Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel technique for tuning low voltage linear transconductor

In this paper a novel technique is presented to tune a low voltage linear transconductor. Bias offset is used for tunability and bias currents of cross coupled differential amplifiers are adjusted to minimize third harmonic distortion. Cadence VIRTUOSO environment using UMC 0.18 µm CMOS process technology is used to simulate the proposed circuit. Simulation results show that for the biasing current of 270 µA (Gm of 215 µS), the circuit exhibits less than −30 dB total third harmonic distortion (HD3) at 1 Vp-p @ 50 MHz and at low voltage supply.
On-line Gauss – Newton-based learning for fully recurrent neural networks

In this paper we propose a novel, Gauss–Newton-based variant of the Real Time Recurrent Learning (RTRL) algorithm by Williams and Zipser (Neural Comput. 1 (1989) 270–280) for on-line training of Fully Recurrent Neural Networks. The new approach stands as a robust and effective compromise between the original, gradient-based RTRL (low computational complexity, slow convergence) and Newton-based variants of RTRL (high computational complexity, fast convergence). By gathering information over time in order to form Gauss–Newton search vectors, the new learning algorithm, GN–RTRL, is capable of converging faster to a better quality solution than the original algorithm. Experimental results reflect these qualities of GN–RTRL, as well as the fact that GN–RTRL may have in practice lower computational cost in comparison, again, to the original RTRL. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bipartite consensus of general linear multi-agent systems

Collective behaviors of multi-agent systems over signed graphs find applications in a variety of scenarios including social networks, predator-prey dynamics, which however have not been adequately addressed as their counterparts with nonnegative graphs. This paper studies bipartite consensus problem of general linear multi-agent systems over signed digraphs. First, we show that for general linear agents, bipartite consensus over signed graphs and ordinary consensus over nonnegative graphs are equivalent. This indicates that prevailing consensus controllers for nonnegative graphs can be adopted to solve bipartite consensus problems. Based on this observation, an existing Riccati equation based cooperative tracking controller is extended to solve the bipartite consensus problem for general linear systems.
The Impact of Asset Prices and their Information Value for Monetary Policy

In this paper we explore the contribution that assetprices appear to make to fluctuations in the economyand to inflation, and hence to monetary policy,using a large international panel for the 1970-2008period. We show that house prices are importantin the determination of economic activity, andtherefore to monetary policy, but that stock marketprices, while offering information in many periods,form a rather weaker and less well determined linkage.Moreover, the effects are asymmetric over thecourse of the economic cycle. Using an augmentedTaylor rule, we go on to show that monetary policyhas not reacted much to asset prices but that longruninterest rates are clearly affected by house priceinflation. Relationships tend to be weaker in recentyears, probably as a result of greater stability in outputgrowth and inflation. Nevertheless, our resultssuggest that central banks would do well to considerasset prices in deciding monetary policy.
Self-Perceptions in Science, Cognitive Development, and Teaching Strategy.

This research explores relationships which exist between self-perception in science and cognitive development under two quantitatively different teaching strategies. These strategies, stressing the use or non-use of directions, praise, and rejection were used in five different elementary grades for one year. Student self-perception in science was found to vary by grade level, regardless of teaching strategy, with grades one and two tending to be more dependent than higher grades. Shifts from an independent to a dependent self-perception during the treatment period were found only in the more directive strategy. Students in a less directive strategy tended to become more independent or not to change self-perceptions at all. Cognitively, nonconservers were more likely to have a dependent perception of themselves in science than conservers. While self-perception in science seems to be closely related to maturation in the lower grades, a less directive teaching strategy appears to provide a more positive envi.
Educação permanente em saúde: uma estratégia de gestão para pensar, refletir e construir práticas educativas e processos de trabalhos

Este trabalho relata a experiencia de implantacao da Politica Nacional de Educacao Permanente em Saude (EPS), proposta pelo Ministerio da Saude (Portaria 198 de fevereiro de 2004) no municipio de Embu, Estado de Sao Paulo, Essa implantacao foi adotada pela gestao municipal com o objetivo de identificar e definir acoes educativas que qualifiquem a atencao e a gestao em saude atraves da formacao e do desenvolvimento dos trabalhadores do setor. A EPS trabalha com ferramentas que buscam a reflexao critica sobre a pratica cotidiana dos servicos de saude, sendo, por si so, um processo educativo aplicado ao trabalho que possibilita mudancas nas relacoes, nos processos, nos atos de saude e nas pessoas. Outras potencialidades dessa estrategia sao: fortalecimento do controle social; repolitizacao do Sistema Unico de Saude (SUS); incentivo ao protagonismo de usuarios e trabalhadores no processo saude e doenca e a producao de um impacto positivo sobre a saude individual e coletiva da populacao.
Arg-Phe-amide-related peptides influence gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons

