Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
All-digital 0.016mm2 reconfigurable sensor-ADC using 4CKES-TAD in 65nm digital CMOS

An all-digital reconfigurable (10-to-16-bit) sensor ADC based on TAD (Time A/D converter) is completely digital, using a ring-delay-line RDL driven by an input voltage Vin as its power supply. This method realized 16.2bit/100ksps/37.5nW from 0.6V supply without any static current using a 0.016mm2 prototype 4CKES (4-clock-edge-shift) TAD in a 65nm digital CMOS. Resolutions can be controlled by setting its conversion time Tcv A 13.8bit/1Msps/75. 4μW or 10.5bit/10Msps/93. 2μW operation is also experimentally confirmed using 0.6V supply. Finally, correction of nonlinearity characteristics has been discussed using differential-setup processing method.
Double-balloon enteroscopy: the diagnosis and management of small bowel diseases.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Double-balloon enteroscopy is a novel endoscopic technique developed to investigate small bowel diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic and therapeutic impact of double-balloon enteroscopy in patients with suspected or documented small bowel disease who were referred to our tertiary center, which was the first to introduce the double-balloon enteroscopy system in Turkey. METHODS This is a single-center prospective study. A total of 216 double-balloon enteroscopy procedures (168 antegrade, 48 retrograde) were done in 188 patients who were referred to our center for suspected small bowel disease. The main outcome measurements were complications, insertion depth and duration, and diagnostic and therapeutic rates. RESULTS Indications included obscure gastrointestinal system bleeding, iron deficiency anemia, abnormality on radiographic evaluation, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and suspected celiac disease. A diagnosis was established in 130 (69%) patients. The most common pathologic findings included angiodysplasias (29%), ulcerations (16%) and Crohn's disease (9%). Mean time±standard deviation to perform the examination using the antegrade route was 116.4±7.17 min, and the average±standard deviation insertion length was 310.65±90.3 cm (beyond the pylorus). Therapeutic interventions were performed in 66 patients (56 angiodysplasias, 4 ulcers, 4 strictures, and 2 polyps), and the success rate was 97%. No serious complication was observed, although pancreatitis occurred in 6 of 48 (12.5%) patients who were followed up for post-procedure pancreatic enzyme levels. CONCLUSIONS Our prospective analysis suggests that double-balloon enteroscopy is a feasible and useful technique for the diagnosis as well as treatment of small intestinal disorders.
Partition-based data cube storage and parallel queries for cloud computing

Data security is a necessary condition whether cloud computing system can be applied in practice. Users are concerned about whether the data stored in the cloud will be divulged to third parties. As the cloud computing system is applicable for decision support applications, this paper focuses on analysis of data partition in the cloud computing environment to ensure the security of decision supported data integrity. This paper proposes a model for partition-based decision data storage and query technology in cloud. This model can be used for decision support data storage and processing. In order to achieve data integrity protection, user's data is divided and stored in different cloud servers to achieve physical isolation and to ensure that the data cannot be fully disclosed. This paper presents two algorithms, i.e., one is about partition and storage of data, and the other one is about data query and integration. The query language for this model is analyzed, including SQL and extended SQL (which is named as CSQL in this paper). Finally, this mode is verified by an implemented system.
Theta‐burst repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation suppresses specific excitatory circuits in the human motor cortex

In four conscious patients who had electrodes implanted in the cervical epidural space for the control of pain, we recorded corticospinal volleys evoked by single‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the motor cortex before and after a 20 s period of continuous theta‐burst stimulation (cTBS). It has previously been reported that this form of repetitive TMS reduces the amplitude of motor‐evoked potentials (MEPs), with the maximum effect occurring at 5–10 min after the end of stimulation. The present results show that cTBS preferentially decreases the amplitude of the corticospinal I1 wave, with approximately the same time course. This is consistent with a cortical origin of the effect on the MEP. However, other protocols that lead to MEP suppression, such as short‐interval intracortical inhibition, are characterized by reduced excitability of late I waves (particularly I3), suggesting that cTBS suppresses MEPs through different mechanisms, such as long‐term depression in excitatory synaptic connections.
Glutathione and Signal Transduction in the Mammalian CNS

