Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of speed and area of clustered VLIW processors

Splitting a wide-issue VLIW processor in clusters decreases the clock period, area and power consumption. Previous studies of the physical benefits from clustering focused on the scalability of the register file, based on speculative analytical models. In contrast, we evaluate speed and area of the whole VLIW datapath, including the register files, FUs, and bypasses through realistic physical layout experiments. Our baseline is an optimized for speed 8-issue-slot VLIW pipeline, derived from a commercial media processor. Despite the frequent prior-art assumption that the register file defines the clock frequency of a clustered VLIW processor, we discovered it is the FU bypass network that limits the clock speed. After a drastic 1.75 clock frequency speedup from clustering the unicluster into two clusters, subsequent clustering brings modest 2.05 and 2.17 speedups for the 4- and 8-cluster VLIWs, respectively. Combined with cycle count increase trends due to clustering, this leads to the conclusion that excessive clustering does not speed up the processor. Furthermore, clustering reduces area of the VLIW datapath. In our experiments the area savings due to clustering reach 14.2%, 43.5% and 50.5% for the 2-, 4-, and 8-cluster VLIWs, respectively.
Scalable Approximate Query Tracking over Highly Distributed Data Streams

The recently-proposed Geometric Monitoring (GM) method has provided a general tool for the distributed monitoring of arbitrary non-linear queries over streaming data observed by a collection of remote sites, with numerous practical applications. Unfortunately, GM-based techniques can suffer from serious scalability issues with increasing numbers of remote sites. In this paper, we propose novel techniques that effectively tackle the aforementioned scalability problems by exploiting a carefully designed sample of the remote sites for efficient approximate query tracking. Our novel sampling-based scheme utilizes a sample of cardinality proportional to √N (compared to N for the original GM), where $N$ is the number of sites in the network, to perform the monitoring process. Our experimental evaluation over a variety of real-life data streams demonstrates that our sampling-based techniques can significantly reduce the communication cost during distributed monitoring with controllable, predefined accuracy guarantees.
Cysteines 431 and 1074 Are Responsible for Inhibitory Disulfide Cross-linking between the Two Nucleotide-binding Sites in Human P-glycoprotein*

Human wild-type and Cys-less P-glycoproteins were expressed in Pichia pastoris and purified in high yield in detergent-soluble form. Both ran on SDS gels as a single 140-kDa band in the presence of reducing agent and showed strong verapamil-stimulated ATPase activity in the presence of added lipid. The wild type showed spontaneous formation of higher molecular mass species in the absence of reducing agent, and its ATPase was activated by dithiothreitol. Oxidation with Cu2+ generated the same higher molecular mass species, primarily at 200 and ∼300 kDa, in high yield. Cross-linking was reversed by dithiothreitol and prevented by pretreatment with N-ethylmaleimide. Using proteins containing different combinations of naturally occurring Cys residues, it was demonstrated that an inhibitory intramolecular disulfide bond forms between Cys-431 and Cys-1074 (located in the Walker A sequences of nucleotide-binding sites 1 and 2, respectively), giving rise to the 200-kDa species. In addition, dimeric P-glycoprotein species (∼300 kDa) form by intermolecular disulfide bonding between Cys-431 and Cys-1074. The ready formation of the intramolecular disulfide between Cys-431 and Cys-1074 establishes that the two nucleotide-binding sites of P-glycoprotein are structurally very close and capable of intimate functional interaction, consistent with available information on the catalytic mechanism. Formation of such a disulfide in vivo could, in principle, underlie a regulatory mechanism and might provide a means of intervention to inhibit P-glycoprotein.
Posterior Instrumentation for Thoracolumbar Fractures

Abstract Thoracolumbar fractures are relatively common injuries. Numerous classification systems have been developed to characterize these fractures and their prognostic and therapeutic implications. Recent emphasis on short, rigid fixation has influenced surgical management. Most compression and stable burst fractures should be treated nonsurgically. Neurologically intact patients with unstable burst fractures that have >25° of kyphosis, >50% loss of vertebral height, or >40% canal compromise often can be treated with short, rigid posterior fusions. Patients with unstable burst fractures and neurologic deficits require direct or indirect decompression. Posterior stabilization can be effective with Chance fractures and flexion‐distraction injuries that have marked kyphosis, and in translational or shear injuries. Advances in understanding both biomechanics and types of fixation have influenced the development of reliable systems that can effectively stabilize these fractures and permit early mobilization.
The influence of clonal diversity and intensity-dependence on trematode infections in an amphipod

