Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
60 GHz GaAs MMIC mixers with integrated LO buffer

Using the 0.15 /spl mu/m GaAs mHEMT process from WIN semiconductors, two 60 GHz down-conversion mixers have been designed, processed and measured. Both designs include a LO buffer amplifier to allow for a reduced external LO power level. With an LO power of +10 dBm, the measured RF input match is better than -15 dB at 60 GHz and the conversion loss is below 8 dB at 2 GHz intermediate frequency.
On Equivalency Between Numerical Process DSM and State-Space Representation

Nowadays, as more systems are regarded to be complex, the processes to develop them are becoming more complex too. This increasing trend makes more effective analysis methods inevitable necessities. Meanwhile, matriarchal tools are becoming the most prominent, this paper has tried to study a work transformation matrix (WTM) at the level of coupled blocks of activities (CBAs). The neighboring matrices of such a WTM act as its information flow interfaces with other activities. It is shown how these are equivalent to some state-space representation matrices. The equivalency helps us to improve the analysis method for a set of CBAs constituting the whole WTM. Additionally, the concepts of powers of adjacency matrices and elementary dynamic properties of process as a system in modern control theory are brought together to analyze the behavior of activities in coupled blocks. By analyzing these properties in a case study, five heuristic are derived and proposed for improving the process through better preference and ordering of activities. Effectiveness of these heuristics is tested by a simple discrete-time simulation for which results show 17% of time reduction for the case study.
Drive of senseless Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) depending on Artificial Neural Networks

The Competition between the various types of electric motors has not been dependent on the development principle of the performance. Instead of that the total cost of the drive system (Motor-Inverter-Control system) has become an important element which cannot be ignored in the market of automated working mechanisms and modern drive systems. It was necessary to get rid of the position sensor which was the basic unit in the drive system of the Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM), and to replace it by a digital estimation system of the position depending on artificial intelligent technology to reduce the cost of the drive system in one hand and to qualify this motor to work in very high-speed range on the other without causing mechanical problems. This appears clearly in low-power applications like pumps and fans. Therefore, a study has been applied on a drive system of three phase (SRM) of 6/4 type without external position sensor. It was based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) technique with only measuring stator phase currents and fluxes. Whereas the resulting drive system includes neural network estimator acting on closing the motor control loop. This system is described by its performance strength and its high ability to estimate the rotor angle of the SRM after completing the training of the neural network on the data set of (the stator fluxes, stator currents and the rotor position), including different cases which the motor may experience in practical conditions of the environment operation of the studied system, and depending on the neural network method. The results of simulation of the drive system in the presence of neural network estimator have shown a strong performance of the estimator and a high ability to estimate the SRM rotor angle in the speed range for the motor operation in both the linear and non-linear regions and with/without load.
Modelling, Pricing, and Hedging Counterparty Credit Exposure: A Technical Guide

Methodology. - Modelling Framework. - Simulation Models. - Valuation and Sensitivities. - Architecture and Implementation. - Computational Framework. - Implementation. - Architecture. - Products. - Interest-Rate Products. - Equity, Commodity, Inflation and FX Products. - Credit Derivatives. - Structures. - Hedging and Managing Counterparty Risk. - Counterparty Risk Aggregation and Risk Mitigation. - Combining Market and Credit Risk. - Pricing Counterparty Credit Risk.
Using the Quality of Well-Being Scale to Assess Quality of Life in Out-of-Treatment Drug Users

Abstract The Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWB) was developed for use with diverse patient and general population samples. This study investigated its use with a sample of out-of-treatment drug users. The QWB was administered to 75 out-of-treatment drug users. A linear regression model was developed using the QWB score as the dependent variable and items from the Risk Behavior Assessment (RBA) as independent variables. The sample consisted of 18 women and 57 men. The mean QWB score was . 703 (SO = .12, range .51 to 1.0). The final multivariate regression model included six variables: days used other opiates in the last 30, ever in outpatient drug free treatment, income in the past 30 days from welfare, the number of times gave sex for drugs in the past 30 days, ever being in prison/jail drug treatment, and the number of days in the last 30 used amphetamines. This model accounted for 85% of the variance in QWB scores. Different modalities of drug treatment appear to influence QWB scores in different ways. Outpatient drug free treatment was negatively associated with QWB score(s), while prison/jail drug treatment was positively associated with QWB scores.
[POSTER] Augmented Reality for Radiation Awareness