Abstract : The tripeptide glutathione (GSH) has been thoroughly investigated in relation to its role as antioxidant and free radical scavenger. In recent years, novel actions of GSH in the nervous system have also been described, suggesting that GSH may serve additionally both as a neuromodulator and as a neurotransmitter. In the present article, we describe our studies to explore further a potential role of GSH as neuromodulator/neurotransmitter. These studies have used a combination of methods, including radioligand binding, synaptic release and uptake assays, and electrophysiological recording. We report here the characteristics of GSH binding sites, the interrelationship of GSH with the NMDA receptor, and the effects of GSH on neural activity. Our results demonstrate that GSH binds via its γ‐glutamyl moiety to ionotropic glutamate receptors. At micromolar concentrations GSH displaces excitatory agonists, acting to halt their physiological actions on target neurons. At millimolar concentrations, GSH, acting through its free cysteinyl thiol group, modulates the redox site of NMDA receptors. As such modulation has been shown to increase NMDA receptor channel currents, this action may play a significant role in normal and abnormal synaptic activity. In addition, GSH in the nanomolar to micromolar range binds to at least two populations of binding sites that appear to be distinct from all known excitatory amino acid receptor subtypes. GSH bound to these sites is not displaceable by glutamatergic agonists or antagonists. These binding sites, which we believe to be distinct receptor populations, appear to recognize the cysteinyl moiety of the GSH molecule. Like NMDA receptors, the GSH binding sites possess a coagonist site(s) for allosteric modulation. Furthermore, they appear to be linked to sodium ionophores, an interpretation supported by field potential recordings in rat cerebral cortex that reveal a dose‐dependent depolarization to applied GSH that is blocked by the absence of sodium but not by lowering calcium or by NMDA or (S)‐2‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazolepropionate antagonists. The present data support a reevaluation of the role of GSH in the nervous system in which GSH may be involved both directly and indirectly in synaptic transmission. A full accounting of the actions of GSH may lead to more comprehensive understanding of synaptic function in normal and disease states.
Regulatory Responsiveness in India: A Normative and Empirical Framework for Assessment

This paper seeks to measure the extent to which Indian regulators are responsive in the performance of their functions. The paper focuses on one function common to all Indian statutory regulators, namely, regulation making. To measure responsiveness, the paper constructs an index of benchmarks of responsive conduct, with corresponding quantifiable outputs. It empirically measures the responsiveness of the telecom and securities markets regulators in India, on this index. The paper finds that there are significant differences among the laws governing Indian regulators in the context of the requirement to be responsive, and that the degree of responsiveness of Indian regulators is directly proportional to the legal requirement for following participatory processes.
Proteolytic enzymes in the marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas atlantica: post-secretional activation and effects of environmental conditions

Production and activities of cellular and extracellular proteolytic enzymes associated with the marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas atlantica were examined in response to physiological state and changing environmental variables under laboratory conditions. Enzymes evidenced by zymography were metalloproteases, as defined by substrate preference and susceptibility to inhibit- ors (EDTA and 1,10-phenanthroline). Distinct bands (i.e., molecular-weight (MW) size classes) of en- zymes were isolated from within cellular and extracellular compartments. Susceptibility of extracel- lular enzymes to environmental stressors was related, in part, to the MW size classes of the enzymes. While all bands of enzymes showed some degree of inhibition when pH was decreased, the very high MW (103 to 93 kDa) and the very low MW (34 to 31 kDa) bands of extracellular enzymes were most susceptible. Some mid-sized enzymes (75 to 69 kDa) were most resilient, and remained active at pH as low as 4.4 and as high as 10.5 — values which may occur in seawater micro-environments during high levels of heterotrophic respiration and photosynthetic activities, respectively. Extracellular enzymes retained activity in seawater (25 ppt) as long as 15 d after secretion. Finally, our data strongly suggest that extracellular enzymes, which were recently secreted by cells, may be modified post-secretion, as evidenced by changes in MW banding patterns over time (in presence of chloram- phenicol). This study showed that P. atlantica produces a flexible array of extracellular enzymes. In ocean systems the adaptive value of flexibility in enzyme activities may relate to changing micro- environments which bacteria may encounter over microspatial scales.
Conservation opportunities across the world's anthromes

Biologists increasingly recognize the roles of humans in ecosystems. Subsequently, many have argued that biodiversity conservation must be extended to environments that humans have shaped directly. Yet popular biogeographical frameworks such as biomes do not incorporate human land use, limiting their relevance to future conservation planning. ‘Anthromes’ map global ecological patterns created by sustained direct human interactions with ecosystems. In this paper, we set to understand how current conservation efforts are distributed across anthromes.
Expression Cloning and Characterization of the C28 Acyltransferase of Lipid A Biosynthesis in Rhizobium leguminosarum *

