Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
, Unbounded Geometries

Devices exhibiting the integer quantum Hall effect can be modeled by oneelectron Schrödinger operators describing the planar motion of an electron in a perpendicular, constant magnetic field, and under the influence of an electrostatic potential. The electron motion is confined to unbounded subsets of the plane by confining potential barriers. The edges of the confining potential barrier create edge currents. In this, the first of two papers, we prove explicit lower bounds on the edge currents associated with one-edge, unbounded geometries formed by various confining potentials. This work extends some known results that we review. The edge currents are carried by states with energy localized between any two Landau levels. These one-edge geometries describe the electron confined to certain unbounded regions in the plane obtained by deforming half-plane regions. We prove that the currents are stable under various potential perturbations, provided the perturbations are suitably small relative to the magnetic field strength, including perturbations by random potentials. For these cases of one-edge geometries, the existence of, and the estimates on, the edge currents imply that the corresponding Hamiltonian has intervals of absolutely continuous spectrum. In the second paper of this series, we consider the edge currents associated with two-edge geometries describing bounded, cylinder-like regions, and unbounded, strip-like, regions. Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0503784. also Centre de Physique Théorique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 6207 du CNRS et des Universités Aix-Marseille I, Aix-Marseille II et de l’Université du Sud Toulon-VarLaboratoire affilié à la FRUMAM, F-13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France.
Cultural determinants: Addressing barriers to holistic diabetes care

Abstract Background: Cultural beliefs and traditional practices nearly affect all aspects of diabetes care. Therefore, understanding its broader cultural context can serve as important background information for effective care for diabetes. Materials and Methods: We conducted this study to explore the cultural determinants in diabetes care and to propose a broad theoretical framework for cultural assessment in persons with diabetes. Explanatory Model Interview Catalog interviews of 25 diabetes persons were conducted. Results: We found that perception about diabetes is influenced by tradition, customs and ethos. Diabetes does not show early signs and therefore symptoms are usually ignored until they interfere with their day-to-day living. Following dietary advice was the most difficult part of diabetes care due to varied cultural barriers. Due to cultural reasons, diabetes is still not assigned due priority by the family. Health illiteracy and cost of care were important barriers for seeking care. Diabetics taking conventional treatment often used complementary treatment, which may be hazardous. Language was also considered a barrier for effective diabetes care. Females struggle more for receiving appropriate care for their diabetes due to social and cultural factors. Conclusion: Cultural assessment needs to be done at various stages - initial assessment, identification of cultural issues in care, planning for culturally relevant intervention and evaluation. This calls for focused elements relevant to the presenting problem, necessary intervention, and participatory evaluation. Cultural values, beliefs, customs, and family patterns may be used as clues for planning diabetes care. Such interventions are likely to bear significant impact on diabetes care in times to come.
Living, and thinking about it: two perspectives on life

Abstract Introduction It is a common assumption of everyday conversation that people can provide accurate answers to questions about their feelings, both past (e.g. 'How was your vacation? ') and current (e.g. 'Does this hurt? '). Although the distinction is mostly ignored, the two kinds of questions are vastly different. Introspective evaluations of past episodes depend on two achievements that are not required for reports of immediate experience: accurate retrieval of feelings and reasonable integration of experiences that are spread over time. The starting point for this chapter is that the retrieval and the temporal integration of emotional experiences are both prone to error, and that retrospective evaluations are therefore less authoritative than reports of current feelings. We first consider the dichotomy between introspection and retrospection from several perspectives, before discussing its implications for a particular question: how would we determine who is happier, the French or the Americans?
Indoor geolocation in the absence of direct path

Severe multipath in indoor areas causes undetected direct path (UDP) conditions, which pose a serious challenge to the design of robust precision indoor geolocation systems. Based on a scenario on the third floor of the Atwater Kent Laboratory at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, we explain the reason for frequent absence of direct path, and introduce and analyze the effectiveness of two novel approaches to mitigating the large ranging errors caused by UDP conditions. The first technique exploits nondirect paths for ranging, while the second approach relies on cooperative localization for wireless sensor and ad hoc networks
Optimizing finfet technology for high-speed and low-power design

