Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel drift compensation algorithm for improved beat-to-beat repeatability of myocardial strain imaging: Preliminary in vivo results

Myocardial strain imaging has been shown to add significant prognostic and diagnostic value to echocardiography. While the reliability of ultrasound-based strain measurement techniques has improved considerably in terms of regional consistency and inter-reader, inter-vendor agreement; most state-of-the-art strain imaging packages constrain their analyses to individual cardiac cycles. This limitation is largely attributed to drift in displacement estimation over multiple consecutive cardiac cycles which results in unstable strain measurements. We present here a novel displacement-based drift compensation technique to correct for beat-to-beat drift and yield repeatable measures of regional myocardial strain over consecutive heart beats. A preliminary performance evaluation of this method in vivo demonstrated substantial improvements in maintaining temporal stability of displacement tracking across multiple heart beats and consistent measurements of end-systolic strain for prolonged acquisitions.
Observation of nitrogen-enhanced doping deactivation at the polysilicon-oxynitride interface of pMOSFETs with 12-/spl Aring/ gate dielectrics

This letter reports the observation of a process integration issue that arises when large doses of nitrogen (>1/spl times/10/sup 15/ cm/sup -2/) are incorporated in oxynitride gate dielectric films targeting equivalent oxide thickness of 11-13 /spl Aring/. It is shown that capacitance-extracted active doping density at the polysilicon/oxynitride (poly/SiON) interface of boron-doped p/sup +/-polysilicon gated pMOSFETs decreases with increasing nitrogen dose of the oxynitride film as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A physical mechanism is proposed to explain experimental observations.
Modeling of the coupled microstrip lines with using numerical conformal transformations

Computer aided microstrip lines modeling has been performed by conformal mapping technique. A new approach to reduce the connectivity order of the original cross-section geometry of the structure is proposed. The multiply connected domain is reduced to simply connected ones by implementation of magnetic slits concept. The microstrip lines structures analysis is carried out by numerical conformal transformations technique realized in Schwarz-Christoffel toolbox for MATLAB. This technique is applied to the quasi-static analysis of coupled microstrip lines taking into account the conductor thickness. Described approach ensures high numerical efficiency and can be used for accurate analysis of complex strip and microstrip structures.
Effect of alterations in mental activity on the breathing pattern in healthy subjects.

The overall output from the respiratory centers is regulated by an automatic metabolic control system in the brainstem and by higher neural centers under direct voluntary control. An understanding of the constancy with which respiration is controlled can be obtained by measuring the breath-to-breath variability in breathing pattern. We hypothesized that different forms of mental activity would alter the variability of breathing pattern. To test this hypothesis, we measured breathing pattern on a breath-by-breath basis during resting wakefulness and during four conditions of altered mental activity. Measurements were obtained with a calibrated respiratory inductive plethysmograph, and variability was assessed by calculations of the coefficients of variation. We also examined the effect of the altered states of mental activity on the mean values of the breathing pattern components. We found that noxious stimulation increased the variability of all the breathing pattern indices, audiovisual stimulation tended to increase the variability of tidal volume (VT), and mental arithmetic had no effect. In addition, the variability of breathing pattern was increased during rapid eye movement sleep and decreased during Stage IV sleep. The variability of VT and expiratory time were greater than that of inspiratory time (TI) across the different states of mental activity. Significant correlations were observed between VT and TI and between VT and frequency (f) during Stage IV sleep. With regards to the mean values, mental arithmetic, audiovisual stimulation, and noxious stimulation all increased minute ventilation and mean inspiratory flow. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Highly sensitive determination of coating thickness by using the high filling factor in an adiabatically coupled terahertz waveguide

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy can be used to detect the thickness of thin dielectric layers by measuring the relative pulse delay of the propagating terahertz pulse. The detection limit was considerably increased by using the high filling factor of a 2-cylinder waveguide sensor. The single-pass delay was increased by a factor of more than 150 for dielectric layers down to 2.5 microns thickness. Using the adiabatic coupling and guiding of the metal cylinders, no further optics were necessary.
DEEP GALEX UV SURVEY OF THE KEPLER FIELD. I. POINT SOURCE CATALOG

We report observations of a deep near-ultraviolet (NUV) survey of the Kepler field made in 2012 with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Complete All-Sky UV Survey Extension (CAUSE). The GALEX-CAUSE Kepler survey (GCK) covers 104 square degrees of the Kepler field and reaches a limiting magnitude of NUV ≃ 22.6 at 3σ. Analysis of the GCK survey has yielded a catalog of 669,928 NUV sources, of which 475,164 are cross-matched with stars in the Kepler Input Catalog. Approximately 327 of 451 confirmed exoplanet host stars and 2614 of 4696 candidate exoplanet host stars identified by Kepler have NUV photometry in the GCK survey. The GCK catalog should enable the identification and characterization of UV-excess stars in the Kepler field (young solar-type and low-mass stars, chromospherically active binaries, white dwarfs, horizontal branch stars, etc.), and elucidation of various astrophysics problems related to the stars and planetary systems in the Kepler field.
For Satellites, Think Small, Dream Big: A review of recent antenna developments for CubeSats.

