Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spread spectrum clock generator for reducing Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) noise in LCD driver IC

In this paper, we describe EMI noise reduction in LCD driver IC of which uses the spread spectrum clock generator. The proposed spread spectrum clock generator use pseudo random modulation technique for providing clock edge offset with coarsely and use fine selecting that make numerous time-offset in each coarse-offset signal. As a result of spread spectrum technique, the original clock edges which are used in LCD driver IC has been spread in time domain maximally about 3 n sec. Moreover the proposed SSCG has analog bias in delay circuit for the immunity of power supply variation. The LCD driver IC including proposed spread spectrum clock generator has been fabricated with one poly three metal 0.45 mum CMOS technology when the logic supply voltage varies from 2.3 V to 3.6 V and the driver supply voltage varies from 8 V to 13.5 V. The 6 pieces of test chips have been assembled to 17" LCD monitor, and have been under tested in anechoic chamber which has been surrounded with absorbers. As a test result, we achieved that the EMI noise levels of newly designed LCD driver IC have been reduced about 3 dBu at harmonic frequency of the system clock comparing with conventional one.
Stable single-mode operation of an 850-nm VCSEL with a higher order mode absorber formed by shallow Zn diffusion

We report that an 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with a planar higher order mode absorber, formed by shallow Zn diffusion (<0.3 /spl mu/m), operated at stable single-mode over the entire drive current range. A device with a 5/spl times/5 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ absorber aperture and a 5/spl times/5 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ oxide confined active region showed a /spl sim/0.8 mA threshold and a mode suppression ratio of 40 dB. The modeling indicates that the higher order modes will be suppressed strongly due to the much larger threshold gain, compared to that of the fundamental mode as long as the Zn diffusion depth outside the 5/spl times/5 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ absorber aperture is over /spl sim/0.2 /spl mu/m, which agrees well with the experimental results.
The effect of leptin on the tonic secretion of gonadotropins in the female rats.

OBJECTIVES This study is an attempt to determine, the in vivo action of leptin on this hypophysiotropic hypothalamic area, by evaluating the concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) in the serum. METHODS The experiments were done by stereotaxic injection of recombinant rat leptin (rrleptin) into the third cerebral ventricle (V3) of adult female Wistar rats. Subjects were divided into five groups. Group A included normal intact animals. In Group B, the rats were stereotaxically administered with rrleptin in the V3. The rats, in Groups C, D and E, were subjected to electrolytic lesion of the arcuate nucleus (ARC), of the ventromedial nucleus (VMH) and of both of these hypothalamic nuclei, respectively. Immediately after the electric lesion, they were intracranially injected with rrleptin. Blood samplings for serum LH and FSH levels estimation were performed three times: 1) just before any stereotaxic procedure, 2) six hours, and 3) twenty-four hours after leptin administration. RESULTS The results showed that serum LH levels increased dramatically in group B, six hours after leptin administration. The LH levels in Groups C, D and E presented the same pattern with a lower peak. The FSH levels were doubled six hours after leptin administration in all groups without any exception. Both LH and FSH serum levels reverted to the initial basic levels after 24 hours. DISCUSSION The significant conclusion derived from this study is that ARC and VMH, which are responsible for controlling the tonic secretion of gonadotropins, respond in a different way for the FSH and LH secretion. This also suggests that some other mechanism(s) or factor(s) may additionally participate in the control of the tonic component of FSH secretion.
Outpatient Laparoscopic Incisional/Ventral Hernioplasty: Our Experience in 55 Cases

Laparoscopic repair of ventral and incisional hernias is still a controversial therapeutic option. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the results of laparoscopic surgery on ventral hernias in an outpatient surgery unit of a university hospital. Fifty-five patients consecutively underwent laparoscopic surgery for ventral/incisional hernias in the outpatient unit. The patients' clinical features, hernia type, intraoperative, and postoperative complications and reasons for hospital admission are studied. Forty-two patients (76%) were discharged on the day of the surgery. Thirteen (24%) required hospital admission; 9 admissions were predictable (5 for intraoperative occurrences and 4 for associated surgery) and 4 were unpredictable (all for uncontrolled pain; 31%). We found no case of hospital admission for vomiting, urinary retention, or dizziness. Statistical analysis of the patients requiring admission showed no significant correlation with their clinical features or with the site, size, or recurrence of the abdominal wall defect (P > 0.05). Laparoscopic repair of ventral and incisional hernias can be done as a highly efficient ambulatory procedure, and morbidity and hospital admission with this technique do not depend on the type of hernia.
Reasoning about goal-plan trees in autonomous agents : development of petri net and constraint-based approaches with resulting performance comparisons