An unusual feature of lipid A from plant endosymbionts of the Rhizobiaceae family is the presence of a 27-hydroxyoctacosanoic acid (C28) moiety. An enzyme that incorporates this acyl chain is present in extracts of Rhizobium leguminosarum, Rhizobium etli, andSinorhizobium meliloti but not Escherichia coli. The enzyme transfers 27-hydroxyoctacosanate from a specialized acyl carrier protein (AcpXL) to the precursor Kdo2((3-deoxy-d-manno-octulosonic acid)2)-lipid IVA. We now report the identification of five hybrid cosmids that direct the overexpression of this activity by screening ∼4000 lysates of individual colonies of anR. leguminosarum 3841 genomic DNA library in the host strain S. meliloti 1021. In these heterologous constructs, both the C28 acyltransferase and C28-AcpXL are overproduced. Sequencing of a 9-kb insert from cosmid pSSB-1, which is also present in the other cosmids, shows that acpXL and the lipid A acyltransferase gene (lpxXL) are close to each other but not contiguous. Nine other open reading frames around lpxXL were also sequenced. Four of them encode orthologues of fatty acid and/or polyketide biosynthetic enzymes. AcpXL purified from S. meliloti expressing pSSB-1 is fully acylated, mainly with 27-hydroxyoctacosanoate. Expression of lpxXL in E. coli behind a T7 promoter results in overproduction in vitro of the expected R. leguminosarumacyltransferase, which is C28-AcpXL-dependent and utilizes (3-deoxy-d-manno-octulosonic acid)2-lipid IVA as the acceptor. These findings confirm that lpxXL is the structural gene for the C28 acyltransferase. LpxXL is distantly related to the lauroyltransferase (LpxL) of E. coli lipid A biosynthesis, but highly significant LpxXL orthologues are present inAgrobacterium tumefaciens, Brucella melitensis, and all sequenced strains of Rhizobium, consistent with the occurrence of long secondary acyl chains in the lipid A molecules of these organisms.
Complications of Term Pregnancies Beyond 37 Weeks of Gestation

OBJECTIVE: To estimate when rates of pregnancy complications increase beyond 37 weeks of gestation. METHODS: We designed a retrospective, cohort study of all women delivered beyond 37 weeks of gestational age from 1992 to 2002 at a single community hospital. Rates of perinatal complications by gestational age were analyzed with both bivariate and multivariable analyses. Statistical significance was designated by P < . 05. RESULTS: Among the 45,673 women who delivered at 37 completed weeks and beyond, the rates of meconium and macrosomia increased beyond 38 weeks of gestation (P < .001), the rates of operative vaginal delivery, chorioamnionitis, and endomyometritis all increased beyond 40 weeks of gestation (P < .001), and rates of intrauterine fetal death and cesarean delivery increased beyond 41 weeks of gestation (P < .001). CONCLUSION: Risks to both mother and infant increase as pregnancy progresses beyond 40 weeks of gestation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-3
The Digital Divide in Developing Countries : A Case for Distance Education

Although distance education is catching up in almost all countries in the world, it is still little known and less studied in many of the developing countries. Given such a lack of coverage even in the Western educational literature, the possibilities of finding in-depth exchanges concerning distance education in developing countries are very limited. This presentation presents the existing ‘digital gap’ in the world, and focuses on three important barriers to distance education or learning are: 1) the lack of resources 2) lack of infrastructures, and 3) lack of recurrent funding necessary to acquire or develop appropriate software and courseware on a continuous basis, and maintain, service and replace the equipment. Technologists and educators need to enter the developing world, study the market and then modify their wares according to local needs with the help of local industry and labor-force. This is one important way of building meaningful collaborations and partnerships between the developed and developing countries.
Discrepant results for cardiac troponin T and troponin I in chronic myopathy, depending on instrument and assay generation.

measurements expressed in a ratio with creatinine excretion. We collected urine samples according to a strictly standardized protocol, and for each individual woman, we used the same creatinine value in calculating the ratios reported for DPD and HYP. Special attention should be paid to the urinary creatinine concentration. Extremely low concentrations may result in inappropriately high values of bone resorption markers. This precaution is especially important, if one is trying to make these measurements in the second morning urine sample without proper standardization of the time lag between the first and the second morning void. We conclude that either the first morning urine or the second morning urine can be used instead of a 24-h urine to measure bone resorption markers DPD and HYP. However, one must carefully standardize the sample collection procedure and issue uniform instructions thereon to obtain reliable and comparable results. Separate reference values and decision limits should be used for measurements of DPD in 24-hour urine, first morning urine, and second morning urine. In contrast, the type of urine sample plays a less important role in measurements of 1-IYP, whereas the subject’s diet must be taken into account. HYP can be measured even without special diets, provided that the reference values are based on samples collected similarly.
A Comparative Analysis of Task Scheduling Algorithms of Virtual Machines in Cloud Environment

