Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An ultra-low-power self-biased current reference

This paper presents the design of an ultra-low-power self-biased 400 pA current source. An efficient design methodology has resulted in a cell area around 0.045 mm/sup 2/ (0.027 mm/sup 2/) in the AMIS 1.5 /spl mu/m (TSMC 0.35 /spl mu/m) CMOS technology and power consumption around 2 nW for 1.2 V supply. Simulated and experimental results validate the design and show that the current sources can operate at supply voltages down to 1.1 V with a good regulation (<4%/V variation of the supply voltage in a 0.35 /spl mu/m technology). This current source is suitable for very-low-power applications.
Profiling the Prognosis of Gastric Cancer Patients: Is It Worth Correlating the Survival with the Clinical/Pathological and Molecular Features of Gastric Cancers?

Background. The prognosis of gastric cancer patients still remains poor. The aim of this study was investigating the prognostic value of several clinical/pathological/molecular features in a consecutive series of gastric cancers. Methods. 150 R0 gastrectomies plus 77 gastric cancer patients evaluated for the HER2 overexpression were selected. Survival was calculated and patients stratified according to the stage, the T-stage, the LNRs, the LNH, and the HER2 scoring system. ROC curves were calculated in order to compare the performance of the LRN and LNH systems. Results. Prognosis correlated with the stage and with the T-stage. We documented a statistical correlation between the LNRs and the survival. Conversely, a LNH > 15 did not correlate with the outcomes. The ROC curves documented a significant performance of the LRN system, whereas a statistical correlation was documented for the LNH exclusively with the endpoint of disease-free survival. We documented a trend of worse prognosis for patients with an HER2 overexpression, even though it was not of statistical value. Conclusion. The LNR and the evaluation of the HER2 overexpression might be useful since they correlate with survival, might identify patients with a higher risk of recurrence, and might select patients for a tailored medical treatment.
Natural Cytotoxicity Receptors: Broader Expression Patterns and Functions in Innate and Adaptive Immune Cells

Natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCRs) have been classically defined as activating receptors delivering potent signals to Natural Killer (NK) cells in order to lyze harmful cells and to produce inflammatory cytokines. Indeed, the elicitation of NK cell effector functions after engagement of NCRs with their ligands on tumor or virus infected cells without the need for prior antigen recognition is one of the main mechanisms that allow a rapid clearance of target cells. The three known NCRs, NKp46, NKp44, and NKp30, comprise a family of germ-line encoded Ig-like trans-membrane (TM) receptors. Until recently, NCRs were thought to be NK cell specific surface molecules, thus making it possible to easily distinguish NK cells from phenotypically similar cell types. Moreover, it has also been found that the surface expression of NKp46 is conserved on NK cells across mammalian species. This discovery allowed for the use of NKp46 as a reliable marker to identify NK cells in different animal models, a comparison that was not possible before due to the lack of a common and comprehensive receptor repertoire between different species. However, several studies over the recent few years indicated that NCR expression is not exclusively confined to NK cells, but is also present on populations of T as well as of NK-like lymphocytes. These insights raised the hypothesis that the induced expression of NCRs on certain T cell subsets is governed by defined mechanisms involving the engagement of the T cell receptor (TCR) and the action of pro-inflammatory cytokines. In turn, the acquisition of NCRs by T cell subsets is also associated with a functional independence of these Ig-like TM receptors from TCR signaling. Here, we review these novel findings with respect to NCR-mediated functions of NK cells and we also discuss the functional consequences of NCR expression on non-NK cells, with a particular focus on the T cell compartment.
iDetective: a persuasive application to motivate healthier behavior using smart phone

Until now, many kinds of persuasive applications have been developed, and latest persuasive applications have utilized users' contexts acquired by several sensors for more effective persuasion. Currently most applications assume that those applications run with special devices that are equipped with sensors for acquiring those contexts. The use of such special devices may deter would-be users because they do not have a habit of getting on such additional devices. In this paper, we introduce a persuasive application that uses users' contexts acquired by mobile phone. Through our experiences in the application, we clarify whether current mobile phone is enough to acquire users' contexts and to persuade users or not.
A Local and Global Discretization Method

