functionalities have been compared with unmodified proteins. This paper has examined the literature pertaining to improvement in functionality of enzyme-modified proteins. Improvements in solubility, emulsification, foaming and gelation were examined. There is limited information available on the sequence of the peptides necessary to improve the functional characteristics of proteins. Knowing the sequences of desirable functional peptides can lead to genetic alteration of proteins to improve functionality. Addition of synthetic peptides to intact proteins may be another way in which the functionality of proteins can be augmented. Some of the peptides in milk proteins are capable of affecting biological functions of an organism. These effects can be antimicrobial and probiotic, i.e., prevent the growth and proliferation of undesirable and pathogenic organisms, or they may promote the growth of desirable bacteria in the digestive tract of humans and animals. Peptides derived from milk protein have been shown to exert digestive and metabolic effects as well. They may also influence the immune system. These biological effects may play an important role in the development of medical foods that treat or mitigate the effects of diseases. Proteins are allergens and therefore it is possible that products derived from modification of proteins may also be allergens. The known literature about the allergenicity of peptides derived from milk proteins has been examined in this article. Last, but not the least, the taste attributes of peptides is also considered. Bitterness of hydrolyzates is a common occurrence and the origins of these bitter peptides and possible ways of mitigating this sensory defect has been discussed. Many of the peptides that enhance functionality and exert biological activity are likely to be bitter. Therefore, the bitter taste of hydrolysis products has to be dealt with in boosting the functional or nutraceutical aspects of foods containing these peptides. Analytical techniques for sequencing peptides have become more accessible and purification of peptides is commercially feasible. Computer based modeling techniques have aided the prediction of structures in these peptides. These advances, coupled with the advances in biotechnology, promise to revolutionize the future of nutraceutical and functional foods.
A Review on Security of Fingerprint Template Using Fingerprint Mixing

Biometric recognition systems are becoming powerful means for automatic personal recognition. Nowadays, fingerprints are widely used in biometric recognition systems. In the 21 st century, having your identity stolen is no longer just a fear; it's a reality. Hence it is necessary to mitigate concerns related to data sharing and data mis use. In this method , two fingerprint from different finger are mixed to generate the new fingerprint image. Then each component is decomposed into continuous component and spiral component. Then after pre-aligning each component of fingerprint image, the continuous component of one fingerprint is combined with spiral component of other fingerprint image and vice- versa. (a) It can be used to obscure the information present in an individual fingerprint image prior to storing it in a central database. (b) mixing different fingerprint with the same fingerprint results in different identities, and (c) and is used to generate virtual identities by mixing two different fingerprint.
Unrecognized and Unwelcome? The Role of the EU in Preventing the Proliferation of CBRN Weapons, Materials and Knowledge

Abstract This article assesses the role of the EU as an actor in the area of non-proliferation of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons, materials and know-how. It focuses primarily on the Russian Federation. Russia's extensive CBRN programmes, combined with bad economy, weak security and high unemployment among CBRN scientists, have become a major source of concern for the international community following the end of the cold war and after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The EU is the only non-state actor that got involved in addressing this threat right at the beginning of the 1990s, renewing its commitments after 9/11. This article revisits the concept of ‘actorness’ in order to examine the past, present and possibly future role of the EU in preventing the proliferation of CBRN capabilities. This means that in addition to evaluating past policies, this contribution analyses the impact of the Lisbon Treaty reforms and the changing international security environment on the position of the EU as an aspiring international non-proliferation actor.
Negative regulation of Smad2 by PIASy is required for proper Xenopus mesoderm formation

Mesoderm induction and patterning are primarily regulated by the concentration of locally expressed morphogens such as members of the TGFβ superfamily. Smad2 functions as a transcription factor to regulate expression of mesodermal genes downstream of such morphogens. We have identified Xenopus PIASy (XPIASy), a member of the PIAS family, by yeast two-hybrid screening using Xenopus Smad2 (XSmad2) as a bait. During mesoderm induction, XPIASy is expressed in the animal half of embryos with a ventral high-dorsal low gradient at the marginal zone. XPIASy expression is positively and negatively regulated by activities of the XSmad2 and Wnt pathways, respectively. Interestingly, inhibition of XPIASy by morpholinos induces elongation of animal caps with induction of mesoderm genes even in the absence of their morphogen-mediated activation. In addition, their introduction into the ventral marginal zone results in a secondary axis formation. Gain-of-function analysis revealed that XPIASy inhibits mesoderm induction by specific and direct downregulation of XSmad2 transcriptional activity. These observations indicate that XPIASy functions as an essential negative regulator of the XSmad2 pathway to ensure proper mesoderm induction at the appropriate time and in the appropriate region, and suggest that both the initial step of morphogen-mediated activation of the XSmad2 pathway and regulation of the final downstream transcription step have crucial roles in mesoderm induction and patterning.
Performance of multiple active-spatial modulation: information theoretic criteria over correlated Rayleigh fading channels

