Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gate drive circuit for zero-voltage-switching half- and full-bridge converters

Resonant techniques like zero-voltage switch (ZVS) and zero-current switch (ZCS) are widely applied to raise the switching frequency and efficiency of converters. An important subclass of converters using resonant techniques, is formed by ZVS half- and full-bridge converters. While different varieties of this subclass of converters have been reported, the gate drive circuit is seldom described. In this paper a new gate drive circuit applicable in ZVS half- and full-bridge converters is proposed. The circuit shows excellent features such as transformer isolation, no ringing of the gate-source voltage of the switches, programmable dead-time, no active components beside one low-side driver, insensitivity to component value variation, negative gate-source voltage at switch-off and low drive power. Moreover the circuit can be used in variable frequency applications. The theoretical results obtained, are verified by experiments.
Online scalability characterization of data-parallel programs on many cores

We present an accurate online scalability prediction model for data-parallel programs on NUMA many-core systems. Memory contention is considered to be the major limiting factor of program scalability as data parallelism limits the amount of synchronization or data dependencies between parallel work units. Reflecting the architecture of NUMA systems, contention is modeled at the last-level caches of the compute nodes and the memory nodes using a two-level queuing model to estimate the mean service time of the individual memory nodes. Scalability predictions for individual or co-located parallel applications are based solely on data obtained during a short sampling period at runtime; this allows the presented model to be employed in a variety of scenarios. The proposed model has been implemented into an open-source OpenCL and the GNU OpenMP runtime and evaluated on a 64-core AMD system. For a wide variety of parallel workloads and configurations, the evaluations show that the model is able to predict the scalability of data-parallel kernels with high accuracy.
The response to PAK1 inhibitor IPA3 distinguishes between cancer cells with mutations in BRAF and Ras oncogenes

While new drugs aimed at BRAF-mutated cancers are entering clinical practice, cells and tumors with activating Ras mutations are relatively resistant to those and quite a few other anti-cancer agents. This inspires the effort to reverse this resistance or to uncover new vulnerabilities in such resistant cancers. IPA3 has been originally identified as a small molecule inhibitor of p21-activated protein kinase 1 (PAK1), a candidate therapeutic target in human malignancies. We have tested a battery of melanoma and colon carcinoma cell lines that carry mutations in BRAF, NRAS and KRAS genes and have observed that those with NRAS and KRAS mutations are more sensitive to killing by IPA3. Genetic manipulations suggest that the differential response depends not just on these oncogenes, but also on additional events that were co-selected during tumor evolution. Furthermore, sublethal doses of IPA3 or ectopic expression of dominant-negative PAK1 sensitized Ras-mutated cells to GDC-0897 and AZD6244, which otherwise have reduced efficiency against cells with activated Ras. Dominant-negative PAK1 also reduced the growth of NRAS-mutated cells in confluent cultures, but, unlike IPA3, caused no significant toxicity. Although it remains to be proven that all the effects of IPA3 are exclusively due to inhibition of PAK1, our findings point to the existence of selective vulnerabilities, which are associated with Ras mutations and could be useful for better understanding and treatment of a large subset of tumors.
Regime Switching Interest Rates and Fluctuations in Emerging Markets ∗

We estimate regime switching models for emerging market interest rates and embed the obtained nonlinear dynamics in a small open economy model with a financial friction. We show that the presence of an infrequent regime characterized by high level/high volatility of interest rates and the tightening of financial constraints is key to account for the empirical regularities specific to emerging markets, including the high volatility of consumption relative to output and a strongly countercyclical trade balance-to-output ratio. The model accounts for the dynamics of sudden stops and matches the autocorrelation function of the trade balanceto-output ratio as well as the cross-correlations between the main macroeconomic aggregates and interest rates. Our findings suggest that interest rate shocks and financial frictions are essential for explaining emerging market fluctuations, but mostly because of their effects in crisis episodes. JEL classification: E32, F32, F41
COMPARISON OF DEM AND TRADITIONAL MODELING METHODS FOR SIMULATING STEADY-STATE WHEEL-TERRAIN INTERACTION FOR SMALL VEHICLES

