Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low Power RF Section of a Passive Tag in 0.35/spl mu/m CMOS

A RF section of a long range passive tag in 0.35 mum CMOS process has been present. It contains a voltage rectifier and a voltage regulator, which convert the RF signal into a regulated DC voltage. A PWM demodulator to decode the data from modulator RF carriers and a FSK backscatter modulator are designed. A local oscillator with the output frequency of 6.6 MHz has been calibrated by the reader's emitting signals. The whole RF section working voltage is 2V to 3.3V, with current dissipation 13.4 muA at 3.3V. The chip area is 0.96mm2
Recent Trends and Geographic Variation in the Safety Net

Background:Policymakers and researchers are concerned that changes in the healthcare market have stressed and weakened the safety net nationwide. Objectives:The objectives of this study were to investigate variations in the safety net across communities and over time and to explore the effect of market changes on the safety net. Materials and Methods:We examined the safety net in all large urban communities from 1993 to 1998. Data from a variety of sources measure uncompensated hospital care, local government spending for health, admissions to safety net hospitals, visits to outpatient departments of safety net hospitals, visits to community health centers, and demographic and market characteristics of the communities. Descriptive analyses examine trends and community variations. Multivariate methods are used to estimate the effect of market structure and of economic factors on the safety net. Results:The safety net did not erode in urban areas over the study period. There was substantial variation across communities, but the disparity did not increase over time. HMO penetration and hospital competition are not significantly related to variations in the safety net, although demographic and economic factors are. Conclusions:Local financing capacity is a factor in variations across communities in the safety net. The economic downturn and pressures on state budgets could lead to future problems.
3D Culture as a Clinically Relevant Model for Personalized Medicine

Advances in understanding many of the fundamental mechanisms of cancer progression have led to the development of molecular targeted therapies. While molecular targeted therapeutics continue to improve the outcome for cancer patients, tumor heterogeneity among patients, as well as intratumoral heterogeneity, limits the efficacy of these drugs to specific patient subtypes, as well as contributes to relapse. Thus, there is a need for a more personalized approach toward drug development and diagnosis that takes into account the diversity of cancer patients, as well as the complex milieu of tumor cells within a single patient. Three-dimensional (3D) culture systems paired with patient-derived xenografts or patient-derived organoids may provide a more clinically relevant system to address issues presented by personalized or precision medical approaches. In this review, we cover the current methods available for applying 3D culture systems toward personalized cancer research and drug development, as well as key challenges that must be addressed in order to fully realize the potential of 3D patient-derived culture systems for cancer drug development. Greater implementation of 3D patient-derived culture systems in the cancer research field should accelerate the development of truly personalized medical therapies for cancer patients.
Prenatal diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy using a single fetal nucleated erythrocyte in maternal blood

We developed a method that allows prenatal diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy using a single nucleated erythrocyte (NRBC) isolated from maternal blood. Maternal blood was obtained at 8 to 20 weeks of gestation. NRBCs were separated with Percoll using a discontinuous density gradient method and then collected by micromanipulator under microscopic observation. The entire genome of a single cell was amplified by primer extension preamplification (PEP). Sex was determined from a small aliquot of the PEP reaction. After an NRBC was determined to be male and confirmed to be of fetal origin, dystrophin exons 4, 8, 12, 45, 48, 50, and 51 were determined from the same PEP reaction. This diagnostic method using maternal blood is safer than amniocentesis or cordocentesis and can be applied to other X-linked diseases.
What to call human cloning

On April 4, 2002, the Italian physician Severino Antinori announced that a woman was 8 weeks pregnant with a cloned human fetus (Daniel, 2002). On April 15, 2002, Brigitte Boisselier, scientific director of Clonaid, a firm linked to the Raelian movement, announced that they had developed human clones to the blastocyst stage and planned to implant them into women. Later that month, Antinori told Italian state television that three cloned pregnancies existed in the world at that moment, two in Russia and one in an Islamic state. If these claims prove to be true, and the fetuses survive full‐term, debates over the ethics of human cloning will no longer be theoretical exercises. We will have to consider how we treat cloned humans. > One controversial and morally questionable action—embryo destruction—is being used to justify another controversial and morally questionable action—human cloning Judging by the vociferous condemnation of these reports, most people regard human cloning as immoral and would like to outlaw the procedure. On April 10, 2002, US President George W. Bush urged the US Senate to ban human cloning completely because it treats human life as a commodity, and stated that ‘no human life should be exploited or extinguished for the benefit of another’. The US Senate is closely divided on the issue of cloning and although it is expected to ban ‘reproductive cloning’, it is still debating whether to allow research involving 'therapeutic cloning’. While both these terms remain widely used, some scientists are urging their abandonment because of the negative public response they generate. Indeed, in a recent report, the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) chose to call therapeutic cloning ‘nuclear transplantation to produce stem cells’ (NAS, 2002). This exemplifies the desire on the part of some within the scientific community to eliminate the term ‘cloning’ from …
Isolation and Characterization of Temperate Bacteriophages of Clostridium difficile

