Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy-Efficient CNN Implementation on a Deeply Pipelined FPGA Cluster

Recently, FPGA-based CNN accelerators have demonstrated superior energy efficiency compared to high-performance devices like GPGPUs. However, due to the constrained on-chip resource and many other factors, single-board FPGA designs may have difficulties in achieving optimal energy efficiency. In this paper we present a deeply pipelined multi-FPGA architecture that expands the design space for optimal performance and energy efficiency. A dynamic programming algorithm is proposed to map the CNN computing layers efficiently to different FPGA boards. To demonstrate the potential of the architecture, we built a prototype system with seven FPGA boards connected with high-speed serial links. The experimental results on AlexNet and VGG-16 show that the prototype can achieve up to 21x and 2x energy efficiency compared to optimized multi-core CPU and GPU implementations, respectively.
Sweet maize growth and yield response to organic and mineral fertilizers, N rates and soil water regimes

Abstract Sweet maize is an underutilized vegetable in European temperate areas, and its consumption is increasing. For better understanding of cultivation practices, this pot experiment aimed to determine the effects of different water regimes and nitrogen (N) rates calculated from N target values. N rates of 0 (control), 0.6 and 2 g N pot-1 were applied as organic by-products pumpkin cake and pig manure digestate, and mineral fertilizers CAN 27 and ENTEC®26. Treatments of water supply were based on measured soil matric potentials of 2.8 pF (drought stress), 2.6 pF (optimal water) and 2.4 pF (overwatered). In comparison to mineral fertilizers, pumpkin cake proved to be equal in effectiveness in plant height (155.8 cm), cob (85.8 g), green (124.9 g) and leaf mass per plant (44.2 g), or even better in root (72.3 g) and broom mass per plant (3.0 g). Yield parameters, cob mass (70.1 g), its length (6.3 cm) and diameter (2.0 cm), as well as the residual mineral N (59 mg N kg-1) significantly increased at the highest N rate. Significantly lower values of the evaluated morphological parameters and photosynthetic rates (at brooming and harvesting) were associated with drought stress. The matric tension of 2.6 pF was established as an appropriate water regime for sweet maize growth.
Therapeutic potential of follistatin to promote tissue regeneration and prevent tissue fibrosis.

ACTIVINS are multifunction cytokines belonging to the TGF-β superfamily and were originally identified by their ability to stimulate follicle-stimulating hormone secretion from the anterior pituitary [1]. In addition to their activities on the pituitary-gonadal axis, activins induce differentiation of erythroid cells and megakaryocytes, modify differentiation of neuronal and neuroendocrine cells, and act as inducers of mesoderm during development [1–3]. Furthermore, activins modulate cell proliferation and programmed cell death in a variety of tissues [2, 3]. Activins are secreted as homoor heterodimmer of related β-subunits. Four β-subunit genes have been identified in humans: β-A, β-B, β-C and β-E. Activin A is a homodimer of the β-A subunit, whereas activin B is a homodimer of β-B [1]. The biological activities of activins are mediated by heterometric receptor complexes consisting of two different types of receptors, type I and type II. Initially, activins bind to the type II receptor, ActRIIA (for activin A) or ActRIIB (for activin B), then the type I receptor, activin-like kinase 4 (ALK4), is recruited and phosphorylated [4]. Phosphorylated ALK4 phosphorylates Smad proteins (Smad2 and Smad3) and then activin signals are transduced into the nucleus [5]. Various extracellular binding proteins modify the actions of activins. The most important factor modulating the action of activins is an activin-binding protein, follistatin [6]. Follistatin binds to activins with high-affinity and blocks their actions. Follistatin is expressed on the surface of the target cells of activin by binding to the extracellular matrix [7, 8]. Activin trapped by follistatin is internalized by endocytosis and subsequently cleaved by proteolysis. Follistatin is considered to be a local regulator of the activin action. Importantly, activins upregulate the expression of follistatin, which leads to the attenuation of the activin signals. Collectively, the activin-follistatin system is a complex regulatory system that controls diverse cellular functions. In this review, we present the role of the activin-follistatin system in organogenesis, regeneration and tissue fibrosis of the liver, pancreas, kidney and the lung. We also postulate the therapeutic potential of follistatin to promote tissue regeneration and to treat tissue fibrosis.
Analytic Considerations and Design Basis for the IEEE Distribution Test Feeders

