Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Light emission, light detection and strain sensing with nanocrystalline graphene

Graphene is of increasing interest for optoelectronic applications exploiting light detection, light emission and light modulation. Intrinsically, the light–matter interaction in graphene is of a broadband type. However, by integrating graphene into optical micro-cavities narrow-band light emitters and detectors have also been demonstrated. These devices benefit from the transparency, conductivity and processability of the atomically thin material. To this end, we explore in this work the feasibility of replacing graphene with nanocrystalline graphene, a material which can be grown on dielectric surfaces without catalyst by graphitization of polymeric films. We have studied the formation of nanocrystalline graphene on various substrates and under different graphitization conditions. The samples were characterized by resistance, optical transmission, Raman and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and electron microscopy measurements. The conducting and transparent wafer-scale material with nanometer grain size was also patterned and integrated into devices for studying light–matter interaction. The measurements show that nanocrystalline graphene can be exploited as an incandescent emitter and bolometric detector similar to crystalline graphene. Moreover the material exhibits piezoresistive behavior which makes nanocrystalline graphene interesting for transparent strain sensors.
What do programmers know about the energy consumption of software?

Traditionally, programmers have received a wide range of training on programming languages and methodologies, but rarely about software energy consumption. Yet, the popularity of mobile devices and cloud computing require increased awareness about software energy consumption. On a mobile device, computation is often limited by the battery life. Under the demands of cloud computing, data centers struggle to reduce energy consumption through virtualization and data center infrastructure management (DCIM) systems. Efficient energy consumption of software is increasingly becoming an important non-functional requirement for programmers. However, are programmers knowledgeable enough about software energy consumption? Do programmers base their implementation decision on popular beliefs? In this article, we survey over 100 programmers for their knowledge of software energy consumption. We find that programmers have limited knowledge about energy efficiency, lack knowledge about the best practices to reduce energy consumption of software, and are often unsure about how software consumes energy. Education about the importance of energy effective software will benefit the programmers. Our results highlight the need for training about energy consumption and efficiency.
Dual- and Wideband Fabry–Pérot Resonator Antenna for WLAN Applications

This letter presents a new design for a dual- and wide-band Fabry–Pérot cavity resonator antenna with improved radiation bandwidth. The proposed antenna provides a wideband 3-dB gain bandwidth over the 2.4- and 5-GHz frequency bands for wireless local area network applications. A double-layered periodic partially reflective surface with a dual-band response is designed to provide a quasi-optimal reflection phase with high reflectivity at the two desired frequency bands. Experimental results demonstrate that the antenna has a 3-dB gain bandwidth of almost 7% and 11% with peak gains of 14.9 and 14.2 dBi over the frequencies range of 2.42–2.6 GHz and 5.2–5.8 GHz, respectively. Moreover, measured impedance bandwidths are 16% and 11.7% for the two bands of interest. The proposed antenna has a smaller lateral size compared to the dual-band conventional antenna designs.
Reduced Contact Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Adult Depression: A Review

ABSTRACT Depression is a highly prevalent and debilitating mental health condition. Evidence suggests that there is a widening gap between the demand for and availability of effective treatments. As such, there is a vast need for the development and dissemination of accessible and affordable treatments for depression. In the past decade, there has been a proliferation of reduced client-therapist contact protocols for depression. In this article, the authors review and compare the efficacy of reduced contact cognitive-behavioral interventions for adult depression across two degrees of therapist-client contact (i.e., no therapist-client contact versus minimal therapist-client contact interventions). The authors also discuss the methodological and theoretical limitations of this research base. The present review suggests that a) reduced contact interventions for depression can be effective in remediating the symptoms of depression; b) the effect sizes of some reduced contact protocols may approximate those reported in traditional protocols involving significantly greater client-therapist contact; and c) protocols which employ some form of client-therapist contact, on average, generate higher effect sizes than those that are purely self-help in nature. A discussion of the theoretical and applied implications of such findings, as well as areas in need of further research, is provided.
Alphabétisme et alphabétisation des francophones au Canada : résultats de l'Enquête internationale sur l'alphabétisation des adultes (EIAA)

La Federation canadienne pour l'alphabetisation en francais (FCAF) a dirige cette etude en se basant sur des donnees tirees de l'Enquete internationale sur l'alphabetisation des adultes (EIAA). L'auteur compare l'alphabetisme des francophones du Quebec et du Canada avec celui des anglophones canadiens, particulierement dans le contexte des transferts linguistiques du francais a l'anglais. Les conclusions de l'etude portent sur les divers facteurs qui influencent le processus d'alphabetisme des francophones.
Introducing a New Junior Doctor Electronic Weekend Handover on an Orthopaedic Ward

