Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Charge Distribution and Contact Resistance Model for Coplanar Organic Field-Effect Transistors

We propose a theoretical description of the charge distribution and the contact resistance in coplanar organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Based on the concept that the current in organic semiconductors is only carried by injected carriers from the electrodes, an analytical formulation for the charge distribution inside the organic layer was derived. We found that the contact resistance in coplanar OFETs arises from a sharp low-carrier-density zone at the source/channel edge because the gate-induced channel carrier density is orders of magnitude higher than the source carrier density. This image is totally different from the contact resistance in staggered OFETs, in which the contact resistance mainly originates from the resistance through the semiconductor bulk. The contact resistance was calculated through charge-distribution functions, and the model could explain the effect of the gate voltage and injection barrier on the contact resistance. Experimental data on pentacene OFETs were analyzed using the transmission-line method. We finally noticed that the gate-voltage-dependent mobility is a critical factor for proper understanding of the contact resistance in real devices.
Patient, staff, and clinician perspectives on implementing electronic communications in an interdisciplinary rural family health practice

Aim To conduct an environmental scan of a rural primary care clinic to assess the feasibility of implementing an e-communications system between patients and clinic staff. Background Increasing demands on healthcare require greater efficiencies in communications and services, particularly in rural areas. E-communications may improve clinic efficiency and delivery of healthcare but raises concerns about patient privacy and data security. Methods We conducted an environmental scan at one family health team clinic, a high-volume interdisciplinary primary care practice in rural southwestern Ontario, Canada, to determine the feasibility of implementing an e-communications system between its patients and staff. A total of 28 qualitative interviews were conducted (with six physicians, four phone nurses, four physicians’ nurses, five receptionists, one business office attendant, five patients, and three pharmacists who provide care to the clinic’s patients) along with quantitative surveys of 131 clinic patients. Findings Patients reported using the internet regularly for multiple purposes. Patients indicated they would use email to communicate with their family doctor for prescription refills (65% of respondents), appointment booking (63%), obtaining lab results (60%), and education (50%). Clinic staff expressed concerns about patient confidentiality and data security, the timeliness, complexity and responsibility of responses, and increased workload. Conclusion Clinic staff members are willing to use an e-communications system but clear guidelines are needed for successful adoption and to maintain privacy of patient health data. E-communications might improve access to and quality of care in rural primary care practices.
AN RDF METADATA-BASED WEIGHTED SEMANTIC PAGERANK ALGORITHM

PageRank evaluates the importance of Web pages with link relations. However, there is no direct method of evaluating the meaning of links in a hyperlink-based Web structure. This feature may cause problems in that pages containing many in-links are highly ranked without considering the meaning of the link relations among the pages. We therefore propose a novel ranking approach to directly analyze the meaning of links by transforming a hyperlink-based Web structure into a semantic-link-based Web structure. We extract semantic metadata from Web pages and construct a semantic-link-based Web structure using RDF model. We define a metric to evaluate the weight of the links for stratifying rank values based on their importance in the semantic-link-based Web structure. We implement the weighted semantic ranking algorithm in the MapReduce framework to consider large-scale semantic metadata. The results of our experiment show that our approach outperforms existing PageRank algorithms.
Assessing Attitude Toward Same-Sex Marriage

Abstract This paper reports the results of three studies conducted to develop, refine, and validate a scale which assessed heterosexual adults' attitudes toward same-sex marriage, the Attitude Toward Same-Sex Marriage Scale (ASSMS). The need for such a scale is evidenced in the increasing importance of same-sex marriage in the political arena of the United States and other nations, as well as the growing body of empirical research examining same-sex marriage and related issues (e.g., Lannutti, 2005; Solomon, Rothblum, & Balsam, 2004). The results demonstrate strong reliability, convergent validity, and predictive validity for the ASSMS and suggest that the ASSMS may be adapted to measure attitudes toward civil unions and other forms of relational recognition for same-sex couples. Gender comparisons using the validated scale showed that in college and non-college samples, women had a significantly more positive attitude toward same-sex marriage than did men.
Dietary Protein Loading and the Oral Adsorbent AST-120 in the Progression of Chronic Renal Failure in the Rat

Excess protein intake enhances the progression of renal failure. The oral carbonaceous adsorbent, AST-120, was found experimentally and clinically to retard the progression of renal failure. This study was designed to determine whether deterioration of renal function by dietary protein loading can be prevented or mitigated by this oral adsorbent. Rats with uremia induced by partial renal infarction were fed a normal or high-protein diet for 70 days with or without AST-120, in which the inorganic phosphate content was adjusted to the same level. The survival rate deteriorated with the high dietary protein, but was improved from 30% to 100% with AST-120. Dietary protein loading reduced renal function, based on creatinine clearance. AST-120 improved renal function and renal histopathology not only in the normal diet group but in the high-protein group as well. The progression of renal failure induced by protein loading is thus shown to be prevented by oral AST-120. The mechanism for its action remains to be clarified.
How Cattle Grazing Influences Heavy Metal Concentrations in Tropical Pasture Soils

