Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coexistence research on improved cognitive OFDM signal and primary user signal

Active interference cancellation (AIC) is known to be an effective technique for reducing the out-of-band radiation (OBR) of OFDM spilling over the primary user (PU) protected band. In order to ensure the OBR of OFDM is to be minimized, the AIC models with non-cyclic prefix, adding cyclic prefix were deduced and the performance was compared through simulation, then an improved AIC scheme with both cyclic prefix and adding hanning window is compared for cognitive OFDM systems, obtaining significant improvements in terms of notch depth. Further, this paper carried out a novel research on the coexistence of the OFDM with proposed AIC scheme and the signals of discrete carrier signals in 230 MHz band, and then experimental measurements through SystemVue platform validate its effectiveness, which concludes the performance of improved algorithm. In addition, we can observe the bits error radio of primary user signals, which can demonstrate the coexistence of OFDM signal with improved active interference cancellation algorithm and the discrete carrier signal in 230MHz band.
Family Capitalism: Wendels, Haniels and Falcks and the Continental European Model

This history of three powerful family firms located in different European countries takes place over a period of more than 200 years. The interplay and the changing social and legal arrangements of the families shaped the development of a European capitalism quite different from the Anglo-American variety. Qualifying claims by Alfred Chandler and David Landes that family firms tend to be dysfunctional, Harold James shows how and why these steel and engineering firms were successful over long periods of time. Indeed, he sees the family enterprise as particularly conducive to managing risk during periods of upheaval and uncertainty when both states and markets are disturbed. He also identifies the key roles played by women executives during such times. In "Family Capitalism", James tells how 'iron masters' of a classical industrial cast were succeeded by new generations who wanted to shift to information-age systems technologies, and how families and firms wrestled with social and economic changes that occasionally tore them apart. Finally, the author shows how the trajectories of the firms were influenced by political, military, economic, and social events and how these firms illuminate a European model of 'relationship capitalism'.
A Low Power Current Mode PUF Based on Winner-Take-All Scheme

In this paper, a current mode physical unclonable function (PUF) based on the winner-take-all (WTA) scheme is presented. By using the process variation of the single transistor in the current mirror array, digital values with superior randomness can be produced. With the proposed WTA scheme, the time needed to acquire the currents' difference is significantly reduced. Meanwhile, the overall power consumption is also greatly lowered with the simplified peripheral circuitry. Moreover, unstable bit replacement circuitry is customized to remove the unstable bit caused by WTA's mismatch, which further improves the reliability of our proposed PUF. According to the simulation results using standard 65nm CMOS process, the proposed unstable replacement circuitry can replace up to 12.07% of the unstable bits. In addition, the superior averaged temperature reliability of the proposed implementation is 99.53% from −20° C to 100°C, with the overall power consumption as low as 892nW.
Effects of stoichiometric doping in superconducting Bi-O-S compounds

Newly discovered Bi-O-S compounds remain an enigma in attempts to understand their electronic properties. A recent study of Bi4O4S3 has shown it to be a mixture of two phases, Bi2OS2 and Bi3O2S3, the latter being superconducting (Phelan et al 2013 J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135 5372–4). Using density functional theory, we explore the electronic structure of both the phases and the effect of the introduction of extra BiS2 bilayers. Our results demonstrate that the S2 layers dope the bismuth-sulphur bands and this causes metallisation. The bands at the Fermi level are of clear two-dimensional character. One band manifold is confined to the two adjacent, square-lattice bismuth-sulphur planes, a second manifold is confined to the square lattice of sulphur dimers. We show that the introduction of extra BiS2 bilayers does not influence the electronic structure. Finally, we also show that spin–orbit coupling does not have any significant effect on the states close to the Fermi level at the energy scale considered.
Evolving robust gaits with AIBO

