Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Locally-Stable Macromodels of Integrated Digital Devices for Multimedia Applications

This paper addresses the development of accurate and efficient behavioral models of digital integrated circuits for the assessment of high-speed systems. Device models are based on suitable parametric expressions estimated from port transient responses and are effective at system level, where the quality of functional signals and the impact of supply noise need to be simulated. A potential limitation of some state-of-the-art modeling techniques resides in hidden instabilities manifesting themselves in the use of models, without being evident in the building phase of the same models. This contribution compares three recently-proposed model structures, and selects the local-linear state-space modeling technique as an optimal candidate for the signal integrity assessment of data links. In fact, this technique combines a simple verification of the local stability of models with a limited model size and an easy implementation in commercial simulation tools. An application of the proposed methodology to a real problem involving commercial devices and a data-link of a wireless device demonstrates the validity of this approach.
Structural and functional association of androgen receptor with telomeres in prostate cancer cells

Telomeres protect the ends of linear chromosomes from being recognized as damaged DNA, and telomere stability is required for genome stability. Here we demonstrate that telomere stability in androgen receptor (AR)-positive LNCaP human prostate cancer cells is dependent on AR and androgen, as AR inactivation by AR antagonist bicalutamide (Casodex), AR-knockdown, or androgen-depletion caused telomere dysfunction, and the effect of androgen-depletion or Casodex was blocked by the addition of androgen. Notably, neither actinomycin D nor cycloheximide blocked the DNA damage response to Casodex, indicating that the role of AR in telomere stability is independent of its role in transcription. We also demonstrate that AR is a component of telomeres, as AR-bound chromatin contains telomeric DNA, and telomeric chromatin contains AR. Importantly, AR inactivation by Casodex caused telomere aberrations, including multiple abnormal telomere signals, remindful of a fragile telomere phenotype that has been described previously to result from defective telomere DNA replication. We suggest that AR plays an important role in telomere stability and replication of telomere DNA in prostate cancer cells, and that AR inactivation-mediated telomere dysfunction may contribute to genomic instability and progression of prostate cancer cells.
Automatic Sensor Data Stream Segmentation for Real-time Activity Prediction in Smart Spaces

Recently, human activity recognition and prediction have become important functionalities in ambient-assisted living. Activity inference algorithms detect what task a human undertakes, by analyzing the data stream pattern generated from various Internet of Things (IoT) devices. However, determining how the data stream should be segmented in real-time, referred to as data segmentation, remains as one of the most difficult challenges. In this paper, we propose an automatic data segmentation approach for real-time activity prediction by employing the Jaro-Winkler Distance measurement. Our approach selects a breakpoint of a stream by comparing the Jaro-Winkler distance between the training dataset and the data stream and finding a peak among the variations. The resultant segment also becomes new training data after being tagged; this removes the need to segment the stream data manually for humans. From the experiment based on MIT's smart home dataset collected from a real living environment, our approach shows reasonable performance of 76% accuracy even though the dataset size is relatively diminutive.
Towards Simulating Push Button Behavior on Touch Surfaces

Mechanical push buttons provide various multimodal stimuli before, during and after manual activation. This makes them fast, discriminable and easy to use with virtually no visual or cognitive attention. The transfer of these rich multimodal characteristics to touch based digital interfaces entails complex and costly technology for force sensing. In the paper, we describe a theoretical model, which makes up for the lack of force data by substituting applied input pressure with input time. Subsequently, we demonstrate a working implementation of our model using a remote tactile interface. Finally, we briefly discuss the results gained from 24 user interviews on the feasibility of our approach.
Virtual Machine Services:An Opportunity for Hardware Customization

This paper considers the intersection of two computing trends: (1) Computer architecture design is now constrained by power, instead of transistor count, which is leading to architecture heterogeneity and customization. (2) Software developers increasingly choose managed languages, such as JavaScript, PHP, Java, and C#. Managed languages require a VM (Virtual Machine), which executes services such as profiling, compilation, scheduling, and memory management together with every application. The ubiquity of VM services makes them a perfect test case for potential improvements in energy through the use of hardware heterogeneity. This paper uses systematic exploration of hardware features such as frequency and voltage scaling, cache size, hardware parallelism, and gross microarchitecture design on the power, and performance of VM services. It thus evaluates this potential on actual hardware, rather than through simulation. We study Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation, interpretation, and memory management. We find that VM services consume around 20% of energy on average. Compared to application code, the memory manager and interpreter offer substantially different workloads and do not uniformly benefit from high performance architectural features. A heterogeneous multicore processor thus has the potential to substantially improve energy of managed applications with cores customized for VM services.
Looking for Low-proficiency Sentences in ELL Writing