Advances in modern technology have aided the development of a class of miniaturized satellites called SmallSats that typically weigh less than 500 kg. Key members of this family are CubeSats. CubeSats can weigh as little as 1.33 kg, with a typical volume of 10 ? 10 ? 10 cm<sup>3</sup>. Their potential has motivated the scientific community to revisit existing spacecraft technologies to make them suitable for CubeSats.
Crystal engineering via C-H...F and C-H...pi interactions in two substituted indoles.

The crystal structures of 1-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-phenyl-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-indole, C20H18FN, and 1-(4-fluorophenyl)-6,6-dimethyl-2-phenyl-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-indole, C22H22FN, have been determined in order to study the role of 'organic fluorine' in crystal engineering. These molecules pack in the crystal structure via different types of molecular motifs utilizing weak C-H.F and C-H.pi interactions.
A LYMPH NODE NEUTRAL PROTEINASE ACTING ON MYELIN BASIC PROTEIN

A neutral protease present in inguinal and popliteal lymph nodes of rats with acute experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), rats injected with Freund's adjuvant, and rats that are normal has been found to hydrolyze basic protein present in purified brain and spinal cord myelin. The enzyme has been enriched by ammonium sulfate precipitation, and its properties have been studied. The protease activity toward different substrates was very specific and decreased in the following order: Protamine sulfate = polylysine (MW 183,000) > myelin basic protein > histone > polylysine (MW 2000) > polyarginine > cytochrome c. Other proteins including casein, freshly denatured hemoglobin, egg albumin, bovine serum albumin, and ribonuclease were ineffective as substrates. The pH curve showed a peak at pH 7 for rat myelin, isolated beef basic protein, and histone. A possible role for this enzyme in demyelination in acute experimental allergic encephalomyelitis is suggested.
Enhanced WCDMA Fingerprinting Localization Using OTDOA Positioning Measurements from LTE

The focus of this paper is on the convergence of positioning technology between the WCDMA and the LTE cellular systems. The emerging possibility to use multi-RAT positioning nodes can be exploited to mitigate the lack of a high-precision indoor OTDOA positioning method in WCDMA, which today limits the coverage of self-learning databases for fingerprinting positioning in this cellular system. The problem at hand is solved by use of measured high precision OTDOA positions of opportunity from LTE.
Procedural knowledge

Much of commonsense knowledge about the real world is in the form of procedures or sequences of actions for achieving particular goals. In this paper, a formalism is presented for representing such knowledge using the notion of process. A declarative semantics for the representation is given, which allows a user to state facts about the effects of doing things in the problem domain of interest. An operational semantics is also provided, which shows how this knowledge can be used to achieve particular goals or to form intentions regarding their achievement. Given both semantics, our formalism additionally serves as an executable specification language suitable for constructing complex systems. A system based on this formalism is described, and examples involving control of an autonomous robot and fault diagnosis for NASA's space shuttle are provided.
Serological studies of actionomyces israelii by crossed immunoelectrophoresis: standard antigen-antibody system for A. israelii

Standard preparations of crude cytoplasmic and whole cell-associated antigen mixtures of Actinomyces israelii were analyzed by crossed immunoelectrophoresis (CIE), with a standard polyvalent antiserum comprising purified and concentrated immunoglobulin G antibodies to formolized whole cells of A. israelii serotypes 1 and 2. The standard antigens provided four antigen-antibody systems for A. israelii. The immunoprecipitation patterns of the system were compared, and the immunochemical characteristics of individual precipitates were analyzed. Each system contained specific precipitates, but also one or two precipitates which were immunochemically identical to precipitates of the other systems. The standard system for A. israelii based on cytoplasmic antigens was best reproducible and revealed the highest number of immunoprecipitates. These precipitates possessed immunochemical properties which made them suitable for CIE studies. The cytoplasmic antigen mixture of A. israelii was, therefore, adopted as the most suitable for further development of a crossed immunoelectrophoretic system for A. israelii. In subsequent assays the cytoplasmic antigen mixture was raised in rabbit against cell lysates of A. israelii, serotypes 1 and 2. A standard antigen-antibody system for A. israelii was obtained which revealed an immunoprecipitation pattern of 10 distinguishable precipitates. The resolving power and separation by CIE of this standard system for A. israelii was compared with that of crossed immunoelectrofocusing. The results suggest that these methods supplement each other. Crossed immunoelectrofocusing appeared to be a useful tool for separation of specific components of the protein-antigen complex of A. israelii for analytic serology. The CIE in conjunction with a standard reference antigen-antibody system for A. israelii based on cytoplasmic antigens offers great potentialities in diagnostic A. israelii serology.
Demonstration of a Shaped Beam Reflectarray Using Aperture-Coupled Delay Lines for LMDS Central Station Antenna

