Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design of High Efficiency Integrated Voltage Regulators with Embedded Magnetic Core Inductors

Integrated voltage regulators (IVRs) are one of the main trends in power delivery networks (PDNs) for electronic systems. A major challenge in the IVR design is to achieve sufficient integration / minimization of the required passive components of the IVR while still maintaining high power efficiency. This paper demonstrates that a buck converter type IVR designed with package embedded magnetic core inductors can achieve a very high efficiency with a substantially reduced area requirement compared to "air core" inductors. For the final design, an analytical evaluation shows 91% power efficiency for a 1.7V:1.05V conversion. Moreover, a stacked topology of the power stage allows a direct 5V:1V conversion at 79.4% efficiency eliminating the need for a separate off-package voltage regulator.
Lifestyle interventions in the treatment of childhood overweight: a meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials.

CONTEXT Evaluating the efficacy of pediatric weight loss treatments is critical. OBJECTIVE This is the first meta-analysis of the efficacy of RCTs comparing pediatric lifestyle interventions to no-treatment or information/education-only controls. DATA SOURCES Medline, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Controlled Trials Register. STUDY SELECTION Fourteen RCTs targetting change in weight status were eligible, yielding 19 effect sizes. DATA EXTRACTION Standardized coding was used to extract information on design, participant characteristics, interventions, and results. DATA SYNTHESIS For trials with no-treatment controls, the mean effect size was 0.75 (k = 9, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.52-0.98) at end of treatment and 0.60 (k = 4, CI = 0.27-0.94) at follow-up. For trials with information/education-only controls, the mean ES was 0.48 (k = 4, CI = 0.13-0.82) at end of treatment and 0.91 (k = 2, CI = 0.32-1.50) at follow-up. No moderator effects were identified. CONCLUSIONS Lifestyle interventions for pediatric overweight are efficacious in the short term with some evidence for extended persistence. Future research is required to identify moderators and mediators and to determine the optimal length and intensity of treatment required to produce enduring changes in weight status.
Genetic analysis of Alzheimer's disease: A summary of contributions to GAW8

Participants in the Alzheimer's disease component of GAW8 had access to three collections of pedigrees, complete with marker data from chromosomes 19 and 21. There were a total of 94 independent pedigrees and more than 2,000 individuals. Onset of the disorder varied widely among pedigrees. These data are briefly summarized along with a discussion of the problems associated with performing genetic analyses of Alzheimer's disease. The majority of the workshop participants performed an analysis either with some of the data contributed to the workshop or with data simulated on pedigrees of the same structure and disease status as were contributed. There were also a few purely methodological contributions. The contributions are summarized in three general areas: family association and phenotype, linkage analysis, and heterogeneity tests. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The roles of CEO transformational leadership and organizational factors on product innovation performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect effects of CEO transformational leadership on product innovation performance. This research investigates the mechanism between CEO transformational leadership and product innovation performance, to understand the process through which transformational CEOs exert their influence. Design/methodology/approach This study is a quantitative research. Data were collected from 269 manufacturing firms in Thailand through a mail survey. This research applied a two-step structural equation modeling process. Findings The results indicate that CEO transformational leadership indirectly affects product innovation performance through an innovation culture, organizational learning, and the new product development (NPD) process. CEO transformational leadership has a strong effect on innovation culture and organizational learning. Organizational learning is strongly associated with the NPD process, which significantly leads to product innovation performance. By integrating the knowledge of leadership and operations management fields, this study helps extend the understanding of how leaders at the top of an organization influence the NPD process and product innovation outcomes. Practical implications For practical implications to be more effective, CEOs focusing on product innovation should develop their skills and behaviors of transformational leadership to foster innovation culture and organizational learning, which in turn will affect product innovation performance. Originality/value This study makes a contribution to the literature by filling the research gaps proposed by several prior studies and offering a theoretical framework of the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and product innovation performance.
Kritik als Ideologie: Selbstreflexion und Herrschaftsanteile der akademischen Linken

