Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning CMOS logic gate design by exploring switch network domain

Switch networks are the basis for digital electronic design regardless the current technology applied. However, such topic has not been deeply explored in CMOS integrated circuits due to particularities and electrical restrictions of CMOS gates, which concentrate in quite simple and basic functions. This paper proposes a new pedagogical way for learning logic gate design starting from switch network building. Next, different CMOS design styles are presented according to the network (logic planes) combinations, i.e., the gate topology. By doing so, such bottom-up acquiring of concepts focuses initially only on the functional behavior of switch arrangements, treating afterwards the gate topology and electrical characteristics associated to each logic family. An innovative CAD environment, called SwitchCraft, has been developed to assist such novel educational methodology.
Innovation et conception: pourquoi une approche en terme de processus ?

L'innovation est souvent comprise et decrite comme le resultat d'une fonction particuliere dusysteme economique, par exemple la fonction entrepreneuriale ou la fonction recherche. Cette communication montre en quoi une approche en terme de processus parait plus pertinente pour modeliser ce phenomene. Elle s'appuie pour ce faire sur une distinction entre les concepts, parfois confondus, de decouverte, d'invention et d'innovation, et sur une definition aussi systematique que possible du concept abstrait de processus. Nous conclurons en nous demandant en quoi la comprehension, la description ou le pilotage du processus de conception sera un pas vers amelioration potentielle du processus d'innovation
Multiple Models Intelligent Control for a Class of Nonlinear Systems

It is difficult to realize control for some complex nonlinear systems operated in different operating regions. Based on developing local models for different operating regions of the process, a novel algorithm using multiple models is proposed. It utilizes a dynamic model bank to establish multiple local models, and their membership functions are defined according to respective regions. Then the nonlinear system is approximated to a weighted combination of the local models. The stability of the nonlinear system is proven. Finally, simulations are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method
The relationship between arterial compliance, age, blood pressure and serum lipid levels

Objective To investigate the association of serum lipids with non-invasively assessed systemic arterial compliance in a group of newly diagnosed coronary artery disease patients and their matched controls. Design Systemic arterial compliance is important in maintaining diastolic blood pressure and coronary perfusion, with decreased diastolic blood pressure in the presence of significant coronary artery disease suggested as contributing to increased morbidity. Decreased systemic arterial compliance is also associated with increased morbidity through its contribution to systolic hypertension. Despite the importance of arterial compliance, its association with biochemical factors is not certain. Patients and methods Twenty newly diagnosed coronary artery disease patients and disease-free controls were matched for age, sex, smoking status and total serum cholesterol level. Systemic arterial compliance was measured using applanation tonometry and Doppler velocimetry before instigation of treatment. Results There was no difference in group low-density lipoprotein or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Systemic arterial compliance was significantly less in the coronary artery disease group. For the groups combined, a significant negative correlation was demonstrated between systemic arterial compliance and low-density lipoprotein; however, on separate group analysis the correlation was confined to the coronary artery disease group. A significant difference was found in the association between systemic arterial compliance and diastolic blood pressure for the two groups. Conclusions Increasing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels are associated with decreasing systemic arterial compliance; however, the identified intergroup differences suggest that, presumably because of differences in lipid–vessel wall interactions, disease-free subjects exhibit relatively less alteration in aortic mechanical properties than those who develop coronary artery disease.
Nyström Approximated Temporally Constrained Multisimilarity Spectral Clustering Approach for Movie Scene Detection

Movie scene detection has emerged as an important problem in present day multimedia applications. Since a movie typically consists of huge amount of video data with widespread content variations, detecting a movie scene has become extremely challenging. In this paper, we propose a fast yet accurate solution for movie scene detection using Nyström approximated multisimilarity spectral clustering with a temporal integrity constraint. We use multiple similarity matrices to model the wide content variations typically present in any movie dataset. Nyström approximation is employed to reduce the high computational cost of constructing multiple similarity measures. The temporal integrity constraint captures the inherent temporal cohesion of the movie shots. Experiments on five movie datasets from different genres clearly demonstrate the superiority of the proposed solution over the state-of-the-art methods.
Serotyping studies of campylobacter from naturally colonized chickens