SUMMARY Individual animals are often infected not only by different parasite species, but also by multiple genotypes of the same parasite species. Genetic relatedness among parasites sharing a host is expected to modulate their strategies of resource exploitation, growth and virulence. We experimentally examined the effects that genetic diversity and infection intensity had on host mortality, infectivity and growth of the marine trematode Maritrema novaezealandensis in amphipod hosts. The presence of 2 versus 1 parasite genotype during infection did not influence subsequent host mortality, had different effects on infectivity among genotypes and did not influence growth or variation in parasite growth. Density-dependent growth reductions revealed that the number of parasites infecting a host was more important than their genetic relatedness. Temperature, host size, and host sex influenced the degree to which density-dependent factors affected parasite growth. Our results suggest that the effects of parasite relatedness vary among parasite genotypes in this trematode species, and reveal that many factors play an important role during parasite development and transmission.
Almost Optimal Dynamically-Ordered Channel Sensing and Accessing for Cognitive Networks

For cognitive wireless networks, one challenge is that the status and statistics of the channels' availability are difficult to predict. Numerous learning based online channel sensing and accessing strategies have been proposed to address such challenge. In this work, we propose a novel channel sensing and accessing strategy that carefully balances the channel statistics exploration and multichannel diversity exploitation. Unlike traditional MAB-based approaches, in our scheme, a secondary cognitive radio user will sequentially sense the status of multiple channels in a carefully designed order. We formulate the online sequential channel sensing and accessing problem as a sequencing multi-armed bandit problem, and propose a novel policy whose regret is in optimal logarithmic rate in time and polynomial in the number of channels. We conduct extensive simulations to compare the performance of our method with traditional MAB-based approach. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme improves the throughput by more than 30% and speeds up the learning process by more than 100%.
Study on improvement of fingerprint matching algorithm in wireless LAN based indoor positioning system

By comparing and analyzing several common indoor positioning system solutions, we found that indoor positioning System based on wireless LAN is superior, in which fingerprint matching algorithm was widely used and had a large room to be improved for more precise positioning performance. This paper presents an improved fingerprint matching algorithm, which reduces interference by Gaussian filter, calculates distance more accurately by weighted centroid algorithm. Furthermore, the algorithm improves precision by local prediction model revised by entire prediction model to increase the accuracy of positioning. The proposed algorithm can be widely used in different environment and has strong robustness. Experiments performed on real-world place shows that the result of our system is enhanced more than 26%, as compare to the traditional fingerprint-based WLAN positioning system.
Generalized quantum search with parallelism

We generalize Grover's unstructured quantum search algorithm to enable it to work with arbitrary starting superpositions and arbitrary unitary operators. We show that the generalized quantum search algorithm, when cast in a special orthonormal basis, can be understood as performing an exact rotation of a starting superposition into a target superposition. We derive a formula for the success probability of the generalized quantum search algorithm after n rounds of amplitude amplification. We then use this formula to determine the optimal strategy for a punctuated quantum search algorithm, i.e., one in which the amplitude amplified state is observed before the point of maximum success probability. On average, the optimal strategy is about 12% better than the naive use of Grover's algorithm. The speedup obtained is not dramatic but it illustrates that a hybrid use of quantum computing and classical computing techniques can yield a performance that is better than either alone. In addition, we show that a punctuated quantum algorithm that takes the same average computation time as Grover's standard algorithm only requires half the coherence time. We then extend the analysis to the case of a society of k quantum searches acting in parallel. We derive an analytic formula that connects the degree of parallelism with the expected computation time for k-parallel quantum search. The resulting parallel speedup scales as $O(\sqrt{k}),$ while the minimum number of agents needed to ensure success, k, decreases as the inverse of the square of the achievable coherence time. This result has practical significance for the design of rudimentary quantum computers that are likely to have a limited coherence time.
NCG 4.0: the network of cancer genes in the era of massive mutational screenings of cancer genomes

NCG 4.0 is the latest update of the Network of Cancer Genes, a web-based repository of systems-level properties of cancer genes. In its current version, the database collects information on 537 known (i.e. experimentally supported) and 1463 candidate (i.e. inferred using statistical methods) cancer genes. Candidate cancer genes derive from the manual revision of 67 original publications describing the mutational screening of 3460 human exomes and genomes in 23 different cancer types. For all 2000 cancer genes, duplicability, evolutionary origin, expression, functional annotation, interaction network with other human proteins and with microRNAs are reported. In addition to providing a substantial update of cancer-related information, NCG 4.0 also introduces two new features. The first is the annotation of possible false-positive cancer drivers, defined as candidate cancer genes inferred from large-scale screenings whose association with cancer is likely to be spurious. The second is the description of the systems-level properties of 64 human microRNAs that are causally involved in cancer progression (oncomiRs). Owing to the manual revision of all information, NCG 4.0 constitutes a complete and reliable resource on human coding and non-coding genes whose deregulation drives cancer onset and/or progression. NCG 4.0 can also be downloaded as a free application for Android smart phones. Database URL: http://bio.ieo. eu/ncg/
Complement Split Products in Amniotic Fluid in Pregnancies Subsequently Developing Early-Onset Preeclampsia

