Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
28-nm FD-SOI CMOS RF Figures of Merit Down to 4.2 K

This work presents a detailed RF characterization of 28-nm FD-SOI nMOSFETs at cryogenic temperatures down to 4.2 K. Two main RF Figures of Merit (FoMs), i.e., current-gain cutoff frequency (f<sub>t</sub>) and maximum oscillation frequency (f<sub>max</sub>), as well as parasitic elements of the small-signal equivalent circuit, are extracted from the measured S-parameters. An improvement of up to ~130 GHz in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\text{f}_{t}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and ~75 GHz in f<sub>max</sub> is observed for the shortest device (25 nm) at low temperature. The behavior of RF FoMs versus temperature is discussed in terms of small-signal equivalent circuit elements, both intrinsic and extrinsic (parasitics). This study suggests 28-nm FD-SOI nMOSFETs as a good candidate for future cryogenic applications down to 4.2 K and clarifies the origin and limitations of the performance.
HYPODONTIA OF PERMANENT TEETH IN A GROUP OF YOUNG PATIENTS FROM THE NORTH ‐ EASTERN REGION OF ROMANIA

The present study deals with the statistical evaluation of the number of congenitally missing teeth, of the affected dental groups, of the clinical forms and of hypodontia topography, performed on a group of patients from the North‐Eastern region of Romania, examined in the Ambu‐ latory of the “Sf. Spiridon” Universitary Emergency Hos‐ pital of Iaşi, between 1990‐2012. 111 patients (51 boys and 60 girls), with ages between 5 and 28 years, have been dia‐ gnosed with hypodontia of the permanent teeth (third molars excepted), by interview and by clinical and orto‐ pantomographic examinations. Statistical analysis made use of a SPSS 20.0 software. Four categories of hypodontia were discovered on the congenitally missing teeth, a high prevalence of the premolar (mandibular and maxillary) and maxillary incisor groups, as well as the predominant presence of the mono‐ and unidental clinical forms of hypodontia. Hypodontia was localized both unilaterally and bilaterally, on the four dental quadrants. Statistically significant correlations have been established among the number of teeth, the dental groups with agenesis and the clinical forms of hypodontia (p=0.000).
Effects of Glucose on Insulin Release and on Intermediary Metabolism of Isolated Perifused Pancreatic Islets from Fed and Fasted Rats

We examined the relationship between glucose-induced insulin release and the intermediary metabolism of islets from fed and fasted rats. Isolated islets were perifused and insulin release measured in the effluent. At various times after switching islets from 2.4 to 8.6 or 14.5 mM glucose or from 2.4 to 14.5 and back to 2.4 mM glucose, islets were quickly frozen, freeze dried, and subsequently analyzed for tissue content of glucose-6-P, fructose-1,6-P2 plus triose-P, P1, ATP, ADP, 5'-AMP, NADH, NADPH, total NAD, and total NADP using enzymatic fluorometric procedures. When islets from fed rats were exposed to high glucose, there were concomitant increases of insulin release and islet content of glucose-6-P, fructose-1,6-P2 plus triose-P, NADH, and NADPH. During stimulation P1 and 5'-AMP content fell markedly. The total adenine nucleotide content remained constant. Similar secretory and metabolic changes occurred when 1.5 mM P1 was added to the perifusion fluid. When glucose-stimulated islets were switched back to low glucose for 10 min, all substances but fructose-1,6-P2 plus triose-P, 5'-AMP, NADPH, and possibly ATP returned to the prestimulatory level. Starvation of rats for 3 days blocked the secretory response to 8.6 mM glucose. Fructose-1,6-P2 plus triose-P rose but it did not attain the level existing in islets from fed rats. The ratios (ATP)/(5'-AMP) and (ATP)/(P1,)(ADP) increased to the values observed in glucose-stimulated islets of fed rats. The metabolic changes in islets from fed rats exposed to high glucose are consistent with an activation of glycolysis occurring concomitantly with stimulated rates of insulin release. This occurs despite the decrease of important activators of glycolysis—P1 and 5'-AMP. The enhanced glycolysis possibly results from P-fructokinase activation by increased fructose-6-P levels. Activation of glycolysis with 8.6 mM glucose was not as pronounced in islets from starved rats. Despite the different secretory response of islets from fed and fasted rats, the changes of phosphorylation state in the islets, in particular, P1, and 5'-AMP levels, were similar.
Controlled Light-Mediated Preparation of Gold Nanoparticles by a Norrish Type I Reaction of Photoactive Polymers.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are subjects of broad interest in scientific community due to their promising physicochemical properties. Herein we report the facile and controlled light-mediated preparation of gold nanoparticles through a Norrish type I reaction of photoactive polymers. These carefully designed polymers act as reagents for the photochemical reduction of gold ions, as well as stabilizers for the in situ generated AuNPs. Manipulating the length and composition of the photoactive polymers allows for control of AuNP size. Nanoparticle diameter can be controlled from 1.5 nm to 9.6 nm.
The induction of pro‐angiogenic processes within a collagen scaffold via exogenous estradiol and endometrial epithelial cells

