Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Breaking SIMD shackles with an exposed flexible microarchitecture and the access execute PDG

Modern microprocessors exploit data level parallelism through in-core data-parallel accelerators in the form of short vector ISA extentions such as SSE/AVX and NEON. Although these ISA extentions have existed for decades, compilers do not generate good quality, high-performance vectorized code without significant programmer intervention and manual optimization. The fundamental problem is that the architecture is too rigid, which overly complicates the compiler's role and simultaneously restricts the types of codes that the compiler can profitably map to these data-parallel accelerators. We take a fundamentally new approach that first makes the architecture more flexible and exposes this flexibility to the compiler. Counter-intuitively, increasing the complexity of the accelerator's interface to the compiler enables a more robust and efficient system that supports many types of codes. This system also enables the performance of auto-acceleration to be comparable to that of manually-optimized implementations. To address the challenges of compiling for flexible accelerators, we propose a variant of Program Dependence Graph called the Access Execute Program Dependence Graph to capture spatio-temporal aspects of memory accesses and computations. We implement a compiler that uses this representation and evaluate it by considering both a suite of kernels developed and tuned for SSE, and “challenge” data-parallel applications, the Parboil benchmarks. We show that our compiler, which targets the DySER accelerator, provides high-quality code for the kernels and full applications, commonly reaching within 30% of manually-optimized and out-performs compiler-produced SSE code by 1.8×.
Accuracy of the s-Step Lanczos Method for the Symmetric Eigenproblem in Finite Precision

The $s$-step Lanczos method can achieve an $O(s)$ reduction in data movement over the classical Lanczos method for a fixed number of iterations, allowing the potential for significant speedups on modern computers. However, although the $s$-step Lanczos method is equivalent to the classical Lanczos method in exact arithmetic, it can behave quite differently in finite precision. Increased roundoff errors can manifest as a loss of accuracy or deterioration of convergence relative to the classical method, reducing the potential performance benefits of the $s$-step approach. In this paper, we present for the first time a complete rounding error analysis of the $s$-step Lanczos method. Our methodology is analogous to Paige's rounding error analysis for classical Lanczos [IMA J. Appl. Math., 18 (1976), pp. 341--349]. Our analysis gives upper bounds on the loss of normality of and orthogonality between the computed Lanczos vectors, as well as a recurrence for the loss of orthogonality. We further demonstrate that.
Ray Tracing with Rope Trees

In this paper an acceleration method for finding the nearest ray–object intersection for ray tracing purposes is presented. We use the concept of BSP trees enriched by rope trees. These are used to accelerate the traversal of the BSP tree. We give a comparison of experimental results between the technique based on BSP tree and uniform spatial subdivision.
Tau protein becomes long and stiff upon phosphorylation: correlation between paracrystalline structure and degree of phosphorylation

In a previous report we have shown that microtubule-associated protein tau can be induced to form paracrystals (Lichtenberg, B., E.-M. Mandelkow, T. Hagestedt, and E. Mandelkow. 1988. Nature [Lond.]. 334:359-362). A striking feature was the high degree of elasticity of the molecules. We now report that this property is related to the state of phosphorylation. When tau is dephosphorylated by alkaline phosphatase, it becomes shorter and more elastic; when it is phosphorylated by Ca++/calmodulin-dependent kinase, it becomes longer and stiffer. This may provide a model for the control of structural properties of tau-like molecules by phosphorylation.
Doherty amplifier design for 3.5 GHz WiMAX considering load line and loop stability

Legacy Doherty amplifier is characterized by using a larger transistor for the peak amplifier such that this reaches saturation with a smaller excitation signal. However due to device availability and modelling considerations, this is not often feasible. In this paper, the design and measurement of a Doherty amplifier utilizing only single sized device is realized. Unlike previous research works, intrinsic load line is utilized to tune the offset lines, as well as to verify the actual dynamic load principle. Stability aspects are covered for this type of amplifier, which are not normally included in earlier works. Finally an assessment of its applicability and benefits for WiMAX at 3.5 GHz is realized using a class AB amplifier as a comparison basis.
A Compact Interactive Visualization of Dependency Treebank Query Results

