Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase noise vs. jitter analysis in continuous-time LP and BP ΣΔ modulators with interferers

Continuous-time (CT) ΣΔ modulators are well-known for their sensitivity to jitter. This paper intends to compare and clarify the effect of both colored phase noise and white jitter as measures for non-ideal clocks on the performance of CT ΣΔ modulators, which becomes of utmost importance under the influence of strong out-of-band (OOB) interferers. The jitter-induced noise is shown to be a convolution in the frequency domain between the clock phase noise and the CT derivative of the modulator output. Simulations on lowpass and bandpass modulators show that depending on the shape of the phase noise, the SNR of the modulator is limited by the input signal or the quantization noise. In the scenario where the SNR is limited by the input signal, techniques regarding feedback DAC waveforms cannot reduce the impact of jitter, and the SNR is further reduced in the presence of OOB interferers. Consequently, a realistic clock phase noise should be specified to allow frequency-domain analysis and thus an accurate estimation on the output spectrum and performance of CT ΣΔ modulators. Moreover, interferer attenuation techniques should be applied to reduce the clock jitter influence.
False Negative Cystic Fibrosis Newborn Screen

Improvements in therapy have increased the median predicted age of survival in cystic fibrosis (CF) to 37.4 years in 2007. The primary cause of mortality is progressive lung disease, which begins in infancy. Because early diagnosis of CF has been demonstrated to improve outcomes, the majority of states within the United States now universally screen newborns for CF. Nevertheless, screening is associated with false positives and false negatives and is not a definitive means of diagnosis.
Opportunistic interference alignment in multi-user MIMO Cognitive Radio Networks for different fading channels

Opportunistic interference alignment (OIA) is a well known precoding technique that uses interference alignment to improve the rate of secondary user (SU) simultaneously nullifying the interference that SU causes to a primary user (PU). In this paper, we analyse the efficacy of OIA technique in multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) underlay cognitive radio network (CRN) for generalized κ - μ fading channel and Rayleigh fading with lognormal shadowing (K fading) channel models. Numerical results are presented for the achievable data rates of both PU and SU links in two fading environments.
A distributed cooperative product code for multi-source multi-relay single-destination wireless network

In the paper, we proposed a distributed cooperative product coding scheme, for multi-source multi-relay single-destination network. The coding is jointly coded by sources and relays in a cooperative manner in two time slots. Sources send packets with row sub-code, and then relays add redundancy rows with systematic column sub-code. The iterative decoding algorithm is used to effectively decode the received block at destination. Simulation results showed an improvement of about 2.8dB, compared with non-cooperative soft-decode scheme. Numerical results also showed the proposed system is insensitive to power allocation and relay position. The encoding process in sources and relays are of linear complexity. As a result, it is suitable for power-limited systems like wireless sensors network. Also, the decoding algorithm at the destination(sink) node is parallel, which makes the destination decoding efficient and of low-complexity. Simulation results has shown a coarse power and/or distance planning is enough for power allocation and relays' position.
Relationship Aggregation for Enhancing Enterprise Recommendations

As social media and Web 2.0 sites are becoming ubiquitous, aggregation of social network information becomes valuable, building a more comprehensive and rich social graph. In this position paper we summarize our use of social relationship aggregation for recommendation of people and content within enterprise social software and draw future directions for recommender systems in the social media domain. Author Keywords Aggregation, social media, enterprise recommendation
Algorithm for greedy routing based on the Thurston algorithm in sensor networks

In this paper we present a greedy routing scheme for planar 3-connected graphs. The embedding is in R2, but the proximity measure used is not Euclidean. We show the relationship between our embedding and classical circle packings and described a modification of the Thurston algorithm originally designed for generating circle packings, so that it is able to generate the embeddings required to support greedy power routing on a sensor network.
The Analysis on Affecting Factors of Chinese Inbound Tourism Market Demand

The objectives of the article are to analyze the all kinds of main factors that affect inbound tourism demand of China through econometric model.Its conclusion is that the main factors of deciding Chinese inbound tourism market demand are as follows: tourism cost of inbound tourists in China,the economic conditions in the countries/regions of inbound tourists,tourism price level of the countries/regions competing with China,the "word of mouth" effect and the behavioral persistence of inbound tourists.The article deeply analyzes the demand elastic of Chinese inbound tourists at last,which will provide a more reliable basement for the decision-making of Chinese tourism administering department and corporation.
What Are People Saying about Your Company, Your Products, or Your Brand?

