Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Digital PWM With Zero Baseband Distortion and Low Switching Frequency

A discrete-time pulse width modulator (PWM) with zero baseband distortion for arbitrary band-limited modulating signals is developed in this paper. It is based on adjusting the duty-cycles of the PWM such that the samples of an ideal low-pass filtered version of the PWM signal coincide with the discrete-time samples of the modulating signal. Elaborating on previous approaches in the literature, it is shown that this problem can be stated as a multidimensional inverse function approach, and therefore it can be solved using iterative methods. Starting with the duty-cycle values of a uniform PWM, the successive iterations provide slight duty-cycle corrections that, in the limit, result in zero baseband distortion even for low carrier-to-modulating frequency ratios. Aiming at a practical, real-time implementation two new results are provided. First, explicit bounds on the improvement achievable after each duty-cycle correction are derived. Second, a block processing architecture suitable for real-time implementation is proposed, and the increase of distortion caused by its use is quantified. Several examples with typical band-limited signals demonstrate the performance of the algorithm.
A 5.2-Gb/s Low-Swing Voltage-Mode Transmitter With an AC-/DC-Coupled Equalizer and a Voltage Offset Generator

This paper describes a voltage-mode transmitter with an AC-/DC-coupled equalizer. A dual-loop regulator controls the tap-weight coefficient for the DC-coupled equalizer while maintaining the output matching condition. An AC-coupling technique is employed to enhance the edge rate and reduce the burden of the DC-coupled equalizer. The transmitter also supports the ability to add a DC differential voltage offset into the output signal so that the voltage margin of the link can be measured. The transmitter was fabricated using a 0.13-um CMOS technology. When 240- mVPP, 5.2-Gb/s data are sent over 20-inch FR4 channels, the eye of the received data has a voltage margin of 60 mV and a peak-to-peak jitter of 40 ps. The proposed transmitter consumes 5.86 mW from a 1.2-V supply while operating at 5.2 Gb/s.
Digitally-controlled RF self-interference canceller for full-duplex radios

This paper addresses the self-interference (SI) cancellation in a full-duplex radio transceiver. In particular, we focus on shared-antenna based full-duplex transceivers where the self-interference coupling channel is always frequency-selective and can also be strongly time-varying depending on the antenna matching characteristics and reflections from the surroundings. A novel digitally-controlled RF self-interference canceller structure is described, being able to process the signals in a frequency-selective manner as well as track adaptively the time-varying SI features, stemming from the fast digital control loop. A complete demonstrator board is developed, reported and measured, incorporating both the RF processing and the digital control processing. Comprehensive RF measurements are then also carried out and reported at 2.4GHz ISM band, evidencing more than 40dBs of active RF cancellation gain up to 80MHz instantaneous waveform bandwidths. Furthermore, real-time self-adaptive tracking features are successfully demonstrated.
Blind rectification of radial distortion by line straightness

Lens distortion self-calibration estimates the distortion model using arbitrary images captured by a camera. The estimated model is then used to rectify images taken with the same camera. These methods generally use the fact that built environments are line dominated and these lines correspond to lines on the image when distortion is not present. The proposed method starts by detecting groups of lines whose real world correspondences are likely to be collinear. These line groups are rectified, then a novel error function is calculated to estimate the amount of remaining distortion. These steps are repeated iteratively until suitable distortion parameters are found. A feature selection method is used to eliminate the line groups that are not collinear in the real world. The method is demonstrated to successfully rectify real images of cluttered scenes in a fully automatic manner.
Deep action classification via matrix completion

Matrix completion is the task of predicting unknown or missing entries in a data matrix. The estimation of the missing entries is based on the assumption that the underlying matrix is a low rank one. Deep learning has evolved as an efficient tool for feature extraction in many large-scale image based applications. Exploiting the techniques from both domains, we propose a novel solution to the problem of simultaneous classification of actions from multiple test videos with deep features using matrix completion methods. Learned features from a convolutional neural network and corresponding labels from data are concatenated to form a big matrix with unknown or missing entries in the place of test data labels. Convex rank minimization algorithms are used to complete this matrix. The proposed method achieves stable performance even in situations with more than 50% of features and labels missing.
POLITECNICO DI TORINO Repository ISTITUZIONALE Stochastic Modeling of Nonlinear Circuits via SPICE-Compatible Spectral Equivalents

