Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient don't-care filling method to achieve reduction in test power

Since VLSI technology has become ubiquitous in today's world, this field is a prime candidate for power reduction. Tremendous growth in chip density and reduction in dimensions contribute to an escalation in clock rate. Delay faults are detected using at-speed scan testing. This paper proposes a novel method to achieve power reduction during scan test by using x-filling. In this paper, ISCAS'89 benchmark circuits have been used with an industrial 90nm technology. The tools used were Synopsys TetraMAX and Synopsys Design Compiler. Experimental results show a considerable reduction in average shift power and average capture power.
Assessment of industrial performance and the relationship between skill, technology and input-output indicators in Sudan

This paper examines the industrial performance indicators and the relationships between skill indicators; between skill, upskilling, technology and input-output indicators in Sudan. Our findings are consistent with the stylized facts in the new growth literature, concerning the correlation between skill indicators: education, experience and wages and also concerning the positive complementary relationships between technology, skill and upskilling. Different from the Sudanese literature, a novel element in our analysis is that we use a new primary data from the firm survey (2010) and we provide a new contribution and fill the gap in the Sudanese literature by examining the industrial performance indicators defined by three different sets of economic and productivity indicators, activity indicators and profitability indicators in Sudan. One advantage and interesting element in our analysis in this paper is that we confirm three hypotheses on the relationships between skill indicators; between skill, upskilling, technology and input-output indicators and industrial performance indicators using new primary data from the firm survey (2010) in Sudan. We verify our first hypothesis that irrespective of the observed differences across the industrial firms, the low skill levels - due to high share of unskilled workers - lead to skills mismatch and most probably contribute to decline of labour productivity and industrial performance indicators. We confirm our second hypothesis that an increase in skill levels and firm size lead to improved relationships between actual and required education and experience; between actual education, experience and wages; and between skill, upskilling and technology (ICT) and also improved industrial performance indicators. We also support our third hypothesis concerning the inconclusive relationships between new technology (the use of ICT) and input-output indicators at the micro/firm level. Finally, we provide a new contribution to the Sudanese literature, since we explain that the performance of the industrial firms is most probably immensely undermined by the shortage of skilled workers and also by the lack of entrepreneur perspective. We recommend further efforts to be made to improve adequate availability of skilled workers and commitment to entrepreneur perspective for improvement of labour productivity, industrial performance and therefore, economic growth and development in Sudan.
Comrad: detection of expressed rearrangements by integrated analysis of RNA-Seq and low coverage genome sequence data

MOTIVATION Comrad is a novel algorithmic framework for the integrated analysis of RNA-Seq and whole genome shotgun sequencing (WGSS) data for the purposes of discovering genomic rearrangements and aberrant transcripts. The Comrad framework leverages the advantages of both RNA-Seq and WGSS data, providing accurate classification of rearrangements as expressed or not expressed and accurate classification of the genomic or non-genomic origin of aberrant transcripts. A major benefit of Comrad is its ability to accurately identify aberrant transcripts and associated rearrangements using low coverage genome data. As a result, a Comrad analysis can be performed at a cost comparable to that of two RNA-Seq experiments, significantly lower than an analysis requiring high coverage genome data. RESULTS We have applied Comrad to the discovery of gene fusions and read-throughs in prostate cancer cell line C4-2, a derivative of the LNCaP cell line with androgen-independent characteristics. As a proof of concept, we have rediscovered in the C4-2 data 4 of the 6 fusions previously identified in LNCaP. We also identified six novel fusion transcripts and associated genomic breakpoints, and verified their existence in LNCaP, suggesting that Comrad may be more sensitive than previous methods that have been applied to fusion discovery in LNCaP. We show that many of the gene fusions discovered using Comrad would be difficult to identify using currently available techniques. AVAILABILITY A C++ and Perl implementation of the method demonstrated in this article is available at http://compbio.cs. sfu.ca/.
Essential roles of the acetylcholine receptor γ-subunit in neuromuscular synaptic patterning

