Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Energy Efficient Level Shifter Capable of Logic Conversion From Sub-15 mV to 1.2 V

We propose architectural advances in low voltage, energy-efficient, level shifters. A write assist circuit is introduced, to support the up-conversion of deep subthreshold inputs. We also present an approach to reduce the leakage current in split signal output stages. A prototype was created in a 130 nm bulk CMOS process, and some samples were successfully tested for input voltages as low as 5 mV. For 10 measured samples, the mean functional, minimum, input voltage was 31.1 mV. By applying body bias to selected NMOS transistors to compensate for process and mismatch variation, the measured mean minimum input voltage was lowered to 14.3 mV. The leakage reduction in the split control output driver reduces the driver leakage by a factor of 8. The designed level shifter was found to be energy efficient compared to published structures, it consumed an average of 25.9 fJ per conversion in post-layout simulations and the delay was measured to 21.08 ns at 300 mV input signals.
Comparative study of lignocaine, bupivacaine alone and in combination in supraclavicular block

Introduction: Brachial plexus block, which involves blocking the nerve supply to upper limb, will effectively anaesthetize the upper extremity. Material & Methods: The present study of "supraclavicular brachial plexus block using Bupivacaine was carried out at Owaisi Hospital and Research Centre, Deccan College of Medical Sciences from the period of March 2015 to August 2015. A total number of 60 patients were divided into three groups of 20 patients each. The patients scheduled to upper extremity surgery were selected for the study and undergone with supraclavicular brachial plexus block. After approval from Ethical committee, study was started. Results: Combination of Lignocaine and Bupivacaine provided the advantages of rapid onset and prolonged duration of action. The short onset time due to Lignocaine minimized the waiting time for commencement of surgery and long duration of action due to Bupivacaine catered for prolonged surgery. The 100% success rate and excellent quality of block without the need for further supplementary anaesthesia gives the advantage for conducting long duration surgeries and in addition good Post operative analgesia is also achieved. Conclusions: Thus we conclude that Lignocaine and Bupivacaine combination is superior to Individual drug given alone and it combines the better qualities of both the drugs.
Digital Twins for Drilling Fluids: Advances and Opportunities

In this work, we present our unique technology to develop and apply digital twins for drilling fluids and associated wellbore phenomena during drilling operations. A drilling fluid digital twin is a series of interconnected models that incorporate the learning from geological uncertainty, complexity of drilling fluids and operational parameters to support well planning and real-time operations. We transform data collected throughout the years from all aspects of drilling fluids to value-added applications and include real-world conditions such as operation at extended temperatures and pressures, consideration for sensitive zones with tight control of the equivalent circulating density (ECD), and hole cleaning in deviated wellbores. With the advances presented in this work, cuttings bed height along the wellbore can be determined more accurately, and hence the ‘fluid plan’ together with operational parameters (such as mud flow rate and rate of penetration (ROP)) can be optimized to a higher level. In addition to the cuttings bed, an accurate workflow for monitoring of downhole fluid rheological properties at the rigsite is developed. Through the use of a digital twin, accurate high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) properties can be determined at the rigsite, which can more easily enable efficient and safe operations, as opposed to lab experiments that are often conducted remotely. We demonstrate the application of automated machine learning (autoML) to represent computational simulations and lab experiments. We also use test datasets and rotating cross-validation methods to ensure accurate and robust results. In both cases, very accurate models were obtained, and point the way for the inclusion of more aspects of the drilling operation including ROP optimization, fluid-loss control, drilling fluid properties management, and power transmission.
Government Advertising in Market-Based Public Programs:Evidence from Health Insurance Marketplace

This paper studies government and private marketing activities in the context of the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace. Using detailed TV advertising data, we present evidence that government and private advertising are targeted to different geographical areas and provide different messaging content. Then, we estimate the impacts of government and private advertising on consumer demand by exploiting discontinuities in advertising along the borders of local TV markets. We find that government advertising has a market-expansion effect and enhances welfare. We also find that private advertising is not more effective than government advertising in increasing total program enrollment. Although private advertising is still effective in increasing insurer’s own enrollment, it does not have positive spillovers to other insurers but has a modest business-stealing effect. We then develop and estimate an equilibrium model of marketplaces to illustrate mechanisms through which government advertising affects the market equilibrium. Our simulation suggests that government advertising can simultaneously increase total program enrollment and reduce excessive advertising spending among private insurers.
The influence of climatic factors on the main phenological phases of grapevines from Stefanesti Viticultural Center, Romania

