Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Process-Variation-Resilient OTA Using MTJ-based Multi-level Resistance Control

A process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variation conditioning technique using magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) devices, whose resistance values are programmable, is proposed for realizing a wider design margin in analog integrated circuits. Because MTJ devices are fabricated on top of the CMOS integrated circuit layer, there is a small chip-area overhead for inserting additional MTJ devices into analog circuits, which makes it easy to use the variation-conditioning technique frequently on the entire chip. Additionally, the use of series-parallel connections for MTJ devices allows more flexible adjustment of the resistance. As a typical example, we demonstrate that under 0.18 mm CMOS technology, a simple operational Tran conductance amplifier (OTA) using the proposed technique outperforms a conventional OTA without any variation-conditioning technique.
Power-Aware Node Deployment in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have attracted intense interest due to their extensible capability. In this paper, we attempt to answer a fundamental but practical question: how should we deploy these nodes. In most current designs, sensor nodes are randomly or uniformly distributed because of their simplicity. However, the node deployment has a great impact on the performance of WSNs. Instead of maintaining the coverage for some snapshots of a WSN, it is essential that we can provide a continuous coverage in the whole lifecycle of the WSN. We will exhibit the weakness of the uniform distribution by disclosing the fatal sink routing-hole problem. To address this problem, we propose a non-uniform, power-aware distribution scheme. Our analysis and simulation results show that the power-aware deployment scheme can significantly improve the long-term network connectivity and service quality.
Asthma increase among farmers: a 12-year follow-up

Abstract Respiratory disease is a well known health hazard for farmers, but the long-term prognosis is less well known. This is a 12-year follow-up of an investigation of Swedish farmers, most of them dairy farmers. A questionnaire was mailed to all 418 farmers who were alive of the farmers originally participating in 1982. They were invited to an interview, spirometry, and blood sampling. Ninety-one per cent (380) of the farmers, 321 men and 59 women, responded to the questionnaire. The mean age was 56 years for the men and 55 years for the women. Of the group, 10% were smokers, 25% ex-smokers, and 65% had never smoked. The population estimate for asthma in the farmers was 8.9% in 1994 compared to 2% in 1982, and to 5.4%–6.6% in the general population in the region in 1982. Of the asthmatic subjects, one-third had positive RAST tests (radioallergosorbent tests). Almost 90% of the new onset asthma cases since 1982 had non-IgE-mediated asthma. Most of the IgE-mediated asthmatics had had symptoms for many years, while 70% of the non-IgE-mediated asthmatic farmers had no or only wheezing with colds 1982. Two new cases of hypersensitivity pneumonitis were identified, and 7.3% had experienced inhalation fever during the last 12 years. In general, individuals with asthma and chronic bronchitis who had left farming were in better health in 1994 as compared to 1982. In conclusion, farmers have an enhanced risk to develop asthma increasing with age. Asthma in farmers is often non-IgE-mediated.
A comparison of sponsorship recognition ability among UNC student men's basketball fans

WARD GIBSON: A comparison of sponsorship recognition ability among UNC student men’s basketball fans. (Under the direction of Nathan Tomasini) In 2003, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC) was unable to completely cover its scholarship budget through traditional means, due in part to a rise in tuition rates (Chapel Hill News, 2003). The pattern of elaborate athletic-related spending among competitor universities forced UNC to explore additional revenue streams that could potentially bolster their financial status, with specific attention towards the prospect of commercial signage within Kenan Stadium and the Dean E. Smith Center for the first time (Dick Baddour, personal communication, March 10, 2004). The study examined the recall and recognition ability of UNC students with respect to commercial sponsors of UNC men’s basketball games. The findings showed a significant difference between upperclassmen and graduate students on the basis of sponsor recognition ability, however no difference in recognition between genders and a weak relationship between recognition ability and games attended.
MicroRNA Involved in Inflammation: Control of Eicosanoid Pathway