C-arm fluoroscopes are frequently used during surgeries for intraoperative guidance. Unfortunately, due to X-ray emission and scattering, increased radiation exposure occurs in the operating theatre. The objective of this work is to sensitize the surgeon to their radiation exposure, enable them to check on their exposure over time, and to help them choose their best position related to the C-arm gantry during surgery. First, we aim at simulating the amount of radiation that reaches the surgeon using the Geant4 software, a toolkit developed by CERN. Using a flexible setup in which two RGB-D cameras are mounted to the mobile C-arm, the scene is captured and modeled respectively. After the simulation of particles with specific energies, the dose at the surgeon's position, determined by the depth cameras, can be measured. The validation was performed by comparing the simulation results to both theoretical values from the C-arms user manual and real measurements made with a QUART didoSVM dosimeter. The average error was 16.46% and 16.39%, respectively. The proposed flexible setup and high simulation precision without a calibration with measured dosimeter values, has great potential to be directly used and integrated intraoperatively for dose measurement.
Randomized rumor spreading in non-static networks

Rumor spreading plays an important role in social communications. Moreover, it forms the basis for an important class of communication protocols called gossip algorithms, which are used for large-scale information dissemination in networks. In this work, we study the dissemination time for randomized broadcast in dynamic environments, like those encountered by wireless networks with mobile nodes. Specifically, we establish order bounds for the dissemination time when the underlying network connectivity matrix changes over time. We state the results for a network that undergoes a single switching time, and then establish bounds for the case where the connectivity matrix undergoes multiple switching times. In the switching time, we include possible additions of nodes. We also investigate an example of randomized gossip in vehicular networks.
Integration of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in Untreated Infection Occurs Preferentially within Genes

ABSTRACT Previous analyses of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integration sites generated in infections in vitro or in patients in whom viral replication was repressed by antiviral therapy have demonstrated a preference for integration within protein-coding genes. We analyzed integration sites in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), spleen, lymph node, and cerebral cortex from patients with untreated HIV-1 infections. The great majority of integration sites in each tissue were within genes. Statistical analyses of the frequencies of integration in genes in PBMCs and lymph tissue demonstrated a strong preference for integration within genes. Although the sample size for brain tissue was too small to demonstrate a clear statistical preference for integration in genes, four of the five integration sites identified in brain were within genes. Taken together, our data indicate that HIV-1 preferentially integrates within genes during untreated infection.
Abdominal and Vaginal Radical Hysterectomy Among U.S. Women aged 65 Years and Older

Abstract Unlike most European and Asian countries, radical vaginal hysterectomy (RVH) is not performed often in the United States, especially among older women. To examine the changes in RVH over the years, trends in hospital stay, hospital charges, and patient survival, we studied women aged 65 years and older undergoing RVH and compared them with patients receiving radical abdominal hysterectomy (RAH). During the study period there were a total of 288 RVH surgeries compared with 4,835 RAH surgeries. There were no significant changes in the number or proportion of RVH patients over 8 years (p =.50, trend test). On the average, RVH patients were significantly older and had shorter hospital stays. Among patients without cancer, there were no significant differences in the age, race, or survival of patients having either RVH or RAH. Similar results were obtained for patients with cancer.
Digital Genre: a Mechanism for Knowledge Sharing and Reuse in Business Clusters