An evolutionary algorithm is used to evolve gaits with the Sony entertainment robot, AIBO. All processing is handled by the robot's on-board computer with individuals evaluated using the robot's hardware. By sculpting the experimental environment, we increase the robustness to different surface types and different AIBOs. Evolved gaits are faster than those created by hand. Using this technique we evolve a gait used in the consumer version of AIBO.
Some Economics of Audit Market Reform

type="main"> The purpose of audit market reforms since 2001 is to restore public confidence in the institution of auditing based on two considerations: (1) ensuring audit quality; and (2) controlling the ‘adverse effect of competition’ in audit supply. Market reforms for audit quality are delivered through a package of prescribed actions motivated by an analytical relationship between audit quality and its possible determinants: (1) limiting audit tenure through a combination of mandatory firm rotation, partner rotation and re-tendering; (2) limiting provision of non-audit services (NAS) by the incumbent auditor; and (3) joint auditing and empowering the audit committee to enhance audit quality. This paper examines the competing independence hypothesis and expertise hypothesis that produce ambiguous theoretical relationships for audit quality–audit tenure and the independence-provision of NAS. We then review whether the empirical literature resolves these conundrums. We also review the usefulness of joint auditing and empowering the audit committee to improve audit quality in the context of audit market reform.
How to roll a join: asynchronous incremental view maintenance

Incremental refresh of a materialized join view is often less expensive than a full, non-incremental refresh. However, it is still a potentially costly atomic operation. This paper presents an algorithm that performs incremental view maintenance as a series of small, asynchronous steps. The size of each step can be controlled to limit contention between the refresh process and concurrent operations that access the materialized view or the underlying relations. The algorithm supports point-in-time refresh, which allows a materialized view to be refreshed to any time between the last refresh and the present.
A Structural Model for Credit Risk with Markov Modulated Lévy Processes and Synchronous Jumps

This paper presents a switching regime version of the Merton's structural model for the pricing of default risk. The default event depends on the total value of the firm's asset modeled by a Markov modulated Levy process. The novelty of our approach is to consider that firm's asset jumps synchronously with a change in the regime. After a discussion of dynamics under the risk neutral measure, we present two models. In the first one, the default occurs at bond maturity if the firm's value falls below a predetermined barrier. In the second version, the company can bankrupt at multiple predetermined discrete times. The use of a Markov chain to model switches in hidden external factors makes it possible to capture the effects of changes in trends and volatilities exhibited by default probabilities. Finally, with synchronous jumps, the firm's asset and state processes are no longer uncorrelated.
T Cell Immunity Induced by Live, Necrotic, and Apoptotic Tumor Cells1

The rules that govern the engagement of antitumor immunity are not yet fully understood. Ags expressed by tumor cells are prone to induce T cell tolerance unless the innate immune system is activated. It is unclear to what extent tumors engage this second signal link by the innate immune system. Apoptotic and necrotic (tumor) cells are readily recognized and phagocytosed by the cells of the innate immune system. It is unknown how this affects the tumor’s immunogenicity. Using a murine melanoma (B16m) and lymphoma (L5178Y-R) model, we studied the clonal sizes and cytokine signatures of the T cells induced by these tumors in syngeneic mice when injected as live, apoptotic, and necrotic cells. Both live tumors induced a type 2 CD4 cell response characterized by the prevalent production of IL-2, IL-4, and IL-5 over IFN-γ. Live, apoptotic, and necrotic cells induced CD4 (but no CD8) T cells of comparable frequencies and cytokine profiles. Therefore, live tumors engaged the second signal link, and apoptotic or necrotic tumor cell death did not change the magnitude or quality of the antitumor response. A subclone of L5178Y-R, L5178Y-S cells, were found to induce a high-frequency type 1 response by CD4 and CD8 cells that conveyed immune protection. The data suggest that the immunogenicity of tumors, and their characteristics to induce type 1 or type 2, CD4 or CD8 cell immunity is not primarily governed by signals associated with apoptotic or necrotic cell death, but is an intrinsic feature of the tumor itself.
Progress on signal-selective direction finding

