Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Worst-case delay analysis considering the variability of transistors and interconnects

This paper discusses the condition that gives the statistical worst-casedelay of a stage under the fluctuation of interconnect structure and transistor performance. The delay of a stage is a function of many parameters such as drive strength of the gate, interconnect length and interconnect structures (width, thickness, spacing, etc.), and therefore the condition for the worst-case delay also becomes a function of those parameters. We examine the worst-case condition using a simple equivalent circuit and show how the worst-case condition varies. It is shown that the worst-case condition of an interconnect structure for a certain range of interconnect length moves toward the best-case for other range of interconnect length, and hence it is important to locate the worst-case condition correctly for accurate estimation of the worst-case stage delay. We show a simple criteria for the direction of the worst-case condition of an interconnect structure.
Debt Covenant Violations of Private Lending Agreements of Agricultural Cooperatives

Seven years of debt covenant violations of private lending agreements of eighty-three agricultural cooperatives were examined. A LOGIT prediction model of debt covenant violations was developed and the factors that affect debt covenant violations were identified. These factors include cooperative size, working capital, the quick ratio, the existence of a management compensation plan, the tax-exempt status of the cooperative, a bank rating, and the current amount of loan payments.
Further results on mainlobe orientation reversal of the first-order steerable differential array due to microphone phase errors

In our previous work, we have revealed the phenomenon of mainlobe orientation reversal (MOR) suffered by the first-order steerable differential array (FOSDA) due to microphone phase errors. However, only a deterministic analysis is conducted in that work. To provide useful guidance for practical FOSDA design, this paper further studies the problem of MOR in the presence of uncertain microphone phase errors from two perspectives, i.e., interval analysis and statistical analysis. In particular, two criteria are derived to facilitate the FOSDA design in order to avoid undesirable MOR.
The pattern of ocular dominance columns in macaque visual cortex revealed by a reduced silver stain

A pattern of alternative dark and pale bands was observed in the straite cortex of the macaque monkey. The bands, which ran parallel to the surface, were seen in tangential sections stained with a reduced silver method for normal fibers and were most clear in layer 4C α, immediately deep to the line of Gennari. The dark bands were about 300 μ wide and showed blind endings and bifurcations. The light bands were about 50 μ wide and did not branch or terminate within area 17.
The Ventral Midline Thalamus Contributes to Strategy Shifting in a Memory Task Requiring Both Prefrontal Cortical and Hippocampal Functions

Electrophysiological and neuroanatomical evidence for reciprocal connections with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus make the reuniens and rhomboid (ReRh) thalamic nuclei a putatively major functional link for regulations of cortico-hippocampal interactions. In a first experiment using a new water escape device for rodents, the double-H maze, we demonstrated in rats that a bilateral muscimol (MSCI) inactivation (0.70 vs 0.26 and 0 nmol) of the mPFC or dorsal hippocampus (dHip) induces major deficits in a strategy shifting/spatial memory retrieval task. By way of comparison, only dHip inactivation impaired recall in a classical spatial memory task in the Morris water maze. In the second experiment, we showed that ReRh inactivation using 0.70 nmol of MSCI, which reduced performance without obliterating memory retrieval in the water maze, produces an as large strategy shifting/memory retrieval deficit as mPFC or dHip inactivation in the double-H maze. Thus, behavioral adaptations to task contingency modifications requiring a shift toward the use of a memory for place might operate in a distributed circuit encompassing the mPFC (as the potential set-shifting structure), the hippocampus (as the spatial memory substrate), and the ventral midline thalamus, and therein the ReRh (as the coordinator of this processing). The results of the current experiments provide a significant extension of our understanding of the involvement of ventral midline thalamic nuclei in cognitive processes: they point to a role of the ReRh in strategy shifting in a memory task requiring cortical and hippocampal functions and further elucidate the functional system underlying behavioral flexibility.
Influence of databases accuracy on ray-tracing-based-prediction in urban microcells

The databases required for ray-tracing-based-prediction in urban microcellular environments include those for the building layout, the electrical characteristics of the buildings, and for the base station (locations, antennas, power, etc.). The effects of inaccuracies in these databases are presented and analyzed by comparing the computed results to measurements. The results presented show that acceptable predictions can be computed but care must be taken (a) to use an accurate vector database, (b) to precisely place the base station location with respect to the building corners, and (c) to adapt the reflection coefficient for the given area.
Solving Structured Electronic Design of Negative Feedback Amplifiers as Nonlinear Programming Problems

