Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of CMUT annular arrays for side-looking IVUS

Side-looking (SL) IVUS probes are extensively used for management of cardiovascular diseases. Currently SL-IVUS imaging probes use either a single rotating transducer element or solid-state arrays. Probes with single rotating piezoelectric transducer have simple front-end, but have fixed focused operation, and suffers from motion artifacts. Solid-state SL-IVUS imaging probes use piezoelectric transducer arrays and electronic beam-forming. Synthetic phased array processing of signals detected with small-sized elements in these arrays limits the SNR achievable with these probes. In this study, we explore a new SL-IVUS probe architecture employing rotating phased annular CMUT arrays. We tested and compared imaging performance of the existing and proposed probe configurations through simulated point spread functions. We also two fabricated sample annular array designs operating at 20-MHz and 50-MHz. Our experimental measurements on the 20-MHz array in oil shows 105% fractional bandwidth. The 50-MHz array with parylene coating shows approximately 40% fractional bandwidth measured in water. We also present imaging results acquired from wire-targets to test the experimental point-spread functions.
The adoption of information technology: a foundation of E-commerce development in Thai culture

E-Commerce can be developed after information technology is adopted. Before understanding the phenomenon of e-commerce in Thai culture, this chapter aims to discuss the adoption of information technology in that culture. Thai agricultural cooperative societies are selected as a case study to describe the understanding of the factors governing the adoption of information. Our work was done at a time when new government policies were introduced to improve Thai trading by introducing e-commerce.This chapter argues that the first step in encouraging and managing information technology and e-commerce usage is to develop an understanding of the factors that influence its usage.A multidisciplinary approach is used to examine factors affecting the use of information technology in Thai agricultural cooperatives. Empirical evidence defines universal factors which govern the adoption of information technology in Thailand such as the decision-making characteristics which distinguish adopters from non-adopters. In Thailand, business size is also important and larger organizations are more intensive users of information technology.
Ekho: A 30.3W, 10k-Channel Fully Digital Integrated 3-D Beamformer for Medical Ultrasound Imaging Achieving 298M Focal Points per Second

3-D medical ultrasound imaging enables new diagnostic possibilities and modalities. In a computational process called beamforming, a 3-D volume is reconstructed from several thousands of analog signals. Today's systems rely on massive analog preprocessing to reduce the computational burden of the subsequent digital processing system. In this paper, we present a configurable beamformer (BF) architecture, which demonstrates for the first time that it is possible to implement the entire 3-D delay and sum beamforming fully digitally and on one single chip, without requiring the off-chip memories. We present a presilicon implementation of a single-chip BF in an advanced 28-nm silicon-on-insulator technology. The BF targets a fully sampled 10k element 8-MHz bandwidth transducer head and is able to produce 298.1M focal points (FPs) per second-enough to produce a high-resolution volume with 16.3MFP at 15 Hz. All delays are computed online and on-chip to eliminate the power-hungry external memories for delay storage. The final design (register-transfer-level and floorplan) has a complexity of 342M gate equivalents requiring 1.68cm2 of area. The core power is estimated to be 30.3 W, resulting in an unprecedented power efficiency of 98.4G beamforming operations per watt.
The Acquisition Path for Tense-Aspect: Remote Past and Habitual in Child African American English

This article considers the comprehension of tense-aspect markers remote past BIN and habitual be by 3- to 5-year-old developing African American English (AAE)-speaking children and their Southwest Louisiana Vernacular English (SwLVE)-speaking peers. Overall both groups of children associated BIN with the distant past; however, the AAE-speaking children were twice as likely to give a distant past response on the BIN went task. These results are discussed in terms of event realization, the Aspect Hypothesis, and feature agreement. We delineate a path that uses the lexical part of the Aspect Hypothesis, the role of semantics in defining the end state of a refined aspectual system, and an interface between syntax and semantics to explain subtle steps involving agreement in the acquisition process. The AAE-speaking children scored significantly higher on the habitual be tasks than the SwLVE-speaking children, whose scores were not significantly different from chance. The results suggest that the AAE-speaking children have developing native knowledge of habitual be and are beginning to associate it with eventualities that recur.
Muhasebe Bilgilerinin Değer İlişkisinde Firmalara Özgü Faktörlerin Etkisi / The Effect of Firm Specific Factors in the Value Relevance of Accounting Information

The relationship of accounting information with the market value of the company is the common finding of literature related to the topic. This study aims to find out the effect of company related factors on the relationship existing between accounting information and market value of the company. The manufacturing industrial companies that are publicly traded at ISE (IMKB) have formed the set of observation during the period between 2005 and 2011.When an overall evaluation of the findings of the analysis is made, it can be stated that the company related factors in explaining the market value of the company differentiate the relative importance of information source (balance sheet and income statement).
Credit Practices and Financial Education Needs of Midwest College Students