SUMMARY Campylobacter jejuni/coli strains from 164 chickens were serotyped by the methods previously described by Penner et al. and Lior et al. The chickens were sampled during breeding from hatching to the age of 42 weeks. The birds were housed, in two separate groups, under different environmental conditions, (for comparison of the effect of hygienic precautions on the transmission of the bacteria during breeding). In the group where the hygienic conditions could be controlled to a greater extent, the chickens became colonized later in the breeding chain and with only one single campylobacter strains.
Religion and the secularisation of health care.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To assess the claim that conceptualisations of religion and spirituality should be grounded in theology, and acknowledge the global resurgence of religion. BACKGROUND Although there is widespread agreement in the nursing literature that 'spirituality' is a broader concept than 'religion,' and should be understood generically, this approximate consensus has occasionally been challenged. A recent paper by Barbara Pesut and colleagues argues that the generic view not only empties spirituality of powerful religious symbols and narratives, but underestimates the continuing social influence of religion, and its resurgence on a global scale. Accordingly, these authors suggest three principles for conceptualising spirituality and religion in health care, one of which is that conceptualisations should be grounded in philosophical and theological thinking, and should not ignore the global resurgence of religion. METHOD Critical review. CONCLUSION The Pesut principle privileges theology, disregarding other disciplines which theorize religion. Arguably, it privileges specifically Christian theology, the history of which suggests a politics of orthodoxy and an epistemology of authority and obedience. The global resurgence of religion is not, in fact, global, as the industrialised countries have experienced a marked shift towards secular-rational values; and the postindustrial phase of development is associated with self-expression values, which represent a challenge not merely to religious institutions (arguably an affirmation of 'spirituality') but to traditional elites and structures of all kinds. Finally, religion 'resurgent' is not an attractive model for health care, since many of its most obvious manifestations are incompatible with the ideology of health professionals. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE In the secular societies of Europe, if not North America, there should be no expectation that nurses provide spiritual care. It is a requirement of the great separation between civil order and religion that the health services, as a public space, should remain thoroughly secular.
An Investigation of the Effect of Elastic Constants of Spacer in n-FETs CESL Stressor

The strained-Si approach from the contact etching stop layer (CESL) stressor with two kinds of Young's modulus spacer has been investigated. From the TSUPREM4 simulation of the CESL tensile stressor, the tensile channel stress induced by the SiN spacer material is found to be 60% more than that by the oxide spacer material. With the use of a tensile CESL stressor for the 90-nm n-FETs, an extra 10% enhancement in drive current IDsat was obtained in the device with a high Young's modulus (270-290 GPa) SiN spacer as compared with that with a low Young's modulus (66 GPa) SiO2 spacer. The electrical data are in good agreement with the prediction of the stress simulation.
For the Record: A Commentary on the Role of Suggestion in Hypnosis

In a recent article on the nature of hypnosis, Evans (2000) lists my name with that of Clark L. Hull as one of two past influential authorities on the subject who have allegedly taken (Weitzenhoffer, 1953) the position that hypnosis is just a form of suggestibility, presumably implying it is nothing more than that. Evans points out this is an oversimplification and adds that recent authorities agree hypnosis is a more complex phenomenon. I appreciate Evans giving me this much recognition, but I do wish he had been more accurate regarding my position on the matter. Not only I did not take such a position in 1953, but I made the point hypnosis was, indeed, a more complex phenomenon (Weitzenhoffer, 1953, page 252-259, 257). And, inasmuch as Evans mentions his belief that dissociation must be taken into account as a factor, I would add that in 1953, long before E.R. Hilgard came up with his dissociation hypothesis, I clearly hypothesized (pp.253ff) that when hypnosis is present some form of dissociation is involved along with the increase in suggestibility. Of course Pierre Janet (1889) had anticipated both of us in this regard by many years. Evans is not the only one to have misrepresented my original views on hypnosis. Over the years quite a few other writers have done the same and I feel that maybe it is time, while I can still do it, to correct this false impression. The matter is somewhat of a puzzle. Where have readers of my 1953 work gotten the idea that I once considered, and presumably still consider, hypnosis to be nothing more than a state of suggestibility? Was it the title of the book: Hypnotism: An Objective Study in Suggestibility? It seems to have been for some. It should not have been. In 1953 the term “hypnotism” and “hypnosis” were still understood to denote distinct objects of thought. Hypnosis was a state of being differing from the normal waking state. Hypnotism was the production, study and use of hypnotic phenomena. My choice of title was simply intended to indicate that my topic was what hypnotism then denoted and that, for the most part, the subject matter appeared to boil down mostly to the effects of suggestion rather than those of hypnosis, the state. It did not occur to me that anyone would interpret the title as saying that hypnosis, the state, was being reduced to being merely and only a state of suggestibility. But hopefully, Evans as well as others who have understood me to say hypnosis was just suggestibility, must have done more than look at the title of the book. So American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 44:2, October 2001 Copyright 2001 by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
Accelerating Computer Vision on mobile embedded platforms

Running Computer Vision (CV) algorithms on a mobile embedded platform includes multiple challenges due to high computation requirement. Past few years have witnessed remarkable development in the computational capabilities and applications of hardware accelerators such as GPU, DSP, FPGA and multi-core CPUs in computer vision arena. The computational capabilities of these hardware accelerators are improving day-by-day. Nevertheless, this has also concluded in a significant increase in their power consumption. In this paper, we have surveyed several methods that can optimise the performance of CV algorithm on a mobile embedded platform, also demonstrated that use of GPGPU[11] can significantly improve latency compare to other CPU only optimisation techniques. This demonstrates a valid approach for implementing CV algorithms on GPGPU based parallel computing embedded platforms.
Balloon angioplasty versus implantation of nitinol stents in the superficial femoral artery.

