Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Journal of Defense Software Engineering

As software and systems engineering disciplines continue to evolve and become more integrated , measurement and analysis as a support function becomes a basic practice. It is required by management activities, such as project planning, monitoring, and control. As an organization matures, objective management becomes a common practice. Basic project management indicators— cost, milestone completion, defects, etc.— are augmented by process management indicators, such as process change impact and process performance. Measurement and analysis (M&A) supports these management activities. M&A has been important for organizations striving for higher levels of maturity and continuous improvement of processes, products, and projects. Measurement has been recognized as a key enabler for performance-based management. Indeed, to become more competitive and to strengthen their ability to more quickly achieve higher maturity, some organizations have created an additional process area for measurement when using existing models to guide their process improvement efforts at lower levels. Measurement helps organizations and decision makers by providing meaningful information regarding the quality, adequacy, and evolutionary progress of processes, products, and projects. Measurement offers the insight needed to plan, control, manage, and improve: • the product technical adequacy and performance. • its schedule and progress. • resources and cost. • growth and stability. • product quality. • lifecycle process performance. • technical effectiveness. • customer satisfaction. In today's Department of Defense (DoD) " acquisition reform and outsourc-ing " environment, defense organizations and project offices are encountering more complex risk management responsibilities, diminishing organic resources, and more reliance on commercial products and processes. Information technology legal requirements demand results-based mission improvement and process improvement. Integrated program management is needed, and it is best supported by a measurement program shared by the acquiring and delivering organizations. How measurement and analysis is represented in any Capability Maturity Model ® (CMM ®) that guides process improvement is of vital concern. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), working with the Software Engineering Institute to integrate software, systems engineering, and acquisition disciplines into a single model (dubbed iCMM), has specified M&A as a separate process area. The Office of the Secretary of Defense-sponsored effort to integrate software, systems engineering, and integrated process and product development (IPPD) into a single model (dubbed CMMI) has also adopted M&A as a distinct process area in the draft released for stakeholder review. This is significant because historically , the measurement process was not explicitly defined in single-discipline models. Many assessors have indicated …
Successive log Quantization for Cost-Efficient Neural Networks Using Stochastic Computing

Despite the multifaceted benefits of stochastic computing (SC) such as low cost, low power, and flexible precision, SC-based deep neural networks (DNNs) still suffer from the long-latency problem, especially for those with high precision requirements. While log quantization can be of help, it has its own accuracy-saturation problem due to uneven precision distribution. In this paper we propose successive log quantization (SLQ), which extends log quantization with significant improvements in precision and accuracy, and apply it to state-of-the-art SC-DNNs. SLQ reuses the existing datapath of log quantization, and thus retains its advantages such as simple multiplier hardware. Our experimental results demonstrate that our SLQ can significantly extend both the accuracy and efficiency of SCDNNs over the state-of-the-art solutions, including linear-quantized and log-quantized SC-DNNs, achieving less than $1\sim 1.5$% p accuracy drop for AlexNet, SqueezeNet, and VGG-S at mere 4$\sim$5-bit weight resolution.Acm Reference Format:Sugil Lee, Hyeonuk Sim, Jooyeon Choi, and Jongeun Lee. 2019. Successive log Quantization for Cost-Efficient Neural Networks Using Stochastic Computing. In The 56th Annual Design Automation Conference 2019 (DAC’19), June 2-6, 2019, Las Vegas, NV USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3316781.3317916
Emotional Influences on Cognitive Flexibility Depend on Individual Differences: A Combined Micro-Phenomenological and Psychophysiological Study

