Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elimination of an Electrolytic Capacitor in AC/DC Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Driver With High Input Power Factor and Constant Output Current

While LEDs enjoy relatively long lifetime up to 10 years, the lifetime of traditional LED drivers using electrolytic capacitor as storage element is limited to typically less than 5 years. In this paper, an ac/dc LED driver without electrolytic capacitor is studied. Compared with other methods to eliminate electrolytic capacitor, the proposed driver has the advantages of almost unity input power factor and constant output current for LEDs. The operation principle, detailed design procedure of the main circuit, and control strategy are presented. The feasibility of the proposed converter has been successfully verified by experiments.
The effect of HPMC—a cholesterol‐lowering agent—on oral drug absorption in dogs

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects which hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) may exert on oral drug absorption, in cases where this soluble fiber is administered to regulate blood lipid levels. Studies were conducted in vitro and in healthy female mongrel dogs using two different grades of HPMC, i.e. K8515 HPMC and ultra high molecular weight (UHMW) HPMC. The maximum plasma concentration, Cmax, of paracetamol and both the Cmax and the area under the concentration–time curve, AUC, of cimetidine were significantly decreased by the coadministration of 10 g of K8515 HPMC or 7.5 g of UHMW HPMC dissolved in 500 mL normal saline under fasting conditions. No statistically significant effects were observed on hydrochlorothiazide or mefenamic acid absorption. Based on in vitro data and previous studies it appears that reductions in gastric emptying and dissolution rate of paracetamol account for the effect observed in vivo. For cimetidine, a drug which can be absorbed from both the small and the large intestine, the indigestibility of HPMC in the colon in addition to the great reduction of dissolution rate led to reductions of both the Cmax and AUC values. The long Tmax values, even in the absence of HPMCs and the more modest reduction of the dissolution rate of hydrochlorothiazide by the HPMCs are thought to have precluded the observation of any significant alterations in the in vivo absorption profile. Owing to its erratic absorption, no statistically based conclusion could be drawn about the effects of coadministered HPMC on the oral absorption of the poorly soluble mefenamic acid. It is concluded that the effects of HPMCs on drug absorption in dogs are most pronounced for compounds with absorption profiles that are dependent on gastric emptying, i.e. compounds that are highly water soluble and that exhibit short Tmax values. Compounds with long absorption profiles appear to be less susceptible to changes in absorption behavior due to coadministration of HPMCs. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluation of Malawian Vernonia glabra (Steetz)Vatke leaf and Securidaca longepedunculata (Fresen) root extracts for antimicrobial activities

Article history: Received on: 18/08/2012 Revised on: 29/08/2012 Accepted on: 05/09/2012 Available online: 28/11/2012 The aqueous, ethanol and acetone crude extracts and dichloromethane, hexane, ethyl acetate and nbutanol fractions of the Securidaca longepedunculata roots and Vernonia glabra leaves were studied for their antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans using agar well diffusion method. The phytochemical presents, as well as the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bacteriacidal/fungicidal concentration (MBC/MFC) of the extracts were also determined using standard methods. Results obtained indicated that Vernonia glabra leaves acetone extracts had excellent antimicrobial activity against E. coli, P. aeruginosa and ethanol extracts against S. aureus. The n-butanol fractions had the best activity against E. coli and S. aureus, dichloromethane fraction against P. aeruginosa and ethyl acetate fraction against C. albicans. For S. longepedunculate root ethanol extracts showed best activity against E. coli, acetone extract against P. aeruginosa and aqueous extract against C. albicans. The n-butanol fractions had best activity against E. coli, P. aeruginosa and C. albicans. These results verified the claims by traditional healers in Malawi that the plants extracts treats bacteria related ailments such as diarrhoea and could be a potential source for development of phytomedicine.
The Timing of Acoustic vs. Perceptual Availability of Segmental and Suprasegmental Information

