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The article analyzes the impact of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) on the art market. Topics discussed include illicit activity of art market participants like art dealer and collector Nazem Said Ahmad, impact of CTA on art holdings of collectors and high-net worth individuals that own art through entity structures like limited liability companies, family offices and private trusts, beneficial owner under the CTA and access to beneficial ownership information.

This letter provides, to the best of our knowledge, a first analysis of how biologically plausible spiking neural networks (SNNs) equipped with spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) can learn to detect people on the fly from nonindependent and identically distributed (non-i.i.d) streams of retina-inspired, event camera data. Our system works as follows. First, a short sequence of event data, capturing a walking human from a flying drone, is forwarded in its natural order to an SNN-STDP system, which also receives teacher spiking signals from the neural activity readout block. Then, when the end of the learning sequence is reached, the learned system is assessed on testing sequences. In addition, we also present a new interpretation of anti-Hebbian plasticity as an overfitting control mechanism and provide experimental demonstrations of our findings. This work contributes to the study of attention-based development and perception in bioinspired systems.

This paper presents a high-speed readout interface suitable for nanopore-FET (NPFET) sensor arrays, which are being explored for high-throughput DNA or protein sequencing applications. The readout interface utilises a novel architecture that can simultaneously perform recording and automatic background calibration to compensate for offset and drift of the individual NPFET threshold voltages, eliminating the need for a separate calibration step or an area-consuming DAC. A prototype readout IC has been manufactured in 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ CMOS to validate the circuit concepts. It features 32 NPFET interface circuits multiplexed to 8 parallel analog outputs. Each individual channel achieves a bandwidth of 10 MHz. The prototype IC has been characterised experimentally, and the online calibration capability has been validated with liquid-gated FETs in a microfluidics setup.

Event-based neural networks are currently being explored as efficient solutions for performing AI tasks at the extreme edge. To fully exploit their potential, event-based neural networks coupled to adequate preprocessing must be investigated. Within this context, we demonstrate a 4-b-weight spiking neural network (SNN) for radar gesture recognition, achieving a state-of-the-art 93% accuracy within only four processing time steps while using only one convolutional layer and two fully connected layers. This solution consumes very little energy and area if implemented in event-based hardware, which makes it suited for embedded extreme-edge applications. In addition, we demonstrate the importance of signal preprocessing for achieving this high recognition accuracy in SNNs compared to deep neural networks (DNNs) with the same network topology and training strategy. We show that efficient preprocessing prior to the neural network is drastically more important for SNNs compared to DNNs. We also demonstrate, for the first time, that the preprocessing parameters can affect SNNs and DNNs in antagonistic ways, prohibiting the generalization of conclusions drawn from DNN design to SNNs. We demonstrate our findings by comparing the gesture recognition accuracy achieved with our SNN to a DNN with the same architecture and similar training. Unlike previously proposed neural networks for radar processing, this work enables ultralow-power radar-based gesture recognition for extreme-edge devices.