The recently discovered Cyclic MUSIC algorithm for narrowband signal-selective direction finding using antenna arrays circumvents many drawbacks of conventional techniques by exploiting known spectral correlation properties (namely known cycle frequencies such as the baud rate or carrier frequency) of the desired signals to reject undesired signals, interference, and noise. Two recent advances in the capabilities of Cyclic MUSIC are described. The first enables Cyclic MUSIC to simultaneously estimate the directions of arrival of signals having different cycle frequencies instead of having to sequentially process each separate frequency in a list of cycle frequencies (either known a priori or measured). The second advance reduces the sensitivity of Cyclic MUSIC to error in the knowledge of the cycle frequency of interest by estimating the frequency of a quadratically-regenerated sine wave and then using that estimate as the cycle frequency parameter in the computation of the cyclic autocorrelation matrix, which is then processed to estimate the directions of arrival. <<ETX>>
Structural, Functional, and Mutational Analysis of the NblA Protein Provides Insight into Possible Modes of Interaction with the Phycobilisome*

The enormous macromolecular phycobilisome antenna complex (>4 MDa) in cyanobacteria and red algae undergoes controlled degradation during certain forms of nutrient starvation. The NblA protein (∼6 kDa) has been identified as an essential component in this process. We have used structural, biochemical, and genetic methods to obtain molecular details on the mode of action of the NblA protein. We have determined the three-dimensional structure of the NblA protein from both the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus vulcanus and the mesophilic cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus sp. PCC 7942. The NblA monomer has a helix-loop-helix motif which dimerizes into an open, four-helical bundle, identical to the previously determined NblA structure from Anabaena. Previous studies indicated that mutations to NblA residues near the C terminus impaired its binding to phycobilisome proteins in vitro, whereas the only mutation known to affect NblA function in vivo is located near the protein N terminus. We performed random mutagenesis of the S. elongatus nblA gene which enabled the identification of four additional amino acids crucial for NblA function in vivo. This data shows that essential amino acids are not confined to the protein termini. We also show that expression of the Anabaena nblA gene complements phycobilisome degradation in an S. elongatus NblA-null mutant despite the low homology between NblAs of these cyanobacteria. We propose that the NblA interacts with the phycobilisome via “structural mimicry” due to similarity in structural motifs found in all phycobiliproteins. This suggestion leads to a new model for the mode of NblA action which involves the entire NblA protein.
Attitudes & effectiveness of professional programs for primary prevention of violence: exploratory validation of the PREVENT primary prevention of violence self-assessment

The PREVENT (Preventing Violence through Education, Networking, and Technical Assistance) project trained violence practitioners across the USA in Primary Prevention of Violence techniques (PPV). The purpose of this study is to describe the development and psychometric properties of the subscales of the PREVENT PPV Self Assessment. Of 800 participants, 585 responded (73.1%). We analyzed the data using factor analyses, reliabilities and LISREL structural equation measurement models. The Perceived PPV Project Success subscale exhibited a one-factor structure (R2 = .534, X2/df = 1.28, p = .277, GFI = .99, NNFI = .99); PPV Self-Efficacy and Support showed a four-factor structure (R2 = .583, X2/df = 3.7, p = .00, GFI = .94, NNFI = .93); Perceived PPV Collaboration showed a three factor structure (R2 = .544, X2/df = 4.20, p = .00, GFI = .92, NNFI = .93); Anticipated Future PPV Work yielded a three-factor structure (R2 = .656, X2/df = 4.76, p = .00, GFI = .94, NNFI = .91); and PPV Confidence a marginally acceptable two-factor structure (R2 = .759, X2/df = 11.1, p = .00, GFI = .95, NNFI = .99). Perceived PPV Project Success demonstrated very strong predictive validity (χ2/df = 2.33, p = .0167, GFI = .984, RMSEA = .0585) of increased time devoted to PPV. These construct validated subscales represent a rich source of material for assessing professionals' attitudes and perseverance towards personal implementation of PPV. From these results, we recommend specific items from each subscale for further use by PPV trainers.
Number of independent genes examined in family surveys and its effect on gene frequency estimation.

