Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
System-Level Optimization of Switched-Capacitor VRM and Core for Sub/Near-  $V_{t}$ Computing

This brief proposes to jointly optimize a switched capacitor voltage regulator module (SC-VRM) combined with a compute core to minimize system energy per instruction. Past work seeking to optimize system energy efficiency has focused on separately maximizing SC-VRM efficiency or operating the compute core at its minimum energy operating point (MEOP). We first propose and verify a core-aware SC-VRM energy model, which explicitly accounts for throughput constraints. Second, we perform joint optimization considering throughput unconstrained applications (TUA) and throughput constrained applications (TCAs). We show that, for TUA, the system MEOP (S-MEOP) voltage is different from both the core MEOP (C-MEOP) and VRM maximum efficiency point (V-MEP) voltages, and operating at S-MEOP achieves 12.3% and 21.8% energy savings compared with C-MEOP and V-MEP, respectively. For TCA, S-MEOP is achieved at the same voltage as C-MEOP but different from the voltage for V-MEP, and 38.9% energy savings can be obtained by operating at S-MEOP.
Language Maintenance Among Vietnamese-Australian Students.

Using the theoretical framework developed by Clyne this paper examines the factors influencing language maintenance among a cohort of secondary school students of Vietnamese ethnic background in Adelaide. It reports on a survey of 197 students who were asked (1) to estimate the extent to which, in Australia, they used Vietnamese when speaking to close others; how often these people used Vietnamese when speaking to them; and how often the students used Vietnamese in certain social contexts; and (2) to rate their ability in written and oral Vietnamese and written and oral English. Variables derived from these measures were then correlated with a number of other demographic, social, cultural and attitudinal factors in order to determine the major influences on language maintenance. Language use was greater with parents and grandparents than with members of the students’ own generation. Vietnamese language was used more in private and ethnic settings such as the home and community events than in public settings. Vietnamese language competence declined and English language competence increased with length of residence. Overall length of residence in Australia and age at which that residence commenced were more influential in language maintenance than ethnic identity or attitudes to cultural maintenance.
The effects of own fetal growth on reported hypertension in parous women aged 33.

BACKGROUND Data from the study of the British 1958 birth cohort, National Child Development Study (NCDS), has allowed wider investigation of the relationship between retarded fetal growth and risk of adult hypertension. METHODS A history of self-reported hypertension was related to fetal growth in 3308 parous cohort members. Fetal growth, the measure used, is the difference in actual birthweight from that expected for the gestational age and subsequent adult height. The relationships were investigated both linearly and non-linearly adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS After adjustment for confounding factors, including adult weight for height, retarded fetal growth was associated with reported hypertension particularly when not confined to pregnancy. The latter was also associated with accelerated fetal growth, moderate or severe hypertension in the mother when pregnant with the cohort member, being relatively taller than your mother, and lack of educational qualifications. Hypertension confined to pregnancy was more likely among women who were themselves firstborn or older at childbirth. Neither maternal smoking during cohort's gestation nor cohort member's gestational age had a significant effect. The results are consistent with previous reports that fetal growth effects are less marked if gestation is short. CONCLUSIONS The relationships between fetal growth and subsequent hypertension are extremely complex and variable, and need to be studied allowing for deviations from growth potential. Adult weight for height remains the strongest predictor of hypertension. The results suggest that losing weight is likely to have the same proportional benefit in women with and without a history of retarded fetal growth.
Clinical Pharmacodynamic Index Identification for Micafungin in Esophageal Candidiasis: Dosing Strategy Optimization

ABSTRACT Echinocandins exhibit concentration-dependent effects on Candida species, and preclinical studies support the administration of large, infrequent doses. The current report examines the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of two multicenter, randomized trials of micafungin dosing regimens that differed in both dose level and dosing interval. Analysis demonstrates the clinical relevance of the dose level and area under the concentration-time curve (AUC). Better, although not statistically significant (P = 0.056), outcomes were seen with higher maximum concentrations of drug in serum (Cmax) and large, infrequent doses. The results support further clinical investigation of novel micafungin dosing regimens with large doses but less than daily administration. (These studies have been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT00666185 and NCT00665639.)
Pigeon Pea and Cowpea-Based Cropping Systems Improve Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Colonisation of Subsequent Maize on the Alfisols in Central Malawi

