Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Advanced digital phase-locked loops

Analog PLLs do not scale down as process and are not amenable to noise-cancellation and other calibration algorithms; Digital PLLs exploit CMOS scaling and allow for simple, accurate implementation of digiphase and two-point modulation; Typically, DPLLs require TDCs with tight resolution to achieve low phase noise and fractional-spur level, which increase both power consumption and design effort; DPLLs with Bang-Bang Detectors (i.e. coarse midrise TDCs) in combination with a DTC allows same phase-noise performance and fractional-spur level at much lower power consumption; Fine resolution is only required to DCO and DTC, which can be both improved leveraging oversampling techniques ; Bang-Bang DPLLs achieve superior noise/ power trade-off over conventional DPLLs, while reducing design effort.
Climate change. The Nile Delta's sinking future.

As Egypt celebrates the 50th anniversary of the start of the construction of the Aswan High Dam, some scientists say that this wonder of engineering is contributing to an environmental catastrophe that could force millions of its citizens to abandon the lush, fertile delta. The worst of these is coastal erosion and subsidence, the compacting of the delta soil. For millennia, the untamed Nile compensated for these natural processes by delivering fresh sediments along with its fresh water. The dam, however, now blocks the sediments far upstream of Cairo. As a result, the delta is sinking. At the same time, the Mediterranean Sea is expected to rise as a result of global warming. Deciding on a course of action is easier said than done, however, because the rates at which the sea is rising and the delta is sinking are subjects of fierce debate. As a first, cautious step, Egypt and the United Nations are this year launching a 5-year study of the options for protecting the delta from the encroaching sea. But as Egyptian scientists rush to provide those data, the government is steaming ahead with a series of "megaprojects" to boost the country9s habitable area. In the most ambitious of these, the largest pump in the world is diverting 10% of the Nile into an uninhabited region of the desert to create a new delta.
Unobserved Variables and the Elusive Added Worker Effect

Consistent with recent empirical work, this study finds no evidence of the "added worker effect" among married couples in the U.S. It is hypothesized that unobserved variables may be obscuring this added worker behavior. This hypothesis is rejected. The labor supply behavior of married women is influenced by the permanent, and not the transitory, nature of their spouses' unemployment. Wives with frequently unemployed husbands have lower reservation wages. Yet, apart from their measured human capital, these same women face persistently lower wage rates and higher unemployment propensities in the labor market. As a result, married women with unemployed spouses are no more likely to be in the labor force, and are actually less likely to be employed than observationally equivalent married women with employed spouses. Copyright 1991 by The London School of Economics and Political Science.
A comparative multiproduct cost study of foreign-owned and domestic-owned US banks

Significant presence of foreign-owned banks (FOBs) in the US banking markets has raised concerns about concentration of economic and financial power in foreign hands and increased risk exposure of the banking system. The proponents counter that international cost synergies, heightened competition, and improved bank performance resulting from the presence of FOBs justify foreign bank expansion. This paper contrasts the production technologies and the cost characteristics of the FOBs and the domestic-owned banks (DOBs) within a cost minimization context. The hypothesis of identical cost structures between the two groups is tested and rejected. Then, overall and product-specific scale and scope economy measures for the FOBs and the DOBs are derived for the 1992–1994 sample period, relative to the ownership-type-specific cost structures, and contrasted in order to shed light on the ownership-type effect on the cost structure of banks. Differences do manifest themselves between the two groups, but they are small in magnitude. No clear and strong patterns emerge between the ownership type and cost structure of the banks in the sample. These results are consistent with those of the relative efficiency of the FOBs and DOBs found in the literature.
The use of aspirin in ischemic heart disease.

WITHIN a decade of the isolation of salicylate in 1892, aspirin was introduced as an analgesic and antipyretic agent. In 1971, Vane described its inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis from arachidonate in homogenates of guinea pig lung,1 and Smith and Willis demonstrated that aspirin blocks the production of prostaglandin in human platelets.2 During the past decade, it has been shown that platelet aggregation and the formation of thrombi are pathophysiologically important in syndromes of ischemic heart disease. As a result, aspirin is widely used in patients with ischemic heart disease, and its use has recently been advocated in subjects without clinically .
Labour Markets, Liquidity, and Monetary Policy Regimes

We develop an equilibrium model of the monetary policy transmission mechanism that highlights information frictions in the market for money and search frictions in the labour market. The information friction increases the persistence in the response of interest rates following monetary policy regime shifts. This occurs because agents have incomplete information about the nature of the shifts and optimally update their inflation forecasts using an `adaptive' expectations rule. The search friction transmits the interest rate movements to the labour market by affecting job creation activities; together, the two frictions imply that unemployment reacts very gradually to monetary policy shocks.
New Assessments of Weight-Related Body Image Derived from Extant Instruments

