Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Phase-Modulated Microwave Photonic Link With an Extended Transmission Distance

A novel technique to transport a microwave signal over an optical fiber based on phase-modulation and coherent in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) demodulation with an extended transmission distance is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the transmitter, a Sagnac loop incorporating a phase modulator (PM) is used to generate two orthogonally polarized optical signals with one being phase modulated and the other with no modulation that acts as a remote optical reference signal. The orthogonally polarized optical signals are transmitted over a single-mode fiber (SMF) to a polarization and phase diversity coherent receiver, and are coherently detected with a free-running optical local oscillator at the receiver. Since the phase-modulated and the reference signals are transmitted over the same SMF, the optical phases are correlated, and the original signal can be recovered based on a digital signal processing algorithm. The proposed technique is experimentally evaluated. Compared with a phase-modulated coherent I/Q demodulated link without using an optical phase correlated reference signal, the transmission distance is extended from 50 m to 10 km, while providing a link gain and a spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of -9.5 dB and 115.8 dB · Hz2/3, respectively.
Long-term insured lives morbidity and mortality risk associated with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects 170 million people worldwide. Some medical experts have suggested that progression to end-stage liver disease is inevitable; others have concluded that progression is restricted to a limited percentage of those who are infected. These opposing views have added to the uncertainty faced by underwriters who must assess risk in applicants infected with HCV. This article discusses use of a Markov model to estimate risk associated with chronic HCV infection in otherwise healthy applicants for life and critical illness insurance. RESULTS Estimated mortality ratios varied with assumptions regarding rate of progression from active HCV infection to cirrhosis. For males, peak mortality ratios decreased with advancing age at underwriting from a high of 209% (age 20) to a low of 122% (age 60). A similar age-related pattern was seen for females, from a peak mortality ratio of 184% (age 20) to a low of 128% (age 60). In contrast to the pattern of decreasing relative mortality at older ages, morbidity increased with age at underwriting. Sensitivity analysis indicated that calculations in the model were sensitive to different transition rates from active HCV infection to cirrhosis and from cirrhosis to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) but not sensitive to treatment frequency and success. A review of the literature also suggested that a favorable prognosis was likely in applicants with persistently normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, but prognosis was less certain for those with intermittent or persistent elevation of liver enzymes. CONCLUSION Morbidity and mortality are within the insurable range for the majority of HCV-infected persons. Risk varies with gender, age at infection, and other variables discussed in the article.
An Analytical Adequacy Evaluation Method for Distribution Networks Considering Protection Strategies and Distributed Generators

Reliability evaluation relates to the impact of faults on customer outage frequency and time. Thus, studying the process of fault isolation and supply restoration is critical in reliability evaluation. In distribution systems, distributed generators (DGs), especially renewable DGs, are increasingly integrated into the network. New issues emerge after DG integration: 1) DG reliability model; 2) change of protection strategy and supply restoration process; and 3) islanding operation. In this paper, an analytical method is proposed to assess the distribution system reliability level considering these issues. The reliability model for DG and load are developed using scenarios reduction techniques based on historical data. The correlation between renewable resources and load is also formulated in the model. When a fault occurs in a distribution system, parts of the distribution system can be operated as islands. The reliability indices of the load point in the microgrid vary according to the power adequacy assessment in the island and supply restoration process. To improve calculation efficiency, the analysis of fault isolation and supply restoration process and reliability evaluation is based on segments instead of single components. Then, the overall reliability evaluation framework is proposed. In the end, a detailed case study is presented.
Primary sclerosing cholangitis: Summary of a workshop

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a rare but important liver disease that leads to cirrhosis and need for liver transplantation in a high proportion of cases. The disease occurs in approximately 1 per 100,000 population per year, usually presents in adulthood, and affects men more often than women. Typical serum biochemical results, autoantibodies and liver biopsy are suggestive but not diagnostic of PSC, the diagnosis requiring cholangiographic demonstration of stricturing and dilatation of the intra‐ and/or extra‐hepatic bile ducts. The natural history of PSC is variable, the average survival being 12 to 17 years. The cause of PSC is still unknown. Although considered an autoimmune disease, PSC has several atypical features and a strong genetic component. The therapy of PSC is unsatisfactory. Standard doses of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) lead to improvements in biochemical abnormalities but not in histology, cholangiographic appearance or survival. Several innovative therapies have been tried in PSC, but with scant evidence of benefit. For patients with high grade strictures, endoscopic dilatation is beneficial. Liver transplantation is successful for end‐stage liver disease due to PSC and improves survival. PSC may recur after transplantation but is rarely progressive. The most dreaded complication of PSC is cholangiocarcinoma. Diagnosis of this highly malignant tumor is difficult, and there are no biomarkers for its early detection. Liver transplantation for cholangiocarcinoma has an exceedingly poor outcome, although transplantation with neoadjuvant chemoirradiation holds promise in selected patients. Thus, significant opportunities remain for basic and clinical research into the cause, natural history, and therapy of PSC. (HEPATOLOGY 2006;44:746–764.)
Who Benefits from Growth