A simulation study was conducted to evaluate three terramechanics methods used for predicting single wheel performance of small vehicles on granular terrain. Traditional Bekker-type terramechanics methods do not consider the soil profile, the soil dynamics, or the transient wheel dynamics, which can be important factors in vehicle performance. The ‘dynamic Bekker’ method used to overcome these limitations treats the wheel a free body, which allows for multibody dynamics simulations, and discretizes the soil into grid regions, which allows for more complex soil profiles. Another option is to use the discrete element method, which makes fewer assumptions but requires significantly more computation time. Before these methods can be evaluated in dynamic conditions, they must first be tested in steadystate operation. Single-wheel experiments were performed on Mojave Martian Simulant to evaluate performance at various slip ratios. Similar tests were simulated using three terramechanics methods: traditional Bekker, dynamic Bekker, and the discrete element method. Each method was tuned to match direct shear and pressure-sinkage tests performed on the same soil. While Bekker-type methods only require curve-fitting to determine soil parameters, the discrete element method was tuned by simulating the soil tests with varying parameters. The results from this study will help determine the accuracy of each method during steady-state, and whether the computation cost of the discrete element method is warranted for steady-state conditions.
Relationship between knowledge about the harms of smoking and smoking status in the 2010 Global Adult Tobacco China Survey

Background This analysis estimates the association between smoking-related knowledge and smoking behaviour in a Chinese context. To identify the specific knowledge most directly related to smoking status, we used a novel latent variable analysis approach to adjust for the high correlations between different measures of knowledge about tobacco smoking. Method Data are from the Global Adult Tobacco China Survey, a nationally representative sample of 13 354 household-dwelling individuals 15 years of age or older. Multinomial logistic regressions estimated the association between smoking status (ie, never smoked, current smoker or past smoker) and four smoking-related beliefs: whether or not smoking causes lung cancer, heart attack and stroke, and whether or not low-tar cigarettes are less harmful. A latent variable approach reassessed these associations while taking into account the general level of knowledge about smoking. Results After demographic variables and general knowledge about smoking had been controlled for, the belief that low-tar cigarettes are not less harmful was more prevalent in persons who had never smoked than in current smokers (OR=1.3 (95% CI 1.0 to 1.7) in men and OR=2.8 (95% CI 1.3 to 5.9) in women); this association was even stronger when past smokers and current smokers were compared (OR=2.1 (95% CI 1.5 to 3.0) in men and OR=5.0 (95% CI 1.3 to 20.1) in women). Conclusions Compared with those who have never smoked and those who have ceased smoking, current smokers in China are more likely to believe that low-tar cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes.
Influence of peritoneal dialysis solution biocompatibility on long-term survival of patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis and the technique itself.

