Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Wideband three-stage rail-to-rail power amplifier driving large capacitive load

This paper presents a wideband three-stage rail-to-rail power amplifier for driving large load. The proposed amplifier introduces two nulling resistors to the nested Miller compensation with feed-forward transconductance (NMCF) amplifier. The nulling resistors transform all zeros to left-half-plane (LHP), thereto optimize the phase margin of the amplifier. The strict matching problem of nulling resistors is alleviated in the proposed amplifier. The proposed compensation method is suitable to construct an amplifier with rail-to-rail input/output swing by using a complementary input differential pairs and class-AB output stage as demonstrated in the presented design example. Linearity is promoted by applying separate biasing voltages to the output stage. The proposed amplifier is fabricated with 0.35 mum 1P4M CMOS technology and the measurement results are presented, which verify the overall performance.
Interacting effects of warming and drought on regeneration and early growth of Acer pseudoplatanus and A. platanoides.

Climate change is acting on several aspects of plant life cycles, including the sexual reproductive stage, which is considered amongst the most sensitive life-cycle phases. In temperate forests, it is expected that climate change will lead to a compositional change in community structure due to changes in the dominance of currently more abundant forest tree species. Increasing our understanding of the effects of climate change on currently secondary tree species recruitment is therefore important to better understand and forecast population and community dynamics in forests. Here, we analyse the interactive effects of rising temperatures and soil moisture reduction on germination, seedling survival and early growth of two important secondary European tree species, Acer pseudoplatanus and A. platanoides. Additionally, we analyse the effect of the temperature experienced by the mother tree during seed production by collecting seeds of both species along a 2200-km long latitudinal gradient. For most of the responses, A. platanoides showed higher sensitivity to the treatments applied, and especially to its joint manipulation, which for some variables resulted in additive effects while for others only partial compensation. In both species, germination and survival decreased with rising temperatures and/or soil moisture reduction while early growth decreased with declining soil moisture content. We conclude that although A. platanoides germination and survival were more affected after the applied treatments, its initial higher germination and larger seedlings might allow this species to be relatively more successful than A. pseudoplatanus in the face of climate change.
Is The Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey Specific for Convergence Insufficiency? A Prospective, Randomized Study

Background and Purpose The Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey (CISS) is a questionnaire used as an outcome measure in treatment of convergence insufficiency. The current prospective randomized trial evaluates the diagnostic specificity of the CISS. Patients and Methods Surveys were completed by 118 adolescent patients who presented for routine eye examinations. Scores were compared between patients who could be classified as having convergence insufficiency (CI) or normal binocular vision (NBV). In addition, a comparison was done between self- and practitioner-administered CISS scores within these groups. Results The mean CISS score did not differ significantly between NBV patients (14.1 ±11.3, range of 0 to 43) and CI patients (12.3 ±6.7, range of 3 to 28); P = 0.32. Mean CISS scores were lower when physician-administered (11.4 ±7.9) than when self-administered (16.3+11.4); P = 0.007. Conclusion CISS scores tend to be higher when self- vs. practitioner-administered. This study suggests that the CISS questionnaire is not specific for convergence insufficiency.
Optimal Probabilistic Initial and Target Channel Selection for Spectrum Handoff in Cognitive Radio Networks