One of the challenges of corpus querying is making sense of the results of a query, especially when a large number of results and linguistically annotated data are concerned. While the most widespread tools for querying syntactically annotated corpora tend to focus on single occurrences, one aspect that is not fully exploited yet in this area is that language is a complex system whose units are connected to each other at both microscopic (the single occurrences) and macroscopic level (the whole system itself). Assuming that language is a system, we describe a tool (using the DoubleTreeJS visualization) to visualize the results of querying dependency treebanks by forming a node from a single item type, and building a network in which the heads and the dependents of the central node are respectively the left and the right vertices of the tree, which are connected to the central node by dependency relations. One case study is presented, consisting in the exploitation of DoubleTreeJS for supporting one assumption in theoretical linguistics with evidence provided by the data of a dependency treebank of Medieval Latin.
Bayesian estimation of 2-D P-velocity models from active seismic arrival time data: imaging of the shallow structure of Mt Vesuvius (Southern Italy)

SUMMARY A multi-2-D non linear traveltime tomography of the shallow (3‐4 km deep) structure of Mt Vesuvius volcano was performed. Data have been collected during two recent active seismic experiments using a total of 17 on-land shots and about 140 three-component digital seismographs. A newly developed technique for imaging the volcano velocity structure has been applied, based on an adaptive model space investigation where the number of grid nodes is progressively increased (multi-scale approach). The optimal model parametrization is chosen according to the minimum of the Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) parameter. This corresponds to finding the best compromise between the data misfit and simplicity of the model. The model parameter estimate is performed through the computation of an a posteriori probability density function (pdf), defined following the Bayesian approach. The maximum likelihood model is searched by an optimization technique which combines the genetic and simplex algorithms. The evaluation of the a posteriori pdf is based on traveltime computations using ray tracing techniques. Constraints on the model parameters are inserted in the form of prior pdf and error maps are inferred from cross-sections of the posterior probability around the found best fit solution. The retrieved images of Mt Vesuvius volcano show variable P-velocities in the range 1700‐5800 m s −1 . A fairly detailed image of the top of the Mesozoic carbonate rocks forming the basement of the volcanic area is obtained. A 9 km long, 1 km deep depression was detected at the N side of the volcano. The presence of a shallow high velocity body is evidenced underneath the Mt Somma caldera and it can be interpreted as a sub- or palaeovolcanic structure.
Stacking or Supertagging for Dependency Parsing – What’s the Difference?

Supertagging was recently proposed to provide syntactic features for statistical dependency parsing, contrary to its traditional use as a disambiguation step. We conduct a broad range of controlled experiments to compare this specific application of supertagging with another method for providing syntactic features, namely stacking. We find that in this context supertagging is a form of stacking. We furthermore show that (i) a fast parser and a sequence labeler are equally beneficial in supertagging, (ii) supertagging/stacking improve parsing also in a cross-domain setting, and (iii) there are small gains when combining supertagging and stacking, but only if both methods use different tools. The important consideration is therefore not the method but rather the diversity of the tools involved.
Fusion of Plant Height and Vegetation Indices for the Estimation of Barley Biomass