BACKGROUND Because stent implantation for disease of the superficial femoral artery has been associated with high rates of late clinical failure, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty is preferred for endovascular treatment, and stenting is recommended only in the event of suboptimal technical results. We evaluated whether primary implantation of a self-expanding nitinol (nickel-titanium) stent yielded anatomical and clinical benefits superior to those afforded by percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with optional secondary stenting. METHODS We randomly assigned 104 patients who had severe claudication or chronic limb ischemia due to stenosis or occlusion of the superficial femoral artery to undergo primary stent implantation (51 patients) or angioplasty (53 patients). Restenosis and clinical outcomes were assessed at 6 and 12 months. RESULTS The mean (+/-SD) length of the treated segment was 132+/-71 mm in the stent group and 127+/-55 mm in the angioplasty group. Secondary stenting was performed in 17 of 53 patients (32 percent) in the angioplasty group, in most cases because of a suboptimal result after angioplasty. At 6 months, the rate of restenosis on angiography was 24 percent in the stent group and 43 percent in the angioplasty group (P=0.05); at 12 months the rates on duplex ultrasonography were 37 percent and 63 percent, respectively (P=0.01). Patients in the stent group were able to walk significantly farther on a treadmill at 6 and 12 months than those in the angioplasty group. CONCLUSIONS In the intermediate term, treatment of superficial-femoral-artery disease by primary implantation of a self-expanding nitinol stent yielded results that were superior to those with the currently recommended approach of balloon angioplasty with optional secondary stenting. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00281060.).
Human-Robot Collision Avoidance using a modified Social force Model with Body Pose and Face Orientation

The ability of robots to understand human characteristics and make themselves socially accepted by humans are important issues if smooth collision avoidance between humans and robots is to be achieved. When discussing smooth collision avoidance, robot should understand not only physical components such as human position, but also social components such as body pose, face orientation and proxemics (personal space during motion). We integrated these components in a modified social force model (MSFM) which allows robots to predict human motion and perform smooth collision avoidance. In the modified model, short-term intended direction is described by body pose, and a supplementary force related face orientation is added for intention estimation. Face orientation is also the best indication of the direction of personal space during motion, which was verified in preliminary experiments. Our approach was implemented and tested on a real humanoid robot in a situation in which a human is confronted with the robot in an indoor environment. Experimental results showed that better human motion tracking was achieved with body pose and face orientation tracking. Being provided with the face orientation as an indication of the intended direction, and observing the laws of proxemics in a human-like manner, the robot was able to perform avoidance motions that were more human-like when compared to the original social force model (SFM) in a face-to-face confrontation.
UTILIZAÇÃO DA METODOLOGIA BPM PARA ADEQUAÇÃO DE UM SISTEMA DE GESTÃO INTEGRADA E RETENÇÃO DE CONHECIMENTO EM UMA INSTITUIÇÃO PÚBLICA DE ENSINO SUPERIOR

O presente artigo tem como objetivo realizar um estudo de caso da aplicacao da metodologia de Gerenciamento por Processos do Negocio (BPM) em uma Instituicao Publica de Ensino Superior a fim de reter o conhecimento dentro da instituicao e de gerir o sistema de forma integrada. Foi utilizada a metodologia BPM que pretende o levantamento de informacoes em todos os niveis hierarquicos da organizacao para mapear e padronizar fluxos dentro da empresa absorvendo toda a informacao possivel. Apresenta-se um caso de sucesso da implantacao desta metodologia na Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). Foi percebida uma grande contribuicao da metodologia para a instituicao e uma possivel aplicacao deste processo em diversos setores da Universidade.
Hemoglobin and the paracrine and endocrine functions of nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide, a key factor in the maintenance of vascular tone, causes vascular smooth muscles to relax. Hemoglobin rapidly destroys nitric oxide, thereby limiting the activity of the gas to the local environment. Recent work suggests that nitric oxide reacts with hemoglobin at high oxygen tensions to form relatively long-lived products. At low oxygen tensions, these products release vasodilatory nitric oxide. This work is controversial, but it provides evidence of the potential of inhaled nitric oxide as a therapeutic agent.
Focal Visual Attention and Pattern Discrimination

