Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards heterogeneous microsystems design-for-test in a graduate student environment

Advances in the microfabrication of heterogeneous microsystems is enabling increasingly complex devices. Modeling, simulation and test methodologies are unable to keep pace. Custom test solutions require significant resources to implement and are often not reusable. Devices not performing as expected are difficult to diagnose. Design-for-testability techniques familiar to silicon microelectronics designers may offer solutions for validating and debugging designs. What is desirable is a system design and operational algorithm optimization in a rapid prototyping environment that incorporates design for testability considerations. The university research setting is particularly well suited for developing such an environment. In this paper, we review some of the generic tests performed on microsystems-based sensor systems by graduate students. Taking a research infrastructure perspective, we then propose improvements to proof of concept environments in universities to facilitate addition of design-for-test features into heterogeneous microsystems.
Point forecast markov switching model for U.S. Dollar/ Euro exchange rate

This research proposes a point forecasting method into Markov switching autoregressive model. In case of two regimes, we proved the probability that h periods later process will be in regime 1 or 2 is given by steady-state probabilities. Then, using the value of h-step-ahead forecast data at time t in each regime and using steady-state probabilities, we present an h-step-ahead point forecast of data. An empirical application of this forecasting technique for U.S. Dollar/ Euro exchange rate showed that Markov switching autoregressive model achieved superior forecasts relative to the random walk with drift. The results of out-of-sample forecast indicate that the fluctuations of U.S. Dollar/ Euro exchange rate from May 2011 to May 2013 will be rising.
Dynamic Service Placement for Mobile Micro-Clouds with Predicted Future Costs

Mobile micro-clouds are promising for enabling performance-critical cloud applications. However, one challenge therein is the dynamics at the network edge. In this paper, we study how to place service instances to cope with these dynamics, where multiple users and service instances coexist in the system. Our goal is to find the optimal placement (configuration) of instances to minimize the average cost over time, leveraging the ability of predicting future cost parameters with known accuracy. We first propose an offline algorithm that solves for the optimal configuration in a specific look-ahead time-window. Then, we propose an online approximation algorithm with polynomial time-complexity to find the placement in real-time whenever an instance arrives. We analytically show that the online algorithm is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(1)$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="wang-ieq1-2604814.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-competitive for a broad family of cost functions. Afterwards, the impact of prediction errors is considered and a method for finding the optimal look-ahead window size is proposed, which minimizes an upper bound of the average actual cost. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated by simulations with both synthetic and real-world (San Francisco taxi) user-mobility traces. The theoretical methodology used in this paper can potentially be applied to a larger class of dynamic resource allocation problems.
Subwavelength metamaterial unit for the applications of compact microstrip filters and diplexers

This paper presents a set of compact microstrip filters and diplexers based on the subwavelength metamaterial unit. Such metamaterial unit is developed from the classic split ring resonator by extending and bending the wire and shorting one of the end to ground. Firstly, the microstrip filter consisting of two metamaterial units and the diplexer based on the obtained filter are demonstrated experimentally. Then the performance enhanced designs based on four metamaterial units are designed and investigated.
A New Web Usage Mining Approach for Next Page Access Prediction

o engage users of a website at an early stage of surfing, a novel web access recommendation system is essential. In this paper, a new web usage mining approach is proposed to predict next page access. It is proposed to identify similar access patterns from web log using pair-wise nearest neighbor based clustering and then sequential pattern mining is done on these patterns to determine next page accesses. The tightness of clusters is improved by setting similarity threshold while forming clusters. In traditional recommendation models, clustering by non-sequential data decreases recommendation accuracy. In this paper it is proposed to integrate Markov model based sequential pattern mining with clustering. A variant of Markov model called dynamic support pruned all k th order Markov model is proposed in order to reduce state space complexity. Mining the web access log of users of similar interest provides good recommendation accuracy. Hence, the proposed model provides accurate recommendations with reduced state space complexity.
Top-down modulation of early sensory cortex.