This paper searches the best solution for the stages of noise and bandwidth of negative feedback amplifiers by resorting to Structured Electronic Design, through optimization methods. On one side, noise optimization is achieved by establishing the noise-characteristic as a function of bias current. On the other side, bandwidth optimization is obtained by establishing the equation for the open loop gain pole-product (LP product). Both aspects are defined as nonlinear programming (NLP) problems, where the design variables are related with the parameters of the device (bipolar transistors) used to synthesize the amplifiers. Differential Evolution is used to solve the noise NLP problem and the Hooke-Jeeves method is used to solve the bandwidth NLP problem. The obtained results are presented and some conclusions are established.
Everyday favors: a case study of a local online gift exchange system

This paper focuses on online gift exchange in a setting where online and offline interactions are tightly intertwined and most of the exchanges require face-to-face interaction to be completed. We present a local online gift exchange system, Kassi, and a seven-month case study of its use. Based on survey material and logs of system usage, we analyze users' motivations to contribute to the system and the community. While most users held favorable attitudes towards the system, many reasons for not using the service were found. We set our findings into perspective by discussing different ways of defining participation, measuring use, and qualifying different types of contributions. We argue that when users try to fit a system into their everyday lives, designers should consider supporting such efforts - even if user behavior does not match expectations. Designers who encourage emergent and unanticipated behaviors can enhance users' sense of participation and encourage the leap from intention to realized action.
A generic architecture for hybrid intelligent test systems

The last decade has obviously witnessed an emerging interest in studying human intelligence aiming to solve complex problems in many industrial fields, e.g. the process of verification and validation. Therefore, in an effort to alleviate the challenges of this process, an idea to construct intelligent test systems from the viewpoints of learning, reasoning, and optimization paradigms is presented. The adopted approach is based on the ability of the test system to observe, model, and store the behavior of skilled human testers aiming to imitate their intelligence. Hence, the developed test system should be able to partially substitute the absence of the human factor during an automated test cycle, which consequently leads to a substantial reduction in the development time and cost; yet the test efficiency is not sacrificed.
-1 - Why Nonconceptual Content Can't Be Immune to Error through Misidentification 1 §2. Types of Self-referential Content §3. Immunity to Error through Misidentification Relative to the First-person Pronoun

Traditional accounts of self-consciousness have focused primarily on the peculiarities of the first-person pronoun. But can we extend the notion to non-language-using creatures as well, including pre-linguistic infants? One strategy for doing so is to argue that creatures possessing no conceptual resources whatsoever can nevertheless token states that qualify as primitive forms of self-consciousness in virtue of being, among other things, immune to error through misidentification. I argue that we have philosophical and empirical motivation to conclude that relevant nonconceptual states cannot be both representational and immune to error through misidentification on structural grounds. Accordingly, we must either restrict ascriptions of self-conscious states to creatures with fairly rich conceptual repertoires or abandon immunity to error through misidentification as a plausible condition for a state to be self-conscious. §1. Introduction Most traditional accounts of self-consciousness focus almost exclusively on the peculiarities of the first-person pronoun and its mental analog. According to these accounts, to be self-conscious is to possess the fairly advanced cognitive ability to self-ascribe properties employing a first-person concept, ascriptions canonically expressed with 'I'. But do creatures lacking linguistic abilities thereby lack self-consciousness? After all, when hungry, even lobsters are self-possessed enough to avoid eating themselves. And what of pre-linguistic infants? If they eventually entertain and express thoughts involving a first-person concept, how does self-consciousness in its form most familiar to us arise out of their wordless beginnings? The explanatory task is a formidable one. At least some first-person self-ascriptions, particularly those resulting from introspection, prove so puzzling because they seem different in kind from others, first person or otherwise. Adding to that the question of whether such self-2 ascriptions can be tokened by creatures lacking concepts ostensibly introduces a further gap in kind that any acceptable account must bridge. One way to address this problem and to dispel the mystery of self-consciousness and its development is to replace one of the gaps in kind with a scale of degree. One could, in other words, argue that certain non-and pre-linguistic creatures can in fact token states with nonconceptual content that nevertheless qualify as primitive forms of self-consciousness. We must then provide an understanding of how human psychology builds upon this primitive base, eventually coming to be shot through with the richer forms of self-consciousness exemplified by first-person self-ascriptions of psychological states and properties. This approach certainly still leaves a formidable explanatory problem, but one perhaps ultimately more tractable. For …
Predicting mobile network bandwidth fluctuation to enhance video stream service quality