Junior Doctors working on the Orthopaedic wards at a district general hospital identified the lack of a formal weekend handover. The Royal Colleges,GMC and Foundation Programme curriculum all emphasise the importance of a safe and effective handover. Doctors found that the current system of using a written, paper-based handover was unreliable, un-legible, and inefficient. Baseline measurements were sought in the form of a questionnaire which allowed us to obtain the limitations to the current handover. After this and a focus group, a new electronic, ‘Microsoft Word’ based handover was created and a repeat surgery issued in 2 weeks. Further PDSA cycles over the course of 8 weeks helped to improve and implement the new handover. The overall rating, out of 10, of the new handover increased from 3.4 to 8. Doctors felt the new handover was safer for patients and could be used as a tool for reviewing or referring patients. This project describes the use of a simple, cost-effective intervention that helped to improve patient safety and staff satisfaction.
Study of the focused laser spots generated by various polarized laser beam conditions

In this work, three‐dimensional near‐field imaging of the focused laser spot was studied theoretically and experimentally. In the theoretical simulation, we use the electromagnetic equivalent of the vectorial Kirchhoff diffraction integral to calculate the intensity distribution of the focal region, and a high depolarization is found in high numerical aperture systems (NA = 0.85). The experimental set‐up is based on a near‐field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) system. A high‐NA objective lens is used to focus incident light of various polarizations, and a tapered near‐field optical fibre probe of the NSOM system is used to determine the intensity of the focal field. The results show an asymmetric distribution of the focused intensity with the linear polarized laser beam.
A 135-frames/s 1080p 87.5-mW Binary-Descriptor-Based Image Feature Extraction Accelerator

Binary image descriptors, which derive image feature description from the local image patches directly, are widely adopted in the mobile and embedded applications due to lower computational complexity and memory requirement. With the aim of improving the computation efficiency without degrading recognition performance, a lightweight binary robust descriptor is proposed based on the analysis of the state-of-the-art binary descriptors in this paper. A directional edge detection and optimized keypoint score function are developed to refine the keypoints. In addition, rotation invariance is achieved by executing circular symmetric-based descriptor generation and a coarse-grained orientation calculation method concurrently. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed keypoint detector and binary descriptor achieve more than two times speedup and at least 23.6% improvement in processing speed with comparable performance, respectively. Furthermore, a very large scale integration architecture is also designed based on in-depth exploration of bit-level and task-level parallelism. Based on the postlayout simulation in a TSMC 65-nm CMOS process, the accelerator can achieve 135 frames/s on 1080p image while only consuming 87.5 mW at a 200-MHz operating frequency.
On radar detection and direction finding using sparse arrays

The potential performance of radar systems employing sparse arrays is investigated. Different sparse array geometries are evaluated with respect to detection and estimation performance. We present appropriate tools for analytical computation of the detection and estimation performance of the likelihood ratio test (LRT) and the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE), respectively. Particular attention is paid to the effect of ambiguity errors on system performance. The results show that sparse arrays have several advantages over nonsparse arrays, but that ambiguities deteriorate performance when sidelobe interference is present. Some ways to mitigate the ambiguity effects on system performance are briefly discussed.
Text zone classification using unsupervised feature learning

Text zone classification is a vital step in the digitization process, without which OCR systems perform poorly. Prior methods to document zone classification have relied on large sets of hand-crafted features for training zone classifiers. Such features are usually database-dependent, and their computation is time consuming. In this work we propose a novel method for text zone classification that relies on the approach of unsupervised feature learning. Within our method, feature vectors of document zones are automatically learned by patches extraction, encoding and pooling, where feature encoding is based on a codebook of visual words. The training phase of the text classifier takes into consideration the unbalance between text zones and non-text zones of all types. The proposed method has been tested on publicly available standard databases, and achieved competitive or better results compared to state-of-the-art methods. The results show that our approach matches well the task of text classification, and is robust to zone shapes, orientations and size.
Two sides of the same coin? On the history and phenomenology of chronic fatigue and burnout