Mycorrhizal associations contribute to the sustainability of crop production systems through their roles in nutrient cycling and other benefits in the soil-plant ecosystems. A two-year study was conducted on the Alfisols of Lilongwe and Dowa districts, Central Malawi, to assess the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungal colonisation levels in pigeon pea, cowpea, and maize grown in sole cropping, legume-cereal, and legume-legume intercropping systems and in the maize grown in short rotation (year 2) as influenced by the previous cropping systems and N fertilizer application. The gridline intersect method was used to assess the VAM fungal colonisation levels. Results showed that all treatments that included legumes whether grown as sole crop, in legume-cereal or in legume-legume cropping systems in the previous year, had significantly higher (P < 0.05) VAM fungal colonisation of the rotational maize crop roots by a range 39% to 50% and 19% to 47% than those in maize supplied and not supplied with N fertilizer, respectively, in a maize-maize short rotation, at the Lilongwe site. A similar trend was reported for the Dowa site. Furthermore, there were positive correlations between VAM fungal colonisation and the plant P content, dry matter yield, and nodule numbers. Further studies may help to assess the diversity of VAM fungal species in Malawi soils and identify more adaptive ones for inoculation studies.
Distributed replay protocol for distributed uniprocessors

Data speculation technique has been heavily exploited in various scenarios of architecture design. It bridges the time or space gap between data producer and data consumer, which gives opportunities to processors to gain significant speedups. However, large instruction windows, deep pipeline and increasing latency of on-chip communication make data misspeculation very expensive in modern processors. This paper proposes a Distributed Replay Protocol(DRP) that addresses data misspeculation in a distributed uniprocessor, named TFlex. The partition feature of distributed uniprocessors aggravates the penalty of data misspeculation. After detecting misspeculation, DRP avoids squashing pipeline; on the contrary, it retains all instructions in the window and selectively replays the instructions that depend on the misspeculative data. As one possible use of DRP, We apply it to recovery from data dependence speculation. We also summarize the challenges of implementing selective replay mechanism on distributed uniprocessors, and then come up with two variations of DRP to effectively solve these challenges. The evaluation results show that without data speculation, DRP achieves 99% of the performance of perfect memory disambiguation. It speeds up diverse applications over baseline TFlex(with a state-of-art data dependence predictor) by a geometric mean of 24%.
The rat dyskinesia model: neurochemical and behavioural characterisation

L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia consists of involuntary choreiform and dystonic movements. Here we report whether intrastriatal L-DOPA itself is able to trigger dyskinetic behaviour and which role the neurotransmitter DA and its metabolites play. Intrastriatal L-DOPA as well as DA administration at the 6-OHDA-lesioned side led to a significant appearance of dyskinetic behaviour, whereas DA metabolites were ineffective. Intrastriatal inhibition of the enzyme aromatic amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) by benserazide prevented the appearance of L-DOPA-induced dyskinetic movements at the lesioned side. Principle component analysis of DA and DA metabolite levels with dyskinesia scores after L-DOPA/benserazide (6/15 mg/kg) administration indicated a significant correlation only for DA, whereas DA metabolites did not show any significant correlation with the occurrence of dyskinetic behaviour. We conclude that intrastriatal L-DOPA itself is not able to induce dyskinetic movements, whereas the increase of intrastriatal DA levels is instrumental for LDOPAand DA-induced dyskinetic behaviour. INTRODUCTION Initially, therapy with the gold standard L-DOPA dramatically alleviates the cardinal symptoms of PD namely bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor and improves the quality of life of patients suffering from PD (Schapira et al. 2006). However, within a few years, the L-DOPA therapy is commonly associated with side effects, most notably motor complications including dyskinesia, motor fluctuations and the wearing off phenomenon (Brotchie et al. 2005; Muller and Russ 2006). L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia involves involuntary movements such as chorea, dystonia and athetosis involving head, trunk and limbs (Schapira et al. 2006). L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia affects 50% of patients within 5 years and develops in almost 90 % of patients after 9 years of L-DOPA therapy (Obeso et al. 2000a; Rascol and Fabre 2001; Schapira et al. 2006; Ahlskog and Muenter 2001).
Atmospheric circuit influences on ground-level pressure in the Antarctic and Arctic