Imagine a scenario where you are cooking and suddenly, the contents of the pot start to come out, and the oven bell rings. You would have to stop what you are doing and start responding to the changing demands, switching between different objects, operations and mental sets. This ability is known as cognitive flexibility. Now, add to this scenario a strong emotional atmosphere that invades you as you spontaneously recall a difficult situation you had that morning. How would you behave? Recent studies suggest that emotional states do modulate cognitive flexibility, but these findings are still controversial. Moreover, there is a lack of evidence regarding the underlying brain processes. The purpose of the present study was, therefore, to examine such interaction while monitoring changes in ongoing cortical activity using EEG. In order to answer this question, we used two musical stimuli to induce emotional states (positive/high arousal/open stance and negative/high arousal/closed stance). Twenty-nine participants performed two blocks of the Madrid Card Sorting Task in a neutral silence condition and then four blocks while listening to the counterbalanced musical stimuli. To explore this interaction, we used a combination of first-person (micro-phenomenological interview) and third-person (behavior and EEG) approaches. Our results show that compared to the positive stimuli and silence condition, negative stimuli decrease reaction times (RTs) for the shift signal. Our data show that the valance of the first emotional block is determinant in the RTs of the subsequent blocks. Additionally, the analysis of the micro-phenomenological interview and the integration of first- and third-person data show that the emotional disposition generated by the music could facilitate task performance for some participants or hamper it for others, independently of its emotional valence. When the emotional disposition hampered task execution, RTs were slower, and the P300 potential showed a reduced amplitude compared to the facilitated condition. These findings show that the interaction between emotion and cognitive flexibility is more complex than previously thought and points to a new way of understanding the underlying mechanisms by incorporating an in-depth analysis of individual subjective experience.
Cheilanthoid Ferns (Pteridaceae: Cheilanthoideae) in the Southwestern United States and Adjacent Mexico-A Molecular Phylogenetic Reassessment of Generic Lines

Cheilanthoids are the most commonly encountered fe rn species of the arid southwest and other xeric habitats throughout the world. Cheilanthes, Notholaena, Pellaea, and Bommeria are the best known southwestern genera, but some authors recognize segregate genera such as Argyrochosma, Aspidotis, Astrolepis, and Pentagramma. Others reject distinctions among some of these genera as artificial , leaving cheilanthoid generic concepts in a state of flux. This unsettled taxonomy is often attributed to morphological homoplasy associated with adaptation to xeric habitats , suggesting the need for new analyses that do not depend on potentially misleading morphology. Nucleotide sequences of the maternally inherited, chloroplast-encoded rbcL gene from 57 species that bear on the relationships of the cheilanthoids of the southwest were c1adistically analyzed under the optimality criterion of maximum parsimony. The results provide new insights into phylogenetic re lationships and generic circumscriptions of these ferns . Mexican Llavea cordifolia is rejected from the cheilanthoids, traditional Cheilanthes, Notholaena, and Pellaea are polyphyletic, and the segregations of A rgyrochosma, Aspidotis, Astrolepis, and Pentagramma are supported. To assess confidence in these conclusions, results of the rbcL-based analys is are compared with those based on ITS sequences of biparentally inherited nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) for a subset of cheilanthoid taxa. These two data sets yield remarkably congruent topologies at shallower phylogenetic levels, suggesting that previous taxonomic problems in this group may indeed be attributable to diffi culties in interpreting the taxonomic significance of morphological characters . Disagreement at deeper levels of the topologies suggests the need to incorporate data from less rapidly evolving nrDNA regions.
Protein Folding Modulation in Cells Subject to Differentiation and Stress

Cytomimetic media are used to mimic the physicochemical properties of the cellular milieu in an in vitro experiment. The motivation is that compared to entire cells, they can be used efficiently in combination with a broad range of experimental techniques. However, the development and use of cytomimetic media is hampered by the lack of in-cell data that could be used as a hallmark to directly evaluate and improve the performance of cytomimetic media in different applications. Such data must include the study of specific biomolecular reactions in different cell types, different compartments of a single cells and different cellular conditions. In previous studies, model systems such as cancer cell lines, bacteria or oocytes were used. Here we studied how the environment of cells that undergo neuronal differentiation or proteostasis stress modulates the protein folding equilibrium. We found that NGF induced differentiation leads to a decrease of the melting temperature and a change of the folding mechanism. Proteomic changes that occur upon differentiation could explain this effect, however, we found that the crowding effect remained unchanged. Using MG132, a common proteasome inhibitor and inducer of the unfolded protein response, we show that changes to the quality control machinery modulate the folding equilibrium, leading to protein destabilization at prolonged stress exposure. Our study explores the range of protein folding modulation within cells subject to differentiation or stress that must be encountered in the development of cytomimetic media.
Desipramine in opioid-dependent cocaine abusers maintained on buprenorphine vs methadone.