Data from nine previous studies of human visual information processing using positron emission tomography were reanalyzed to contrast blood flow responses during passive viewing and active discriminations of the same stimulus array. The analysis examined whether active visual processing (i) increases blood flow in medial visual regions early in the visual hierarchy and (ii) decreases blood flow in auditory and somatosensory cortex. Significant modulation of medial visual regions was observed in six of nine studies, indicating that top-down processes can affect early visual cortex. Modulations showed several task dependencies, suggesting that in some cases the underlying mechanism was selective (e.g. analysisor feature-specific) rather than non-selective. Replicable decreases at or near auditory Brodmann area (BA) left 41/42 were observed in two of five studies, but in different locations. Analyses that combined data across studies yielded modest but significant decreases. Replicable decreases were not found in primary somatosensory cortex but were observed in an insular region that may be a somatosensory association area. Decreases were also noted in the parietal operculum (perhaps SII) and BA 40. These results are inconsistent with a model in which the precortical input to task-irrelevant sensory cortical areas is broadly suppressed.
DSC: public domain protein secondary structure predication

1. DSC has high accuracy. It has a prediction accuracy of 70.1% (per residue) on a standard set of 126 proteins. This percentage was confirmed by the recent CASP2 blind prediction challenge (see below). 2. DSC is based on simple linear statistics. Existing highaccuracy prediction methods are 'black-box' predictors based on complex non-linear statistics [e.g. neural networks in PHD (Rost and Sander, 1993) and nearestneighbour methods in NNSSP (Salamov and Solovyev, 1995)]. 3. DSC's accuracy is predictable a priori. This permits evaluation of the utility of the prediction, e.g. it is possible accurately to predict chains that have a mean accuracy of >80%. 4. DSC source code is freely available (in C). This allows DSC to be easily ported to other systems and to be used on proprietary sequences (e.g. DSC is running in-house at Glaxo Welcome pic). 5. DSC has a prediction server (see below). This server can generate its own sequence alignments.
Argatroban Therapy in Heparin‐Induced Thrombocytopenia

Patients who develop heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality if the disorder is not recognized and treated early. Upon initial suspicion of HIT, providers should promptly discontinue all heparin products and initiate an alternative form of anticoagulation without waiting for diagnostic test results confirming the presence of HIT antibodies. The direct thrombin inhibitor, argatroban (Argatroban), is a reasonable alternative anticoagulant in patients with HIT, based on its proven safety and efficacy, ease of use, and consistent response rate between individuals. Further clinical trials are warranted to evaluate and expand the use of argatroban in other thrombotic states.
Sequential treatment with 5‐aza‐2′‐deoxycytidine and deacetylase inhibitors reactivates HIV‐1

Reactivation of HIV gene expression in latently infected cells together with an efficient cART has been proposed as an adjuvant therapy aimed at eliminating/decreasing the reservoir size. Results from HIV clinical trials using deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) question the efficiency of these latency‐reversing agents (LRAs) used alone and underline the need to evaluate other LRAs in combination with HDACIs. Here, we evaluated the therapeutic potential of a demethylating agent (5‐AzadC) in combination with clinically tolerable HDACIs in reactivating HIV‐1 from latency first in vitro and next ex vivo. We showed that a sequential treatment with 5‐AzadC and HDACIs was more effective than the corresponding simultaneous treatment both in vitro and ex vivo. Interestingly, only two of the sequential LRA combinatory treatments tested induced HIV‐1 particle recovery in a higher manner than the drugs alone ex vivo and at concentrations lower than the human tolerable plasmatic concentrations. Taken together, our data reveal the benefit of using combinations of 5‐AzadC with an HDACI and, for the first time, the importance of treatment time schedule for LRA combinations in order to reactivate HIV.
54 dB Image Rejection Fully Integrated Receiver for Multi-standard 5-GHz WLANs

A fully integrated heterodyne receiver (1.1 GHz of intermediate frequency) for multi-standard (IEEE 802.11a and HiPerLAN/2) indoor 5-6 GHz WLAN applications is presented. The circuit consists of a selective LNA with a passive notch filter centered at the image frequency (fIM) and an image reject mixer realized according to Hartley's scheme. The circuit has been implemented in a standard SiGe process and exhibits 54 dB of total image rejection, 4.7 dB of NF, -68 dB of LO leakage to RF suppression and a input-referred CP1dB equal to -20dBm
Study of slabstock flexible polyurethane foams based on varied toluene diisocyanate isomer ratios

The morphological features of three flexible slabstock polyurethane foams based on varied contents of 2,4 and 2,6 toluene diisocyanate (TDI) isomers are investigated. The three commercially available TDI mixtures, that is, 65:35 2,4/2,6 TDI, 80:20 2,4/2,6 TDI, and 100:0 2,4/2,6 TDI were used. The foams were characterized at different length scales with several techniques. Differences in the cellular structure of the foams were noted with scanning electron microscopy. Small-angle X-ray scattering was used to demonstrate that all three foams were microphase-separated and possessed similar interdomain spacings. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the aggregation of the urea phase into large urea-rich regions decreased systematically on increasing the asymmetric TDI isomer content. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that the level of bidentate hydrogen bonding of the hard segments increased with the 2,6 TDI isomer content. Differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were used to note changes in the soft-segment glass-transition temperature of the foams on varying the diisocyanate ratios and suggested that the perfection of microphase separation was enhanced on increasing the 2,6 TDI isomer content. The preceding observations were used to explain why the foam containing the highest content of the symmetric 2,6 TDI isomer exhibited the highest rubbery storage modulus, as measured by DMA. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 258–268, 2003
Definition, diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus and its complications. Part 1: diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus. Provisional report of a WHO Consultation