Background: Burnout and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are two fatigue syndromes which have developed largely independently from each other, yet whose similarities in symptoms can be a source of confusion. We aim to explore the phenomenology of burnout and CFS in a historical context as this may provide some insight into the links and relationship between these conditions. Method: A narrative review based on literature in the fields of history, social science and medicine. Results: The origins of CFS lie within medicine, whereas burnout developed in a psychological setting. As well as symptoms, burnout and CFS also share similar themes such as an overload process triggering illness onset, the need for restoration of depleted energy, external causal attributions and the characteristics of people suffering from these illnesses. However, these themes are expressed in either psychological or medical terms according to the historical background. Conclusion: Despite their similarities, there have been few direct comparisons of the two concepts. Culture, illness perceptions and accountability are important issues in both conditions and could contribute to their differences. Comparing burnout and CFS within one sample frame, thus looking beyond the psychology/medicine divide, could be a useful first step towards understanding their relationship.
Endotoxin‐induced in vitro release of interleukin‐1 by cancer patients' monocytes: Relation to stage of disease

The in vitro release of IL‐I by monocytcs in response to endotoxin was subnormal in many patients with breast cancer, malignant melanoma or colorectal cancer but not in patients with benign tumors of the breast or colon. In each of these groups, IL‐I release was low in patients with early cancer, normal in patients with regional metastases, and low in patients with disseminated cancer.
Neuropsychological deficits in asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis

A total of 20 subjects with asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (ACAS) and a group of healthy controls were compared as to their cognitive performance. Subjects with ACAS showed substantial deficits on tasks of mental speed, learning, visuospatial abilities, verbal processing and deductive reasoning. The cognitive profile of ACAS ‐ subjects indicated non‐specific impairment, possibly related to widespread cerebral vascular disease, of which the presence of ACAS may be one indicator.
An information system profile of the UK manufacturing sector

A survey of the information systems (IS) sophistication of small to medium sized UK manufacturing firms is reported. The survey revealed that manufacturing firms exhibited an intermediate degree of IS sophistication. Typically they were situated in the ‘contagion’ and ‘control’ stages of Nolan's stages of growth model, although a minority of firms were significantly more advanced. Organizational size was found to influence the degree of IS sophistication with larger firms manifesting a more highly developed information processing capacity. The influence of a number of factors on project success was investigated. Companies using their own formal methodologies for software development achieved higher than average rates of success. The degree of awareness of the strategic potential of IT was also positively correlated with success.
Fast learning and predicting of stock returns with virtual generalized random access memory weightless neural networks

We employ virtual generalized random access memory weightless neural networks, VG‐RAM WNN, for predicting future stock returns. We evaluated our VG‐RAM WNN stock predictor architecture in predicting future weekly returns of the Brazilian stock market and obtained the same error levels and properties of baseline autoregressive neural network predictors; however, our VG‐RAM WNN predictor runs 5000 times faster than autoregressive neural network predictors. This allowed us to employ VG‐RAM WNN predictors to build a high frequency trading system able to achieve a monthly return of approximately 35% in the Brazilian stock market. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reduction of arthritic symptoms by low dose radiation therapy (LD-RT) is associated with an anti-inflammatory phenotype

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this paper was to provide an integrative mechanistic appraisal to account for consistent observations of protective effects of ionizing radiation on the occurrence/ progression of arthritis in multiple animal models. Materials and methods: A critical analysis of the biomedical literature was undertaken to assess mechanisms by which low doses of ionizing radiation prevent and/or reduce the occurrence of experimental-induced arthritis in animal models. Results: Detailed mechanistic-related research indicates that low doses of ionizing radiation induce a highly integrated multiple pathway process that results in the formation of a generalized anti-inflammatory phenotype which can both prevent the occurrence of arthritic changes and/or reverse such effects. Conclusions: The manifestation of the anti-inflammatory features occurred within the context of highly consistent hormetic (i.e., biphasic dose) responses across studies, biological models and mechanisms. The reduction of multiple bioindicators of experimentally-induced arthritis by exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation was associated with the occurrence of a generalized anti-inflammatory phenotype.
Six novel ATM mutations in Italian patients with classical ataxia‐telangiectasia

Mutations in the ATM gene are responsible for the autosomal recessive syndrome Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT). In a group of 26 classical AT Italian patients studied by protein truncation test (PTT), we identified six new mutations, never reported so far. Mutations ‐spread over the entire ATM coding sequence with not clear “hot‐spot”‐ are four frameshifts (2192_2193insA, 3110delC, 7150delA, 8368delA), one splice site alteration (8850G>T, causing exon 63 skipping) and one nonsense change (6913C>T, Q2305X). The identification of ATM gene mutations is important for understanding the molecular basis of the disease, and is essential for diagnosis and genetic counseling. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Measuring the Hysteresis Loop of Permanent Magnets With the Pulsed Field Magnetometer

