Nondeterministic polynomial time hard (NP-hard) combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) are intractable to solve using a traditional computer as the time to find a solution increases very rapidly ...with the number of variables. An efficient alternative computing method uses coupled spin networks to solve COP. This work presents a first-of-its-kind coupled ring oscillator (ROSC)-based scalable probabilistic Ising computer to solve NP-hard COPs. An integrated coupled oscillator network was designed with 560 ROSCs that mimic a coupled spin network. Each ROSC can be coupled to any of its neighbors using programmable back-to-back (B2B) inverter-based coupling mechanism. The ROSC-based spins and B2B inverter-based coupling were optimized to work under a wide range of system noise as well as voltage and temperature variations. Randomly generated 1000 max-cut problems were mapped and solved in the hardware. The integrated Ising computer produced satisfactory solutions of max-cut problems when compared with commercial software running on a CPU. Experiments show that the integrated CMOS-based Ising computer can find the solution to NP-hard problems with an accuracy of 82%-100%. In addition, the repeated measurements of the same problem showed that the Ising computer can traverse through several local minima to find high-quality solutions under various voltage and temperature variation conditions. The experimental results show that ROSCs are a potential candidate for a dedicated hardware accelerator aiming to solve a wide range of COPs.
A digital-intensive four-level pulse amplitude (PAM-4) transceiver featuring a 2-tap time-based decision feedback equalization (TB-DFE) circuit was demonstrated in a 65 nm GP CMOS process. A novel ...inverter-based differential voltage-to-time converter (DVTC) increases the linearity and dynamic range compared to a prior time-based DFE approach enabling reliable PAM-4 operation. The four-level signal comparison and DFE operation were performed entirely in the time domain using programmable delays and a phase detector (PD). Using an on-chip bit error rate (BER) monitor, we verified a BER less than 10 −12 while achieving an energy-efficiency of 0.97pJ/b at a 32Gb/s data rate. The transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) circuits occupy an area of 0.009 mm 2 .
Orbital Emphysema Lee, Nien-Jung; Chiu, Po-Wei
The New England journal of medicine,
03/2023, Letnik:
388, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A 63-year-old man presented with a 1-day history of double vision and a “bubbly appearance” of the left eye after he fell and struck his face. On examination, air bubbles were seen in the bulbar ...conjunctiva of the left eye.
We intended to explore the effect of level of frailty on, and relationship with, 1-, 3-, and 6-month postoperative emergency department visits, readmissions, and mortality. This is a prospective ...multicenter observational cohort study design. Patients aged 50 years or older treated for hip fracture (n = 245) were taken from Orthopedic wards in one medical center (n = 131) and one district hospital (n = 114) in Changhua County, Taiwan. Frailty was defined as measured by the validated Clinical Frailty Scale and categorized as robust, pre-frail, and frail. We used Kaplan-Meier analysis to estimate survival rates and Cox regression to estimate the risk of frailty associated with adverse outcomes. To examine the longitudinal associations between frailty and adverse outcome, the cross-lagged models were explored. Of the 245 patients, 55 (22.4%) were classified as frail, 113 (46.1%) as pre-frail, and 77 (31.4%) as robust. More cumulative events occurred for frail than for robust patients for each adverse outcome. Frailty has long-term effect on each adverse outcome after discharge, rather than the effect simultaneously. Targeting pre-frailty and frailty is essential for prevent adverse outcomes and improving the overall health of older adults after discharge for hip fracture.
Woman with agonal breathing Hsu, Chien‐Te; Chiu, Po‐Wei
Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open,
June 2023, Letnik:
4, Številka:
3
Journal Article
A dynamic change of weight over time has been known as an important factor that impacts mortality risk. The aims of this study were to identify the heterogeneity of BMI trajectory groups and to ...examine the association of the trajectories of BMI and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. The data for this study were obtained from a large prospective cohort study in Taiwan between 1998 and 2019 that was linked to the National Death Registry for death information. The participants were stratified into four groups by age and gender; self-reported demographics and measured BMI data were used. We used group-based trajectory analysis to identify the distinct trajectories of changes in BMI. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the hazard ratio (HR) of all-cause and cause-specific mortality risk. Data were analyzed in April 2020 and included 89,886 participants. Four trajectory groups were identified by the pattern of BMI change over time. Our study shows that different trajectories were associated with mortality. Our findings suggest that the mortality risk differs in each trajectory group and in each age and gender stratification. It appears that obesity is a protective factor in cancer-related mortality in females but not in males in group of old age participants; low-normal weight is a risk factor in respiratory-related mortality in all participants. Our findings can be used to suggest the appropriate BMI in each age and gender groups and thereby earlier health interventions can be taken to avoid mortality.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Vimentin intermediate filaments (VIFs), expressed in most mesenchymal and cancer cells, undergo dramatic reorganization during cell migration; however, the mechanism remains obscure. This study ...demonstrates that upon growth-factor stimulation, Src directly phosphorylates vimentin at Tyr117, leading to VIF disassembly into squiggles and particles at the cell edge during lamellipodia formation. The protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 counteracted the Src effects on VIF tyrosine phosphorylation and organization. VIFs formed by vimentin Y117D mutant were more soluble and dynamic than those formed by the wild-type and Y117F mutant. Increased expression of vimentin promoted growth-factor induced lamellipodia formation and cell migration, whereas the mutants suppressed both. The vimentin-induced increase in lamellipodia formation correlated with the activation of Rac and Vav2, with the latter associated with VIFs and recruited to the plasma membrane upon growth-factor stimulation. These results reveal a novel mechanism for regulating VIF dynamics through Src and SHP2 and demonstrate that proper VIF dynamics are important for Rac activation and cell migration.