The growth and development of grapevine plants depend on climatic and orographic factors. The influence of these factors on plants creates a strong connection with environmental factors. The main purpose of this paper was to assess the climatic factors’ level of influence on the grapevine phenophases from the Stefanesti area by using statistical methods less frequently used in the literature. The database we used is consistent and includes climatic factor from the period between 1989 and 2017. This MANOVA multi-factorial statistical analysis also included parameters that are less frequently encountered in the literature, such as the Huglin index or the number of days with precipitation levels higher than a reference level. The results showed that the blooming of the studied grapevine varieties depends primarily on the average annual temperature, the average of maximum temperatures, precipitation values, and the number of days with precipitation levels exceeding 10 mm.
Quantifying the dynamics of pig movements improves targeted disease surveillance and control plans

Tracking animal movements over time can fundamentally determine the success of disease control interventions throughout targeting farms that are tightly connected. In commercial pig production, animals are transported between farms based on growth stages, thus it generates time-varying contact networks that may influence the dynamics of disease spread. Still, risk-based surveillance strategies are mostly based on static network. We reconstructed the static and temporal pig networks of one Brazilian state from 2017 to 2018, comprising 351,519 movements and 48 million transported pigs. The static networks failed to capture time-respecting movement pathways. Therefore, we propose a time-dependent network susceptible-infected (SI) model to simulate the temporal spread of an epidemic over our pig network globally through the temporal movement of infected animals among farms and locally with a stochastic compartmental model in each farm, configured to calculate the minimum number of farms needed to achieve effective disease control. In addition, we propagated disease on the pig temporal network to calculate the cumulative contacts as a proxy of epidemic sizes and evaluated the impact of network-based disease control strategies. The results show that targeting the first 1,000 farms ranked by degree would be sufficient to control disease spread. Our finding also suggested that assuming a worst-case scenario in which every movement could transmit disease, pursuing farms by degree would limit the transmission to 29 farms, which is lower than the number of infected farms for random surveillance, with epidemic sizes of 2,593 farms. Overall, the proposed modeling framework provides a parsimonious solution for targeted disease surveillance when temporal movement data is available. Finally, the top 1,000 farms ranked by degree could benefit from enhanced biosecurity plans and improved surveillance, which constitute important next steps in strategizing targeted disease control interventions.
Bitcoin security with a twisted Edwards curve

Abstract The security of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency system depends on the Koblitz curve secp256k1 combined with the digital signature ECDSA and the hash function SHA-256. In this paper, we show that the security of Bitcoin with ECDSA and secp256k1 is not optimal and present a detailed study of the efficiency of Bitcoin with the digital signature algorithm Ed25519 combined with the twisted Edwards curve CurveEd25519 and the hash function SHA-512. We show that Bitcoin is more secure and more efficient with the digital signature algorithm Ed25519 and the twisted Edwards curve CurveEd25519.
Prior adaptation of parasitoids improves biological control of symbiont‐protected pests

There is increasing demand for sustainable pest management to reduce harmful effects of pesticides on the environment and human health. For pest aphids, biological control with parasitoid wasps provides a welcome alternative, particularly in greenhouses. However, aphids are frequently infected with the heritable bacterial endosymbiont Hamiltonella defensa, which increases resistance to parasitoids and thereby hampers biological control. Using the black bean aphid (Aphis fabae) and its main parasitoid Lysiphlebus fabarum, we tested whether prior adaptation of parasitoids can improve the control of symbiont‐protected pests. We had parasitoid lines adapted to two different strains of H. defensa by experimental evolution, as well as parasitoids evolved on H. defensa‐free aphids. We compared their ability to control caged aphid populations comprising 60% unprotected and 40% H. defensa‐protected aphids, with both H. defensa strains present in the populations. Parasitoids that were not adapted to H. defensa had virtually no effect on aphid population dynamics compared to parasitoid‐free controls, but one of the adapted lines and a mixture of both adapted lines controlled aphids successfully, strongly benefitting plant growth. Selection by parasitoids altered aphid population composition in a very specific manner. Aphid populations became dominated by H. defensa‐protected aphids in the presence of parasitoids, and each adapted parasitoid line selected for the H. defensa strain it was not adapted to. This study shows, for the first time, that prior adaptation of parasitoids improves biological control of symbiont‐protected pests, but the high specificity of parasitoid counter‐resistance may represent a challenge for its implementation.
Primary mesorectal carcinoid tumour, a case report and review of literature