This review paper presents an overview of readout architectures and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for 3D-stacked CMOS image sensors (CIS) with their advantages and challenges. Depending on the application requirements, a suitable 3D-stacked readout architecture will be proposed. While most ADCs to date have been reported in planar CIS, this paper ports these designs to a 3D-stacked CIS and compares the different ADC topologies for this 3D-stacked context in terms of noise, speed and power efficiency. The comparison shows that the ramp and incremental ΔΣ (IΔΣ) ADCs can achieve a better overall performance compared to the SAR and cyclic ADCs by a factor of ~3 better for 3D-stacked CIS. In addition, ramp and IΔΣ ADCs can both achieve (very) low fixed-pattern noise values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distortion due to feedback DAC mismatch is a key limitation in $\Delta \Sigma $ ADCs for wideband wireless communications. This article presents an efficient frequency-domain mask-based offline mismatch calibration method of both the outer DAC and the inner DACs in a $\Delta \Sigma $ ADC. The test stimulus for the calibration is a two-tone signal near the band edge. To avoid the need for high-performance signal generation, a frequency mask is applied to void the stimulus signal and its phase noise. In this way, the method is robust against distortion and jitter in the stimulus signal, which therefore could be combined from two low-quality signal generators. The two-tone band-edge signal has the additional benefit that the number of needed samples of the excitation signal is very modest because as many intermodulations as possible contribute to the calculation of the mismatch errors of the DACs. Experimental results confirming the calibration method are obtained from a prototype chip, designed for an 85MHz signal bandwidth in 28nm CMOS technology. A two-tone stimulus around 78 MHz is applied to calculate the mismatch of the outer DAC and the inner DAC with only 68K samples. With the DACs calibrated, an SFDR improvement of 28.1 dB is achieved for a single-tone input at 5 MHz, while for a two-tone input around 71 MHz, the IM3 is improved from −63.6 dBc to below the noise floor (<−94.1 dBc). This illustrates the effectiveness of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a continuous-time 4-0 MASH $\Delta \Sigma $ modulator with high power efficiency for wide-bandwidth wireless communication systems. An asynchronous successive-approximation-register (ASAR) is used as the quantizer in the $\Delta \Sigma $ modulator to reduce the power consumption and to cancel the comparator mismatch of the conventional flash quantizer. An on-chip background half-range dithering-based calibration technique is proposed to improve the multi-bit feedback digital-to-analog converter matching, with limited overhead cost in terms of power consumption and area. To alleviate the metastability error of the ASAR and to increase the bandwidth, a zero-order loop is added to further quantize the intrinsic quantization error of the ASAR. The design is fabricated in a 28-nm bulk CMOS process. Clocked at a frequency of 1.7 GHz, the modulator achieves 68.5-dB SNDR and 83.6-dB spurious-free dynamic range over an 85-MHz bandwidth, while consuming 23.9-mW power, leading to an excellent Walden figure-of-merit of 64.9 fJ/step and a Schreier figure-of-merit of 164 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Las quemaduras por cáusticos de las vías aerodigestivas superiores son un problema significativo de salud pública, debido a su frecuencia y a su gravedad potencial. Los modos de presentación, la extensión y la gravedad de las lesiones son variables, dependiendo del tipo, de la duración de exposición, de las características, del volumen y de la concentración del cáustico implicado. Las ingestiones son las exposiciones más frecuentes. Entre 2009 y 2010, el centro de toxicología francés recopiló 5.603 nuevos casos de ingestión de sustancias corrosivas. Estas ingestiones pueden ser voluntarias, en un intento autolítico en adultos, o accidentales, por un envasado inadecuado, o se producen en niños menores de 5 años. Se pueden observar otras formas de quemadura, sobre todo en los medios profesionales e industriales, por inhalación o por proyección. Las bases fuertes representan la gran mayoría de los cáusticos implicados. Los oxidantes, como la lejía, también se encuentran en un porcentaje elevado de casos. Es esencial aplicar un tratamiento precoz, desde el domicilio. Consiste en una anamnesis minuciosa y la aplicación de las primeras medidas de seguridad y de reanimación. Algunas actitudes agravantes, como el decúbito estricto, el lavado gástrico y los vómitos forzados deben prohibirse. El traslado en un transporte medicalizado a una unidad de cuidados intensivos debe ser rápido. Además, el tratamiento multidisciplinario de estas quemaduras es esencial. La hospitalización en una unidad de cuidados intensivos permite la búsqueda de signos de gravedad, la vigilancia hemodinámica y respiratoria continua, así como la continuación del estudio inicial tanto clínico como con pruebas complementarias. Se debe realizar una exploración otorrinolaringológica minuciosa, centrada en la inspección cutánea de la cara, de la cavidad oral y de la orofaringe. La exploración nasofibroendoscópica es sistemática y debe preciar las lesiones hipofaríngeas y laríngeas, así como evaluar el riesgo de descompensación respiratoria por obstáculo alto. Debe realizarse una laringo-tráqueo-broncoscopia en el quirófano si se ha producido una inhalación cáustica o si existen signos de dificultad respiratoria o lesiones esofágicas graves asociadas. En la fase inicial de una ingestión cáustica, la exploración de referencia es la fibroendoscopia esófago-gastro-duodenal (FEGD), que se realiza bajo anestesia general, con el paciente intubado o traqueotomizado. Permite orientar el tratamiento y proporciona información sobre el pronóstico a corto y medio plazo. Las formas leves o moderadas (las más frecuentes) requieren una vigilancia hospitalaria, la administración de un tratamiento antirreflujo y el mantenimiento de una nutrición enteral. Las formas más graves requieren, por su parte, un tratamiento quirúrgico urgente mediante laparotomía y/o toracotomía con el objetivo de limitar la extensión de las quemaduras. En la fase aguda, las complicaciones sistémicas, los riesgos infecciosos, hemorrágicos y de perforación de órgano son máximos y pueden comprometer el pronóstico vital a corto plazo. Una vez pasada la fase aguda, las secuelas funcionales principales, de tipo estenosis, aparecen a partir de la segunda semana. El tratamiento secundario de estas secuelas, sobre todo quirúrgico, suele ser complejo y se debe plantear caso por caso después de controlar los posibles trastornos psiquiátricos. La prevención parece ser la única alternativa para limitar las exposiciones accidentales a las sustancias corrosivas.

