Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Rate Region for General Interference Channel (Improved HK Region)

In this paper (a) after detailed investigation of the previous equivalent rate regions for general interference channel, i.e., the Han-Kobayashi (HK) and the Chong-Motani-Garg (CMG) regions, we define modified CMG region the equivalency of which with the HK region is readily seen; (b) we make two novel changes in the HK coding. First, we allow the input auxiliary random variables to be correlated and, second, exploit the powerful technique of random binning instead of the HK -CMG superposition coding, thereby establishing a new rate region for general interference channel, as an improved version of the HK region; (c) we make a novel change in the CMG coding by allowing the message variables to be correlated and obtain an equivalent form for our new region in (b), as an improved version of the CMG region. Then, (d) in order to exactly demarcate the regions, by considering their different easily comparable versions, we compare our region to the HK and CMG regions. Specifically, using a simple dependency structure for the correlated auxiliary random variables, based on the Wyner and Gacs-Korner common information between dependent variables, we show that the HK and the CMG regions are special cases of our new region. Keywords. Interference channel, Correlated auxiliary random variables, Common information, Superposition coding, Binning scheme
A high magnetic coupling, low loss, stacked balun in digital 65nm CMOS

We present a high magnetic coupling, low loss, stacked balun using a thick aluminum bonding metal layer over a thick copper layer. The thick copper is used to realize a differential primary input winding that resides directly underneath a single ended spiral winding using the aluminum. The spiral forms the single ended secondary output of the balun and is rotated by 90° so as to prevent any metal shorting for its cross under. Occupying an area of 0.078mm2 on a digital 65nm process, a 5 turn primary with a 3 turn secondary has a measured coupling of 0.94 and a total balun loss of 1.55dB at 1845MHz.
A model-driven based framework for rapid parallel SoC FPGA prototyping

Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) based approaches have been proposed as a solution to cope with the inefficiency of current design methods. In this context, this paper presents an MDE-based framework for rapid SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) parametric parallel SoC (System-on-Chip) prototyping to deal with the ever-growing complexity of such embedded systems design process. The design flow covers the design phases from system-level modeling to FPGA prototyping. The proposed framework allows the designer to easily and automatically generate a VHDL parallel SoC configuration from a high-level system specification model using the MARTE (Modeling and Analysis of Real-Time and Embedded systems) standard profile. It is based on an IP (Intellectual Property) library and a basic parallel SoC model. The generated parallel configuration can be adapted to the data-parallel application requirements. In an experimental setting, four steps are needed to generate a parallel SoC: data-parallel programming, SoC modeling, deployment and generation process. Experimental results for a video application validate the approach and demonstrate that the proposed framework facilitates the parallel SoC exploration.
Exploring BOLD Changes during Spatial Attention in Non-Stimulated Visual Cortex

Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses were measured in parts of primary visual cortex that represented unstimulated visual field regions at different distances from a stimulated central target location. The composition of the visual scene varied by the presence or absence of additional peripheral distracter stimuli. Bottom-up effects were assessed by comparing peripheral activity during central stimulation vs. no stimulation. Top-down effects were assessed by comparing active vs. passive conditions. In passive conditions subjects simply watched the central letter stimuli and in active conditions they had to report occurrence of pre-defined targets in a rapid serial letter stream. Onset of the central letter stream enhanced activity in V1 representations of the stimulated region. Within representations of the periphery activation decreased and finally turned into deactivation with increasing distance from the stimulated location. This pattern was most pronounced in the active conditions and during the presence of peripheral stimuli. Active search for a target did not lead to additional enhancement at areas representing the attentional focus but to a stronger deactivation in the vicinity. Suppressed neuronal activity was also found in the non distracter condition suggesting a top-down attention driven effect. Our observations suggest that BOLD signal decreases in primary visual cortex are modulated by bottom-up sensory-driven factors such as the presence of distracters in the visual field as well as by top-down attentional processes.
Targeting P-Selectin by Gallium-68–Labeled Fucoidan Positron Emission Tomography for Noninvasive Characterization of Vulnerable Plaques: Correlation With In Vivo 17.6T MRI

