Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Process corner variation aware design of low power current starved VCO power

Conventionally the integrated circuit designer first carries out the design to achieve the required performance specifications and observes the worst case performance through simulations. If the worst case performance falls well inside the acceptable range then that design is designated as a process variation tolerant design. In such case the design is not truly robust against actual process variations. The randomness of process variations is hardly included in the design phase to minimize their effects on the performance of the fabricated chips. In the present work a novel approach is proposed in which minimizes the process corner performance variation (PCPV) so that the performances of the extreme corner case chips are very close the nominal fabrication case. The nominal case design is also subjected to performance optimization along with the process corner variability. Evolutionary algorithm is suitably employed for simultaneous optimization of all the objectives. The proposed design technique is applied to a CSVCO circuit as a case study and the performance improvement results of Cadence simulation are reported.
Molecular Diversity of a Putative Virulence Factor: Purification and Characterization of Isoforms of an Extracellular Serine Glutamyl Endopeptidase of Enterococcus faecalis with Different Enzymatic Activities

ABSTRACT A previously identified gene sprE of Enterococcus faecalis strain OG1 was shown to encode an extracellular serine protease that appears to belong to the glutamyl endopeptidase I staphylococcal group. A single form of SprE with a molecular mass of 25 kDa and a pH optimum between 7.0 and 7.5 was isolated from culture supernatant of wild-type E. faecalis strain OG1RF (TX4002); this form was apparently generated by cleavage of the Ser−1-Leu1 and Arg230-Leu231 peptide bonds of the secreted zymogen. In contrast, the culture supernatant of the gelatinase-null mutant, TX5264, with a nonpolar deletion of gelE which encodes the E. faecalis gelatinase, was found to contain several forms of SprE proteolytically processed on both the N and C termini; in addition to a full-length zymogen and a truncated zymogen, three mature forms of the SprE proteinase, Leu1-Ala237, Ser−1-Glu227, and Leu1-Glu227, were identified. As with the V8 proteinase of Staphylococcus aureus, the closest homologue of SprE, all of the active forms cleaved specifically Glu-Xaa peptide bonds but with substantially different efficiencies, while none was able to hydrolyze peptide bonds with Asp in the P1 position. The most active of all these enzyme forms against several substrates, including human fibrinogen and β-chain insulin, was the Ser−1-Glu227 (−1S-SprE) isolated from TX5264; −1S-SprE, in contrast to other forms of SprE, was unstable at 37°C, apparently due to autodegradation. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that sprE encodes a highly specific serine-type glutamyl endopeptidase, the maturation of which is dependent on the presence of gelatinase. In the absence of gelatinase activity, the aberrant processing of pro-SprE results in the appearance of a “superactive” form of the enzyme, −1S-SprE.
Calcitonin gene‐related peptide contributes to the umbilical haemodynamic defence response to acute hypoxaemia

Despite clinical advances in obstetric practice, undiagnosed fetal hypoxaemia still contributes to a high incidence of perinatal morbidity. The fetal defence to hypoxaemia involves a redistribution of blood flow away from peripheral circulations towards essential vascular beds, such as the umbilical, cerebral, myocardial and adrenal circulations. In marked contrast to other essential vascular beds, the mechanisms mediating maintained perfusion of the umbilical circulation during hypoxaemia remain unknown. This study determined the role of calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP) in the maintenance of umbilical blood flow during basal and hypoxaemic conditions. Under anaesthesia, five sheep fetuses were instrumented with catheters and a Transonic probe around an umbilical artery, inside the fetal abdomen, at 0.8 of gestation. Five days later, fetuses were subjected to 0.5 h hypoxaemia during either i.v. saline or a selective CGRP antagonist in randomised order. Treatment started 30 min before hypoxaemia and ran continuously until the end of the challenge. The CGRP antagonist did not alter basal blood gas or cardiovascular status in the fetus. A similar fall in Pa,O2 occurred in fetuses during either saline (21 ± 0.8 to 9 ± 0.9 mmHg) or antagonist treatment (20 ± 0.9 to 9 ± 1.2 mmHg). Hypoxaemia during saline led to significant increases in arterial blood pressure, umbilical blood flow and umbilical vascular conductance. In marked contrast, hypoxaemia during CGRP antagonist treatment led to pronounced falls in both umbilical blood flow and umbilical vascular conductance without affecting the magnitude of the hypertensive response. In conclusion, CGRP plays an important role in the umbilical haemodynamic defence response to hypoxaemia in the late gestation fetus.
Glove Integrated Dual-Band Yagi Reader Antenna for UHF RFID and Bluetooth Application