Objective. To determine the second-trimester amniotic fluid concentrations of complement split products in pregnancies subsequently affected by early-onset preeclampsia. Study Design. Cohort of 731 women with singleton pregnancies undergoing second-trimester genetic amniocentesis followed up to delivery and analyzed as a nested case-control study. Cases of preeclampsia developing before 34 weeks' gestation (n = 15) were compared with 47 uncomplicated term controls. Amniotic fluid collected at amniocentesis was tested for complement split products Bb, C4a, C3a, and C5a. Results. Women who developed early-onset preeclampsia as compared with the term pregnant controls had significantly higher (P = 0.04) median amniotic fluid C3a levels (318.7 ng/mL versus 254.5 ng/mL). Median amniotic fluid Bb levels were also significantly higher (P = 0.03) in preeclamptic women than in normal pregnant women (1127 ng/mL versus 749 ng/mL). Median levels of C4a and C5a were not significantly different between the groups. Conclusion. Our data suggest that complement activation in early pregnancy is associated with early-onset preeclampsia. We believe this to be the first prospective study to link complement activation in amniotic fluid in early pregnancy and later development of preeclampsia. Our findings provide evidence that immune dysregulation may precede the clinical manifestations of preeclampsia and that the alternative complement pathway is principally involved.
Sandwich Panel Design Using Aluminum Alloy Foam

Metal foams may replace polymer foams in applications where multi-functionality is important. For example it acts as a structural component in a sandwich panel but also as a cooling system or acoustic damper. Associated with sandwich panel geometry and change in loading one observes three failure modes: face sheet yield, core shearing and indentation under the loading roller.
Leptin and the Regulation of Renal Sodium Handling and Renal Na+-Transporting ATPases: Role in the Pathogenesis of Arterial Hypertension

Leptin, an adipose tissue hormone which regulates food intake, is also involved in the pathogenesis of arterial hypertension. Plasma leptin concentration is increased in obese individuals. Chronic leptin administration or transgenic overexpression increases blood pressure in experimental animals, and some studies indicate that plasma leptin is elevated in hypertensive subjects independently of body weight. Leptin has a dose- and time-dependent effect on urinary sodium excretion. High doses of leptin increase Na+ excretion in the short run; partially by decreasing renal Na+,K+-ATPase (sodium pump) activity. This effect is mediated by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and is impaired in animals with dietary-induced obesity. In contrast to acute, chronic elevation of plasma leptin to the level observed in patients with the metabolic syndrome impairs renal Na+ excretion, which is associated with the increase in renal Na+,K+-ATPase activity. This effect results from oxidative stress-induced deficiency of nitric oxide and/or transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor and subsequent stimulation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases. Ameliorating “renal leptin resistance” or reducing leptin level and/or leptin signaling in states of chronic hyperleptinemia may be a novel strategy for the treatment of arterial hypertension associated with the metabolic syndrome.
Time-adaptive self stabilization

Time-Adaptive Self Stabilization Shay Kutten Boaz Patt-Shamir* Dept. of Industrial Engineering College of Computer Science The Technion Northeastern University and boez~ccs. neu. edu IBM T.J, Watson Research Center kutten@ie. technion. ac. il We study the scenario where a transient fault hit ~ of the n nodes of a dktributed system by corrupting their state. We consider the basic problem of persistent bit, where the system is required to maintain a value in the face of transient failures by means of replication. We give an algorithm to recover the value quickly: the value of the bit is recovered at all nodes in 0(~) time units for any unknown value of j < n/2. Moreover, complete state quiescence occurs in O(dhun) time units, where diam denotes the diameter of the network. This means that the value persists indefinitely so long as any ~ < n/2 faults are followed by fl(diam) fault-free time units. We prove lower bounds which show that both time bounds are asymptotically optimal. Using the algorithm for persistent bit, we present a general transformer which takes a distributed nonreactive, non-stabilizing protocol P, and produces a self-stabilizing protocol P’ which solves the problem P solves, with the additional property that if the number of faults that hit the system after stabilization is j, for any unknown ~ < n/2, then the output of P’ regains stability in O(f) time units, and the state stabilizes in O(dlam) time units. ● Research supported by DARPA and Rome Laboratory under agreement F30602-96-0239. Permission to make digitalllmrd copies of fill or part of [his nmleriol for personal or clo.wroum use is granted wiU1outfee pmvi(ied UmtUw copies are not made or dislrihutcd for profit or commercin I w{vnnl~tgc.UWcopyrigbl notice. the tine oftlw publication and iL$date oppew’, *MInotice is given Uralcopyright is hy permission oftbe AChl, IIW To copy oUwn\,ise, to republish, to post on servers or to redisirilw! c to IISIS,requires specific Pemlissiotl oncVorfee 1997 F’(]D~ 97 Simla Bdmm (‘A lJ,V1 Copyright 1997 ACM 0-89791 -952 -1/97/8. $3 50
Clinical types of tinea capitis and species identification in children: an experience from tertiary care centres of Karachi, Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE To study the clinical types of Tinea Capitis and identify species in children reporting to two tertiary care centres of Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS The descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted at the Dermatology Outpatients' Department, PNS Shifa Hospital and the Institute of Skin Diseases, Karachi, from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2009. It comprised 202 children with clinical diagnosis of tinea capitis, confirmed by skin scrapings, showing fungal hyphae and spores in 10% potassium hydroxide on direct microscopy. Wood's lamp examination was carried out and the scrapings were cultured on Sabouraud's agar. A detailed dermatological examination was performed for evidence of fungal infection elsewhere in the body. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis. RESULTS Male-to-female ratio was 1.1:1 and age ranged from 1 to 14 years.The commonest clinical type gray patch was observed in 71 (35.1%) of the patients, black dot in 63 (31.2%), kerion in 50 (24.8%), favus in 10 (5.0%), diffuse pustular in 6 (3.0%), and diffuse scale in 2 (1.0%) patients. The most frequent species grown on culture was Trichophyton (T). Soudanense, followed by T. Tonsurans, T. Schoenleinii, and T. Mentagrophytes respectively. CONCLUSION Most of the patients of Tinea capitis presented with gray patch and black dot variety. The most common species identified by culture was Trichophyton Soudanense. Disease was equal in both gender and predominantly affected the population belonging to low and middle socioeconomic class.
Multilevel Drought Hazard Assessment under Climate Change Scenarios in Semi-Arid Regions—A Case Study of the Karkheh River Basin in Iran