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as important regulators in human physiological and pathological processes. Recent investigations implicated the involvement of miRNAs in the immune system development and function and demonstrated an unexpected new regulatory level. We summarize the current knowledge about miRNA control in the development of the immune system and discuss their role in the immune and inflammatory responses with a special focus on eicosanoid signaling.
A Framework for the Validation of Processor Architecture Compliance

We present a framework for validating the compliance of a design with a given architecture. Our approach is centered on the concept of misinterpretations. These include missing behavior, wrong understanding of a behavior, or confusion with similar behavior described in the architecture or elsewhere. We formally capture the architecture behavior in the form of flowcharts and automatically derive a list of architecture misinterpretations from these flowcharts. These misinterpretations constitute the backbone of coverage models targeted by a suite of tests. The suite is automatically generated by a model-based test case generator. A compliance validation system based on these principles has been developed and used in two actual industrial processes of checking compliance with the PowerPC architecture.
Improving requirements quality using essential use case interaction patterns

Requirements specifications need to be checked against the 3C's - Consistency, Completeness and Correctness - in order to achieve high quality. This is especially difficult when working with both natural language requirements and associated semi-formal modelling representations. We describe a technique and support tool that allows us to perform semi-automated checking of natural language and semi-formal requirements models, supporting both consistency management between representations but also correctness and completeness analysis. We use a concept of essential use case interaction patterns to perform the correctness and completeness analysis on the semi-formal representation. We highlight potential inconsistencies, incompleteness and incorrectness using visual differencing in our support tool. We have evaluated our approach via an end user study which focused on the tool's usefulness, ease of use, ease of learning and user satisfaction and provided data for cognitive dimensions of notations analysis of the tool.
SAMPAC: Socially-Aware collaborative Multi-Party Access Control

According to the current design of content sharing services, such as Online Social Networks (OSNs), typically (i) the service provider has unrestricted access to the uploaded resources and (ii) only the user uploading the resource is allowed to define access control permissions over it. This results in a lack of control from other users that are associated, in some way, with that resource. To cope with these issues, in this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving system that allows users to upload their resources encrypted, and we design a collaborative multi-party access control model allowing all the users related to a resource to participate in the specification of the access control policy. Our model employs a threshold-based secret sharing scheme, and by exploiting users' social relationships, sets the trusted friends of the associated users responsible to partially enforce the collective policy. Through replication of the secret shares and delegation of the access control enforcement role, our model ensures that resources are timely available when requested. Finally, our experiments demonstrate that the performance overhead of our model is minimal and that it does not significantly affect user experience.
The occurrence frequency: A suitable parameter for the evaluation of the myoelectric activity during walking

Many studies have recently addressed the quantification of the natural variability of myoelectric activity during walking, considering hundreds of strides. The availability of so many strides allows assessing a parameter seldom considered in classic surface EMG (sEMG) studies: the occurrence frequency, defined as the frequency each muscle activation occurs with, quantified by the number of strides in which a muscle is recruited with that specific activation modality. Aim of this study is to point out the occurrence frequency as a suitable parameter for the evaluation of the variability of the myoelectric activity during walking. This goal was pursued by means of the statistical gait analysis of sEMG signal acquired from Gastrocnemius Lateralis (GL) in six healthy subjects, with different characteristics. Results show that among these six subjects relevant differences were not detected in the temporal parameters, i.e., activation onset/offset instant and activation duration. In the same subjects, the values of the occurrence frequency ranged from 3% to 74% in the different activation modalities, indicating a large variability of this parameter. These findings show that occurrence frequency is able to provide further and different information with respect to classical temporal parameters. Thus, the occurrence frequency is proposed as a suitable parameter to support the classic temporal parameters in the evaluation of variability of myoelectric activity during walking.
A design and adjustment method for ultrawideband microstrip antenna design

