Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a multichannel integrated circuit for Silicon Photo-Multiplier arrays readout

El objetivo de esta tesis es la presentacion de una solucion para la lectura de matrices de Fotomultiplicadores de Silicio (SiPMs) mejorando otras implementaciones actuales. Utilizando como punto de partida otros prototipos y disenos actuales para finalidades parecidas se ha disenado i comprobado el funcionamiento de un nuevo circuit integrado. Inicialmente se inicio el trabajo estudiando las caracteristicas de los sensores, teniendo en cuenta que ventajas e inconvenientes presentavan respecto a otras tecnologias. Una vez estudiadas sus caracteristicas se implemento un modelo para simular la senal que presenta el dispositvo para varios estimulos. De esta forma se puede reproducir esta senal durante el diseno de la electronica de procesado. Estudiando varias implementaciones se llego a los requerimientos adecuados a implementar en un nuevo prototipo para optimizar al maximo los siguientes factores: rango dinamico, ancho de banda, consumo e impedancia de entrada. Ademas se verifico que la tension en el nodo de entrada debe ser regulable para equalizar distintos dispositivos y que es deseable no tener ningun elemento de conexion entre el sensor y la electronica de lectura. Dicha implementacion se llevo a cabo con el diseno de una nueva topologia de etapa de entrada con una doble realimentacion, novedosa en su diseno y obteniendo las prestaciones requeridas. Se ha implementado un prototipo de 16 canales para su utilizacion en fisica medica, mas concretamente escaneres tipo PET y un primer prototipo basico para su futura integracion en la electronica renovada del detector de particulas SciFi en LHCb (CERN). Los dos prototipos utilizan la misma etapa de entrada pero estan implementados en dos tecnologias de caracteristicas muy distintas y con unos requerimientos muy distintos. Estos requerimientos y la concreta implementacion se detallan en la tesis. Finalmente en el diseno para PET se concretan las medidas realizadas sobre el dispositivo mientras que en el prototipo para el detector de particulas aun se encuentra en la fase de fabricacion. Los resultados obtenidos del prototipo indican que puede ser utilizado en un escaner del tipo PET ya que ofrece una excelente informacion del tiempo de llegada de las senales asi como una medida adequada de la energia depositada en los sensores. Se ha comprobado su funcionamiento con una caracterizacion electrica de todos los parametros necesarios y se ha complementado con medidas reales (con sensores y fuentes radioactivas).
The Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002

Issue: The Electricity Supply Regulations 1988 (as amended), made under section 29 of the Electricity Act 1989 by virtue of the transitional provisions in Schedule 17 of the Act, serve to protect the public from dangers associated with the equipment of electricity companies, and to maintain continuity of supply and power quality standards for the benefit of all consumers. However with the break up of the electricity supply industry since privatisation and separation of businesses under the Utilities Act 2000 into distribution and supply undertakings, the existing Regulations are becoming increasingly outdated and need to be revised to ensure ongoing protection of the public and continuity of supply in all circumstances.
Effective treatment of frontal hyperhidrosis with botulinum toxin A

Background Focal hyperhidrosis is a common condition mostly confined to the axillae, palms and soles. In some individuals, predominantly men, increased sweating of the forehead may be the major complaint and may interfere with the person’s quality of life. Botulinum toxin A has been shown to be a very effective treatment for focal hyperhidrosis of the axillae and palms.
Elementary School Data Issues: Implications for Research Using Value-Added Models

This working paper compares teacher/student links that have undergone a roster confirmation processâ€”whereby teachers verify the subjects and students they taughtâ€”to teacher/student links from unconfirmed administrative data. Due to the departmentalization of instruction in math and reading/English language arts in grades 4 and 5, about one in six teachers in these grades and subjects is linked in the unconfirmed data to a subject that he or she does not teach. The authors discuss the circumstances in which using unconfirmed teacher/student links in value-added models most affect research.
Management of textile wastewater for improving growth and yield of field mustard (Brassica campestris L.)