College students are facing a number of financial challenges, including rising college costs and subsequent escalation in student borrowing to finance their education. Financial aid has not kept pace with rising college costs, and fewer parents are helping to cover these costs, because they overextended themselves with debt during the 1990s. The end result is that an increasing number of students are turning to credit card debt to help finance their education. The growth in credit card usage among college students has generated concern that students’ credit card behavior is putting them at greater risk for high debt levels and misuse and/or mismanagement of credit after graduation. The main objectives of this report are to 1) provide greater insight into the credit practices and financial education needs of Midwest college students and 2) to identify ways in which campus administrators and financial professionals can help students better manage their credit and avoid future misuse of credit down the road.
Systematic review of fall risk screening tools for older patients in acute hospitals.

AIMS To determine the most accurate fall risk screening tools for predicting falls among patients aged 65 years or older admitted to acute care hospitals. BACKGROUND Falls represent a serious problem in older inpatients due to the potential physical, social, psychological and economic consequences. Older inpatients present with risk factors associated with age-related physiological and psychological changes as well as multiple morbidities. Thus, fall risk screening tools for older adults should include these specific risk factors. There are no published recommendations addressing what tools are appropriate for older hospitalized adults. DESIGN Systematic review. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, CINAHL and Cochrane electronic databases were searched between January 1981-April 2013. Only prospective validation studies reporting sensitivity and specificity values were included. REVIEW METHODS Recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook of Diagnostic Test Accuracy Reviews have been followed. RESULTS Three fall risk assessment tools were evaluated in seven articles. Due to the limited number of studies, meta-analysis was carried out only for the STRATIFY and Hendrich Fall Risk Model II. In the combined analysis, the Hendrich Fall Risk Model II demonstrated higher sensitivity than STRATIFY, while the STRATIFY showed higher specificity. In both tools, the Youden index showed low prognostic accuracy. CONCLUSION The identified tools do not demonstrate predictive values as high as needed for identifying older inpatients at risk for falls. For this reason, no tool can be recommended for fall detection. More research is needed to evaluate fall risk screening tools for older inpatients.
Protective effect of Syzygium cumini seeds against doxorubicin induced cardiotoxicity in rats

Syzygium cumini Linn. seeds possessing potent antioxidant and cardioprotective properties were evaluated against Doxorubicin induced cardiotoxicity in rats. Intra peritoneal injection of DOX(1.5 mg / kg/bw) administered once a day for 15 days, was revealed by elevated serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT), HDL-cholesterol and changed LDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides in comparison to control and associated with increase in the levels of myocardial malondialdehyde (MDA) with simultaneously decrease in the levels of glutathione (GSH), glutathione-s-transferase(GST),glutathione reductase(GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPx),catalase(CAT) and super oxide dismutase (SOD). Daily oral administration of aqueous suspension of Syzygium cumini seeds extract (in the dose of 100 mg/kg/b.w. for 15 days) produced normalization in the serum levels of heart marker enzymes. Syzygium cumini seeds were found to be more effective in restoring lipid profile changes in rats and antioxidant enzyme activities in heart tissue. So the study shows that Syzygium cumini seeds possess antioxidant and cardioprotective effects.
Objective malignancy grading: A review emphasizing unbiased stereology applied to breast tumors

Low reproducibility reduces the clinical value of morphologic grading of malignant tumors, and the replacement of subjective classification by objective quantification has been suggested. Simple mitosis counting has been employed for objective malignancy grading most frequently and has proved its prognostic significance in, e.g., sarcomas and carcinomas of the breast and ovary. These and other measurements of morphometry are, however, obtained in two dimensions only, introducing bias due to ignorance of the fact that biologic structures are three-dimensional. Stereologic estimators are, to that end, well-suited, because they enable the assessment of spatial structure from sections. Studies addressing the impact of stereology in tumor pathology are the subject of the current review. Details of estimation are provided of stereologic variables of tumor size, numbers and densities of cancer cell nuclei and mitoses, mean size and size variability of cancer cell nuclei and variables of tissue architecture. Besides a description of their practical estimation the influence on variables of sampling method, tissue processing and observer variability is assessed, and estimator efficiency and measuring equipment is evaluated. Exemplifying the clinical importance of objective grading, results are summarized of prognostic studies of quantitative histopathology in women with breast cancer. It has been shown that many stereologic estimators are applicable to ordinary histologic sections processed under routine conditions. If a systematic random scheme of sampling is employed then the efficiency of estimation is usually high, and reproducible, accurate and representative results are ensured. For objective malignancy grading of breast cancer especially the volume-weighted mean nuclear size, vv (nuc), seems valuable, and the variable usually provides independent information to that of staging parameters. The prognostic value of vv (nuc) seems greatest in lymph node positive subsets, whereas the importance in lymph node negative patients should be further investigated. The clinical significance of some stereologic variables may be restricted due to relatively time consuming measurement procedures. However, the unbiased technique may provide precise measures of basic parameters like "tumor burden" and tumor growth pattern, and thereby be highly useful in experimental oncology. In conclusion, stereology is of great value for quantifying tumor elements. For objective malignancy grading especially assessment of the three-dimensional mean nuclear size seems useful. Prognostic significance of this variable has been demonstrated in, e.g., malignant melanoma and carcinomas of the breast, lung, bladder, prostate and uterine cervix. To determine the real clinical value of the measurements, further evaluation in a routine setting is necessary. In case such prospective studies confirm previous findings, the future replacement of subjective grading techniques by reproducible, objective variables seems feasible.
Platform Adoption in System Markets: The Roles of Preference Heterogeneity and Consumer Expectations