The analysis of a low-power, temperature- and supply voltage-independent oscillator based on a pulsed LC tank is presented. The frequency is determined by a bondwire inductor and a MiM capacitor to obtain a high-Q LC tank. Due to a novel way of driving the LC tank, the power consumption is reduced. Since the driving technique only interacts with the LC tank during a very short period, the frequency mainly depends on the stable LC tank, hence the temperature and supply voltage dependency is lowered drastically. The phase noise of the tank, the noise propagation and the transient effects of the driving technique are analyzed theoretically. The results are compared to a 130 nm test chip. The samples were measured over a 0.6 to 1.6 V supply range and a -40 to 100 °C temperature range showing a very low temperature dependency of 92 ppm/°C and a voltage dependency of 73 ppm/V. The frequency standard deviation over 12 automatically bonded samples of the same wafer is 0.76% (359 KHz). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term survival after lung transplantation is limited by acute and chronic graft rejection. Induction of immune tolerance by first establishing mixed hematopoietic chimerism (MC) is a promising strategy to improve outcomes. In a preclinical canine model, stable MC was established in recipients after reduced-intensity conditioning and hematopoietic cell transplantation from a DLA-identical donor. Delayed lung transplantation was performed from the stem cell donor without pharmacological immunosuppression. Lung graft survival without loss of function was prolonged in chimeric (n 5) vs. nonchimeric (n 7) recipients (p ? 0.05, Fisher's test). There were histological changes consistent with low-grade rejection in 35 of the lung grafts in chimeric recipients at ?1 year. Chimeric recipients after lung transplantation had a normal immune response to a T-dependent antigen. Compared to normal dogs, there were significant increases of CD4INF?, CD4IL-4 and CD8 INF? T-cell subsets in the blood (p < 0.0001 for each of the three T-cell subsets). Markers for regulatory T-cell subsets including foxP3, IL10 and TGF? were also increased in CD3 T cells from the blood and peripheral tissues of chimeric recipients after lung transplantation. Establishing MC is immunomodulatory and observed changes were consistent with activation of both the effector and regulatory immune response.

Abstract: Genomic sequence comparison algorithms represent the basic toolbox for processing large volume of DNA or protein sequences. They are involved both in the systematic scan of databases, mostly for detecting similarities with an unknown sequence, and in preliminary processing before advanced bioinformatics analysis. Due to the exponential growth of genomic data, new solutions are required to keep the computation time reasonable. This paper presents a specific hardware architecture to speed-up seed-based algorithms which are currently the most popular heuristics for detecting alignments. The architecture regroups FLASH and FPGA technologies on a common support, allowing a large amount of data to be rapidly accessed and quickly processed. Experiments on database search and intensive sequence comparison demonstrate a good cost/performance ratio compared to standard approaches.