The threshold voltage (Vth) of a FinFET device varies between the on and off mode: Vth is lower when the transistor is on and it is higher when the transistor is off. Such a property is ideal for low-power designs with low supply voltage (Vdd). The low Vth provides high circuit speed even when Vdd is low, while the high standby Vth effectively controls the leakage. In this work, we exploit this property to achieve both high-speed and low-power operations. First, we develop an equivalent sub-circuit model of a FinFET transistor for design explorations. The accuracy of this model is verified with TCAD simulations. Then, we optimize key device parameters to obtain a large range of Vth between dynamic and standby mode: a thicker gate oxide and a thinner silicon body are desirable for this low-power design. Using the optimized FinFET device at 32nm node, we demonstrate that more than 35% reduction in total energy can be achieved without sacrificing the speed. We further benchmark the performance of representative logic and memory units under process variations.
Stacking order impact on overall 3D die-to-wafer Stacked-IC cost

Three-dimensional Stacked IC (3D-SIC) is a promising technology gaining a lot of attention by industry. Such technology promises lower latency, lower power consumption and a smaller footprint as compared to planar ICs. Reducing the overall 3D-SIC manufacturing cost is a major challenge driving the industry. The process of stacking the dies together is an integral part of 3D-SIC manufacturing process; hence, it impacts the overall cost. This paper introduces out-of-order stacking and compares it with the conventional in-order stacking from cost point of view. In-order stacking restricts the stacking of the dies in a bottom-up sequential order, while out-of-order stacking poses no restrictions and the order is free as long as it is realistic. The simulation results show that out-of-order stacking ends up in lower cost than in-order stacking, and that the difference increases for larger stack sizes and lower stacking yield. For example, our case study shows that for a 3D-SIC with a stack size of 6 layers, out-of-order stacking outperforms the in-order one with up to 6% using the optimal test flow.
Don't Let the Bastards See you Sweat: Masculinity, Public and Private Space, and the Volunteer Firehouse

In this paper we examine the ways that traditional definitions of masculinity are challenged within the domestic space of the volunteer firehouse. Our aim is to blur the dichotomies of public–private, masculine–feminine, heroic–weak, and moral–immoral. By examining practices associated with being a volunteer firefighter we present deeper and expanded notions of what it means to be a man in this context. Volunteer firefighters create a private space within the firehouse that offers escape from the public demands of masculinity. It is within this space that they can receive and give comfort and experience bonding, friendship, and a deep sense of belonging by embracing emotions normally off limits to men, including self-disclosure, familiarity, and affection. Although acknowledging the masculine hegemony that constructs men's involvement in firefighting and the firehouse, we also highlight the emotional work done by men as they engage in their public and private firefighting roles.
The German Version of the Generalized Pathological Internet Use Scale 2: A Validation Study

The Generalized Pathological Internet Use Scale (GPIUS2) assesses cognitive behavioral aspects of problematic Internet use. To date, the 15-item scale has only been available in English, and the aim of this study was to translate and validate a German version. An online sample (ON, n=1,041, age 24.2±7.2 years, 46.7% men) completed an Internet version of the translated GPIUS2, and a student sample (OF, n=841, age 23.5±3.0 years, 46.8% men) filled in a pencil and paper version. A third sample of 108 students (21.5±2.0 years, 25.7% men) completed the questionnaire twice to determine the 14-day retest reliability. Participants also answered questions regarding their Internet use habits (OF, ON) and depression, loneliness, and social anxiety (ON). The internal consistencies were α=0.91 (ON) and α=0.86 (OF). Item-whole correlations ranged from r=0.53 to r=0.69 (ON) and from r=0.39 to r=0.63 (OF). The 2 week retest reliability was rtt=0.85. Confirmatory factor analyses found a satisfactory fit for the factorial model proposed by Caplan for the original version. The GPIUS2 score correlated moderately with time spent on the Internet for private purposes in a typical week (ON: r=0.40; OF: r=0.36). Loneliness, depression, and social anxiety explained 46% of the variance in GPIUS2 scores. The German version of the GPIUS2 has good psychometric properties in a pencil and paper version as well as in a web-based format, and the observations regarding loneliness, depression, and social anxiety support the underlying model.
Can 3T MR Angiography Replace DSA for the Identification of Arteries Feeding Intracranial Meningiomas?