Most machine learning and data mining algorithms require that the training data contain only discrete attributes, which makes it necessary to discretize continuous numeric attributes. Bottom-up discretization algorithms are well-known methods. They mainly focus on discretizing data based on either local or global independence measure. In this paper, we present a novel bottom-up discretization method by combining local and global independence measures. First, we present a novel merging criterion that locally and globally captures the independence between the discretized attributes and the decision class; this is conducted by evaluating pairs of intervals with a proposed measure and developing a measurement of significance of interval pair among attributes. The advantage of our proposed merging criterion is further analyzed. Moreover, we develop an algorithm to find the best discretization based on the new merging criterion. Detailed analysis shows that the proposed method brings higher accuracy to the discretization process. Finally, we conduct extensive experimental results on 18 real -world datasets to evaluate the performance of the proposed method by comparison with existing methods. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms existing methods over the performance metrics considered.
Web Tabanlı Uzaktan Eğitim ile Geleneksel Eğitimin İnternet Programcılığı 2 Dersi Kapsamında Karşılaştırılması

Calismada Web Tabanli Uzaktan Egitim ile Geleneksel Egitimin Internet Programciligi 2 dersinde karsilastirilmasi amaclanmistir. Bu amacla bu iki yontem Internet Programciligi 2 dersinde kullanilarak ogrencilerin akademik basari duzeyleri ve ogrenilenlerin kaliciligi incelenmistir. 70 ogrenciden olusan calisma grubu ile yurutulen arastirmada deney ve kontrol gruplari 35'er ogrenciden olusmaktadir. Deney grubu ogrencileri Web Tabanli Uzaktan Egitim ortaminda, kontrol grubu ise Geleneksel Egitim ortaminda her bir grup 14 hafta ogrenim gormuslerdir. Calismada gruplar ilgili dersteki basarilar, demografik ozellikler, bilgisayar ve internet kullanimi bilgi duzeyi bakimindan karsilastirilmistir. Calisma sonunda deney grubu ogrencileri ile gorusme yapilmistir. Nicel verilerin analizinde Betimsel Istatistikler, Bagimsiz Gruplar t Testi, ANCOVA, nitel veri analizi icin ise betimsel analiz kullanilmistir. Analiz sonuclari Web Tabanli Uzaktan Egitim’in basariyi artirmada ve kaliciligi saglamada Geleneksel Egitime gore daha basarili oldugunu gostermektedir. Gorusme sonuclarina gore ise Web Tabanli Uzaktan Egitim ile ilgili olarak ogrenciler pozitif dusuncelere sahiptirler.
ITERATIVE QR DECOMPOSTION CHANNEL ESTIMATION FOR MIMO-OFDM SYSTEMS

Channel estimation algorithms have a key role in si gnal detection in MIMO-OFDM systems. In this system , the number of channel components which need to be estimated is much more than conventional SISO wireless systems. Consequent ly, the computational process of channel estimation is highly intensive. In addition, the high performance channel estimatio n algorithms mostly suffer from high computational complexity. In the other words, the system undergoes intensive computations if high performance efficiency is desired. However, there is an alternative solution to achieve both high performance efficiency and rel atively low level of computational complexity. In this solution, high ef ficient channel estimation is firstly designed, and then it is simplified using alternative mathematical expressions. In this paper , Iterative channel estimation based on QR decompos ition for MIMO-OFDM systems is proposed. From simulation results, the i terative QRD channel estimation algorithm can provi de better mean-square-error and bit error rate performance than conventional me thods.
General Construction Method of Bounded Delay-Tolerant Space Time Block Codes