This contribution discusses recent debates on the adequate form of ‘critique’ with a meta-critical intention. Since the partisans of academic critique typically fail to account for the effects of their own institutional embeddedness, their methodological reflections neutralize oppositional demands and turn political struggle into a scholastic exercise. In an extension of this analysis, the article aims to show how the academic class over-estimates its potential for bringing about liberating political change, how it falsely generalizes its own conditions of existence, and how it really contributes to the justification of capitalist power structures. The suspicion that recent populist attacks on the ‘elite’ have a fundament in progressive-liberal coalitions thus finds support in the practice of progressive discourse.
Prevalence of depression and its associated factors using Beck Depression Inventory among students of a medical college in Karnataka

Background and Objective: Depression among medical students is an area of increasing concern worldwide. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of depression and its associated factors among medical students. Materials and Methods: A stratified random sample of 400 students was assessed using Beck Depression Inventory by investigators. Associations between depression and class of studying, social factors like alcohol use, drug addiction, family problems, family history of depression, and staying away from home were analyzed by univariate analysis. Results: The overall prevalence of depression was found to be 71.25%. Among those with depression, a majority (80%) had mild and moderate degree of depression. The study showed that 46.3% (132) of the depressed were females and 53.7% (153) were males. According to cut-off scores, 115 students (29.8%) scored as normal (0-9), 111 (27.8%) as mild (10-18), 117 (29.3%) as moderate (19-29), 30 (7.5%) as severe (30-40), and 27 (6.7%) as very severe (>40) depression. The prevalence of depression was comparatively less among 1st and 2nd year medical students (57% and 50%, respectively) and the difference between the grade of depression and year of studying was found to be significant (χ2=122, P<0.001). The prevalence was significantly more among those with family problems and family history of depression. Conclusion: Depression is highly prevalent among medical students in this area. Our findings point to the importance of broad screening and psychiatric counseling of this vulnerable population.
Positive Observers and Dynamic Output-Feedback Controllers for Interval Positive Linear Systems

This paper is concerned with the design of observers and dynamic output-feedback controllers for positive linear systems with interval uncertainties. The continuous-time case and the discrete-time case are both treated in a unified linear matrix inequality (LMI) framework. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of positive observers with general structure are established, and the desired observer matrices can be constructed easily through the solutions of LMIs. An optimization algorithm to the error dynamics is also given. Furthermore, the problem of positive stabilization by dynamic output-feedback controllers is investigated. It is revealed that an unstable positive system cannot be positively stabilized by a certain dynamic output-feedback controller without taking the positivity of the error signals into account. When the positivity of the error signals is considered, an LMI-based synthesis approach is provided to design the stabilizing controllers. Unlike other conditions which may require structural decomposition of positive matrices, all proposed conditions in this paper are expressed in terms of the system matrices, and can be verified easily by effective algorithms. Two illustrative examples are provided to show the effectiveness and applicability of the theoretical results.
Novel voltage controlled MRAM (VCM) with fast read/write circuits for ultra large last level cache

This paper presents voltage controlled MRAM (VCM) with novel fast read/write circuits for nonvolatile ultra-large last level cache. Further, write error rate has dramatically been reduced by thermal stability factor control using “continuous read-write-verify” scheme. Read error rate has also improved with “read-disturb-free non-destructive-self-reference read” with unipolar write of VCM.
Bis{2-[4-(methylsulfanyl)phenyl]-1H-benzimidazol-3-ium} tetrabromidocuprate(II) dihydrate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, (C14H13N2S)2[CuBr4]·2H2O, contains two cations, one anion and two solvent water molecules that are connected via O—H⋯Br, N—H⋯Br and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds into a two-dimensional polymeric structure. The cations are arranged in a head-to-tail fashion and form stacks along [100]. The central CuII atom of the anion is in a distorted tetrahedral environment.
Susceptibility of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to infection with Ehrlichia chaffeensis, the etiologic agent of human ehrlichiosis