Nutrient transport remains a major limitation in the design of biomaterials. One approach to overcome this constraint is to incorporate features to induce angiogenesis‐mediated microvasculature formation. Angiogenesis requires a temporal presentation of both pro‐ and anti‐angiogenic factors to achieve stable vasculature, leading to increasingly complex biomaterial design scheme. The endometrium, the lining of the uterus and site of embryo implantation, exemplifies a non‐pathological model of rapid growth, shedding, and re‐growth of dense vascular networks regulated by the dynamic actions of estradiol and progesterone. In this study, we examined the individual and combined response of endometrial epithelial cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells to exogenous estradiol within a three‐dimensional collagen scaffold. While endothelial cells did not respond to exogenous estradiol, estradiol directly stimulated endometrial epithelial cell transduction pathways and resulted in dose‐dependent increases in endogenous VEGF production. Co‐culture experiments using conditioned media demonstrated estradiol stimulation of endometrial epithelial cells can induce functional changes in endothelial cells within the collagen biomaterial. We also report the effect of direct endometrial epithelial and endothelial co‐culture as well as covalent immobilization of estradiol within the collagen biomaterial. These efforts establish the suitability of an endometrial‐inspired model for promoting pro‐angiogenic events within regenerative medicine applications. These results also suggest the potential for developing biomaterial‐based models of the endometrium. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2015;112: 2185–2194. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Developing Design Principles for a Cloud Broker Platform for SMEs

Finding, evaluating and selecting suitable cloud services that best fit cloud service consumer’s requirements can be a complex, time-consuming and cost-intensive process, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Since there is no “one-fits-all” cloud service provider, companies face the challenge of selecting and combining services from different vendors in order to meet all their requirements. In this paper, we present tentative design principles for cloud broker platforms, combining the concept of platforms with findings from research on guidance support systems. Such platforms should help decrease the effort it takes for cloud service consumers to find the most suitable cloud services in a non-transparent market by providing decisional guidance. We illustrate the feasibility of these principles by applying them to a prototypical implementation that considers cloud service consumers’ sourcing preferences while making new cloud-sourcing decisions. The resulting design principles provide prescriptive knowledge and enable researchers and practitioners to leverage other instances of cloud broker platforms.
Channel capacity enhancement using virtual array elements in smart antenna systems

A smart antenna system using virtual array elements is proposed to increase the channel capacity of mobile communication systems. The proposed smart antenna system increases the degree of freedom using virtual array elements generated by complex conjugations of real array elements signals and sign compensations using the orthogonality between the user identification codes in the I and Q channels. The performance of the proposed system is analyzed under cdma2000 specifications in urban cell environments.
Design and evaluation of neural classifiers application to skin lesion classification