Plant biomass is an important parameter for crop management and yield estimation. However, since biomass cannot be determined non-destructively, other plant parameters are used for estimations. In this study, plant height and hyperspectral data were used for barley biomass estimations with bivariate and multivariate models. During three consecutive growing seasons a terrestrial laser scanner was used to establish crop surface models for a pixel-wise calculation of plant height and manual measurements of plant height confirmed the results (R2 up to 0.98). Hyperspectral reflectance measurements were conducted with a field spectrometer and used for calculating six vegetation indices (VIs), which have been found to be related to biomass and LAI: GnyLi, NDVI, NRI, RDVI, REIP, and RGBVI. Furthermore, biomass samples were destructively taken on almost the same dates. Linear and exponential biomass regression models (BRMs) were established for evaluating plant height and VIs as estimators of fresh and dry biomass. Each BRM was established for the whole observed period and pre-anthesis, which is important for management decisions. Bivariate BRMs supported plant height as a strong estimator (R2 up to 0.85), whereas BRMs based on individual VIs showed varying performances (R2: 0.07–0.87). Fused approaches, where plant height and one VI were used for establishing multivariate BRMs, yielded improvements in some cases (R2 up to 0.89). Overall, this study reveals the potential of remotely-sensed plant parameters for estimations of barley biomass. Moreover, it is a first step towards the fusion of 3D spatial and spectral measurements for improving non-destructive biomass estimations.
Diversity of the Human Intestinal Microbial Flora

The human endogenous intestinal microflora is an essential “organ” in providing nourishment, regulating epithelial development, and instructing innate immunity; yet, surprisingly, basic features remain poorly described. We examined 13,355 prokaryotic ribosomal RNA gene sequences from multiple colonic mucosal sites and feces of healthy subjects to improve our understanding of gut microbial diversity. A majority of the bacterial sequences corresponded to uncultivated species and novel microorganisms. We discovered significant intersubject variability and differences between stool and mucosa community composition. Characterization of this immensely diverse ecosystem is the first step in elucidating its role in health and disease.
Is Knowledge Enough? Considering HIV/AIDS Risk Behaviors and HIV/AIDS Knowledge with African American Women

Background: This quantitative explanatory study was designed to explain the relationship between HIV/AIDS risk-taking behaviors among African American women and their knowledge surrounding HIV/AIDS. More specifically, the research considers whether knowledge alone was sufficient to alter African-American women’s risk-taking behaviors regarding HIV/AIDS. Objectives: This study was designed to investigate knowledge surrounding sexual risk-taking behaviors including 1) heterosexual transmission; 2) low and sporadic condom usage; 3) illicit drug use; and 4) multiple sex partners associated with HIV positive and negative status among African-American women. Patients and Methods: Participants in this study were African-American women who ranged in age between 24 and 44 years. This sample of African-American women was divided into two groups according to their HIV status: 53 women who were HIV positive and 62 women who were HIV negative women. The data for this investigation were obtained through self-administered questionnaires. The t-test was used to analyze the data through the use of the windows version of the statistical package for social sciences (19.0). Results: Findings suggest that knowledge of HIV was not found to be significantly different for the HIV positive and negative groups, and thus, suggest that knowing about the consequences of risk-taking behaviors is not sufficient to alter one’s behavior among African American women. The findings from this investigation will contribute new empirical knowledge to the existing social work database on HIV/AIDS and knowledge specifically relative to African-American women. Conclusions: It was anticipated that knowledge of HIV would have been significantly higher in the HIV negative group than in the HIV positive group. However, the hypothesis was not supported by data. The HIV positive women and negative women were equally knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS.
Resolving variation in the reproductive tradeoff between sperm size and number

Spermatozoa are amongst the most variable cells, and three factors are thought to account for this variation in design: fertilization mode, phylogeny, and postcopulatory sexual selection. In addition, it has long been assumed that a tradeoff exists between sperm size and number, and although postcopulatory sexual selection affects both traits, empirical evidence for a tradeoff has so far been elusive. Our recent theoretical model predicts that the nature of a direct tradeoff between sperm size and number varies with sperm competition mechanism and sperm competition risk. We test these predictions using a comparative approach in two very different taxa with different sperm competition mechanisms: passerine birds (mechanism: simple raffle) and Drosophila fruit flies (sperm displacement). We show that in both groups, males increase their total ejaculate investment with increasing sperm competition risk, but whereas passerine birds allocate disproportionately to sperm number, drosophilids allocate disproportionately to sperm size. This striking difference between the two groups can be at least partly explained by sperm competition mechanisms depending on sperm size relative to the size of the female reproductive tract: in large animals (passerines), sperm numbers are advantageous in sperm competition owing to dilution inside the female tract, whereas in small animals (drosophilids), large sperm are advantageous for physical competition (sperm displacement). Our study provides two important results. First, we provide convincing evidence for the existence of a sperm size–number tradeoff. Second, we show that by considering both sperm competition mechanism and dilution, can we account for variation in sperm size between different taxa.
A 3.9mW 25-electrode reconfigured thoracic impedance/ECG SoC with body-channel transponder

