Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychometric properties of the quality of life questionnaire for children with CP

This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of a condition‐specific quality of life instrument for children with cerebral palsy (CP QOL‐Child). A sample of 205 primary caregivers of children with CP aged 4 to 12 years (mean 8y 5mo) and 53 children aged 9 to 12 years completed the CP QOL‐Child. The children (112 males, 93 females) were sampled across Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels (Level I=18%, II=28%, III=14%, IV=11%, V=27%). Primary caregivers also completed other measures of child health (Child Health Questionnaire; CHQ), QOL (KIDSCREEN), and functioning (GMFCS). Internal consistency ranged from 0.74 to 0.92 for primary caregivers and from 0.80 to 0.90 for child self‐report. For primary caregivers, 2‐week test‐retest reliability ranged from 0.76 to 0.89. The validity of the CP QOL is supported by the pattern of correlations between CP QOL‐Child scales with the CHQ, KIDSCREEN, and GMFCS. Preliminary statistics suggest that the child self‐report questionnaire has acceptable psychometric properties. The questionnaire can be freely accessed at http://www.deakin. edu.ac/hmnbs/chase/cerebralpalsy/cp_qol_home. php
Acyl Chain-Dependent Effect of Lysophosphatidylcholine on Endothelium-Dependent Vasorelaxation

Previously we identified palmitoyl-, oleoyl-, linoleoyl-, and arachidonoyl-lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC 16:0, 18:1, 18:2 and 20:4) as the most prominent LPC species generated by endothelial lipase (EL). In the present study, we examined the impact of those LPC on acetylcholine (ACh)- induced vascular relaxation. All tested LPC attenuated ACh-induced relaxation, measured ex vivo, using mouse aortic rings and wire myography. The rank order of potency was as follows: 18:2>20:4>16:0>18:1. The attenuating effect of LPC 16:0 on relaxation was augmented by indomethacin-mediated cyclooxygenase (COX)-inhibition and CAY10441, a prostacyclin (PGI2)- receptor (IP) antagonist. Relaxation attenuated by LPC 20:4 and 18:2 was improved by indomethacin and SQ29548, a thromboxane A2 (TXA2)- receptor antagonist. The effect of LPC 20:4 could also be improved by TXA2- and PGI2-synthase inhibitors. As determined by EIA assays, the tested LPC promoted secretion of PGI2, TXA2, PGF2α, and PGE2, however, with markedly different potencies. LPC 16:0 was the most potent inducer of superoxide anion production by mouse aortic rings, followed by LPC 18:2, 20:4 and 18:1, respectively. The strong antioxidant tempol recovered relaxation impairment caused by LPC 18:2, 18:1 and 20:4, but not by LPC 16:0. The tested LPC attenuate ACh-induced relaxation through induction of proconstricting prostanoids and superoxide anions. The potency of attenuating relaxation and the relative contribution of underlying mechanisms are strongly related to LPC acyl-chain length and degree of saturation.
A Novel DC to 30GHZ High-Gain and Low-Noise Amplifier Module

A novel structure of traveling-wave amplifiers for microwave applications has been proposed. The proposed structure uses a two tier matrix amplifier at the first module and cascaded single stage distributed amplifier (CSSDA) for the second module. The advantage of this design lies in the potential low noise figure of matrix amplifier as well as high gain of CSSDA, simultaneously. The bandwidth of amplifier is improved by using coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines. The proposed amplifier achieves a small-signal gain of 30plusmn1dB across the bandwidth of 30 GHz, providing a GBW of about 948 GHz. The average noise figure of the computer-optimized design is 3.5dB. The flat group delay also demonstrates the feasibility of this design for future digital optical communications and broad-band pulse applications.
Leading Indicators of Country Risk and Currency Crises : The Asian Experience