This paper presents a systematic approach for the statistical simulation of nonlinear networks with uncertain circuit elements. The proposed technique is based on spectral expansions of the elements’ constitutive equations (I–V characteristics) into polynomial chaos series and applies to arbitrary circuit components, both linear and nonlinear. By application of a stochastic Galerkin method, the stochastic problem is cast in terms of an augmented set of deterministic constitutive equations relating the voltage and current spectral coefficients. These new equations are given a circuit interpretation in terms of equivalentmodels that can be readily implemented in SPICE-type simulators, as such allowing to take full advantage of existing algorithms and available built-in models for complex devices, like diodes and MOSFETs. The pertinent statistical information of the entire nonlinear network is retrieved via a single simulation. This approach is both accurate and efficient with respect to traditional techniques, such as Monte Carlo sampling. Application examples, including the analysis of a diode rectifier, a CMOS logic gate and a low-noise amplifier, validate the methodology and conclude the paper.
Joint Power Management and Adaptive Modulation and Coding for Wireless Communications Systems With Unreliable Buffering Memories

To guard against process variability in advanced semiconductor nodes, especially for high-density memories, designers resort to overdesigning policies resulting in increased power consumption. A promising approach to save power is to utilize Voltage over-Scaling (VoS). However VoS results into unreliable buffering memories where a predictable statistically amount of errors are introduced to memories. The goal is to trade off channel dependent SNR slack versus hardware induced errors, to achieve predetermined quality metrics, at reduced power consumption. By design, modern communication systems attempt to minimize channel-dependent SNR slack via adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) schemes, thus reducing the gains of on-chip power management. This paper investigates the interaction between on-chip power management via VoS on embedded memories versus network based AMC techniques. A novel mathematical approach that analytically describes the system packet error rate (PER) performance under the VoS induced noise is presented. Based on this model, different AMC and power management algorithms are presented that utilize the received SNR estimates to find the best AMC mode and memory voltage that achieves performance goals at reduced power consumption. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can achieve up to 58% energy efficiency for the memory-subsystems compared to conventional AMC algorithm with perfect memories.
A 10-Gb/s Low Jitter Single-Loop Clock and Data Recovery Circuit With Rotational Phase Frequency Detector

This paper presents a rotational phase frequency detector (RPFD) for reference-less clock and data recovery circuit (CDR). The proposed RPFD changes the bang-bang phase detector (BBPD) characteristic from a bidirectional phase detection to an unilateral phase detection for capturing clock frequency. The phase-and-frequency lock loop (PFLL) locks the clock frequency and the clock phase alternatively. The single-loop CDR replaces the dual-loop CDR so as to eliminate the noise contribution from the frequency lock loop (FLL). This proposed design is fabricated in TSMC mixed-signal 1P9M 90-nm standard CMOS process with overall die size of 0.71- mm2. With input 10-Gb/s data of a 231-1 PRBS, the CDR tracks free running clock over the capture range of 1.48 GHz and locks in the acquisition time of 20 μs. At the same time, the peak-to-peak jitters show only 5.0 ps in the recovered clock and exhibits 15.11 ps in the recovered data. The measured chip consumes 92 mW with 1.0-V supply voltage.
Electron microscopy of electromagnetic waveforms

Imaging electromagnetic waveforms Understanding the dynamics of electrons and the spatial and temporal evolution of electromagnetic fields within a material or device is often the key to optimizing performance. Ryabov and Baum show that electron microscopy can be used to measure collective carrier motion and electromagnetic fields with subcycle and subwavelength resolution. As an example, they used a train of compressed electron pulses to produce movies of the electromagnetic excitation in an optical excited metamaterial component. Science, this issue p. 374 Electron microscopy images electromagnetic field oscillations with subcycle and subwavelength resolution. Rapidly changing electromagnetic fields are the basis of almost any photonic or electronic device operation. We report how electron microscopy can measure collective carrier motion and fields with subcycle and subwavelength resolution. A collimated beam of femtosecond electron pulses passes through a metamaterial resonator that is previously excited with a single-cycle electromagnetic pulse. If the probing electrons are shorter in duration than half a field cycle, then time-frozen Lorentz forces distort the images quasi-classically and with subcycle time resolution. A pump-probe sequence reveals in a movie the sample’s oscillating electromagnetic field vectors with time, phase, amplitude, and polarization information. This waveform electron microscopy can be used to visualize electrodynamic phenomena in devices as small and fast as available.
Analog Circuit Design Using Tunnel-FETs

Tunnel-FET (TFET) is a major candidate for beyond-CMOS technologies. In this paper, the properties of the TFETs that affect analog circuit design are studied. To demonstrate how TFETs can enhance the performance or change the topology of the analog circuits, several building blocks such as operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs), current mirrors, and track-and-hold circuits are examined. It is shown that TFETs are promising for low-power and low-voltage designs, wherein transistors are biased at low-to-moderate current densities. Comparing 14-nm III-V TFET-based OTAs with Si-MOSFET-based designs demonstrates up to 5 times reduction in the power dissipation of the amplifiers and more than an order of magnitude increase in their DC voltage gain. The challenges and opportunities that come with the special characteristics of TFETs, namely asymmetry, ambipolar behavior, negative differential resistance, and superlinear operation are discussed in detail.
Treatments recommended by health shops for symptoms of depression