A growing area of interest for many firms is understanding what the market (customers, analysts, or key opinion leaders) is saying about their products and services. Many refer to this area of analysis as sentiment analysis. They want to understand more about people’s opinions, attitudes, and emotions when discussing their products, services, or overall brand. From the company perspective, listening and analyzing what people are saying about products and services is the first step in creating a dialogue with that audience by listening, learning, and then engaging with them. This dialogue can better inform targeted marketing initiatives to customers and prospects, enabling the organization to communicate at a significantly lower cost than traditional marketing with increased speed and effectiveness. It can also enable a more rapid response to perceived customer issues and competitive threats. This paper discusses the use of SAS ® Sentiment Analysis and SAS ® Text Miner to uncover good and bad feedback. It discusses lessons learned from real projects. WHY DO ORGANIZATIONS CARE? All types of businesses and government agencies are starting to take advantage of information buried in previously untapped text documents (surveys, product reviews, online forums, e-mails, instant messages, articles, etc.). They are interested in protecting their brand equity, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, and reducing risks by carefully guarding their reputation. Initiatives like these are often driven through the sales and marketing departments, but are monitored by top executives including the CFO, COO, and CEO, as they have far-reaching financial impact. Top executives attempt to manage all types of risk within their organizations. Many of these risks are financial (credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk, insurance risk), but others are nonfinancial. Reputational risk is one of the highest nonfinancial risks identified in the “Global Risk Management Survey: Sixth Edition” executed by Deloitte in 2009 [1]. That survey identified that 81% of the respondents were attempting to manage reputational risk. Firms need to understand what the market (customers, analysts, or key opinion leaders) is saying about them, their products, and their services, and prepare for any unforeseen issues. The following are some examples of companies (or people), where public incidents have caused an impact on their reputation. The actions that are taken after an incident occurs are often the key to whether they recover from damage incurred to their reputation.  Tylenol (product tampering)  Domino’s Pizza (employee video)  Wendy’s (finger in the chili hoax)  Toyota (sudden acceleration reports)
A Large Outbreak of Clostridium difficile–Associated Disease with an Unexpected Proportion of Deaths and Colectomies at a Teaching Hospital Following Increased Fluoroquinolone Use

Abstract Background and Objective: Fluoroquinolones have not been frequently implicated as a cause of Clostridium difficile outbreaks. Nosocomial C. difficile infections increased from 2.7 to 6.8 cases per 1,000 discharges (P < .001). During the first 2 years of the outbreak, there were 253 nosocomial C. difficile infections; of these, 26 resulted in colectomy and 18 resulted in death. We conducted an investigation of a large C. difficile outbreak in our hospital to identify risk factors and characterize the outbreak. Methods: A retrospective case-control study of case-patients with C. difficile infection from January 2000 through April 2001 and control-patients matched by date of hospital admission, type of medical service, and length of stay; an analysis of inpatient antibiotic use; and antibiotic susceptibility testing and molecular subtyping of isolates were performed. Results: On logistic regression analysis, clindamycin (odds ratio [OR], 4.8; 95% confidence interval [CI95], 1.9-12.0), ceftriaxone (OR, 5.4; CI95, 1.8-15.8), and levofloxacin (OR, 2.0; CI95, 1.2-3.3) were independently associated with infection. The etiologic fractions for these three agents were 10.0%, 6.7%, and 30.8%, respectively. Fluoroquinolone use increased before the onset of the outbreak (P < .001); 59% of case-patients and 41% of control-patients had received this antibiotic class. The outbreak was polyclonal, although 52% of isolates belonged to two highly related molecular subtypes. Conclusions: Exposure to levofloxacin was an independent risk factor for C. difficile-associated diarrhea and appeared to contribute substantially to the outbreak. Restricted use of levofloxacin and the other implicated antibiotics may be required to control the outbreak.
Reduced alpha4beta2*-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor binding and its relationship to mild cognitive and depressive symptoms in Parkinson disease.