ABSTRACT The lack of information on bacteriophages of Clostridium difficile prompted this study. Three of 56 clinical C. difficile isolates yielded double-stranded DNA phages φC2, φC5, φC6, and φC8 upon induction. Superinfection and DNA analyses revealed relatedness between the phages, while partial sequencing of φC2 showed nucleotide homology to the sequenced C. difficile strain CD630.
A Survey of Technical Approaches for Developing , Deploying , and Adopting Visualizations in the Cybersecurity Domain

Members of the visualization cybersecurity research community are doing important work designing and developing new visualization tools to solve important cybersecurity problems, but technical challenges remain in transitioning and deploying visualizations to end users. This abstract compares and contrasts four common technological methods for developing and deploying visualization tools in the cybersecurity domain. The advantages and disadvantages of each are based on the perspectives of software developers, system administrators, and users who will need to develop, deploy, and adopt the visualizations. This abstract identifies gaps in the current methods, and proposes possible solutions for software frameworks to improve support for developing, deploying, and adopting visualizations in cybersecurity environments. The goal is to begin a discussion on the role technology plays in the success of cybersecurity visualizations.
Embodied Interactions in Human-Machine Decision Making for Situation Awareness Enhancement Systems

Abstract : The research objective of this proposal is to test the hypothesis that attention, actionintention and physical performance (embodied interaction), such as gesturing, can enhance visualprocessing, leading to better solutions for spatial optimization problems. I will develop aframework to determine which body expressions best support complex decision making inhuman-computer mixed systems.The technical approaches adopted in my research involve rigorous engineering-basedmethods for directly integrating focus of attention with embodied interfaces, and decisionmaking techniques to assess the value of feedback. These methods include systematiccharacterization of gestures during complex problem solving.
Product Adaptation Strategy and Export Performance: The Impacts of the Internal Firm Characteristics and Business Segment

ABSTRACT The objective of this article is to examine the relationship between the product adaptation strategy and the export performance of a company, taking into account the impacts of the internal characteristics of the company and the business segment. The findings of a questionnaire investigation of about 120 industrial exporting companies demonstrated that the business segment, the type of the exported product, as well as the number of served countries affect the adaptation strategy of the exported product. The results also show that the companies can improve their performance at the international markets level with the implementation of an adequate export marketing strategy. Keywords: Export Performance, Product Adaptation, Internal Characteristics, Business Segment
Successful management of a resistant renal artery stenosis in a child using a 4 mm cutting balloon catheter

Percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) is a well‐established method to treat renal artery stenosis (RAS) in children and adults. However, a significant number of stenoses might not be treated by interventional techniques due to the inability to dilate the RAS. Conventional balloon angioplasty with a high‐pressure coronary angioplasty balloon at 20 atm was unable to dilate a significant RAS in a 12‐year‐old child with severe renovascular hypertension (RR 195/125 mm Hg). After using a 4 mm cutting balloon, we achieved wide patency of the renal artery and an instant normalization of blood pressure without further need of antihypertensive therapy. PTRA using the cutting balloon technique may offer an additional therapeutic option for selected patients in whom conventional balloon angioplasty was not able to dilate RAS. Cathet Cardiovasc Intervent 2002;56:227–231. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Low Frequency Noise and Gate Bias Instability in Normally OFF AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

In this brief, traps-related dispersion phenomena are investigated on GaN/AlGaN MOS-high-electron mobility transistors. Pulsed I-V characteristics and low-frequency-noise measurements are the characterization vehicles used to get a direct insight of the device trap-states. By considering a set of ten samples, device-to-device fluctuation parameters extracted from trap-related measurements (1/f noise and gate bias instability) are systematically compared with conventional electrical parameters (threshold voltage and ON-current). Two separate trends are identified and ascribed to two different trap families.
A novel polarization diversity antenna for WLAN applications

Due to the advantage of mobility, there are many applications in wireless local area networks (WLAN) at 2.4 GHz. For these applications, multipath effects are the common reception problems in dynamic, complex electromagnetic environments. In order to reduce signal fading caused by multipath effects, diversity techniques are therefore applied to the antenna system at the receiving site. For this reason, a modified printed strip monopole antenna having a polarization diversity with a hybrid feed system is proposed. From experimental results, it is shown that the impedance bandwidth for the proposed antenna can reach over 16% and the antenna length is only 17 mm (/spl sim/0.14/spl lambda//sub 0/, where /spl lambda//sub 0/, is the free-space wavelength). Owing to its compactness in antenna length, the proposed antenna can be integrated into a restricted area of 30 mm/spl times/50 mm as a part of a WLAN PCMCIA card.
Magnetic resonance imaging of the levator ani in the squirrel monkey: a comparison of muscle volume between a cohort with pelvic organ prolapse and matched normals.