In distributed antenna networks, the received signal from different transmitters can be asynchronous due to the processing or propagation delays. This destroys the space time code properties designed initially for synchronous case. We introduce, in this paper, a new design method to construct optimalrate delay-tolerant codes from existing synchronous codes for a certain number of delay profiles that can exist in the network. Some construction examples based on optimal known codes are proposed and it is shown that they achieve full diversity for synchronous and some asynchronous cases. Their performance is compared to other delay tolerant codes.
Force control for a 3-Finger Adaptive Robot Gripper by using PID controller

In order to ensure that a robotic hand can successfully grasp objects without damaging them, an active compliance control can be a very useful technique to provide a safe grasping. In particular, this paper establishes a direct force control for a 3-Finger Adaptive Robot Gripper by using a PID control. A modified FSR force sensor where a plastic cover is used to ensure the contacted force during grasping can be measured and recorded. A series of grasping tests were performed to observe the performance of PID control. The experimental results show that the PID control can be a simple and reliable control scheme to provide an active compliance control through direct force control. In addition, different compliance level is feasible particularly for a stiff spongy ball.
A Quick Rendering Method Using Basis Functions for Interactive Lighting Design

When designing interior lighting effects, it is desirable to compare a variety of lighting designs involving different lighting devices and directions of light. It is, however, time‐consuming to generate images with many different lighting parameters, taking interreflection into account, because all luminances must be calculated and recalculated. This makes it difficult to design lighting effects interactively. To address this problem, this paper proposes a method of quickly generating images of a given scene illustrating an interreflective environment illuminated by sources with arbitrary luminous intensity distributions. In the proposed method, the luminous intensity ditribution is expressed with basis functions. The proposed method uses a series of spherical harmonic functions as basis functions, and calculates in advance each intensity on surfaces lit by the light sources whose luminous intensity distribution are the same as the spherical harmonic functions. The proposed method makes it possible to generate images so quickly that we can change the luminous intensity distribution interactively. Combining the proposed method with an interactive walk‐through that employs intensity mapping, an interactive system for lighting design is implemented. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated by its application to interactive lighting design, where many images are generated by altering lighting devices and/or direction of light.
Performance of Query Optimization Heuristics in Object-Oriented Databases

This paper investigates the performance of query optimization heuristics in object-oriented databases. Query optimization involves the following two stages : (1) Reduce the search space of access plans for a query to be considered during query evaluation using optimization heuristics (2) Estimate the cost of each access plan in (1) and select the cheapest access plan. To compute the cost of each access plan, a cost model is formulated which uses information such as the order of evaluation of classes in a query graph, and the access paths and retrieval algorithms used during the evaluation. The cheapest access plan selected is then used to evaluate the given query. Our performance results show that the optimization heuristics developed are effective and reasonable.
Texture analysis of ultrasonic liver images based on spatial domain methods

The paper introduces three texture analysis methods of ultrasonic images based on spatial domain method. Feature parameters, including mean, variance, contrast, homogeneity, angular second moment and entropy, are achieved from gray histogram statistic, gray level difference statistic (GLDS), gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). Then the above statistical feature parameters are applied for texture classification by neural network. The Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) is employed as a classifier to differentiate ultrasonic fatty liver image from normal liver image. Experimental results showed that the joint statistical feature parameters extracted from the three methods achieve good effects.
BOOTSTRAP CONFIDENCE INTERVALS FOR THE KINETIC PARAMETERS OF DEGRADATION OF ANTHOCYANINS IN GRAPE POMACE