In this paper, a compact low-profile dual-band Yagi reader antenna for smart-glove is presented that operates in 868 and 2450 MHz band. Proposed antenna is capable of directing the field in a particular direction in both operating bands. Proposed antenna consists of two rectangular-shaped driven loop and one parasitic element used as a reflector. Electric and magnetic field distributions in the near field at 868 MHz and radiation pattern in the far-field at 2450 MHz are analyzed. Electric and magnetic fields are stronger in direction opposite to the reflector, validate the operation of antenna in the near field zone at 868 MHz. Radiation pattern of the proposed antenna is directional in the far-field region at 2450 MHz. The reported antenna is simple and compact; it can be easily integrated into a glove onto the hand palm.
Latinos in the United States on the HIV/AIDS care continuum by birth country/region: a systematic review of the literature

Summary Twenty percent of Latinos with HIV in the US are unaware of their HIV status, 33% are linked to care late, and 74% do not reach viral suppression. Disparities along this HIV/AIDS care continuum may be present between various ethnic groups historically categorised as Latino. To identify differences along the HIV/AIDS care continuum between US Latinos of varying birth countries/regions a systematic review of articles published in English between 2002 and 2013 was conducted using MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. Studies that reported on one or more steps of the HIV/AIDS care continuum and reported results by birth country/region for Latinos were included. Latinos born in Mexico and Central America were found to be at increased risk of late diagnosis compared with US-born Latinos. No studies were found that reported on linkage to HIV care or viral load suppression by country/region of birth. Lower survival was found among Latinos born in Puerto Rico compared with Latinos born in mainland US. Inconsistent differences in survival were found among Latinos born in Mexico, Cuba, and Central America. Socio/cultural context, immigration factors, and documentation status are discussed as partial explanations for disparities along the HIV/AIDS care continuum.
Design of a CNTFET-Based SRAM Cell by Dual-Chirality Selection

This paper proposes a new design of a highly stable and low-power static RAM (SRAM) cell using carbon nanotube FETs (CNTFETs) that utilizes different threshold voltages for best performance. In a CNT, the threshold voltage can be adjusted by controlling the chirality vector (i.e., the diameter). In the proposed six-transistor SRAM cell design, while all CNTFETs of the same type have the same chirality, n-type and p-type transistors have different chiralities, i.e., a dual-diameter design of SRAM cell. As figures of merit, stability, power dissipation, and write time are considered when selecting the chirality for the best overall performance. A new metric, denoted as ¿SPR,¿ is proposed to capture these figures of merit. This metric shows that a CNTFET-based SRAM cell provides an ¿SPR¿ that is four times higher than for its CMOS counterpart that has the same configuration, thus attaining superior performance. Finally, the sensitivity of the CNTFET SRAM design to process variations is assessed and compared with its CMOS design counterpart. Extensive simulations have been performed to investigate the distribution of the power and delay of the CNTFET-based SRAM cell due to variations in the diameter, supply voltage, and temperature of the CNTFETs. The CNTFET-based SRAM cell demonstrates that it tolerates the process, power supply voltage, and temperature variations significantly better than its CMOS counterpart.
Monte carlo calculations of ion distributions surrounding the oligonucleotide d(ATATATATAT)2 in the B, A, and wrinkled D conformations

We calculated the uni‐univalent ion distributions around‐ the oligonucleotide d(AT)5 · d(AT)5 in the A, B and wrinkled D conformation using the Metropolis Monte Carlo method. All atoms were included in the oligonucleotide model with partial charges and hard sphere radii assigned to each atom. The univalent counter‐ and coions were modeled as hard spheres with radius 0.3 nm. The solvent was assigned a dielectric constant of 80, corresponding to a temperature of 298K. The counterion distribution surrounding each of the conformers and the distribution surrounding an impenetrable cylinder, were calculated for four salt concentrations. We found significant counterion density in the major groove of the A DNA while fewer counterions occupied the grooves of B DNA. In the wrinkled D DNA, where groove occupancy is sterically hindered, the ion distributions were identical to the distributions surrounding the impenetrable, cylindrical model. This suggests that excluded volume effects significantly influence the details of the ion distributions near the oligomer, while the detailed charge distributions of the oligomer affects the ion distributions only minimally. Although substantial variation in counterion density was observed near the oligomers of differing conformations, the total number of counterions located within a cylinder surrounding the oligomer bounded radially by 2.4 nm was independent of the conformation of the oligomer. Therefore, for this model system, the local univalent counterion distributions are extremely sensitive to the geometry of the oligonucleotide whereas the extent of neutralization of the oligoanion is insensitive to the conformation of the oligomer. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
SmartSec: Secret sharing-based location-aware privacy enhancement in smart devices