ABSTRACT Disposal of industrial wastewater is a current issue of urbanization. However, this problem can be sorted out by using wastewater as an alternate source of irrigation after the addition of some amendment. In this way, the problem of disposal of wastewater not only will be resolved but also scarcity of irrigation water can be kept off in the future. The current research study was performed to evaluate the influence of different concentrations of wastewater along with canal water for enhancing growth and yield of field mustard. Plants were irrigated with different mixtures of canal water and wastewater (75:25, 50:50, 25:75, and 00:100) in addition to canal water as control. The results revealed that application of 50:50% waste and canal water improved plant height, the number of pods plant−1, pod length, root length, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, 100 grain weight, grain and biomass yield plant−1, and nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium concentration in grain and straw up to 16%, 15%, 17%, 29%, 15%, 56%, 25%, 41%, 35%, 20%, 52%, 45%, 20%, 44%, and 42%, respectively, over positive control treatment. While, nutrient uptakes and agronomic efficiency of fertilizers also improved by the application of 50:50% canal and wastewater compared to positive control treatment. Furthermore, the concentration of heavy metals, predominantly Cr, Cu, Cd, and Pb, was reduced in grains by application of 50% canal water and 50% wastewater. The outcomes suggest that wastewater utilization along with canal water mixing might be an effective approach for enhancing growth and yield of field mustard.
Does Conservation Agriculture Change Labour Requirements? Evidence of Sustainable Intensification in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Population growth, increasing wealth and changing diets require agriculture in Sub‐Saharan Africa to intensify to meet future food demand and ensure food security in the region. Conservation agriculture can increase yields in the long run and reduce the negative environmental impacts of intensive farming. In changing the mix of resources used and how they are managed, the adoption of conservation agriculture can have a direct impact on farm labour. We study the relationship between conservation agriculture and labour input requirements as observed in five Sub‐Saharan African countries. We focus on the amount of work required and the source of the work employed (household or hired, by gender, by children and by production stage). We apply multinomial endogenous switching regression models on a panel of household and farm data from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. We find that conservation agriculture increases farms’ labour input requirements. Higher demand is driven by more work during the harvesting and threshing stages. Increases in labour requirements are usually met by household labour, not paid work. The workload change is also higher for women than for men, and, in certain cases, is met by children.
The Dependence of the Visual Numerosity Limit on Orientation, Colour, and Grouping in the Stimulus

Visual numerosity judgements were made for tachistoscopically presented arrays of dots. The arrangement within the arrays was either linear or such that dots could be easily perceptually subdivided into two groups. Subdivision was either in terms of an orientation difference, a colour difference, or a spacing difference in the centre of the array. For a large difference in orientation between the two ‘arms’ of the array (90°), or a large central space (three times the interdot interval) up to 8 dots were accurately perceived. This numerosity limit was twice that found for equivalent linear arrays, with no grouping. Although in terms of accuracy it seems that in these conditions the two groups within each array can be counted independently, there is no evidence for independent processing in terms of response times. From the results of a subsidiary experiment it seems likely that the slow response times in the subgrouping conditions are due to the necessity of processes other than counting (such as judgements of symmetry). For arrays where subgrouping was in terms of a colour difference, or an orientation difference of between approximately 45° and 90°, or a small central space of twice the interdot interval, there was an improvement in accuracy compared to equivalent linear arrays, but no evidence of independent processing, up to a limit of 4, in each of the subgroups. From these preliminary results, tentative proposals concerning ‘numerosity’ units and their properties are made.
Modelo CFD para el estudio del bienestar térmico en una habitación con techo refrigerante

De entre el extenso catalogo de sistemas de climatizacion, el techo refrigerante se postula como uno de los mas adecuados a la hora de acondicionar espacios. Esto es asi, en tanto que se trata de un sistema capaz de proporcionar elevados niveles de bienestar termico. Asimismo, demanda menos energia que otros sistemas, ya que funciona con agua solo ligeramente fria (en torno a 15oC). La transferencia de calor entre techo refrigerante y el local acondicionado esta dominada por conveccion natural y radiacion entre superficies. Es por ello que, el objetivo ultimo del presente estudio radica en analizar dichos mecanismos de transmision del calor. Conocidos los fundamentos teoricos que gobiernan la conveccion natural, se hace uso de la simulacion con codigo CFD como herramienta para determinar el campo fluidotermico de un espacio acondicionado mediante techo refrigerante. La primera parte de este estudio consiste, pues, en validar con datos experimentales un modelo CFD que describa correctamente la realidad. En la segunda parte, se aplica el modelo computacional previamente validado al estudio de los niveles de bienestar termico en una habitacion hospitalaria individual. En base a la norma ISO 7730 se determinan los indices de confort en ella definidos: voto medio estimado (PMV), porcentaje estimado de insatisfechos (PPD) y porcentaje de insatisfechos por asimetria radiante. Se observa que para distintas condiciones de temperatura exterior se alcanzan elevados niveles de bienestar con temperaturas moderadas en el techo refrigerante.
Interactions entre la supraconductivité et la criticité quantique, dans les composés CeCoIn5, URhGe et UCoGe