This paper presents a combined theoretical and experimental design and adjustment method for ultra-wideband (UWB) microstrip antennas with new geometries on the radiofrequency printed circuit board (PCB) with the permittivity er=2.3 and the thickness h=1mm. The first theoretical design is made by using a standard 3D electromagnetic software package. The antenna specifications are measured and adjusted by the equipment Microwave Test Set IFR 6203B. The obtained antenna has the bandwidth of 600 MHz and very good impedance matching at the resonant frequency 7.2GHz (S11= -55.7dB). This method can reduce time for antenna design in the laboratory conditions. Using it with other initial antenna structures and adding other resonant strips, we can obtain other antennas with smaller dimensions on keeping their large bandwidth and small return loss.
Topology-Aware Partial Virtual Cluster Mapping Algorithm on Shared Distributed Infrastructures

Novel virtualized HPC centers provide isolated and configurable Virtual Clusters (VC) on shared distributed infrastructures as execution environments for parallel and distributed applications. These VCs are usually customized and deployed per job in runtime. Allocating physical resources for VC is known as Virtual Cluster Mapping (VCM) problem, which is a critical issue that affects both performance of the VC and resource utilization of the system. Most previous works treat all Virtual Machines (VMs) in a VC request equally. However, because sub-jobs in a parallel job usually perform different roles, the corresponding VMs in a VC that execute these sub-jobs respectively should have different levels of importance. Based on this argument, this paper introduces the concept of partial VC mapping in contrast to the full mapping methodology in the current literatures. To fulfill partial mapping, the important backbone communication structure of parallel job called Communication Skeleton (CS) is derived based on the network topology among virtual nodes. To generate the CS of a job, mechanisms for evaluating the importance of nodes are proposed. Eventually, a Topology-aware Partial Virtual Cluster Mapping algorithm (TOP-VCM) is proposed which is based on sub-graph isomorphism detection. TOP-VCM can fully satisfy the nodes/links requirements in CS to ensure the execution performance with only slight degradation of other trivial nodes/links to significantly reduce the mapping difficulty. Simulation results have shown that TOP-VCM has significantly improved the total revenue, the utilization of physical resources and the performance of mapping algorithm while satisfying the VC requirements.
Robust H&#8734; Filtering with Pole Constraint for Neutral Delay Differential Uncertain System

This paper considers a robust H∞ filtering problem for a class of neutral delay differential uncertain systems with polytopic type uncertainty. The main purpose is to obtain a stable linear filter such that the filtering error system is robustly stable and guarantees a pre-specific H∞ attenuation level or an (almost) optimal H∞ attenuation level γ. Sufficient conditions are stated in terms of LMIs. Moreover, the filtering error system dynamics can be constrained to some specific LMI regions. The proposed filter design algorithm is demonstrated through a numerical example.
Small dsRNAs induce transcriptional activation in human cells

Recent studies have shown that small noncoding RNAs, such as microRNAs and siRNAs, regulate gene expression at multiple levels including chromatin architecture, transcription, RNA editing, RNA stability, and translation. Each form of RNA-dependent regulation has been generally found to silence homologous sequences and collectively called RNAi. To further study the regulatory role of small RNAs at the transcriptional level, we designed and synthesized 21-nt dsRNAs targeting selected promoter regions of human genes E-cadherin, p21WAF1/CIP1 (p21), and VEGF. Surprisingly, transfection of these dsRNAs into human cell lines caused long-lasting and sequence-specific induction of targeted genes. dsRNA mutation studies reveal that the 5′ end of the antisense strand, or “seed” sequence, is critical for activity. Mechanistically, the dsRNA-induced gene activation requires the Argonaute 2 (Ago2) protein and is associated with a loss of lysine-9 methylation on histone 3 at dsRNA-target sites. In conclusion, we have identified several dsRNAs that activate gene expression by targeting noncoding regulatory regions in gene promoters. These findings reveal a more diverse role for small RNA molecules in the regulation of gene expression than previously recognized and identify a potential therapeutic use for dsRNA in targeted gene activation.
Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics

Contents List of Contributors Tribute to Norman Barry Martin Rickets 1. Introduction Roger W. Garrison 2. Hayek in the History of Economic Thought Denis P. O'Brien 3. Hayek and Economic Theory in the 1930s Martin Ricketts 4. Hayek's Pure Theory of Capital Gerald R. Steele 5. Hayek and Keynes Roger E. Backhouse 6. Hayek and Friedman Roger W. Garrison 7. Hayek and Mises Richard M. Ebeling 8. Hayek and Lachman Peter Lewin 9. Hayek: From Economics as Equilibrium Analysis to Economics as Social Theory Paul Lewis 10. Hayek and Spontaneous Order Craig Smith 11. Hayek on Socialism Mark Pennington 12. Hayek vs. the Neoclassicists: Lessons from the Socialist Calculation Debate Peter J. Boettke, Christopher J. Coyne, Peter T. Leeson 13. Spontaneous Order, Free Trade and Globalization Steven G. Horwitz 14. Hayek on Labor Unions Charles W. Baird 15. Hayek on Economic Policy (the Austrian road to the third way) Enrico Colombato 16. What Remains of Hayek's Critique of 'Social Justice'? -20 Propositions Robert Nef Index Contributors include: R.E. Backhouse, C.W. Baird, P.J. Boettke, E. Colombato, C.J. Coyne, R.M. Ebeling, R.W. Garrison, S.G. Horwitz, P.T. Leeson, P. Lewin, P. Lewis, R. Nef, D.P. O'Brien, M. Pennington, M. Ricketts, C. Smith, G.R. Steele
High-Isolation Microstrip Triplexer Using Multiple-Mode Resonators

A microstrip triplexer with high isolation is proposed in this letter. The triplexer utilizes multi-mode resonators, stepped-impedance resonators, and distributed coupling technique. To begin with, we design a diplexer with near passbands according to the excitation condition of the multi-mode resonators. The first passband is excited in odd mode, and the second one is of even mode. In this way, one can improve the isolation. Furthermore, without increasing any circuit size, the diplexer can be promoted to triplexer due to the third channel using distributed coupling technique.
Hermes: a notification service for digital libraries

The high publication rate of scholarly material makes searching and br owsing an inconvenient way to keep oneself up-to-date. Instead of being the active part in information access, researchers want to be notified whenever a new paper in one's research area is published. While more and more publishing houses or portal sites offer notification services this approach has several disadvantages. We introduce the Hermes alerting service, a service that integrates a variety of different information providers making their heterogeneity transparent for the users. Hermes offers sophisticated filtering capabilities preventing the user from drowning in a flood of irrelevant information. From the user's point of view it integrates the providers into a single source. Its simple provider interface makes it easy for publishers to join the service and thus reaching the potential readers directly. This paper presents the architecture of the Hermes service and discusses the issues of heterogeneity of information sources. Furthermore, we discuss the benefits and disadvantages of message-oriented middleware for implementing such a service for digital libraries.
Comparative study of cell culture and purification methods to obtain highly enriched cultures of proliferating adult rat Schwann cells

We present here a fast protocol that could be used to obtain highly purified cultures of maximal proliferating adult rat Schwann cells. These adult rat Schwann cells can be transfected in a nonbiological way using the physical transfection method of electroporation. Schwann cells are decisive in recovery of peripheral nerves after injury. In a clinical context, the use of enriched adult Schwann cells is necessary for autologous cell transplantation within nerve transplants for peripheral nerve repair. Different parameters such as tissue preparation, culture conditions, and protocols for enrichment, elevation of proliferation rates, and transfection were evaluated in cell cultures harvested from adult rat peripheral nerves. Cell preparation from in vivo predegenerated adult rat sciatic nerves combined with the use of melanocyte growth medium supplemented with forskolin, fibroblast growth factor (FGF)‐2, and pituitary extract as a selective, serum‐free culture medium, with a secondary cell‐enrichment step using specific detachment, resulted in highly enriched cultures of adult rat Schwann cells (>90%) with enhanced proliferation rates (≥40%). About 20% of these adult Schwann cells could be modified genetically using an optimized electroporation protocol. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Large-Scale Survey Findings Inform Patients’ Experiences in Using Secure Messaging to Engage in Patient-Provider Communication and Self-Care Management: A Quantitative Assessment