In the recent past we have witnessed a quick rise of smart devices, including smart phones, tablets, smart watch, smart television as well as other smart devices. The smart devices store quite a lot of sensitive personal data (e.g., private photos). These devices can breach one's privacy if information in the devices are accessed by unauthorized users. Therefore, smart devices are facing threats of privacy leaking and how to protect privacy of smart devices is regarded as an important research challenge. In this paper, we propose a system, coined as SmartSec, which employs secret sharing techniques among multiple smart devices to enhance privacy protection. In particular, SmartSec can achieve privacy enhancement by storing sensitive data (e.g., photos) on at least three devices and requiring at least two of them to access the original data. This will thus secure the data from any unauthorized attackers because any leakage of one piece of secret is meaningless. Further, secret sharing will introduce extra computation and transmission overhead. To reduce such an overhead and optimize the performance, another important feature of SmartSec is that it could recognize and classify different locations by exploiting location tags and then apply different security policy to different locations to achieve the tradeoff of security and performance. For example, a user can demarcate safe regions (e.g., home area) and the sensitive data will be automatically recovered in home region, distributed and stored/masked at different devices in public regions, where the process is automated which provides the user a transparent experience. We implement the system and conducted a series of experiments on the prototype to evaluate the results.
Clinicopathologic correlations of cranial magnetic resonance imaging of periventricular white matter

We studied clinical, imaging, and autopsy data on 7 patients who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during life. Small periventricular zones of increased T2 signal corresponded to a periventricular cap consisting of subependymal glial accumulations, with some loss of the ependymal lining, and a surrounding pale-staining area of finely textured myelin and axons with an altered glial pattern. The fine-fiber zone is identifiable anatomically as the subcallosal fasciculus. This histologic pattern of subependymal glial accumulations and fine fibers is normal and is often associated with fibrotic small blood vessels. More extensive subcortical MRI changes corresponded, in 1 case, to multiple sclerosis, and in another to subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy (Binswanger's disease) with widespread fiber loss and lacunar changes. Wallerian degeneration secondary to infarction occurred in some areas of MRI abnormality.
IPlock: An Effective Hybrid Encryption for Neuromorphic Systems IP Core Protection

Recent advances in resistive synaptic devices have enabled the emergence of brain-inspired smart chips. These chips can execute complex cognitive tasks in digital signal processing precisely and efficiently using an efficient neuromorphic system. The neuromorphic synapses used in such chips, however, are different from the traditional integrated circuit architectures, thereby weakening their resistance to malicious transformation and intellectual property (IP) counterfeiting. Accordingly, in this paper, we propose an effective hybrid encryption methodology for IP core protection in neuromorphic computing systems, in-corporating elliptic curve cryptography and SM4 simultaneously. Experimental results confirm that the proposed method can implement real-time encryption of any number of crossbar arrays in neuromorphic systems accurately, while reducing the time overhead by 14.40%–26.08%.
North American Contact Dermatitis Group Patch Test Results 2013–2014

Background Patch testing is the most important diagnostic tool for the assessment of allergic contact dermatitis. Objective This study documents the North American Contact Dermatitis Group (NACDG) patch testing results from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2014. Methods At 13 centers in North America, patients were tested in a standardized manner with a screening series of 70 allergens. Data were manually verified and entered into a central database. Descriptive frequencies were calculated, and trends were analyzed using &khgr;2 test. Results A total of 4871 patients were tested. There were 3255 patients (66.8%) who had at least 1 positive reaction and 2412 patients (49.5%) who were ultimately determined to have a primary diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis. A total of 434 patients (8.9%) had occupationally related skin disease. There were 9726 positive allergic reactions. Compared with the previous reporting periods (2011–2012 and 2001–2012, including at least three 2-year cycles), positive reaction rates for the top 25 screening allergens statistically increased for 2 allergens: methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone (6.4%; risk ratios, 1.26 [1.07–1.50] and 2.08 [1.84–2.37]) and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (2.6%; risk ratios, 1.34 [1.02–1.76] and 1.23 [1.00–1.51]). Methylisothiazolinone, which was added to the screening series for this 2013–2014 cycle, had the third highest positive reaction rate of allergens tested (10.9%). Four other newly added allergen preparations—formaldehyde 2% (7%), diphenylguanidine (3.8%), propylene glycol 100% (2.8%), and benzophenone-4 (2.1%)—all had reaction rates greater than 2%. Twenty-one percent of tested patients had at least 1 relevant allergic reaction to an allergen not on the NACDG series; 14.6% of these were occupationally related. The T.R. U.E. TEST (SmartPractice Denmark, Hillerød, Denmark) would have hypothetically missed one quarter to one third of reactions detected by the NACDG screening series. Conclusions These results confirm that the epidemic of sensitivity to methylisothiazolinone previously documented in Europe is also occurring in North America. Patch testing with allergens beyond a standard screening tray is necessary for the complete evaluation of occupational and nonoccupational allergic contact dermatitis.
Activation of the Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Akt Signaling Pathway during Porcine Circovirus Type 2 Infection Facilitates Cell Survival and Viral Replication