Addresses design and evaluation of neural classifiers for the problem of skin lesion classification. By using Gauss Newton optimization for the entropic cost function in conjunction with pruning by Optimal Brain Damage and a new test error estimate, the authors show that this scheme is capable of optimizing the architecture of neural classifiers. Furthermore, error-reject tradeoff theory indicates, that the resulting neural classifiers for the skin lesion classification problem are near-optimal.
The Need of Intelligent Driver Training Systems for Road Safety

Automobiles have deeply impacted the way in which people travel but they have also caused a number of deaths and injury due to crashes. Driver inattention, inexperience, poor judgment and/or fatigue etc., are the major contributing factors in crashes. In order to address these complex issues, scientists have developed a number of technological systems ranging from anti-lock braking system (ABS), early warning systems to complete autonomous driving solutions. Driverpsilas driving competencies also play a vital role in judging the road environment and reacting in-time to avoid any possible collision. Therefore driverpsilas perceptual and motor skills remain a key factor impacting on-road safety. Currently, there is a need for researchers to develop and evaluate intelligent transport systems (ITS) that assess driving competencies. These tools should be designed to help driver instructors and drivers to accurately evaluate the driving behaviour. This paper outlines a vision for future research in the area of intelligent driver training systems for enhancing road safety and also presents preliminary implementation.
Development of the new trigger and data acquisition system for the CMS forward muon spectrometer upgrade

La physique des particules elementaires, aussi appele physique des hautes energies, est l'etude de l'infiniment petit, popularisee recemment par la decouverte de nouvelles particules fondamentales permettant de consolider notre connaissance de la matiere. Pour realiser des mesures a une echelle aussi reduite, une methode consiste a augmenter l’energie des constituants de la matiere, a l'aide d'accelerateur de particules, puis de les briser pour reveler leur constitution. Au-dela de l'interet en termes de physique experimentale, realiser des experiences de ce type est devenu une prouesse technologique grandissante avec les niveaux d’energie atteints. La complexite de l’experience CMS, cadre dans laquelle ce travail a ete realise, donne une bonne mesure des defis technologiques releves.Afin d'affiner encore notre connaissance des processus mis en jeu lors collision de particules dans CMS, une mise a niveau du detecteur est prevue avant la fin de cette decennie. Certains sous-detecteurs actuellement installes, et notamment le spectrometre a muon dans la zone des bouchons, sont d’ores et deja identifies comme offrant des performances trop faibles pour l'augmentation du nombres d’evenements prevu apres cette mise a jour. Ce travail propose de realiser une etude de faisabilite sur l'utilisation d'une technologie alternative pour ce sous-detecteur, notamment le Triple-GEM, pour combler ces limitations.Une premiere partie de ce travail consiste en l'etude de cette nouvelle technologie de detecteur a gaz. Cependant, la mise en œuvre de cette technologie conduit a des modifications dans le systeme d'acquisition de donnees de CMS. La situation actuelle puis les implications d'un point de vue technique des modifications sont donc detaillees par la suite. Enfin, apres avoir identifie les composants et les solutions permettant la collecte de resultats a l’echelle de l'ensemble du sous-detecteur, un systeme d'acquisition de donnees similaire a ete realise et est decrit dans une derniere partie de ce travail.
Monitoring plastic-mulched farmland using Landsat-8 OLI imagery