A study of 79 female college students examined the reliability and validity of two new size/weight-related measures of body image. The Body-size Appraisal Scale and the Overweight Preoccupation Scale were derived from existing instruments. Analyses supported the internal consistency and 2-wk. test-retest reliability of both new scales. Correlations of scores on each scale with measures of anxiety about being fat, negative body-image affect and avoidance, restrained and bulimic eating, and depression support their concurrent and construct validity. Scores on the Overweight Preoccupation Scale were also related to the extent of investment in physical appearance. Regression analyses indicated that each new scale could be predicted from several other conceptually relevant body-image attitudes, even after actual body weight was controlled.
Infliximab induces apoptosis in monocytes from patients with chronic active Crohn's disease by using a caspase-dependent pathway.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Treatment with a chimeric anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antibody (infliximab) has been shown to be highly efficient for patients with steroid-refractory Crohn's disease (CD). However, the mechanism of action remains largely unknown. As monocytopenia is commonly observed after treatment with infliximab, we investigated the role of infliximab-induced monocyte apoptosis. METHODS Peripheral blood monocytes from healthy volunteers and patients with chronic active CD (CDAI > 250) were isolated by density gradient centrifugation methods. Apoptosis was determined by annexin V staining DNA-laddering, and transmission electron microscopy. Activation of caspases and mitochondrial release of cytochrome C was determined by immunoblotting. Transcriptional activation of members of the Bcl-2 family have been analyzed by ribonuclease protection assay. RESULTS Treatment with infliximab at therapeutic concentrations resulted in monocyte apoptosis in patients with chronic active CD in a dose-dependent manner. Infliximab-induced monocyte-apoptosis required the activation of members of the caspase-family since activation of caspase-8, -9, and -3 could be determined. Caspase activation was induced by a CD95/CD95L independent signaling pathway with mitochondrial release of cytochrome C. Cytochrome C release seemed to be triggered by transcriptional activation of Bax and Bak. Monocyte apoptosis in vivo as determined by annexin-V binding and caspase-3 activation could be shown in patients with chronic active CD as soon as 4 hours after treatment with infliximab. CONCLUSIONS Monocyte apoptosis induced by infliximab may be an important mechanism that could explain the powerful anti-inflammatory properties of infliximab in patients with chronic active CD.
A Rational Foundation for Trend-Chasing and Contrarian Trades with Implications for Momentum Anomalies

Trend-chasing and Contrarian are well-documented empirical trading ‎patterns that the literature generally attributes to behavioral biases. In ‎contrast, we argue that both are rational portfolio rebalancing strategies in ‎a dynamic asset allocation framework. Analyzing the interactions between ‎strategies implemented in stocks and bonds, we find that a key parameter is ‎the investor’s level of relative-risk-aversion vs. the market price of risk. ‎Our mapping of preferences to trades fits remarkably well recent empirical ‎findings of time-series momentum and reversal. Specifically, speculators ‎trade like Trend-chasers throughout the momentum phase closing positions ‎once the trend reverses, while hedgers trade like Contrarians. These trades ‎seem to explain time-series momentum. ‎
Models of Urban Governance

Local governments in Western Europe have become increasingly involved in network building with the local business community. The author suggests that governance processes are not value neutral but reflect and sustain political values beyond partisan conflict. Comparing managerial, corporatist, progrowth, and welfare governance models of urban governance, the author argues that nation-state factors play an important role in shaping urban governance. Different sectors in urban politics display different models of governance and local political choice matters. Also, cities within the same national context differ significantly with regard to the degree of inclusion of organized interests in urban governance, which, in turn, is reflected in urban policy outcomes.
Population BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation frequencies and cancer penetrances: a kin-cohort study in Ontario, Canada.