Two underlying but often inadvertently overlooked assumptions in estimating population gene frequencies are: (1) random sampling of individuals from the population and (2) uncorrelated observations. In human genetic surveys, neither of these assumptions is usually fully met. Random sampling, in sensu strictu, is often impractical, and samples are characterized more by convenience than a probability algorithm. There have been some attempts to relax the second assumption. Fisher [1] examined the effect of the inclusion of related individuals in a sample on the estimate of the proportion of recessives in the population; Cotterman [2] developed a weighting system for estimating gene frequency estimates and their precision from family records using maximum likelihood principles; and Finney [3, 4], as well as Smith [5], have suggested alternate strategies for the estimation of gene frequencies from family data. They detail the pitfalls of using the traditional methods of estimation in such situations. In most human genetic studies, it is virtually impossible, however, to exclude relatives from samples without escalating the survey costs (time and resources) or compromising the acceptability of the survey to the population being studied. It is important, therefore, in testing the equality of gene frequencies in the study of micro-evolutionary fluctuations to remove from the estimates and their variances the effects of differential family structuring in the samples. Unfortunately, in most recent surveys this has not been done. The purpose of this note is to illustrate the adjustment needed to account for the family relationships included in the sample in computing the gene frequencies from two Aymara villages (Turco and Toledo) of western Bolivia.
Model Uncertainty and Model Averaging in the Estimation of Infectious Doses for Microbial Pathogens

Food‐borne infection is caused by intake of foods or beverages contaminated with microbial pathogens. Dose‐response modeling is used to estimate exposure levels of pathogens associated with specific risks of infection or illness. When a single dose‐response model is used and confidence limits on infectious doses are calculated, only data uncertainty is captured. We propose a method to estimate the lower confidence limit on an infectious dose by including model uncertainty and separating it from data uncertainty. The infectious dose is estimated by a weighted average of effective dose estimates from a set of dose‐response models via a Kullback information criterion. The confidence interval for the infectious dose is constructed by the delta method, where data uncertainty is addressed by a bootstrap method. To evaluate the actual coverage probabilities of the lower confidence limit, a Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted under sublinear, linear, and superlinear dose‐response shapes that can be commonly found in real data sets. Our model‐averaging method achieves coverage close to nominal in almost all cases, thus providing a useful and efficient tool for accurate calculation of lower confidence limits on infectious doses.
Korea-ASEAN Trade Flows and the Role of AFTA: Sector-Specific Evidence of Trade Diversion

This article examines the impact of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) on Korean exports to ASEAN countries by using the system generalized method of moments. The data covered 15 sectors according to their relative importance in Korean exports and spanned from 1980 to 2006. The estimated results suggest that Korea’s exports were diverted to ASEAN members as a result of the AFTA formation. In 5 of the 15 sectors, the AFTA exerted a significant negative effect on Korean exports to ASEAN countries, but for the remaining 9, the results were mixed and statistically insignificant. The results also indicate that the sectoral approach yields more robust and clear-cut results than the aggregate one.
High-resolution ultrasonic imaging using two-dimensional homomorphic filtering