In the past decades, the area of plastic-mulched cultivation has grown rapidly both on the global and regional scope, due to its remarkable efficiency of increasing crop production. However, the rapid expansion has brought a series of ecological and environmental problems in many regions, such as the vast amount of residues from the plastic-mulched farmland bring about aesthetic pollution and adverse environmental impacts on water, air and soil of the agricultural ecosystem and the terrestrial ecosystem. It is a serious problem that will do great damage to the sustainability of agriculture. In order to alleviate problems and to find solutions, the development of efficient methods to map plastic-mulched farmland as accurately as possible is of great significance to the policy-makers and scientists. In this paper, the optical remotely sensed data, Landsat-8 OLI, have been used in monitoring the plastic-mulched farmland in a study area located in Jizhou city, Hebei Province, China, where the plastic mulching is extensively practiced in farming and interlaced with uncovered farmland. The spectral and texture features of different ground objects have been statistically analyzed on the OLI imagery in the light of the training samples. Then the spectral and texture features that carry a certain degree of explanation for plastic-mulched farmland were selected for classification. The training and testing samples (bigger than 4 pixels × 4 pixels of panchromatic fused OLI imagery) were collected from Google Earth images, and were amended by comparing to false color composite Landsat bands 7 (SWIR), 5 (NIR) and 4 (RED). At the same time, the samples were purified according the J-M distance method. The Support Vector Machines (SVM) has been used as classifier to extract the plastic-mulched farmland based on the spectral features alone, on the texture features alone and on the combined spectral and texture features respectively. The classification result was validated using confusion matrix. The overall classification accuracy for plastic-mulched farmland based on spectra features alone, on texture features alone and on combined spectral and texture features are 89.45%, 94.68% and 94.73%, respectively. Their respective Kappa coefficients are 0.85, 0.92 and 0.92. And the producer's accuracy and user's accuracy of plastic-mulched farmland are 87.30% and 63.96% on spectral features, 83.03%, and 81.37% on texture features, 83.39% and 81.37% on the combined features, respectively. The commission and omission errors for plastic-mulched farmland are 36.04% and 12.70% on spectral features, 18.63% and 16.97% on texture features, 18.63% and 16.61% on the combined features. This study shows that the plastic-mulched farmland can be extracted effectively using SVM classifier based on the Landsat-8 imagery.
Reducing the risk of bias in health behaviour change trials: Improving trial design, reporting or bias assessment criteria? A review and case study

Objective: It has been suggested that randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of health behaviour change (HBC) interventions are less rigorously designed than – for example– drug trials. This study presents an approach to clarifying whether this is due to poor trial design, incomplete trial reporting and/or the inappropriateness of commonly applied risk of bias assessment criteria. Design: First, a framework of key sources of bias and common strategies for reducing bias risk is developed based on a literature review. Second, we describe the design of a multi-site RCT evaluating the cost-effectiveness of an HIV-treatment adherence intervention (case study). The choices made by the multidisciplinary team trying to minimise the risk of bias are compared against the risk of bias framework. Main outcome measures: Implementation of common strategies for reducing the risk of bias in the case study; alternative or additional strategies applied; a justification for each deviation from the risk of bias framework. Results: Most of the common strategies for reducing the risk of bias could be implemented. Alternative strategies were developed for minimising the risk of performance bias and contamination. Several additional, domain-specific risk of bias strategies were implemented. Conclusions: The literature provides useful guidance for reducing the risk of bias in HBC trials. Yet, the case study suggests that HBC trial designers may face specific challenges that require alternative/additional measures for reducing the risk of bias. Using the risk of bias justification table (RATIONALE) could lead to better-designed HBC trials, more comprehensive trial reports and the data necessary for evaluating the appropriateness of commonly applied risk of bias assessment criteria to HBC trials.
Role of salicylic acid in induction of plant defense system in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Salicylic acid (SA), a plant hormone plays an important role in induction of plant defense against a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses through morphological, physiological and biochemical mechanisms. A series of experiments were carried out to evaluate the biochemical response of the chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) plants to a range of SA concentrations (1, 1.5, and 2 mM). Water treated plants were maintained as control. Activities of peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) were evaluated and amounts of total phenols, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and proteins were calculated after 96 h of treatment. Plants responded very quickly to SA at 1.5 mM and showed higher induction of POD and PPO activities, besides the higher accumulation of phenols, H2O2 and proteins. Plants treated with SA at 2 mM showed phytotoxic symptoms. These results suggest that SA at 1.5 mM is safe to these plants and could be utilized for the induction of plant defense.
Heterozygous deletion of Atbf1 by the Cre‐loxP system in mice causes preweaning mortality