The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge transfer mechanisms in project bidding for two business clusters in New Zealand, and how ICT played a role in facilitating a "virtual space" for sharing and re-use of these mechanisms. Genre Systems was the theoretical framework adopted to guide this inquiry and to build on further theory. Within the context of this study, genres are the knowledge transfer mechanisms that communicate information and knowledge to members of the community, following specific social rules. The genres and the way they are being employed contribute towards explaining how knowledge is shared and reused by a community. Action research methodology was used to direct data collection and analysis, and validate how the study was carried out. The study comprised of one action research cycle, which has been divided in five stages: Diagnosis, Planning, Development, Evaluation, and Specifying Learning. Mapping the clusters' collaborative interactions during project bidding helped to identify the knowledge transfer mechanisms. This allowed the identification of an ICT solution that could improve project bidding, and identification of how this knowledge could be stored for reuse in future bids. One of the clusters decided to work together with the researcher towards the design of a new portal to address their project bidding needs. The portal took six iterations to complete and went live in November 2005. A database, several "digital genres" (since these genres exist in an electronic medium), and some procedures were created to facilitate knowledge transfer for the cluster's project bidding process. The team had the opportunity to reflect on the whole experience, identify potential features and genres to incorporate in the portal, and start thinking how they could improve the development process in future interventions. The introduction of ICT encouraged the cluster to develop digital genres that were more dynamic and flexible than the ones used before then. The main finding of the study is a five-step process to create digital genres based on the activities carried out by the team: finding reference points for the digital genre; defining the social rules for the digital genre; embedding the social rules in the template; testing the template; and legitimising the digital genre. Further findings discussed the "natural" and "induced" ways for a cluster to increase its knowledge-base. The first instance takes place during the normal practices of cluster members working together towards business opportunities over a period of time, whereas the later instance is triggered by a specific event or initiative. In this study, the decision by the cluster to introduce website and database technology to assist in managing their knowledge-base provided an opportunity to explore the role of ICT in increasing the cluster's knowledge-base. Final findings showed that a project of this nature not only has to overcome the common IT development challenges (budget, project management, user buy-in), but also those…
Endoscopic radiofrequency ablation in elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND The number of elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has increased in Japan. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 280 patients with HCC treated with endoscopic radiofrequency ablation (ERFA) were enrolled in the present study. The patients were divided into two groups, an elderly group (≥ 70 years) and a non-elderly group (<70 years) and their clinical and survival data were compared. RESULTS The cumulative overall survival rates in the elderly and non-elderly groups were equivalent: 73% and 70% at three years and 57% and 52% at five years, respectively (p=0.900). The disease-free survival rates were 21% and 23% at three years and 17% and 14% at five years, respectively (p=0.628). No significant effects were observed between the two groups due to any of the covariates in the survival analysis (all p-values for interaction ≥ 0.19). The complication rates were also comparable: 5.1% in the elderly group and 8.6% in the non-elderly group. CONCLUSION ERFA is safe and provides excellent therapeutic effects in elderly as well as non-elderly patients with HCC.
Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis as the Initial Manifestation of Hypereosinophilic Syndrome

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis, an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology, commonly involves the stomach and small intestine with eosinophilic infiltration. Here, we report an unusual case of eosinophilic gastroenteritis involving the entire digestive tract as a manifestation of hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES). A 22-year-old woman presented to us with diarrhoea, pleural effusion, ascites and marked peripheral oeosinophilia. Stool specimens were negative for parasites, ova, bacteria, and fungi. Endoscopic studies showed pangastritis and duodenitis. Biopsy specimens of the oesophagus, stomach, duodenum, ileum, and colon demonstrated oeosinophilic infiltration. A diagnosis of hypereosinophilic syndrome with eosinophilic gastroenteritis involving the entire digestive tract was made. Hence, she was treated with prednisolone. Symptoms and peripheral oeosinophilia rapidly resolved with treatment, and radiological investigations revealed resolution of effusion. This case illustrates the wide spectrum of clinical manifestation of the disease, whereby it involves the entire digestive tract and it also emphasizes the diagnostic yields of endoscopic biopsies.
Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations

Abstract Human populations are increasingly exposed to microwave/radiofrequency (RF) emissions from wireless communication technology, including mobile phones and their base stations. By searching PubMed, we identified a total of 10 epidemiological studies that assessed for putative health effects of mobile phone base stations. Seven of these studies explored the association between base station proximity and neurobehavioral effects and three investigated cancer. We found that eight of the 10 studies reported increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500 meters from base stations. None of the studies reported exposure above accepted international guidelines, suggesting that current guidelines may be inadequate in protecting the health of human populations. We believe that comprehensive epidemiological studies of longterm mobile phone base station exposure are urgently required to more definitively understand its health impact.
Reconstruction of a Secure Authentication Scheme for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks Using a Binary Authentication Tree

Jiang et al. proposed an authentication scheme for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications using a Binary Authentication Tree. The scheme can effectively eliminate the performance bottleneck when verifying a mass of signatures within a rigorously required interval and filtering bogus messages. In this paper, we show that Jiang et al.'s scheme is insecure against forgery attacks, replay attacks and Sybil attacks. To overcome the weaknesses, we reconstruct a conditional privacy-preserving authentication scheme, called sf CPP-BAT, for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications based on secure identity-based signature, aggregate signature schemes and the Binary Authentication Tree.
Investigation of the Factors Affecting Loyalty to Organization through The Structural Equation Modeling- Example from Private and Public Banks

This study is designed to find out the relationship between public and private bank customersâ€™service quality perceptions and their loyalty to their banks through the use of a research model. To serve this purpose, 250 public and 100 private bank customers are requested to fill out a 37-item questionnaire. Empirical results revealed that while responsiveness and reliability are perceived to be the most influential factors increasing loyalty to the public banks, empathy and reliability are reported in the private banks. Discussion of the results, implications to the bank managers are also presented.
The Supply Chain Management Game for the 2007 Trading Agent Competition