Whereas most economic and ecological impacts of tramp ant species stem in large part from numerical dominance and exacerbated aggressiveness of workers, those imposed by alate (winged) ants have been ...rarely described. In the present study, we report an unprecedented massive alate swarming (i.e., mating flight) event in southern Taiwan by a tramp ant species, Technomyrmex albipes (Smith) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), that triggers immediate pest management responses, and examine factor(s) that potentially contribute to the remarkably high number of alates. We monitored the seasonal activities of T. albipes workers and phenology of alate swarming, attempting to link the worker foraging dynamics with swarm ontogeny. As it was argued that recent streetlight fixtures converted from high‐pressure sodium to light‐emitting diode (LED) may serve as a major cause of the massive swarming, alates' light color preference was investigated. Sex ratio of trapped alates was also assessed to test whether sex‐specific light preference exists in T. albipes. We showed that foraging intensity of workers increased in the spring, peaked in May, and was followed by the nuptial flight season that began in August and lasted for 4 months. The phenological pattern is consistent with the colony dynamics in many other ant species. Although the two light preference experiments did not yield the same results, T. albipes alates overall preferred lights with shorter wavelengths in the active trapping, partially supporting the argument of white LED streetlights contributing to the massive flight. The sex ratio of trapped alates was overall female‐biased, suggesting female alates are disproportionally produced and/or more sensitive toward lights.
We report an unusual nuisance caused by massive mating flights of a tramp ant, Technomyrmex albipes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in southern Taiwan. Two trapping experiments together revealed that winged individuals were attracted more by artificial lights with short wavelengths, supporting the possible connection between the unprecedented swarming and recently installed white LED streetlights. Combined with the seasonal surveillance of workers' and winged individuals' activities, we discuss the potential pest management strategies to this newly emerging ant nuisance.
Optical trapping of dielectric and metal particles yields different types of “optically evolving assembly” at air/solution and glass/solution interfaces. However, all these structures have in common ...that the trapping laser is scattered and propagated through the assembly, expanding from the focus up to a few tens of micrometers. In the present work, we fabricate a single submillimeter linear assembly of polystyrene microparticles starting from the surface of a concentrated lysozyme D2O solution. Such assembly has a three-dimensional linear structure composed of a single microparticle aggregate without folding and bending. Indeed, it is prepared along the lysozyme assembly, which is also generated by optical trapping. The cooperative trapping of the microparticle and lysozyme did not arrange as a homogeneously distributed assembly. Instead, a unique anomalously long assembly of microparticles and a densely, widely, and deeply expanded lysozyme layer were simultaneously prepared. Their morphology was reconstructed by shifting the imaging plane immediately after switching off the trapping laser. Independently, the lysozyme assembly was also confirmed by fluorescence imaging and Raman scattering spectroscopy. Thus, we consider that the described cooperative “optically evolved assembling” has a large potential to fabricate hybrid materials with applications in different fields such as colloid science, protein chemistry, and soft matter.
A digital-intensive on-chip serial link achieving a 10 Gb/s data rate over a 10-mm interconnect was demonstrated in a 65-nm GP process. A three-tap half-rate feed-forward equalizer was implemented ...for signal pre-emphasis in the transmitted block. On the receiver (RX) side, a two-tap half-rate time-based decision feedback equalizer was employed to cancel out inter-symbol interference noise. A 2 15 - 1 pseudorandom binary sequence generator and an in situ bit error rate (BER) monitor were designed for bit stream generation and convenient eye-diagram measurements. The measured energy efficiency of the transmitter and RX was 31.9 and 45.3 fJ/b/mm, respectively, for a data rate of 10 Gb/s. A BER less than 10 −12 was verified for an eye width of 0.43 unit interval.
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