Pattern discrimination in the presence of distractor patterns is improved when the stimulus display is preceded by a precue designating the location of the target pattern. Experiments were conducted to determine how big an improvement the precue produced. The specific question of whether the observer is able to process selectively the stimulus pattern in the cued location of the display and ignore the patterns of the noncued locations was addressed. In order to study this, reaction time for pattern discrimination on a blank background (no distractors) was compared with the reaction time when the observer performed the same discrimination task in the presence of distractors and a precue had indicated the location of the stimulus pattern to be discriminated. The results showed that these two reaction times were equal if the cue preceded the stimulus patterns at intervals which were longer than some minimum time. Hence, stimuli outside the ‘aperture’ of focal attention can be ignored. These results could not be attributed to eye movements, because the longest duration of the whole sequence of precue and stimulus patterns was only 200 ms.
Effects of dose, strain, and dosing vehicle on methacrylonitrile disposition in rats and identification of a novel-exhaled metabolite.

Methacrylonitrile (MAN), an aliphatic nitrile used in the production of plastics and elastomers, is structurally related to the known animal carcinogen, acrylonitrile. Although MAN has potential to cause significant toxicity, minimal information is available on its toxicity or fate. Current studies were designed to investigate the biological fate of [2-14C]MAN in male F344 rats. Following gavage administration of 115, 11.5, or 1.15 mg MAN/kg in water, male F344 rats were placed in glass metabolism cages and urine, expired air, and feces were collected. Rats were sacrificed at various times, and the concentration of MAN-derived radioactivity in tissues was determined. MAN was rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and distributed to all major tissues. After gavage administration of 1.15-115 mg/kg, [2-14C]MAN is primarily eliminated in the expired air. Sixty to 70% of the low and medium doses were exhaled as 14CO2 in 72 hr compared with 25% of the highest dose. Whereas 40% of the high dose was expired as organic volatiles in 72 hr, only 9-12% of the low and medium doses were exhaled as such. It is therefore apparent that saturation of MAN metabolism occurs at the high dose. HPLC analysis of expired organic volatiles from MAN-treated rats showed that it contained two components that were identified as unchanged MAN and acetone. The MAN:acetone ratio was directly proportional to dose and decreased as a function of time. Urinary excretion accounted for 20-30% of all MAN doses within 72 hr after dosing. Investigating the effect of dosing vehicle on MAN disposition in rats revealed that administration of 115 mg MAN/kg in oil resulted in the death of rats within 24 hr after treatment. Furthermore, monitoring the fate of MAN in these rats before death showed that a significantly higher percentage of the dose was eliminated in urine and expired air. Analysis of this expired air also revealed that significantly more acetone and less unchanged MAN were exhaled by these animals. It is apparent that administration of MAN to F344 rats in oil resulted in slower absorption, decreased elimination of unchanged MAN, and increased metabolism to acetone and/or decreased degradation of acetone to CO2. The combination of these effects of an oil vehicle may have contributed to the death of rats by MAN. Comparison of the metabolism and disposition of MAN in F344 and Sprague-Dawley rats showed minor differences between the two strains. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Escherichia coli Fis and DnaA proteins bind specifically to the nrd promoter region and affect expression of an nrd-lac fusion

The Escherichia coli nrd operon contains the genes encoding the two subunits of ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase. The regulation of the nrd operon has been observed to be very complex. The specific binding of two proteins to the nrd regulatory region and expression of mutant nrd-lac fusions that do not bind these proteins are described. A partially purified protein from an E. coli cell extract was previously shown to bind to the promoter region and to regulate transcription of the nrd operon (C. K. Tuggle and J. A. Fuchs, J. Bacteriol. 172:1711-1718, 1990). We have purified this protein to homogeneity by affinity chromatography and identified it as the E. coli factor for inversion stimulation (Fis). Cu-phenanthroline footprinting experiments showed that Fis binds to a site centered 156 bp upstream of the start of nrd transcription. Mutants with deletion and site-directed mutations that do not bind Fis at this site have two- to threefold-lower expression of an nrd-lac fusion. The previously reported negative regulatory nature of this site (C. K. Tuggle and J. A. Fuchs, J. Bacteriol. 172:1711-1718, 1990) was found to be due to a change in polarity in the vectors used to construct promoter fusions. Two nine-base sequences with homology to the DnaA consensus binding sequence are located immediately upstream of the nrd putative -35 RNA polymerase binding site. Binding of DnaA to these sequences on DNA fragments containing the nrd promoter region was confirmed by in vitro Cu-phenanthroline footprinting. Footprinting experiments on fragments with each as well as both of the mutated 9-mers suggests cooperativity between the two sites in binding DnaA. Assay of in vivo expression from wild-type and DnaA box-mutated nrd promoter fragments fused to lacZ on single-copy plasmids indicates a positive effect of DnaA binding on expression of nrd.