This study investigates the impact of short-term (1.5-year) heavy and long-term (33-year) moderate grazing intensities on the heavy metal concentrations in soils of tropical pastures. The concentration of heavy metals (Cd, Fe, Mn, Cu, Cr, Pb, and Zn) was determined in the Livestock Section of University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia. The heavy metal concentrations in the soil were not affected (P>0.05) by shortterm heavy grazing intensity. The concentrations of Fe, Mn, and Zn were significantly affected (P≤0.05) by long-term moderate grazing or soil depth and by the interaction between them. The Cu concentration in soil was only affected (P 0.05) by sampling depth or their interaction. The concentrations of Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn in long-term moderately grazed pasture soil were 127.9, 194.8, 54.8, and 39,900% higher, respectively, than ungrazed pasture. Soil Fe, Mn, and Zn concentrations were significantly higher (P<0.05) in surface (0-10 cm) than subsurface (10-20 cm) soils. Results suggest that the excreta of grazing cattle can be an important source of heavy metals in intensively managed pastures in the long-term. However, metal concentrations were maintained within the normal range and were not high enough to be dangerous from the toxicological point of view.
Modeling and cosimulation of FPGA-based SVPWM control for PMSM

This paper presents the modeling and cosimulation method of a FPGA based permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) control system; the current control loop of PMSM control system is space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM); a new FPGA based top-down design method is proposed. According to the design method, the function model is built in Matlab environment, and the behavioral model (VHDL model) is programmed in the synthesis software platform. In order to realize the hardware/software codesign, the cosimulation between function model and VHDL model is implemented by integrating two models into one cosimulation model. By the cosimulation, the hardware timing and the function simulation can be tested and verified at the same time. In this paper, the case study shows that the design efficiency can be improved greatly by using this cosimulation method.
The repertoire of minimal mobile elements in the Neisseria species and evidence that these are involved in horizontal gene transfer in other bacteria.

In the Neisseria spp. , natural competence for transformation and homologous recombination generate antigenic variants through creation of mosaic genes (such as opas) and through recombination with silent cassettes (such as pilE/pilS) and gene-complement diversity through the horizontal exchange of whole genes or groups of genes, in minimal mobile elements (MMEs). An MME is a region encompassing 2 conserved genes between which different whole-gene cassettes are found in different strains, which are chromosomally incorporated solely through the action of homologous recombination. Comparative analyses of the neisserial genome sequences identified 39 potential MME sites, the contents of which were investigated in 11 neisserial strains. One hundred and eight different MME regions were identified, 20 of which contain novel sequences and these contain 12 newly identified neisserial coding sequences. Neisserial uptake signal sequences are associated with 38 of the 40 MMEs studied. In some sites, divergent dinucleotide signatures of the sequences between the flanking genes suggest relatively recent horizontal acquisition of some cassettes. The neisserial MMEs were used to interrogate all of the other available bacterial genome sequences, revealing frequent conservation of the flanking genes combined with the presence of different gene cassettes between them. In some cases, these sites can definitively be classified as MMEs in these other genera. These findings provide additional evidence for the MME model, indicate that MME-directed investigations are a good basis for the identification of novel strain-specific genes and differences within bacterial populations and demonstrate that these elements are probably ubiquitously involved in genetic exchange, particularly in naturally competent bacteria.
Item response model investigation of the (German) Interpersonal Reactivity Index empathy questionnaire: Implications for analyses of group differences.

Abstract. The interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) is a widely used personality questionnaire for measuring empathy. We investigated the psychometric properties of the German version using the partial credit model. If this model fits the data, the raw-scores are fair measures of the latent construct. Only in such a case, further analyses based on the raw-scores are accurate and valid. The results showed model fit only for the subscale empathic concern. The subscales perspective taking and fantasy consisted of two theoretically explainable sub-dimensions. For the subscale personal distress, no model fit could be achieved. Our study provides important information on the psychometric qualities of the IRI that has been repeatedly used to assess, for example, group differences. It demonstrates that these analyses were not warranted by the psychometric quality of the questionnaire. Our results provide direct suggestions (e.g., theoretically explainable sub-dimensions) for further developments of the IRI to over.
Fuzzy Inspired Case based Reasoning for Hematology Malignancies Classification By Imianvan