Spectrum mobility in cognitive radio networks not only enables the secondary users to guarantee the desired QoS of the primary users but also grants an efficient exploitation of the available spectrum holes in the network. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic approach in determining the initial and target channels for the handoff procedure in a single secondary user network. To characterize the network, a queuing theoretical framework is introduced, and “stay” and “change” handoff policies are both addressed. The performance of the secondary user in terms of average sojourn and extended service times for secondary connections is analyzed, and convex optimization problems with the objective of minimizing those times as well as analytical solutions are presented. Simulation results confirm the validity of our analytical approach.
Performance of government linked companies and private owned companies in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to find whether there was any significant difference in performance between government-linked companies (GLCs) and private-owned companies (POCs) and there was any significant improvement in performance of GLCs after Malaysian Government ' s initiatives to transform the GLCs to high-performance companies. Design/methodology/approach – Panel data estimation techniques were used to run the regression in this study. Findings – It was found that there was no significant difference in performance level between GLCs and POCs. It was also found that the performance level of GLCs had improved significantly after the initiation of GLCs ' transformation programme by the Malaysian Government. Originality/value – The implication of the results of this study is that state-owned enterprises in developing countries like Malaysia can be relevant and important to take care of social responsibilities and needs, as also they can perform at par with private companies. There is no need .
A Dual-Mode Helical Antenna Design for On-and Off-Body Communication in Body Sensor Networks

Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) are mainly concerned with the human body. There are many restrictions concerning the sensor antenna design placed on/in the body due to harmful effects that may take place due to high power levels. Therefore, a dual-mode helical antenna resonating at the 2.4 GHz ISM band for medical application is proposed in this paper. The design includes two helices (normal and axial modes) acting as a single antenna with single feed. This combination gives the capability of serving both on-and off-body communication modes to enhance body coverage and reduce power consumption. The antenna is of a wide band from 2.2 GHz and extending beyond the 10 GHz of maximum gain of 9.67 dBi at the 2.45 GHz. The simulation results are obtained using the Ansoft HFSS software. Finally, another design of the dual-mode helix is presented using a dual-feed to give the flexibility of switching between communication modes (on-and off-body) as required.
Functional Characterization of the Human Interleukin-15 Receptor (cid:97) Chain and Close Linkage of IL15RA and IL2RA Genes*

Interleukins-2 and -15 (IL-2 and IL-15) are cytokines with overlapping but distinct biological effects. Their receptors share two subunits (the IL-2R (cid:98) and - (cid:103) chains) that are essential for signal transduction. The IL-2 re- ceptor requires an additional IL-2-specific (cid:97) subunit for high affinity IL-2 binding. Recently, a murine IL-15-spe- cific (cid:97) subunit was identified, cloned, and shown to be structurally related to IL-2R (cid:97) . However, the murine IL-15R (cid:97) alone bound IL-15 with a 1000-fold higher affinity than that seen with IL-2R (cid:97) and IL-2. We now extend these studies into the human system with the isolation of three differentially spliced human IL-15R (cid:97) allelic nucleotide 627 resulting in an amino acid change between WI-26 clone W5 (ACC/Thr) and A-172 clones A212 and A133 (AAC/ Asn). An independently isolated IL-15R (cid:97) cDNA obtained from a peripheral blood T cell cDNA library sequenced and found to encode ACC/Thr at this position. The peripheral blood T cell isolate also contained the signal peptide coding sequence of clone A212 (data not shown). Reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis was used to determine the representation of the W5 (full-length), A212 (missing exon 3), and A133 (insertion at intron 6) forms of IL-15R (cid:97) in other human mRNA populations, using oligonucleotide primers designed to amplify across the positions of either exon 3 or intron 6. Two amplified bands of the expected sizes ( (cid:54) 99 bp at exon 3; (cid:54) 120 bp at intron 6) were detected in first strand cDNAs generated from peripheral blood T cells, the NK-like YT cell line (34) and the myelogenous leukemia line K-562 (ATCC CCL 243). The same relative intensities of the different forms (A133 (cid:39) W5 (cid:46) A212) was seen in all three samples (data not shown). These results suggest that all three alternatively spliced forms of IL-15R (cid:97) mRNA are in these
Protein tyrosine phosphatases in Chaetopterus egg activation