Platform-based systems have become the dominant way to market consumer entertainment products. Video games are, for instance, distributed in digital data form, which can only be used on compatible hardware. Network effects drive the diffusion of such systems. This article provides insights into market heterogeneity and the role that expectations of the direct and indirect network effects plays in the game console market. The results of two empirical studies suggest that the console market is strongly fragmented and that the perceptions of network effects differ between the various target segments. The same holds for the importance of consumer expectations: For instance, hardcore gamers make predictions about the future software availability and incorporate these into their current adoption decision, while social gamers care more about the expected potential to interact with others. When introducing novel technologies, platform sponsors can benefit from improved targeting by, for example, providing software selectively, instead of large varieties early on. This study identifies the limits of go-to-market strategies derived from aggregate analyses when dealing with network effects and shows that behavioristic insights should complement them.
EcoReP: An Economic Incentive Scheme for Dynamic Replication in Mobile-P2P Networks

In mobile ad-hoc peer-to-peer (M-P2P) networks, frequent network partitioning leads to typically low data availability, thereby making data replication a necessity. This work proposes EcoRep, a novel economic model for dynamic replica allocation in M-P2P networks. EcoRep performs replica allocation based on a data item's relative importance, which is quantified by the data item's price in terms of a virtual currency. The price of a data item depends on its access frequency, the number of users who accessed it, the number of its existing replicas, its (replica) consistency and the average response time required for accessing it. EcoRep ensures fair replica allocation by considering the origin of queries for data items. EcoRep requires a query issuing user to pay the price of his requested data item to the user serving his request. This discourages free-riding and encourages user participation by providing an incentive for users to become service-providers. EcoRep also considers other issues such as load, energy and network topology as replication criteria. Our performance study indicates that EcoRep is indeed effective in improving query response times and data availability in M-P2P networks.
DELAYED INDEFINITELY: REGULATORY REFORM OF THE IRISH BUS INDUSTRY

Patrick Massey* During the past 20 years successive transport Ministers have promised to reform the bus transport market in Ireland. Bus passengers are still waiting for such reforms to be delivered. In September 2006 the current Minister announced proposals for the introduction of competitive tendering but only in respect of “new routes” in Dublin City with Dublin Bus being allowed retain its monopoly in respect of all existing routes. Private operators will exclusively be permitted to tender for new services up to a limit of 100 buses. Any further new services will be subject to open tender.1 While no formal announcement has been made regarding services outside Dublin, it appears that the Government favours retaining Bus Eireann’s monopoly with private operators being largely confined to acting as sub contractors for the State company. The Minister’s announcement suggests that meaningful reform has been postponed yet again. The current regulatory regime for bus transport in Ireland has been widely criticised for preventing competition. (See, for example, Barrett, 1982, 2000, 2004; Competition Authority, 2000; Massey and Daly, 2003; Forfás, 2004;
Foreign exchange market intervention in Colombia

The use and efficacy of intervention in the foreign exchange market has been a controversial topic. Some think that this type of intervention is ineffective in influencing the level of the exchange rate, and can also be damaging, because it can increase the volatility of the rate. Others argue that intervention operations can influence the level of the exchange rate, and can help to calm disorderly markets. Yet, others argue that intervention operations are inconsequential, since they affect neither the level nor the volatility of exchange rates (Dominguez, 1998). No doubt, the observed disparate range of intervention policies between central banks, and within individual central banks over time, can in part be attributed to the different views concerning the effectiveness and consequences of central bank interventions.
RESULTS Immunoprofiling of Cell Wall Antibodies in Rice Root Radial Sections Reveals Specific Antibodies for Cortex Layers