In this paper we highlight the link existing between economic growth and inequality. Using the FH-DADS panel data set, resulting from the matching of Pole Emploi (French National Employment Agency) historical database and the "Declarations Annuelles de Donnees Sociales" data set (DADS), we show that inequality increases with mobility, and that mobility evolves with GDP variations. Data show indeed that inequality tends to increase during economic growth periods and to decrease during slow down, through unequal mobility between individuals. In order to explain this phenomenon, we use two structural models. One based on Jolivet, Postel-Vinay and Robin (2006) allows us to link inequality and mobility through equilibrium changes on the job market. Another one, due to Robin (2011), confirms on US data the link existing between inequality and economic growth
How Much Redistribution Do Governments Achieve? The Role of Cash Transfers and Household Taxes

GROWING UNEQUAL? – ISBN 978-92-64-044180-0 – © OECD 2008 110 welfare state spending and taxation have no behavioural impact on the distribution of market incomes. In particular, in countries with generous public pensions, the standard approach implies that middle-class individuals are plunged into market-income poverty on retirement simply because it is the government, rather than the market, that provides their pensions: generous earnings-related public pensions are then measured as being very effective at reducing inequality, in part because they restore middle-income retirees to their pre-retirement ranking. A comparison between the two alternative measures suggests that, in some OECD countries, a very significant part of the redistribution measured by the Figure 4.4. Differences in inequality before and after taxes and transfers in OECD countries Difference in concentration coefficients around 2005
[AIDS in the world].

The report from the Sao Paulo Epidemiological Vigilance Center in Brazil indicated that the number of women with AIDS had increased dramatically in 6 years. While in 1986 there was only 1 woman with AIDS for every 26 such men in the state of Sao Paulo, in 1992 there was 1 infected woman for every 4 such men. About 60% of all AIDS cases in Brazil are in the state of Sao Paulo. On the other hand, there were 4008 men with AIDS in Sao Paulo in 1992, a reduction from 1991 when 4504 were infected. Nevertheless, 16.5% more women were infected in 1991 than in 1990, and in 1992 there were 20% more female victims than in 1991. Among the 935 women who got infected with AIDS in 1992, 41.7% got the disease through injecting narcotics, 40.7% via intercourse with infected men, and 5.7% via infectious blood transfusions. Of the 22,027 AIDS cases reported in the state of Sao Paulo, 14,561 are already dead. In 1992 at least 300 men died of AIDS who were not registered as AIDS carriers. The authorities in Cuba introduced forced internment of the HIV infected in order to prevent the spread of AIDS. Since AIDS was detected in 1986, only 903 persons have been infected, of whom 102 have died. Only 0.0009% of Cuba's population is HIV positive, the lowest in the region. The reason is the comprehensive HIV testing: 13 million tests have been taken so far, and HIV positive persons are immediately sent to special sanatoria. In Malaysia discussions are continuing about the introduction of sex education in the schools, but religious leaders resist it strongly. The official line is that only prostitutes, hemophiliacs, and drug addicts can get AIDS. In the course of 3 years it is estimated that the number of HIV infected will double to 35,000 cases. Official figures indicate only 4437 carrier in Malaysia, but the real figure is much higher. By December 10, 1992, 313,000 AIDS cases were registered in the Americas and 191,913 AIDS-related deaths had been reported.
New technologies, patient experience, theoretical approaches and heuristics in RHM: guest editorial

