Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Locally Regressive Projections

We propose a novel linear dimensionality reduction algorithm, namely Locally Regressive Projections (LRP). To capture the local discriminative structure, for each data point, a local patch consisting of this point and its neighbors is constructed. LRP assumes that the low dimensional representations of points in each patch can be well estimated by a locally fitted regression function. Specifically, we train a linear function for each patch via ridge regression, and use its fitting error to measure how well the new representations can respect the local structure. The optimal projections are thus obtained by minimizing the summation of the fitting errors over all the local patches. LRP can be performed under either supervised or unsupervised settings. Our theoretical analysis reveals the connections between LRP and the classical methods such as PCA and LDA. Experiments on face recognition and clustering demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
Comparative performance evaluation of applying extended PIE technique to accelerate software testability analysis

The rapid development of technology provides high performance and reliability for the hardware system; based on this, software engineers can focus their developed software on more convenience and ultra-high reliability. To reach this goal, the testing stage of software development life cycle usually takes more time and effort due to the growing complexity of the software. How to build software that can be tested efficiently has become an important topic in addition to enhancing and developing new testing methods. Thus, research on software testability has been conducted and various methods have been developed. In the past, a dynamic technique for estimating program testability was proposed and called propagation, infection and execution (PIE) analysis. Previous research studies have shown that PIE analysis can complement software testing. However, this method requires a lot of computational overhead in estimating the testability of software components. In this article, we propose an extended PIE (EPIE) method to accelerate the conventional PIE analysis, based on generating group testability as a substitute for statement testability. Our proposed method can be systematically separated into three steps: breaking a program into blocks, dividing the blocks into groups and marking target statements. Experiments and evaluations with the Siemens suite, together with cost-effectiveness analysis, clearly show that the number of analysed statements can be effectively decreased, and the calculated values of testability are still acceptable.
A novel 10bit 90MS/s 2b/cycle SAR ADC

A 10-bit 90MS/s Successive Approximation Register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is realized in TSMC 0. 18μm CMOS process. With 2b/cycle technique and new proposed asynchronous control logic, the proposed SAR ADC achieves rapid conversion rate, low power, leading to SNDR of 55.3 and SFDR of 64.7 at 90MS/s with 43M input. The active area with the digital calibration is 0.6×0.8mm2.
Debt Covenant Slack and Real Earnings Management

We examine the relation between firms’ real earnings management decisions and the slack in their net worth debt covenant. Using private debt covenant data, we find that the overall level of real earnings management is higher when net worth covenant slack is tighter. Moreover, we find that this effect is more pronounced for loan-years with the tightest slack, which is a setting where benefits of managing earnings are greater. Within the sub-sample of loan-years with the tightest slack, we find that real earnings management is higher for borrowers that experienced increases in bankruptcy risk in the previous year. These results suggest that: (1) firms use real earnings management to avoid violations of debt covenants; and (2) that they are more likely to do so when their ability to renegotiate the technical covenant violations is restricted. Our results are largely robust to controlling for endogeneity of the tightness of debt covenant slack. Finally, we find that the positive relation between the tightness of debt covenant slack and real earnings management exists both before and after the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Angiogenesis in Liquid Tumors: An In Vitro Assay for Leukemic‐Cell‐Induced Bone Marrow Angiogenesis

The critical role of angiogenesis for solid tumor growth and metastatic spread has been well established. In contrast, even though increased vascularity has been commonly observed in bone marrows of patients with hematological malignancies (liquid tumors), the pathophysiology of leukemia‐induced angiogenesis in the bone marrow remains elusive. This paper demonstrates the usage of a microengineered 3D biomimetic model to study leukemic‐cell‐induced bone marrow angiogenesis. Rational design of the 3D angiogenesis chip incorporating endothelial cells (ECs), leukemic cells, and bone marrow stromal fibroblasts provide an efficient biomimetic means to promote and visualize early angiogenic processes. Morphological features of angiogenesis induced by three different leukemic cell lines (U937, HL60, and K562) are investigated and compared. Quantitative measurements of angiogenic factors secreted from monocultures and cocultures of leukemic cells with bone marrow stromal fibroblasts suggest a synergistic relationship between ECs, leukemic cells, and bone marrow stromal fibroblasts for angiogenic induction, and also confirm the necessity of conducting functional angiogenic assays in proper 3D biomimetic cell culture systems like the one developed in this work.
Principles of CT and CT Technology*