Multi-agent systems and autonomous agents are becoming increasingly important in current computing technology. In many applications, the agents are often asked to achieve multiple goals individually or within teams where the distribution of these goals may be negotiated among the agents. It is expected that agents should be capable of working towards achieving all its currently adopted goals concurrently. However, in doing so, the goals can interact both constructively and destructively with each other, so a rational agent must be able to reason about these interactions and any other constraints that may be imposed on them, such as the limited availability of resources that could affect their ability to achieve all adopted goals when pursuing them concurrently. Currently, agent development languages require the developer to manually identify and handle these circumstances. In this thesis, we develop two approaches for reasoning about the interactions between the goals of an individual agent. The first of these employs Petri nets to represent and reason about the goals, while the second uses constraint satisfaction techniques to find efficient ways of achieving the goals. Three types of reasoning are incorporated into these models: reasoning about consumable resources where the availability of the resources is limited; the constructive interaction of goals whereby a single plan can be used to achieve multiple goals; and the interleaving of steps for achieving different goals that could cause one or more goals to fail. Experimental evaluation of the two approaches under various different circumstances highlights the benefits of the reasoning developed here whilst also identifying areas where one approach provides better results than the other. This can then be applied to suggest the underlying technique used to implement the reasoning that the agent may want to employ based on the goals it has been assigned.
Characterization of anillin mutants reveals essential roles in septin localization and plasma membrane integrity

Anillin is a conserved component of the contractile ring that is essential for cytokinesis, and physically interacts with three conserved cleavage furrow proteins, F-actin, myosin II and septins in biochemical assays. We demonstrate that the Drosophila scraps gene, identified as a gene involved in cellularization, encodes Anillin. We characterize defects in cellularization, pole cell formation and cytokinesis in a series of maternal effect and zygotic anillin alleles. Mutations that result in amino acid changes in the C-terminal PH domain of Anillin cause defects in septin recruitment to the furrow canal and contractile ring. These mutations also strongly perturb cellularization, altering the timing and rate of furrow ingression. They cause dramatic vesiculation of new plasma membranes, and destabilize the stalk of cytoplasm that normally connects gastrulating cells to the yolk mass. A mutation closer to the N terminus blocks separation of pole cells with less effect on cellularization, highlighting mechanistic differences between contractile processes. Cumulatively, our data point to an important role for Anillin in scaffolding cleavage furrow components, directly stabilizing intracellular bridges, and indirectly stabilizing newly deposited plasma membrane during cellularization.
TCR recognition and selection in vivo.

Much has been accomplished in identifying the molecules and genes responsible for T-cell recognition. We are now familiar with two distinct heterodimers, αβ and γδ, and we know that the former (at least) confers on a T cell the ability to recognize antigens complexed with specific molecules of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) (Dembic et al. 1986; Saito and Germain 1987). Because of the recent solution of an MHC class I structure (Bjorkman et al. 1987a,b), its apparent generalization to class II molecules (Brown et al. 1988), as well as the similarity of T-cell receptor (TCR) primary sequences to immunoglobulins (Igs), we can guess a great deal about how they might interact (Chothia et al. 1988, Claverie et al. 1989; Davis and Bjorkman 1988; see also Bjorkman and Davis, this volume).
Directional acoustic response of a silicon disc-based microelectromechanical systems structure

A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based structure capable of operating mechanically as a directional acoustical sensor is presented. The structure, fabricated through the commercially available SOIMUMPS foundry process, consists of two circular discs attached to a central suspension beam, fixed at both ends. The design of the structure resembles other directional MEMS microphones that mimic the directional hearing organ of the parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea. Modal analysis and mechanical acoustic directionality analysis using both laser Doppler vibrometry and finite element modelling have been implemented. It is demonstrated that this coupled MEMS structure exhibits an acoustic directional response, with a one-to-one relationship between the relative vibration amplitudes of the two coupled discs and the angle of sound, from −75° to +60°.
Shortened and diminished pubertal growth in boys and girls treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Statural growth during puberty was studied longitudinally in 28 patients treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. All patients received prophylactic cranial irradiation. The age at diagnosis was below 7 years, the age at final investigation was above 16 years for girls and above 18 years for boys. Growth was analysed using the Kernel estimation. In girls the onset of puberty and menarche was at a younger age, as compared to reference values, and the duration of the pubertal growth spurt was shorter. Compared to early maturing girls, the growth velocity at peak height velocity was lower. This resulted in a final height which was shorter than expected on the basis of the height standard deviation score before the start of puberty. In boys the duration of the pubertal growth spurt was shorter and the height gain during the growth spurt less than in the reference population. In both sexes the bone age development was accelerated.
Involvement of Rho‐kinase in hypertensive vascular disease —a novel therapeutic target in hypertension