We discuss a comprehensive approach to the characterization of permanent magnets with the pulsed field magnetometer. The approach is based on a systematic comparison of the results obtained by this method with those from the conventional closed-circuit and open-sample methods and on the assessment of the dynamic phenomena engendered by the application of the fast exciting field pulse. Such phenomena derive from the thermal fluctuation after effect and the eddy currents, whose contributions to hysteresis loop swelling are brought to light and separately evaluated. We show that the quasi-static hysteresis loop can be retrieved from the dynamically obtained one by compensating for the magnetic viscosity field, found to be proportional to the coercive field, and the eddy-current counterfield. A simple analytical formulation accounts for and predicts the effect of the counterfield.
Genetic Effects of Nonionizing Electromagnetic Fields

Nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) have photon energy less than 10eV, a level not sufficient to produce ions by ejection of orbital electrons from atoms. The biological effects of two types of nonionizing electromagnetic fields are being studies intensely: extremely-low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic field and radiofrequency radiation. Extremely-low-frequency EMF covers the frequency range of 3 Hz to 3 KHz. The most intensely studied frequency is the power frequency of 50/60 Hz. Electric appliances and power lines emit 50/60 Hz EMF. Radiofrequency radiation (RFR) covers a frequency range between 10 KHz to 300 GHz. Different frequencies of RFR are used in different applications. For example, the frequency range of 5.4 to 16 KHz is used in AM radio transmission, while 76 to 108 MHz is used for FM radio. Mobile phone technology uses frequencies between 800 MHz and 3 GHz. And RFR of 2450 MHz is used in microwave cooking.
Modeling epithelial cell homeostasis: Steady-state analysis

Critical to epithelial cell viability is the homeostasis of cell volume and composition during changes in transcellular transport. In this study, two previously developed mathematical models (principal cell of the collecting duct and proximal tubule cell) are approximated by their linearizations about a reference condition. This yields matrices which estimate cell volume, cell composition, and transcellular fluxes in response to perturbations of bath conditions and membrane transporter activity. These approximations are themselves extended with the inclusion of linear dependence of membrane transport coefficients on cell variables (e.g., volume, solute concentrations, or electrical potential). This provides cell models with variable permeabilities, which may be homeostatic, and which can be examined systematically: sequentially testing each membrane permeability and its controlling cell variable. In the proximal tubule approximation, volume-mediated increases in peritubular K—Cl or Na—3HCO3 cotransport, and volume-mediated decreases in Na,K-ATPase activity are homeostatic; modulation of peritubular K permeability has little impact. In the principal cell model, volume homeostasis is afforded by volume-sensitive peritubular Na/H exchange or Cl− conductance. Predictions from the linear analysis are confirmed in the full models. This approach yields a systematic examination of homeostasis in an epithelial model, and identifies candidate control parameters.
Required, tissue-specific roles for Fgf8 in outflow tract formation and remodeling

Fibroblast growth factor 8 (Fgf8) is a secreted signaling protein expressed in numerous temporospatial domains that are potentially relevant to cardiovascular development. However, the pathogenesis of complex cardiac and outflow tract defects observed in Fgf8-deficient mice, and the specific source(s) of Fgf8 required for outflow tract formation and subsequent remodeling are unknown. A detailed examination of the timing and location of Fgf8 production revealed previously unappreciated expression in a subset of primary heart field cells; Fgf8 is also expressed throughout the anterior heart field (AHF) mesoderm and in pharyngeal endoderm at the crescent and early somite stages. We used conditional mutagenesis to examine the requirements for Fgf8 function in these different expression domains during heart and outflow tract morphogenesis. Formation of the primary heart tube and the addition of right ventricular and outflow tract myocardium depend on autocrine Fgf8 signaling in cardiac crescent mesoderm. Loss of Fgf8 in this domain resulted in decreased expression of the Fgf8 target gene Erm, and aberrant production of Isl1 and its target Mef2c in the anterior heart field, thus linking Fgf8 signaling with transcription factor networks that regulate survival and proliferation of the anterior heart field. We further found that mesodermal- and endodermal-derived Fgf8 perform specific functions during outflow tract remodeling: mesodermal Fgf8 is required for correct alignment of the outflow tract and ventricles, whereas activity of Fgf8 emanating from pharyngeal endoderm regulates outflow tract septation. These findings provide a novel insight into how the formation and remodeling of primary and anterior heart field-derived structures rely on Fgf8 signals from discrete temporospatial domains.