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta E C O N O M I C R E V I E W First Quarter 2004 I n recent years, capital restrictions in emerging markets have been substantially reduced. As a result, international financial flows to these countries have risen. Most emerging markets have adopted a pegged exchange rate system in which central banks are committed to keeping their domestic currency in terms of the U.S. dollar within narrow bands. Under this system, a country can finance a current account deficit from its reserves or by borrowing from abroad. That is, the country can buy time in handling external deficits without decreasing the monetary base or reducing the public deficit. Such a regime relies on a delicate balance and makes a country vulnerable to shocks in mobile international capital markets, especially with respect to outflows in bank deposits. When international markets are relatively calm, lenders may be willing to finance countries with mildly weak fundamentals. As international conditions deteriorate, however, investors’ perception about a borrower’s creditworthiness may change. Economies that look sound one moment seem riskier the next— not necessarily because of new developments within their borders but perhaps because interconnected countries are in distress. As foreign investors become more risk averse, they may withdraw short-term investments and sell local currency. The country’s central bank must then increase interest rates sufficiently to dampen the outflow and avoid a collapse of the pegged exchange rate system. The result of such reactive strategies may be a credit crunch that spreads from country to country, driving each into economic recessions with high inflation. In the last decade several developed and developing countries experienced currency crises. For example, the European Monetary System (EMS) was severely undermined by intense speculative pressure in 1992–93, which led to the exit of Britain and Italy in 1992. More recently, several emerging market economies underwent large devaluations of their currencies: Mexico in 1994, several Asian countries in 1997, Russia in 1998, and, subsequently, Brazil in 1999, among others. These events cast a bleak outlook for the global financial system and caused widespread economic distress. Even the U.S. economy experienced slowdowns associated with these international events, especially the Mexican and Asian crises. A “country risk” of currency crisis is not directly observable, but prior currency pressures can be detected in several sectors of the economy. In particular, financial variables reflecting investors’ expectations and banking distress are highly sensitive to changes in the economic environment. This article aims to construct an early warning system for international currency crises using such variables. The system uses a dynamic factor model with regime switching to construct leading indicators of country risk and currency crises. In this model, an unobservable factor switches regimes, representing periods Leading Indicators of Country Risk and Currency Crises: The Asian Experience
Multiple sleep modes leakage control in peripheral circuits of a all major SRAM-based processor units

Leakage currents in on-chip SRAMs: caches, branch predictor, register files and TLBs, are major contributors to the energy dissipated by processors in deep sub-micron technologies. High leakage also increases chip temperature and some SRAM-based structures become thermal hotspots. Previous work has addressed major sources of SRAM leakage in memory cells and bit-lines, making remaining SRAM components, in particular large drivers, the primary source of leakage. This paper proposes an approach to reduce this source of leakage in all major SRAM-based units of the processor, controlling them in a uniform way, yet treating each unit individually based on its behavior and memory organization. The new approach uses multiple bias voltages in sleep transistors allowing a trade-off between leakage reduction and wakeup delay in multi-stage peripheral drivers. Four low-power modes are defined, from basic to ultra low power, and SRAMs dynamically transition between these modes to minimize leakage without sacrificing performance. A novel control mechanism monitors and predicts future processor behavior for mode control. The leakage reduction in individual units is evaluated and shown to vary from 25% for IL1 to 75% for L2 caches. Resulting temperature reduction, including the effect of positive feedback between temperature and leakage power, is evaluated. A significant temperature reduction is achieved in each unit. It is also shown to reduce hot spots in the instruction TLB and branch predictor.
Interleukin-6 Gene Promoter Polymorphisms and Cardiovascular Risk Factors. A family study

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a cytokine involved in inflammatory process, as well as in glucose and lipid metabolism. Several studies of the biological relevance of IL-6 gene polymorphisms have indicated a relationship with cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to assess whether the –174 G/C and –572 G/C of IL-6 gene polymorphisms are associated with cardiovascular risk factors in Mexican families. Ninety members of 30 Mexican families, in which an index case (proband) had obesity, were included in the study. We evaluated the body composition by bioelectrical impedance. Peripheral blood samples were collected to determine biochemical and hematological parameters. High sensitivity C- reactive protein levels were measurement for nephelometric analysis. Screening for both polymorphisms studied was performed by PCR-RFLP. In the parents, both polymorphisms were in Hardy-Weinberg's equilibrium. The genotypes –174 GC/CC were associated with T2D (OR = 1.23, IC95% 1.01–1.5) and highest levels of hsCRP (p = 0.02), whereas genotype –572 GG was associated with T2D (OR = 1.24, IC95% 1.04–1.47) with an inflammatory state determined by the increase in the leukocyte count (OR = 1.24, IC95% 1.02–1.51). The genotypes –174 GC/CC and –572 GG may confer susceptibility for the development of subclinical inflammation and type 2 diabetes in Mexican families.
On the rotating star problem in general relativity ∗

We investigate a relativistic rotating star model described by a rigidly rotating perfect fluid with free boundary, where an EOS and the total baryon mass is given. A general strategy for proving existence consists in minimizing the ADM–energy as a functional depending on the spacetime metric and the baryon density, leading to stationary and axially symmetric gravitational potentials solving the Einstein field equations in dependence of the mass densities. Associated variational and fixed point settings in appropriate weighted Sobolev spaces are discussed, but, as it stands they do not lead yet to the solution of the problem in its full generality. Therefore, we present a non trivial model problem displaying typical relativistic features and its solution in a weighted Sobolev space reflecting the asymptotic flatness of the stellar model. AMS subject classification. 83C05, 35J70, 35J50, 35J60.
A noise robust QRS delineation method based on path simplification