Background Secure email messaging is part of a national transformation initiative in the United States to promote new models of care that support enhanced patient-provider communication. To date, only a limited number of large-scale studies have evaluated users’ experiences in using secure email messaging. Objective To quantitatively assess veteran patients’ experiences in using secure email messaging in a large patient sample. Methods A cross-sectional mail-delivered paper-and-pencil survey study was conducted with a sample of respondents identified as registered for the Veteran Health Administrations’ Web-based patient portal (My HealtheVet) and opted to use secure messaging. The survey collected demographic data, assessed computer and health literacy, and secure messaging use. Analyses conducted on survey data include frequencies and proportions, chi-square tests, and one-way analysis of variance. Results The majority of respondents (N=819) reported using secure messaging 6 months or longer (n=499, 60.9%). They reported secure messaging to be helpful for completing medication refills (n=546, 66.7%), managing appointments (n=343, 41.9%), looking up test results (n=350, 42.7%), and asking health-related questions (n=340, 41.5%). Notably, some respondents reported using secure messaging to address sensitive health topics (n=67, 8.2%). Survey responses indicated that younger age (P=.039) and higher levels of education (P=.025) and income (P=.003) were associated with more frequent use of secure messaging. Females were more likely to report using secure messaging more often, compared with their male counterparts (P=.098). Minorities were more likely to report using secure messaging more often, at least once a month, compared with nonminorities (P=.086). Individuals with higher levels of health literacy reported more frequent use of secure messaging (P=.007), greater satisfaction (P=.002), and indicated that secure messaging is a useful (P=.002) and easy-to-use (P≤.001) communication tool, compared with individuals with lower reported health literacy. Many respondents (n=328, 40.0%) reported that they would like to receive education and/or felt other veterans would benefit from education on how to access and use the electronic patient portal and secure messaging (n=652, 79.6%). Conclusions Survey findings validated qualitative findings found in previous research, such that veterans perceive secure email messaging as a useful tool for communicating with health care teams. To maximize sustained utilization of secure email messaging, marketing, education, skill building, and system modifications are needed. These findings can inform ongoing efforts to promote the sustained use of this electronic tool to support for patient-provider communication.
Coloring , sparseness , and girth Noga Alon

An r-augmented tree is a rooted tree plus r edges added from each leaf to ancestors. For d, g, r ∈ N, we construct a bipartite r-augmented complete d-ary tree having girth at least g. The height of such trees must grow extremely rapidly in terms of the girth. Using the resulting graphs, we construct sparse non-k-choosable bipartite graphs, showing that maximum average degree at most 2(k− 1) is a sharp sufficient condition for k-choosability in bipartite graphs, even when requiring large girth. We also give a new simple construction of non-k-colorable graphs and hypergraphs with any girth g.
Pushing the Limits of Rational Agents: The Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain Management

Over the years, competitions have been important catalysts for progress in Artificial Intelligence. We describe one such competition, the Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain Management (TAC SCM). We discuss its significance in the context of today’s global market economy as well as AI research, the ways in which it breaks away from limiting assumptions made in prior work, and some of the advances it has engendered over the past six years. TAC SCM requires autonomous supply chain entities, modeled as agents, to coordinate their internal operations while concurrently trading in multiple dynamic and highly competitive markets. Since its introduction in 2003, the competition has attracted over 150 entries and brought together researchers from AI and beyond in the form of 75 competing teams from 25 different countries.
Anisotropic domain walls

We find a static, anisotropic, non-supersymmetric generalization of the extreme supersymmetric domain walls of simple non-dilatonic supergravity theory. As opposed to the time-dependent isotropic non- and ultra-extreme domain walls, the anisotropic non-extreme wall has the same spatial topology as the extreme wall. The solution has naked singularities which vanish in the extreme limit.