BACKGROUND/AIM Morbidity and mortality of continous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients is still very high. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of peritoneal dialysis (PD) solutions (standard vs biocompatible) on long-term patients' and the techique survival. METHODS A total of 42 stable patients on CAPD participated in this cross-sectional study. They were prospectively followed-up during the twelve years. Patients with severe anemia (Hb < 10 g/L) and malignant disease ware excluded. Twenty one (50%/0) patients were treated with the standard PD solutions (CAPDP-1) while the other 21 (500/0) were treated with biocompatible PD solutions [(lower level of glucose degradation products, lower concentration of Ca(2+) and neutral pH (CAPDP-2)]. All patients were analyzed for a presence of vascular calcification, nutrition status, and parameters of inflammation after 2.5 +/- 0.6 years of starting CAPD, and these variables considered in the analysis as risk factors. RESULTS The patients from the group CAPDP-2 compared to those from the group CAPDP-1 had lower level of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) (p = 0.003), and better nutritional status as confirmed by the mid-arm circumference (p = 0.015), and mid-arm muscle circumference (p = 0.002) and subjective global assessment (p = 0.000). Also, they had lower vascular calcifications as confirmed by intima media thickness (IMT) (p = 0.003), degree of carotid narrowing (p = 0.001) and calcified plaques of common carotid arteries (CCA) (p = 0.008). Kaplan-Meier analysis confirmed better survival of patients from the group CAPDP-2 than those from the group CAPDP-1 (1-, 5-, and 10-year patients survival rate was: 100%, 61.9% and 14.3% for the group CAPDP-1, and 100%, 85.7%, and 52.4% for the group CAPDP-2, respectively; p = 0.0345). The 1-, 5-, and 10-year technique survival rate was: 100%, 71.4%, and 38.1% for the group CAPDP-1, and 100%, 85.7%, and 76.2% for the group CAPDP-2, respectively; (p = 0.0719). Duration of dialysis, serum triglyceride and cardiovascular score (quantitative scoring system consisting of: ejection fraction (EF) of left ventricle < 50%; IMT > 1 mm; carotid narrowing degree > 50%, presence of carotid plaques in both common carotide, ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular event and peripheral vascular disease with or without amputation) were independent predictors of overall patient survival. Duration of dialysis was only independent predictor of overall technique survival. CONCLUSION Although patients treated with biocompatible solutions showed significantly better survival, the role of biocompatibility of CAPD solutions in patients and technique survival have to be confirmed. Namely, multivariate analysis confirmed that duration of dialysis, serum triglyceride and cardiovascular score significantly predicted overall CAPD patients survival, while only duration of dialysis was found to be independent predictor of overall techique survival.
Novel and therapeutic effect of caffeic acid and caffeic acid phenyl ester on hepatocarcinoma cells: complete regression of hepatoma growth and metastasis by dual mechanism

Our previous studies have clearly shown that the angiogenic enzymes, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) ‐2/9, are directly involved in human hepatic tumorigenesis and metastasis and suggest that the MMP‐2/9 inhibitors, which have dual inhibitory activi¬ties on enzyme activity and transcription, represent the best candidates for achieving tumor regression. Many anti‐cancer drugs have strong cellular cytotoxicity and side effects, indicating that strong anti‐cancer drugs that have no or minimal cytotoxicity and side effects need to be developed. The specific aim of the present study was to develop powerful anti‐cancer drugs with specific tumor regression and anti‐metastatic potential having the dual inhibitory activities of specific MMP‐2 and ‐9 enzyme activities and gene transcription at the molecular level. Caffeic acid (CA), a strong and selective MMP‐9 activity and transcription inhibitor, was isolated from the plant Euonymus alatus and its derivative, caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), was synthesized. CA and CAPE selectively inhibited MMP‐2 and ‐9 but not ‐1, ‐3, ‐7, or cathepsin K. Treatment of HepG2 cells with CA (100 μg/mL) and CAPE (5 μg/mL) suppressed phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA) ‐in¬duced MMP‐9 expression by inhibiting the function of NF‐κB, but not AP‐1. We confirmed that CA and CAPE suppressed the growth of HepG2 tumor xenografts in nude mice in vivo. The subcutaneous and oral administrations of CA and CAPE significantly reduced the liver metastasis. These results confirm the therapeutic potential of the compounds and suggest that the antimetastatic and anti‐tumor effects of CA and CAPE are mediated through the selective suppression of MMP‐9 enzyme activity and transcriptional down‐regulation by the dual inhibition of NF‐κB as well as MMP‐9 catalytic activity. —Chung, T. ‐W. , Moon, S. ‐K. , Chang, Y. ‐C. , Ko, J.‐H. , Lee, Y. ‐C. , Cho, G. , Kim, S. ‐H. , Kim, J.‐G. , Kim, C. ‐H. Novel and therapeutic effect of caffeic acid and caffeic acid phenyl ester on hepatocarcinoma cells: complete regression of hepatoma growth and metastasis by dual mechanism. FASEBJ. 18, 1670–1681 (2004)
The Relationship between Regular Sports Participation and Vigilance in Male and Female Adolescents