Conventional approaches for collecting and reporting hematological data as well as diagnosing hematologic malignancies such as leukemia, anemia, e.t. c are based on subjective professional physician personal opinions or experiences which are influenced by human error, dependent on human-to-human judgments, time consuming processes and the blood results are non-reproducible. In the light of those human limitations identified, an automatic or semiautomatic classification and corrective method is required because it reduces the load on human observers and accuracy is not affected due to fatigue. Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) as a multi-disciplinary subject that focuses on the reuse of past experiences or cases to proffer solution to new cases was adopted and combined with the power of Fuzzy logic to design a software model that will effectively mine hematology data. This study aim at helping the medical practitioners to diagnose and provide corrective treatment to both normal patients and patients with hematology disorder at the early stage which can reduce the number of deaths. This aim is achievable by developing an intelligent expert system based on fuzzy logic and case-based reasoning for classification of hematology malignancy.
Error Analysis of Inertial Navigation Systems Using Test Algorithms Analiza greške inercijskih navigacijskih sustava pomoću test algoritama

Content of this contribution is an issue of inertial sensors errors, specification of inertial measurement units and generating of test signals for Inertial Navigation System (INS). Given the different levels of navigation tasks, part of this contribution is comparison of the actual types of Inertial Measurement Units. Considering this comparison, there is proposed the way of solving inertial sensors errors and their modelling for low – cost inertial navigation applications. The last part is focused on mathematical testing and simulations of the inertial navigation. Given issue is a partial result, which is part of dissertation thesis Integration architectures of navigation systems.
Input and State Estimation for Linear Discrete-Time Systems without Direct Feedthrough

The classical Kalman filter (KF) is an effective approach of state estimation for linear discrete-time systems, but classical KF is applicable only when external inputs are measured. So far, some studies of Kalman filter with unknown inputs (KF-UI) have been proposed. However, previous KF-UI approaches based solely on acceleration measurements are inherently unstable which leads to poor tracking and fictitious drifts in the identified structural displacements and unknown inputs in the presence of measurement noises. Moreover, it is necessary to have the measurements of acceleration responses at the locations where unknown inputs applied, direct feedthrough of the unknown inputs to the output measurements are required in these approaches. In this paper, it aims to extend the classical KF approach to circumvent the above limitations for Input and state estimation for linear discrete-time systems without direct feedthrough. Based on the scheme of the classical KF, a Kalman filter with unknown excitations (KF-UI) is derived for linear discrete-time systems without direct feedthrough. Then, data fusion of acceleration and displacement or strain measurements is used to prevent the drifts in the identified structural state and unknown inputs. In addition, dynamic displacement is one of the crucial physical parameters for bridge rating, seismic risk assessment, structural health monitoring of structures. However, it is challenging to measure dynamic displacement because displacement is a relative quantity and requires a fixed reference point Some researchers have investigated dynamic displacement estimation by fusing biased high-sampling rate acceleration and low-sampling rate non-contact displacement measurements. In this 1) Professor, Corresponding author, mail: *ylei@xmu.edu. cn 2) Graduate Student paper, the proposed KF-UI is used to identify the dynamic displacement by fusing biased high-sampling rate acceleration and low-sampling rate displacement measurements with consideration of bias in acceleration measurements as “unknown input”. Numerical examples are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
A new member of acid‐sensing ion channels from pituitary gland

Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) constitute a branch of the super-gene family of amiloride-sensitive sodium channels. So far five different ASICs have been cloned from mammalian tissues. They are activated by a drop of extracellular pH but differ with respect to effective agonist concentration, desensitization and mRNA expression pattern. Here we report cloning of ASIC4, a new protein showing about 45% identity to other ASICs. ASIC4 is 97% identical between rat and human and shows strongest expression in pituitary gland. Moreover, we detected expression throughout the brain, in spinal cord, and inner ear. ASIC4 cannot be activated by a drop of extracellular pH in Xenopus oocytes, suggesting association with other subunits or activation by a ligand different from protons. Our results suggest a role for ASICs also in endocrine glands.
Comparison of MRI Under-Sampling Techniques for Compressed Sensing with Translation Invariant Wavelets Using FastTestCS: A Flexible Simulation Tool