This article provides a review of the basic principles of CT within the context of the evolution of CT. Modern CT technology can be understood as a natural progression of improvements and innovations in response to both engineering problems and clinical requirements. Detailed discussions of multislice CT, CT image quality evaluation, and radiation doses in CT will be presented in upcoming articles in this series.
Mitochondrial Biogenesis, Switching the Sorting Pathway of the Intermembrane Space Receptor Mia40*

Mitochondrial precursor proteins are directed into the intermembrane space via two different routes, the presequence pathway and the redox-dependent MIA pathway. The pathways were assumed to be independent and transport different proteins. We report that the intermembrane space receptor Mia40 can switch between both pathways. In fungi, Mia40 is synthesized as large protein with an N-terminal presequence, whereas in metazoans and plants, Mia40 consists only of the conserved C-terminal domain. Human MIA40 and the C-terminal domain of yeast Mia40 (termed Mia40core) rescued the viability of Mia40-deficient yeast independently of the presence of a presequence. Purified Mia40core was imported into mitochondria via the MIA pathway. With cells expressing both full-length Mia40 and Mia40core, we demonstrate that yeast Mia40 contains dual targeting information, directing the large precursor onto the presequence pathway and the smaller Mia40core onto the MIA pathway, raising interesting implications for the evolution of mitochondrial protein sorting.
Borrowing Strength with Nonexchangeable Priors over Subpopulations

Summary We introduce a nonparametric Bayesian model for a phase II clinical trial with patients presenting different subtypes of the disease under study. The objective is to estimate the success probability of an experimental therapy for each subtype. We consider the case when small sample sizes require extensive borrowing of information across subtypes, but the subtypes are not a priori exchangeable. The lack of a priori exchangeability hinders the straightforward use of traditional hierarchical models to implement borrowing of strength across disease subtypes. We introduce instead a random partition model for the set of disease subtypes. This is a variation of the product partition model that allows us to model a nonexchangeable prior structure. Like a hierarchical model, the proposed clustering approach considers all observations, across all disease subtypes, to estimate individual success probabilities. But in contrast to standard hierarchical models, the model considers disease subtypes a priori nonexchangeable. This implies that when assessing the success probability for a particular type our model borrows more information from the outcome of the patients sharing the same prognosis than from the others. Our data arise from a phase II clinical trial of patients with sarcoma, a rare type of cancer affecting connective or supportive tissues and soft tissue (e.g., cartilage and fat). Each patient presents one subtype of the disease and subtypes are grouped by good, intermediate, and poor prognosis. The prior model should respect the varying prognosis across disease subtypes. The practical motivation for the proposed approach is that the number of accrued patients within each disease subtype is small. Thus it is not possible to carry out a clinical study of possible new therapies for rare conditions, because it would be impossible to plan for sufficiently large sample size to achieve the desired power. We carry out a simulation study to compare the proposed model with a model that assumes similar success probabilities for all subtypes with the same prognosis, i.e., a fixed partition of subtypes by prognosis. When the assumption is satisfied the two models perform comparably. But the proposed model outperforms the competing model when the assumption is incorrect.
Crystal Structure of the Major Diabetes Autoantigen Insulinoma-Associated Protein 2 Reveals Distinctive Immune Epitopes

Insulinoma-associated protein-2 (IA-2) is a major autoantigen in type 1 diabetes that occurs through autoimmune-mediated β-cell destruction. We present here the crystal structure of the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP)-like domain of human IA-2. The structure reveals a canonical PTP domain with the closed WPD loop over the active site pocket, explaining the lack of enzyme activity in the native protein. The structural interpretation of previous mutagenesis studies indicates that the B-cell epitopes are concentrated on two distinctive regions on peripheral loops of the central β-sheet surrounding T-cell epitopes within the sheet. The detailed structural information on immune epitopes provides a framework for the future development of immune intervention strategies against diabetes.
Design and Flux-Weakening Control of an Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for Electric Vehicles

Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) provide a competitive technology for EV traction drives owing to their high power density and high efficiency. In this paper, three types of interior PMSMs with different PM arrangements are modeled by the finite element method (FEM). For a given amount of permanent magnet materials, the V-shape interior PMSM is found better than the U-shape and the conventional rotor topologies for EV traction drives. Then the V-shape interior PMSM is further analyzed with the effects of stator slot opening and the permanent magnet pole chamfering on cogging torque and output torque performance. A vector-controlled flux-weakening method is developed and simulated in Matlab to expand the motor speed range for EV drive system. The results show good dynamic and steady-state performance with a capability of expanding speed up to four times of the rated. A prototype of the V-shape interior PMSM is also manufactured and tested to validate the numerical models built by the FEM.
Colorimetric Assay for Antifungal Susceptibility Testing ofAspergillus Species