In this work we present a new method for the delineation of QRS complexes in ECG signals. The main objective is to provide a robust method that gives acceptable results even under severe noise conditions in the input signal, as often happens in continuous bedside or home monitoring. Our method is based on relevant point selection using a path simplification algorithm, and then a clustering strategy combined with a qualitative description of the waveform is applied in order to select the most promising signal segments to include inside the QRS limits. The validation was performed by adding different levels of noise to the records of a standard database, and then comparing our proposal with a state-of-the art approach. Results show a high sensitivity and stable error evolution even at the highest noise levels.
Map-matching algorithm for large-scale low-frequency floating car data

Large-scale global positioning system (GPS) positioning information of floating cars has been recognised as a major data source for many transportation applications. Mapping large-scale low-frequency floating car data (FCD) onto the road network is very challenging for traditional map-matching (MM) algorithms developed for in-vehicle navigation. In this paper, a multi-criteria dynamic programming map-matching (MDP-MM) algorithm is proposed for online matching FCD. In the proposed MDP-MM algorithm, the MDP technique is used to minimise the number of candidate routes maintained at each GPS point, while guaranteeing to determine the best matching route. In addition, several useful techniques are developed to improve running time of the shortest path calculation in the MM process. Case studies based on real FCD demonstrate the accuracy and computational performance of the MDP-MM algorithm. Results indicated that the MDP-MM algorithm is competitive with existing algorithms in both accuracy and computational performance.
Volume rendering

A technique for rendering images of volumes containing mixtures of materials is presented. The shading model allows both the interior of a material and the boundary between materials to be colored. Image projection is performed by simulating the absorption of light along the ray path to the eye. The algorithms used are designed to avoid artifacts caused by aliasing and quantization and can be efficiently implemented on an image computer. Images from a variety of applications are shown.
Stochastic Suprasegmentals: Relationships between Redundancy, Prosodic Structure and Syllabic Duration

Prosodic Prominence and prosodic boundaries have been shown to effect syllabic durations. However another factor, redundancy, also appears to have a major impact. More common words and words you can easily predict from context (more redundant) tend to be articulated less clearly and so also have a tendency to have shortened syllabic durations. This paper explores the relationship between measures of redundancy, prosodic structure and syllabic duration of a large corpus of spontaneous speech. Although 50% (r=0.71) of syllable variation is predictable from measures of accentedness, break index and other prosodic parameters, word frequency alone predicts 11% of the duration variation. Combining prosodic information and redundancy measurements improves prediction by 0.75% (r=0.72), suggesting that although redundancy measurements can offer a statistically independent contribution to predicting syllabic duration, prosodic structure implicitly represents most of the variation caused by redundancy.
AND THE NULL ENERGY CONDITION

In discussions of Bousso's Covariant Entropy Bound, the Null Energy Condition is always assumed, as a sufficient but not necessary condition which helps to ensure that the entropy on any lightsheet shall necessarily be finite. The spectacular failure of the Strong Energy Condition in cosmology has, however, led many astrophysicists and cosmologists to consider models of dark energy which violate all of the energy conditions, and indeed the current data do not completely rule out such models. The NEC also has a questionable status in brane cosmology: it is probably necessary to violate the NEC in the bulk in order to obtain a " self-tuning " theory of the cosmological constant. In order to investigate these proposals, we modify the Karch-Randall model by introducing NEC-violating matter into AdS 5 in such a way that the brane cosmological constant relaxes to zero. The entropy on lightsheets remains finite. However, we still find that the spacetime is fundamentally incompatible with the Covariant Entropy Bound machinery, in the sense that it fails the Bousso-Randall consistency condition. We argue that holography probably forbids all cosmological violations of the NEC, and that holography is in fact the fundamental physical principle underlying the cosmological version of the NEC.
The Topological Structure of Approximation Operators on a CCD Lattice

Rough sets deal with the vagueness and granularity in information systems. Reference(3) discusses rough approximations on a complete completely distributive lattice(CCD lattice for short) and brings generalizations of rough sets into a unified framework. This paper is devoted to the discussion of the relationship between approximations and topologies on a CCD lattice. It is proved that the set of all upper approximations (or of lower approximations) with respect to a partition consists of a clopen topology.
Relationship Between Androgen Levels and Blood Pressure in Young Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