For nearly 20 years, the Test Feeder Working Group of the Distribution System Analysis Subcommittee has been developing openly available distribution test feeders for use by researchers. The purpose of these test feeders is to provide models of distribution systems that reflect the wide diversity in design and their various analytic challenges. Because of their utility and accessibility, the test feeders have been used for a wide range of research, some of which has been outside the original scope of intended uses. This paper provides an overview of the existing distribution feeder models and clarifies the specific analytic challenges that they were originally designed to examine. Additionally, this paper will provide guidance on which feeders are best suited for various types of analysis. The purpose of this paper is to provide the original intent of the Working Group and to provide the information necessary so that researchers may make an informed decision on which of the test feeders are most appropriate for their work.
Enriched cereal bars are more effective in increasing plasma quercetin compared with quercetin from powder-filled hard capsules

The flavonol quercetin, is one of the major flavonoids found in edible plants. The bioavailability of quercetin in humans may be influenced by the food matrix in which it is consumed as well as by its chemical and physical form. The objective of the present study was to investigate the biokinetics of quercetin from quercetin-enriched cereal bars and quercetin powder-filled hard capsules. In a randomised, single-blinded, diet-controlled cross-over study, six healthy women aged 22–28 years took a single oral dose of approximately 130 mg quercetin equivalents from either quercetin-enriched cereal bars (containing 93·3 % quercetin aglycone plus 6·7 % quercetin-4′-glucoside) or quercetin powder-filled hard capsules (100 % quercetin aglycone). Blood samples were drawn before and after quercetin administration over a 24 h period. The concentrations of quercetin and its monomethylated derivatives, isorhamnetin (3′-O-methyl quercetin) and tamarixetin (4′-O-methyl quercetin), were measured by HPLC with fluorescence detection after plasma enzymatic treatment. The systemic availability as determined by comparing the plasma concentration–time curves of quercetin was found to be five times and the cmax values six times higher after ingestion of 130 mg quercetin by quercetin-enriched cereal bars than after ingestion by quercetin capsules. In contrast, tmax did not differ significantly between the two treatments. The cmax values for isorhamnetin and tamarixetin were four and nine times higher after ingestion of quercetin by quercetin-enriched cereal bars than after ingestion by quercetin capsules. In conclusion, quercetin from quercetin-enriched cereal bars is significantly more bioavailable than from quercetin powder-filled hard capsules.
Faster-Than-Nyquist Non-Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing for Visible Light Communications

In this paper, we propose a faster-than-Nyquist non-orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (NOFDM) scheme for visible light communications (VLCs) where the multiplexing/demultiplexing employs the inverse fractional cosine transform (IFrCT)/FrCT. Different to the common fractional Fourier transform-based NOFDM (FrFT-NOFDM) signal, FrCT-based NOFDM (FrCT-NOFDM) signal is real-valued, which can be directly applied to the VLC systems without the expensive up-conversion and thus it is more suitable for the cost-sensitive VLC systems. Under the same transmission rate, FrCT-NOFDM signal occupies smaller bandwidth compared to OFDM signal. When the bandwidth compression factor <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is set to 0.8, 20% bandwidth saving can be obtained. Therefore, FrCT-NOFDM has higher spectral efficiency and suffers less high-frequency distortion compared to OFDM, which benefits the bandwidth-limited VLC systems. As the simulation results show, bit error rate performance of FrCT-NOFDM with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 0.9 or 0.8 is better than that of OFDM. Meanwhile, FrCT-NOFDM has a superior security performance. In conclusion, FrCT-NOFDM shows the potential for application in the future VLC systems.
Prospect on intergalactic magnetic field measurements with gamma-ray instruments