Due to the very nature of modern day Smartphone's and tablets, users of such devices will often travel from an area with strong mobile signal to a weaker area. Travelling from a Strong Signal Area (SSA) to a Weak Signal Area (WSA) causes a significant drop in the mobile network bandwidth available to the device. This causes Quality of Service (QoS) problems for video streams over mobile networks. For a completely pause-less video stream, the average stream download rate must be consistently equal to, or greater than, the video bit-rate. A sudden bandwidth drop often causes the stream to rapidly become starved of buffered data, causing a pause in playback whilst the client attempts further buffering - posing a QoS problem. This paper proposes a solution that helps counter this mobility problem by attempting to foresee a user entering a WSA, and dynamically rate-limiting other nearby best-case users to increase available bandwidth to said user. Predictions are based on active user location information, and Mobile Network Coverage Map (MNCM) queries. Best-case user determination and dynamic rate-limit algorithms are described in this paper. Through mathematical proofing with two unique test scenarios, the proposed solution is proven to significantly improve QoS of a video stream to a user entering a WSA.
A Vitamin B12-Based System for Conditional Expression Reveals dksA To Be an Essential Gene in Myxococcus xanthus

ABSTRACT Myxococcus xanthus is a prokaryotic model system for the study of multicellular development and the response to blue light. The previous analyses of these processes and the characterization of new genes would benefit from a robust system for controlled gene expression, which has been elusive so far for this bacterium. Here, we describe a system for conditional expression of genes in M. xanthus based on our recent finding that vitamin B12 and CarH, a MerR-type transcriptional repressor, together downregulate a photoinducible promoter. Using this system, we confirmed that M. xanthus rpoN, encoding σ54, is an essential gene, as reported earlier. We then tested it with ftsZ and dksA. In most bacteria, ftsZ is vital due to its role in cell division, whereas null mutants of dksA, whose product regulates the stringent response via transcriptional control of rRNA and amino acid biosynthesis promoters, are viable but cause pleiotropic effects. As with rpoN, it was impossible to delete endogenous ftsZ or dksA in M. xanthus except in a merodiploid background carrying another functional copy, which indicates that these are essential genes. B12-based conditional expression of ftsZ was insufficient to provide the high intracellular FtsZ levels required. With dksA, as with rpoN, cells were viable under permissive but not restrictive conditions, and depletion of DksA or σ54 produced filamentous, aberrantly dividing cells. dksA thus joins rpoN in a growing list of genes dispensable in many bacteria but essential in M. xanthus.
Adverse childhood experiences and brain development: neurobiological mechanisms linking the social environment to psychiatric disorders

Increasing popularity of the life course approach in psychiatric epidemiology has led to renewed interest in the childhood determinants of mental disorders and the mechanisms through which childhood experiences increase risk of psychopathology. The main thesis of this chapter is that social and environmental experience weaves its way into the developing brain and exerts powerful effects on neural structure and function throughout childhood and into adulthood. These experiences ultimately influence the course of human development and have relevance for understanding population-level patterns of mental illness. Here we provide evidence suggesting that the influence of the early social environment on the developing brain may be a primary mechanism linking childhood social experience to later outcomes, including mental illness. We begin by briefly reviewing recent life course epidemiology studies examining the association between the childhood social environment and psychopathology, with a focus on the lasting impact of adverse childhood experiences such as maltreatment, violence exposure, environmental deprivation, and poverty on mental health. Next, we highlight potential neurobiological mechanisms that might explain the association between these adverse childhood experiences and the later onset of psychopathology. Finally, we review existing literature examining the associations of two specific types of adverse childhood experiences: maltreatment and poverty or socio-economic status (SES), with brain structure and function. In each section, we review neuroimaging studies examining brain structure and function using electroencephalogram (EEG) and both structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), focusing on studies that have been conducted in children and adolescents. Although numerous studies have examined brain structure and function in adults who have experienced childhood adversity, 1 the accumulation of life experiences from childhood into adulthood makes it difficult to assume that alterations in brain structure and function observed in adults are the result of early experiences. We conclude by discussing the implications of integrating developmental cognitive neuroscience methods into life course epidemiology and population health approaches to mental disorders.
[A study on the placental transfer of mercury in pregnant women].