The classification of diabetes mellitus and the tests used for its diagnosis were brought into order by the National Diabetes Data Group of the USA and the second World Health Organization Expert Committee on Diabetes Mellitus in 1979 and 1980. Apart from minor modifications by WHO in 1985, little has been changed since that time. There is however considerable new knowledge regarding the aetiology of different forms of diabetes as well as more information on the predictive value of different blood glucose values for the complications of diabetes. A WHO Consultation has therefore taken place in parallel with a report by an American Diabetes Association Expert Committee to re‐examine diagnostic criteria and classification. The present document includes the conclusions of the former and is intended for wide distribution and discussion before final proposals are submitted to WHO for approval. The main changes proposed are as follows. The diagnostic fasting plasma (blood) glucose value has been lowered to ≥7.0 mmol l−1 (6.1 mmol l−1). Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) is changed to allow for the new fasting level. A new category of Impaired Fasting Glycaemia (IFG) is proposed to encompass values which are above normal but below the diagnostic cut‐off for diabetes (plasma ≥6.1 to <7.0 mmol l−1; whole blood ≥5.6 to <6.1 mmol l−1). Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) now includes gestational impaired glucose tolerance as well as the previous GDM. The classification defines both process and stage of the disease. The processes include Type 1, autoimmune and non‐autoimmune, with beta‐cell destruction; Type 2 with varying degrees of insulin resistance and insulin hyposecretion; Gestational Diabetes Mellitus; and Other Types where the cause is known (e.g. MODY, endocrinopathies). It is anticipated that this group will expand as causes of Type 2 become known. Stages range from normoglycaemia to insulin required for survival. It is hoped that the new classification will allow better classification of individuals and lead to fewer therapeutic misjudgements. © 1998 WHO
BokSmart : safe and effective techniques in rugby union : commentary

As with any contact sport, rugby union has a high risk of injury. The majority of injuries result from contact phases of play such as the tackle, taking the ball into contact, the scrum, the lineout and the ruck and maul. Many techniques associated with a reduced risk of injury can be taught. The need for coaches to emphasise correct technique is extremely important and one of the few possible modes to reduce injuries, particularly non-fatal catastrophic injuries to the head, neck, brain and spine. This paper provides evidence of safe techniques during the contact phases of the game (tackling, taking the ball into contact, scrum setting and engagement, lineouts as well as rucks and mauls). Examples are also given to show that safe techniques often are the most effective techniques from a performance perspective.
Red clover isoflavones are safe and well tolerated in women with a family history of breast cancer

Objective To assess the safety and tolerability of a standardized 40 mg red clover isoflavone dietary supplement (Promensil®, Novogen) in women with a family history of breast cancer to evaluate the feasibility of using the supplement for prevention of breast cancer in healthy women. Study design Healthy women aged 35–70 years (n = 401) with at least one first-degree relative with breast cancer received red clover isoflavones or placebo for three years in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial. Participants were assessed clinically and blood samples taken for biochemical analysis every six months. In addition, study participants underwent mammography, bone density and transvaginal ultrasound (postmenopausal women only) once per year. Results No significant differences in breast density, endometrial thickness, serum cholesterol, follicle stimulating hormone levels and bone mineral density were detected between those taking red clover isoflavones and placebo. In postmenopausal women, some significant differences in bone marker levels were seen between active and placebo groups, at six months and at 12 months. The adverse event profile was similar across all red clover isoflavone and placebo groups. Conclusion This three-year study supports the growing body of evidence that treatment with red clover isoflavones is safe and well tolerated in healthy women. Supplements containing red clover isoflavones did not adversely affect breast density, skeletal strength or cardiovascular status. In postmenopausal women, endometrial status was not adversely affected. The adverse event profile was similar between red clover isoflavones, and placebo and endocrine status did not differ.
6 An Efficient Dual-Resolution Ensemble Data Assimilation Approach and Tests with the Assimilation of Doppler Radar Data