Abstract Observing high-energy gamma-rays from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) offers a unique potential to probe extremely tiny values of the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF), a long standing question of astrophysics, astroparticle physics and cosmology. Very high energy (VHE) photons from blazars propagating along the line of sight interact with the extragalactic background light (EBL) and produce e + e − pairs. Through inverse-Compton interaction, mainly on the cosmic microwave background (CMB), these pairs generate secondary GeV-TeV components accompanying the primary VHE signal. Such secondary components would be detected in the gamma-ray range as delayed “pair echos” for very weak IGMF (B < 10−16 G), while they should result in a spatially extended gamma-ray emission around the source for higher IGMF values (B > 10−16 G). Coordinated observations with space (i.e. Fermi) and ground-based gamma-ray instruments, such as the present Cherenkov experiments H.E. S.S. , MAGIC and VERITAS, the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory, and the wide-field detectors such as HAWC and LHAASO, should allow to analyze and finally detect such echos, extended emission or pair halos, and to further characterize the IGMF.
IEEE 802.11ad-Based Radar: An Approach to Joint Vehicular Communication-Radar System

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar is widely used in vehicles for applications such as adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance. In this paper, we propose an IEEE 802.11ad-based radar for long-range radar (LRR) applications at the 60 GHz unlicensed band. We exploit the preamble of a single-carrier physical layer frame, which consists of Golay complementary sequences with good correlation properties that make it suitable for radar. This system enables a joint waveform for automotive radar and a potential mmWave vehicular communication system based on the mmWave consumer wireless local area network standard, allowing hardware reuse. To formulate an integrated framework of vehicle-to-vehicle communication and LRR, we make typical assumptions for LRR applications, incorporating the full duplex radar operation. This new feature is motivated by the recent development of systems with sufficient isolation and self-interference cancellation. We develop single- and multi-frame radar receiver algorithms for target detection as well as range and velocity estimation for both single- and multi-target scenarios. Our proposed radar processing algorithms leverage channel estimation and time–frequency synchronization techniques used in a conventional IEEE 802.11ad receiver with minimal modifications. Analysis and simulations show that in a single-target scenario, a gigabits-per-second data rate is achieved simultaneously with cm-level range accuracy and cm/s-level velocity accuracy. The target vehicle is detected with a high probability (above 99.99 $\%$) at a low false alarm rate of 10 $^{-6}$ for an equivalent isotropically radiated power of 40 dBm up to a vehicle separation distance of about 200 m. The proposed IEEE 802.11ad-based radar meets the minimum accuracy/resolution requirement of range and velocity estimates for LRR applications.
Merged Ionization/Dissociation Fronts in Planetary Nebulae

The hydrogen ionization and dissociation front around an ultraviolet radiation source should merge when the ratio of ionizing photon flux to gas density is sufficiently low and the spectrum is sufficiently hard. This regime is particularly relevant to the molecular knots that are commonly found in evolved planetary nebulae, such as the Helix Nebula, where traditional models of photodissociation regions have proved unable to explain the high observed luminosity in H2 lines. In this paper we present results for the structure and steady state dynamics of such advection-dominated merged fronts, calculated using the Cloudy plasma/molecular physics code. We find that the principal destruction processes for H2 are photoionization by extreme ultraviolet radiation and charge-exchange reactions with protons, both of which form H2+, which rapidly combines with free electrons to undergo dissociative recombination. Advection moves the dissociation front to lower column densities than in the static case, which vastly increases the heating in the partially molecular gas due to photoionization of He0, H2, and H0. This causes a significant fraction of the incident bolometric flux to be reradiated as thermally excited infrared H2 lines, with the lower excitation pure rotational lines arising in 1000 K gas and higher excitation H2 lines arising in 2000 K gas, as is required to explain the H2 spectrum of the Helix cometary knots.
Location Privacy and Its Applications: A Systematic Study