CONTEXT Cognitive or depressive disorders are frequently noted in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and may be related to altered signaling through alpha4beta2*-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (alpha4beta2*-nAChRs). OBJECTIVE To assess the availability of alpha4beta2*-nAChRs and their relationship to mild cognitive and mild depressive symptoms in vivo in patients with PD. DESIGN Crossover comparison between patients with PD and healthy volunteers (control group) using the alpha4beta2*-nAChR-specific radioligand 2-[(18)F]fluoro-3-(2[S]-2-azetidinylmethoxy)-pyridine (2-[(18)F]FA-85380) and positron emission tomography. SETTING Departments of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-two nonsmoking patients with PD and 9 nonsmoking healthy volunteers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Level of 2-[(18)F]FA-85380 binding potential (2-FA BP), a measure of alpha4beta2*-nAChR availability. The relationship between severity of cognitive symptoms as rated using the Mini-Mental State Examination and DemTect scale and the level of depressive symptoms as indicated using the Beck Depression Inventory, and 2-FA BP were assessed. RESULTS In patients with PD compared with healthy volunteers, there was widespread reduced 2-FA BP, especially in the midbrain, pons, anterior cingulate cortex, frontoparietal cortex, and cerebellum. In subgroups of patients with PD with possible depression, reduced 2-FA BP was most pronounced in the cingulate cortex and frontoparieto-occipital cortex, whereas in patients with PD with mild cognitive impairment, 2-FA BP was reduced in the midbrain, pons, and cerebellum. In patients with PD, the strongest associations between depressive symptoms and reduced 2-FA BP were noted in the anterior cingulate cortex, putamen, midbrain, and occipital cortex. In contrast, cognitive symptoms correlated only weakly with reduced 2-FA BP in the thalamus, midbrain, temporal cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum. CONCLUSIONS There is a broad reduction of alpha4beta2*-nAChR availability in patients with PD without clinically manifest dementia or depression compared with healthy volunteers. Reduced alpha4beta2*-nAChR binding in patients with PD within the subcortical and cortical regions is associated with the severity of mild cognitive or depressive symptoms. These results provide novel in vivo evidence for a role of the cholinergic neurotransmission in psychiatric comorbidity of PD.
Who are the First Users of a Newly-Emerging International Currency? A Demand-Side Study of Chinese Renminbi Internationalization

Who are the first users of a newly-internationalizing currency? This issue, crucial to understanding the dynamics of the emergence of a new international monetary order, remains long underexplored in the existing literature, which tends to adopt a supply-side approach analyzing mainly the international currency issuers. Our study addresses this important question, with a focus on the case of the Chinese renminbi, by employing a demand-side approach examining the international currency users through generalized ordered logistic regression analysis. Our primary argument is that a state hosting a major global financial center—a condition largely independent of influence from countries issuing international currencies—is likely to be more interested in enhancing its use of the renminbi, implying thereby that global financial institutions and the related inter-state rivalries among international currency users may play crucial roles in the shaping of a new international monetary order. We in addition find significant impacts on a state’s interest in renminbi use resulting from its institutional economic cooperation with China through a preferential trade agreement or a bilateral investment treaty, but that a country’s mere trade and investment integration with China does not meaningfully affect its government’s support for renminbi use.
Posttransfusion purpura secondary to an alloantibodyreactive with HPA‐5a (Brb)

BACKGROUND: Posttransfusion purpura (PTP) is characterized by severe thrombocytopenia following blood transfusion that results from alloimmunization to platelet‐specific alloantigens. Most cases involve antibodies against HPA‐1a in homozygous HPA‐1b persons.
Time-Frequency Methods for Diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease Using EEG: A Technical Review