Formation of the vertebrate neuromuscular junction (NMJ) takes place in a stereotypic pattern in which nerves terminate at select sarcolemmal sites often localized to the central region of the muscle fibers. Several lines of evidence indicate that the muscle fibers may initiate postsynaptic differentiation independent of the ingrowing nerves. For example, nascent acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) are pre-patterned at select regions of the muscle during the initial stage of neuromuscular synaptogenesis. It is not clear how these pre-patterned AChR clusters are assembled, and to what extent they contribute to pre- and post-synaptic differentiation during development. Here, we show that genetic deletion of the AChR γ-subunit gene in mice leads to an absence of pre-patterned AChR clusters during initial stages of neuromuscular synaptogenesis. The absence of pre-patterned AChR clusters was associated with excessive nerve branching, increased motoneuron survival, as well as aberrant distribution of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and rapsyn. However, clustering of muscle specific kinase (MuSK) proceeded normally in theγ -null muscles. AChR clusters emerged at later stages owing to the expression of the AChR epsilon-subunit, but these delayed AChR clusters were broadly distributed and appeared at lower level compared with the wild-type muscles. Interestingly, despite the abnormal pattern, synaptic vesicle proteins were progressively accumulated at individual nerve terminals, and neuromuscular synapses were ultimately established in γ-null muscles. These results demonstrate that the γ-subunit is required for the formation of pre-patterned AChR clusters, which in turn play an essential role in determining the subsequent pattern of neuromuscular synaptogenesis.
FARMER: a novel approach to file access correlation mining and evaluation reference model for optimizing peta-scale file system performance

File correlation, which refers to a relationship among related files that can manifest in the form of their common access locality (temporal and/or spatial), has become an increasingly important consideration for performance enhancement in peta-scale storage systems. Previous studies on file correlations mainly concern with two aspects of files: file access sequence and semantic attribute. Based on mining with regard to these two aspects of file systems, various strategies have been proposed to optimize the overall system performance. Unfortunately, all of these studies consider either file access sequences or semantic attribute information separately and in isolation, thus unable to accurately and effectively mine file correlations, especially in large-scale distributed storage systems. This paper introduces a novel File Access coRrelation Mining and Evaluation Reference model (FARMER) for optimizing petascale file system performance that judiciously considers both file access sequences and semantic attributes simultaneously to evaluate the degree of file correlations by leveraging the Vector Space Model (VSM) technique adopted from the Information Retrieval field. We extract the file correlation knowledge from some typical file system traces using FARMER, and incorporate FARMER into a real large-scale object-based storage system as a case study to dynamically infer file correlations and evaluate the benefits and costs of a FARMER-enabled prefetching algorithm for the metadata servers under real file system workloads. Experimental results show that FARMER can mine and evaluate file correlations more accurately and effectively. More significantly, the FARMER-enabled prefetching algorithm is shown to reduce the metadata operations latency by approximately 24-35% when compared to a state-of-the-art metadata prefetching algorithm and a commonly used replacement policy.
The Dual Role of Zonula Occludens (ZO) Proteins

ZO (zonula occludens) proteins are scaffolding proteins providing the structural basis for the assembly of multiprotein complexes at the cytoplasmic surface of intercellular junctions. In addition, they provide a link between the integral membrane proteins and the filamentous cytoskeleton. ZO proteins belong to the large family of membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGUK)-like proteins comprising a number of subfamilies based on domain content and sequence similarity. Besides their structural function at cell-cell contacts, ZO proteins appear to participate in the regulation of cell growth and proliferation. Detailed molecular studies have shown that ZO proteins exhibit conserved functional nuclear localization and nuclear export motifs within their amino acid sequence. Further, ZO proteins interact with dual residency proteins localizing to the plasma membrane and the nucleus. Although the nuclear targeting of ZO proteins has well been described, many questions concerning the biological significance of this process have remained open. This review focuses on the dual role of ZO proteins, being indispensable structural components at the junctional site and functioning in signal transduction pathways related to gene expression and cell behavior.
Analyzing musculoskeletal system discomforts and risk factors in computer-using office workers

Objective: This study analyzed the prevalence of work-related computer-user musculoskeletal discomforts, personal and computer-related risk factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey on 395 office workers was made between July-September 2015. Musculoskeletal symptoms and risk factors were evaluated for participants’ demographics and job attributes on the 21-item questionnaire and the Turkish-Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire. Results: Participants reported musculoskeletal symptoms in the neck (67.85%), back (66.33%), lower back (59.49%), right shoulder (45.32%) and left shoulder (43.54%) during the past week and work interference was 33.6%, 28.5%, 30.6%, 31.3% and 31.9%, respectively. Musculoskeletal discomfort risks were being male, increasing daily computer usage, feeling computer-usage discomfort, hours working at desk and having knowledge about ergonomic exercises. Conclusion: Musculoskeletal symptoms are common in Turkish office workers and indicated the need for more attention to musculoskeletal disorders and designing effective preventive interventions.
Three Essays in Empirical Labour Economics