The hypothalamic Arg-Phe-amide-related peptides, gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone and orthologous mammalian peptides of Arg-Phe-amide, may be important regulators of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal reproductive axis. These peptides may modulate the effects of kisspeptins because they are presently recognized as the most potent activators of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. However, their effects on gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons have not been investigated. In the current study, the GT1–7 cell line-expressing gonadotropin-releasing hormone was used as a model to explore the effects of Arg-Pheamide-related peptides on kisspeptin activation. Intracellular calcium concentration was quantified using the calcium-sensitive dye, fura-2 acetoxymethyl ester. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone released into the medium was detected via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results showed that 100 nmol/L kisspeptin-10 significantly increased gonadotropin-releasing hormone levels (at 120 minutes of exposure) and intracellular calcium concentrations. Co-treatment of kisspeptin with 1 μmol/L gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone or 1 μmol/L Arg-Phe-amide-related peptide-1 significantly attenuated levels of kisspeptin-induced gonadotropin-releasing hormone but did not affect kisspeptin-induced elevations of intracellular calcium concentration. Overall, the results suggest that gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone and Arg-Phe-amide-related peptide-1 may have inhibitory effects on kisspeptin-activated gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons independent of the calcium signaling pathway.
Relative vulnerability of female turtles to road mortality

Recent studies suggest that freshwater turtle populations are becoming increasingly male‐biased. A hypothesized cause is a greater vulnerability of female turtles to road mortality. We evaluated this hypothesis by comparing sex ratios from published and unpublished population surveys of turtles conducted on‐ versus off‐roads. Among 38 166 turtles from 157 studies reporting sex ratios, we found a consistently larger female fraction in samples from on‐roads (61%) than off‐roads (41%). We conclude that female turtles are indeed more likely to cross roadways than are males, which may explain recently reported skewed sex ratios near roadways and signify eventual population declines as females are differentially eliminated.
Temporal logic verifications for UML: The vending machine example

Une difficulte bien connue concernant la verification de proprietes en UML est le besoin de formalisation. Puisqu'UmL permet a la fois la specification des types de donnees et des comportements dynamiques, la verification de proprietes logiques fait egalement apparaitre d'autres problemes, notamment la possibilite de systeme de transition de taille infinie. Cet article presente un exemple de systeme specifie en UML et complete avec une approche formelle et orientee composant. Nous utilisons une approche algebrique, appelee Type Abstrait Graphique (TAG) et basee sur un Statechart et une specification de type abstrait partiel. Nous montrons qu'il est alors possible d'ecrire et de prouver des proprietes de logique temporelle dans ce contexte. Du fait de l'utilisation des Statecharts, i.e. des systemes symboliques avec des gardes, des variables et des types de donnees, le recours a la verification de modele classique n'est pas suffisante. Nous preconisons de realiser les preuves avec un demonstrateur general et l'utilisation d'operateurs fonctionnels exprimant le temps logique. Nous montrons plusieurs exemples de proprietes et de preuves realisees en logique du premier ordre.
Eating disorders, attachment and interpersonal difficulties: a comparison between 18‐ to 24‐year‐old patients and normal controls

This study tested the connection between eating disorder symptoms, insecure attachment, and other interpersonal difficulties. The sample consisted of 145 female patients (aged 18 to 24 years), who had attended an outpatient clinic for eating disorders in the city of Goteborg, Sweden, and 315 women chosen at random from the city's Population Register. Subjects filled in the Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991) and the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (Garner, 1991). The results confirm the link between eating disorders, insecure attachment and interpersonal problems that has been found in other studies, and extends it to women in the normal control group who report that they have previously had eating disorder problems. Our results further indicate that severity of eating disorders problems is related to security of attachment, whereas type of eating disorder is related to scores on the psychological subscales of the EDI-2. The implications for psychological treatment are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
Improvement of IFNγ ELISPOT Performance Following Overnight Resting of Frozen PBMC Samples Confirmed Through Rigorous Statistical Analysis