BACKGROUND BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in general populations and in various types of cancers have not been well characterized. We investigated the presence of these mutations in unselected patients with newly diagnosed incident ovarian cancer in Ontario, Canada, with respect to cancers reported among their relatives. METHODS A population series of 1171 unselected patients with incident ovarian cancer diagnosed between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 1999, in Ontario, Canada, was screened for germline mutations throughout the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Screening involved testing for common variants, then protein truncation testing of long exons, and then denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis or denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography for the remainder of BRCA1 and BRCA2, respectively. Cox regression analysis was used to examine cancer outcomes reported by the case probands for their 8680 first-degree relatives. Population allele frequencies and relative risks (RRs) were derived from the regression results by an extension of Saunders-Begg methods. Age-specific Ontario cancer incidence rates were used to estimate cumulative incidence of cancer to age 80 years by mutation status. RESULTS Among 977 patients with invasive ovarian cancer, 75 had BRCA1 mutations and 54 had BRCA2 mutations, for a total mutation frequency of 13.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 11.2% to 15.5%). Higher risks for various cancer types in the general Ontario population were associated with BRCA1 mutation carriage than with noncarriage, including ovarian (RR = 21, 95% CI = 12 to 36), female breast (RR = 11, 95% CI = 7.5 to 15), and testis (RR = 17, 95% CI = 1.3 to 230) cancers. Higher risks were also associated with BRCA2 mutation carriage than with noncarriage, particularly for ovarian (RR = 7.0, 95% CI = 3.1 to 16), female and male breast (RR = 4.6, 95% CI = 2.7 to 7.8, and RR = 102, 95% CI = 9.9 to 1050, respectively), and pancreatic (RR = 6.6, 95% CI = 1.9 to 23) cancers. Cancer risks differed according to the mutation's position in the gene. Estimated cumulative incidence to age 80 years among women carrying BRCA1 mutations was 24% for ovarian cancer and 90% for breast cancer and among women carrying BRCA2 mutations was 8.4% for ovarian cancer and 41% for breast cancer. For the general Ontario population, estimated carrier frequencies of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, respectively, were 0.32% (95% CI = 0.23% to 0.45%) and 0.69% (95% CI = 0.43% to 1.10%). CONCLUSIONS BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations may be more frequent in general populations than previously thought and may be associated with various types of cancers.
Testosterone Therapy and the Heart

Testosterone (T) therapy has been offered to men who have low T levels, who are symptomatic with classical androgen deficiency syndromes, to induce and maintain secondary sex characteristics and to improve muscle mass and strength, bone mineral density, their sexual function, and sense of well-being. Hypogonadism is a clinical syndrome that is caused by inability of the testis to produce physiological levels of T in men. The age-related reduction in T levels is a result of defects in both hypothalamic-pituitary and testicular function. A diagnosis of androgen deficiency should be made only when low serum T and consistent symptoms and signs are encountered in men. It is not recommended to offer T therapy to all older men with low T level. A decision should be made on an individualized basis for older men with clinically significant symptoms of androgen deficiency and consistently low T level. Hyperandrogenemia in women and hypoandrogenemia in men are associated with increased risk of coronary artery disease. In addition, these states are associated with insulin resistance, visceral obesity, elevated triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, lowdensitylipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1). These gender differences and confounders make the exact role of endogenous androgens in atherosclerosis unclear. In contrast, exogenous androgens exert both apparently beneficial and deleterious effects on cardiovascular risk factors by reducing serum levels of PAI-1 (apparently deleterious), HDL-C, insulin, leptin, lipoprotein(a), visceral fat mass (apparently beneficial), and fibrinogen in women as well as men. Androgen-induced reduction in circulating HDL-C levels should not reflexively be considered to be pro-atherogenic, because it may show increased reverse cholesterol transport instead. Short-term use of supraphysiological doses of exogenous T can decrease the severity and frequency of angina pectoris and reverse the electrocardiographic signs of myocardial ischaemia; yet long-term effects have not been determined. Nonetheless, the effects of pharmacological doses of androgens particularly on flow-mediated dilatation and arterial compliance must be interpreted with caution, since in addition at physiological concentrations detrimental effects, neutral, and beneficial effects on vascular reactivity can be observed. Testosterone induces an anti-atherogenic effect by facilitating efflux of cellular cholesterol to HDL and induces pro-atherogenic effects on macrophage function by increasing the uptake of modified lipoproteins.
The European Union's role in the G8: a principal–agent perspective

This article examines the role of the European Union (EU) in the Group of Eight (G8) framework. We suggest that the EU in the G8 constitutes an unusual form of delegation because the principal–agent (PA) relationship is characterized by considerable degrees of informality and ambiguity. The main argument advanced in this article is that the European Commission, the agent, despite being structurally disadvantaged at the outset, managed to emancipate itself within the G8 over time. This process of agent emancipation has been reinforced, above all, by the flexibility and informality of the G8, the evolving European integration process, and the growing Commission capabilities, standing and entrepreneurship. Although the Commission has managed to move considerably beyond the original PA design intended by the principals, member states' incentives to rely on the Commission also increased over time. We argue that the Commission itself was able to manipulate these incentives, which is most evident in the sub-case of the Commission's successful quest for attaining the Western aid co-ordination mandate for Central and Eastern Europe.
ACCEPTANCE TENDENCIES AND COMMUTERS' BEHAVIOR UNDER DIFFERENT ROAD PRICING SCHEMES