AIMS AND METHOD We assessed the appropriateness of treatments recommended by health shop staff for symptoms of mild-to-moderate depression using participant observation with ten members of staff from ten different health shops selling herbal medicinal preparations. RESULTS A wide range of treatment options were suggested by health shop staff when presented with common symptoms of depression. The majority have no firm evidence base, with the exception of St John’s wort ( Hypericum perforatum ). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Most alternative treatments recommended by health shops for the treatment of depression have a poor evidence base. Implications for training and communication between agencies are discussed.
Architecture of built-in self-test and recovery memory chips

The article is devoted to increasing the coefficient of technical readiness of memory chips. The architecture of built-in self-test and repair is proposed, what allows changing a bit data of the primary array of memory cells, in which the failure is occurred, on the data coming from the outputs of an array of backup memory cells. The proposed hardware and software provide automatic reconfiguration of the data upon failure of chip.
A Wideband Beamforming Lowpass Filter for 60 GHz Phased-Array Receivers

This paper presents an analog baseband beamforming topology, which combines phase shifting, signal combination, and biquadratic lowpass filtering in one block. This reduces the number of stages cascaded in a receiver chain, leading to a shorter signal path, thus improving the dynamic range. Flexibility of the proposed solution is illustrated with different possible implementations depending on the top-level chip floorplan. It is shown that the proposed structure does not introduce extra power consumption compared to the conventional approach, while obtaining a higher SNR. A four-antenna-path version of the proposed topology is implemented in 40 nm low-power CMOS as a prototype together with a variable gain block forming a complete analog baseband section for a phased-array receiver. The functionality includes beamforming with a resolution better than 6.8 degrees, fourth-order lowpass filtering with a 1 GHz cutoff frequency, variable gain between 10.6 and 30 dB and automatic DC offset compensation. Output IP3 above 10 dBm and output noise below 4.2 mVrms over the whole gain range yield an SFDR larger than 31.2 dB, which is sufficient for 16-QAM modulation according to IEEE 802.11ad. The circuit consumes between 30 and 42 mW.
A 15-step synthesis of (+)-ryanodol

Rapid ryanodol route The plant-derived compound ryanodine and its hydrolyzed cousin ryanodol are biochemically interesting for their calcium-regulating capacity and chemically interesting for their dense tangle of carbon rings brimming with oxygen appendages. Chuang et al. report an efficient 15-step asymmetric synthesis of ryanodol from the structurally much simpler terpene pulegone (see the Perspective by Verdaguer). Key steps include a Pauson-Khand cyclization of a tethered alkene and alkyne with carbon monoxide to set the ring motifs, followed by an oxidation using selenium dioxide that delivers three different oxygen substituents in tandem. Science, this issue p. 912; see also p. 866 An efficient chemical route is reported to a plant-derived compound of interest in biochemical calcium regulation. (+)-Ryanodine and (+)-ryanodol are complex diterpenoids that modulate intracellular calcium-ion release at ryanodine receptors, ion channels critical for skeletal and cardiac muscle excitation-contraction coupling and synaptic transmission. Chemical derivatization of these diterpenoids has demonstrated that certain peripheral structural modifications can alter binding affinity and selectivity among ryanodine receptor isoforms. Here, we report a short chemical synthesis of (+)-ryanodol that proceeds in only 15 steps from the commercially available terpene (S)-pulegone. The efficiency of the synthesis derives from the use of a Pauson-Khand reaction to rapidly build the carbon framework and a SeO2-mediated oxidation to install three oxygen atoms in a single step. This work highlights how strategic C–O bond constructions can streamline the synthesis of polyhydroxylated terpenes by minimizing protecting group and redox adjustments.
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Comprehensive Study of Clinical, Histomorphological, and Immunohistochemical Features in Indian Patients

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are characterized by negative expression for estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR), and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) receptors. Although the majority of basal-like breast cancers (BLBCs) diagnosed based on gene expression profiling belong to the TNBC group, both entities are not synonymous. Core BLBCs are TNBCs, which are positive for basal cytokeratin (CK) and/or epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). We aimed to study and correlate a TNBC cohort for various histomorphological features and immunohistochemical (IHC) profile in Indian patients. We studied 205 naïve TNBCs for histopathological features, which were further evaluated for basal CKs—namely, CK5/6, CK14, CK17—and EGFR expression to classify them as core BLBCs, using criteria of any basal CK and/or EGFR positivity and 7-negative phenotype (7NP). Among 205 TNBCs, 91% of cases were core BLBCs, and absence of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) was significantly associated (P = .014) with core BLBC. Geographic necrosis was correlated with expression of CK17 (P = .002) and EGFR (P = .038). A ribbon-like trabecular pattern and absence of DCIS were associated with CK17 (P = .0002 and P = .043, respectively) and CK14 (P = .04 and P = .0008, respectively). TNBC is a heterogeneous subgroup with adverse clinicopathological features, and many of them show significant correlation with basal CKs. TNBCs cannot be classified as core BLBC or 7NP based on morphological features, except absence of DCIS. However, this study illustrates the heterogeneity in TNBCs on the basis of IHC markers.
An Efficient KNN Algorithm Implemented on FPGA Based Heterogeneous Computing System Using OpenCL