A shaped-beam reflectarray based on patches, aperture-coupled to delay lines is demonstrated for local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) central station antennas, in the 10.10-10.70 GHz band. The antenna must cover a 60deg-sector in azimuth with a squared cosecant pattern in elevation. The design process consists of two steps. First, a phase-only pattern synthesis technique is applied to obtain the required phase-shift distribution on the reflectarray surface which generates the shaped pattern. The second stage consists of determining the length of the delay lines, aperture-coupled to the square patches, in order to achieve the phase distribution synthesized in the previous step. Two reflectarray antennas have been designed, one for vertical (V) and the other for horizontal (H) polarization. A breadboard for V-polarization has been manufactured and tested in an anechoic chamber, showing a good agreement between theoretical and measured radiation patterns.
Resolving Student Entities in the Facebook Social Graph

Despite the popularity of social networking sites and the abundance of information available on the internet, finding a holistic overview of an individual remains difficult. Profiles are often fragmented across sites, so users must issue queries to several different services and manually combine the results. Search engines like Google and Pipl utilize keyword indices to suggest a list of potentially relevant documents, but lack the semantic understanding to accurately conflate these documents into a single holistic overview. Historically, the tedious task of examining the candidate results to extract & merge features has been punted off to the end user. Our system aims at accurately identifying equivalence groups among heterogeneous sets of user profiles, thus allowing the system to present a single aggregate view of the underlying data.
Ordering pixels for fast ZNCC template matching

Basic-mode partial correlation elimination (BMP) has received popularity in recent years for fast template matching based on Zero-mean Normalized Cross Correlation (ZNCC). BMP is a full search equivalent template matching method, which examines pixel by pixel, and eliminates the rest of the computation as soon as it finds out that the current location is not likely to be the best match. In this paper, we reveal that some pixels have more contributions for matching than others. Based on this observation, an optimal ordering method is proposed to examine the pixels to accelerate the computation of BMP, called Ordering BMP (OBMP) for short. To further accelerate OBMP, we present a near-optimal ordering method which is solely based on the template image, thus can be generated offline. Extensive experiments show that the optimal or the near-optimal OBMP is on average 2.36 times faster than BMP for a template with 50×50 pixels.
Outdoor Air Pollution, Genetic Susceptibility, and Asthma Management: Opportunities for Intervention to Reduce the Burden of Asthma

Outdoor air pollution at levels occurring in many urban areas around the world has substantial adverse effects on health. Children in general, and children with asthma in particular, are sensitive to the adverse effects of outdoor air pollutants, including ozone, nitrogen oxides, and respirable particulate matter. A growing number of studies also show that children living in environments near traffic have increased risks of new-onset asthma, asthma symptoms, exacerbations, school absences, and asthma-related hospitalizations. The large population of children exposed to high levels of outdoor air pollutants and the substantial risks for adverse health effects present unexploited opportunities to reduce the burden of asthma. Because the evidence indicates significant adverse effects of air pollution at current levels, there is clearly a need to reduce levels of regulated pollutants such as ozone, as well as unregulated pollutants in tailpipe emissions from motor vehicles. Achieving this long-term goal requires the active involvement of physicians and medical providers to ensure that the health of children is at the top of the list of competing priorities for regulatory policy decision-making. Clinical approaches include treatment to control asthma and patient education to reduce adverse effects of the disease. Reduction in exposures also can be approached at a policy level through changes in schools and school bus operations. Beyond clinical and public health approaches to reduce exposure, another strategy to be used before clean air goals are met is to decrease the susceptibility of children to air pollution. Emerging research indicates that dietary supplementation for individuals with low antioxidant levels is one promising approach to reducing susceptibility to air pollution. A second approach involves induction of enzymatic antioxidant defenses, especially for individuals with at-risk genetic variants of key antioxidant enzymes.
Draft Genome Sequence of Streptomyces sp. Strain PRh5, a Novel Endophytic Actinomycete Isolated from Dongxiang Wild Rice Root

ABSTRACT Here, we report the draft genome sequence of Streptomyces sp. strain PRh5 (China Center for Type Culture Collection [CCTCC] number 2013487), which is used to produce nigericin and nocardamine. The genome sequence will allow for the characterization of the molecular mechanisms underlying its beneficial properties.
Long‐lasting small‐amplitude TRP‐mediated dendritic depolarizations in CA1 pyramidal neurons are intrinsically stable and originate from distal tuft regions