The following thesis consists of three essays, each one being a study of issues of accumulation of and returns to human capital using real-world individual-level data. The first study examines what underlies differences in educational attainment between the children of immigrants to Canada and the children of the Canadian-born parents. It concludes that the children of immigrants have done better in terms of schooling, and that individual and family variables as well as unobserved characteristics such as ability cannot fully account for this difference. The second study utilizes unique Canadian surveys to investigate the effects of overeducation on wages of post-secondary graduates. It confirms that jobs requiring a post-secondary degree pay substantially higher wages than jobs that do not require education beyond high-school, and also finds a large variation both in returns to required education as well as in overeducation premia across genders, degrees and fields of study. The last essay proposes and estimates a structural dynamic model of optimal schooling and wages to explain differences between American whites and ethnic minorities of Afro-Americans and Hispanics. The study finds, among other things, that differences in educational attainment between the three ethnics can largely be explained by differences in individual endowments, while behavioural differences seem to be more important in explaining wage differences.
Pregnancy Does Not Affect HIV Incidence Test Results Obtained Using the BED Capture Enzyme Immunoassay or an Antibody Avidity Assay

Background Accurate incidence estimates are needed for surveillance of the HIV epidemic. HIV surveillance occurs at maternal-child health clinics, but it is not known if pregnancy affects HIV incidence testing. Methods We used the BED capture immunoassay (BED) and an antibody avidity assay to test longitudinal samples from 51 HIV-infected Ugandan women infected with subtype A, C, D and intersubtype recombinant HIV who were enrolled in the HIVNET 012 trial (37 baseline samples collected near the time of delivery and 135 follow-up samples collected 3, 4 or 5 years later). Nineteen of 51 women were also pregnant at the time of one or more of the follow-up visits. The BED assay was performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. The avidity assay was performed using a Genetic Systems HIV-1/HIV-2 + O EIA using 0.1M diethylamine as the chaotropic agent. Results During the HIVNET 012 follow-up study, there was no difference in normalized optical density values (OD-n) obtained with the BED assay or in the avidity test results (%) when women were pregnant (n = 20 results) compared to those obtained when women were not pregnant (n = 115; for BED: p = 0.9, generalized estimating equations model; for avidity: p = 0.7, Wilcoxon rank sum). In addition, BED and avidity results were almost exactly the same in longitudinal samples from the 18 women who were pregnant at only one study visit during the follow-up study (p = 0.6, paired t-test). Conclusions These results from 51 Ugandan women suggest that any changes in the antibody response to HIV infection that occur during pregnancy are not sufficient to alter results obtained with the BED and avidity assays. Confirmation with larger studies and with other HIV subtypes is needed.
Incidental Prices and Their Effect on Willingness to Pay

Previous research has explored how both internal and external references prices affect consumer perceptions and consequently the price that consumers are willing to pay for a product or service. Historically researchers have examined the effects of exposure to prices for the same product, the same brand, or products in the same category. This research explores the effect of incidental prices on the consumer's willingness to pay. The authors define incidental prices as prices advertised, offered, or paid for unrelated products or goods that neither sellers nor buyers regard as relevant to the price of an item that they are engaged in selling or buying. More specifically, the authors examine how prices for products that buyers encounter unintentionally can serve as anchors, thus affecting willingness to pay for the product that they intend to buy. The findings have important implications for auction houses and online vendors as well as for conventional retailers.
Sustained Multifocal Attentional Enhancement of Stimulus Processing in Early Visual Areas Predicts Tracking Performance

Keeping track of multiple moving objects is an essential ability of visual perception. However, the mechanisms underlying this ability are not well understood. We instructed human observers to track five or seven independent randomly moving target objects amid identical nontargets and recorded steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) elicited by these stimuli. Visual processing of moving targets, as assessed by SSVEP amplitudes, was continuously facilitated relative to the processing of identical but irrelevant nontargets. The cortical sources of this enhancement were located to areas including early visual cortex V1–V3 and motion-sensitive area MT, suggesting that the sustained multifocal attentional enhancement during multiple object tracking already operates at hierarchically early stages of visual processing. Consistent with this interpretation, the magnitude of attentional facilitation during tracking in a single trial predicted the speed of target identification at the end of the trial. Together, these findings demonstrate that attention can flexibly and dynamically facilitate the processing of multiple independent object locations in early visual areas and thereby allow for tracking of these objects.
Suppressing Effect of the Cannabinoid CB1 Receptor Antagonist, Rimonabant, on Alcohol Self-Administration in Alcohol-Preferring Rats