Accurate and efficient data classification techniques are of vital importance to many problems, and are rapidly developing in recent decades. K-Nearest Neighbor algorithm (KNN), as one of the most important algorithms, is widely used in text categorization, predictive analysis, data mining and image recognition, etc. To accelerate the algorithm and to optimize the parallel implementation solution are two key issues of KNN. In this paper, we propose a new solution to speed up KNN algorithm on FPGA based heterogeneous computing system using OpenCL. Based on FPGA's parallel pipeline structure, a specific bubble sort algorithm is designed to optimize KNN algorithm. The results have been shown that the efficiency of the solution in our paper is much higher than conventional GPU based KNN algorithm implementation.
Crisis informatics—New data for extraordinary times

Focus on behaviors, not on fetishizing social media tools Crisis informatics is a multidisciplinary field combining computing and social science knowledge of disasters; its central tenet is that people use personal information and communication technology to respond to disaster in creative ways to cope with uncertainty. We study and develop computational support for collection and sociobehavioral analysis of online participation (i.e., tweets and Facebook posts) to address challenges in disaster warning, response, and recovery. Because such data are rarely tidy, we offer lessons—learned the hard way, as we have made every mistake described below—with respect to the opportunities and limitations of social media research on crisis events.
Microwave Characteristics of an Independently Biased 3-Stack InGaP/GaAs HBT Configuration

This paper investigates various important microwave characteristics of an independently biased 3-stack InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) chip at both small-signal and large-signal operation. By taking the advantage of the independently biased functionality, bias condition for individual transistor can be adjusted flexibly, resulting in the ability of independent control for both small-signal and large-signal performances. It was found that at small-signal operation stability and isolation characteristics of the proposed configuration can be significantly improved by controlling bias condition of the second-stage and the third-stage transistors while at large-signal operation its linearity and power gain can be improved through controlling the bias condition of the first-stage and the third-stage transistors. To demonstrate the benefits of using such an independently biased configuration, a measured optimum large-signal performance at an operation frequency of 1.6 GHz under an optimum bias condition for the high gain, low distortion were obtained as: <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text {PAE} = 23.5\,\,\%$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\text {P}}_{\text {out}}= 12$ </tex-math></inline-formula> dBm; <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\text {Gain}}= 32.6$ </tex-math></inline-formula> dB at IMD3 = −35 dBc. Moreover, to demonstrate the superior advantage of the proposed configuration, its small-signal and large-signal performance were also compared to that of a single stage common-emitter, a conventional 2-stack, an independently biased 2-stack and a conventional 3-stack configuration. The compared results showed that the independently biased 3-stack is the best candidate among the configurations for various wireless communications applications.
Assessment of Stimulus Preferences in Multisensory Environment Therapy for Older People with Dementia

Assessment is paramount in the process of selecting appropriate treatment media. This paper presents an overview of suitable assessment procedures that may be used with older people with dementia in order to formulate a multisensory environment therapy programme. Primarily, current literature is explored, in terms of both the assessment procedures used prior to using the multisensory environment and the research outcomes. Secondly, an overview is given of two successful assessment procedures used, which integrate applied behaviour analysis and developmental approaches. This will provide the therapist with an assessment framework to determine the sensory preferences of older people with dementia, who may benefit from the multisensory environment.
Bioecological control of organ failure: The role of enteral nutrition, probiotics and synbiotics

Surgical and medical emergencies, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, severe pancreatitis, trauma and burns, but also advanced medical and surgical treatments, from extensive surgical operations to stem cell transplantations, are associated with an unacceptably high morbidity and mortality. The most common cause is sepsis which, despite all advances in pharmaceutical medicine, is steadily increasing. Sepsis is mainly seen in elderly patients and patients with a malfunctioning innate immune system and subsequent elevated inflammatory response. In the past, multiple attempts have been made to control sepsis and subsequent organ failure, but with no or limited success, using branched chain amino acids, glutamine, growth hormone, insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1, various vitamins, as well as combinations of nutrients, including so-called immunoenhancing nutrition formulae. Aggressive perioperative enteral nutrition, tight control of blood sugar, supplementation of antioxidants, plant fibres and lactic.