In several regions of the nervous system, neurons display bi‐ or multistable intrinsic properties. Such stable states may be subthreshold and long‐lasting, and can appear as a sustained afterdepolarization. In hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons, small‐amplitude (1 mV) long‐lasting (seconds) afterdepolarizations have been reported and are thought to depend on calcium‐activated nonselective (CAN) currents recently identified as transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. Continuing our previous experimental and computational work on synaptically metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR)‐activated TRP currents, we here explore small‐amplitude long‐lasting depolarizations in a detailed multicompartmental model of a CA1 pyramidal neuron. We confirm a previous hypothesis suggesting that the depolarization results from an interplay of TRP and voltage‐gated calcium channels, and contribute to the understanding of the depolarization in several ways. Specifically, we show that: (i) the long‐lasting depolarization may be intrinsically stable to weak excitatory and inhibitory input, (ii) the phenomenon is essentially located in distal apical dendrites, (iii) induction is facilitated if simultaneous input arrives at several dendritic branches, and if calcium‐ and/or mGluR‐evoked signals undergo summation, suggesting that both spatial and temporal synaptic summation might be required for the depolarization to occur and (iv) we also show that the integration of inputs to oblique dendrites is strongly modulated by the presence of small‐amplitude long‐lasting depolarizations in distal tuft dendrites. To conclude, we suggest that small‐amplitude long‐lasting dendritic depolarizations may contribute to sustaining neural information during behavioural tasks in cases where information is separated in time, as in trace conditioning and delay tasks.
Multi-standard carrier generator with CMOS logic divider

A multi standard carrier generator chain satisfying all requirements of phase noise and frequency range for Quad-band GSM/EDGE and WCDMA standards is presented. It adopts a VCO utilizing bond-wire inductors with high-quality factor, an 8-bit coarse tune capbank for low VCO gain. CMOS logic dividers are also adopted in this LO chain to meet the most stringent phase noise specification of GSM. The proposed divider structure also shows very wide tuning range of self oscillation frequency(0.54 to 2.44GHz). The proposed LO chain is implemented in 0.13 µm CMOS technology. The measured tuning range is about 22% (3.25 to 4.05 GHz). The LO chain exhibits a phase noise of −126, −136 and −164dBc/Hz measured respectively at 400KHz, 1MHz and 20MHz offset from 900MHz Carrier.
Medical Student Education Improvement Using a Resident-Driven Student Rotation

Abstract Small community-based residency teaching programs are often entrusted with the task of instructing medical students. In these small programs, sufficient teaching instruction for medical students can be hindered by an ever-increasing workload and lack of a structured curriculum. We designed a resident-supervised rotation for medical students in our department while providing a forum for residents to improve their teaching skills.
Invariant sets techniques for Youla–Kučera parameter synthesis

This article addresses an invariant sets approach for Youla–Kučera parameter synthesis using linear matrix inequality (LMI) techniques. Given a linear discrete-time observer-based system affected by bounded disturbances and constraints, the proposed technique furnishes the best Youla parameter in terms of finding an invariant ellipsoidal set satisfying the constraints and having the maximal ellipsoidal projection on the state space. Compared with the results obtained for an observer-based design, the synthesis of a Youla parameter provides a larger ellipsoidal projection and an improved sensitivity function. The price to pay for these achievements in terms of robustness is usually a slow closed-loop performance with degraded complementary sensitivity function. In order to obtain a compromise between robustness and performance two methods are proposed: the first method imposes a new bound on the Lyapunov function decreasing speed and the second refers to the pole placement concept. The aforementioned approaches are finally validated in simulation considering position control of an induction motor.
Molecular basis for the methylation specificity of ATXR5 for histone H3

Abstract In plants, the histone H3.1 lysine 27 (H3K27) mono-methyltransferases ARABIDOPSIS TRITHORAX RELATED PROTEIN 5 and 6 (ATXR5/6) regulate heterochromatic DNA replication and genome stability. Our initial studies showed that ATXR5/6 discriminate between histone H3 variants and preferentially methylate K27 on H3.1. In this study, we report three regulatory mechanisms contributing to the specificity of ATXR5/6. First, we show that ATXR5 preferentially methylates the R/F-K*-S/C-G/A-P/C motif with striking preference for hydrophobic and aromatic residues in positions flanking this core of five amino acids. Second, we demonstrate that post-transcriptional modifications of residues neighboring K27 that are typically associated with actively transcribed chromatin are detrimental to ATXR5 activity. Third, we show that ATXR5 PHD domain employs a narrow binding pocket to selectively recognize unmethylated K4 of histone H3. Finally, we demonstrate that deletion or mutation of the PHD domain reduces the catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km of AdoMet) of ATXR5 up to 58-fold, highlighting the multifunctional nature of ATXR5 PHD domain. Overall, our results suggest that several molecular determinants regulate ATXR5/6 methyltransferase activity and epigenetic inheritance of H3.1 K27me1 mark in plants.