Determining whether an author is writing in their native language (L1) or a second language (L2) is a problem that lies at the intersection of four traditional NLP tasks: native language identification, similar language identification, detecting translationese, and grammatical error correction. In general, the goal of the language learner is to improve their proficiency until their writing is indistinguishable from that of a native speaker. By being able to automatically and reliably determine whether a section of text looks like L1 or L2 text, areas of writing that still need improvement can be brought to the learner’s attention. Additionally, the state of the art for correcting grammatical errors involves using machine translation to translate from errorful text to corrected text[1] and there is interesting work being done in generating new training examples by using machine translation to go from error-free text to errorful text. [2] Both approaches could be enhanced by a system that can tell how close sections of the translation are to an L1 or L2 target. I present Deep Filter, a convolutional neural network that uses a deep network as the convolution, for determining the probability that an entire essay was written by an English Language Learner (ELL), using the document-level label of whether the writer’s L1 was English. I then use the unpooled activations from the convolutional filter to provide insight into the probability that sections of the text were written by a non-native writer. The model is able to learn to differentiate native from non-native writing, and can identify both low-proficiency sections of the essays as well as other idiosyncracies of non-native English writers.
Modeling perceived professional autonomy in Chilean journalism

Based on a survey of 570 Chilean new media journalists, this article examines how they perceive autonomy in their everyday work, the importance they give to autonomy as a professional value, as well as the factors that influence their perceived editorial freedom. The results show that Chilean journalists acknowledge a high level of freedom in making news decisions, but that their conception of autonomy follows two different paths: while the importance given to autonomy is related to the profession’s ideal of public service, their satisfaction with editorial freedom fits into a pragmatic context, associated with their professional and job development. The results also reveal that the factors that better predict professional autonomy are having an editorial position within the media, the assignment of a news beat, perceived political and organizational influences, and the media’s political orientation and geographical location. Economic factors, meanwhile, do not have any direct effect on the journalists’ perceptions.
TOTAL ANTI‐OXIDANT CAPACITY OF CELL CULTURE MEDIA

1 The composition of synthetic cell culture media is important for the behaviour of cultured cells in vitro and may affect the results of many in vitro experiments. The total anti‐oxidant capacity (TAC) of an extracellular medium may be an important factor in cell redox homeostasis. 2 In the present study, the TAC of cell culture media used for the cultivation of mammalian, yeast and bacterial cells (RPMI1640, Iscove's modified Dulbecco's medium, Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium, minimum essential medium Eagle's 1959 with Earle's salts, Parker medium 199 with Hanks salts, bacterial Luria‐Bertani medium, yeast extract‐peptone‐glucose and yeast nitrogen base media) was estimated using the 2,2′‐azinobis(3‐ethylbenzthiazoline‐6‐sulphonic acid) (ABTS·+) decolourization assay and the ferric ion reducing anti‐oxidant power assay. 3 We found that components of the media such as cysteine, tyrosine, tryptophan and Phenol Red are important contributors to the TAC of cell culture media.
Explaining Cross-National Differences in Fertility: A Comparative Approach to the Demographic Shift

Low fertility in modern societies challenges evolutionary social scientists. A comparative analysis of less developed countries investigated various possible predictors of low fertility including urbanization, monogamous marriage, level of participation in the monetary economy (GDP), and low infant mortality. Using a sample of 45 countries broken out by urban and rural location, each of these predictors of total fertility was significant in a regression analysis (r 2 = .76) that controlled for survey year, geographic latitude, sex ratio, and geographic hemisphere. Multivariate prediction estimated that the demographic shift (TFR < 2.6) occurs when infant mortality falls below 33 per thousand, when polygyny reaches zero, and when GDP per capita rises above US$20,508. (The low fertility at high latitudes, reported by Barber, was further found explainable in terms of monogamous marriage). Declining fertility in modern societies evidently constitutes an adaptive response to ecological conditions and is largely predictable from them.
Novel member of the zinc finger superfamily: A C2-HC finger that recognizes a glia-specific gene