The present study investigated the relationship between regular sport participation (soccer) and vigilance performance. Two groups of male and female adolescents differentiated in terms of their sport participation (athletes, n = 39, and non-athletes, n = 36) took part in the study. In one session, participants performed the Leger Multi-stage fitness test to estimate their aerobic fitness level. In the other session, participants completed the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) to evaluate their vigilance performance. Perceived arousal prior to the task and motivation toward the task were also measured in the PVT session. The results revealed that athletes had better cardiovascular fitness and showed better performance in the PVT. However, correlation analyses did not show any significant relationship between cardiovascular fitness and performance in the PVT. Athletes showed larger scores in motivation and perceived arousal measures with respect to non-athletes, although, once again, these variables were not correlated with PVT performance. Gender differences were observed only in the Leger test, with males showing greater fitness level than females. The major outcome of this research points to a positive relationship between regular sport participation and vigilance during adolescence. This relationship did not seem to be influenced by gender, perceived arousal, motivation toward the task or cardiovascular fitness. We discuss our results in terms of the different hypotheses put forward in the literature to explain the relationship between physical activity and cognitive functioning.
Prostate cancer localization with dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging and proton MR spectroscopic imaging.

PURPOSE To prospectively determine the accuracies of T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, dynamic contrast material-enhanced MR imaging, and quantitative three-dimensional (3D) proton MR spectroscopic imaging of the entire prostate for prostate cancer localization, with whole-mount histopathologic section findings as the reference standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was approved by the institutional review board, and informed consent was obtained from all patients. Thirty-four consecutive men with a mean age of 60 years and a mean prostate-specific antigen level of 8 ng/mL were examined. The median biopsy Gleason score was 6. T2-weighted MR imaging, dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging, and 3D MR spectroscopic imaging were performed, and on the basis of the image data, two readers with different levels of experience recorded the location of the suspicious peripheral zone and central gland tumor nodules on each of 14 standardized regions of interest (ROIs) in the prostate. The degree of diagnostic confidence for each ROI was recorded on a five-point scale. Localization accuracy and ROI-based receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated. RESULTS For both readers, areas under the ROC curve for T2-weighted MR, dynamic contrast-enhanced MR, and 3D MR spectroscopic imaging were 0.68, 0.91, and 0.80, respectively. Reader accuracy in tumor localization with dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging was significantly better than that with quantitative spectroscopic imaging (P < .01). Reader accuracy in tumor localization with both dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging and spectroscopic imaging was significantly better than that with T2-weighted imaging (P < .01). CONCLUSION Compared with use of T2-weighted MR imaging, use of dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging and 3D MR spectroscopic imaging facilitated significantly improved accuracy in prostate cancer localization.
An Optimal Algorithm for the Range Maximum-Sum Segment Query Problem

We are given a sequence A of n real numbers which is to be preprocessed. In the Range Maximum-Sum Segment Query (RMSQ) problem, a query is comprised of two intervals [i, j] and [k, l] and our goal is to return the maximum-sum segment of A where the staring index of the segment lies in [i, j] and the ending index lies in [k, l]. We provide the ̄rst known optimal algorithm with O(n) preprocessing time and O(1) query time.
Distributed , Wireless MEMS Technology for Condition Based Maintenance *

Distributed MEMS networks can revolutionize critical military, industrial, and civil surveillance, transportation, manufacturing, and environmental management systems. Low cost sensor network development, coupled with the high performance of compact computing systems can provide new monitoring and control capability. Embedded microsensors and microactuators may proN, ide control for improved dynamical response of large structures, for reduced requirements on dimensional precision, and for health monitoring and failure prediction of airframes, powerplants, buildings, and other structures. The installation of wireline networks for sensors raises important questions for condition based maintenance (CBM) system cost. For example, the installation of sensor network cables may require major modification to capitol equipment and vehicle systems, particularly for rotating component diagnostics. Thus, the development of autonomous, low power, wireless microsensors offers an opportunity to provide CBM at low cost to a wide range of applications. This presentation will describe fully integrated, wireless MEMS devices implemented with new RF communication and MEMS integration methods.
Spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks: requirements, challenges and design trade-offs