Objective— Nuclear imaging of active plaques still remains challenging. Advanced atherosclerotic plaques have a strong expression of P-selectin by the endothelium overlying active atherosclerotic plaques, but not on the endothelium overlying inactive fibrous plaques. We proposed a new approach for noninvasive in vivo characterization of P-selectin on active plaques based on 68Ga-Fucoidan, which is a polysaccharidic ligand of P-selectin with a nanomolar affinity. Approach and Results— 68Ga-Fucoidan was tested for its potential to discriminate vulnerable plaques on apolipoprotein E–deficient mice receiving a high cholesterol diet by positron emission tomography and in correlation with 17.6T MRI. Furthermore, 68Ga-Fucoidan was evaluated on endothelial cells in vitro and ex vivo on active plaques using autoradiography. The cellular uptake rate was increased ≈2-fold by lipopolysaccharide induction. Interestingly, on autoradiography, more intensive tracer accumulation at active plaques with thin fibrous caps and high-density foam cells were observed in comparison with a weaker focal uptake in inactive fibrous plaque segments (R=1.7±0.3; P<0.05) and fatty streaks (R=2.4±0.4; P<0.01). Strong uptake of radiotracer colocalized with increased P-selectin expression and high-density macrophage. Focal vascular uptake (mean of target to background ratio=5.1±0.8) of 68Ga-Fucoidan was detected in all apolipoprotein E–deficient mice. Anatomic structures of plaque were confirmed by 17.6T MRI. The autoradiography showed a good agreement of 68Ga-Fucoidan uptake with positron emission tomography. Conclusions— Our data suggest that 68Ga-Fucoidan represents a versatile imaging biomarker for P-selectin with the potential to specifically detect P-selectin expression using positron emission tomography and to discriminate vulnerable plaques in vivo.
Automatic generation of textual, audio, and animated help in UIDE: the User Interface Design

Research on automatic help generation fails to match the advance in user interface technology. With users and interfaces becoming increasingly sophisticated, generating help information must be presented with a close tie to the current work context. Help research also needs to utilize the media technology to become effective in conveying information to users. Our work on automatic generation of help from user interface specifications attempts to bridge the gaps, both between help and user interface making help truly sensitive to the interface context, and between the help media and the interface media making communication more direct and more effective. Our work previously reported emphasized a shared knowledge representation for both user interface and help, and an architecture for automatic generation of context-sensitive animated help in Smalltalk-80. This paper presents a new integrated architecture in C++ which not only generates animation, but also audio as procedural help. The architecture also uses the knowledge representation to automatically provide textual help of why an object in an interface is disabled.
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ELISA AND IIFT IN DETECTING CHLAMYDIA PNEUMONIAE SPECIFIC IGG ANTIBODIES IN PATIENTS OF ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME (ACS)

Background: Chlamydia pnaumoniae is reported to be associated with coronary heart disease (CHD). Efficacy of available serologic tests for detecting C.pneumoniae antibodies has been debated. The aim of present study was to compare Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay (ELISA) and Indirect Immunofluorescent Test (IIFT) for detecting specific antichlamydial antibodies in patients of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). Materials and Methods: Serum samples from 100 patients of ACS and 90 healthy controls were tested for the presence of Chlamydial IgG antibodies using ELISA and IIFT. To assess agreement between ELISA and IIFT, we used ‘nominal scale variables”. Agreement analysis was done using sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) and diagnostic accuracy of the test. Results: The ELISA and IIFT detected C.pneumoniae IgG antibodies in 66% and 48% respectively in patients of ACS, and 29% and 20% respectively of healthy controls. In patients of ACS, sensitivity and specificity of ELISA as compared to IIFT were 70.8% and 38.4% respectively. The PPV of ELISA for C.pneumoniae was 51.5% and NPV was 58.8%. The diagnostic accuracy of ELISA for C.pneumoniae was 54.6%. The two tests correlated in 54% of samples with a moderate agreement of =0.51. Conclusions: The results of present study indicate that ELISA test was inferior to IIFT in detecting C.pneumoniae antibodies in patients of ACS.
Fibroblast growth factor signaling in oligodendrocyte‐lineage cells facilitates recovery of chronically demyelinated lesions but is redundant in acute lesions

Remyelination is a potent regenerative process in demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, the effective therapeutic promotion of which will fill an unmet clinical need. The development of proregenerative therapies requires the identification of key regulatory targets that are likely to be involved in the integration of multiple signaling mechanisms. Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling system, which comprises multiple ligands and receptors, potentially provides one such target. Since the FGF/FGF receptor (FGFR) interactions are complex and regulate multiple diverse functions of oligodendrocyte lineage cells, it is difficult to predict their overall therapeutic potential in the regeneration of oligodendrocytes and myelin. Therefore, to assess the integrated effects of FGFR signaling on this process, we simultaneously inactivated both FGFR1 and FGFR2 in oligodendrocytes and their precursors using two Cre‐driver mouse lines. Acute and chronic cuprizone‐induced or lysolecithin‐induced demyelination was established in Fgfr1/Fgfr2 double knockout mice (dKO). We found that in the acute cuprizone model, there was normal differentiation of oligodendrocytes and recovery of myelin in the corpus callosum of both control and dKO mice. Similarly, in the spinal cord, lysolecithin‐induced demyelinated lesions regenerated similarly in the dKO and control mice. In contrast, in the chronic cuprizone model, fewer differentiated oligodendrocytes and less efficient myelin recovery were observed in the dKO compared to control mice. These data suggest that while cell‐autonomous FGF signaling is redundant during recovery of acute demyelinated lesions, it facilitates regenerative processes in chronic demyelination. Thus, FGF‐based therapies have potential value in stimulating oligodendrocyte and myelin regeneration in late‐stage disease. GLIA 2015;63:1714–1728
Evaluating Power Consumption of D-Nuca Caches