Le sujet de cette these est l'analyse du second champ critique supraconducteur (Hc2) ainsi que l'interaction entre la supraconductivite et les points critiques quantiques (PCQ), pour les composes CeCoIn5, URhGe et UCoGe. Dans le compose CeCoIn5, l'etude par resistivite du domaine de liquide de Fermi a permis la localisation precise du PCQ a pression ambiante. Cette analyse permet d'invalider l'hypothese d'une coincidence entre Hc2(0) et le PCQ. Dans une deuxieme partie, l'evolution sous pression de Hc2 est analysee. Le dome supraconducteur de ce compose est non-conventionnel avec deux pressions caracteristiques differentes: a ~1.6GPa, la temperature de transition supraconductrice est maximum alors que c'est a ~0.4GPa que la plupart des grandeurs physiques (maximum de Hc2(0), maximum de la pente dHc2/dT, maximum du saut de chaleur specifique DC/C, . ) suggerent la presence d'un PCQ. Nous expliquons cet antagonisme par l'importance des processus de brisure de pairs lies a la proximite du PCQ. Ces deux observations nous permettent de proposer un nouveau diagramme de phase pour CeCoIn5. Dans une troisieme partie, les mesures de conduction thermique sur les composes URhGe et UCoGe sont presentees. Elles nous permettent dans un premier temps d'obtenir la transition "bulk" supraconductrice et de confirmer la forme in-habituelle de Hc2 observee en resistivite. La dependance en temperatures et en champs de la conduction thermique nous permet d'identifier une contribution non-electronique au transport de chaleur jusqu'aux plus basses temperatures. D'autre part, nous identifions deux differents domaines supraconducteurs a bas et hauts champs appliques selon l'axe b. Ces deux domaines sont compatibles avec un modele de supraconductivite multigaps. Suivant ces observations et des mesures de pouvoir thermoelectrique, nous proposons un modele de transition de Lifshitz pour ces deux composes.
Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in Percutaneous Coronary Interventions: Pathogenesis, Risk Factors, Outcome, Prevention and Treatment

Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is a well-known adverse event of therapeutic and diagnostic procedures requiring the adminstration of contrast medium (CM). The lack of a universal CIN definition and glomerular filtration rate markers that vary have resulted in a variety of reported incidences. The development of CIN is associated with an increase in the length of hospital stay and the risk of death. Preexisting renal dysfunction, age, diabetes, congestive heart failure and the volume of CM administered are all associated with a risk for developing CIN. The literature suggests the use of low-osmolarity CM and supports volume supplementation before administration. Moreover, other strategies to avoid CIN, including treatment with N-acetylcisteine and sodium bicarbonate have variable levels of evidence. This review examines the main components of the pathogenesis and risk factors of CIN and possible preventive measures and therapies.
Memory impairment in humans after bilateral damage to lateral temporal neocortex

The hippocampus and its adjacent medial temporal regions are crucial for episodic memory. However, it is far less obvious whether other temporal regions beyond the medial part are important for memory processing. The memory performance of a group of patients with bilateral lesions over the lateral temporal lobe sparing the hippocampus was assessed and compared with that of patients with relatively spared cortex and patients with bilateral damage to the lateral temporal lobe and the hippocampus. The results demonstrate that bilateral damage to the lateral temporal lobe results in memory impairment across verbal and visual modalities.
Depressive Symptoms Among Women Receiving Welfare

SUMMARY Using data from an ongoing study of welfare recipients and their preschool-aged children, this study examined levels and correlates of self-reported depressive symptoms, and factors predicting transition off welfare assistance, among 173 low-income, single, African American mothers. Forty percent reported symptom levels that are likely to indicate a diagnosis of clinical depression, and very few had received any mental health services. Mothers who had lived as children in households that received AFDC, who had received AFDC themselves for more than five years, who perceived less social support to be available to them, and who reported more life stressors, had significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms. Controlling for these factors associated with depression, women with higher symptom levels were slightly less likely to stop receiving AFDC for some period of time over the two years of the study, but were no less likely to work or attend school. Implications of these findings for the development of programs and services for families on welfare are discussed.
Information kiosk system by cooperation between agents and experts using situation adaptive scenarios

Recently, in Japanese convenience stores, kiosk terminals have started providing customers with travel and ticket sales services with operators by phone. However, these systems have many problems: customers often make mistakes in operating kiosk systems and in calling experts, and children often play with the terminal and make unnecessary calls to experts. We propose an information kiosk system where service providers can control the telecommunication channels by the cooperation between agents and experts. This system uses three kinds of agents: a kiosk agent, a manager agent and an expert agent. Our proposed system allows experts to effectively and politely deal with customers in a timely manner. We designed the structure of a prototype system based on this proposal, and we clarified problems for the implementation of this system.
Selective Decontamination of the Digestive Tract (SDD), a standard of care