Immune monitoring of functional responses is a fundamental parameter to establish correlates of protection in clinical trials evaluating vaccines and therapies to boost antigen-specific responses. The IFNγ ELISPOT assay is a well-standardized and validated method for the determination of functional IFNγ-producing T-cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC); however, its performance greatly depends on the quality and integrity of the cryopreserved PBMC. Here, we investigate the effect of overnight (ON) resting of the PBMC on the detection of CD8-restricted peptide-specific responses by IFNγ ELISPOT. The study used PBMC from healthy donors to evaluate the CD8 T-cell response to five pooled or individual HLA-A2 viral peptides. The results were analyzed using a modification of the existing distribution free resampling (DFR) recommended for the analysis of ELISPOT data to ensure the most rigorous possible standard of significance. The results of the study demonstrate that ON resting of PBMC samples prior to IFNγ ELISPOT increases both the magnitude and the statistical significance of the responses. In addition, a comparison of the results with a 13-day preculture of PBMC with the peptides before testing demonstrates that ON resting is sufficient for the efficient evaluation of immune functioning.
Diagonally compensated reduction and related preconditioning methods

When solving linear algebraic equations with large and sparse coefficient matrices, arising, for instance, from the discretization of partial differential equations, it is quite common to use preconditioning to accelerate the convergence of a basic iterative scheme. Incomplete factorizations and sparse approximate inverses can provide efficient preconditioning methods but their existence and convergence theory is based mostly on M-matrices (H-matrices). In some application areas, however, the arising coefficient matrices are not H-matrices. This is the case, for instance, when higher-order finite element approximations are used, which is typical for structural mechanics problems. We show that modification of a symmetric, positive definite matrix by reduction of positive offdiagonal entries and diagonal compensation of them leads to an M-matrix. This diagonally compensated reduction can take place in the whole matrix or only at the current pivot block in a recursive incomplete factorization method. Applications for constructing preconditioning matrices for finite element matrices are described.
Professionalism as Enterprise: Service Class Politics and the Redefinition of Professionalism

This paper suggests that the struggle to redefine professionalism, which is currently being waged in a host of institutions from the National Health Service to accountancy practices, is actually a struggle to legitimise different types of cultural capital and that, as such, it will potentially split the service class. This cleavage reflects the decreasing levels of trust placed in social service professionalism and its adherents by powerful actors such as the state and capital. In the light of this, certain groups within elite occupations have sought to redefine professionalism and to prioritise commercial issues in a bid to gain the trust of these actors and to exploit opportunities which the attack on the social service ethos has presented to them. This cleavage extends across the public sector-private sector divide and it is also taking place within previously relatively homogeneous professions. If this cleavage persists, it may fragment the identity of the service class and lead elements of it to change their political identification. As such, it would challenge the thesis which is most closely identified with Goldthorpe, that the service class is homogeneous and conservative.
RESEARCH: "Orthodox, Humanitarian, and Science-Inspired Belief in Relation to Prejudice Against Jews, Muslims, and Ethnic Minorities: The Content of One's Belief Does Matter"

In this study, we empirically explored the relation between (a) the content of people's orthodox, humanitarian, and science-inspired beliefs and (b) three measures of prejudice. Using survey data from a representative subsample of indigenous Dutch (n = 582), we found that orthodox, humanitarian, and science-inspired convictions that had different relations with prejudice could be discerned in The Netherlands. Most important, we found that humanitarian convictions could make people show compassion for their fellow human beings and could, thereby, work against the acceptance of prejudice. In contrast, orthodox convictions did not seem to work against the acceptance of prejudice against ethnic minorities, Muslims, and Jews. Science-inspired convictions were found to be unrelated to prejudice.
Do highly ornamented and less parasitized males have high quality sperm? – an experimental test for parasite-induced reproductive trade-offs in European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus)

Parasites take their resources from hosts and thus directly reduce available resources for hosts’ own body functions, such as growth and reproduction. Furthermore, parasite infections cause significant indirect costs to their hosts in terms of increased investments on immune defense. In this study, we investigated the impact of parasite infection on the sperm quality and expression of secondary sexual ornamentation (saturation of the red abdominal colouration and number of breeding tubercles) in the Eurasian minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus). We exposed minnows to a high and low dose of common nonspecific fish ectoparasite, the glochidia larvae of duck mussel (Anodonta anatina) and tested whether parasite infection leads to trade-off in sperm quality and/or ornamental expression. We found that glochidia infection reduces the curvature of the sperm swimming trajectory, number of breeding tubercles, and possibly male competitive ability, but does not affect expression of male color ornamentation. Furthermore, glochidia infection was found to reduce sperm motility, but only when all the noninfected individuals were excluded from the model. Supporting one of the predictions by phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis both in high-infection and low-infection group male breeding colouration was positively associated with sperm quality. Our results suggest that although glochidia infection may have negative impact on male reproductive success, parasite-induced costs may not create strong trade-off between breeding colouration and sperm quality or that such trade-off become detectable only in resource-limited conditions.
Understanding global patterns of mammalian functional and phylogenetic diversity