Substrate noise is a major obstacle for single-chip integration of mixed-signal systems. To reduce this problem and to assess its evolution with CMOS technology scaling, the different mechanisms that generate substrate noise and their dependencies on different parameters need to be well understood. In this paper, we show that with downscaling of the technology, substrate noise due to supply coupling becomes the dominant coupling mechanism when the chip substrate is directly biased with the digital ground. With Kelvin ground substrate biasing on the other hand, source/drain capacitive coupling becomes the dominant coupling mechanism. Further, we show that with downscaling, the peak value of the supply coupling noise component becomes more dependent on the relative ratio of the switching capacitance to the nonswitching capacitance, which is formed by the circuit decoupling and the nonswitching circuit elements, rather than the Ldi/dt noise. These insights illustrated in a quantitative framework are believed to be very useful for the systematic use of digital low-noise design techniques in future CMOS technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a high-accuracy current-steering digital-to-analog converters (DACs), the delay differences between the current sources is one of the major reasons that cause bad dynamic performance. In this paper, a mathematical model describing the impact of the delay differences on the DACs SFDR property is presented. The results are verified by comparison to behavioral-level simulations and to actual measurement data from published papers. Based on this analysis, the delay differences cancellation (DDC) technique to reduce the impact of the delay differences on the SFDR property is proposed and verified by simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A methodology for the optimal parasitic-aware design of RF power amplifiers toward maximum power efficiency is presented. It is based on a template-driven simulation-based optimization approach, including the effect of all device parasitics (transistors, passives) during the sizing. The combination of expert knowledge (in the template) with a state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithm results in a highly flexible and optimal sizing methodology tailored to RF circuits. Parasitic information is obtained through interaction with device profilers. The methodology is implemented in a fully featured software tool called M-DESIGN and is applied to the optimal sizing of a two-stage Class E power amplifier for maximum efficiency. The complete sizing was obtained in less than one hour of CPU time. Moreover, the constraint templates that were used are presented and discussed. An amplifier manufactured in a commercial 0.35-μm SM2P CMOS process and sized using the proposed methodology shows a maximum value of 67% for the drain efficiency (DE) versus 66% simulated. Measurement results show that it works at 850 MHz and has a maximum output power of 30 dBm at 23 V. The power-added efficiency (PAE) is always greater than 60% for an output power above 160 mW and a maximum PAE of 66% is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient technique for the symbolic modeling of the frequency behavior of a linearized analog circuit is presented. It uses a compact graph representation based on the Laplace expansion of the system determinant, called determinant decision diagram or DDD. The construction of a circuit's DDD is explained and an analysis of the time and space complexity is given. These DDD's can be used in behavioral modeling by representing the exact numerical transfer function in a compact way. DDD's also enable the generation of symbolic transfer functions, resulting in a symbolic analysis technique with lower computational complexity than techniques not based on DDD's.

AbstractThe various characteristics used to describe Forcipatorina and to fix its limits with Clivinina are analyzed and checked against the different genera concerned. New definitions for the subtribes and a key to the genera included in Forcipatorina are given. It is shown that the genus StratiotesPutzey s is heterogenous and must be divided into several genera, two of which are described as new: Kultianellaand Whiteheadiana.

A 250-mm imaging spectrograph was combined with a CCD detector, fiber-optic sampler, and diode laser (783 nm) to yield an efficient Raman spectrometer. A variety of sampling modes for liquids and solids were demonstrated, none of which required careful optical alignment. Of practical interest are spectra obtained from liquids inside glass containers, rapid (30 seconds each) spectral acquisition from successive solid and liquid samples, and spectra of normally fluorescent materials such as rhodamine 6G and common plastics.

We discuss the evolution and current status of investigations at our Graphics, Visualization, and Virtual Environments Laboratory. The progression of user interface technology has led us from display systems evaluation, to performance studies of graphics workstations, stereoscopic and head-mounted displays, user-input devices, and interactive techniques for virtual environments. We have been involved in prototyping applications for terrain visualization, situation awareness for command and control, maintenance procedures training, and interactive design. Our current emphasis is on developing techniques for rapid modeling of virtual environments, to support mission planning, rehearsal, and interactive design and visualization. We discuss in detail three examples of these applications, and we present a set of guidelines that we have found to be useful for quickly constructing effective virtual environments.

Microtubules in yeasts are essential components of the mitotic and meiotic spindle and are necessary for nuclear movement during cell division and mating. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has two alpha-tubulin genes, TUB1 and TUB3, either of which alone is sufficient for these processes when present in a high enough copy number. Comparisons of sequences from several species reveals the presence of a variable region near the amino terminus of alpha-tubulin proteins. We perturbed the structure of this region in TUB3 by inserting into it 3, 9, or 17 amino acids and tested the ability of these altered proteins to function as the only alpha-tubulin protein in yeast cells. We found that each of these altered proteins was sufficient on its own for mitotic growth, mating, and methods of yeast. We conclude that this region can tolerate considerable variation without losing any of the highly conserved functions of alpha-tubulin. Our results suggest that variability in this region occurs because it can be tolerated, not because it specifies an important function for the protein.

Une triple association à dose fixe en particules extrafines (DPB/FF/BG dipropionate de béclométasone/fumarate de formotérol/bromure de glycopyrronium) a été développée en solution pour inhalation en flacon pressurisé (pMDI) dans le traitement d’entretien de l’asthme insuffisamment contrôlé sous corticostéroïdes inhalés (CSI)/LABA.