Cloud computing is an interesting and beneficial area in modern distributed computing. It enables millions of users to use the offered services through their own devices or terminals. Cloud computing offers an environment with low cost, ease of use and low power consumption by utilizing server virtualization in its offered services (e.g., Infrastructure as a Service). The pool of Virtual Machines (VMs) in a cloud computing Data Center (DC) needs to be managed through an efficient task scheduling algorithm to maintain quality of service and resource utilization and thus ensure the positive impact of energy consumption in the cloud computing environment. In this study, an experimental comparative study is carried out among three task scheduling algorithms in cloud computing, namely, random resource selection, round robin and green scheduler. Based on the analysis of the simulation result, we can conclude which algorithm is the best for scheduling in terms of energy and performance of VMs. The evaluation of these algorithms is based on three metrics: Total power consumption, DC load and VM load. A number of experiments with various aims are completed in this empirical comparative study. The results showed that there is no algorithm that is superior to the others. Each has its own pros and cons. Based on the simulation performed, the green scheduler gives the best performance with respect to energy consumption. On the other hand, the random scheduler showed the best performance with respect to both VM and DC load. The round robin scheduler gives better VM and DC load than the green scheduler but have more energy consumption than both random and green schedulers. However, since the RR scheduler distributes the tasks fairly, the network traffic is balanced and neither the server nor the network node will get overloaded or congested.
Environmental Performance Improvements and External Stakeholder Pressures in Companies with Certified Environmental Management System

The relationship between environmental performance and Environmental Management Systems has been widely investigated by international researches. Despite this, our paper adds new perspectives to the current literature framework. First, it is focused on companies with an Environmental Management System registered according to EMAS Regulation, while many previous studies considered also ISO14001 certified companies. Second, to achieve the objectives of this paper, a wide sample of Italian companies was considered, and the results of a questionnaire survey filled out by 143 organizations are reported. In addition, this study points out the relationship between environmental performance and stakeholder pressures which have not been thoroughly investigated in previous papers. The results show that EMAS positively influences performance on some environmental aspects such as water consumption and emissions into the atmosphere, while this positive influence is not confirmed for other aspects. The Public Authorities represent the stakeholder identified by the survey as the main external pressure to improve environmental performance.
Time Banks and Clusters: Similarities of Sharing Framework

Sharing of data, information, knowledge and other resources can be currently considered as an essential element within all network-based organizations. In some cases, such sharing does not work at all. It would be desirable to employ it especially in company clusters which can be exemplified as typical network organisations. The time bank framework might partly address the mentioned problems. Time banks represent networks of individuals and companies which are based on sharing of resources. These can support organizational effectiveness and efficiency. This paper focuses on research into the similarities between the time bank concept and cluster sharing systems. The main aim is to determine if the time bank sharing framework is applicable in the commercial sphere, particularly in the cluster environment. The practices within a specific cluster are analysed and recommendations are derived on the basis of the comparison of these and the theoretical background. The case study reveals the potential benefits of the suggested framework possibly used in day-to-day organizational activities. Keywords: knowledge, network organization, sharing, time bank.
Building up child-robot relationship for therapeutic purposes: From initial attraction towards long-term social engagement

This work explores the dynamics of the emergence of the social bonds with robots. A field study with 49 sixth grade scholars (aged 11–12 years) and 4 different robots was carried out at an elementary school. A subsequent laboratory experiment with 4 of the participants was completed. For the first experience, at school children's preferences, expectancies on functionality and communication, and interaction behavior were studied. Using the data collected in the laboratory, recognition, the selection of partner, and dyadic interaction were explored. Both at school and in the lab, data from videotaped direct observation, questionnaires and interviews were gathered. The results showed that different appearance and performance of robots elicit in children distinctive perceptions and interactive behavior, and affect social processes, such as role attribution and attachment. This work presents a preliminary field study to explore the introduction of robot-based programs to improve the quality of life of hospitalized children1
Minimum Delay Query in Low-duty-cycle Sensor Networks

Data query is a common communication pattern in sensor networks. However, due to the introduction of sleep latency, it is challenging to perform efficient query in low-dutycycle sensor networks. In particular, the round-trip delay from the sink to source nodes and vice versa over the same forwarding path could be extremely long. In this work, westudy the delay optimization problem by jointly considering routing and sleep scheduling, then propose a holistic scheme to find the asymmetric routing paths for data query and response so that the round-trip delay could be minimized. We compared ourMinimum Delay Query (MDQ) deign with the state-of-the-art schemes. The evaluation results verify that our design can greatly reduce the query delay in low-duty-cycle sensor networks.