Carcinoid tumours of unknown origin (CUO) are rare and account for only 10% of carcinoid tumours (1). Utilisation of 68-gallium Dotatate positron emission computerised tomography (PET-CT) offers increased sensitivity and characterization of CUO, compared to traditional Octreotide scans (2). Development of this may allow investigation into the mesentery as a potential primary site. A 55-yearold woman was referred with a 4-month history of proctalgia and obstructive defecation. Digital rectal examination (DRE) revealed a posterior retro-rectal mass. Computerised tomography (CT), biopsy and octreotide scan along with elevated serum chromogranin A levels confirmed a carcinoid mass in the mesorectum, distinct from the bowel wall. Laparoscopic ultra-low anterior resection with ileostomy formation was performed. Eighteen months post-operatively, surveillance CT thorax, abdomen and pelvis (TAP) highlighted an enlarged lymph node in the right external iliac chain, which was positive on gallium PET-CT. Following multidisciplinary (MDT) discussion, a laparoscopic right obturator lymph node resection was undertaken after which post-operative histology confirmed metastatic well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumour. Management of CUO is challenging and as such should be individualized with an MDT-based approach. The mesenteric organ should be considered as a potential primary site in the setting of mesenteric carcinoid when no other primary focus is identifiable. Future guidelines should reflect this.
Relationship between histogram metrics of pharmacokinetic parameters of DCE-MRI and histological phenotype in breast cancer

Background To investigate the correlation between quantitative pharmacokinetic parameters and clinicopathological prognostic biomarkers including estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and MiB1 (Ki-67) in patients with breast cancer, the image histogram analysis was performed on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Methods The reference region model (RRM) was used to calculate the quantitative permeability parameters, including reference region volume transfer constant (Ktrans,RR), the rate constant of tissue of interest (Kep,TOI), and the rate constant of reference region (Kep,RR). Histogram analysis was performed to compare these parameters between ER/PR/HER2/Ki-67 positive and negative groups. The performance of the histogram parameters Ktrans,RR, Kep,TOI and Kep,RR in differential diagnosis of immunohistochemistry results was conducted by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results All the histogram metrics of Kep,TOI significantly differed between ER/PR positive and negative groups (P<0.05). However, Ktrans,RR and Kep,RR did not significantly differ between ER/PR positive and negative groups (P>0.05). The 10th percentile, energy, entropy and variance of Ktrans,RR, and almost all the histogram parameters of Kep,TOI except for variance significantly differed between HER2 positive and negative groups (all P<0.05). The energy of Ktrans,RR significantly differed between Ki-67 positive and negative groups (P<0.05). The skewness and energy of Kep,TOI showed the highest AUC of 0.977 and 0.879 in differentiating ER/PR status. The energy of Ktrans,RR presented the highest AUC in the differentiation of HER2 and Ki-67. Conclusions Histogram analysis on quantitative pharmacokinetic breast parameters using DCE-MRI improves the performance in differentiation of histological phenotypes of breast cancer.
Complementing Optical Remote Sensing with Synthetic Aperture Radar Observations of Hail Damage Swaths to Agricultural Crops in the Central United States

The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has been frequently used to map hail damage to vegetation, especially in agricultural areas, but observations can be blocked by cloud cover during the growing season. Here, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A/1B C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery in co- and cross polarization is used to identify changes in backscatter of corn and soybeans damaged by hail during intense thunderstorm events in the early and late growing season. Following a June event, hail-damaged areas produced a lower mean backscatter when compared with surrounding, unaffected pixels [vertical–vertical (VV): −1.1 dB; vertical–horizontal (VH): −1.5 dB]. Later, another event in August produced an increase in co- and cross-polarized backscatter (VV: 0.7 dB; VH: 1.7 dB) that is hypothesized to result from the combined effects of crop growth, change in structure of damaged crops, and soil moisture conditions. Hail damage regions inferred from changes in backscatter were further assessed through coherence change detections to support changes in the structure of crops damaged within the hail swath. While studies using NDVI have routinely concluded a decrease in NDVI is associated with damage, the cause of change with respect to the damaged areas in SAR backscatter values is more complex. Influences of environmental variables, such as vegetation structure, vegetation maturity, and soil moisture conditions, need to be considered when interpreting SAR backscatter and will vary throughout the growing season.
Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization and Expression Analysis of Non-Arginine Aspartate Receptor like kinase gene family under Colletotrichum truncatum stress conditions in Hot pepper