[1] Pressure variations at 11 Antarctic sites and 7 Arctic sites have been examined and show significant correlations with a daily proxy for the output of the meteorological generators of the global atmospheric circuit. This proxy is derived from vertical electric field measurements made at Vostok on the Antarctic ice plateau. Taken with the finding of proportionate pressure variations correlated with atmospheric circuit changes owing to coupling with the interplanetary electric field, particularly for the Antarctic plateau (magnetic latitude > 83°) region, this provides experimental evidence that a small portion of the surface pressure variations are due to the influence of the global atmospheric circuit. The response to the interplanetary electric field is an example of Sun-weather coupling. To evaluate it, the daily average interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) east-west component (By) is used as a proxy for the north–south interplanetary electric field, which produces opposite ionospheric potential changes in the northern and southern polar caps. The correlation with IMF By for the pressure variations for the Antarctic sites for a solar cycle (1995–2005) is small (0.9% average covariance for the magnetic latitude > 83° sites) but significant (99.7% confidence level). The Arctic stations show a negative regression between pressure variations and IMF By, a relationship expected if the linkage process operates by the atmospheric circuit, but it is only found when the interval is restricted to the peak of the sunspot cycle (1999–2002).
REVERSIBLE HYPERTENSION AND HYPOTHYROIDISM

Six patients with hypothyroidism and hypertension whose blood pressure fell to normal when treated with thyroxine (172.7.2/112.2.1 to 140.3.2/84.1.6 mmHg, P<0.001) are described. Plasma renin activity (1.76±0.63 ng angiotensin I.ml−1.h−1) was low before treatment. Hypertension with low plasma renin is consistent with sodium retention. Hypertension in the hypothyroid patient only requires further evaluation if it persists after adequate treatment with thyroxine.
Risk Management: Extremes in Operational Risk Management

Operational risk is defined as a consequence of critical contingencies most of which are quantitative in nature and many questions regarding economic capital allocation for operational risk continue to be open. Existing quantitative models that compute the value at risk for market and credit risk do not take into account operational risk. They also make various assumptions about ’normality’ and so exclude extreme and rare events. In this paper we formalize the definition of operational risk and apply extreme value theory for the purpose of calculating the economic capital requirement against unexpected operational losses.
Epidemiology of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Pregnant Adolescents

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among pregnant adolescents. Methods: Charts of all patients (n = 735) who attended the Maternal and Infant Care Clinic at University Hospital, Newark, NJ, between July 1, 1991, and June 30, 1992, were reviewed for STDs which included gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). At the first prenatal visit, each registrant had endocervical specimens obtained to detect gonorrhea and chlamydia. A serum sample was obtained for syphilis screening. HIV testing was made available to all patients and testing was done on a voluntary basis. The same STD screening that was done at the initial visit was repeated at 28 and 36 weeks. Results: Twenty-five percent of patients tested positive for one or more STDs. The mean patient age was 17.3 years. The mean gestational age at first visit was 19.5 weeks. The mean number of visits was 7.3. The following STDs were identified: 4.8% of patients tested positive for gonorrhea, 20.9% tested positive for chlamydia, and 1.7% tested positive for syphilis. Twenty-one percent of patients had a positive STD diagnosed at the initial visit. Another 4.8% of patients had an STD diagnosed at some time after the initial visit when the initial screen was negative for STDs. An additional 1% of patients who initially tested positive for an STD had subsequent screening which revealed another STD (different organism). Seven patients tested HIV positive. Sixty-one percent of patients with STDs agreed to HIV testing. One patient had HIV coexistent with another STD. Conclusions: Pregnant adolescents are at risk for multiple STDs. HIV testing should be offered. STD screening should be repeated in the third trimester in adolescent patients.
Climate-forcing effects on trophically linked groundfish populations: implications for fisheries management

Commercially important groundfish populations in the Bering Sea are connected through the food web as predators and prey. In addition to having different trophic roles, the recruitment of these species varies on interdecadal time scales and may be related to climate forcing. We simulate the effects of fishing mortality on eight trophically linked species under two scenarios of climate regimes using the multispecies virtual population analysis (MSVPA) model and the multispecies forecasting model (MSFOR). Species respond differently to climate change assumptions and fishing mortality depending on their position in the food web. Results suggest that the assumptions regarding climate regime shifts on mean recruitment may produce effects comparable to the ones produced by fishing and predation interactions. Therefore, accurate models for fisheries management would require considering these factors and their potential interactions. Because responses are complex and difficult to predict, it is necessary to take a risk-averse approach in managing the species with the largest potential variation. The incorporation of climate regime shifts in fisheries management will require a better understanding of recruitment during a particular regime and a reliable way to identify regime shifts based on biological and (or) physical indices.
Human Pose Tracking in Monocular Sequence Using Multilevel Structured Models