D-NUCA caches are on-chip cache memories characterized by multi-bank partitioning and data migration. They exhibit high hit rates while keeping the access latency low. As counterpart, such caches are affected by high static and dynamic power consumption. In this work we present a preliminary power consumption evaluation of a D-NUCA cache. Results show the existing balance among static and dynamic contributions to total power budget.
Sleep problems of school‐aged children: a complementary view

The aim of this population‐based multicentre study was to evaluate the prevalence rates of sleep problems among 8‐9‐y‐old children. The sample consisted of 5813 Finnish children, making up 10% of the age cohort. Both parents and children provided information. Disturbed sleep was reported by 21.7% of parents. Most of the problems were mild; only 0.3% were serious. Dyssomnias were frequent: 11.1% had difficulties with sleep onset, 7.1% with night waking and 2.3% with waking too early. Multiple sleep problems were present in 9.1% of the children. 17.8% of children reported disturbed sleep, 12.7% had problems many nights and 5.1% every night. In 32.0% of cases, either the parent or the child reported disturbed sleep; 7.4% of these reports came from both the parent and the child, 14.1% from the parent only and 10.3% from the child only. The correspondence between informants was poor (κ= 0.224). Sleeping problems were associated with somatic and psychiatric problems. It is concluded that by restricting questioning to parents only, one‐third of all potential cases of sleep problems may go unnoticed. In order to increase the sensitivity of screening children's sleep problems, both parents and children should provide information in epidemiological settings as well as in clinical work.
The Effect of Ageism on the Digital Divide Among Older Adults

Older adults as a group are on the negative side of the digital divide. The term “digital divide” not only identifies who uses the internet and who does not, but also gradations of digital exclusion, that is, the complexity, depth, and variety of internet use. Lower use rates of computers and the internet among older adults have important social and cost ramifications. As the internet becomes more integrated into everyday life, people who do not use the internet are more likely to become more disenfranchised and disadvantaged. The literature attributes the digital divide affecting older adults to internal characteristics of older adults, such as lower levels of computer literacy, technophobia, lack of perceived usefulness and physical and cognitive deficits. This paper reviews the literature on ageism and on technology adoption for older adults and expands the literature by discussing why ageism may also contribute to the digital divide among older adults. Citation: McDonough CC (2016) The Effect of Ageism on the Digital Divide Among Older Adults. J Gerontol Geriatr Med 2: 008.
A Force Feedback Teleoperated Needle Insertion Device for Percutaneous Procedures

A novel robotized tool for percutaneous interventions under CT-scanner guidance is presented in this paper. This teleoperated compact robotic device can be used as an end-effector for an image-guided positioning robot. It is fully compatible with computed tomography constraints. In particular, it is able to manipulate needles that are longer than the overall height of its body. This novel device mimics the manual gesture performed by the physician by grasping and re-grasping the needle. This operating principle enables direct force measurement on the inserted surgical needle and allows efficient teleoperation with force feedback. In the paper, the specifications of this needle driver are presented and the proposed design is explained. Experiments conducted on swine under operating conditions were performed in order to validate both the concept and the design of the proposed insertion device in the context of teleoperated needle insertions with force feedback.
Texture Enhancement via High-Resolution Style Transfer for Single-Image Super-Resolution

Recently, various deep-neural-network (DNN)-based approaches have been proposed for single-image super-resolution (SISR). Despite their promising results on major structure regions such as edges and lines, they still suffer from limited performance on texture regions that consist of very complex and fine patterns. This is because, during the acquisition of a low-resolution (LR) image via down-sampling, these regions lose most of the high frequency information necessary to represent the texture details. In this paper, we present a novel texture enhancement framework for SISR to effectively improve the spatial resolution in the texture regions as well as edges and lines. We call our method, high-resolution (HR) style transfer algorithm. Our framework consists of three steps: (i) generate an initial HR image from an interpolated LR image via an SISR algorithm, (ii) generate an HR style image from the initial HR image via down-scaling and tiling, and (iii) combine the HR style image with the initial HR image via a customized style transfer algorithm. Here, the HR style image is obtained by down-scaling the initial HR image and then repetitively tiling it into an image of the same size as the HR image. This down-scaling and tiling process comes from the idea that texture regions are often composed of small regions that similar in appearance albeit sometimes different in scale. This process creates an HR style image that is rich in details, which can be used to restore high-frequency texture details back into the initial HR image via the style transfer algorithm. Experimental results on a number of texture datasets show that our proposed HR style transfer algorithm provides more visually pleasing results compared with competitive methods.
The ESL Classroom: Teaching, Critical Practice, and Community Development