Although more than 320 cases of human ehrlichiosis have been diagnosed in 27 states since 1986, the reservoir host or hosts remain unknown. Since antibodies reactive to Ehrlichia chaffeensis, the etiologic agent of human ehrlichiosis, have been found in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), we experimentally evaluated the susceptibilities of four white-tailed deer to infection with E. chaffeensis and Ehrlichia canis, a closely related species. A fifth deer served as a negative control. Isolation and nested PCR amplification results from peripheral blood indicated that E. chaffeensis circulated for at least 2 weeks. The deer developed antibodies to E. chaffeensis by day 10 after inoculation, but there was no indication of clinical disease. Immunohistochemical staining identified E. chaffeensis within macrophage-type cells in lymph nodes. The deer inoculated with E. canis did not become infected and did not seroconvert. These results indicate that white-tailed deer can support an E. chaffeensis infection with resulting rickettsemia of at least 2 weeks. The resistance to infection and the absence of seroconversion upon exposure to E. canis indicate that antibody responses previously detected among wild deer are not E. canis cross-reactions. The role of deer as competent reservoirs in the life cycle of E. chaffeensis remains to be explored with suspected tick vectors.
Evaluation of viral antibodies in Iranian multiple sclerosis patients.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the viral antibodies in new Iranian multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. METHODS In a cross-sectional study, sera from 61 MS patients and 60 healthy individuals were collected from January 2009 to March 2010 in the Immunology Department of Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran, and examined for the presence of the anti-Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6), measles, mumps, and para-influenza viruses IgG and IgM using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or immunofluorescence. RESULTS There were significant differences between the MS patients and the healthy individuals (controls) in the seroprevalence of anti-HHV-6 IgM (odds ratio [OR]=4.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]=2-9.3, p=0.001); anti-HHV-6 IgG (OR=2, 95% CI=1-4, p=0.04); anti-measles IgM (OR=3.2, 95% CI=1.5-6.9, p=0.002); and the anti-mumps IgM (OR=4.1, 95% CI=1.9-8.8, p=0.0001) and IgG (OR=9.5, 95% CI=3-29.6, p=0.0001). Almost all MS patients and the control individuals were negative to EBV and parainfluenza IgM. CONCLUSION These results confirm an association between the incidence of MS and the antibodies to HHV-6 and the measles and mumps viruses, and show induction of a primary immune response (IgM), or virus reactivation, in MS patients. These viruses may have an important role in development of MS as an initial trigger in this geographical area.
The effects of treating lower urinary tract symptoms on health-related quality of life: a short-term outcome.

OBJECTIVES This study examined the effects of treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) on the health-related quality of life (physical/functional, mental, social and global aspect), pain and prostatic symptoms. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study consisted of 123 LUTS patients on medical treatment (alpha blockers) and 52 who underwent surgical treatment (TURP). The patients were assessed one week before and three months after medical and surgical treatment by using the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL-20), the Visual Analogue Scale of Pain (VAS), the Present Pain Intensity (PPI) and the International Prostate Symptom Score (I-PSS) inventories and questionnaires. RESULTS Prior to treatment, the surgically treated patients were found to suffer more pain, severe prostatic symptoms, bothersomeness and deterioration in health-related quality of life than the medically treated patients. Postoperatively, the surgical group showed a significant reduction and improvement in all aspects of pain, prostatic symptoms, bothersomeness and overall health-related quality of life, as compared with the medication group. The mean ages of the surgical and medical treated groups were 69.56 years (SD=7.94 years) and 64.62 years (SD=7.94 years) respectively. CONCLUSIONS The result showed that operative procedure had significantly improved the overall health-related quality of life of LUTS patients compared to those on medical treatment.
A novel route for the production of chitosan/poly(lactide-co-glycolide) graft copolymers for electrospinning