A novel member of the zinc finger superfamily was cloned by virtue of its binding to cis-regulatory elements of a glia-specific gene, the myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) gene. Named MyTI (myelin transcription factor I), this gene is most highly transcribed in the developing nervous system, where expression precedes induction of its presumptive target, PLP. Low levels of MyTI transcripts can be detected in nonneural tissues only by polymerase chain reaction analysis. Zinc is a necessary cofactor for DNA binding of MyTI, as the zinc-chelating agent 1,10-orthophenanthroline eliminates binding activity. Zinc may stabilize the DNA-binding domain of MyTI by coordinating three cysteine and one histidine residue in a Cys-X5-Cys-X12-His-X4-Cys (C2-HC) arrangement. The MyTI protein has six fingers of the C2-HC class arranged in two widely separated clusters. These two domains of DNA binding can function independently and recognize the same DNA sequence, suggesting that MyTI may contribute to the higher-order structure of a target promoter by simultaneously binding both proximal and distal sites. The six fingers are highly conserved, suggesting that they arose from successive duplication events, while the linker regions diverge in size and sequence. Both amino acid sequence comparisons and secondary-structure predictions indicate that the C2-HC fingers of MyTI do not resemble the zinc-mediated loops of C2-H2 fingers, C2-C2 fingers, or Cx clusters. MyTI may therefore be the prototype of a new structural family of zinc-stabilized DNA binding proteins.
Toward A Critical Constructivist Approach to School Administration: Invisibility, Legitimation, and the Study of Non-Events

This article advocates a critical constructivist approach to educational administration that combines the explanatory power of constructivist social theory with the insights of critical theory. The author argues that "meaning management" is a primary role of school administrators and that, because of the legitimation of dominant constructions of organizational and social reality many social phenomena have been rendered invisible. The author further argues that researchers in the field of educational administration continue to perpetuate functionalist paradigms with a heavy management! control perspective and research methods incapable of capturing the sense-making processes of social actors and the subtle ways in which dominant social constructions are accomplished in schools and school districts. The article establishes the need for research accounts that explore the school administrator's legitimation role, describes a mediation model that provides access to the invisible ways dominant social constructions are accomplished and sustained through the mobilization and management of meaning, and concludes with implications for research and practice.
Beam Steering by Means of Harmonic Injection Locking

Electrically controlled beam steering requires mutually phase-locked oscillators. In this work, a free running first harmonic oscillator with a 12 GHz fundamental oscillation and a 24 GHz output signal is presented. For beam steering purposes we investigated the injection locking mechanism at the first harmonic via the antennas. Nine oscillators were mutually phase locked by means of coupling structure integrated in the antennas. Beam steering is achieved by injection locking of the oscillators at the ends of this phased array to a reference source. This combination of high output power due to the power combining of several oscillators with simple electronic beam steering and phase-locking to a moderate powered reference source is very advantageous for low-cost radar systems.
Gellner's Ideal Kinship Language And the Connection between Biological And Social Relatedness

Gellner’s concept of an ideal kinship language anticipated later developments in methods for recording kinship connections, and also sparked a controversy about the relation between biological and social kinship. Though the debate has moved on, the topic has remained controversial. I argue that the idea of an ideal kinship language offers a way of analyzing the relationship between alternative theories, and opens up the possibility of a more integrated approach.
Fibronectin type III domain containing 5 expression in skeletal muscle in chronic heart failure—relevance of inflammatory cytokines

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is commonly associated with muscle atrophy and increased inflammation. Irisin, a myokine proteolytically processed by the fibronectin type III domain containing 5 (FNDC5) gene and suggested to be Peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor gamma coactivator (PGC)‐1α activated, modulates the browning of adipocytes and is related to muscle mass. Therefore, we investigated whether skeletal muscle FNDC5 expression in CHF was reduced and if this was mediated by inflammatory cytokines and/or angiotensin II (Ang‐II).
Reducing Smoking in Adolescents: Cost-Effectiveness Results From the Cluster Randomized ASSIST (A Stop Smoking In Schools Trial)

Introduction: School-based smoking prevention programmes can be effective, but evidence on cost-effectiveness is lacking. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of a school-based “peer-led” intervention. Methods: We evaluated the ASSIST (A Stop Smoking In Schools Trial) programme in a cluster randomized controlled trial. The ASSIST programme trained students to act as peer supporters during informal interactions to encourage their peers not to smoke. Fifty-nine secondary schools in England and Wales were randomized to receive the ASSIST programme or usual smoking education. Ten thousand seven hundred and thirty students aged 12–13 years attended participating schools. Previous work has demonstrated that the ASSIST programme achieved a 2.1% (95% CI = 0%–4.2%) reduction in smoking prevalence. We evaluated the public sector cost, prevalence of weekly smoking, and cost per additional student not smoking at 24 months. Results: The ASSIST programme cost of £32 (95% CI = £29.70–£33.80) per student. The incremental cost per student not smoking at 2 years was £1,500 (95% CI = £669–£9,947). Students in intervention schools were less likely to believe that they would be a smoker at age 16 years (odds ratio [OR] = 0.80; 95% CI = 0.66–0.96). Conclusions: A peer-led intervention reduced smoking among adolescents at a modest cost. The intervention is cost-effective under realistic assumptions regarding the extent to which reductions in adolescent smoking lead to lower smoking prevalence and/or earlier smoking cessation in adulthood. The annual cost of extending the intervention to Year 8 students in all U.K. schools would be in the region of £38 million and could result in 20,400 fewer adolescent smokers.
Ground Viewing Perspective Hyperspectral Anomaly Detection