Changes in protein tyrosine phosphorylation are an essential aspect of egg activation after fertilization. Such changes result from the net contributions of both tyrosine kinases and phosphatases (PTP). This study was conducted to determine what role(s) PTP may have in egg activation. We identified four novel PTP in Chaetopterus pergamentaceus oocytes, cpPTPNT6, cpPTPNT7, cpPTPR2B, and cpPTPR2A, that have significant homology to, respectively, human PTPσ, ‐ρ, ‐D2 and ‐BAS. The first two are cytosolic and the latter two are transmembrane. Several PTP inhibitors were tested to see if they would affect Chaetopterus pergamentaceus fertilization. Eggs treated with β‐bromo‐4‐hydroxyacetophenone (PTP inhibitor 1) exhibited microvillar elongation, which is a sign of cortical changes resulting from activation. Those treated with Na3VO4 underwent full parthenogenetic activation, including polar body formation and pseudocleavage and did so independently of extracellular Ca2+, which is required for the Ca2+ oscillations that initiate development after fertilization. Fluorescence microscopy identified phosphotyrosine‐containing proteins in the cortex and around the nucleus of vanadate‐activated eggs, whereas in fertilized eggs they were concentrated only in the cortex. Immunoblots of vanadate‐activated and fertilized eggs showed tyrosine hyperphosphorylation of approximately140 kDa protein. These results suggest that PTP most likely maintain the egg in an inactive state by dephosphorylation of proteins independent of the Ca2+ oscillations in the activation process.
Electromagnetic scattering from arbitrary flat plates: Analysis of the problem by using method of moments with different sinc type basis functions

In this paper, three dimensional electromagnetic scattering problem is solved by using pulse-sinc type basis functions in the Method of Moments (MoM) procedure. This method is applied to the scattering problems of a plane wave illuminated flat arbitrary geometries. Pulse-sinc based MoM formulation is developed, the current densities and radar cross section of different geometries are investigated. The radar cross section (RCS) for co-polarized and cross polarized cases of the flat plate geometries are compared with both of the results obtained from the sinc-sinc based formulation and SuperNEC. The results obtained by using pulse-sinc fornulation are in very good agreement with those of the SuperNEC.
Microstrip patch array antenna with horizontal polarization for ISRA RADAR

The design of microstrip patch array with horizontal polarization for ISRA radar is presented in this paper. The first step of this research is designing a single antenna element. To increase the gain and to narrow the beamwidth, each single antenna is then arranged as the 5×1 and the 5×4. To obtain horizontal polarization, a rectangular slot is located on the right side of the bottom patch. Antenna array consists of a 20 squareshaped patch with uniform distribution to the vertical and horizontal directions. The results showed an antenna array has a resonant frequency of 9.3 GHz with reflection coefficient value of −31.93 dB. The resulting gain of the antenna array is 17.9 dB whereas the vertical and horizontal beamwidth antenna array is 16,8° and 21,4°. An antenna feeding uses a proximity technique which utilizes two substrates, the transmission line on the bottom substrate and the patch antenna on top of the substrate. This technique can increase the bandwidth of the antenna by 59.36%.
Regulation of expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 in cultured rat osteoblastic cells by osteogenic protein‐1 (BMP‐7)

Osteogenic Protein‐1 (OP‐1), a member of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family that belongs to the TGF‐β superfamily, induces bone formation in vivo and stimulates the synthesis of biochemical markers characteristic of osteoblast phenotypes in vitro. In the present study, effects of OP‐1 on the expression of the plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1) in fetal rat calvaria (FRC) cells were examined. The PAI‐1 protein levels in conditioned media of FRC cells treated with OP‐1 or solvent control were determined by quantitative 2‐dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The identity of PAI‐1 was confirmed by mass spectroscopy. OP‐1 increased the PAI‐1 protein level by about 5‐fold after 48 h. Northern blot analysis showed that the PAI‐1 mRNA level was elevated by OP‐1 by about 25% compared to the control. The observed increase in the PAI‐1 mRNA and protein level was regulated post‐transcriptionally as supported by the following observations: (a) OP‐1 did not stimulate the cloned PAI‐1 promoter‐reporter gene activity in transient transfection studies, (b) inhibition of transcription by actinomycin D did not change the PAI‐1 mRNA level in the OP‐1‐treated FRC cells, and (c) the stability of the PAI‐1 mRNA in FRC cells treated with OP‐1 was increased by about 28% compared to that in the control cells. Hence, the present study shows that primary cultures of rat osteoblastic cells synthesize and secrete PAI‐1 protein and that OP‐1 elevates the PAI‐1 protein level. At least, one of the regulatory mechanism is by stabilizing the PAI‐1 mRNA. J. Cell. Biochem. Suppl. 36: 46–54, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of the solar wind electric field and ionospheric conductance on the cross polar cap potential: Results of global MHD modeling