The complexities of teaching English as a second language to those newly arrived in Canada are addressed with insight and humour in this book. Brian Morgan draws extensively on his own teaching experience in Canada and China to reinvestigate the nature and aims of ESL teaching and to formulate approaches to becoming a more effective ESL teacher.Morgan's central principle is that ESL theories, materials, and approaches should be relevant to the social, political, and cultural conditions of each group of students. He stresses the importance of finding subject matter that will provide meaningful content for lessons, suggesting that discussion topics such as ecology, gender roles, changing social identity, and employment equity are often valid and appropriate for immigrant groups. Written for teachers by a teacher, the book includes lesson plans, examples of students' work, and vivid anecdotes of classroom incidents, presenting an important new perspective on ESL teaching.
Cloud Overlap Dependence on Atmospheric Dynamics

Cloud parameterizations in GCMs have to make assumptions on how cloud layers are arranged with respect to each other along the vertical. These assumptions have significant impacts on the radiation budget. The commonly used assumption of random overlap for noncontiguous layers and maximum overlap for contiguous layers (Geleyn and Hollingsworth 1979) has been compared against times series of vertically pointing millimeter wave cloud radar profiles for three winter months at the United Kingdom Chilbolton site by Hogan and Illingworth (2000). They found that contiguous layers show a maximum overlap only when cloud layers are close to each other. At large separations, cloud layers showed a random overlap in accordance with Geleyn and Hollingsworth (1979). Using a similar formalism, Mace and Benson-Troth (2002; hereafter MBT02) used radar data from the four Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) sites over a longer period and found that contiguous layers displayed a maximum overlap for longer separations than suggested by Hogan and Illingworth (2000) at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. They also noticed a seasonal variation of the separations for which overlap in contiguous layers became random.
School children’s reasoning about school rules

School rules are usually associated with classroom management and school discipline. However, rules also define ways of thinking about oneself and the world. Rules are guidelines for actions and for the evaluation of actions in terms of good and bad, or right and wrong, and therefore a part of moral or values education in school. This study is a part of a larger ethnographic study on values education in the everyday life of school. Here the focus is on school rules and students’ reasoning about these rules. Five categories of school rules have been constructed during the analysis: (a) relational rules; (b) structuring rules; (c) protecting rules; (d) personal rules; and (e) etiquette rules. The findings show that the students’ reasoning about rules varies across the rule categories. The perception of reasonable meaning behind a rule seems to be – not surprisingly – significant to students’ acceptance of the rule. According to the students, relational rules are the most important in school. Students also value protecting and structuring rules as important because of the meaning giving to them. Etiquette rules are valued as the least important or even unnecessary by the students.
In search of transparency for lower limb exoskeleton devices with a new mechanical design and a robust gait phases detection method

This paper considers the central question of transparency in a lower limb exoskeleton, designed for knee rehabilitation. The device is aimed to provide torque assistance for the user's knee joint during walking. The mechanical design is realized according to the methodology established for exoskeletons, which consists of using passive linkages to connect the device's external rigid structure to the human body. Torque controllers are implemented at the knee joints. A gait phase detection method is investigated in order to provide an effective control of the system. First simulations and experiments were conducted, showing the effect of the device on the wearer during locomotion.
Impact of Female Sex Hormones on Liver Tissue Lactic Acidosis During Ischemia

Background. Lower liver transplant success is observed when the donor is female. Intracellular acidosis during ischemia is proposed to contribute to the injury sustained by the transplanted organ and its role in livers obtained from nonheartbeating donors is unclear. Research has shown that livers of female rats develop a greater degree of intracellular acidosis during ischemia than males. This work explores the role of sex hormones in mediating this sex difference. Methods. Subgroups of neutered female rats were given 17 β-estradiol (E), progesterone (P), or combination (E+P). To compare the effects of female sex hormones in males, subgroups of intact and castrated males received 17 β-estradiol. In vivo and ischemic liver biopsies were taken and analyzed for lactate and H+. Results. Although there was no effect of hormone therapy on baseline metabolic parameters, during ischemia compared to neutered females, livers from E females significantly (P<0.01) increased lactate by 56% and H+ by 71%, while E+P significantly increased only lactate (39%; P<0.05). Livers from neutered males given 17 β-estradiol showed significantly greater (P<0.001) accumulation of lactate (80%) and H+ (79%). This was even shown in intact males, where despite a blunted response, 17 β-estradiol, significantly (P<0.05) increased lactate by 39% and H+ by 25%. Conclusion. This study illustrates the mechanisms for the sex difference in the liver’s metabolic response to ischemia are estrogen mediated, which is seen even in the presence of male hormones, thus offering one explanation for the lower liver transplant success when the donor is female.