ATBF1 is a large nuclear protein that contains multiple zinc‐finger motifs and four homeodomains. In mammals, ATBF1 regulates differentiation, and its mutation and/or downregulation is involved in tumorigenesis in several organs. To gain more insight into the physiological functions of ATBF1, we generated and validated a conditional allele of mouse Atbf1 in which exons 7 and 8 were flanked by loxP sites (Atbf1flox). Germline deletion of a single Atbf1 allele was achieved by breeding to EIIa‐cre transgenic mice, and Atbf1 heterozygous mice displayed reduced body weight, preweaning mortality, increased cell proliferation, and attenuated cytokeratin 18 expression, indicating haploinsufficiency of Atbf1. Floxed Atbf1 mice will help us understand such biological processes as neuronal differentiation and tumorigenesis. genesis 1–9, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Technique to extract relevant image features for visual tasks

Here we demonstrate a method for constructing stimulus classification images. These images provide information regarding the stimulus aspects the observer uses to segregate images into discrete response categories. Data are first collected on a discrimination task containing low contrast noise. The noises are then averaged separately for the stimulus-response categories. These averages are then summed with appropriate signs to obtain an overall classification image. We determine stimulus classification images for a vernier acuity task to visualize the stimulus features used to make these precise position discriminations. The resulting images reject the idea that the discrimination is performed by the single best discriminating cortical unit. The classification images show one Gabor-like filter for each line, rejecting the nearly ideal assumption of image discrimination models predicting no contribution from the fixed vernier line.
Feature Article - Toward an Experimental Method for Algorithm Simulation

This feature article surveys issues arising in the design, development, and execution of computational experiments to study algorithms. An algorithm is viewed here as an abstract model of an implemented program: experiments are performed to study the model, and new insights about the model can be applied to predict program performance. Issues related to choosing performance measures, planning experiments, developing software tools, running tests, and analyzing data are considered. Some hazards and difficulties of computational research that arise particularly in the context of algorithmic problems are also surveyed.
Robust Server Placement for Edge Computing

In this work, we study the problem of Robust Server Placement (RSP) for edge computing, i.e., in the presence of uncertain edge server failures, how to determine a server placement strategy to maximize the expected overall workload that can be served by edge servers. We mathematically formulate the RSP problem in the form of robust max-min optimization, derived from two consequentially equivalent transformations of the problem that does not consider robustness and followed by a robust conversion. RSP is challenging to solve, because the explicit expression of the objective function in RSP is hard to obtain, and RSP is a robust max-min problem with a matroid constraint and a knapsack constraint, which is still an unexplored problem in the literature. To address the above challenges, we first investigate the special properties of the problem, and reveal that the objective function is monotone submodular. We then prove that the involved constraints form a p-independence system constraint, where p is a constant value related to the ratio of the coefficients in the knapsack constraint. Finally, we propose an algorithm that achieves a provable constant approximation ratio in polynomial time. Both synthetic and trace-driven simulation results show that, given any maximum number of server failures, our proposed algorithm outperforms three state-of-the-art algorithms and approaches the optimal solution, which applies exhaustive exponential searches.
New Information Response Functions

We propose a new methodology for the analysis of impulse response functions in VAR or VARMA models. More precisely, we build our results on the non ambiguous notion of innovation of a stochastic process and we consider the impact of any kind of new information at a given date $t$ on the future values of the process. This methodology allows to take into account qualitative or quantitative information, either on the innovation or on the future responses, as well as informations on filters. We show, among other results, that our approach encompasses several standard methodologies found in the literature, such as the orthogonalization of shocks (Sims (1980)), the "structural" identification of shocks (Blanchard and Quah (1989)), the "generalized" impulse responses (Pesaran and Shin (1998)) or the impulse vectors (Uhlig (2005)).