Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design of an automatic gain control circuit in current-mode using a digitally controlled feedback

For the current manuscript, an automatic gain control circuit is proposed; it is designed in current-mode. Additionally, it has a digitally controlled feedback. The design follows a bottom-up designing philosophy; then, the first step is to simulate the mathematical behavior of the proposal. Matlab is the mathematical tool used for mathematical validation. After corroborating its behavior, the circuit is designed using basic cells in SPICE; some of the cells are specially designed for this application. Finally, the main objective was achieved since a circuit able to adapt the gain factor is obtained.
Specifying architecture of knowledge graph with data graph, information graph, knowledge graph and wisdom graph

Knowledge graphs have been widely adopted, in large part owing to their schema-less nature. It enables knowledge graphs to grow seamlessly and allows for new relationships and entities as needed. Knowledge graph has become a powerful tool to represent knowledge in the form of a labelled directed graph and to give semantics to textual information. A knowledge graph is a graph constructed by representing each item, entity and user as nodes, and linking those nodes that interact with each other via edges. Knowledge graph has abundant natural semantics and can contain various and more complete information. Its expression mechanism is close to natural language. However, we still lack a unified definition and standard expression form of knowledge graph. We propose to clarify the expression of knowledge graph as a whole. We clarify the architecture of knowledge graph from data, information, knowledge, and wisdom aspects respectively. We also propose to specify knowledge graph in a progressive manner as four basic forms including data graph, information graph, knowledge graph and wisdom graph.
Genetic relatedness of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii endemic to New York City

SUMMARY Multidrug-resistant isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii from New York City generally belong to one of three ribotypes. To assess the accuracy of ribotyping, the relatedness of representative isolates was further assessed by rep-PCR, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and DNA sequencing of five genes potentially associated with antimicrobial resistance (ampC, ompA, adeB, adeR, and abeM). The isolates fell into several major groups. The first group shared the same ribotype and had common mutations affecting OmpA, AdeR, and AbeM, but consisted of two subtypes with distinctive rep-PCR and PFGE patterns and ampC mutations. The second and third groups shared common alterations in OmpA, AdeR, and AbeM, but had distinct ribotype, rep-PCR, and PFGE patterns. The resistant isolates were unrelated to the β-lactam susceptible isolates. Many of the resistant strains shared OmpA and AdeB patterns observed in several European clonal groups. Further development of a multilocus sequencing typing scheme will help determine if multidrug-resistant isolates from diverse geographic areas are indeed ancestrally related.
Assessing the Role of Environmental Factors on Baltic Cod Recruitment, a Complex Adaptive System Emergent Property

For decades, fish recruitment has been a subject of intensive research with stock–recruitment models commonly used for recruitment prediction often only explaining a small fraction of the inter-annual recruitment variation. The use of environmental information to improve our ability to predict recruitment, could contribute considerably to fisheries management. However, the problem remains difficult because the mechanisms behind such complex relationships are often poorly understood; this in turn, makes it difficult to determine the forecast estimation robustness, leading to the failure of some relationships when new data become available. The utility of machine learning algorithms such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) for solving complex problems has been demonstrated in aquatic studies and has led many researchers to advocate ANNs as an attractive, non-linear alternative to traditional statistical methods. The goal of this study is to design a Baltic cod recruitment model (FishANN) that can account for complex ecosystem interactions. To this end, we (1) build a quantitative model representation of the conceptual understanding of the complex ecosystem interactions driving Baltic cod recruitment dynamics, and (2) apply the model to strengthen the current capability to project future changes in Baltic cod recruitment. FishANN is demonstrated to bring multiple stressors together into one model framework and estimate the relative importance of these stressors while interpreting the complex nonlinear interactions between them. Additional requirements to further improve the current study in the future are also proposed.
Data Protection in Collaborative Business Applications

Collaborative business applications are an active field of research and an emerging practice in industry. Collaborative business applications can be classified into business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) applications. Electronic B2C applications are of great interest with the advent of the Internet as an additional sales channel, but are usually restricted in their business model and architecture to classical client-server matching the buyer-seller relationship. B2B applications offer a much wider range of business models and architecture, since often equal partners are involved in the transactions. The security requirements resulting absTracT
An Iteration-Free MoM Approach Based on Excitation Independent Characteristic Basis Functions for Solving Large Multiscale Electromagnetic Scattering Problems