ABSTRACT A colorimetric assay for antifungal susceptibility testing ofAspergillus species (Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus nidulans, and Aspergillus ustus) is described based on the reduction of the tetrazolium salt 2,3-bis(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-[(sulphenylamino)carbonyl]-2H-tetrazolium-hydroxide (XTT) in the presence of menadione as an electron-coupling agent. The combination of 200 μg of XTT/ml with 25 μM menadione resulted in a high production of formazan within 2 h of exposure, allowing the detection of hyphae formed by low inocula of 102 CFU/ml after 24 h of incubation. Under these settings, the formazan production correlated linearly with the fungal biomass and less-variable concentration effect curves for amphotericin B and itraconazole were obtained.
Peptide-mediated cellular delivery.

Peptide-mediated molecular therapeutic delivery systems have recently emerged as an alternative means to effectively substitute or augment present gene therapy technologies, e.g., TAT, VP22, engineered peptides. These systems show great promise for the elimination of the main bottleneck to safe, efficient, targeted gene therapy delivery and are able to efficiently introduce DNA, antisense peptide nucleic acids, oligonucleotides, small molecules and proteins into cells both in vitro and in vivo. They are versatile and easily designed to incorporate a number of specific attributes required for efficient cargo delivery. A fundamentally new property of these moieties will allow the therapeutic intervention in the biochemistry of the target cell without the need to alter its genome.
A comparison between child psychiatric outpatients with AD/HD and anxiety/depression

Background: Studies have shown that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) have a lower quality of life (QoL), and lower school and psychosocial functioning than healthy children. Aims: This is the first study to compare these domains and child competence between children with AD/HD- and anxiety/depression-related problems and healthy children using data from multiple informants. Method: Children were matched by age and sex, resulting in two clinical groups consisting of 62 children with AD/HD-related problems, 49 children with anxiety/depression-related problems and a reference group of 65 healthy schoolchildren. The Inventory of Life Quality for Children and Adolescents (parent and child report), the Child Behaviour Checklist (parent report), the Teacher's Report Form and the Children's Global Assessment Scale (therapist evaluation) were used. Differences between group means were analysed by t-tests and analysis of variance. Results: The AD/HD group reported a significantly higher QoL than did the Anxiety/Depression group. However, no significant differences in QoL were found between the two clinical groups by parent proxy report. The AD/HD group reported a significantly higher QoL than shown by parent proxy evaluation. According to parent and teacher reports, both clinical groups showed significantly lower school functioning than the group of healthy children. Further, the AD/HD group showed significantly lower school functioning and total competence than the Anxiety/Depression group. Conclusion: To obtain a full clinical picture of subgroups of patients with AD/HD- and anxiety/depression-related problems referred to child mental health outpatient treatment, clinicians should always use multiple informants to evaluate symptoms/problems, functioning and QoL.
fficacy and Safety of Transcranial Magnetic timulation in the Acute Treatment of Major epression : A Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial

ethods: In a double-blind, multisite study, 301 medication-free patients with major depression who had not benefited from prior reatment were randomized to active (n 155) or sham TMS (n 146) conditions. Sessions were conducted five times per week with TMS t 10 pulses/sec, 120% of motor threshold, 3000 pulses/session, for 4 – 6 weeks. Primary outcome was the symptom score change as assessed t week 4 with the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Secondary outcomes included changes on the 17and 24-item amilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) and response and remission rates with the MADRS and HAMD.
Functional assessment of control systems for cybernetic elbow prostheses. II. Application of the technique

For pt.I see ibid., vol.37, no.11, p.1025-36 (1990). An application of the technique described in pt.I for the functional assessment of two myoelectric elbow-prosthesis controllers is presented: the controller implemented in the Boston Elbow, a state-of-the-art elbow prosthesis, and a proposed control scheme that, to a crude degree, mimics control of the intact elbow. Assessment of the controllers was achieved by evaluating an amputee subject's functional capability as he performed a constrained motion task with a prosthesis that implemented each control scheme. Evaluation of the amputee's capability was accomplished offline using sampled values of myoelectric activity, limb kinematics, and the interface forces at the constraint. Superior performance was observed with the proposed scheme. Namely, the subject exhibited better synergy among elbow and shoulder muscles. Furthermore, when using the proposed controller, some natural patterns of muscle coordination were exhibited. <<ETX>>
Service-Oriented FMIPv6 Framework for Efficient Handovers in 4G Networks

Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) standardized by IETF, is expected to support the global IP mobility. Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6) is further proposed to improve the performance of MIPv6. However, FMIPv6 only concentrates on the protocol operation while it does not address other critical issues, such as the L2 and L3 identifiers mapping problem and precise L2 triggers generation. This paper proposes an efficient service-oriented framework for FMIPv6. In this framework, FMIPv6 is integrated with candidate access router discovery (CARD) mechanism, specified L2 triggers and different handover processes will be performed for different service types according to QoS requirements. The analytical and simulation results both show that the proposed scheme could achieve better performance in terms of handover latency.
Anaerobic testing using the Wingate and Evans-Quinney protocols with and without toe stirrups.