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common form of Dementia prevailing in the old generation. This review paper aims to put forward different non-invasive methods and tools that are available for the diagnosis of people suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. It explains why Electroencephalography (EEG) signal analysis is considered a better method compared to others and also the safest one. Non-stationary and not deterministic nature of EEG signals make them difficult to be analyzed. This paper provides an introduction to various time-frequency domain methods which facilitate the analysis in both the domains together thus making it easier to analyze such signals. The paper also reviews several work done towards the improvement of biomarkers which can help in early detection of such neurodegenerative disorders. Several methods discussed in this paper can help to differentiate between a healthy control (HC) and one suffering from AD or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).
Effects of Aggrenox and aspirin on plasma endothelial nitric oxide synthase and oxidised low-density lipoproteins in patients after ischaemic stroke

Summary Plasma endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and oxidised low-density lipoproteins (oxLDL) are established biomarkers of atherosclerosis. We defined the time course and magnitude of changes of plasma eNOS and oxLDL after Aggrenox or aspirin in post-stroke patients. Baseline pretreatment eNOS levels were significantly diminished (110 ± 66pg /ml vs. 374 ± 88 pg/ml, p=0.0001), while oxLDL was twice higher (58 ± 9 mg/l vs. 23 ± 7 mg/l, p=0.004) in post-stroke survivors when compared to controls. Both Aggrenox and aspirin similarly increased plasma eNOS activity. However, oxLDL levels were static after aspirin, but inhibited late after Aggrenox. In the small randomised study, both aspirin and Aggrenox produced fast and sustained recovery of plasma eNOS levels, while only therapy with Aggrenox was associated with oxLDL inhibition late in the trial.
Expression analysis of estrogen receptor alpha coregulators in breast carcinoma: evidence that NCOR1 expression is predictive of the response to tamoxifen.

PURPOSE Dysregulated expression of steroid receptor transcriptional coactivators and corepressors has been implicated in tamoxifen resistance, especially in estrogen receptor (ER) alpha-positive breast cancer patients. Therefore, expression analysis of these ERalpha coregulators may identify new predictors of the response to tamoxifen treatment. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We measured mRNA levels of 16 coactivator and 11 corepressor genes with a real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR method in 14 ERalpha-positive breast tumors. Three selected coactivator genes (TIF2, AIB1, and GCN5L2) and two corepressor genes (NCOR1 and MTA1L1) were additionally investigated in a well-characterized series of ERalpha-positive unilateral invasive primary breast tumors from 99 postmenopausal patients who only received tamoxifen as adjuvant hormone therapy after primary surgery. We sought relationships between mRNA levels of the coregulators and those of molecular markers, including ERalpha, ERbeta, CCND1, and ERBB2. RESULTS ERalpha coregulator expression was unrelated to age, histological grade, lymph node status, and macroscopic tumor size. The relationship between mRNA expression of the coregulators, and ERalpha and beta only showed a significant positive correlation between GCN5L2 and ERalpha (P = 0.015). mRNA levels of CCND1 correlated with those of all of the coregulators studied (P < 0.05 or trend), whereas ERBB2 mRNA levels only correlated with AIB1 mRNA levels (P = 0.011). Low NCOR1 expression (versus intermediate and high) was associated with significantly shorter relapse-free survival (log-rank test; P = 0.0076). The prognostic significance of low NCOR1 expression persisted in Cox multivariate regression analysis (P = 0.043). CONCLUSIONS These findings point to NCOR1 as a promising independent predictor of tamoxifen resistance in patients with ERalpha-positive breast tumors.
CYP 2 D 6 Genotype and the Incidence of Anal and Vulvar Cancer 1

