Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Connecting the physical and application level towards grasping aging effects

Technology scaling noticeably increases the susceptibility of transistors to varied degradations induced by aging phenomena like Bias Temperature Instability (BTI) and Time-Dependent-Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB). Therefore, estimating the reliability of an entire computational system necessitates investigating how such phenomena will ultimately lead to failures - considering that aging starts from the physical level and ends up at the application level, where workloads (i.e. software programs) run. The key challenge is that an accurate estimation imposes analyzing the impact of aging on each individual transistor within a sophisticated on-chip system using complex physics-based models. The latter requires both a careful experimental model parameter derivation for calibration and precise information regarding the actual temperature voltage-stress waveforms that may be applied to the transistors during lifetime. These waveforms are directly driven by the running workloads creating the inevitable necessity to connect the physical and application level. As a matter of fact, this challenge is exacerbated in the nano era, due to the typical workloads (i.e. multiple applications running in parallel along with an operating system) that may run on top of a tremendous number of transistors. This paper investigates this challenge to provide designers with an abstracted, yet sufficiently accurate reliability estimation that takes into account the interrelations between the physical and application level towards grasping how aging actually degrades the reliability of on-chip systems.
Diet and Feeding Habits of Cyprinus carpio in Relation with Water Quality of Integrated Rice-Fish Farming Ecosystem

This study describes the diets and feeding habits of Cyprinus carpio in integrated rice-fish farming system in the Agronomy Field Laboratory of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Central Bangladesh during May 1999 to August 1999. Percentage of frequency of occurrence and percentage in number methods were applied for the qualitative and quantitative estimation of plankton. The water quality parameters recorded during the study were within the suitable range for optimal fish growth and plankton populations were also abundant in the water of the rice plots. The phytoplankton population recorded from the gut contents of C. carpio was under 4 groups ( viz ., Chlorophyceae, Euglenophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Bacillariophyceae) and the zooplankton under 3 groups ( viz ., Rotifera, Cladocera, Copepoda). Bacillariophyceae and Chlorophyceae were the dominant phytoplankton group while Rotifera was the dominant zooplankton group in the gut contents of C. carpio . This study also revealed that, gut contents of C. carpio was composed of 48.47% phytoplankton and 51.53% zooplankton indicating omnivorous nature of the fish. The availability of plankton population in the rice plots and the food and feeding habits of C. carpio suggest that, this fish could be a vital candidate for integrated rice-fish aquaculture.
Simultaneous Laparoscopic Subtotal Colectomy and Pancreaticoduodenectomy for Colonic FAP and Ampullary Cancer

Background: Laparoscopic surgery has extended its applications to resection of malignancies with favorable results. We report the first successful simultaneous laparoscopic subtotal colectomy and pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) in a patient with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). Case Report: A 37-year-old man presented with obstructive jaundice. Gastroscopy and biopsies revealed a large ampullary tubulovillous adenoma with mild dysplasia (Spigelman stage III). A colonoscopy for suspicion of FAP revealed numerous right-sided polyps with left-sided sparing. Computed tomography showed a double duct sign. A simultaneous laparoscopic subtotal colectomy and PD was performed successfully. The operative time was 225 minutes for the colectomy and 390 minutes for the PD. Histology showed an R0 resection of ampullary adenocarcinoma (20 negative nodes) and colonic polyps with low-grade dysplasia. Genetic screening confirmed a diagnosis of FAP. Conclusions: A simultaneous laparoscopic subtotal colectomy and PD in patients with FAP and ampullary neoplasia seems safe with favorable clinical and oncologic outcomes.
Conjectural Estimates of Economic Growth in the Lower South, 1720 to 1800

This paper describes the first step in a larger project to build up regional estimates of economic growth before 1800 in the parts of North America that became the United States. In it we employ the method of conjectural estimation to develop new estimates of the rate of economic growth in the Lower South (modern day North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee) from 1720 to 1800 for both colonists and the Native American population of the region. Contrary to the widely held view that GDP per capita grew at a rate of 0.3 to 0.6 percent per year during the eighteenth century our best estimate is that per capita GDP grew at just 0.09 percent per year. Despite the slow growth of GDP per capita, however, the region's economy did achieve appreciable extensive growth, and achieving any advance in per capita production can be viewed as a significant accomplishment in light of the challenges that this growth posed for the economy. The difference between our estimate and those of previous studies appears to be the result of earlier scholars' undue focus on export performance. In contrast, our approach allows us to accurately account for the effect of the slowly growing domestic sector of the economy.
Vehicle-pedestrian collisions: Validated models for pedestrian impact and projection