Recently, wearable heart monitoring systems have been developed for cardiovascular-related disease [1] with wearable body sensor network (WBSN) [2–3]. The WBSN introduced in [3] monitored ECG at maximum 48 points, and transferred data using arrayed inductive link for cm-range wireless inter-connectivity. However, most of the previous attempts were limited to sense only ECG signals at limited points [2] on the body with limited network coverage [3]. Thoracic impedance variance (TIV) from the change of aortic blood volume and velocity at each cardiac cycle provides important hemodynamic information (stroke volume, cardiac output). Combined with ECG signals from more than 6 points, it enables the early detection of abnormal symptoms of pandemic diseases like hypertension and heart failure so that the patients can take prophylactic measures [6]. In spite of its importance, the TIV detection was not realized in WBSN due to its requirement of high impedance (≪0.2Ω) detection sensitivity which needs to detect AM signal with modulation depth as low as less than 3%. A pure single tone sinusoidal current signal at 1kHz–100kHz [6] is required to realize such a high sensitivity, and only a bulky implementation was reported so far [7]. In this paper, we report a 3.9mW low power SoC with body-channel-transceiver (BCT), which can detect TIV (0.1Ω) and ECG (up to 8 points) concurrently. The chip is integrated on a 4-layer fabric circuit board with thin flexible battery as a poultice-like plaster. In addition, it can reconfigure the 25-electrode array and optimize them in-situ to automatically consider the user dependency of the TIV/ECG signals. The recorded data is transmitted at 1Mbps through body-channel-communication (BCC) [8] with duty cycle modification to extend battery life time and enlarge the network coverage.
Assessment of the Limits of Neural Phase-Locking Using Mass Potentials

In the diverse mechanosensory systems that animals evolved, the waveform of stimuli can be encoded by phase locking in spike trains of primary afferents. Coding of the fine structure of sounds via phase locking is thought to be critical for hearing. The upper frequency limit of phase locking varies across species and is unknown in humans. We applied a method developed previously, which is based on neural adaptation evoked by forward masking, to analyze mass potentials recorded on the cochlea and auditory nerve in the cat. The method allows us to separate neural phase locking from receptor potentials. We find that the frequency limit of neural phase locking obtained from mass potentials was very similar to that reported for individual auditory nerve fibers. The results suggest that this is a promising approach to examine neural phase locking in humans with normal or impaired hearing or in other species for which direct recordings from primary afferents are not feasible.
Two-Phase Intracluster Medium in the Centaurus Cluster of Galaxies