OBJECTIVE Magnetic resonance imaging was used to test whether squirrel monkeys with pelvic organ prolapse have reduced pelvic muscle volumes, compared with matched normals. STUDY DESIGN Levator ani and obturator internus volumes obtained from T1-weighted axial scans of matched groups were measured. Muscle volumes and weights were compared for animals necropsied after magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS Two observers concurred on measures of levator ani and obturator internus (Kendal tau > or = 0.60 with P < .003). Levator ani volume was related to mass (R2 = 0.62, P = .0009). Animals with pelvic organ prolapse did not differ (P = .67, Wilks multivariate test) from those without pelvic organ prolapse in age, parity, and weight. Levator ani differed between groups (pelvic organ prolapse = 520 mm3 versus normals = 392 mm3, P = .015) and not sides (P = .80). The obturator internus did not differ between groups (P = .29) or sides (P = .72). CONCLUSION Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrates that levator ani volumes in parous squirrel monkeys with pelvic organ prolapse were not reduced, suggesting that prolapse is not related to pelvic muscle size reduction in this species.
Towards Expanded Trust Management for Agents in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks

In this paper, we examine the challenge of designing intelligent agents to enable the sharing of information between vehicles in mobile ad hoc vehicular networks (VANETs). Our focus is on developing a framework that models the trustworthiness of the agents of other vehicles, in order to receive the most effective reports. We develop a multifaceted trust modeling framework that incorporates role-based trust, experience-based trust and majority-based trust and that is able to restrict the number of reports that are received. We include an algorithm that proposes how to integrate these various dimensions of trust, along with experimentation to validate the benefit of our approach, emphasizing the importance of each of the different facets that are included. In addition, we clarify how our approach is able to meet various critical challenges for trust modeling in VANETs. The result is an important methodology to enable vehicle to vehicle communication via intelligent agents.
Validation of reasoning engines an adaptation mechanisms for self-adaptive systems. (Validation des moteurs de raisonnement et mécanismes d'adaptation pour les systèmes auto-adaptatifs)

Self-adaptive system are software systems capable of sensing their working environment (through sensors), reason and make decisions on how to adapt facing environmental changes (through a reasoning engine), and reconfigure their internal structure in order apply adaptations (through an adaptation mechanism). These systems can provide effective assistance in a large number of human activities. Yet, they will fully deliver their promises only if system engineers can ensure that decisions and adaptations are correct on all situations. This requires robust techniques for validating that the reasoning process and adaptation mechanisms implemented in such systems are correct. In this thesis I address the validation of reasoning engines and adaptation mechanism base on aspect-oriented programming. Reasoning engines are pieces of software entitled of reasoning on a large number of factors in order to decide how to adapt given an environmental change. Ensuring that the decisions of these engines are correct for every possible environment change is critical. Wrong decision will lead to faulty adaptation that may prevent the system to work properly. Yet, validating that reasoning engines make the right decision is challenging because of the large number of possible environmental changes. In this thesis I introduce multi-dimensional covering arrays (MDCA) for sampling the environmental conditions that mat affect the decision making process. MDCA specifically targets environments that can trigger complex decision by explicitly integrating the notion of history in the environment sample. Aspect oriented programming (AOP) provide the means to developers to augment or replace the system structure or behavior, properties that make AOP a good adaptation mechanism. Yet, when using AOP it is difficult to (i) foresee interactions between different aspects and the base system, (ii) control the places that aspects will advise and invade, (iii) ensure that aspects will perform safely on evolution (aspects or the base system). These difficulties hamper the validation and adoption of AOP in general. In this thesis I introduce an interactions specification framework (ABIS), which allows developers to control the aspects interactions with the base system by specifying the places that aspects are allowed to advice. ABIS enables developers to reduce the time needed to diagnose and correct problems due to faulty aspects.
Heregulin‐dependent regulation of HER2/neu oncogenic signaling by heterodimerization with HER3.