Abstract The most important factor in pedestrian injuries from vehicle collisions is the impact velocity. In cases where the impact configuration can be ascertained, the most common method now used to determine vehicle speed involves the pedestrian projection distance. The more traditional method of using tyre brake marks is losing applicability as ABS braking systems become more common. The two most common impact configurations are wrap projection and forward projection, these being determined by the vehicle/pedestrian geometry and the initial conditions of the impact. In this paper, two models are presented for pedestrian forward and wrap projection impacts. These models are predicated on separating the total projection distance into the individual projection distances occurring during three principal phases of the collision. The models are novel as they use a rigid single-segment body representation of the pedestrian, include explicit modelling of the impact phase, and also allow for uncertainty in the input parameters. Published data are used to provide distributions for the input variables such as pedestrian and vehicle masses, etc. The model predictions of impact speed from overall projection distance are validated by comparison with real-world accident data.
Mechanisms of deprivation-induced map plasticity at layer 4 to layer 2/3 synapses in rat barrel cortex :

Neocortical representations of sensory information are commonly arranged in topographic maps that can be modified and reorganized based on recent sensory experience. This map plasticity is thought to involve both anatomical and physiological changes of cortical circuits. In rat somatosensory cortex, it has been hypothesized that long- term synaptic depression (LTD) is a major mechanism for a common feature of cortical map plasticity, the reduction in cortical responsiveness to deprived sensory inputs. Recent work has shown that whisker deprivation weakens the layer 4 (L4) to L2/3 excitatory projection in columns deprived of their main sensory input, and that this weakening occludes subsequent attempts to induce LTD, suggesting that weakening represent, in part, LTD induced by sensory deprivation in vivo (Allen et al., 2003). The specific mechanisms that mediate this reduction in projection strength, and whether they share features with LTD, remain unclear. In chapter 2, we show that deprivation-induced weakening of L4 to L2/3 inputs represents synaptic weakening, and is mediated by a reduction in presynaptic, but not postsynaptic, efficacy, consistent with known mechanisms of LTD at this synapse. Chapter 3 focuses on the development and plasticity of L4 excitatory axonal arbors, which are the main columnar projection from L4 to L2/3. These arbors develop a high degree of columnar specificity from an initially less precise projection through targeted growth within columnar bounds. This process occurs identically regardless of sensory experience, indicating that deprivation-induced plasticity at this synapse does not involve large-scale axonal reorganization. Chapter 4 shows that whisker deprivation does not alter neuron density in L4, suggesting that whisker deprivation at these ages does not involve elimination of presynaptic neurons. In chapter 5, horizontal, trans-columnar axonal pathways are analyzed for their putative role in a second feature of map plasticity, the expansion of spared cortical representations in sensory maps
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SPECTROSCOPY OF BROWN DWARFS DISCOVERED WITH THE WIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER

We present a sample of brown dwarfs identified with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) for which we have obtained Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) near-infrared grism spectroscopy. The sample (22 in total) was observed with the G141 grism covering 1.10–1.70 μm, while 15 were also observed with the G102 grism, which covers 0.90–1.10 μm. The additional wavelength coverage provided by the G102 grism allows us to (1) search for spectroscopic features predicted to emerge at low effective temperatures (e.g.,ammonia bands) and (2) construct a smooth spectral sequence across the T/Y boundary. We find no evidence of absorption due to ammonia in the G102 spectra. Six of these brown dwarfs are new discoveries, three of which are found to have spectral types of T8 or T9. The remaining three, WISE J082507.35+280548.5 (Y0.5), WISE J120604.38+840110.6 (Y0), and WISE J235402.77+024015.0 (Y1), are the 19th, 20th, and 21st spectroscopically confirmed Y dwarfs to date. We also present HST grism spectroscopy and reevaluate the spectral types of five brown dwarfs for which spectral types have been determined previously using other instruments.
Judging Covers by Their Books: Malleable Attractiveness Appraisals in Response to Belongingness Feedback

The present research examined biases in appraisals of target attractiveness in response to belongingness feedback. Specifically, I hypothesized that individuals would provide favorable attractiveness appraisals of targets who accept them, and would provide unfavorable attractiveness appraisals of targets who reject them. I hypothesized further that biased appraisals would be most pronounced when people received feedback from opposite-sex targets. Two literatures guided the development of the present research. The first literature underscores the power of reciprocal liking – people like those who like them. In mirror fashion, people are highly critical of targets who deny opportunities for social affiliation. The second literature has uncovered that physical attractiveness assessments are subject to influence by nonphysical antecedents. Indeed, the New Look approach to perception argues that top-down processes, such as motivation, color people’s fundamental perceptions of stimuli. In three studies, participants were met with acceptance feedback from an ostensible other, rejection feedback, or neutral feedback. In two of the studies, participants judged rejecting targets as decidedly less attractive than nonrejecting targets. In one study, participants judged accepting targets as more attractive than nonaccepting targets. Although these findings, taken together, were consistent with hypotheses, the effect of belongingness feedback on attractiveness judgments did not differ for opposite-sex versus same-sex targets. Furthermore, the effect appears to be but one component of a general strategy of a rater to uniformly exalt accepting targets and uniformly censure rejecting targets. Study 3 included a face recognition task thought to reflect more directly the outcomes of visual perception. In that study, participants who felt high rapport with accepting opposite-sex targets misrecognized the target as
Factors Influencing the Health-Related Lifestyle of Community-Dwelling Older Adults