In this study, symbol error probability of transmitted modulation signals for a single-input–multiple-output system is used to derive overall average bit error probability (ABEP) of multiple active-spatial modulation (MA-SM) system as a function of the number density of bits in error. Specifically, a theoretic method of determining the number density of bits in error in the joint detector of MA-SM is proposed. Sample variance (SV) criterion uses the sample covariance of detector noise data, while mutual information (MI) criterion uses relative entropy derived from the Kullback–Liebler distance to compute the number density of bits in error. The choice for the better criterion is formulated as a model selection problem between the SV and the MI criteria. Analytical results for ABEP are tightly verified from simulations, which are carried out under arbitrarily correlated flat Rayleigh fading channels. Various data rates, antenna spacing and number of transmit and receive antenna configurations are tested, where it is also shown that SM is a special case of MA-SM. Moreover, a basis spectral efficiency (BSE) formula for MA-SM systems is proposed, which can be used to select a preferred antenna configuration without the need for simulations.
Potato Leaf Disease Detection using Sequencial Models

Potatoes are the third most important food source in the world after wheat and rice. Moreover, India, in the fiscal year 2021, produced over 50 million metric tons of potatoes out of which _ percent was wasted due to late blight and early blight diseases. The traditional methods to detect diseases in the plants involve manual inspection. This method is very expensive, time-consuming and does not provide satisfactory results. So as to identify the infected leaves at the beginning of their growth cycle which will help to increase the yield and thereby decrease the losses incurred by the farmers, we propose a web application to do the same with the help of deep learning models like InceptionNet, ResNet50, MobileNet and CNN trained on the PlantVillage dataset available on kaggle. We achieved an accuracy of 93.97 percent, 88.79 percent, 96.12 percent and 94.83 percent respectively.
Globalisation, ICT and the nitty gritty of plant level datasets

The net entry contribution to aggregate productivity growth has increased dramatically in the UK over 1990s according to calculations based on data from the Annual Respondents Database (ARD). Some recent studies have tried to link this to other structural changes over the same period such as increased globalisation and usage of ICT. I argue that the increase might equally have been caused by a systematic bias that is introduced to growth decompositions through random survey sampling of the underlying plant or firm panel datasets. This bias – despite being a general problem of growth decompositions does not seem to have been noticed in the literature yet. In the 1990s the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has successively increased the share of plants in the population of the ARD that are subject to random sampling. I show that this could cause the bias to spuriously increase the net entry contribution. My results show that correcting for the bias makes a substantial difference: the net entry contribution is about 10 percentage points lower on the corrected series in the 1990s. Surprisingly however, the positive correlation between ICT and net entry share – a main result of earlier studies – becomes more significant.
Canaries in the Goal Mines: A Timely Analysis of College Athletics and the Role of Student-Athletes

In July 2012, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) imposed severe sanctions on The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) athletics program related to allegations of sexual abuse occurring in Penn State athletics facilities. Sanctions included a $60 million ! ne, a four-year postseason ban for the Penn State football team, a signi! cant reduction in athletics scholarships, and a ! veyear probationary period (Consent Decree, 2012). These punitive actions were designed in part to “change the culture that allowed this activity to occur and realign it in a sustainable fashion with the expected norms and values of intercollegiate athletics” (Consent Decree, 2012, p. 4). The NCAA concluded that the situation at Penn State demonstrated “an unprecedented failure of institutional integrity leading to a culture in which a football program was held in higher esteem than the values of the institution, the values of the NCAA, the values of higher education, and most disturbingly the values of human decency” (Consent Decree, 2012, p. 4). Reactions to the penalties were mixed among those associated with the university. Rodney Erickson, then President at Penn State, stated that the university accepted the NCAA penalties and corrective actions. Erickson explained that Penn State:
Activin mRNA induced during amygdala kindling shows a spatiotemporal progression that tracks the spread of seizures