Studies using Drought Hazard Indices (DHIs) have been performed at various scales, but few studies associated DHIs of different drought types with climate change scenarios. To highlight the regional differences in droughts at meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural levels, we utilized historic and future DHIs derived from the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Runoff Index (SRI), and Standardized Soil Water Index (SSWI), respectively. To calculate SPI, SRI, and SSWI, we used a calibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for the Karkheh River Basin (KRB) in Iran. Five bias-corrected Global Circulation Models (GCMs) under two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios projected future climate. For each drought type, we aggregated drought severity and occurrence probability rate of each index into a unique DHI. Five historic droughts were identified with different characteristics in each type. Future projections indicated a higher probability of severe and extreme drought intensities for all three types. The duration and frequency of droughts were predicted to decrease in precipitation-based SPI. However, due to the impact of rising temperature, the duration and frequency of SRI and SSWI were predicted to intensify. The DHI maps of KRB illustrated the highest agricultural drought exposures. Our analyses provide a comprehensive way to monitor multilevel droughts complementing the existing approaches.
Selective impact of disease on short-term and long-term components of self-reported memory: a population-based HUNT study

Background Subjective memory is commonly considered to be a unidimensional measure. However, theories of performance-based memory suggest that subjective memory could be divided into more than one dimension. Objective To divide subjective memory into theoretically related components of memory and explore the relationship to disease. Methods In this study, various aspects of self-reported memory were studied with respect to demographics and diseases in the third wave of the HUNT epidemiological study in middle Norway. The study included all individuals 55 years of age or older, who responded to a nine-item questionnaire on subjective memory and questionnaires on health (n=18 633). Results A principle component analysis of the memory items resulted in two memory components; the criterion used was an eigenvalue above 1, which accounted for 54% of the total variance. The components were interpreted as long-term memory (LTM; the first component; 43% of the total variance) and short-term memory (STM; the second component; 11% of the total variance). Memory impairment was significantly related to all diseases (except Bechterew’s disease), most strongly to brain infarction, heart failure, diabetes, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and whiplash. For most diseases, the STM component was more affected than the LTM component; however, in cancer, the opposite pattern was seen. Conclusions Subjective memory impairment as measured in HUNT contained two components, which were differentially associated with diseases.
Signaling switches and bistability arising from multisite phosphorylation in protein kinase cascades

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades can operate as bistable switches residing in either of two different stable states. MAPK cascades are often embedded in positive feedback loops, which are considered to be a prerequisite for bistable behavior. Here we demonstrate that in the absence of any imposed feedback regulation, bistability and hysteresis can arise solely from a distributive kinetic mechanism of the two-site MAPK phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. Importantly, the reported kinetic properties of the kinase (MEK) and phosphatase (MKP3) of extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) fulfill the essential requirements for generating a bistable switch at a single MAPK cascade level. Likewise, a cycle where multisite phosphorylations are performed by different kinases, but dephosphorylation reactions are catalyzed by the same phosphatase, can also exhibit bistability and hysteresis. Hence, bistability induced by multisite covalent modification may be a widespread mechanism of the control of protein activity.