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: For identifying the arterial feeders of meningiomas, the usefulness of 3D TOF MRA at 3T has not been systematically investigated. This study was intended to assess whether unenhanced 3D TOF MRA at 3T can replace DSA for the identification of arteries feeding intracranial meningiomas and whether it is useful for assessing their dural attachment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-one consecutive patients with intracranial meningiomas (18 women, 3 men; aged 42–77 years, mean 57 years) underwent DSA, conventional MR imaging, and 3D TOF MRA. Two neuroradiologists independently evaluated the primary and secondary feeders of each tumor on maximum-intensity-projection and source MRA images. They also identified the location of dural attachments based on information from MR imaging/MRA images. Interobserver and intermodality agreement was determined by calculating the κ coefficient. RESULTS: For the identification of primary and secondary feeders on MRA images, interobserver agreement was very good (κ = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.66–1.00) and moderate (κ = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.34–0.82) and intermodality agreement (consensus reading of MRA versus DSA findings) was excellent (κ = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.84–1.00) and good (κ = 0.72; 95% CI, 0.51–0.93), respectively. With respect to the dural attachment of meningiomas, interobserver agreement was very good (κ = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.84–1.00). The agreement in the diagnosis between MR imaging/MRA and surgery was excellent (κ = 1.00). CONCLUSIONS: Unenhanced 3D TOF MRA at 3T cannot at present supplant DSA for the identification of the feeding arteries of intracranial meningiomas. This information may be useful for evaluating their dural attachment.
RNAcontext: A New Method for Learning the Sequence and Structure Binding Preferences of RNA-Binding Proteins

Metazoan genomes encode hundreds of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). These proteins regulate post-transcriptional gene expression and have critical roles in numerous cellular processes including mRNA splicing, export, stability and translation. Despite their ubiquity and importance, the binding preferences for most RBPs are not well characterized. In vitro and in vivo studies, using affinity selection-based approaches, have successfully identified RNA sequence associated with specific RBPs; however, it is difficult to infer RBP sequence and structural preferences without specifically designed motif finding methods. In this study, we introduce a new motif-finding method, RNAcontext, designed to elucidate RBP-specific sequence and structural preferences with greater accuracy than existing approaches. We evaluated RNAcontext on recently published in vitro and in vivo RNA affinity selected data and demonstrate that RNAcontext identifies known binding preferences for several control proteins including HuR, PTB, and Vts1p and predicts new RNA structure preferences for SF2/ASF, RBM4, FUSIP1 and SLM2. The predicted preferences for SF2/ASF are consistent with its recently reported in vivo binding sites. RNAcontext is an accurate and efficient motif finding method ideally suited for using large-scale RNA-binding affinity datasets to determine the relative binding preferences of RBPs for a wide range of RNA sequences and structures.
Specific inhibition of Egr-1 prevents mesangial cell hypercellularity in experimental nephritis.