Both chitosan and polylactide/polyglycolide have good biocompatibility and can be used to produce tissue engineering scaffolds for cultured cells. However the synthetic scaffolds lack groups that would facilitate their modification, whereas chitosan has extensive active amide and hydroxyl groups which would allow it to be subsequently modified for the attachment of peptides, proteins and drugs. Also chitosan is very hydrophilic, whereas PLGA is relatively hydrophobic. Accordingly there are many situations where it would be ideal to have a copolymer of both, especially one that could be electrospun to provide a versatile range of scaffolds for tissue engineering. Our aim was to develop a novel route of chitosan-g-PLGA preparation and evaluate the copolymers in terms of their chemical characterization, their performance on electrospinning and their ability to support the culture of fibroblasts as an initial biological evaluation of these scaffolds. Chitosan was first modified with trimethylsilyl chloride, and catalyzed by dimethylamino pyridine. PLGA-grafted chitosan copolymers were prepared by reaction with end-carboxyl PLGA (PLGA–COOH). FT-IR and1H-NMR characterized the copolymer molecular structure as being substantially different to that of the chitosan or PLGA on their own. Elemental analysis showed an average 18 pyranose unit intervals when PLGA–COOH was grafted into the chitosan molecular chain. Differential scanning calorimetry results showed that the copolymers had different thermal properties from PLGA and chitosan respectively. Contact angle measurements demonstrated that copolymers became more hydrophilic than PLGA. The chitosan-g-PLGA copolymers were electrospun to produce either nano- or microfibers as desired. A 3D fibrous scaffold of the copolymers gave good fibroblast adhesion and proliferation which did not differ significantly from the performance of the cells on the chitosan or PLGA electrospun scaffolds. In summary this work presents a methodology for making a hybrid material of natural and synthetic polymers which can be electrospun and reacts well as a substrate for cell culture.
A 135–150 GHz frequency quadrupler with 0.5 dBm peak output power in 55 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology

A millimeter-wave frequency quadrupler implemented in BiCMOS 55 nm process from STMicroelectronics for in situ load-pull D band characterization is proposed. The circuit consists on cascaded doublers with intermediate power amplifiers to increase the output power. Two high-pass filters allow the rejection of the first and 2nd harmonics to obtain pure 4th harmonic output frequency. The measured peak output power is 0.5 dBm at 150 GHz with 14 GHz 3dB bandwidth and a DC power consumption of 0.63W. A good agreement between measurement and simulation results is observed.
Potential mechanism of interleukin‐8 production from lung cancer cells: An involvement of EGF–EGFR–PI3K–Akt–Erk pathway

Tumor inflammatory microenvironment is considered to play the role in the sensitivity of tumor cells to therapies and prognosis of lung cancer patients. Interleukin‐8 (IL‐8) is one of critical chemo‐attractants responsible for leukocyte recruitment, cancer proliferation, and angiogenesis. The present study aimed at investigating potential mechanism of IL‐8 production from human non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) SPC‐A1 cells. We initially found that EGF could directly stimulate IL‐8 production, proliferation, and bio‐behaviors of lung cancer cells through the activation of EGFR, PI3K, Akt, and Erk signal pathway. EGF‐stimulated IL‐8 production, phosphorylation of Akt and Erk, and cell proliferation and movement could be inhibited by EGFR inhibitor (Erlotinib), PI3K inhibitor (GDC‐0941 BEZ‐235 and SHBM1009), and ERK1/2 inhibitor (PD98059). Our data indicate that IL‐8 production from lung cancer cells could be initiated by their own produced factors, leading to the recruitment of inflammatory cells in the cancer tissue, and the formation of inflammatory microenvironment. Thus, it seems that the signal pathway of EGFR–PI3K–Akt–Erk can be the potential target of therapies for inflammatory microenvironment in lung cancer. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 35–43, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Random Walks and Market Efficiency in Chinese and Indian Equity Markets