Receptor Like kinases (RLKs) are conserved upstream signaling molecules that regulate several biological processes, including plant development and stress adaptation. Non arginine aspartate (non-RD) an important class of RLKs plays a vital role in disease resistance and apoptosis in plants. In present investigation, a comprehensive Insilco analysis for non-RD Kinase gene family including identification, sequence similarity, phylogeny, chromosomal localization, gene structures, gene duplication analysis, promoter analysis and transcript expression profiles were elucidated. In this study twenty six genes were observed on nine out of twelve chromosomes. All these genes were clustered into seven subfamilies under large monophyletic group termed as Interleukin-1 Receptor-Associated Kinase (IRAK) family. Structural diversity in genomic structure among non-RD kinase gene family were identified and presence of pathogen induced cis regulatory elements like STRE, MYC, MYB,W box were found. Expression profiles of genes involved in providing resistance to anthracnose pathogen Colletotrichum truncatum in hot pepper were analyzed at different infective stages in both resistant and susceptible genotypes. Among twenty six genes, CaRLK1 gene belonging to LRRXII subfamily was up regulated under severe stress after infection in resistant genotype PBC-80. This integrative approach has helped us to identify candidate genes involved in disease resistance which would be helpful in future crop improvement programs.
An information-theoretic approach for measuring the distance of organ tissue samples using their transcriptomic signatures

Motivation Recapitulating aspects of human organ functions using in-vitro (e.g., plates, transwells, etc.), in-vivo (e.g., mouse, rat, etc.), or ex-vivo (e.g., organ chips, 3D systems, etc.) organ models are of paramount importance for precision medicine and drug discovery. It will allow us to identify potential side effects and test the effectiveness of therapeutic approaches early in their design phase and will inform the development of accurate disease models. Developing mathematical methods to reliably compare the “distance/similarity” of organ models from/to the real human organ they represent is an understudied problem with important applications in biomedicine and tissue engineering. Results We introduce the Transctiptomic Signature Distance, TSD, an information-theoretic distance for assessing the transcriptomic similarity of two tissue samples, or two groups of tissue samples. In developing TSD, we are leveraging next-generation sequencing data and information retrieved from well-curated databases providing signature gene sets characteristic for human organs. We present the justification and mathematical development of the new distance and demonstrate its effectiveness in different scenarios of practical importance using several publicly available RNA-seq datasets. Contact dimitris.manatakis@emulatebio.com Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at bioRxiv.
Stability Analysis and Location Optimization Method for Multiconverter Power Systems Based on Nodal Admittance Matrix

This article presents an impedance-based method for stability analysis of multiconverter power systems based on the generalized Nyquist stability criterion. The return-ratio matrix of the system is formulated on the basis of the nodal admittance matrix and output admittance of the converters, which can be applicable for large-scale systems with complicated structure. A modified IEEE 13-bus system is used as the testing system, which shows that the proposed method can be easily implemented for location optimization of the converters. And the participation factors (PFs) of the return-ratio matrix’s critical eigenvalues [which encircle the critical point (−1, $0 j$ )] at the instability frequencies are used to identify which converters have significant contributions to the instability, and then guidance for the design of system parameters can be provided. Simulations in PSCAD/EMTDC validate the effectiveness of the proposed stability analysis method.
Predictors of High-Risk Behaviors Among Street Children in Zahedan, Southeastern Iran

Background: Street children are at risk of various high risk behaviors, but few studies have been performed in this field in Iran and worldwide. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of high risk behaviors and its predictors among street children to design interventions and future research agenda regarding these children in Iran, especially in southeast region. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in southeast Iran in 2015. Based on postal map, the city was divided into 5 districts and 216 male street children were selected using snowball sampling. An unstructured questionnaire was provided by integrating 8 previously used questionnaires in different studies with approved validity and reliability and filled through interview and observation. Data was analyzed in Stata.12 software using bivariate and multiple logistic regression by Hosmer-Lemeshow method. Results: The mean age of subjects was 12.5 ± 3.2 years. The lowest mean age of initial use and usually firstly used substance was for cigarette smoking. The prevalence of high risk behaviors was 47.7% (95% CI: 44% 51%). In final multiple logistic regression model, separation of parents (OR: 3.8 [95% CI: 1.86 16.2]), peddling activity type (OR: 2.73 [95% CI: 1.28 9.5]) and lower fathers’ educational level (OR: 3.83 [95% CI: 1.86 15.4]) significantly increased the prevalence of high-risk behaviors among street children. Conclusions: The prevalence of high-risk behaviors among street children in southeast Iran is almost high. In this regard, street vendors and children who their parents are illiterate or have been separated are more at risk. Generally, principal organizing these children and family education could decline their problems. However, these actions need intersectoral collaboration in society.