A sparsifying transform for use in Compressed Sensing (CS) is a vital piece of image reconstruction for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Previously, Translation Invariant Wavelet Transforms (TIWT) have been shown to perform exceedingly well in CS by reducing repetitive line pattern image artifacts that may be observed when using orthogonal wavelets. To further establish its validity as a good sparsifying transform, the TIWT is comprehensively investigated and compared with Total Variation (TV), using six under-sampling patterns through simulation. Both trajectory and random mask based under-sampling of MRI data are reconstructed to demonstrate a comprehensive coverage of tests. Notably, the TIWT in CS reconstruction performs well for all varieties of under-sampling patterns tested, even for cases where TV does not improve the mean squared error. This improved Image Quality (IQ) gives confidence in applying this transform to more CS applications which will contribute to an even greater speed-up of a CS MRI scan. High vs low resolution time of flight MRI CS re-constructions are also analyzed showing how partial Fourier acquisitions must be carefully addressed in CS to prevent loss of IQ. In the spirit of reproducible research, novel software is introduced here as FastTestCS. It is a helpful tool to quickly develop and perform tests with many CS customizations. Easy integration and testing for the TIWT and TV minimization are exemplified. Simulations of 3D MRI datasets are shown to be efficiently distributed as a scalable solution for large studies. Comparisons in reconstruction computation time are made between the Wavelab toolbox and Gnu Scientific Library in FastTestCS that show a significant time savings factor of 60×. The addition of FastTestCS is proven to be a fast, flexible, portable and reproducible simulation aid for CS research.
Mutations that cause threonine sensitivity identify catalytic and regulatory regions of the aspartate kinase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The HOM3 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes aspartate kinase, which catalyses the first step in the branched pathway leading to the synthesis of threonine and methionine from aspartate. Regulation of the carbon flow into this pathway takes place mainly by feedback inhibition of this enzyme by threonine. We have isolated and characterized three HOM3 mutants that show growth inhibition by threonine due to a severe, threonine‐induced reduction of the carbon flow into the aspartate pathway, leading to methionine limitation. One of the mutants has an aspartate kinase which is 30‐fold more strongly inhibited by threonine than the wild‐type enzyme. The predicted amino acid substitution in this mutant, A406T, is located in a region associated with the modulation of the enzymatic activity. The other two mutants carry an aspartate kinase with reduced affinity for its substrates, aspartate and ATP. The corresponding amino acid substitutions, K26I and G25D, affect residues located in the vicinity of a highly conserved lysine‐phenylalanine‐glycine‐glycine (KFGG) stretch present in the N‐terminal part of the aspartate kinase, to which no function has so far been assigned. We suggest that this region is involved in substrate binding. Mutagenesis of a HOM3 region centred in the KFGG‐coding triplets generated alleles that determine threonine sensitivity or auxotrophy for threonine and methionine, but not a phenotype associated with a feedback‐resistant aspartate kinase, indicating that this region is not involved in the allosteric response of the enzyme. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
E-commerce standard user interface: an E-menu system

Purpose – A rapidly growing segment of the internet is e‐commerce. The future of economic competitiveness for most enterprises relies on entrance and active participation in the e‐commerce market. About a third of the time users fail when they try to purchase products on an e‐commerce site. An essential problem with e‐commerce is that the controls and organization are different for each site. There is no standard way of building the navigation of the e‐commerce site. Most sites do not have a global navigation system and the local one may be confusing, like solving a maze. The goal of this study is to minimize users' look up time and make e‐commerce sites usable so visitors can easily and quickly access information. The objective of this study is to provide an implementation method by which an agent of the artificial intelligence (AI) user interface creates a standard navigation menu, called E‐menu, to increase the usability of e‐commerce.Design/methodology/approach – The selected E‐menu items are based on.
Physiological responses of two contrasting desert plant species to precipitation variability are differentially regulated by soil moisture and nitrogen dynamics

Alterations in global and regional precipitation patterns are expected to affect plant and ecosystem productivity, especially in water‐limited ecosystems. This study examined the effects of natural and supplemental (25% increase) seasonal precipitation on a sotol grassland ecosystem in Big Bend National Park in the Chihuahuan Desert. Physiological responses – leaf photosynthesis at saturating light (Asat), stomatal conductance (gs), and leaf nitrogen [N] – of two species differing in their life form and physiological strategies (Dasylirion leiophyllum, a C3 shrub; Bouteloua curtipendula, a C4 grass) were measured over 3 years (2004–2006) that differed greatly in their annual and seasonal precipitation patterns (2004: wet, 2005: average, 2006: dry). Precipitation inputs are likely to affect leaf‐level physiology through the direct effects of altered soil water and soil nitrogen. Thus, the effects of precipitation, watering treatment, soil moisture, and nitrogen were quantified via multivariate hierarchical Bayesian models that explicitly linked the leaf and soil responses. The two species differed in their physiological responses to precipitation and were differentially controlled by soil water vs. soil nitrogen. In the relatively deeply rooted C3 shrub, D. leiophyllum, Asat was highest in moist periods and was primarily regulated by deep (16–30 cm) soil water. In the shallow‐rooted C4 grass, B. curtipendula, Asat was only coupled to leaf [N], both of which increased in dry periods when soil [N] was highest. Supplemental watering during the wet year generally decreased Asat and leaf [N] in D. leiophyllum, perhaps due to nutrient limitation, and physiological responses in this species were influenced by the cumulative effects of 5 years of supplemental watering. Both species are common in this ecosystem and responded strongly, yet differently, to soil moisture and nitrogen, suggesting that changes in the timing and magnitude of precipitation may have consequences for plant carbon gain, with the potential to alter community composition.