BACKGROUND Cocaine abuse occurs in 40% to 60% of patients entering opioid maintenance treatment, and effective pharmacotherapies are needed for this combined dependence. METHODS This 13-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of desipramine hydrochloride (0 or 150 mg/d) plus buprenorphine hydrochloride (12 mg/d) or methadone hydrochloride (65 mg/d) in 180 opioid-dependent cocaine abusers (124 men, 56 women). Supervised urine samples were obtained thrice weekly, and self-reported cocaine and heroin use was reported once weekly. Desipramine plasma levels were determined at weeks 4 and 10. RESULTS In men, opioid abstinence was increased more rapidly over time when treated with methadone than with buprenorphine, whereas cocaine abstinence was increased more with buprenorphine than with methadone. In women, opioid abstinence was increased the least rapidly when treated with buprenorphine plus placebo, while cocaine abstinence was increased more rapidly over time when treated with methadone than with buprenorphine. Regardless of sex or opioid medication, desipramine increased opioid and cocaine abstinence more rapidly over time than placebo. Self-reported opioid use confirmed these findings. Desipramine plasma levels were higher in women than in men, particularly those on buprenorphine maintenance. Higher desipramine plasma levels were associated with greater opioid, but not cocaine, abstinence. CONCLUSIONS Desipramine may be a useful adjunctive medication in facilitating opioid and cocaine abstinence in opioid-maintained patients. The efficacy of opioid medications to treat opioid or cocaine dependence may differ by sex. These findings highlight the importance of including sex as a factor when examining treatment outcome in these types of trials.
Managing injection-induced seismic risks

The Pohang quake shows the need for new methods to assess and manage evolving risk Heat transported from deep within Earth's crust can be used to generate electricity or provide direct heating by circulating fluid through permeable fracture networks in hot rock. Because naturally permeable systems are rare, enhanced geothermal system (EGS) technology stimulates the creation of permeable pathways in otherwise impermeable rock by means of the injection of water under high pressure, creating new fractures and causing preexisting fractures to open. But several EGS projects have encountered problems of induced seismicity, particularly the moment magnitude (Mw) 5.5 earthquake in 2017 that occurred near an EGS drill site in Pohang, Republic of Korea (South Korea). Here we explore the implications of, and derive lessons from, the Pohang experience. The Pohang earthquake provides unequivocal evidence that EGS stimulation can trigger large earthquakes that rupture beyond the stimulated volume and disproves the hypothesis that the maximum earthquake magnitude is governed by the volume of injected fluids. Because that hypothesis tacitly underpins hazard-based methods used for managing induced seismicity, those methods must be revised and based on considerations of risk.
Leveraging Approximate Data for Robust FIash Storage

With the increasing bit density and adoption of 3D NAND, flash memory suffers from increased errors. To address the issue, flash devices adopt error correction codes (ECC) with strong error correction capability, like low-density parity-check (LDPC) code, to correct errors. The drawback of LDPC is that, to correct data with a high raw bit error rate (RBER), read latency will be amplified. This work proposes to address this issue with the assistance of approximate data. First, studies have been conducted and show there are ample amount of approximate data available in flash storage. Second, a novel data organization is proposed to fortify the reliability of regular data by leaving approximate data unprotected. Finally, a new data allocation strategy and modified garbage collection scheme are presented to complete the design. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can improve read performance by 30% on average comparing to current techniques.
Mutations in the optineurin gene in Japanese patients with primary open‐angle glaucoma and normal tension glaucoma

The optineurin gene (OPTN) was identified as a gene that causes primary open‐angle glaucoma (POAG) and normal tension glaucoma (NTG). To investigate the frequency of sequence changes in OPTN in Japanese glaucoma patients, single‐strand conformation polymorphism analysis and subsequent sequence analysis were performed for genotyping OPTN in 165 unrelated Japanese patients with POAG and 148 patients with NTG, with 196 control subjects without glaucoma as reference subjects. Out of four mutations reported to be associated with risk and to cause disease in Caucasian patients, sequence alterations in 458G > A and 691_692insAG were not detected in any investigated Japanese patients with glaucoma, and alterations in 1944G > A and 603T > A, were present in similar frequencies in glaucoma patients and control subjects. The current results suggest that there may be certain racial differences between Japanese and Caucasians with respect to OPTN genotypes. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of some antibiotics on the milk phosphatase pasteurization test.