This is the specification for the Trading Agent Competition – Supply Chain Management Game for 2007 (TAC SCM-07). Agents are simulations of small manufacturers, who must compete with each other for both supplies and customers, and manage inventories and production facilities. Based on the positive experience with the 2006 trading agent competition, no technical changes have been made to the game for 2007. However, the position on the use of external information by the agents (i.e. that provided by the game viewer or the game logs) has been clarified. Using such information, either manually or automatically, is now regarded as external ‘tuning’ of the agent. As such, according to the existing competition rules, it is forbidden within any specific round during of finals of the competition. The research reported in this paper was funded in part by the National Science Foundation under ITR Grant 0205435.
Is Bookbuilding an Efficient IPO Pricing Mechanism? - The Indian Evidence

This paper attempts to examine efficiency of IPO issuing mechanisms using a sample of Indian IPOs that tapped the capital markets during 2003-07 by taking in to consideration the total costs the issuers have to face i.e., by including both direct costs as well as indirect costs. We find that from a total cost point of view the issuers are neither better off nor worse off using either bookbuilding or the fixed price offers in the older regime when the lead managers had the power to make discriminatory allocation, but sans those powers in the new regime issuers are better off with fixed price offers. Our results also showed that the Issue expenses associated with Bookbuilding are more than those associated with fixed price offers after controlling for issue size and the firm specific characteristics. Further analysis showed that employing US based lead managers do not translate in to higher issue proceeds. Finally, the costs of the services of US lead managers are not significantly different from those of Indian lead managers.
Optimal thermotolerance of Bifidobacterium bifidum in gellan–alginate microparticles

The purpose of this research was to encapsulate Bifidobacterium bifidum using gellan, sodium alginate and prebiotics as coating materials, and to maximize the thermotolerance of the probiotics with an optimal combination of the coating materials. The optimal ratio of the coating materials for the microparticles under heat treatments (75°C, 1 min) was obtained by using the response surface method and the sequential quadratic programming technique. Optimization results indicated that 2% sodium alginate mixed with 1% gellan gum as coating materials would produce the highest thermotolerance in terms of B. bifidum count. The verification experiment yielded a result close to the predicted values, with no significant difference (P > 0.05). The results of heat treatments also demonstrated that the addition of gellan gum in the walls of probiotic microcapsules provided improved protection for B. bifidum. These probiotic counts remained at 105–106 CFU/g for the microcapsules stored for 2 months, then treated in heat and in simulated gastric fluid. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;98: 411–419. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Entrepreneurial orientation and leadership: A review, model and research agenda

Although the extant literature indicates that both entrepreneurial orientation and transformational leadership influence firm performance, there is limited literature examining how these two important organisational variables relate to each other, and how they interact to influence firm performance within the context of small businesses. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the extant literature on entrepreneurial orientation, transformational leadership and firm performance and then build a logical framework depicting the interrelationships between transformational leadership, entrepreneurial orientation and organisational effectiveness within the context of small businesses. We conclude the paper by outlining a future research agenda for effectively leading entrepreneurial organisations within the small business sector.
Assessing the Performance of Banking M&As in Europe: A New Conceptual Approach. CEPS Reports in Finance and Banking No. 37(?), 12 September 2007

This book examines the performance of mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry in Europe and introduces a new approach for assessing the phenomenon by considering the various strategies underlying consolidation activity – namely, the initial activities of the banks involved and the geographical dimension of their transactions. The results show that the economic and financial performance of a banking M&A depends on its underlying strategy, which is defined on the basis of the bank’s initial activities and its geographical reach. The optimal combination of these two factors – defining the optimal underlying strategy – could be a critical factor for the success or failure of an M&A.
Contagion effect due to Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy and the global financial crisis - From the perspective of the Credit Default Swaps’ G14 dealers

This article investigates the dynamics of conditional correlation among the G14 banks’ dealer for the credit default swap market from January 2004 until May 2009. By using the asymmetric dynamic conditional correlation model developed by Cappiello, Engle and Sheppard (2006), we examine if there is contagion during the global financial crisis, following Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy of September 15th, 2008. The main contribution of this article is to analyze if the interdependence structure between the G14 banks changed significantly during the crisis period. We try to identify the banks which were the most or the least affected by losses induced by the crisis and we draw some conclusions in terms of their vulnerability to financial shocks. We find that all banks became highly interdependent during Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy (short term impact), but only some banks faced high contagion during the global financial crisis (long term impact). Regulators who try to reinforce banks’ stability with the Basel 3 reforms proposals should be interested by these results.