This study investigates the timing of perception of tonal and segmental information. Its purpose is to determine whether the apparent delay that previous priming studies have reported for the processing of tonal information (relative to the processing of segmental information) may stem from low-level speech perception. Native Chinese listeners and native English listeners without knowledge of tone languages completed a gated AX-discrimination task where they heard increasingly large fragments of Chinese word pairs that differed only in tones or only in segments. The gates where listeners perceived the contrasts were compared after factoring out differences in when the contrasts became reliably present acoustically. The results of both groups show that the perception of tonal information is delayed compared to that of segmental information, with English speakers showing a larger delay than Chinese speakers.
The Central Role of Survivin in Proliferation and Apoptosis of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is the most common mesothelial malignancy, which arises from the malignant transformation of mesothelial cells that line the pleural cavity. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a highly invasive disease with a very long latency and treatment is rarely effective, since only few patients survive more than one year after diagnosis (Carbone et al., 2007). Asbestos, a fibrous mineral widely used throughout the 20th century, has been acknowledged to being the main causative agent (Wagner, 1979).
Selective Inhibition of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1α Ameliorates Adipose Tissue Dysfunction

ABSTRACT Hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) induction in adipocytes is a critical component of the “fibrotic response,” directly linked to metabolic dysfunction in adipose tissues under hypoxic conditions. We reasoned that inhibition of HIF1α may ameliorate the negative aspects of the obesity-associated fat pad expansion. We used the selective HIF1α inhibitor PX-478, whose effectiveness has previously been established in tumor models. We demonstrate that PX-478 treatment effectively suppresses the high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced HIF1α activation in adipose tissue. HIF1α inhibition causes a reduction of weight gain in mice on an HFD but not on a chow diet. Treatment increases energy expenditure and prompts resistance to HFD-mediated deterioration of metabolic parameters. Moreover, PX-478-treated mice have reduced fibrosis and fewer inflammatory infiltrates in their adipose tissues. We confirm the metabolic effects obtained with PX-478 treatment using an adipose tissue-specific, doxycycline-inducible dominant negative HIF1α mutant (dn-HIF1α). Consistent with the pharmacological results, genetic inhibition of endogenous HIF1α activity prompts similar metabolic improvements in HFD-fed mice. Collectively, our results demonstrate that HIF1α inhibition in the adipocyte leads to significant metabolic improvements, suggesting that selective HIF1α inhibition in adipose tissue may be an effective therapeutic avenue in the context of metabolic dysfunction.
Placental DNA methylation alterations associated with maternal tobacco smoking at the RUNX3 gene are also associated with gestational age.

AIMS The developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis states that later-life disease may be influenced by the quality of the in utero environment. Environmental toxicants can have detrimental effects on fetal development, potentially through effects on placental development and function. Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with low birth weight, preterm birth and other complications, and exposure to cigarette smoke in utero has been linked to gross pathologic and molecular changes to the placenta, including differential DNA methylation in placental tissue. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between maternal smoking during pregnancy, methylation changes in the placenta and gestational age. MATERIALS & METHODS We used Illumina(®)'s (CA, USA) Human Methylation27 BeadChip technology platform to investigate the methylation status of 21,551 autosomal, non-SNP-associated CpG loci in DNA extracted from 206 human placentas and examined loci whose variation in methylation was associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy. RESULTS We found that methylation patterns of a number of loci within the RUNX3 gene were significantly associated with smoking during pregnancy, and one of these loci was associated with decreased gestational age (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION Our findings, demonstrating maternal smoking-induced changes in DNA methylation at specific loci, suggest a mechanism by which in utero tobacco smoke exposure could exert its detrimental effects upon the health of the fetus.
A Texture Mapping Approach to 3‐D Facial Image Synthesis

A method of synthesising and animating a realistic image of a person's face by means of computer graphics is described. The key feature contributing to realism in image synthesis lies in the use of texture mapping in the rendering of surface detail on the face. Full facial animation is made possible by manipulating a 3‐D model of the face in conjunction with a relatively small data set of pre‐stored sub‐images.
Instruction set simulator generation using HARMLESS, a new hardware architecture description language