The formation and differentiation of aerenchyma, i.e., air-containing cavities that are critical for flooding tolerance, take place exclusively in the cortex. The understanding of development and differentiation of the cortex is thus an important issue; however, studies on this tissue are limited, partly because of the lack of available molecular tools. We screened a commercially available library of cell wall antibodies to identify markers of cortical tissue in rice roots. Out of the 174 antibodies screened, eight were cortex-specific. Our analysis revealed that two types of cortical tissues are present in rice root seedlings. We named these cell layers “inner” and “outer” based on their location relative to the stele. We then used the antibodies to clarify cell identity in lateral roots. Without these markers, previous studies could not distinguish between the cortex and sclerenchyma in small lateral roots. By immunostaining lateral root sections, we showed that the internal ground tissue in small lateral roots has outer cortical identity.
Psychoeducation efficacy in bipolar disorders: beyond compliance enhancement.

BACKGROUND Several previous studies have established that low treatment adherence is common among bipolar patients and may explain high rates of recurrence. On the other hand, some patients keep relapsing even when they strictly follow their prescribed somatic treatments. Psychological interventions such as psychoeducation may foster early recognition of prodromal symptoms and minimize the risk of relapse. To date, studies assessing the usefulness of psychoeducation in fully compliant patients are lacking. METHOD This was a single-blind, randomized, prospective clinical trial on the efficacy of group psychoeducation in remitted fully compliant DSM-IV bipolar I patients (N = 25) who were compared with a group with similar characteristics (N = 25) who did not receive psychoeducation. All patients received naturalistic pharmacologic treatment. Recruitment began in 1997 and follow-up was completed in January 2002. The follow-up phase comprised 2 years during which all patients continued receiving naturalistic treatment without psychological intervention and were assessed monthly on several outcome measures. RESULTS At the end of the 2-year follow-up, 23 subjects (92%) in the control group fulfilled criteria for recurrence versus 15 patients (60%) in the psychoeducation group (p < .01). The number of total recurrences and the number of depressive episodes were significantly lower in psychoeducated patients. CONCLUSION Although the present study has the limitation of small sample size, psychoeducation showed its efficacy in preventing relapses in bipolar I patients who were adherent to drug treatment. The action of psychoeducation seems to go beyond compliance enhancement and may support a tripod model composed by lifestyle regularity and healthy habits, early detection of prodromal signs followed by prompt drug intervention, and finally treatment compliance.
Exposed to the J Curve: Understanding and Managing Private Equity Fund Investments

How can institutional and private investors safely invest into private equity funds? We provide a review of the private equity fund industry and a description of all the relevant management issues of fund investments, from an individual investment to a risk and portfolio management perspective. We also deal with indirect investment vehicles like funds of funds and securitised notes. This is the first book to discuss the relationship between the limited partners and the general partner and we aim to provide an undisguised and independent look behind the scenes, and explain the core aspects of this industry. A useful reference book for institutional practitioners, private equity fund managers and private equity lawyers, as well as students and academics who seek to understand the dynamics of the complex world of private equity funds.
Deposition and fate of aerosolized drugs.

1978;73;936-943 Chest Michael T. Newhouse and Richard E. Ruffin Deposition and Fate of Aerosolized Drugs http://chestjournal.chestpubs. org/content/73/6_Supplement/936.citation can be found online on the World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services ) ISSN:0012-3692 http://chestjournal.chestpubs. org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml ( without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. reserved. No part of this article or PDF may be reproduced or distributed Chest Physicians, 3300 Dundee Road, Northbrook, IL 60062. All rights of been published monthly since 1935. Copyright1978by the American College is the official journal of the American College of Chest Physicians. It has Chest
Studies on the mechanisms of resistance to phylogenetically diverse intracellular organisms.

Studies were performed in an attempt to define underlying mechanisms of resistance in mice infected with strains of bacteria or protozoa which confer on the animals resistance against phylogenetically unrelated organisms. The rates of clearance of an intravenously inoculated suspension of carbon particles in resistant and control animals were the same, suggesting that enhanced reticuloendothelial clearance was not involved. Attempts to transfer resistance by injection of “hyper-immune” serum were unsuccessful. In vitro monolayer cultures of peritoneal macrophages from resistant mice were protected against necrotization by bacterial and protozoal challenge when compared with monolayers from normal mice, and there appeared to be a more rapid killing of the intracellular organisms by macrophages from the resistant mice. These findings suggest that the macrophage plays a major role in the heterologous cross-resistance observed in these animals. Continued macrophage “activation” in Toxoplasma and Besnoitia-infected mice is probably due to the continued activity of these parasites during the entire life span of the host.