Recently, considerable attention has been focused on the measurement of maximal anaerobic power. The Evans-Quinney (1981) protocol which considers leg volume as well as body weight in establishing optimal load settings on the bicycle ergometer has been shown to result in significantly higher anaerobic power outputs than the body weight-relative Wingate protocol. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the anaerobic power outputs during bicycle ergometer work using the Wingate and Evans-Quinney protocols with and without toe stirrups. Fifty male physical education and varsity athletes (average age 22.6 years) volunteered to participate in this experiment. All subjects performed a total of four maximal 30-second anaerobic power tests utilizing the force settings established by the Wingate (load [L] = 0.075 kp/kg body weight) and Evans-Quinney (L = -0.4914-0.2151 (weight, kg) + 2.1124 (leg volume, litre) protocol. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of four counterbalanced orders of test administration. Analysis of data indicated significant differences (P less than or equal to .05) among the variables of: 5-second peak power (W), 30-second anaerobic capacity (W) and percent fatigue as a function of test protocol. Significantly higher values were obtained for all variables under the Evans-Quinney test procedure using toe stirrups while the Wingate test procedure without toe stirrups showed significantly lower values for all variables. It was concluded that the Evans-Quinney load setting protocol with toe stirrups resulted in significantly higher power measures than any of the other treatments tested.
The Effect of Ultrasonic Dispersion on the Surface Chemistry of Carbon Nanotubes in the Jeffamine D-230 Polyetheramine Medium

This paper studies changes in the surface chemistry of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) where they are under ultrasonication process in Jeffamine D-230 polyetheramine medium. Jeffamine is used as a curing agent in the nanocomposite manufacturing process. In the nanocomposite technology, ultrasonication process is employed as a method for dispersion of CNTs in a suspension. This research tries to investigate the effect of ultrasonic dispersion with different time and energy on the surface chemistry of CNTs by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results show ultrasonication of CNTs in the Jeffamine medium leads to significant oxidation and hydration along creating new chemical bonds on the CNTs surface.
Developing Fault Models for Nanowire Logic Circuits

It is widely acknowledged that nanoelectronic devices will suffer from more manufacturing and operational faults than classical CMOS devices in large-scale integrated circuits. The confident use of these emerging technologies relies on our capacity to better understand their fault mechanisms, and our ability to deduce related fault models. These challenging goals are addressed in this paper for nanowire logic circuits, which constitute one of the most promising technologies in the nanoelectronics realm. Fault models are proposed attending to how fault mechanisms manifest at device and logic
Psychometric properties of the Leisure Time Satisfaction Scale in family caregivers.

BACKGROUND Despite evidence of the numerous benefits of leisure to health and well-being appropriate tools to assess this construct are lacking. The purpose of this work was to analyse the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Leisure Time Satisfaction (LTS). METHOD The sample was made up of 1048 primary family caregivers of dependent people. Scale structure was subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Concurrent and convergent validity were assessed by correlation with validated questionnaires for measuring burden (Zarit Burden Inventory - ZBI) and health (SF-36 Health Survey). RESULTS The results show a high level of internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .938) suitable fit of the dimensional model tested via confirmatory factor analysis (GFI = .925, BBNNFI= .996; IFI= .998, RMSEA= .043), and appropriate convergent validity with similar constructs (r = -.44 with ZBI; and r-values between .226 and .440 with SF-36 dimensions). CONCLUSION Psychometric results obtained from the LTS are promising and the results enable us to draw the conclusion that it is a suitable tool for assessing caregivers’ leisure time satisfaction.
Nonlinear inverse modeling with signal prediction in bilateral teleoperation with force-feedback

In the paper a sensor-less control scheme for a bilateral teleoperation system with a force-feedback based on a prediction of an input and an output of a non-linear inverse model by prediction blocks is presented. The prediction method was designed to minimize the effect of the transport delay and the phase shift of sensors, actuators and mechanical objects. The solution is an alternative to complex non-linear models like artificial neural networks which requires complex stability analysis and control systems with high computing power. The effectiveness of the method has been verified on the hydraulic manipulator test stand.