Hypothesis of Market Efficiency is an important concept for the investors across the globe holding diversified portfolios. With the world economy getting more integrated day by day, more people are investing in global emerging markets. This means that it is pertinent to understand the efficiency of these markets. This paper tests for market efficiency by studying the impact of global financial crisis of 2008 and the recent Chinese crisis of 2015 on stock market efficiency in emerging stock markets of China and India. The data for last 20 years was collected from both Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE200) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index and divided into four sub-periods, i.e. before financial crisis period (period-I), during recession (period-II), after recession and before Chinese Crisis (periodIII) and from the start of Chinese crisis till date (period- IV). Daily returns for the SSE and BSE were examined and tested for randomness using a combination of auto correlation tests, runs tests and unit root tests (Augmented Dickey-Fuller) for the entire sample period and the four sub-periods. The evidence from all these tests supports that both the Indian and Chinese stock markets do not exhibit weak form of market efficiency. They do not follow random walk overall and in the first three periods (1996 till the 2015) implying that recession did not impact the markets to a great extent, although the efficiency in percentage terms seems to be increasing after the global financial crisis of 2008.
Septin-Dependent Assembly of a Cell Cycle-Regulatory Module in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT Saccharomyces cerevisiae septin mutants have pleiotropic defects, which include the formation of abnormally elongated buds. This bud morphology results at least in part from a cell cycle delay imposed by the Cdc28p-inhibitory kinase Swe1p. Mutations in three other genes (GIN4, encoding a kinase related to the Schizosaccharomyces pombe mitotic inducer Nim1p; CLA4, encoding a p21-activated kinase; andNAP1, encoding a Clb2p-interacting protein) also produce perturbations of septin organization associated with an Swe1p-dependent cell cycle delay. The effects of gin4, cla4, and nap1 mutations are additive, indicating that these proteins promote normal septin organization through pathways that are at least partially independent. In contrast, mutations affecting the other two Nim1p-related kinases in S. cerevisiae, Hsl1p and Kcc4p, produce no detectable effect on septin organization. However, deletion of HSL1, but not of KCC4, did produce a cell cycle delay under some conditions; this delay appears to reflect a direct role of Hsl1p in the regulation of Swe1p. As shown previously, Swe1p plays a central role in the morphogenesis checkpoint that delays the cell cycle in response to defects in bud formation. Swe1p is localized to the nucleus and to the daughter side of the mother bud neck prior to its degradation in G2/M phase. Both the neck localization of Swe1p and its degradation require Hsl1p and its binding partner Hsl7p, both of which colocalize with Swe1p at the daughter side of the neck. This localization is lost in mutants with perturbed septin organization, suggesting that the release of Hsl1p and Hsl7p from the neck may reduce their ability to inactivate Swe1p and thus contribute to the G2 delay observed in such mutants. In contrast, treatments that perturb actin organization have little effect on Hsl1p and Hsl7p localization, suggesting that such treatments must stabilize Swe1p by another mechanism. The apparent dependence of Swe1p degradation on localization of the Hsl1p-Hsl7p-Swe1p module to a site that exists only in budded cells may constitute a mechanism for deactivating the morphogenesis checkpoint when it is no longer needed (i.e., after a bud has formed).
Characterization of textile electrodes and conductors using standardized measurement setups

Textile electrodes and conductors are being developed and used in different monitoring scenarios, such as ECG or bioimpedance spectroscopy measurements. Compared to standard materials, conductive textile materials offer improved wearing comfort and enable long-term measurements. Unfortunately, the development and investigation of such materials often suffers from the non-reproducibility of the test scenarios. For example, the materials are generally tested on human skin which is difficult since the properties of human skin differ for each person and can change within hours. This study presents two test setups which offer reproducible measurement procedures for the systematic analysis of textile electrodes and conductors. The electrode test setup was designed with a special skin dummy which allows investigation of not only the electrical properties of textile electrodes but also the contact behavior between electrode and skin. Using both test setups, eight textile electrodes and five textile conductors were analyzed and compared.