The behavior of the cross polar cap potential, ΦPC, under strong solar wind conditions is studied using global MHD simulations. Simulations using two typical values of the ionospheric Pedersen conductance in agreement with others show that the cross polar cap potential is reduced compared to the corresponding potential in the solar wind due to the stagnation of the magnetosheath flow and the existence of parallel potentials. However, it is the ionospheric conductance that affects the value of ΦPC the most: the transpolar potential saturates only for high enough ionospheric conductance. A mechanism in which the ionospheric conductance changes the properties of the magnetosheath flow is proposed. This mechanism assumes mapping of the electrostatic potential in the ideal MHD system and yields a self‐consistent response of the reconnection and transpolar potentials to changes in the ionospheric conductance.
Corticocortical inhibition in human motor cortex.

1. In ten normal volunteers, a transcranial magnetic or electric stimulus that was subthreshold for evoking an EMG response in relaxed muscles was used to condition responses evoked by a later, suprathreshold magnetic or electric test shock. In most experiments the test stimulus was given to the lateral part of the motor strip in order to evoke EMG responses in the first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI). 2. A magnetic conditioning stimulus over the hand area of cortex could suppress responses produced in the relaxed FDI by a suprathreshold magnetic test stimulus at interstimulus intervals of 1‐6 ms. At interstimulus intervals of 10 and 15 ms, the test response was facilitated. 3. Using a focal magnetic stimulus we explored the effects of moving the conditioning stimulus to different scalp locations while maintaining the magnetic test coil at one site. If the conditioning coil was moved anterior or posterior to the motor strip there was less suppression of test responses in the FDI. In contrast, stimulation at the vertex could suppress FDI responses by an amount comparable to that seen with stimulation over the hand area. With the positions of the two coils reversed, conditioning stimuli over the hand area suppressed responses evoked in leg muscles by vertex test shocks. 4. The intensity of both conditioning and test shocks influenced the amount of suppression. Small test responses were more readily suppressed than large responses. The best suppression was seen with small conditioning stimuli (0.7‐0.9 times motor threshold in relaxed muscle); increasing the intensity to motor threshold or above resulted in less suppression or even facilitation. 5. Two experiments suggested that the suppression was produced by an action on cortical, rather than spinal excitability. First, a magnetic conditioning stimulus over the hand area failed to produce any suppression of responses evoked in active hand muscles by a small (approximately 200 V, 50 microsecond time constant) anodal electric test shock. Second, a vertex conditioning shock had no effect on forearm flexor H reflexes even though responses in the same muscles produced by magnetic cortical test shocks were readily suppressed at appropriate interstimulus intervals. 6. Small anodal electric conditioning stimuli were much less effective in suppressing magnetic test responses than either magnetic or cathodal electric conditioning shocks. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Life Satisfaction and Obstetric Outcomes in the United States

Objective To examine the relation between life satisfaction and obstetric outcomes in the United States. Methods Based on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System life satisfaction results (2005–2008), the 50 states and Washington, DC were categorized into higher, middle, and lower life satisfaction groups. We obtained data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Vital Statistics System (2005–2008) and calculated the fertility rates and fetal, neonatal, and infant mortality rates for the 50 states and Washington, DC. Correlations were examined. Risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals between groups were calculated. Results There was a significant correlation between life satisfaction and fertility rate (r = 0.34; P = 0.012) and infant mortality rate (r = 0.28; P = 0.044). The higher group had a greater fertility rate, but it also had higher infant and neonatal mortality rates than those of the lower group. Conclusions Although the states with the most life satisfaction had higher fertility rates, they also had worse mortality outcomes. Birth outcomes may be more greatly affected by factors other than life satisfaction.
Qualitative meta-synthesis: a question of dialoguing with texts.