Amplification and/or overexpression of HER2/neu and HER3 genes have been implicated in the development of cancer in humans. The fact that these receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are frequently coexpressed in tumor‐derived cell lines and that heterodimers form high affinity binding sites for heregulin (HRG) suggests a novel mechanism for signal definition, diversification or amplification. In cells expressing HER2 and HER3, tyrosine phosphorylation of HER3 is markedly increased upon exposure to recombinant HRG. ATP binding site mutants of HER2 and HER3 demonstrate transphosphorylation of HER3 by HER2, but not vice versa. HRG‐induced transphosphorylation of HER3 results in a substrate phosphorylation pattern distinct from HER2 cells and enhances association of the receptor with SHC and phosphoinositol 3‐kinase in transfected 293 and mammary carcinoma‐derived MCF‐7 cells. The physiological relevance of HER2/HER3 heterodimerization is demonstrated by HRG‐dependent transformation of NIH 3T3 cells coexpressing the two receptors. These findings demonstrate the acquisition of expanded signaling capacities for HER2 by HRG‐induced heterodimerization with HER3 and provide a molecular basis for the involvement of receptor heteroactivation in the development of human malignancies.
An evaluation of a treadmill work test.

Since oxygen uptake is a major determinant of physical work capacity, the measurement of maximum oxygen consumption provides a means not only of determining an individual's capacity to perform work, but also of comparing work capacity between individuals. The present report describes the application of the Bruce treadmill protocol (Bruce, Blackman and Jones, 1963; Froelicher, Brammel, Davis, Noguera, Stewart and Lancaster,1974), slightly modified, to the measurement of maximum oxygen uptake in a group of fourteen subjects.
DNA methylation analysis using bisulfite treatment and PCR-single-strand conformation polymorphism in colorectal cancer showing microsatellite instability.

The combination of bisulfite treatment and PCR-single-strand DNA conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis is proposed for quantitative methylation assay. We applied this procedure to the methylation analysis of the hMLH1 promoter region in colorectal cancer. An analysis of mixtures of known amounts of methylated and unmethylated DNA revealed a linear relation. Using a calibration curve, proportions of methylated DNA were calculated. The hMLH1 promoter region was highly methylated in about 80% of microsatellite instability (MSI) (+) colorectal cancers, but in none of the MSI(-) colorectal cancers. A significant correlation existed between hypermethylation of the hMLH1 promoter and MSI, as in previous reports. In conclusion, bisulfite-PCR-SSCP (BiPS) analysis could be applied to the rapid identification of methylation status in multiple samples, quantification of methylation differences, and detection of methylation heterogeneity in amplified DNA fragments.
Genetic epidemiology of cancer: Interpreting family and twin studies and their implications for molecular genetic approaches Cancer Epidemiol. Biomark

Dr. Risch published a challenging review on genetic epidemiology of cancer last year (1). Dr. Risch based his major argument favoring dominant or additive models, and disfavoring polygenic threshold models, on the analysis of our Nordic twin data (2). According to his Table 3, if the risk ratio for cancer between monozygotic and dizygotic twins (RMD) was 2, the effect was attributed to a dominant gene or additive effects; if it was 2, it was recessive or polygenic (nonadditive); if it was 2, it was environmental. However, RMD 2 also when equally common polygenic (RMD 3, e.g., prostate cancer) and environmental (RMD 1, e.g., lung cancer) cancers are combined, similar to summation of all cancers by Dr. Risch. In fact, only breast cancer gave a value close to 2, but even this may be a sum effect of polygenic and environmental components. This kind of analysis can provide a case for recessive and nonadditive polygenic effects (when RMD 2) or environmental effects (when RMD 2), but it proves nothing for heterogeneous cancers at RMD 2. Dr. Risch’s conclusion, “Thus, the observed value of RMD conforms poorly to the predictions of the multifactorial threshold model but extremely well to the single-locus or additive genetic model . ” is flawed, because heterogeneous etiologies or cancers cannot be averaged. Dr. Risch’s general tone was that we underestimated the heritable effects in cancers in our twin study, even though for colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers, they explained 35, 27, and 42% of the variation, respectively (2). Dr. Risch invoked “empirical data” to support his case but showed none in his paper. I will give PAFs for familial cancers in 0–61-year-old offspring from a similar cancer in parents by calculating these from published familial risks (3). This is in keeping with Dr. Risch’s “single-locus or additive genetic models” over “multifactorial threshold models,” used in the twin study. The PAF values for cancers in this midlife population ranged from 0.3% for testis cancer to 4.9% for colorectum (Table 1). Prostate with a PAF of 10.8% was an exception, but the age of onset considered, 0–61 years, was very young for prostate cancer, biasing the result heavily toward hereditary cases. Thus, the “empirical data” failed to make a case for overwhelming heritable effects. Table 1 also shows that Dr. Risch’s selection of PAF values for familial effect, that ranged from 7.7 to 82.1% in his Table 5, was entirely unrealistic. In conclusion, empirical PAF values for familial cancer were far lower than the heritable effects of common cancers predicted by the Nordic twin study, which may show our limited understanding of carcinogenic mechanisms (4, 5). In spite of these uncertainties, the cancer preventive perspectives of identified, even rare heritable cancers, and their potential implications for somatic cancers and carcinogenic mechanisms, should be gratifying enough to keep us working.