Documenting and exploring the patterns of diversity of life on Earth has always been a central theme in biology. Species richness despite being the most commonly used measure of diversity in macroecological studies suffers from not considering the evolutionary and ecological differences among species. Phylogenetic diversity (PD) and functional diversity (FD) have been proposed as alternative measures to overcome this limitation. Although species richness, PD and FD are closely related, their relationships have never been investigated on a global scale. Comparing PD and FD with species richness corroborated the general assumptions of surrogacy of the different diversity measures. However, the analysis of the residual variance suggested that the mismatches between the diversity measures are influenced by environmental conditions. PD increased relative to species richness with increasing mean annual temperature, whereas FD decreased with decreasing seasonality relative to PD. We also show that the tropical areas are characterized by a FD deficit, a phenomenon, that suggests that in tropical areas more species can be packed into the ecological space. We discuss potential mechanisms that could have resulted in the gradient of spatial mismatch observed in the different biodiversity measures and draw parallels to local scale studies. We conclude that the use of multiple diversity measures on a global scale can help to elucidate the relative importance of historical and ecological processes shaping the present gradients in mammalian diversity.
Priority allocation decisions in large scale MTO/MTS - Multi-product manufacturing systems: technical report

We consider a single stage multi-product manufacturing facility producing a large number of end-products for delivery within a service constraint for the customer lead-time. The manufac- turing facility is modeled as a multi-product, multi-priority queuing system. In order to reduce inventory costs, an e±cient priority allocation between items consists in producing some items according to a Make-To-Stock (MTS) policy and others according to a Make-To-Order (MTO) policy depending on their features (costs, required lead-time, demand rates). We propose a general optimization procedure that gives a near-optimal °ow control (MTO or MTS) to as- sociate with each product and the corresponding near-optimal priority strategy. We illustrate e±ciency of our procedure via several examples and by a numerical analysis. In addition, we show numerically that a small number of priority classes is su±cient to obtain near-optimal performances.
Premarital Screening of Beta Thalassemia Minor in north-east of Iran

Background Beta thalassemia is a preventable disease. Iran has about 20,000Patients who are homozygote for β-thalassaemia and 3,750,000 carriers. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of beta thalassemia minor among men who underwent premarital screening in Quchana city in Khorasan Razavi region of Iran Materials and Methods This research is a descriptive cross-sectional study. From 2010 to 2011, all participants (1000) under marriage coming to health center of Quchan underwent routine mandatory tests. Participants were considered to have beta-thalassemia minor on the condition that hey had a mean corpuscular volume (MCV) <80fl and a mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) <27 pg and a hemoglobin A2 level >3.5%. Venous blood was taken into an EDTA tube and the complete blood count and red blood cell indices were measured with a Coulter automated cell counter. Electrophoresis was performed on cellulose acetate. Results Mean and SD of hemoglobin, MCV and MCH were 16±2.9, 91±4 and 28.4±2, respectively. Hemoglobin A2 Higher than 3.5 percent was reported as 3.5%. The prevalence of beta-thassemia minor with high hemoglobin A2 and microcytic hypochromic anemia was 3.5% (P-value). Conclusion In countries with high prevalence of hemoglobinopathies, a premarital screening program is helpful for identification and prevention of high-risk marriages. Detecting carrier couples with premarital screening program is an effective way of controlling thalassemia major.
Individual Breaches of Environmental Laws in Cases from Public Administration Files

The characteristics of environmental transgressions and transgressors involved in 1,505 files handled by 4 public administrations were assessed. These administrations were in charge of environmental law enforcement in a highly protected setting, across federal, state, island, and municipality jurisdictions. Special attention was given to the transgressors' written responses to administrative sanctions included in the files. These were analyzed integrating the approaches of neutralization techniques and of accounts as strategies of conflict management. Results suggest that most environmental transgressions under study were carried out by private individuals in the personal domain of everyday life, and that transgressors' accounts of environmental transgressions were short, straightforward, and questioned the legitimacy of the environmental law being broken.