Administration of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist, rimonabant (also known as SR 141716), has been reported to reduce alcohol intake (measured under the homecage 2-bottle "alcohol vs water" choice regimen) in selectively bred, Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) rats. The present study investigated whether rimonabant also had the capacity to decrease, in this rat line, alcohol's reinforcing properties. To this end, male sP rats were initially trained to lever-press (on a fixed ratio 4 schedule of reinforcement) to orally self-administer alcohol (15%, v/v) in daily 30-min sessions. Once lever-pressing and self-administration behaviors reached stable levels (150-200 responses/session and 0.8- 1 g/kg alcohol per session, respectively), the effect of rimonabant (0, 0.3, 1, and 3 mg/kg, i.p.) on responding for alcohol and amount of self-administered alcohol was determined. Pretreatment with rimonabant resulted in a significant, dose- dependent reduction in both variables; specifically, the total number of lever responses for alcohol and amount of self- administered alcohol in the rat groups treated with 0.3, 1, and 3 mg/kg rimonabant were approximately 20%, 35%, and 60% lower than those recorded in vehicle-treated rats. Pretreatment with 3 mg/kg rimonabant also resulted in a significant increase in the latency to the first response on the "alcohol" lever. These results demonstrate the capacity of rimonabant to suppress alcohol's reinforcing properties in alcohol-preferring sP rats. These data constitute a further piece of experimental evidence in support of the hypothesized role for the CB1 receptor in the control of alcohol drinking and reinforcement.
Learning Conditional Random Fields for Classification of Hyperspectral Images

Hyperspectral images exhibit strong dependencies across spatial and spectral neighbors, which have been proved to be very useful for hyperspectral image classification. State-of-the-art hyperspectral image classification algorithms use the dependencies in a heuristic way or in probabilistic frameworks but impose unreasonable assumptions on observed data. In this paper, we formulate a conditional random field (CRF) to replace such heuristics and unreasonable assumptions for the classification of hyperspectral images. Moreover, because of avoiding explicit modeling of the observed data, the proposed method can incorporate the classification of hyperspectral images with different statistics characteristics into a unified probabilistic framework. Since the usual classification task for hyperspectral images needs the proposed CRF to be trained on local samples, available global training methods cannot be directly used. Under piecewise training framework, this paper develops an efficient local method to train the CRF. It is efficiently implemented through separated trainings of simple classifiers defined by corresponding potentials. However, the independent classifier trainings may lead to over-counting problems during inference. So we further propose a strategy to combine the independently trained models to obtain final CRF model. Experiments on real-world hyperspectral data show that our algorithm is competitive with the most recent results in hyperspectral image classification.
Comparison of the Antibacterial Properties of Three Mouthwashes Containing Chlorhexidine Against Oral Microbial Plaques: An in vitro Study

Background: The mouth provides an environment that allows the colonization and growth of a wide variety of microorganisms, especially bacteria. One of the most effective ways to reduce oral microorganisms is using mouthwashes. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial effects of chlorhexidine mouthwashes (manufacture by Livar, Behsa, Boht) on common oral microorganisms. Materials and Methods: In this in vitro study, isolated colonies of four bacteria, including Streptococcus mutans, S. sanguinis, S. salivarius and Lactobacillus casei, were prepared for an antimicrobial mouth rinse test. The tube dilution method was used for determining the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC). Results: The MICs for Kin gingival, Behsa and Boht mouthwashes were 0.14, 0.48 and 1000 micrograms/mL using the tube method for S. mutans, respectively. The MBCs for the mentioned mouthwashes were 0.23, 1.9 and 2000 micrograms/mL for S. mutans, respectively. The MICs for Kin gingival, Behsa and Boht mouthwashes were 0.073, 0.48 and 250 micrograms/mL using the tube method for S. sanguinis, respectively. The MBCs for the mentioned mouthwashes were 0.14, 1.9 and 1000 micrograms/mL for S. sanguinis, respectively. Conclusions: The Kin Gingival chlorhexidine mouthwash has a greater effect than Behsa and Boht mouthwashes on oral microorganisms and is recommended to be used for plaque chemical inhibition.
Protected area needs in a changing climate

Range shifts due to climate change may cause species to move out of protected areas. Climate change could therefore result in species range dynamics that reduce the relevance of current fixed protected areas in future conservation strategies. Here, we apply species distribution modeling and conservation planning tools in three regions (Mexico, the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, and Western Europe) to examine the need for additional protected areas in light of anticipated species range shifts caused by climate change. We set species representation targets and assessed the area required to meet those targets in the present and in the future, under a moderate climate change scenario. Our findings indicate that protected areas can be an important conservation strategy in such a scenario, and that early action may be both more effective and less costly than inaction or delayed action. According to our projections, costs may vary among regions and none of the three areas studied will fully meet all conservation targets, even under a moderate climate change scenario. This suggests that limiting climate change is an essential complement to adding protected areas for conservation of biodiversity.
Regaining the Initiative for Public Service Media

Gregory Ferrell Lowe & Jeanette Steemers (eds.) Public service media is today challenged on every front. Publics and politicians see the commercial approach as the ‘normal’ way to organise broadcasting. There are strong pressures to downsize PSM organisations, to limit investment options, to restrict online and digital operations, to narrow remits to genres and for audiences that are not commercially attractive, and for increasingly intrusive assessment procedures. The principles no longer resonate very widely and there is growing criticism about a decline in distinctiveness. Even among traditional allies, support is flagging and skepticism is growing.