This paper surveys the current research status of location privacy issues in mobile applications. The survey spans five aspects of study: the definition of location privacy, attacks and adversaries, mechanisms to preserve the privacy of locations, location privacy metrics, and the current status of location-based applications. Through this comprehensive review, all the interrelated aspects of location privacy are integrated into a unified framework. Additionally, the current research progress in each area is reviewed individually, and the links between existing academic research and its practical applications are identified. This in-depth analysis of the current state-of-play in location privacy is designed to provide a solid foundation for future studies in the field.
Indoor and Outdoor Play in Preschool Programs

The purpose of this study was to explain children's indoor and outdoor play in preschool programs in terms of teacher interaction, peer interaction and task orientation. Children's indoor and outdoor play behaviors were compared using the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS). Findings included significant differences on task engagement and self-reliance (within the domain of task orientation), with both measures higher in an indoor play environment than an outdoor environment. Findings revealed no significant differences between the indoor and outdoor environment in terms of teacher engagement and peer engagement.
Review of the evidence linking protein and energy to mental development.

OBJECTIVE To examine the evidence as to whether the relationship between undernutrition and poor child development is causal. DESIGN Selected studies from developing countries were discussed. Observational studies were first considered then experimental studies of preventative and remedial supplementation. The type of functions affected, the presence of sensitive periods and the role of protein and energy versus that of micronutrients were reviewed. RESULTS Childhood undernutrition is generally associated with concurrent and longer term deficits in cognition, behaviour and motor skills, although the relationship is likely to be confounded by socio-economic factors. Supplementation trials have had many design problems. However, those beginning at any age from pregnancy up to 24 months have consistently had concurrent benefits suggesting a causal relationship. Supplement begun in older children had little or no effect, albeit there are too few studies to conclude with confidence. The limited evidence suggests that benefits are more likely to be sustained if supplementation begins in late pregnancy or at birth and is continued until the child is at least 24 months old. Deficits in cognition tend to be global and there is insufficient evidence of specific deficits. There is some evidence that the first 2 years of life are most sensitive to the effects of undernutrition. Most studies have failed to separate the effects of energy and protein from those of micronutrients. One study showed that energy and/or protein affects children's development. Psychosocial stimulation has had consistent benefits on undernourished children's development. CONCLUSIONS Public health nutrition programmes should include a component in which children who are at risk are targeted during the first 2 years of life with combined interventions involving nutrition, health care and early stimulation.
MR differentiation of adamantinous and squamous-papillary craniopharyngiomas.

PURPOSE To determine MR criteria for differentiating adamantinous from squamous-papillary craniopharyngiomas. METHODS The MR imaging features of 42 histologically proved craniopharyngiomas (25 adamantinous, 15 squamous-papillary, and two mixed subtypes) were examined with multiplanar T2-weighted and noncontrast and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted imaging. Differences in the mR features of both subtypes were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS The adamantinous craniopharyngioma is a mixed solid-cystic or mainly cystic lobulated suprasellar or intrasellar/suprasellar tumor occurring in children and adults, typically with large nonenhancing hyperintense cysts on T1-weighted images. The squamous-papillary craniopharyngioma is a predominantly solid or mixed solid-cystic suprasellar tumor occurring in adults, appearing as a hypointense cyst on noncontrast T1-weighted images. Calcifications and recurrent tumors are more often observed in adamantinous tumors but can be seen in squamous-papillary tumors as well. Statistically significant parameters useful for differentiating the two tumor subtypes are the encasement of vessels, the lobulated shape, and the presence of hyperintense cysts in adamantinous tumors, and the round shape, the presence of hypointense cysts, and the predominantly solid appearance in squamous-papillary tumors. CONCLUSION Craniopharyngiomas can be divided into two clinically, histologically different subtypes, which suggests a different pathogenesis of these two types of tumor.
First Evaluation of Drug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Clinical Isolates from Congo Revealed Misdetection of Fluoroquinolone Resistance by Line Probe Assay Due to a Double Substitution T80A-A90G in GyrA