In the August 2015 Communication Design Quarterly (CDQ) special issue on Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (RHM), Lisa Meloncon and Erin Frost introduced readers to this "emerging field. " Since a Poiroi commentary in 2013 written by Scott, Segal, and Keränen, numerous scholars that earlier identified our sub-discipline with the terms medical rhetoric, have embraced this what might be seen as a more inclusive term, although I would argue that for some of us, the term rhetoric already included at least every possible manifestation of health, medicine and language. However, RHM does indeed cast a wider net, as pointed out in the 2015 issue, including essays on architecture, social work, and psychology. While rhetoric per se is certainly found within all fields, if writing about such fields and especially from such fields is included in RHM, then such a transdisciplinary impulse takes us very much further indeed. While this particular issue can easily find itself under the RHM umbrella, these particular scholars writing here were invited because they had participated in 2016 as a very successful panel at SIGDOC annual conference. These five scholars have much to share and teach us, as well as move us forward in our thinking, research, writing and participation in health and medical settings.
Er:YAG laser versus systemic metronidazole as an adjunct to nonsurgical periodontal therapy: a clinical and microbiological study.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this randomized clinical trial was to describe the clinical and microbiological results obtained by treatment with Er:YAG laser and systemic metronidazole used as adjuncts to mechanical subgingival debridement in chronic periodontitis. METHODS Twenty-seven chronic periodontitis (CP) patients were randomly divided into three parallel groups each comprising nine individuals with at least four teeth having at least one approximal site with a probing depth (PD) of ≥5 mm and gingival index (GI) of ≥2 in each quadrant. Groups of patients received: (1) Scaling and root planing (SRP)+ Er:YAG laser (10 hz, 30 mJ/pulse, 1 min per pocket, apico-coronal direction in parallel paths with 30 degree angle tips, under water irrigation), (2) SRP+ systemic metronidazole, or (3) SRP alone. In all treatment groups, SRP was performed at 1 week intervals in two sessions. The microbiological and clinical effects of the treatments were evaluated after 90 days. RESULTS At the end of the experimental period, statistically significant improvements in plaque index, GI, PD and attachment level, as well as reductions in the number of total bacteria and proportions of obligately anaerobic microorganisms were observed within each group. Although intergroup comparisons revealed no significant microbiological differences, clinical parameters as attachment gain and PD reduction were found significantly higher in Group 1 compared with the other groups. CONCLUSIONS Within its limits, this study demonstrated the possibility of better resolution of infection with combined SRP+Er:YAG laser treatment. However, microbiological results failed to demonstrate significant advantages of this combination in comparison with SRP alone or SRP+systemic metronidazole.
Rice P 1 B-Type Heavy-Metal ATPase , OsHMA 9 , Is a Metal Efflux Protein 1 [ W ] [ OA ]

P1B-type heavy-metal ATPases (HMAs) are transmembrane metal-transporting proteins that play a key role in metal homeostasis. Despite their importance, very little is known about their functions in monocot species. We report the characterization of rice (Oryza sativa) OsHMA9, a member of the P1B-type ATPase family. Semiquantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analyses of seedlings showed that OsHMA9 expression was induced by a high concentration of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and cadmium. We also determined, through promoterTb-glucuronidase analysis, that the main expression was in the vascular bundles and anthers. The OsHMA9:green fluorescence protein fusion was localized to the plasma membrane. Heterologous expression of OsHMA9 partially rescued the Cu sensitivity of the Escherichia coli copA mutant, which is defective in Cu-transporting ATPases. It did not rescue the Zn sensitivity of the zntA mutant, which is defective in Zn-transporting ATPase. To further elucidate the functional roles of OsHMA9, we isolated two independent null alleles, oshma9-1 and oshma9-2, from the T-DNA insertion population. Mutant plants exhibited the phenotype of increased sensitivity to elevated levels of Cu, Zn, and lead. These results support a role for OsHMA9 in Cu, Zn, and lead efflux from the cells. This article is the first report on the functional characterization of a P1B-type metal efflux transporter in monocots.
Ultrastructural Morphometry of Bovine Blastocysts Produced In Vivo or In Vitro1

Abstract The objective of this study was to compare the ultrastructure of bovine blastocysts produced in vivo or in vitro by using morphometric analysis. Blastocysts produced in vivo (multiple ovulations, MO) were obtained from superovulated Holstein cows. For blastocysts produced in vitro, cumulus-oocyte complexes aspirated from ovaries of Holstein cows were matured and fertilized in vitro. At 20 h postinsemination (hpi), zygotes were distributed into one of three culture media: 1) IVPS (in vitro produced with serum): TCM-199 + 10% estrous cow serum (ECS); 2) IVPSR (in vitro produced with serum restriction): TCM-199 + 1% BSA until 72 hpi, followed by TCM-199 + 10% ECS from 72 to 168 hpi; and 3) mSOF (modified synthetic oviductal fluid): mSOF + 0.6% BSA. At 168 hpi, six or seven grade 1 blastocysts from each of the four treatments (MO, IVPS, IVPSR, and mSOF) were fixed and prepared for transmission electron microscopy. Random micrographs of each blastocyst were used to determine the volume density of cellular components. Overall, as blastocysts progressed in development, the volume densities of cytoplasm and intercellular space decreased (P < 0.05) and the volume densities of mature mitochondria, nuclei, blastocoele, and apoptotic bodies increased (P < 0.05). Across treatments, the proportional volumes of nuclei and inclusion bodies were increased in inner cell mass cells compared with trophectoderm cells for mid- and expanded blastocysts. For blastocysts produced in vitro, the volume density of mitochondria was decreased (P < 0.05) as compared with that of blastocycts produced in vivo. The proportional volume of vacuoles was increased (P < 0.05) in blastocysts from the mSOF treatment as compared with blastocysts produced in vivo. For mid- and expanded blastocysts from all three in vitro treatments, the volume density of lipid increased (P < 0.05) and the volume density of nuclei decreased (P < 0.05) compared with those of blastocysts produced in vivo. In conclusion, blastocysts produced in vitro possessed deviations in volume densities of organelles associated with cellular metabolism as well as deviations associated with altered embryonic differentiation. However, the specific nature of these deviations varied with the type of culture conditions used for in vitro embryo production.
A fuzzy logic-based approach to verify the optimized parameters a gas turbine power plant by PSO algorithm