Intracellular signaling pathway mediated by Rho/Rho‐kinase plays an important role in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle contraction and other cellular functions, including adhesion, migration, proliferation, and hypertrophy. A Rho‐kinase inhibitor has been shown to lower blood pressure in hypertensive rats in vivo, however, direct evidence for the involvement of Rho‐kinase in hypertensive vascular disease is still lacking. In this study, we tested our hypothesis that Rho‐kinase is involved substantially in functional and structural alterations of hypertensive blood vessels in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Force measurement with isolated blood vessels demonstrated that Rho‐kinase was involved significantly in the vascular hyperreactivity in SHR. Biochemical analysis showed that both the expression and the activity of Rho‐kinase were augmented in blood vessels of SHR. It is important to note that the involvement of Rho‐kinase in the vascular hyperreactivity preceded the development of hypertension. Finally, long‐term blockade of Rho‐kinase suppressed vascular lesion formation such as medial hepertrophy and perivascular fibrosis in SHR. Our results provide the first evidence that augmented expression and function of Rho‐kinase plays a key role in the pathogenesis of hypertensive vascular disease, which suggests that this molecule could be regarded as a novel therapeutic target in hypertension.
A new timing synchronization approach for OFDM systems

In this paper, we propose a novel timing synchronization method for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The new method takes advantage of symmetrical correlation between some parts of the transmitted training symbol and produces an impulse-like timing metric. While reducing the complexity, our method provides an easy and efficient way for timing estimation. The proposed method does not need any differential cross-correlation or frequency correction to produce an impulse-like timing metric. It is shown that the new timing metric outperforms the previously presented methods in fading channels.
Contribution to the Knowledge of Anatomy of Species of Genus Mobula Rafinesque 1810 (Chondricthyes: Mobulinae)

A comparative anatomical study was conducted among four mobulid species (Mobula japanica, M. munkiana, M. tarapacana, and M. thurstoni), from the coasts of the Gulf of California. Characters of the skeleton (neurocranium, mandibles, scapular girdle, pelvic girdle, and synarcual) were described. Mobula species had a wide structural variation. In the skeleton, M. tarapacana displayed the most plesiomorphic characters, mainly at the cranial level (cranium longer than wide, reduced internasal width, fontanelle longer than wide), while M. japanica had the most derived characters (cranium wider than longer, fontanelle wider than longer). Based on the observations, the dorsal cephalic musculature were similar in all species; however, oppositely to other batoid species, the epiaxilis is strongly developed, as it extends toward the cephalic part of the neurocranium, at level of the postorbital processes. In the ventral musculature, ventral constrictor muscles are quite reduced, whereas complex mandibular muscles are very developed. Muscles showing the highest variation are the coracohioideus and the coracoarcual. Anat Rec, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of Low Concentrations of Nitrous Oxide on Rat Fetuses

The long-term inhalation of air polluted with nitrous oxide has been implicated in spontaneous abortions and fetal abnormalities in operating room personnel. Studies with 1% and 0.5% N2O in air have confirmed the adverse effects of dilute concentrations of N2O in pregnant rats. The present study was designed to determine the threshold concentration of nitrous oxide necessary to produce adverse responses in pregnant rats. Wistar albino rats were mated in an environmental chamber and conception confirmed by vaginal smears. Immediately thereafter, the rats were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. The control rats were exposed for 19 days to oil-free compressed air in an environmental chamber at a flow rate of 8.5 air changes per hour. Experimental animals were exposed continuously under identical conditions to concentrations of 0.0, 0.1%, 0.5%, or 0.025% N2O. On day 19 the gravid rats were killed. The corpora lutea of pregnancy were counted and related to the number of fetuses in the uterus. Fetuses were fixed, cleared, and their skeletons stained with alizarin red. Litter size, frequency of fetal resorption, and fetal crown rump measurements were significantly different following exposure to 0.1% N2O than they were in control rats or in rats exposed to 0.05% or 0.025% nitrous oxide, neither of which had any fetal effects. The suggested threshold level of 30 ppm (0.03%) N2O in humans may be unrealistically low.
Constraints on fault and lithosphere rheology from the coseismic slip and postseismic afterslip of the 2006 Mw7.0 Mozambique earthquake