ABSTRACT Because of the growing interest in nutraceuticals and their health benefits, it is important to develop tools for modeling degradation of nutraceuticals in low-moisture- and high-temperature-heated foods. The objective of this study was to estimate the kinetic parameters for the degradation of anthocyanins in grape pomace and to calculate the bootstrap confidence interval (CI), which is a more realistic estimate of the true CI than the commonly used asymptotic CI. Thermal and kinetic parameters for unsteady-state conduction-heated foods (grape pomace) were estimated separately using an inverse problem technique. Rate constant (kr) and activation energy (Ea) for the degradation of anthocyanins in grape pomace were estimated, and the 95% bootstrap CIs were calculated and compared with the 95% asymptotic CIs. Grape pomace at 42% moisture content (wet basis) in steel cans (radius 0.027 m, and height 0.073 m) was heated in a steam retort at 126.7C. Anthocyanin retention was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. The retention values were used to estimate kinetic parameters, which were k113.9C = 0.0606/min and Ea = 65.32 kJ/mol. Asymptotic CIs for k113.9Cand Ea were 0.052 and 0.068, and 23.3 and 102.7, respectively. Bootstrap 95% CIs for k113.9Cand Ea were 0.053 and 0.066, and 49.08 and 104.9, respectively. Bootstrap confidence band and bootstrap prediction band (PB) for anthocyanin retention were smaller than asymptotic confidence and PBs, respectively. The smaller width of the bootstrap bands, which are considered more accurate than asymptotic bands, allows more accurate process design and cost-savings, potentially leading to higher-quality nutraceutical products. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Thermal and kinetic parameters for unsteady-state conduction-heated foods (grape pomace) were estimated separately using nonlinear regression techniques. This non-isothermal method of estimating thermal and kinetic parameters is fast, convenient and more accurate than the isothermal method. Also, for certain application such as low-moisture solids at high temperatures, isothermal experiments are not feasible. There is much more information gained from the type of plot presented here than from the typical plot with only one fitted line showing the mean values. The smaller width of the bootstrap bands, which are considered more accurate than asymptotic bands, allows more accurate process design and cost-savings, potentially leading to higher-quality nutraceutical products.
Let Me Tell You! : Investigating the Effects of Robot Communication Strategies in Advice-giving Situations based on Robot Appearance, Interaction Modality and Distance

Recent proposals for how robots should talk to people when they give advice suggest that the same strategies humans employ with other humans are effective for robots as well. However, the evidence is exclusively based on people’s observation of robot giving advice to other humans. Hence, it is not clear whether the results still apply when people actually participate in real interactions with robots. We address this shortcoming in a novel systematic mixed-methods study where we employ both survey-based subjective and brain-based objective measures (using functional near infrared spectroscopy). The results show that previous results from observation conditions do not transfer automatically to interaction conditions, and that robot appearance and interaction distance are important modulators of human perceptions of robot behavior in advice-giving contexts.
A Flat and Scalable Data Center Network Topology Based on De Bruijn Graphs

Due to the requirement of hosting tens of thousands of hosts in today's data centers, data center networks strive for scalability and high throughput on the one hand. On the other hand, the cost for networking hardware should be minimized. Consequently, the number and complexity (e.g. TCAM size) of switches has to be minimized. These requirements led to network topologies like Clos and Leaf-Spine networks only requiring a shallow hierarchy of switches---two levels for Leaf-Spine networks. The drawback of these topologies is that switches at higher levels like Spine switches need a high port density and, thus, are expensive and limit the scalability of the network. In this paper, we propose a data center network topology based on De Bruijn graphs completely avoiding a switch hierarchy and implementing a flat network topology of top-of-rack switches instead. This topology guarantees logarithmic (short) path length. We show that the required routing logic can be implemented by standard prefix matching operations in hardware (TCAM) allowing for using commodity switches without any modification. Moreover, forwarding requires only a very small number of forwarding table entries, saving costly and energy-intensive TCAM.
Exercise Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography Provides Effective Risk Stratification of Elderly Men and Elderly Women