Exergoeconomic and thermoeconomic analysis are among powerful and effective tools to find the best solutions between the two objective functions that can be used by energy engineers, minimizing economic cost and maximizing exergetic efficiency. In this research, operating parameters of a gas turbine power plant that produces 140 MW of electricity is optimized by using exergoeconomic principles and PSO algorithm. The comparison of results between the PSO algorithm and the base model shows very good improvements, i.e. the fuel mass flow rate by optimized parameters is 11.24% lower than the base case. Also the exergetic efficiency is 6.55% more than the base case. The verification by fuzzy logic shows that total matching PSO results and base case is 99.5%.
F Plasmid TraF and TraH Are Components of an Outer Membrane Complex Involved in Conjugation

ABSTRACT F plasmid TraF and TraH are required for F pilus assembly and F plasmid transfer. Using flotation sucrose density gradients, we found that TraF and TraH (as well as TraU and TraW) localized to the outer membrane in the presence of the complete F transfer region, especially TraV, the putative anchor. Mutational analysis of TraH revealed two domains that are important for its function and possible interaction with TrbI, which in turn has a role in stabilizing TraH.
Structural reforms in the euro area

This article is about structural reforms, i.e. (policy) measures with the purpose of enhancing the supply side capacity of an economy. In particular, the article is focused on the euro area. The need for structural reforms in the euro area is not new but the financial crisis made it more urgent. The article overviews the main results regarding the macroeconomic impact of these reforms in the economic literature based on general equilibrium structural models. It also addresses the issue of the relationship between structural reforms and monetary policy, in particular when nominal interest rates are at the zero lower bound.
A Resistorless Low-Power Voltage Reference with Novel Curvature-Compensation Technique

In this paper, a MOSFET-only voltage reference with novel curvature-compensation is proposed. In order to reduce the temperature coefficient in the proposed voltage reference, two proportional to absolute temperature voltages with opposite second-order order TC are added on a threshold voltage, which is achieved by a resistorless threshold voltage extractor. Besides, self-biased current source with feedback is realized at the same time, which can provide bias current for the whole voltage reference and enhance the performance of generated voltage reference without additional power consumption. Verification results of the proposed voltage reference implemented with 0. 35µm technology process show that the temperature coefficient is 2.4 ppm/□ with a temperature range of −20□ to 80□ is obtained, and a 62.9 dB power supply rejection ratio is achieved with a 68nA maximum supply current.
RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications: Principles and Requirements

This paper presents an overview of principles and requirements for powering wireless sensors by radio-frequency (RF) energy harvesting or transport. The feasibility of harvesting is discussed, leading to the conclusion that RF energy transport is preferred for powering small sized sensors. These sensors are foreseen in future Smart Buildings. Transmitting in the ISM frequency bands, respecting the transmit power limits ensures that the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) exposure limits are not exceeded. With the transmit side limitations being explored, the propagation channel is next discussed, leading to the observation that a better than free-space attenuation may be achieved in indoors line-of-sight environments. Then, the components of the rectifying antenna (rectenna) are being discussed: rectifier, dc-dc boost converter, and antenna. The power efficiencies of all these rectenna subcomponents are being analyzed and finally some examples are shown. To make RF energy transport a feasible powering technology for low-power sensors, a number of precautions need to be taken. The propagation channel characteristics need to be taken into account by creating an appropriate transmit antenna radiation pattern. All subcomponents of the rectenna need to be impedance matched, and the power transfer efficiencies of the rectifier and the boost converter need to be optimized.