The role of testosterone on the development of hypertension is controversial, especially in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) who have higher prevalence of obesity and insulin resistance than women without PCOS. Little is known about the association between serum testosterone level and blood pressure in young women with PCOS. In the 151 young Taiwanese women with PCOS enrolled in this cross-sectional study, we measured the body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, lipid profile, and hormone profiles. The free androgen index, total testosterone, and sex hormone-binding globulin, but not the level of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, significantly correlated with both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). In multiple linear regression models adjusted for age, body mass index, and other anthropometric, metabolic, and hormonal variables, the level of serum free androgen index or total testosterone, but not the sex hormone-binding globulin, were independently related to SBP and DBP. The age- and body mass index–adjusted least-square mean of serum-free androgen index levels were significantly different between the highest quartile and other quartiles of the SBP and DBP levels. The high bioavailable testosterone levels (free androgen index: ≥19%) in women with PCOS increased the risk of elevated blood pressure (SBP ≥130 mm Hg and/or DBP ≥85 mm Hg) with an odds ratio of 3.817 (P=0.029; 95% CI: 1.14 to 12.74) after adjustment for age, anthropometric measures, and metabolic profiles. Our results suggest that the characteristic hyperandrogenemia in young women with PCOS was associated with an elevated SBP and DBP independent of age, insulin resistance, obesity, or dyslipidemia.
Almost Locally Free Groups and a Theorem of Magnus: Some Questions

Ben Fine observed that a theorem of Magnus on normal closures of elements in free groups is first order expressible and thus holds in every elementarily free group. This classical theorem, vintage 1931, asserts that if two elements in a free group have the same normal closure, then either they are conjugate or one is conjugate to the inverse of the other in the free group. An examination of a set of sentences capturing this theorem reveals that the sentences are universal-existential. Consequently the theorem holds in the almost locally free groups of Gaglione and Spellman. We give a sufficient condition for the theorem to hold in every fully residually free group as well as a sufficient condition for the theorem to hold, even more generally, in every residually free group.
Lysine Acetylation: Elucidating the Components of an Emerging Global Signaling Pathway in Trypanosomes

In the past ten years the number of acetylated proteins reported in literature grew exponentially. Several authors have proposed that acetylation might be a key component in most eukaryotic signaling pathways, as important as phosphorylation. The enzymes involved in this process are starting to emerge; acetyltransferases and deacetylases are found inside and outside the nuclear compartment and have different regulatory functions. In trypanosomatids several of these enzymes have been described and are postulated to be novel antiparasitic targets for the rational design of drugs. In this paper we overview the most important known acetylated proteins and the advances made in the identification of new acetylated proteins using high-resolution mass spectrometry. Also, we summarize what is known so far about the acetyltransferases and deacetylases in eukaryotes, focusing on trypanosomes and their potential use as chemotherapeutic targets.
Design A New Stable And Low Power Bandgap Reference Circuit Based On Fin-FET Device

This paper describes the design of a bandgap reference, implemented in 32 nm FinFET technology. The paper introduced new method for increasing stability of output voltage of bandgap circuit. In the proposed architecture extra feedback is used for setting the output voltage in fixed voltage. This feedback makesbandgap circuit more stable and speedy employing back gate biasing of the FinFET devices. This circuit generates a reference voltage of 300mV and has a variation about 0.041% versus temperature in TT corner. High gain OTA utilized in the feedback loop was designed by innovative bulk FinFET devices. FinFET OTA used in this work is very low power and high speed compared to conventional CMOS designs.It was tested with supply voltages between 0.7 and 0.9volt and between -40 ͦ C and +120 ͦ C. The variation of output voltage versus VDD variation is lower than 0.01% in TT corner. This circuit works in a current feedback mode, and it generates its own reference current, resulting in a stable operation. For resistor and diode connected transistor the technology elements were used instead of ideal components. The technology in use is 32 nm PTM.
Internet gambling: an emerging concern in family practice medicine?

BACKGROUND Gambling problems are rarely brought to the attention of family practice physicians, but pathological gambling can be associated with poor emotional and physical health. Recent availability and easy accessibility of Internet gambling may be associated with pathological gambling status, and Internet gambling may confer health risks. OBJECTIVE This study evaluated the prevalence of Internet gambling, its association with pathological gambling, and the relationship between Internet gambling and health status among patients attending medical and dental clinics. METHODS The South Oaks Gambling Screen and Short Form 12 were administered to 1414 adults in waiting areas of clinics. RESULTS Only 6.9% of respondents reported ever gambling on the Internet, with 2.8% indicating frequent Internet wagering. Almost two-thirds (65.9%) of regular Internet gamblers were classified as probable pathological gamblers, compared with 29.8% of ever-Internet gamblers and 7.6% of non-Internet gamblers. Internet gambling was associated with poor mental and physical health, and this association remained significant even after controlling for age, gender, site and pathological gambling status. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that Internet gambling is linked to pathological gambling and is independently associated with poor health. Family practice physicians should consider referring patients who gamble on the Internet for further treatment.