Abstract : The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has teamed with the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) to develop and demonstrate performance of innovative algorithmic approaches for applications requiring autonomous detection and classification of military targets (e.g., ground vehicles, camouflaged personnel) using passive hyperspectral (HS) devices. This report focuses on the first stage of a two-stage algorithm suite features autonomous clutter background characterization (ACBC), adaptive anomaly detection, and constrained subspace target classification, where the first stage highlights anomalous structures in the imagery and the second stage classifies these structures as known materials (targets) or unknown materials (targets or non-targets). The first stage has two main components, ACBC and anomaly detection. The uniqueness of this first stage is that a random sampling model is proposed as a parallel process in order to mitigate the likelihood that samples of targets are erroneously used during imagery testing as clutter-background spectral references. This approach is proposed to handling underlying difficulties (target shape/scale uncertainties) often ignored in the development of autonomous anomaly detection algorithms. Experimental results, using no prior information about the clutter background, are presented for the ACBC/anomaly detection approach testing multiple examples of real HS data cubes.
Effects of Advance Questioning and Prior Knowledge on Science Learning

Abstract The effects of conceptual orienting questions and differences in prior knowledge on factual learning and problem solving in biology were examined. A total of 107 10th graders were assigned to a control group, an orienting questions group, or an orienting question-plus-rationale group. After initial training, participants completed a 2-day introductory lesson on genetics. One day after completing the instruction, a posttest was administered. Overall, both question groups outperformed the control group. In addition, problem-solving scores improved proportionately more than fact scores through the use of questions and rationale. Meaningful responses to the embedded orienting questions were greatest for the question-plus-rationale group and were significantly correlated with posttest performance. High-level orienting questions, designed to activate existing knowledge based upon conceptual relevance to forthcoming instruction, are of greatest value when a rationale for their use is provided.
Filosofia política e experimentalismo democrático: alternativa para realizar a justiça

Este artigo analisa criticamente a visao geral das principais correntes das Teorias da Justica. Argumenta que a desatencao a dimensao institucional das sociedades contemporâneas leva-as a uma postura irrealista sobre a possibilidade de concretizacao da justica. Apresenta outra visao, baseada no experimentalismo democratico proposto pela filosofia politica de Unger, ancorada na ideia de reorganizacao institucional da sociedade.
Psychotherapy and chaos theory: The metaphoric relationship between psychodynamic therapy and chaos theory.

This article explores potential benefits and problems in applying chaos theory in psychotherapy through an examination of previous attempts to integrate chaos theory into psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy. First a discussion provides an understanding of basic concepts in chaos theory and reviews applications in psychoanalysis. Second, problems in such applications are scrutinized. Finally, the discussion speculates on a general tendency in the literature in psychotherapy and counseling to resort to mathematical analogies, arguing that this attraction may produce an "erroneous metaphor," and gives reasons both for the attraction and its danger.
The many targets of aldosterone.

In the current issue of Hypertension , Oberleithner et al1 demonstrate a new effect of aldosterone acting via mineralocorticoid receptors to stimulate water entry into human endothelial cells. Using atomic force microscopy, these authors show that cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells respond to aldosterone with sodium and water entry (they swell) and this can be blocked by a mineralocorticoid receptor blocker (spironolactone). Swollen aldosterone-treated endothelial cells shrink when micromolar concentrations of amiloride are applied, concentrations at which amiloride does not inhibit the sodium-proton exchanger. The authors report they already showed that cariporide, a selective inhibitor of the sodium-proton exchanger, does not affect aldosterone-induced endothelial cell swelling.1 Thus, they suggest that amiloride inhibits a sodium channel similar to the apical epithelial sodium channel in the distal nephron. The authors conclude that sodium channels are induced by genomic effects of aldosterone, which result in sodium influx and cell depolarization, creating an electrochemical gradient that leads to chloride and water accumulation and cell swelling. Amiloride, by blocking the sodium channels, hyperpolarizes the cell, leading to chloride efflux followed by efflux of water and cell shrinkage. Whether this interpretation is correct remains to be proven. The authors propose that endothelial cell swelling followed by sodium influx also leads to activation of the sodium/potassium ATPase and potassium influx. They suggest that, considering the huge surface of endothelium, aldosterone may reduce serum concentrations of potassium not only by its renal action but also mediated by inducing potassium …