ABSTRACT Virus infection activates host cellular signaling pathways, including the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway, which regulates diverse cellular activities related to cell growth, survival, and apoptosis. The present study demonstrated for the first time that porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), a major causative agent of postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome, which is an emerging and important swine disease, can transiently induce the PI3K/Akt pathway in cultured cells at an early step during PCV2 infection. Activation of the PI3K/Akt signal was also induced by UV-irradiated PCV2, indicating that virus replication was not required for this induction. Inhibition of PI3K activation leads to reduced virus yield, which is associated with decreased viral DNA replication and lower virus protein expression. However, inhibition of PI3K activation greatly enhanced apoptotic responses as evidenced by the cleavage of poly-ADP ribose polymerase and caspase-3 as well as DNA fragmentation using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end-labeling staining during the early stage of PCV2 infection. Furthermore, the pancaspase inhibitor zVAD.fmk alleviated the reduction in Akt phosphorylation levels by inhibiting PI3K activation, indicating that the signaling promotes cell survival and thereby favors viral replication. These results reveal that an antiapoptotic role for the PI3K/Akt pathway induced by PCV2 infection to suppress premature apoptosis for improved virus growth after infection, extending our understanding of the molecular mechanism of PCV2 infection.
A prospective, multicenter, observational study of long-term decitabine treatment in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome

This prospective observational study evaluated the efficacy and safety of long-term decitabine treatment in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Decitabine 20 mg/m2/day was administered intravenously for 5 consecutive days every 4 weeks to MDS patients in intermediate-1 or higher International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) risk categories. Active antimicrobial prophylaxis was given to prevent infectious complications. Overall response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and time to response were evaluated, as were adverse events. The final analysis included 132 patients. IPSS risk was intermediate-2/high in 34.9% patients. The patients received a median of 5 cycles, with responders receiving a median of 8 cycles (range, 2-30). ORR was 62.9% (complete response [CR], 36; partial response [PR], 3; marrow complete response [mCR], 19; and hematologic improvement, 25). Among responders, 39% showed first response at cycle 3 or later. OS at 2 years was 60.9%, with 17% progressing to acute myeloid leukemia. PFS at 2 years was 51.0%. Patients achieving mCR showed comparable survival outcomes to those with CR/PR. With active antibiotic prophylaxis, febrile neutropenia events occurred in 61 of 1,033 (6%) cycles. Long-term decitabine treatment with antibiotic prophylaxis showed favorable outcomes in MDS patients, and mCR predicted favorable survival outcomes.
Stochastic Transient Stability Analysis of Transmission Systems With Inclusion of Energy Storage Devices

The letter provides a thorough stochastic analysis of the impact of energy storage systems on the transient stability of transmission grids. This impact is evaluated considering the combined effect of different energy storage technologies, fault clearing times, and network topologies. The latter concerns the relative positions of faults, storage devices, and synchronous machines. The case study consists of stochastic time-domain simulations carried out for the all-island, 1479-bus model of the Irish transmission system that includes a real-world hybrid storage device. Results lead to some nonintuitive conclusions.
Design and Analysis of Isolated Full-Bridge Constant Current/Constant Current Converter

Constant current to constant current (CC/CC) converter technology is one of the key technologies of cabled underwater information network. An isolated full-bridge CC/CC conversion circuit is designed. The model of the circuit is established by state-space average method to calculate its steady-state operating point of DC. At the same time, the simulation is carried out by using saber simulation software to verify the feasibility and rationality of the designed circuit. The results show that the output current of the circuit is independent of the output load, the duty cycle and the phase shift angle of the two sets of switching tube control signals, and has constant current (CC) output characteristic. Its power conversion efficiency is positively correlated with the output load and the phase shift angle between the two sets of switching tube control signals while independent of the duty ratio.
Fabricating Proficient Drive along by Employing K-Means Clustering Algorithm

During data analysis, often data needs to be grouped together based on similar looking or behaving. As the real world data features modulate with the Big data, where the data is unlabeled, the task of dividing the population or data points into a number of groups with similar points is of prime necessity. This method of identifying similar groups of data in a data set is called clustering. In simple words, the aim is to segregate groups with similar traits and assign them into clusters. This paper presents the importance of the K-means Clustering algorithm to understand the inner structure of the data to obtain the areas wherein based on the number of car rides booked in an area, optimum pickup point can be found using K-Means Clustering Algorithm.