We describe a numerically efficient strategy for solving a linear system of equations arising in the Method of Moments for solving electromagnetic scattering problems. This novel approach, termed as the characteristic basis function method (CBFM), is based on utilizing characteristic basis functions (CBFs)-special functions defined on macro domains (blocks)-that include a relatively large number of conventional sub-domains discretized by using triangular or rectangular patches. Use of these basis functions leads to a significant reduction in the number of unknowns, and results in a substantial size reduction of the MoM matrix; this, in turn, enables us to handle the reduced matrix by using a direct solver, without the need to iterate. In addition, the paper shows that the CBFs can be generated by using a sparse representation of the impedance matrix-resulting in lower computational cost-and that, in contrast to the iterative techniques, multiple excitations can be handled with only a small overhead. Another important attribute of the CBFM is that it is readily parallelized. Numerical results that demonstrate the accuracy and time efficiency of the CBFM for several representative scattering problems are included in the paper.
Pengaruh Auditor Relationships terhadap Kualitas Audit pada Perusahaan Manufaktur di Indonesia (Studi Empiris pada Perusahaan Manufaktur yang Terdaftar pada Bursa Efek Indonesia Tahun 2011)

The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the association of audit quality with audit tenure which would support the argument for auditor rotation being prescribed by regulation in Indonesia. Audit tenure is measured having regard to both the duration of relations between the lead audit partner and client firm management (person to person relations), as well as the duration of the audit firm’s engagement by the client (firm to firm). Using the setting of when Indonesia firm were adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We examine 79 publicly listed Indonesia firms period of 2011. By using regression analysis technique, the results show that evidence of a negative association between the length of tenure between the lead audit partner and client firm management (person-to-person relations) and audit quality. Conversely we find a negative relation between audit firm engagement by the client (firm-to-firm) and audit quality.
Use of microsatellites for genetic variation and inbreeding analysis in Sarda sheep flocks of central Italy

Summary A set of 11 polymorphic microsatellites has been used to assess the distribution of genetic variability in 17 flocks of the Sarda sheep breed in the Viterbo province, located in central Italy. The suitability of samples size and number of loci analysed were tested using a bootstrap procedure. The data obtained were used to estimate the genetic diversity within and among flocks, and to test the presence of inbreeding within flocks. To study the genetic relationship among flocks, a principal component analysis based on Nei standard distances was performed. The results of genetic analysis show a significant excess of homozygotes in some of the flocks. The use of genetic data for maximum likelihood tests of assignment is investigated in order to establish suitable breeding policies. This research represents a case study for the development of mating strategies suitable for incrementing genetic variability within flocks that can be applied in other domestic species showing similar breeding problems (goat, buffalo and small populations of cattle).
A home monitoring system for elderly people based on MEMS sensors and wireless networks

In order to realize home monitoring of elderly people and protect their personal privacy at the same time during their daily life, a novel ambulatory monitoring system was designed based on MEMS sensors that can continuously record body movements and detect body postures (walking, standing, sitting, falling and lying). The system alarm was triggered once accident “falling” happens, which ensure the monitored person can get timely and effective help. The monitoring system consists of three sensing units. Acquired data were transmitted to the computer wirelessly. A new signal processing algorithm was adopted to detect movement patterns related to the basic body postures and different postural transitions during daily physical activity. A fuzzy classifier was further designed to classify the postures. The experiment results show that the sensitivity and specificity of classification of body postures were: 99% and 99.5% for walking, 95.1% and 96.5% for standing, 99.3% and 99.7% for sitting, 95.3% and 97.1% for falling, 100% and 100% for lying.
Mixed anxiety-depression. Fact or myth?

This study is concerned with factors affecting the type of psychotropic medication prescribed for neurotic outpatients with a diagnosis of "mixed anxiety-depression. " The sample includes 122 patients assigned to clinical trials with anxiolytics (anxiety study group) and 149 patients assigned to trials with antidepressants (depression study group). Anxiety and depression dominated the symptom profiles of all patients, but in anxiety study patients anxiety was the more severe of the two symptoms, while in depression study patients depression was the more severe. For physician measures, depression differed more sharply across groups; for patient measures anxiety made the greater contribution to between-group differences. Multivariate analyses revealed configurational group differences involving anxiety, depression, and insomnia and indicated that information concerning previous treatment response played an additional role in treatment assignment.
Alzheimer's Disease: Approaches to Pathogenesis in the Genomic Age

The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is rising rapidly worldwide. A seemingly imminent epidemic is predicted to have wide reaching societal and economic consequences, becoming the leading health issue for many countries by the middle of this century. This epidemic is driven by an ageing world population in combination with a lack of disease modifying treatments or preventive strategies. The popular amyloid cascade hypothesis suggests that AD is precipitated by the dysregulated metabolism of the amyloid precursor protein resulting in the accumulation of the betaamyloid peptide (A) in the brain. This hypothesis is the basis for most experimental treatments currently in clinical trials. However, not all evidence supports a precipitating role of abnormal A accumulation in the common forms of AD.
Implementation of Multilayer Based Reversible Gate Using Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata

A quantum-dot cellular automata(QCA) is important technology to be with CMOS. QCA is expected to reach very high operating frequencies and significant reduction of power consumption. Reversible logic is an one-to-one mapping between the input and output vectors. Reversible logic is significant in QCA circuit with almost zero power dissipation. In this paper we propose a new reversible gate using multilayer structure. The multilayer based wirecrossing technique uses crossover bridge technique. The structure of this technique can be more miniaturized than coplanar based structure. Our proposed reversible gate requres only 102 cell counts, which is 58.5% more area efficient than the previous work. The main target of designing reversible gate is to decrease the number of cells. Our new reversible gate is suitable for design a reversible full adder.
Antarctic ice sheet sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 variations in the early to mid-Miocene

Significance New information from the ANDRILL-2A drill core and a complementary ice sheet modeling study show that polar climate and Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) margins were highly dynamic during the early to mid-Miocene. Changes in extent of the AIS inferred by these studies suggest that high southern latitudes were sensitive to relatively small changes in atmospheric CO2 (between 280 and 500 ppm). Importantly, reconstructions through intervals of peak warmth indicate that the AIS retreated beyond its terrestrial margin under atmospheric CO2 conditions that were similar to those projected for the coming centuries. Geological records from the Antarctic margin offer direct evidence of environmental variability at high southern latitudes and provide insight regarding ice sheet sensitivity to past climate change. The early to mid-Miocene (23–14 Mya) is a compelling interval to study as global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations were similar to those projected for coming centuries. Importantly, this time interval includes the Miocene Climatic Optimum, a period of global warmth during which average surface temperatures were 3–4 °C higher than today. Miocene sediments in the ANDRILL-2A drill core from the Western Ross Sea, Antarctica, indicate that the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) was highly variable through this key time interval. A multiproxy dataset derived from the core identifies four distinct environmental motifs based on changes in sedimentary facies, fossil assemblages, geochemistry, and paleotemperature. Four major disconformities in the drill core coincide with regional seismic discontinuities and reflect transient expansion of grounded ice across the Ross Sea. They correlate with major positive shifts in benthic oxygen isotope records and generally coincide with intervals when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were at or below preindustrial levels (∼280 ppm). Five intervals reflect ice sheet minima and air temperatures warm enough for substantial ice mass loss during episodes of high (∼500 ppm) atmospheric CO2. These new drill core data and associated ice sheet modeling experiments indicate that polar climate and the AIS were highly sensitive to relatively small changes in atmospheric CO2 during the early to mid-Miocene.
Lifetime-Based Power Routing of a Quadruple Active Bridge DC/DC Converter

Medium-voltage dc/dc converters have recently acquired importance in the smart grid and dc distribution framework. However, several open issues remain with regard to the reliability of such systems. This paper proposes a modular isolated dc/dc converter with multiple quadruple active bridge building blocks. This design, in combination with a virtual resistor-based control, weights the paths depending on the components wear-out and can balance the stress of the semiconductors in the attempt of extending overall system lifetime. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated in simulations and supported with measurements on a small-scale demonstrator with open modules, built in order to verify in real time the capability of controlling the thermal stress of the semiconductors.
2 GHz Tuneable Integrated Differential Active Bandpass Filter on Silicon

Improvements of Silicon technology in CMOS and BiCMOS process, is nowadays showing very interesting intrinsic characteristics. Circuit ideas and topologies are improved more and more to fit the industrial needs. Our design is a 2 GHz BiCMOS process filter based on a LC-Q enhanced topology. With a power supply of 2.7 V, the circuit consumes less than 6.1 mA. It shows at the centre frequency a 20 dB power transmission gain, a noise figure of 4.2 dB, a -35 dBm -1dB input referred compression point and a -3dB bandwidth of 50 MHz.
Swiss-AlpArray temporary broadband seismic stations deployment and noisecharacterization

Abstract. AlpArray is a large collaborative seismological project in Europe that includes more than 50 research institutes and seismological observatories. At the heart of the project is the collection of top-quality seismological data from a dense network of broadband temporary seismic stations, in compliment to the existing permanent networks, that ensures a homogeneous station coverage of the greater Alpine region. This Alp Array Seismic Network (AASN) began operation in January 2016 and will have a duration of at least 2 years. In this work we report the Swiss contribution to the AASN, we concentrate on the site selection process, our methods for stations installation, data quality and data management. We deployed 27 temporary broadband stations equipped with STS-2 and Trillium Compact 120 s sensors. The deployment and maintenance of the temporary stations across 5 countries is managed by ETH Zurich and it is the result of a fruitful collaboration between five institutes in Europe.
Clinical outcomes among patients with non-metastatic Rectal Cancer after chemo-radiotherapy