Instruction set simulators are commonly used in embedded system development processes for early functional validation of code and exploration of new instruction set design. Such a simulator can be either hand-written or generated automatically, based on a Hardware Architecture Description Language. Automatically generated simulators are more maintainable and are faster to develop, but they also generally suffer from low performances in simulation speed and a lack of expressivity in the description. This paper introduces HARMLESS, a new language to automatically generate instruction set simulators. It differs from other languages in many ways: it resolves most expressivity issues and naturally offers a flexible description by explicitly splitting the syntax (mnemonic), format (binary code) and behavior descriptions. Thus, it allows an incremental description, starting for example by the disassembler (requiring format and syntax descriptions). When the first two descriptions are validated, the behavior description is added to obtain the simulator. Some results are also presented on the simulator build process, especially on the decoder generation. An instruction cache is also introduced to speed up simulation in the same order of magnitude as hand-written simulators. Some experimental results are eventually presented.
Effects of RheothRx on mortality, morbidity, left ventricular function, and infarct size in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Collaborative Organization for RheothRx Evaluation (CORE).

BACKGROUND Previous studies suggested that RheothRx (poloxamer 188) reduces infarct size and improves left ventricular (LV) function in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We therefore evaluated the effects of various doses of RheothRx in 2948 patients presenting with AMI. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients were randomized to a control group (n = 963) or to receive RheothRx. Patients receiving RheothRx were allocated to receive a 1-hour bolus only (regimen A, n = 844), an additional 11-hour infusion at a low dose (target serum concentration of 0.5 mg/mL) (regimen Y, n = 490), or an additional 23-hour infusion at a low dose (regimen B, n = 483). Three higher doses (1-hour bolus+low-dose infusion for 47 hours, 1-hour bolus+high dose, target serum concentration of 1.0 mg/ml for 24 hours, or 1-hour bolus+high dose for 48 hours) were discontinued because of high rates of renal dysfunction (8.8%). Renal dysfunction was also observed at lower doses (regimen A, 3.1%; Y, 2.7%; and B, 4.1%) compared with the control patients (1.0%). There was no significant difference in the composite outcome of death, cardiogenic shock, or reinfarction at 35 days (all RheothRx, 13.6%; control, 12.7%). There was a higher incidence of sinus tachycardia (24.7% versus 21.6%, P = .02), atrial flutter (3.0% versus 1.3%, P = .019), atrial fibrillation (10.2% versus 7.3%, P = .082), pericarditis (6.6% versus 4.7%, P = .055), and clinical (21.9% versus 17.9%, P = .005) and radiological (15.3% versus 12.3%, P = .12) evidence of heart failure. This was associated with a lower LV ejection fraction (n = 1053) in treated patients (by = -0.02, P = .026), but there was little difference (P = .34) in infarct size (n = 1088). CONCLUSIONS In this study of nearly 3000 patients, RheothRx had no effect on mortality, reinfarction, or cardiogenic shock and an adverse effect on renal function, LV ejection fraction, and various clinical manifestations of LV dysfunction or heart failure.
High quality InSAR data linked to seasonal change in hydraulic head for an agricultural area in the San Luis Valley, Colorado

In the San Luis Valley (SLV), Colorado legislation passed in 2004 requires that hydraulic head levels in the confined aquifer system stay within the range experienced in the years 1978–2000. While some measurements of hydraulic head exist, greater spatial and temporal sampling would be very valuable in understanding the behavior of the system. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data provide fine spatial resolution measurements of Earth surface deformation, which can be related to hydraulic head change in the confined aquifer system. However, change in cm‐scale crop structure with time leads to signal decorrelation, resulting in low quality data. Here we apply small baseline subset (SBAS) analysis to InSAR data collected from 1992 to 2001. We are able to show high levels of correlation, denoting high quality data, in areas between the center pivot irrigation circles, where the lack of water results in little surface vegetation. At three well locations we see a seasonal variation in the InSAR data that mimics the hydraulic head data. We use measured values of the elastic skeletal storage coefficient to estimate hydraulic head from the InSAR data. In general the magnitude of estimated and measured head agree to within the calculated error. However, the errors are unacceptably large due to both errors in the InSAR data and uncertainty in the measured value of the elastic skeletal storage coefficient. We conclude that InSAR is capturing the seasonal head variation, but that further research is required to obtain accurate hydraulic head estimates from the InSAR deformation measurements.
Intraindividual and Interindividual Variations in the Pharmacokinetics of Mycophenolic Acid in Liver Transplant Patients