AIMS This paper discusses whether useful synthesis of research reports across different qualitative methodologies is possible, and whether qualitative meta-synthesis violates the tenets of the interpretive paradigm. BACKGROUND Qualitative meta-synthesis is a recent development in qualitative inquiry that offers a means of enhancing the contribution of qualitative findings to the development of more formalized knowledge. However, there are a number of unanswered questions and areas that require debate. DISCUSSION A brief overview of qualitative meta-synthesis as a method of inquiry is presented. The assumptions of phenomenology, ethnography and grounded theory are explored for their amenability to meta-synthesis and the possibility of coherent synthesis of findings across these methodologies. In addition, a summary of major philosophical commitments common to the interpretive paradigm is presented. Qualitative meta-synthesis as a methodology is then explored for its fit within this paradigm. An argument is made, with some caveats, for synthesis across qualitative methodologies. Gadamer's concepts of the hermeneutic circle, the fusion of horizons, and dialogue with the text are explored for the insight they provide into the place of qualitative meta-synthesis in inquiry. CONCLUSION It is important for researchers to bring hermeneutic skill to the process of meta-synthesis in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the various philosophical assumptions in which qualitative approaches are based. The particular challenge of combining analysis and interpretation from studies with markedly different approaches and intentions may prompt synthesists to create new and innovative approaches to the presentation of meta-synthesis.
Resource wealth as rent leverage: Rethinking the oil–stability nexus

The study of the “resource curse” has become a major research agenda with multiple outcomes of interest—regime type, regime stability, civil conflict and economic growth to name a few. However, the proliferation of different measurement choices has hamstrung the quest for knowledge accumulation. In this essay I present a new indicator for oil dependence—a concept I term rent leverage. It captures the share of individuals’ buying power that directly depends on fuel income and that nearly everywhere is controlled by political leaders. I use the new measure alongside fuel income per capita, to capture oil abundance, to explore the effects of oil wealth on political stability. Initial analysis of cross-national data from 1960 to 2009 suggests that rent leverage and fuel income strongly stabilize rulers of all types against regime change and that these effects are largely a function of cross-country differences. The stabilizing effects of oil income are significant but substantially smaller than rent leverage. The analysis further supports recent findings by Ross and Wright et al. that oil income and rent leverage both play stabilizing roles in autocracies, but that this effect is largely a cross-country one. Third, neither rent leverage nor oil income have any substantial or significant impact on civil war onset. Finally, contrary to both the weak state and coercion variants of resource curse theory, oil-producing countries appear to use less repression than others, and to have more durable regimes in part because of stronger states.
Using gradients and tensor voting in 3D local geometric descriptors for feature detection in airborne lidar point clouds in urban regions

Structural or geometric classification of three-dimensional (3D) point clouds of urban regions from airborne LiDAR enables feature (object-based) classification, and 3D reconstruction. Here, we consider positive semidefinite symmetric second-order tensors as local geometric descriptors (LGDs), which gives structural classification. We compute LGDs using local neighborhood, and their eigenvalue-based features are conventionally used for object-based classification and 3D reconstruction. We combine derivative based 2D gradient energy tensor, and anisotropically diffused 3D voting tensor, using a multi-scale approach, to compute a LGD. We represent LGDs as second-order tensors, and compare the relevant eigenvalue-based features and saliency maps obtained from them. We visually compare the outcomes of our LGD with conventionally used covariance matrix.