Tracking human body poses in monocular video has many important applications. The problem is challenging in realistic scenes due to background clutter, variation in human appearance and self-occlusion. The complexity of pose tracking is further increased when there are multiple people whose bodies may inter-occlude. We proposed a three-stage approach with multi-level state representation that enables a hierarchical estimation of 3D body poses. Our method addresses various issues including automatic initialization, data association, self and inter-occlusion. At the first stage, humans are tracked as foreground blobs and their positions and sizes are coarsely estimated. In the second stage, parts such as face, shoulders and limbs are detected using various cues and the results are combined by a grid-based belief propagation algorithm to infer 2D joint positions. The derived belief maps are used as proposal functions in the third stage to infer the 3D pose using data-driven Markov chain Monte Carlo. Experimental results on several realistic indoor video sequences show that the method is able to track multiple persons during complex movement including sitting and turning movements with self and inter-occlusion.
Exercise Training during Normobaric Hypoxic Confinement Does Not Alter Hormonal Appetite Regulation

Background Both exposure to hypoxia and exercise training have the potential to modulate appetite and induce beneficial metabolic adaptations. The purpose of this study was to determine whether daily moderate exercise training performed during a 10-day exposure to normobaric hypoxia alters hormonal appetite regulation and augments metabolic health. Methods Fourteen healthy, male participants underwent a 10-day hypoxic confinement at ∼4000 m simulated altitude (FIO2 = 0.139±0.003%) either combined with daily moderate intensity exercise (Exercise group; N = 8, Age = 25.8±2.4 yrs, BMI = 22.9±1.2 kg·m−2) or without any exercise (Sedentary group; N = 6 Age = 24.8±3.1 yrs, BMI = 22.3±2.5 kg·m−2). A meal tolerance test was performed before (Pre) and after the confinement (Post) to quantify fasting and postprandial concentrations of selected appetite-related hormones and metabolic risk markers. 13C-Glucose was dissolved in the test meal and 13CO2 determined in breath samples. Perceived appetite ratings were obtained throughout the meal tolerance tests. Results While body mass decreased in both groups (−1.4 kg; p = 0.01) following the confinement, whole body fat mass was only reduced in the Exercise group (−1.5 kg; p = 0.01). At Post, postprandial serum insulin was reduced in the Sedentary group (−49%; p = 0.01) and postprandial plasma glucose in the Exercise group (−19%; p = 0.03). Fasting serum total cholesterol levels were reduced (−12%; p = 0.01) at Post in the Exercise group only, secondary to low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduction (−16%; p = 0.01). No differences between groups or testing periods were noted in fasting and/or postprandial concentrations of total ghrelin, peptide YY, and glucagon-like peptide-1, leptin, adiponectin, expired 13CO2 as well as perceived appetite ratings (p>0.05). Conclusion These findings suggest that performing daily moderate intensity exercise training during continuous hypoxic exposure does not alter hormonal appetite regulation but can improve the lipid profile in healthy young males.
Stochastically induced climate shift of El Niño‐Southern Oscillation

Observational studies indicate that the characteristics of El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during the 1980s are noticeably different from those during the 1960s and 1970s. Here, we provide modeling evidence that stochastic processes can not only produce a shift in the persistence of sea‐surface temperature (SST) but also causes changes in the predictability of ENSO. Based on this result, we suggest that climate shifts of ENSO, such as that occurred around 1976, could be induced by stochastic processes. Therefore, the stochastic mechanism should be taken as a null hypothesis for climate shifts against which competing mechanisms must be compared.
The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science

Background Among American Conservatives, but not Liberals, trust in science has been declining since the 1970's. Climate science has become particularly polarized, with Conservatives being more likely than Liberals to reject the notion that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the globe. Conversely, opposition to genetically-modified (GM) foods and vaccinations is often ascribed to the political Left although reliable data are lacking. There are also growing indications that rejection of science is suffused by conspiracist ideation, that is the general tendency to endorse conspiracy theories including the specific beliefs that inconvenient scientific findings constitute a “hoax. ” Methodology/Principal findings We conducted a propensity weighted internet-panel survey of the U.S. population and show that conservatism and free-market worldview strongly predict rejection of climate science, in contrast to their weaker and opposing effects on acceptance of vaccinations. The two worldview variables do not predict opposition to GM. Conspiracist ideation, by contrast, predicts rejection of all three scientific propositions, albeit to greatly varying extents. Greater endorsement of a diverse set of conspiracy theories predicts opposition to GM foods, vaccinations, and climate science. Conclusions Free-market worldviews are an important predictor of the rejection of scientific findings that have potential regulatory implications, such as climate science, but not necessarily of other scientific issues. Conspiracist ideation, by contrast, is associated with the rejection of all scientific propositions tested. We highlight the manifold cognitive reasons why conspiracist ideation would stand in opposition to the scientific method. The involvement of conspiracist ideation in the rejection of science has implications for science communicators.