Richard E Sarginson, Andy J Petros, Nia Taylor, Mark A Fox, Ian Weir, Luciano Silvestri, Hendrick KF van Saene, Miguel Angel de la Cal Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia, RLCNHS Trust Alder Hey, Eaton Road, Liverpool L12 2AP Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3JH School of Clinical Sciences, Duncan Building, Daulby Street, Liverpool L69 3GA Department of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia, The Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Thomas Drive, Liverpool L14 3PE Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, London Chest Hospital, London F2 9JX Department of Emergency, Unit of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Presidio Ospedaliero, Gorizia, Italy School of Clinical Sciences, Duncan Building, Daulby Street, Liverpool L69 3GA; Tel: 00 44 151 706 4923; Fax: 00 44 151 706 5803; Email: nia.taylor@liv.ac. uk Department of intensive Care, University Hospital of Getafe, Getafe Spain
Sorry, We Don't Carry That Here

Retailers vary considerably in many dimensions, including the variety and selection of the products that they offer. In this paper we argue that the availability of energy-efficient products in retailers is shaped by market forces that often favor horizontal characteristics like convenience or geographic variety over vertical characteristics like product variety and energy efficiency. Specifically, we find evidence that stores carrying more energy-efficient products are located in neighborhoods in which consumers have low travel costs and care relatively more about product selection than convenience. The paper is one of the first to describe this equilibrium trade off between vertical and horizontal product differentiation and to find empirical evidence that supports it.
Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Continuing to evolve.

In the 2003 issue of The Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases, the emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as a community-acquired pathogen in Canada was reviewed (1). This followed reports of severe, invasive community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections in children in Minnesota and North Dakota (USA), and recognition of its role as a pathogen in several Canadian outbreaks. The emergence of CA-MRSA as a pathogen of epidemiological significance in Canada prompted a meeting in 2005 sponsored by the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Canadian Committee on Antibiotic Resistance, that made recommendations for its prevention and management; it was published in the Journal in 2006 (2). Since then, research has produced evidence that supports previous findings, challenges others and introduces new ones. Of particular interest is the appearance of CA-MRSA as a nosocomial pathogen, and the potential for its genetic intermingling with its hospital-acquired counterpart (HA-MRSA).
Generating Personality Character in a Face Robot through Interaction with Human

For the human-robot communicative interaction, it is difficult to design robots behavior which is preferable to human. In this paper, therefore, we propose an approach to personality characterization of the face robot generated by reinforcement learning with human instruction, and investigate its characteristics from some real human-robot interaction. We found that the face robot personality character is generated through communicative interaction learning done by human partner’s instruction and pointed out the importance of the learning algorithm and human instruction procedure.
Maternal and Newborn Seroprevalence of Hepatitis E virus at Medani Hospital, Sudan

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection can lead to adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes and is a risk for mortality in pregnant women. There are few published data on the seroepidemiology of HEV infection in pregnant women and none are available from Sudan specifically. A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the seroepidemiology of anti-HEV Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies in mothers and newborns in Medani Hospital, Sudan. Socio-demographic, clinical and obstetric characteristics of the women were gathered using questionnaires. Anti-HEV IgG antibodies were investigated in the paired maternal and newborn sera using an enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA). Two hundred and nine women were enrolled to the study. The mean (SD) of their age, parity and gestational age was 27.5 (5.5) years, 2.2(1.5) and 38.8 (1.8) weeks, respectively. Out of these 209, 25 (12.5%) women had a positive result for anti-HEV IgG and two (1.0%) newborns had a positive result for anti-HEV IgG.In logistic regression none of the investigated factors (age, parity, gestational age, residency and education) were associated with anti-HEV IgG seropositivity. There is a high seroprevalence of HEV among pregnant women in central Sudan regardless of their age, parity and gestational age. Optimal preventive measures against HEV infection should be employed.
Is There a Bene fi t to Prolonging the Interval Between Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation and Esophagectomy in Esophageal Cancer ?

Background. Evidence suggests that delaying surgical procedures may increase the rate of pathologic complete response (pCR) and that pCR is associated with improved overall survival (OS). In this study, the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) was analyzed to evaluate this relationship in a large hospital-based registry. Methods. We identified patients diagnosed with esophageal adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma who received neoadjuvant chemoradiation (CRT) followed by esophagectomy from 2003 to 2012. Patients were stratified into quartiles based on the interval between the completion of CRT to operative treatment (£40 days, 41– 50 days, 51–63 days, and ‡64 days), and those with pT0N0M0 were classified as having pCR. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the impact of covariates on pCR, and multivariate Cox regression was used to assess their impact on OS. Results. The study population included 5,393 patients. Increasing the time interval to the surgical
Inhibition of Poly ( ADP-ribose ) polymerase – PARP

Inhibition of the DNA repair enzyme PARP-1 has been xtensively investigated in the pre-clinical setting as a strategy for chemoor ra dio-potentiation. Recent evidence has suggested that PARP inhibitors may be active as single agents in certain rare inherited cancers which carry DNA repair defects. Potent PARP-1 inhibitors have entered early clinical trials in cancer patients in the last 3 years and the final results of these trials are awaited.