The authors evaluated the intraindividual and interindividual variations in the pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid after oral administration of mycophenolate mofetil in 10 liver transplant patients. Mycophenolic acid and its metabolite, mycophenolic acid glucuronide, were measured in plasma and urine by high‐pressure liquid chromatography. The plasma protein binding of mycophenolic acid was determined by ultrafiltration. The maximum concentration of mycophenolic acid in plasma increased significantly (P .05) with time from 9.1 ± 7.2 μg/mL (<1 week) to 36.7 ± 15.6 μg/mL (1 month). The area under the plasma concentration versus time curve of mycophenolic acid also increased significantly with time, from 50.8 ± 42.1 μg•h/mL to 118.0 ± 57.6 μg•h/mL (P .05). The plasma protein binding of mycophenolic acid increased from 92% to 98%, and the apparent oral clearance [CL/F] decreased from 32.9 ± 21.4 L/h during the first study period to 9.0 ± 4.4 L/h (P .05) during the third study period. The apparent intrinsic clearance of mycophenolic acid did not change significantly over time. The ratio of the area under the curve of mycophenolic acid glucluronide to mycophenolic acid in plasma decreased with time (25.5 ± 21.2 vs 8.0 ± 3.3) but did not reach statistical significance. The increased binding of mycophenolic acid to plasma proteins with time after transplantation appeared to contribute to the intraindividual variation, whereas differences in the ability of the liver to metabolize mycophenolic acid between patients appear to contribute to the large interindividual variation in the pharmacokinetics of mycophenolic acid. The observations in this study support the concept of measuring the unbound concentration of mycophenolic acid. The observations in this study support the concept of measuring the unbound concentration of mycophenolic acid to optimize immunosuppressive drug therapy with mycophenolic acid.
Including All Students in Meaningful Mathematics: The Story of Darrell.

This article tells the story of Darrell, a lively, intelligent boy who has some learning disabilities. Although his parents are educators and are highly committed to advocating for Darrell, for most of his elementary school years, they were unable to succeed in providing Darrell a mathematics education equal to his regular education peers. Darrell’s math education included classrooms and special education settings that did not recognize his confusions, did not provide enough practice, and that focused on procedural knowledge while ignoring his visual and cognitive strengths. Because his parents recognized his strengths and worked with him at home, because a few of his teachers knew how to teach mathematics to a range of learners using NCTM standards-based mathematics curricula and because he became aware of how he learns mathematics best, Darrell began to progress towards the end of elementary school. Students with disabilities, like Darrell, all deserve the chance to participate in meaningful mathematics. SUGGESTED CITATION: Storeygard, J. & Tierney, C. (2005) Including all students in meaningful mathematics: The story of Darrell. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 1(3) Article 4. Retrieved [date] from http://escholarship.bc. edu/education/tecplus/vol1/iss3/4
Effects of Enhanced Anchored Instruction on Skills Aligned to Common Core Math Standards.

This study compared how students with learning difficulties in math (MLD) who were randomly assigned to two instructional conditions answered items on problem solving tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards Initiative for Mathematics. Posttest scores showed improvement in the math performance of students receiving Enhanced Anchored Instruction (EAI) and typical instruction but the improvement of students in the EAI condition was greater. Much of the total variance in latent ability scores was explained at the teacher level. As we have observed in previous studies, teachers use of interactive technology tools combined with engaging hands-on applications can make important differences in what students with MLD achieve in mathematics, particularly in problem solving.
ÖRGÜTSEL ÖZDEŞLEŞME KAVRAMI VE İLETİŞİM ETKİNLİĞİ İLİŞKİSİ