Road pricing, as one of the transportation demand management strategies, aims to influence people's long-term travel behavior through economical means. Under this strategy, reduction in traffic volumes is expected by applying charges to private mode users at times and places when and where congestion occurs. As a result, urban congestion can be relieved and traffic flows can be more evenly distributed to alternative modes, routes or times. In this paper, three road pricing schemes: fixed pricing, credit-based pricing, and differential pricing (peak and off peak), proposed or implemented in different countries, are investigated. A computer-aided survey was conducted at two locations in Taiwan to obtain commuters' socioeconomic characteristics, travel characteristics, attitudes on different schemes, and attitudes on incentive alternatives on different road pricing schemes. The data was then used to investigate the important and significant attributes that may affect the acceptance of different road pricing schemes and the travel behavior of car/motorcycle commuters in an Asian context. The results of this study can provide valuable insights into road pricing strategies to be regulated and implemented in the future.
Nearest Neighbor Classification of Remote Sensing Images With the Maximal Margin Principle

In this paper, we present a new variant of the k-nearest neighbor (kNN) classifier based on the maximal margin principle. The proposed method relies on classifying a given unlabeled sample by first finding its k-nearest training samples. A local partition of the input feature space is then carried out by means of local support vector machine (SVM) decision boundaries determined after training a multiclass SVM classifier on the considered k training samples. The labeling of the unknown sample is done by looking at the local decision region to which it belongs. The method is characterized by resulting global decision boundaries of the piecewise linear type. However, the entire process can be kernelized through the determination of the k -nearest training samples in the transformed feature space by using a distance function simply reformulated on the basis of the adopted kernel. To illustrate the performance of the proposed method, an experimental analysis on three different remote sensing datasets is reported and discussed.
Longitudinal study of parents' impact on quality of life of children and young adults with intellectual disabilities.

BACKGROUND Earlier research has distinguished five domains of Quality of life (QoL) for people with ID: material well-being, development and activity, physical well-being, social well-being, and emotional well-being. We investigated parents' perspectives on these domains and QoL for children and young adults with ID and hypothesized that parents' well-being would be a predictive factor in QoL of their children with ID. METHODS Our longitudinal study administered questionnaires to parents at T0 (n = 147) and T1 (n = 108). The inclusion criteria were: (i) the child's age 0-24 years and (ii) the child's intellectual disability (IQ < 70 or IQ < 85 in combination with behavioural problems). RESULTS Social well-being of parents (P ≤ 0.001), changes in parents' social well-being (P ≤ 0.01) and changes in children's social well-being (P ≤ 0.05) were strong predictors of QoL for children with ID. Emotional well-being of children with ID (P ≤ 0.01), changes in children's emotional well-being (P ≤ 0.01) and changes in emotional well-being of parents (P ≤0.05) also predicted QoL of children with ID. Material well-being of parents, and health, development and activity of the children were not predictors. CONCLUSION Our study revealed that predictors of QoL in children and young adults with ID occurred in the following domains: physical well-being (children), social well-being (parents and children) and emotional well-being (parents and children).
Cold Shock and Its Effect on Ribosomes and Thermal Tolerance in Listeria monocytogenes

ABSTRACT Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fatty acid analysis were used to determine how cold shocking reduces the thermal stability of Listeria monocytogenes. Additionally, antibiotics that can elicit production of cold or heat shock proteins were used to determine the effect of translation blockage on ribosome thermal stability. Fatty acid profiles showed no significant variations as a result of cold shock, indicating that changes in membrane fatty acids were not responsible for the cold shock-induced reduction in thermal tolerance. Following a 3-h cold shock from 37 to 0°C, the maximum denaturation temperature of the 50S ribosomal subunit and 70S ribosomal particle peak was reduced from 73.4 ± 0.1°C (mean ± standard deviation) to 72.1 ± 0.5°C (P ≤ 0.05), indicating that cold shock induced instability in the associated ribosome structure. The maximum denaturation temperature of the 30S ribosomal subunit peak did not show a significant shift in temperature (from 67.5 ± 0.4°C to 66.8 ± 0.5°C) as a result of cold shock, suggesting that either 50S subunit or 70S particle sensitivity was responsible for the intact ribosome fragility. Antibiotics that elicited changes in maximum denaturation temperature in ribosomal components also elicited reductions in thermotolerance. Together, these data suggest that ribosomal changes resulting from cold shock may be responsible for the decrease in D value observed whenL. monocytogenes is cold shocked.
A Conceptual Framework for Analysing Sports Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success

Abstract Although an increasing number of nations invest large amounts of money in sport in order to compete against other nations, there is no clear evidence that demonstrates how sports policies can influence international sporting success. This paper provides an overview of important determinants that can lead to nations enjoying international sporting success. The literature reveals that more than 50% of the determinants of success are macro-level variables that are beyond the control of politicians. The meso-level contains factors that can be influenced by sports policies. An empirically founded theory on the policy factors that determine elite sporting success has not yet been developed. In this paper a conceptual framework will be presented that can be used for making trans-national comparisons of elite sports policies. Nine policy areas, or ‘pillars’, that are thought to have an important influence on international sporting success are logically derived from the literature.