ASCA and ROSAT data of the Centaurus Cluster, containing a cD galaxy NGC 4696, were analyzed in a partial reanalysis of the work of Fukazawa et al., Fabian et al., and Allen & Fabian. Radial brightness profiles in different energy bands show that the central excess emission of this cluster, seen previously in soft X-rays (<4 keV), is also present in the hard energy band up to 10 keV. Therefore, the central excess emission cannot be explained solely by a temperature drop together with a King-type potential with a flat core, and requires a deeper central potential. A double-β brightness distribution gives a good account of the data. A deprojected energy spectrum within a spherical region of radius ~30 kpc at the cluster center indicates that the ICM cannot be isothermal there. Simultaneous fitting of the three (PSPC, GIS, and SIS) energy spectra extracted from the central region within a projected radius of 3' showed that a two-temperature model with temperatures of 1.4 and 4.4 keV and a common metallicity of 1.0 solar, with the Galactic absorption, gives the best description of the spectra. A cooling-flow spectral model did not give a satisfactory fit. These results reconfirm the two-phase picture developed by Fukazawa et al., in which the hot ICM fills nearly the entire cluster volume, where a small amount of cooler plasma is intermixed and localized near the cluster center. A three-dimensional cluster model incorporating the two-phase picture, the double-β brightness distribution, and the central metallicity increase reproduced the overall ASCA and ROSAT data successfully. The spatial distribution of the dark matter that is derived by subtracting the stellar mass from the calculated total gravitating mass deviates from a King-type profile and exhibits a central excess. Another two-phase cluster model in which the dark matter density profile is given with the universal density profile of Navarro, Frenk, & White also gave a satisfactory account of the data. A detailed comparison of the iron mass distribution with that of the stellar component reveals that the iron is more widely spread than stars, perhaps as a result of energetic supernovae and the motion of the cD galaxy. Since the derived characteristics of the cool phase, including the temperature, angular extent, gas mass, and metallicity, are on a smooth extension of those of the interstellar medium (ISM) of elliptical galaxies, the cool phase can be regarded as the ISM associated with the cD galaxy, while the high X-ray luminosity of the cool phase (1.1 × 1043 ergs s-1 in 0.5-4.0 keV) is interpreted as a result of compression by the surrounding hot phase. The cool-phase X-ray emission is presumably sustained by energies dissipated by mass infalling to the cD galaxy in the course of cluster evolution.
Platelet Survival Studies in Stroke‐Prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHRSP

Platelet survival was studied by using "Cr-labeled platelets in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP), stroke-resistant SHR (SHRSR) and normotensive control rats of the Wistar-Kyoto (WK) strain. Relatively young animals of the same age prior to the development of cerebrovascular lesions (cerebral infarction and/or hemorrhage) were used. Platelet half-life time in SHRSP was slightly but significantly shorter than in any other groups of rats, irrespective of the type of platelet donors. Mean platelet consumption was also significantly increased in SHRSP only. Platelets of SHRSP injected into SHRSR showed normal survival. These data support the concept that the shortened platelet survival in SHRSP is brought about by some extracorpuscular abnormalities. Although the vascular changes in SHRSP could be the most likely explanation for the shortened platelet survival, its mechanism remains to be solved. This investigation suggests that studies of the platelet survival in hypertension may be useful in predicting the development of stroke before its clinical recognition.
Dynamical Constraints on Alternatives to Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei

The compelling dynamical evidence for massive dark objects in galactic nuclei does not uniquely imply massive black holes (BHs). To argue convincingly that these objects are BHs we must rule out alternatives to a BH, and the alternative to a point mass is a cluster of some sort of nonluminous objects, such as a cluster of brown dwarfs or stellar remnants. We use simple physical considerations to derive the maximum possible lifetime of a dark cluster that may consist of any plausible form of nonluminous gravitating objects—from brown dwarfs and very low mass objects of cosmic composition to white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. The lower this limit relative to the galaxy age, the more implausible the cluster hypothesis is, thus arguing for a point mass. A cluster with a lifetime much shorter than 10 Gyr is unacceptable, since observing it at the present epoch would be highly improbable. Since the goal is to rule out a dark cluster by showing that its lifetime must be very short, we make the most generous assumptions possible under the observational constraints to allow for its survival. We find that the lifetime of such a hypothetical cluster must be much shorter than the galaxy age only in the cases of NGC 4258 and our Galaxy, thus strongly arguing for a point mass. In all other galaxies, the case of a massive BH, although compelling, is not yet watertight. We also note that there are two exotic alternatives to a massive BH that cannot be ruled out even in the cases of NGC 4258 and the Galaxy: clusters of elementary particles (e.g., bosons), and clusters of very low mass (≲0.04 M☉) BHs. We point out, however, serious difficulties with these alternatives, and argue that they are highly implausible.