A new method for two-dimensional deconvolution of medical ultrasonic images is presented. The spatial resolution of the deconvolved images is much higher compared to the common images of the fundamental and second harmonic. The deconvolution also results in a more distinct speckle pattern. Unlike the most published deconvolution algorithms for ultrasonic images, the presented technique can be implemented using currently available hardware in real-time imaging, with a rate up to 50 frames per second. This makes it attractive for application in the current ultrasound scanners. The algorithm is based on two-dimensional homomorphic deconvolution with simplified assumptions about the point spread function. Broadband radio frequency image data are deconvolved instead of common fundamental harmonic data. Thus, information of both the first and second harmonics is used. The method was validated on image data recorded from a tissue-mimicking phantom and on clinical image data
Defective DNA double-strand break repair in pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE Previous reports of cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) note that repair of single-strand breaks is delayed, and these lesions may be converted to double-strand breaks (DSBs) at DNA replication forks. We undertook this study to assess the integrity of DSB recognition, signaling, and repair mechanisms in B lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from patients with pediatric SLE. METHODS Nine assays were used to interrogate DSB repair and recognition in lymphoblastoid cell lines from patients with pediatric SLE, including the neutral comet assay (NCA), colony survival assay (CSA), irradiation-induced foci formation for γ-H2AX and 53BP1 proteins, kinetics of phosphorylation of structural maintenance of chromosomes protein 1 (SMC1), postirradiation bromodeoxyuridine incorporation to evaluate S phase checkpoint integrity, monoubiquitination of Fanconi protein D2, ATM protein expression, and non-homologous DNA end joining protein expression and function. RESULTS Three of the 9 assays revealed abnormal patterns of response to irradiation-induced DNA damage. The NCA and CSA yielded aberrant results in the majority of SLE lymphoblastoid cell lines. Abnormal prolongation of SMC1 phosphorylation was also noted in 2 of 16 SLE lymphoblastoid cell lines. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that DSB repair is defective in some lymphoblastoid cell lines from pediatric patients with SLE, especially when assessed by both NCA and CSA. Since these studies are nonspecific, further studies of DNA repair and kinetics are indicated to further delineate the underlying pathogenesis of SLE and possibly identify therapeutic targets.
Lower artemether, dihydroartemisinin and lumefantrine concentrations during rifampicin-based tuberculosis treatment

Objective:To investigate the pharmacokinetics of artemether, dihydroartemisinin and lumefantrine during rifampicin intake and after stopping rifampicin. Study design:An open-label, two-phase, longitudinal drug interaction study with patients serving as their own controls. Methods:We recruited HIV-1-seropositive Ugandan adults who were receiving rifampicin-based tuberculosis treatment and who did not have malaria. Pharmacokinetic sampling after six doses of artemether-lumefantrine was performed during rifampicin-based tuberculosis treatment (phase 1) and repeated at least 3 weeks after stopping rifampicin-based tuberculosis treatment (phase 2). Results:Six and five patients completed phases 1 and 2, respectively. Median age and weight were 30 years and 64 kg. Artemether and dihydroartemisinin area under the concentration–time curve (AUC0–12h) were significantly lower by 89% [geometric mean ratio (GMR) 90% confidence interval (CI) 0.11, 0.05–0.26] and 85% (0.15, 0.10–0.23), respectively, during rifampicin-based treatment when compared to AUC0–12h after stopping rifampicin intake. Similarly, artemether and dihydroartemisinin Cmax were 83% (0.17, 0.08–0.39) and 78% (0.22, 0.15–0.33) lower, respectively, during rifampicin treatment. For artemether, mean (±SD) C12 was 0.5(±1.0) and 5.9(±2.5) ng/ml in phases 1 and 2, respectively. Corresponding values for dihydroartemisinin (DHA) were 0.3(±0.4) and 4.7(±2.0) ng/ml, respectively. Day 8 lumefantrine concentration was significantly lower by 84% (GMR 90% CI 0.16, 0.09–0.27), and AUCDay3-Day25 was significantly lower by 68% (GMR 90% CI 0.32, 0.21–0.49) during rifampicin-based treatment when compared to exposure values after stopping rifampicin. Conclusion:Pharmacokinetic parameters for artemether-lumefantrine were markedly lower during rifampicin-based tuberculosis treatment. Artemether-lumefantrine should not be co-administered with rifampicin.