Background: Globally, colorectal cancer(CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in males and the second in females, with over 1.2 million new cases and 608,700 deaths estimated to have occurred in 2008. (1)Rates are substantially higher in males than in females. Globally, the incidence of CRC varies over 10-fold. The highest incidence rates are in Australia and New Zealand, Europe and North America, and the lowest rates are found in Africa and South-Central Asia. These geographic differences appear to be attributable to differences in dietary and environmental exposures that are imposed upon a background of genetically determined susceptibility. At our center, where head and neck, breast and cervical cancers predominate, rectal cancers make for a small percentage of malignancies. In between 2009 and 2013, out of a total of 4307 patients treated with radiotherapy, carcinoma rectum accounted for only 97 cases (2.2%). Surgery remains the mainstay of curative treatment for carcinoma of the rectum. Surgical management depends on the stage and location of a tumor within the rectum. Very early cancers can be managed with limited surgery (i.e., local excision) in selected situations; however, the majority of tumors tend to present as more advanced disease and require either a low anterior resection (LAR) or abdominoperineal resection (APR). For patients with resected stage II or III rectal cancer, early randomized trials from Gastrointestinal Tumor Study Group (GITSG) and Mayo Clinic/North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) demonstrated a significant local control and survival benefit for postoperative combined modality therapy over surgery alone. Thus, most of these patients stand to benefit from further adjuvant treatment in the form of concurrent chemo-radiotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy. Neoadjuvant or induction chemoradiotherapy is an increasingly used strategy for patients with rectal cancer. Advantages of the neoadjuvant approach include better local control, an increased likelihood of sphincter saving surgery, and a lower risk of chronic anastomotic stricture. Essential to the planning of Neoadjuvant therapy is an initial multidisciplinary assessment including the departments of surgery, radiotherapy and medical oncology. This study was conducted to evaluate our experience with Neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancers. The study aims to estimate the local control rates and disease free survival of rectal cancer patients who undergo Neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemoradiotherapy with a curative intent at Shiridi Sai Baba Cancer Hospital, Manipal.
Country or brand: influences on intention to purchase

This study aims to identify the impact of brand and country of origin image on consumer purchase intention. The literature is full of analysis on the possible effects of the country of origin in the consumer purchase intention, but in few of these studies, the brand is taken into account. Country and brand were carefully chosen: The United States causes conflicting feelings, and the Apple brand is a well known and admired brand. The literature review included image and affinity with the country, personality and self connection with the brand. We conducted a survey with 367 students and applied the structural equation model to analyze the impacts. The results indicate that consumer-brand relationship is strong and showed greater significance than other constructs. This indicates that the intention to purchase is more related to how the consumer sees his/her relation towards the brand, than to his/her attitude towards the country. (K)
How big is the burden of visual loss caused by age related macular degeneration in the United Kingdom?

Aims: To predict the burden of blindness, partial sight, and visual impairment (binocular visual acuity 6/18 or less) due to late stage age related macular degeneration (AMD) in the ageing population of the United Kingdom. Methods: A systematic review, followed by a request for data, was used to establish a pooled prevalence of AMD and corresponding visual loss. Prevalence figures were applied to the UK population. Using UK population trends, the future burden of AMD over the coming decade was established. Results: Pooled data from six studies showed that the prevalence of visual loss caused by AMD increased exponentially from the age of 70–85 years of age, with 3.5% (95% CI 3.0 to 4.1) having visual impairment beyond the age of 75 years. The authors estimate that there are currently 214 000 (95% CI 151 000 to 310 000) with visual impairment caused by AMD (suitable for registration). This number is expected to increase to 239 000 (95% CI 168 000 to 346 000) by the year 2011. Currently there are 172 000 (95% CI 106 000 to 279 000) and 245 000 (95% CI 163 000 to 364 000) with geographical and neovascular AMD, respectively. Conclusions: Estimates of visual impairment agree with official statistics for the number registered partially sighted or blind, caused by AMD, and are well below other figures often cited. Although these estimates are associated with wide confidence intervals (CI) and a number of caveats, they represent the best available data, which can be used to guide health and social care provision for older people in the UK setting. Implications for low vision services are outlined.