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major public health problems in Congo. However, data concerning Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance are lacking because of the insufficient processing capacity. So, the aim of this study was to investigate for the first time the resistance patterns and the strain lineages of a sample of M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) isolates collected in the two main cities of Congo. Methods Over a 9-day period, 114 smear-positive sputa isolated from 114 patients attending centers for the diagnosis and treatment of TB in Brazzaville and Pointe Noire were collected for culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST). Detection of mutations conferring drug resistance was performed by using line probe assays (GenoType MTBDRplus and MTBDRsl) and DNA sequencing. Strain lineages were determined by MIRU-VNTR genotyping. Results Of the 114 sputa, 46 were culture positive for MTBC. Twenty-one (46%) were resistant to one or more first-line antiTB drugs. Of these, 15 (71%) were multidrug resistant (MDR). The most prevalent mutations involved in rifampin and isoniazid resistance, D516V (60%) in rpoB and S315T (87%) in katG respectively, were well detected by MTBDRplus assay. All the 15 MDR strains were susceptible to fluoroquinolone and injectable second-line drug. No mutation was detected in the rrs locus involved in resistance to amikacin and capreomycin by both the MTBDRsl assay and DNA sequencing. By contrast, 9 MDR strains belonging to the same cluster related to T-family were identified as being falsely resistant to fluoroquinolone by the MTBDRsl assay due to the presence of a double substitution T80A-A90G in GyrA. Conclusions Taken together, these data revealed a possible spread of a particular MDR clone in Congo, misidentified as fluoroquinolone resistant by MTBDRsl assay. Thus, this test cannot replace gold-standard culture method and should be interpreted carefully in view of the patient's native land.
Implementing Torque Control with High-Ratio Gear Boxes and Without Joint-Torque Sensors

This paper presents a complete framework (estimation, identification and control) for the implementation of joint-torque control on the humanoid robot HRP-2. While torque control has already been implemented on a few humanoid robots, this is one of the first implementations of torque control on a robot that was originally built to be position controlled (iCub [F. Nori, S. Traversaro, J. Eljaik, F. Romano, A. Del Prete and D. Pucci, iCub whole-body control through force regulation on rigid non-coplanar contacts, Frontiers in Robotics and AI 2 (2015). ] and Asimo [O. Khatib, P. Thaulad and J. Park, Torque-position transformer for task control of position controlled robots, 2008 IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, May 2008, pp. 1729–1734. ] being the first two, to the best of our knowledge). The challenge comes from both the hardware, which does not include joint-torque sensors and presents large friction due to the high-ratio gear boxes, and the software interface, which only accepts desired joint-angle commands (no motor current/voltage control). The contribution of the paper is to provide a complete methodology that is very likely to be reproduced as most robots are designed to provide only position control capabilities. Additionally, the method is validated by exhaustive experiments on one leg of the robot, including a comparison with the original position controller. We tested the torque controller in both motion control and cartesian force control. The torque control can track better a reference trajectory while using lower values for the feedback gains (up to 25%). Moreover, we verified the quality of the identified motor models by analyzing the contribution of the feedforward terms of our torque controller, which dominate the feedback terms.
3D Head Pose Estimation Enhanced Through SURF-Based Key-Frames

This work presents a method that incorporates 2D and 3D cues for the estimation of head pose. We propose the use of the concept of Key-Frames (KF), a set of frames where the position and orientation of the head is automatically calculated off-line, to improve the precision of pose estimation and detection rate. Each KF consists of: 2D information, encoded by SURF descriptors; 3D information from a depth image (both acquired by an RGB-D sensor); and a generic 3D model that corresponds to the head localization and orientation in the real world. Our algorithm compares a new frame against all KFs and selects the most relevant one. The 3D transformation between both, selected KF and current frame, can be estimated using the depth image and the Iterative Closest Point algorithm in an online framework. Compared to reference approaches, our system can handle partial occlusions and extreme rotations even with noisy depth data. We evaluate the proposal using two challenging datasets: (1) an dataset acquired by us where the groundtruth information is given by a commercial Motion Capture system and (2) the public benchmark Biwi Kinect Head Pose Database.