BACKGROUND Mesangial cell proliferation is a frequent finding in glomerulonephritis. In cultured mesangial cells, we demonstrated that inhibition of the zinc finger transcription factor, early growth response gene-1 (Egr-1), by specific antisense oligonucleotides (AS ODN) blocks mesangial cell proliferation. Therefore, we here investigated the effect of Egr-1 inhibition on the course of an experimental mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis in vivo. METHODS On day 3 after induction of anti-Thy-1.1 nephritis, specific glomerular oligonucleotide transfer was achieved by injection of an oligonucleotide/hemagglutinating virus of Japan/liposome mixture into the left renal artery. The right kidney was left untreated. RESULTS Induction of nephritis led to a sixfold induction of Egr-1 protein on day 6 of disease. This increase in Egr-1 expression was reduced by 48% in the left kidney by transfer of specific AS ODN. In parallel, the increases in glomerular cellularity, number of mitoses, and glomerular tuft area observed in day 6 nephritic animals were inhibited in the left kidney by 60%, 53%, and 50%, respectively. Changes in the right kidney were not significantly influenced. Likewise, control oligonucleotides showed no effect. Finally, the expression of platelet-derived growth factor-B (PDGF-B), a known target gene of Egr-1, was repressed by transfer of specific AS ODN against Egr-1. CONCLUSION We conclude that the transcription factor Egr-1 plays a critical role for mesangial cell proliferation in vivo. Interfering with the induction of Egr-1 or with its target genes could give rise to novel therapeutic principles in mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis.
Genome‐wide association mapping identifies the genetic basis of discrete and quantitative variation in sexual weaponry in a wild sheep population

Understanding the genetic architecture of phenotypic variation in natural populations is a fundamental goal of evolutionary genetics. Wild Soay sheep (Ovis aries) have an inherited polymorphism for horn morphology in both sexes, controlled by a single autosomal locus, Horns. The majority of males have large normal horns, but a small number have vestigial, deformed horns, known as scurs; females have either normal horns, scurs or no horns (polled). Given that scurred males and polled females have reduced fitness within each sex, it is counterintuitive that the polymorphism persists within the population. Therefore, identifying the genetic basis of horn type will provide a vital foundation for understanding why the different morphs are maintained in the face of natural selection. We conducted a genome‐wide association study using ∼36 000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and determined the main candidate for Horns as RXFP2, an autosomal gene with a known involvement in determining primary sex characters in humans and mice. Evidence from additional SNPs in and around RXFP2 supports a new model of horn‐type inheritance in Soay sheep, and for the first time, sheep with the same horn phenotype but different underlying genotypes can be identified. In addition, RXFP2 was shown to be an additive quantitative trait locus (QTL) for horn size in normal‐horned males, accounting for up to 76% of additive genetic variation in this trait. This finding contrasts markedly from genome‐wide association studies of quantitative traits in humans and some model species, where it is often observed that mapped loci only explain a modest proportion of the overall genetic variation.
Daring to be a Daniel

This article attempts to make a bold and provocative argument not just about the state of accountability research as a field of inquiry but also about the gap that has apparently emerged between the governors and the governed (and the professional responsibilities of scholars beyond academe in terms of public engagement). It emphasizes that “too much accountability can be as problematic as too little” and asks whether it is possible that the transition from “representative” to “monitory” democracy, which is reflected in an increasingly dense and aggressive “accountability industry” (constitutional watchdogs, audit processes, ethical guardians, investigatory agencies, regulatory boards, freedom of information legislation, quasi-judicial commissions, etc.), has actually contributed to the erosion of public support for politicians, political processes, and political institutions? It therefore seeks to challenge a number of “self-evident truths” and dares to be a little brave, to fly some kites, and risk the inevitable misunderstanding and deliberate criticism that attempting to say something different entails.
A survey on lifestyle and level of biomarkers of environmental exposure in residents in Civitavecchia (Italy).