The risks of anal and vulvar cancer are strongly related to cigarette smoking. Smokers are exposed to a substantial quantity of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, including 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK). NNK is present in the mucus of the female genital tract. The enzyme debrisoquine 4-hydroxylase (CYP2D6) activates NNK and is present in foreskin kerotinocytes and cervical epithelial cells. A polymorphism for the geneCYP2D6exists, and persons who possess alleles that are associated with reduced levels of CYP2D6 activity might be expected to be at a relatively lower risk of cancers arising from NNK exposure. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a casecontrol study to examine the association of CYP2D6 genotype and the incidence of anal and vulvar cancer among cigarette smokers in western Washington State. We tested for 14 alleles ( *1–*12, *14, and *17) among cases (25 men and 43 women with anal cancer, 64 women with vulvar cancer) and controls (30 men and 110 women). Contrary to the hypothesis, cases were not less likely than controls to have one (43.9versus40.7%) or two (6.8 versus4.3%) inactivating alleles (*3, *4, *5, *6, *7, *8, *11, or *12). There was a suggestion that, if anything, the combined anal and vulvar cancer risk increased (rather than decreased) with an increasing number of CYP2D6inactivation alleles: odds ratio 5 1.2, 95% confidence interval 5 0.7–2.0 with one inactivating allele; odds ratio 5 1.8, 95% confidence interval5 0.6– 5.4 with two inactivating alleles. These results provide no support for the hypothesis that cigarette smokers who carry the CYP2D6alleles that result in a low activity phenotype have a decreased risk of anogenital cancer.
Long-term non-pharmacological weight loss interventions for adults with prediabetes.

BACKGROUND Most persons with prediabetes (impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose) are overweight, and obesity worsens the metabolic and physiologic abnormalities associated with this condition. Prediabetes is an important risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes. OBJECTIVES The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of dietary, physical activity, and behavioral weight loss, and weight control interventions for adults with prediabetes. SEARCH STRATEGY Studies were obtained from computerized searches of multiple electronic bibliographic databases, supplemented by hand searches of selected journals, and consultation with experts in obesity research. The last search was conducted May, 2004. SELECTION CRITERIA Studies were included if they were published or unpublished randomized controlled trials in any language and examined weight loss or weight control strategies using one or more dietary, physical activity, or behavioral interventions, with a follow-up interval of at least 12 months. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Effects were combined using a random-effects model. MAIN RESULTS Nine studies were identified, with a total of 5,168 participants. Follow-up ranged from 1 to 10 years. Quantitative synthesis was limited by the heterogeneity of populations, settings, and interventions and by the small number of studies that examined outcomes other than weight. Overall, in comparisons with usual care, four studies with a follow-up of one year reduced weight by 2.8 kg (95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.0 to 4.7) (3.3% of baseline body weight) and decreased body mass index by 1.3 kg/m(2) (95% CI 0.8 to 1.9). Weight loss at two years was 2.6 kg (95% CI 1.9 to 3.3) (three studies). Modest improvements were noted in the few studies that examined glycemic control, blood pressure, or lipid concentrations (P > 0.05). No data on quality of life or mortality were found. The incidence of diabetes was significantly lower in the intervention groups versus the controls in three of five studies examining this outcome at 3 to 6 years follow-up. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Overall, weight loss strategies using dietary, physical activity, or behavioral interventions produced significant improvements in weight among persons with prediabetes and a significant decrease in diabetes incidence. Further work is needed on the long-term effects of these interventions on morbidity and mortality and on how to implement these interventions in diverse community settings.
Executive Committee for Highway Safety

Task II – Fatal Trends Update Terry distributed fatal trend sheets showing the most recent data projections for 2007. As of now, the projected total number of fatalities for 2007 is 1,687. It was noted that 2007 was a terrible year in regards to fatal injuries and that hopefully, this was one of the “spikes” that can be seen if you look back in history. It was also discussed that most would be surprised if these numbers did not drop back off in 2008. A couple of areas in particular with drastic increases in fatalities were motorcycles (up 37%) and intersection related (up 32%). The ECHS has working groups established for both of these areas off concern and this sharp increase should be seen as a challenge as well as an opportunity for the members of each group to make improvements.