The 2006 M_w 7.0 Mozambique (Machaze) normal-faulting earthquake ruptured an unusually steeply dipping fault plane (~75°). The amount of slip in the earthquake decreased from depths of ~10 km toward the surface, and this shallow slip deficit was at least partly recovered by postseismic afterslip on the shallow part of the fault plane. An adjacent normal fault segment slipped postseismically (and possibly also co-seismically) at shallow depths with a large strike-slip component, in response to the stresses generated by slip on the main earthquake fault plane. Our observations suggest that the fault zone behaves in a stick-slip manner in the crystalline basement, and that where it cuts the sedimentary layer the coseismic rupture was partially arrested and there was significant postseismic creep. We discuss the effects of such behavior on the large-scale tectonics of continental regions, and on the assessment of seismic hazard on similar fault systems. The steep dip of the fault suggests the re-activation of a preexisting structure with a coefficient of friction at least ~25–45% lower than that on optimally oriented planes, and analysis of the deformation following an aftershock indicates that the value of the parameter ‘a’ that describes the rate-dependence of fault friction lies in the range 1 × 10^(−3)–2 × 10^(−2). The lack of long-wavelength postseismic relaxation suggests viscosities in the ductile lithosphere of greater than ~2 × 10^(19) Pa s, and an examination of the tectonic geomorphology in the region identifies ways in which similar fault systems can be identified before they rupture in future earthquakes.
Species identification of Aspergillus section Flavi isolates from Portuguese almonds using phenotypic, including MALDI‐TOF ICMS, and molecular approaches

Aims: Section Flavi is one of the most significant sections in the genus Aspergillus. Taxonomy of this section currently depends on multivariate approaches, entailing phenotypic and molecular traits. This work aimed to identify isolates from section Flavi by combining various classic phenotypic and genotypic methods as well as the novel approach based on spectral analysis by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF ICMS) and to evaluate the discriminatory power of the various approaches in species identification.
Art Therapy with Bereaved Youth

A qualitative investigation of the experience of art therapy for bereaved children was made in 1986 and 1987 to seek an answer to "What is the experience of art therapy for bereaved children? " The research design was of an artistic nature for it involved three forms of qualitative methodology: participant observation, phenomenology, and image interpretation; The art therapy program of a hospital-based hospice located in a rural area and involving over 100 children and parents was observed using participant observation methods for an 18-month period. Ten children aged 9 to 12, five parents, and five staff of the art therapy program were formally interviewed using the phenomenological approach. Children's images were analyzed by the children themselves and by this researcher. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the findings of the research for professionals working in palliative care. It includes the social relevance of the research, an overview,of selected literature pertaining to art therapy and child bereavement, an overview of research methodology, two case portrayals, a composite synthesis of the data, and implications for futher research.
A Method of Human Plasmapheresis.∗

Summary A simple method for human plasmapheresis is described. In a single patient with multiple myeloma it has been shown that the removal of 30 g of plasma protein daily can be continued without ill effect and without substantial decrease in the concentration of plasma protein for at least five weeks. Nitrogen equilibrium was maintained when the diet contained 85 g of protein per day and 2500 calories.
An Activin/Furin Regulatory Loop Modulates the Processing and Secretion of Inhibin α- and βB-Subunit Dimers in Pituitary Gonadotrope Cells*

Of all ligands of the transforming growth factor β superfamily, inhibins and activins are a physiologically relevant pair that are functional antagonists of each other. Activin stimulates whereas inhibin blocks follicle-stimulating hormone biosynthesis and secretion from pituitary gonadotrope cells, and together, inhibin and activin control the pituitary gonadal axis essential for normal reproductive function. Sharing a similar β-subunit, the secretion of inhibin heterodimers (α/β) or activin homodimers (β/β) as mature bioactive ligands depends, in part, on the proteolytic processing of precursor proteins. A short loop regulatory pathway controlling precursor processing and dimer secretion was discovered. Activin stimulates endogenous inhibin α- and βB-subunit mRNA, protein, and proteolytic processing. Simultaneously, activin stimulated the proconvertase furin through a Smad2/3-dependent process. The data provide a mechanism where the regulation of furin and inhibin subunits cooperates in an important positive short feedback loop. This regulatory loop augments the secretion of bioactive mature activin B, as well as inhibin B dimers, necessary for local follicle-stimulating hormone β regulation.
Quantitative assessment of intravascular volume of the human Achilles tendon

The pathogenesis of Achilles tendon rupture remains unclear, but vascular patterns may play an important role. We determined the intravascular volume of the Achilles tendon using a new method with injection of radioisotopes. A solution of Tc-99m and gelatin-ink was injected into the lower limbs of body donors. The intravascular volume of each 1 cm section of the Achilles tendon was measured using a gamma well counter. We found that the distal part of the Achilles tendon (0-2 cm above the calcaneus) had an intravascular volume of 59-98 w L/g tendon tissue. In the middle part of the tendon (3-6 cm above the calcaneal insertion), the intravascular volume was much less: 27-43 w L/g tissue. The proximal part of the tendon (7-9 cm) had an intravascular volume between 51-100 w L/g tendon tissue. The reduced vascularization in the middle part of the human Achilles tendon may play a role in degeneration and spontaneous rupture of the tendon.