To clarify the maternal-fetal transfer of mercury across the placenta, inorganic and organic mercury were determined in 41 paired samples of maternal blood, placenta, umbilical cord blood and umbilical cord obtained from pregnant women who had no particular exposure to mercury compounds in their history. Both inorganic and organic mercury were detected in all the samples but the ratio of organic mercury to total mercury concentrations was much higher than that of inorganic mercury to total mercury. The concentrations of inorganic and organic mercury in the umbilical cord blood were significantly higher than those in the maternal blood, strongly indicating the maternal-fetal transfer of mercury via placenta. The ratio between placental concentration and maternal blood concentration of the two mercury forms was significantly higher in the inorganic than in the organic form, indicating that inorganic mercury does preferentially accumulate in the placental tissues. On the other hand, the ratio between umbilical cord blood concentration and placental concentration of the two mercury forms was significantly higher in the organic than in the inorganic forms, indicating that there was a preferential transfer of the organic mercury across the placenta. In addition, no significant difference was observed between the forms of mercury regarding the ratio of umbilical cord blood concentration to maternal blood concentration, suggesting a possibility that both forms of mercury may be transferred to the fetus with similar efficiency. However, the correlations between maternal blood and umbilical cord blood, between maternal blood and placenta and between placenta and umbilical cord blood in terms of the concentrations of the two forms of mercury suggest that the placenta is less permeable to inorganic mercury and that the organic mercury reaching the fetus through the transplacental route may be metabolized into an inorganic form.
Definition and Evaluation of Local Path Recovery Mechanisms in Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks

In Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks nodes can fail and the link quality can fluctuate rapidly over time. With the start of the pervasive revolution, issues like scalability and mobility must be tackled in these low-power and lossy networks. We propose and evaluate two mechanisms,Path Resumption and Cost Based Multipath Routing, which can help existing or new local path recovery techniques to achieve a higher success rate. With Path Resumption we turn the network into several virtual mountain landscapes.This will help the search for new paths if necessary. Cost Based Multipath Routing enables the nodes to balance the load over a configured number of paths. The main objective is keeping suboptimal paths alive while keeping the maintenance overhead low. This way local recovery will achieve a higher success rate. The protocols are implemented in and simulated with ns-2 and evaluated by using WiNVis, anew wireless network visualisator. We have defined a new set of failure and mobility scenarios and we have compared the performance of both the protocols. Path Resumption has a lower complexity and is less suitable for mobile scenarios whereas Cost Based Multipath Routing offers more adjustable parameters and a better mobility support.
Rape: An Analysis of Youth's Attitude

Attitudes may be described as general, relatively stable and enduring cognitive tendencies to respond in a certain way to a variety of social stimuli. This research study is an a ttempt to study attitude of youngsters towards the social s timuli of rape. Rape is horrific for society. The mere thought of rape causes anxiety, aggression, concern and rage in people. It w as primary aim of the study to explore the attitude of rape and its va rious trajectories among the youngsters. 150 youngsters (aged 17 23, male and female) were asked researcher made survey questi ons about rape and their responses were analyzed with content analysis method to yield and conclude the results .
Distinguishing the reflective, algorithmic, and autonomous minds: Is it time for a tri-process theory?

In a recent book (Stanovich, 2004), I spent a considerable effort trying to work out the implications of dual process theory for the great rationality debate in cognitive science (see Cohen, 1981; Gigerenzer, 1996; Kahneman and Tversky, 1996; Stanovich, 1999; Stein, 1996). In this chapter, I wish to advance that discussion, first by discussing additions and complications to dual-process theory and then by working through the implications of these ideas for our view of human rationality.
Constructing of an Artificial Neural Networks to Minimize Total Completion Time and Total Tardiness

This paper presents an approach to schedule n jobs with processing times and due dates on a single machine based on Artificial Neural Network. The purpose of this paper to find a schedule that minimize a function of the sum of completion time and sum of tardiness (i,e to minimize the multiple objective functions (Ci,Ti)). Neural network technique was be found to be effective and used to select the best efficient and optimal schedule which minimizes the sum of completion time and sum of tardiness.
Benchmarking the Performance of Mobile Laser Scanning Systems Using a Permanent Test Field

The performance of various mobile laser scanning systems was tested on an established urban test field. The test was connected to the European Spatial Data Research (EuroSDR) project “Mobile Mapping—Road Environment Mapping Using Mobile Laser Scanning”. Several commercial and research systems collected laser point cloud data on the same test field. The system comparisons focused on planimetric and elevation errors using a filtered digital elevation model, poles, and building corners as the reference objects. The results revealed the high quality of the point clouds generated by all of the tested systems under good GNSS conditions. With all professional systems properly calibrated, the elevation accuracy was better than 3.5 cm up to a range of 35 m. The best system achieved a planimetric accuracy of 2.5 cm over a range of 45 m. The planimetric errors increased as a function of range, but moderately so if the system was properly calibrated. The main focus on mobile laser scanning development in the near future should be on the improvement of the trajectory solution, especially under non-ideal conditions, using both improvements in hardware and software. Test fields are relatively easy to implement in built environments and they are feasible for verifying and comparing the performance of different systems and also for improving system calibration to achieve optimum quality.