Orgutsel ozdeslesme arastirmacilar ve uygulamacilar tarafindan, bireyin orgutle istenen bagi olarak gorulmustur. Ote yandan iletisimin ozdeslesme uzerindeki etkisi ise pek cok calismaya konu olmustur. Iletisim, calisanlarin orgutun normlari degerleri ve kulturu gibi tanimlanan ozellikleriyle ilgili oznel algilamasini olusturma ve paylasma firsati yaratir. Boylece orgut uyelerinin orgutun kimligiyle ilgili dusuncelerinin ortaya cikmasi beraberinde uye ozdeslesmesini guclendirir. Bu calismanin amaci ozdeslesme kavraminin onemini aciklamak ve kavramla ilgili tartismalari ortaya koymaktir. Calisma, her hangi bir onerme icermemesine karsin, ozdeslesme kavraminin orgut icindeki rollerini tartismasi ve orgute olan etkilerini goz onune sermesi anlaminda onemli bir perspektif cizmektir. Konu ile ilgili literatur taranmis, orgutsel ozdeslesme kavrami incelenmis ve ozdeslesmeyi guclendiren bir unsur olarak orgutsel iletisim oruntusune dikkat cekilmistir
Programa Minha Terra: A Regularização Fundiária Promovida Pela Fundação Itesp no Estado de São Paulo

A irregularidade na estrutura fundiaria brasileira resulta da consolidacao de distintos processos de ocupacao do territorio ocorridos ao longo da historia, que contaram com a inexistencia, a inexecucao e a ineficiencia de politicas publicas, somadas a ineficacia de algumas legislacoes. Hoje, sao observados problemas geradores de conflitos sociais e entraves ao desenvolvimento, tais como: concentracao da propriedade, inseguranca da posse, assentamento precario, exclusao socioespacial e degradacao ambiental. Desse modo, e com o advento da Constituicao Federal de 1988 (CF/88) e seu sistema de garantias e direitos, a regularizacao fundiaria tornou-se uma prioridade. O estado de Sao Paulo, visando aprimorar sua politica fundiaria, criou a Fundacao Instituto de Terras do Estado de Sao Paulo “Jose Gomes da Silva” (ITESP), a qual, consolidando acoes ate entao dispersas e desarticuladas, formulou o Programa Minha Terra, que vem alcancando excelentes resultados, promovendo paz, justica social e desenvolvimento, com projetos especificos voltados a comunidades e regioes com graves conflitos fundiarios, restricoes ambientais e baixo Indice de Desenvolvimento Humano (IDH)
A new type of GaN HEMT based high power high-pass/low-pass phase shifter at X band

This paper presents a new type of robust GaN HEMT-based high power phase shifter operating at X-band. The proposed 0°/45° high-pass/low-pass phase shifter exhibits low insertion loss (2.5 dB), good return loss, and amplitude variation lower than 0.5 dB for the two phase states over the entire operational bandwidth ranging from 6 to 13 GHz. The relative phase performance is fairly constant over the bandwidth. The proposed phase shifter MMIC has been successfully demonstrated using a 0.8 µm gate GaN HEMT process.
Effects of Chronic Administration of Somatostatin Analogue SMS 201–995 on the Progression of Chronic Renal Failure in Subtotal Nephrectomized Rats

The recent study has demonstrated the presence of somatostatin (SRIF) secretory cells in the rat glomerulus. Because of the polyvalent actions of this peptide, SRIF may play some roles in the evolution of chronic renal failure. The present study evaluated the effects of a long acting SRIF analogue, SMS 201-995 on the progression of renal failure in 3/4 nephrectomized (NPX) rats. Animals were divided into four groups; (1) normal control (C) (n = 9), (2) NPX-C (n = 10), (3) NPX treated with SMS 201-995 (0.5 micrograms/day) (NPX-0.5) (n = 9) and (4) NPX with SMS 201-995 (5.0 micrograms/day) (NPX-5.0) (n = 9). This drug was subcutaneously given daily for 6 weeks. Periodic observations were done at 0, 3 and 6 weeks. Both hematocrit and systolic blood pressure showed significant fall and rise, respectively, in NPX rats compared with C at 3 and 6 weeks. Also both serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen in these groups elevated significantly at 3 and 6 weeks compared with C. Not significant changes were observed in the 24-h urine volume among the NPX rats. At 6 weeks, the urinary protein excretion in NPX-5.0 was significantly less than those in NPX-C and NPX-0.5 rats. Urinary sodium excretion in NPX-5.0 was significantly lower than that in NPX-C. Histologic examination of the kidney showed less proliferation of mesangial cells in NPX-5.0 than NPX-C. These results suggest that SMS 201-995 may limit the rate of progression of chronic renal failure in this experimental model.