Opportunistic unlicensed access to the (temporarily) unused frequency bands across the licensed radio spectrum is currently being investigated as a means to increase the efficiency of spectrum usage. Such opportunistic access calls for implementation of safeguards so that ongoing licensed operations are not compromised. Among different candidates, sensing-based access, where the unlicensed users transmit if they sense the licensed band to be free, is particularly appealing due to its low deployment cost and its compatibility with the legacy licensed systems. The ability to reliably and autonomously identify unused frequency bands is envisaged as one of the main functionalities of cognitive radios. In this article we provide an overview of the regulatory requirements and major challenges associated with the practical implementation of spectrum sensing functionality in cognitive radio systems. Furthermore, we outline different design trade-offs that have to be made in order to enhance various aspects of the system's performance.
DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) in XML

The DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ, http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp) has collected and released more entries and bases than last year. This is mainly due to large-scale submissions from Japanese sequencing teams on mouse, rice, chimpanzee, nematoda and other organisms. The contributions of DDBJ over the past year are 17.3% (entries) and 10.3% (bases) of the combined outputs of the International Nucleotide Sequence Databases (INSD). Our complete genome sequence database, Genome Information Broker (GIB), has been improved by incorporating XML. It is now possible to perform a more sophisticated database search against the new GIB than the ordinary BLAST or FASTA search.
On Two Kinds of Flaws in Some Server-Aided Verification Schemes

At Asiacrypt'05, Girault and Lefranc introduced the primitive of server-aided verification (SAV). In the proposed model, the server is assumed to be untrusted but is supposed to not collude with the legitimate prover. At ProvSec'08, Wu et al. have generalized the Girault-Lefranc SAV model by allowing the server to collude with the legitimate prover, and presented two corresponding SAV signature schemes, SAV-BLS-l and SAV-BLS-2. In this paper, we argue that the SAV-BLS-l scheme is somewhat artificial because the computational gain in the scheme is at the expense of additional communication costs. This is a common flaw in most outsourcing computation proposals which have neglected the comparisons between the computational gain and the incurred communication costs. We show also that the SAV-BLS-2 scheme is insecure against collusion attacks. It is another common flaw to have the verifier delegate most computations to the server in a way that prevent the verifier to confirm that the returned values are really bound to the signer's public key.
Vascular Effects of Dietary Advanced Glycation End Products

Evidence has accumulated lately demonstrating that advanced glycation end products (AGEs) play an important role in the development of diabetic and cardiovascular complications as well as the development of other chronic diseases. AGEs originating from diet have a significant contribution to the AGEs body pool and therefore dietary interventions aiming at reducing AGEs load are believed to exert health promoting effects. This review summarizes the evidence from clinical studies regarding effects of dietary AGEs on the vascular system, highlighting also the different aspects of vascular tests. It also advocates an extension of dietary recommendations towards the promotion of cooking methods that reduce dietary AGEs in consumed foods.
Extraction of Contextual Relevance of Web Documents

The crawled web pages should be organized in a fashion where they are more understandable to machine, for producing the results which are meaningful and relevant. The set of web pages can be categorized into different contextual sense if the crawler has the technique to understand their meaning and the domain identification. The contextual relevance of the web documents can be known, if the frequent occurring patterns of the keywords in the web page are identified. This can be achieved through data mining technique for generating frequent patterns, using FPGrowth. It will help in deducing the set of keywords of the documents and this knowledge is added in the knowledge store which will further facilitate in the building the ontology for the crawled web pages and organizing them and thus increasing the rank of the document.