one’s own health, managing stress, and achieving relaxation have been an important national objective (Lee & Park, 2006). Yet, there is relatively little health promotion research available on factors influencing the healthy lifestyles of older adults (Loeb, 2004; Peel et al., 2005). For example, the findings from the limited research about individual characteristics and healthy lifestyle indicated that younger seniors (ages 65 to 69) reported lifestyle practices including physical activity, healthy nutrition behaviors of cholesterol monitoring diets, and preventive health maintenance behaviors such as obtaining mammograms and Pap smear tests (Clark, 1999; Conn, 1998). Those ages 80 years and older were more likely to not be currently smoking or had never smoked. Those with higher levels of education and income also reported greater levels of regular physical activity, healthy nutrition, stress management, health responsibility, and not currently smoking than older adults with lower educational achievement and income (Gallant & Dorn, 2001; Resnick, 1998). Older Blacks generally Although adults, age 65 years and older, are living longer and are community dwelling, they are not necessarily healthier. Older adults may underesti-
Sparse depth sensing for resource-constrained robots

We consider the case in which a robot has to navigate in an unknown environment, but does not have enough on-board power or payload to carry a traditional depth sensor (e.g., a 3D lidar) and thus can only acquire a few (point-wise) depth measurements. We address the following question: is it possible to reconstruct the geometry of an unknown environment using sparse and incomplete depth measurements? Reconstruction from incomplete data is not possible in general, but when the robot operates in man-made environments, the depth exhibits some regularity (e.g., many planar surfaces with only a few edges); we leverage this regularity to infer depth from a small number of measurements. Our first contribution is a formulation of the depth reconstruction problem that bridges robot perception with the compressive sensing literature in signal processing. The second contribution includes a set of formal results that ascertain the exactness and stability of the depth reconstruction in 2D and 3D problems, and completely characterize the geometry of the profiles that we can reconstruct. Our third contribution is a set of practical algorithms for depth reconstruction: our formulation directly translates into algorithms for depth estimation based on convex programming. In real-world problems, these convex programs are very large and general-purpose solvers are relatively slow. For this reason, we discuss ad-hoc solvers that enable fast depth reconstruction in real problems. The last contribution is an extensive experimental evaluation in 2D and 3D problems, including Monte Carlo runs on simulated instances and testing on multiple real datasets. Empirical results confirm that the proposed approach ensures accurate depth reconstruction, outperforms interpolation-based strategies, and performs well even when the assumption of a structured environment is violated.
Selective impairment of masculine gender processing: Evidence from a German aphasic

The present single case study describes the performance of the German aphasic E.M. who exhibited a severe impairment of grammatical gender processing in masculine nouns but relatively spared performance regarding feminine and neuter ones. This error pattern was assessed with tests of gender assignment to orally or visually presented words, with oral or written responses, and with tests of gender congruency decision on noun phrases. The pattern occurred across tasks and modalities, thus suggesting a gender-specific impairment at a modality-independent level of processing. It was sensitive to frequency, thus supporting the assumption that access to gender features as part of grammatical processing is frequency sensitive. Besides being the first description of a gender-specific impairment in an aphasic subject, the data therefore have implications regarding the modelling of representation and processing of grammatical gender information within the mental lexicon.
Characterizing and Authenticating Montilla-Moriles PDO Vinegars Using Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) Technology