The progressive development of seizures in rats by amygdala kindling, which models temporal lobe epilepsy, allows the study of molecular regulators of enduring synaptic changes. Neurotrophins play important roles in synaptic plasticity and neuroprotection. Activin, a member of the transforming growth factor‐β superfamily of growth and differentiation factors, has recently been added to the list of candidate synaptic regulators. We mapped the induction of activin βA mRNA in amygdala and cortex at several stages of seizure development. Strong induction, measured 2 hours after the first stage 2 (partial) seizure, appeared in neurons of the ipsilateral amygdala (confined to the lateral, basal, and posterior cortical nuclei) and insular, piriform, orbital, and infralimbic cortices. Activin βA mRNA induction, after the first stage 5 (generalized) seizure, had spread to the contralateral amygdala (same nuclear distribution) and cortex, and the induced labeling covered much of the convexity of neocortex as well as piriform, perirhinal, and entorhinal cortices in a nearly bilaterally symmetrical pattern. This pattern had filled in by the sixth stage 5 seizure. Induced labeling in cortical neurons was confined mainly to layer II. A similar temporal and spatial pattern of increased mRNA expression of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) was found in the amygdala and cortex. Activin βA and BDNF expression patterns were similar at 1, 2, and 6 hours after the last seizure, subsiding at 24 hours; in contrast, c‐fos mRNA induction appeared only at 1 hour throughout cortex and then subsided. In double‐label studies, activin βA mRNA‐positive neurons were also BDNF mRNA positive, and they did not colocalize with GAD67 mRNA (a marker of γ‐aminobutyric acidergic neurons). The data suggest that activin and BDNF transcriptional activities accurately mark excitatory neurons participating in seizure‐induced synaptic alterations and may contribute to the enduring changes that underlie the kindled state. J. Comp. Neurol. 476:91–102, 2004. Published 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Monitoring-Aware Learning Design Process: Pilot Studies in Authentic CSCL Scenarios

ICT tools offer the possibility to store, analyse and visualise large amounts of educational data. However, in order to make sense of these analyses, teachers need meaningful information connected to their pedagogical intentions. We envision an enriched learning-design process, which supports the integration of the issues related to monitoring in the script. This paper presents a study where the first author and a teacher iteratively co-designed two authentic learning scenarios with the aim of defining and evaluating a monitoring-aware design model and process. These two proposals, the model and the process, were positively evaluated by the participant teacher, and are the basis for the future implementation of an authoring tool that will support the proposed monitoring-aware design process.
Improving quality of medical ultrasound images by filtering of frames sequences

The lesion detectability by using ultrasound images is reduced by a factor of eight due to the presence of noise hampering the perception and extraction of fine details. Speckle noise occurrence is often undesirable, since it affects the tasks of human interpretation and diagnosis. The speckle is a random multiplicative noise caused by signals with different phase relations received from many sub-scatterers. It is a random mottling of the image with bright and dark spots, which obscures fine details. Speckle filtering is thus a critical pre-processing step in medical ultrasound imagery, provided that the features of interest for diagnosis are not lost. A new speckle reduction method is proposed for medical ultrasound imaging. It is based on temporal and spatial image filtering by a combination of two methods, Wavelet and diffusion transform. The method has two steps: the first one uses Wavelet transform in order to enhance the image contrast. The second step is based on nonlinear model-anisotropic complex diffusion filtering, because the human visual perception mechanism has nonlinear characteristics. As real images, the thyroid ultrasound images obtained by using a 5 MHz linear transducer were investigated. The diffusion coefficient was evaluated from the local pixel values, and wavelet shrinkage denoising used soft thresholding. Both subjective and objective evaluations of the experimental results show better performance of the proposed method in improving the signal to noise ratio compared to the conventional filtering methods.
US physician board certification and labor market returns

Purpose – This paper aims to determine the characteristics of board certification among US physicians and to test whether accounting for the expected gains to certification alters the pattern of the determinants of board certification.Design/methodology/approach – Splitting the sample into sub‐samples by characteristics associated with certification/non‐certification identified in a probit, the incremental gain to certification from log‐earnings equations is identified. Realizing that these methods are susceptible to sample selection, correction is made for it using the Heckman approach. Using the sample selection corrected equations, the expected gain to certification among those who certify is then predicted and those who do not certify is then predicted and this difference is included as a proxy for the expected gain in the original probit to ascertain whether including the expected gain alters the determinants of certification.Findings – Accounting for the expected gain alters the pattern of the deter.
Non-listening effort related parameters in auditory discrimination paradigms

Objective methods to asses listening effort are still missing in clinical settings. Thus, the focus of our ongoing research is the extraction of possible substrates of listening effort. This paper focuses on the non-effort related factor reaction time (RT) on the different components of auditory late responses (ALRs). It makes sense to consider this factor in the context of age related changes of the RT. For the comparison of the ALR components and the RT, two syllable oddball paradigms with different degree of difficulty were created. The paradigms were embedded in multitalker babble noise to create a realistic listening situation. The data was collected from 13 normal hearing healthy subjects, who had to detect a deviant. Furthermore, the wavelet phase synchronization stability (WPSS) was calculated for different scales. A filter bank was designed in order to separate the components by their frequency content. Finally, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was calculated to clarify if there is a possible linkage between the RT and the ALR components. The results show, that only the P3 latency is correlated with the RT. A relation between the RT and the other ALR components could not be observed. It is concluded, that the focus of our further research, will be on the N1 and the P2 wave due to the fact that those components are independent from the non- effort related factor reaction time.