Background—In a recent study, we reported that the Duke treadmill score was unable to effectively stratify elderly patients according to risk. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of exercise single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in this same population and to examine results by gender. Methods and Results—A cohort of 247 elderly (age ≥75 years) patients (108 women, 139 men, age 77±3 years) who underwent exercise thallium-201 SPECT were followed up for a median duration of 6.4 years. SPECT variables were significantly associated with cardiac death: summed stress score (SSS) &khgr;2=19.5, P<0.001; summed difference score &khgr;2=12.3, P<0.001; increased lung uptake &khgr;2=9.6, P=0.002; and left ventricular enlargement &khgr;2=8.3, P=0.004. The Duke score was not significantly associated with cardiac death (&khgr;2<1, P=NS). The SSS classified most patients as low risk (49%) or high risk (35%); the Duke score classified the majority (68%) as intermediate risk. Annual cardiac mortality rates for patients categorized by SSS as low risk and high risk were 0.8% and 5.8%, respectively. Cardiac survival rates according to SSS risk categories were significantly different for both women (P=0.012) and men (P=0.003). Conclusions—SPECT classified most elderly patients into clinically useful low- and high-risk categories and accurately predicted outcomes in both genders. If these results can be validated in future studies, exercise SPECT rather than standard treadmill testing may emerge as the initial noninvasive testing strategy in elderly patients who are able to exercise.
Paper-Based Flexible Photodetector Functionalized by WSe2 Nanodots

Ultrathin two-dimensional WSe2 has attracted huge attention due to its potential applications in future wearable electronics. Here, we demonstrate the flexible and high-performance photodetector using high-yield sonochemical exfoliation technique. An efficient and low cost fabrication strategy using Whatman filter paper is adopted for the first time for fabrication of a photodetector based on WSe2 nanodots (NDs). The WSe2 NDs have hexagonal lattice structure with P63/mmc and have indirect band gap of 1.63 eV. The exfoliation and number of layers in WSe2 NDs is confirmed by Raman, absorption, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Subsequently, the photodetector based on WSe2 NDs is fabricated. The device shows excellent photoresponse with response time of 0.68 s and photoresponsivity of 17.78 mAW–1 and detectivity of 5.86 × 1010 Jones for 5 V. The device is analyzed for bias of 0 to 100 V and responsivity is enhanced up to 796.18 mA W–1 at 100 V bias. Furthermore, the paper-based detector exhibited great fle.
A Parallel Pages Mining Approach: Combining URL Patterns and HTML Structures

Parallel corpus is the fundamental resource for statistical machine translation,cross-lingual information retrieval and others information processing technologies.Although the amount of parallel data on the web is continually increasing,the heterogeneity and complexity of parallel website make it still a challenge to collect such parallel texts.This paper presents a new parallel web pages mining approach,which combines URL patterns and HTML structure together.First,we use HTML structure to recursively visit parallel pages.Then,URL patterns are used to optimize the traverse sequence of parallel web site topology.Thus an efficient and accurate parallel pages mining system is relaized.Compared with traditional approach,experiments on two parallel web sites(www.un.org and www.gov.hk1) show that this approach saves more than 50% processing timeand improves 15% accuracy,resulting a significant increase in the translation quality of MT System.
Adjacent stimulation and measurement patterns considered harmful

We characterize the ability of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) to distinguish changes in internal conductivity distributions, and analyze it as a function of stimulation and measurement patterns. A distinguishability measure, z, is proposed which is related to the signal-to-noise ratio of a medium and to the probability of detection of conductivity changes in a region of interest. z is a function of the number of electrodes, the EIT stimulation and measurement protocol, the stimulation amplitude, the measurement noise, and the size and location of the contrasts. Using this measure we analyze various choices of stimulation and measurement patterns under the constraint of medical electrical safety limits (maximum current into the body). Analysis is performed for a planar placement of 16 electrodes for simulated 3D tank and chest shapes, and measurements in a saline tank. Results show that the traditional (and still most common) adjacent stimulation and measurement patterns have by far the poorest performance (by 6.9 ×). Good results are obtained for trigonometric patterns and for pair drive and measurement patterns separated by over 90°. Since the possible improvement over adjacent patterns is so large, we present this result as a call to action: adjacent patterns are harmful, and should be abandoned. We recommend using pair drive and measurement patterns separated by one electrode less than 180°. We describe an approach to modify an adjacent pattern EIT system by adjusting electrode placement.