This study assessed the potential of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as a non-destructive method for characterizing Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) “Vinagres de Montilla-Moriles” wine vinegars and for classifying them as a function of the manufacturing process used. Three spectrophotometers were evaluated for this purpose: two monochromator instruments (Foss NIRSystems 6500 SY-I and Foss NIRSystems 6500 SY-II; spectral range 400–2,500 nm in both cases) and a diode-array instrument (Corona 45 VIS/NIR; spectral range 380–1,700 nm). A total of 70 samples were used to predict major chemical quality parameters (total acidity, fixed acidity, volatile acidity, pH, dry extract, ash, acetoin, methanol, total polyphenols, color (tonality and intensity), and alcohol content), and to construct models for the classification of vinegars as a function of the manufacturing method used. The results obtained indicate that this non-invasive technology can be used successfully by the vinegar industry and by PDO regulators for the routine analysis of vinegars in order to authenticate them and to detect potential fraud. Slightly better results were achieved with the two monochromator instruments. The findings also highlight the potential of these NIR instruments for predicting the manufacturing process used, this being of particular value for the industrial authentication of traditional wine vinegars.
The role of visuospatial abilities in learning three-dimensional anatomical structures from animation

The study investigated how displaying orientation references (internal axes, external character or none) in learning of two anatomical three-dimensional structures from animation affect performance on subsequent spatial judgment tasks. Learners’ visuo-spatial abilities in mental rotation and perspective-taking were also measured. The results showed no main effect of the orientation references on the accuracy of spatial judgments accuracy. However, participants who studied the material with the presence of orientation references, either internal or external, performed the spatial judgment tasks more quickly than did their control counterparts. There was no significant difference in the spatial ability measures for any of the orientation reference conditions. Nevertheless, visuo-spatial abilities affected the accuracy performance differently for the two tasks, suggesting different processing strategies.
The dark side of the MOOC - A critical inquiry on their claims and realities

Deimann, Markus (2015) "The dark side of the MOOC-A critical inquiry on their claims and realities," And then the one day you find Ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run You missed the starting gun // PINK FLOYD " Time " (1973) // Unlike other digital innovation in recent years, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) hit the educational landscape with such a profound impact. Originally started as an attempt to deliberately augment traditional academic courses, it soon became a brand of its own. Given the huge interest in the MOOC " Introduction to Artificial Intelligence " (160,000 students from over 190 countries) (Stacey, 2013) it seemed logical that Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig left Stanford University to found the for-profit start-up Udacity. Suddenly the old humanistic vision of " education for all " which was at the heart of the Enlightenment, but did not pass the " reality check " (Biesta, 2002), has risen from the dead and has ignited unparalleled media coverage. Both media and commercial MOOC providers helped towards constructing the " education is broken " narrative which states that (1) traditional universities are no longer able to equip learners with that kind of skills that are needed to master the challenges of our digital society and (2) technological innovations are now available that will revolutionize education, i.e. provide world class education in a cheap and effective way to every person on the planet. This means that the philosophical prospects of education are reformulated in terms of the proliferation of the Internet thus reducing the complex activities of humans (e.g. self-reflection) to technological conditions (e.g. availability of broadband Internet). Taking a closer look at the claims that are attached to MOOCs it becomes apparent that they seem to follow a certain logic such as the use of dramatic pictures " The Campus Tsunami " (Brooks, 2012) or the portraying of individuals Deimann: The dark side of the MOOC-A critical inquiry on their claims an (Sebastian Thrun, Daphne Koller) as leading pioneers. However, up to now little attention has been paid to the strategies of utilizing rhetorical figures for making claims or constructing arguments. Such a perspective is important as the use of language is not just reflecting social and psychological life but rather constructing social realities. In this regard, discourse analysis provides an account of the social and functional use of language …
Role of betaine in improving the antidepressant effect of S-adenosyl-methionine in patients with mild-to-moderate depression

Background S-adenosyl-methionine (SAMe) is a common add-on treatment used to counteract depressive symptoms in subjects with mild-to-moderate depression, who are low responders to other antidepressant drugs. However, there is some concern about the possible impact of SAMe therapy on homocysteine levels. Betaine is known both to counteract high level of homocysteine in plasma and to increase liquor and plasma levels of SAMe, thus potentiating its effect. Aim To evaluate the role played by betaine, administered along with SAMe, in potentiating the antidepressive role played by SAMe administered as such. Methods The study enrolled 46 subjects with a diagnosis of mild-to-moderate depression according to the Beck Depression Inventory Scale II. All the subjects had a suboptimal control of their symptoms. After randomization, they were treated with adjunctive treatment with either Samyr® (enteric-coated SAMe) or DDM Metile® (enteric-coated SAMe plus betaine) for 90 days. Results Both treatments acted similarly in improving symptoms such as anxiety, psychomotor agitation, feelings of helplessness and worthlessness, physical efficiency, and somatization, but treatment with DDM Metile® determined better statistically significant results following a 90-day therapy. Tolerability and compliance were overlapping in both the treatments. Conclusion The association of SAMe plus betaine seemed to demonstrate more effectiveness than SAMe alone when administered as an add-on therapy to subjects, affected by mild-to-moderate depression, who were low responders to conventional antidepressants.