BACKGROUND The assessment of individual exposure to toxicants in industrially contaminated areas is difficult when multiple productions are active close to residential areas. Two thermoelectric power plants and a large harbor have been operating since the '60s in the area of Civitavecchia (North of Rome). METHODS The ABC (Ambiente e Biomonitoraggio nell'area di Civitavecchia, Environment and Biomonitoring in Civitavecchia) program involved, in the period 2013-2014, residents in Civitavecchia and in the nearby municipalities (Santa Marinella, Allumiere, Tolfa and Tarquinia). They were randomly selected from the Municipal Register's data and their residence addresses were geocoded using GIS techniques. Biomonitoring of the following urinary metals, Sb, Be, Mo, Cd, Sn, W, Ir, Pt, Hg, Tl, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Rh, Pd, As were performed. Glucose and lipid metabolism, liver, renal, and endocrine function were evaluated through blood laboratory tests. Tests of lung functionwere also carried out as well as saturometry (oxygen rate in the blood with an illuminated sensor placed on the fingertip), anthropometric and blood pressure measurements. Information on individual characteristics, histories of exposure, such as the consumption of local food, occupational history, lifestyle and medical history were collected through a validated questionnaire. Samples of nails and hair were also collected. The biological material (blood, urine, nails and hair) was stored in a biobank for future analysis related to the possible mechanisms of biological damage. The study protocol received the approval of the local ethics committee. RESULTS A total of 1177 residents were enrolled (58% female, 60% with a secondary or graduate school degree). No particular differences in metal concentrations based on the municipality of residence were observed. For arsenic, mercury, lead, and tungsten some differences between the two geographical areas were observed, probably due to different diet, lifestyle (e.g., alcohol consumption, smoking, use of jewelry and piercings, tattoos, physical activity, hormonal and mineral supplements, and drugs), and occupational exposure. CONCLUSIONS The undergoing study on the association between biomarkers concentration and pollutants concentrations - estimated using a dispersion modeling approach, and adjusting for personal characteristics and concomitant other environmental exposure - could clarify the individual exposure of the residents in this industrial area.
Statistical Machine Translation with a Factorized Grammar

In modern machine translation practice, a statistical phrasal or hierarchical translation system usually relies on a huge set of translation rules extracted from bi-lingual training data. This approach not only results in space and efficiency issues, but also suffers from the sparse data problem. In this paper, we propose to use factorized grammars, an idea widely accepted in the field of linguistic grammar construction, to generalize translation rules, so as to solve these two problems. We designed a method to take advantage of the XTAG English Grammar to facilitate the extraction of factorized rules. We experimented on various setups of low-resource language translation, and showed consistent significant improvement in BLEU over state-of-the-art string-to-dependency baseline systems with 200K words of bi-lingual training data.
Studies on proteins that co-purify with smooth muscle vinculin: identification of immunologically related species in focal adhesions of nonmuscle and Z-lines of muscle cells

Membrane extracts from chicken smooth muscle contain, along with filamin, vinculin and alpha actinin, a group of polypeptides that have the ability to interact with the "barbed end" of actin filaments. These low molecular mass polypeptides were designated as HA1 (Wilkins, J.A., and S. Lin, 1986, J. Cell Biol., 102:1085-1092). In this study, polyclonal antibodies raised against the HA1 preparation were used to study the cellular localization and tissue distribution of these polypeptides. Immunofluorescence experiments revealed a primary localization of staining at the ends of stress fibers on the ventral surface of cultured chicken embryo fibroblasts, i.e., those areas known as the focal adhesions. Specific staining was also seen at the Z-lines of both skeletal muscle myofibrils and cultured embryonic heart cells. Immunoblotting analyses of proteins from different tissues prepared to avoid proteolytic degradation showed a much different pattern than that of HA1 itself. Immunoreactive polypeptides with reduced molecular masses of 200,000 and 150,000 D were found in smooth muscle and fibroblasts while 200 and 60 kD polypeptides were found in cardiac muscle tissue. The antibodies recognized 60- and 31-kD polypeptides on immunoblots of chicken breast muscle. The results from this study strongly suggest that the polypeptides in HA1 arose from proteolysis of high molecular mass molecules. The studies also raise the possibility that immunologically related proteins in muscle and nonmuscle cells may be involved in linking actin filaments to Z-lines and membranes, respectively.