To gain a complete understanding of convective storm dynamics and to initialize storm-resolving numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, a complete description of the three-dimensional (3-D) wind, thermodynamic and microphysical fields is needed. The Doppler weather radar, as the only platform that provides volumetric information at the convective storm scale, only observes radial velocity (Vr) and reflectivity (Z). In recent years, various techniques have been developed for analyzing and retrieving the atmospheric state at the convective scale from Doppler radar data. They range from relatively simple single-Doppler velocity retrieval techniques to the four-dimensional variational (4DVAR) method that employs a full prediction model and its adjoint. For the purpose of initializing storm-scale NWP models, the 4DVAR method (e.g., Sun and Crook 1997; Gao et al. 1998) promises to provide an initial condition that is consistent with the prediction model and is able to effectively use multiple volume scans from radar. However, the need to develop and maintain an adjoint code and the associated high computing requirement have limited 4DVAR assimilations of Doppler radar data to relatively simple applications and model settings. The 4DVAR method appears to also have difficulties in dealing with highly nonlinear discontinuous physical processes which become increasingly important at the convective scale. Since its first introduction by Evensen (1994), the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) technique for data assimilation has received much attention. Rather than solving the equation for the time evolution of the probability density function of model state, the EnKF methods apply the Monte Carlo method to estimate the forecast error statistics. A large ensemble of model states are integrated forward in time using the dynamic equations, the moments of the probability density function are then calculated from this ensemble for different times (Evensen 2003).
A case of "acting out the missing leader": Understanding aspects of the psychodynamics of group identity

This article revisits a previously published case study of group dynamics that related to when a leader dies (or is absent). The conceptual lens used to re-read these group dynamics, is one derived from psychoanalysis and specifically features the notion of the death instinct and the work of C. Fred Alford. The paper frames its discussion of the case study using Alford's five dramas of “acting out the missing leader”. Like a drama, the paper locates the case study as a series of acts and scenes with a specific psychodynamic script that is being played-out. The paper has broader implications than simply “When a leader dies” as the discussion speaks to an understanding of larger leader - follower behaviour.
Path planning research for mobile robot based on the circle scanning method

This paper proposes an improved artificial potential fields (APF) method for the path planning of mobile robot. The new method is based on the circle scanning and can overcome the shortcomings of goal nonreachable and robot impassable in the case of obstacles closing each other. Instead of changing the potential field function of the repulsive force in traditional APF methods, the improved APF applies the circle scanning method combining with the potential field function to search the optimal point in the path. This method can avoid collision with obstacles and reach the goal. The simulation result illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Speak my language if you want my money: the impact of service language on consumer tipping behavior

OBJECTIVES The impact of language in services has mainly been studied from a perspective of perceived importance of language use. To date, research has not investigated the impact of language differences on behavioral outcomes. In this paper, we focus on one specific outcome variable; and examine how the service provider’s language use may influence consumer tipping behaviour. Investigating tipping behavior is an interesting outcome variable as consumers rarely wish to pay more when being served (Lynn and McCall, 2000). In this paper, we present three studies investigating the impact of language differences between bilingual customers and service personnel on tipping behavior. We further test the mediating effect of speech accommodation, a process in which the service provider accommodates the customer by doing or showing efforts to use the customer’s language. METHODS The three studies on tipping behaviour include two experiments and one survey with adult bilingual customers from two different countries (Belgium, Finland). The effect of language use on tipping behaviour, and the mediating effects of speech accommodation, is established through the three studies, confirming the hypotheses. RESULTS The results show that the service provider’s language use has a large and significant effect on the consumer tipping behaviour. This effect can consistently be observed in all three studies across both countries, confirming the generalizability of the results. We further establish that the impact of language differences on tipping behaviour is fully mediated by speech accommodation employed by the service provider. CONCLUSIONS Consistent across different countries and different methodologies, we find that customers who are served in their second language are less willing to tip than customers who are served in their native language. Given that tipping behavior can be considered as a proxy for service quality perceptions (Lynn, 2001; Lynn and Sturman, 2010), our findings thus suggest that restaurant visitors who are served in their second language perceive the quality of the service as low. This is an important finding as prior research focused on whether customers find it important to be served in their native language (Holmqvist, 2011), but did not focus on behavioral outcomes of these language differences. Our research has important implications for waiters and waitresses active on bilingual markets. It appears that they are able to increase their income with tips if they accommodate to the restaurant visitor’s native language. This would require waiters and waitresses to learn or enhance the second language of the market. Restaurant owners might also offer language courses to waiters and waitresses in order to make them more fluent in the different languages of the market. Doing so might be beneficial, as waiters and waitresses who receive more tips have a higher job satisfaction, and are more committed to deliver good service.