Une triple association à dose fixe en particules extrafines (DPB/FF/BG : dipropionate de béclométasone/fumarate de formotérol/bromure de glycopyrronium) peut permettre d’améliorer les symptômes de l’asthme chez des patients insuffisamment contrôlés sous corticostéroïdes inhalés (CSI)/LABA.

Background: Ph+ is a risk factor for adult ALL and represents an indication for conventional allogeneic HCT. Purpose: To determine whether safety and efficacy of allogeneic HCT can be improved with non-myeloablative conditioning with or without imatinib therapy after HCT for high-risk Ph+ ALL pts ineligible for conventional HCT. Pts and Method: Between 6/2001 to 5/2004, 11 pts [median age of 51 (38–63) years] who had Ph+ ALL received HCT after nonmyeloablative conditioning consisting of fludarabine (30mg/m2/day x 3 days) and 2 Gy TBI followed by mycophenolate mofetil and cyclosporin. Median time from dx to HCT was 13 (range, 6–60) months. PBSC(n=10) or bone marrow (n=1) was infused from 10/10 HLA allele matched (n=9) or mismatched (n=2) unrelated (n=10) or related donors (n=1). Pts were divided into two groups. Group A (n=5): pts did not receive imatinib after HCT. Group B (n=6): pts were entered on a protocol that tested the safety and efficacy of imatinib 600 mg po qd for cytoreduction (<15% marrow blasts) before HCT and beyond 14 days after HCT for disease suppression until GVT effects could occur. All 5 group A pts were in CR by flow cytometry and conventional cytogenetic evaluation (one pt was FISH positive) at HCT, and four had detectable bcr-abl transcripts by PCR. All group B pts had relapsed after induction therapy and had measurable disease at HCT including abnormal cytogenetic (n=2), PCR (n=1) and persistent morphologic (n=1) or flow cytometric (n=2) disease. Disease responses were monitored by morphology, flow cytometry, FISH and PCR, while engraftment was assessed by variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) or FISH. Results: All but one pt, who rejected a marrow graft, had sustained engraftment. Median time of neutrophil recovery (ANC>500) in group A was 18.5 (range, 18–19) days vs 21.6 (range, 20–23) days in group B. Two pts in group B and none in group A required platelet transfusions. Median levels of day 28 donor CD3 and CD33 chimerism were 90% and 90% in group A, respectively vs 81% and 96% in group B. Incidences of grades II-IV GVHD were 40% in group A and 100% in group B while incidences of grade III-IV acute GVHD were 20% and 17%, respectively. One pt (20%) in group A and 3 in group B (50%) developed chronic GVHD. Grade III-IV toxicities in group A pts were 4.0 vs 3.5 events/pt in group B. Three pts in group A (including the pt who rejected the marrow graft) relapsed at days 120, 198 and 365 after HCT, respectively. A fourth group A pt who achieved molecular remission committed suicide at day 90 and the fifth pt is in molecular remission at 6 months after HCT. Of the group B pts, 4 are alive: 2 in molecular remissions at 1 year after HCT, 1 in morphologic and cytogenetic CR but with bcr-abl expression at 1 year; and 1 too early to evaluate. Two group B pts died: one (with pretransplant liver cirrhosis) at day 58 from decompensated liver failure, acute GVHD and disseminated aspergillosis after achieving cytogenetic remission and another from relapse at day 100 after imatinib was discontinued due to presumed skin toxicity. Conclusion: Nonmyeloablative HCT for pts with advanced Ph+ ALL appeared to be feasible and the addition of imatinib after HCT did not appear to increase hematopoietic or other organ toxicity.

Respiratory response to inhalation of fine particles has been investigated for the aerosol generated by welding. Particles were sampled using a pair of 5-stage cascade impactors operating at 1 l./min flow rate. The subjcct exhaled into one impactor through an air ballast arrangement, and the other impactor simultaneously sampled the surrounding air. Partide size fractions were analyzed for principal elemental constituents from sulphur to lead using proton induced X-ray emission, PIXE. The results indicated a complex respiratory response, including both inmeax in particle size due to exposure to high humidity in the respiratory tract and deposition of particles during inhalation. The response was found to be different for the element group Mn, Cr, Fe, Ni compared to the group K, Ca, Ti by observing the associations among the elmnts as a function of particle size in the inhaled and exhaled aerosol. However, for respiratory deposition efficiency alone in all runs averagcd together, no systematic differences between the different elements are demonstrated at the 99 % confidence level.