Abstract Certain antibiotics present in milk interfere with the phosphatase test. Penicillin and oxytetracycline form a blue color with the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, giving a false test. Streptomycin and neomycin inhibit, under certain conditions, the formation of blue color up to 50%; non-pasteurized milk cannot be taken for pasteurized.
Anomalies in Dopamine Transporter Expression and Primary Cilium Distribution in the Dorsal Striatum of a Mouse Model of Niemann-Pick C1 Disease

The Niemann-Pick type C1 (NPC1) is a rare genetic disease characterized by the accumulation of endocytosed cholesterol and other lipids in the endosome/lysosome compartments. In the brain, the accumulation/mislocalization of unesterified cholesterol, gangliosides and sphingolipids is responsible for the appearance of neuropathological hallmarks, and progressive neurological decline in patients. The imbalance of unesterified cholesterol and other lipids, including GM2 and GM3 gangliosides, alters a number of signaling mechanisms impacting on the overall homeostasis of neurons. In particular, lipid depletion experiments have shown that lipid rafts regulate the cell surface expression of dopamine transporter (DAT) and modulate its activity. Dysregulated dopamine transporter’s function results in imbalanced dopamine levels at synapses and severely affects dopamine-induced locomotor responses and dopamine receptor-mediated synaptic signaling. Recent studies begin to correlate dopaminergic stimulation with the length and function of the primary cilium, a non-motile organelle that coordinates numerous signaling pathways. In particular, the absence of dopaminergic D2 receptor stimulation induces the elongation of dorso-striatal neuron’s primary cilia. This study has used a mouse model of the NPC1 disease to correlate cholesterol dyshomeostasis with dorso-striatal anomalies in terms of DAT expression and primary cilium (PC) length and morphology. We found that juvenile Npc1nmf164 mice display a reduction of dorso-striatal DAT expression, with associated alterations of PC number, length-frequency distribution, and tortuosity.
HeadStart: Enforcing Optimal Inceptions in Pruning Deep Neural Networks for Efficient Inference on GPGPUs

Deep convolutional neural networks are well-known for the extensive parameters and computation intensity. Structured pruning is an effective solution to obtain a more compact model for the efficient inference on GPGPUs, without designing specific hardware accelerators. However, previous works resort to certain metrics in channel/filter pruning and count on labor intensive fine-tunings to recover the accuracy loss. The “inception” of the pruned model, as another form factor, has indispensable impact to the final accuracy but its importance is often ignored in these works. In this paper, we prove that optimal inception will be more likely to induce a satisfied performance and shortened fine-tuning iterations. We also propose a reinforcement learning based solution, termed as HeadStart, seeking to learn the best way of pruning aiming at the optimal inception. With the help of the specialized head-start network, it could automatically balance the tradeoff between the final accuracy and the preset speedup rather than tilting to one of them, which makes it differentiated from existing works as well. Experimental results show that HeadStart could attain up to 2. 25x inference speedup with only 1.16% accuracy loss tested with large scale images on various GPGPUs, and could be well generalized to various cutting-edge DCNN models.
A radiative cooling structural material

A stronger, cooler wood One good way to reduce the amount of cooling a building needs is to make sure it reflects away infrared radiation. Passive radiative cooling materials are engineered to do this extremely well. Li et al. engineered a wood through delignification and re-pressing to create a mechanically strong material that also cools passively. They modeled the cooling savings of their wood for 16 different U.S. cities, which suggested savings between 20 and 50%. Cooling wood would be of particular value in hot and dry climates. Science, this issue p. 760 A process of delignification and reapplication of pressure creates a strong wood-based passive radiative cooling material. Reducing human reliance on energy-inefficient cooling methods such as air conditioning would have a large impact on the global energy landscape. By a process of complete delignification and densification of wood, we developed a structural material with a mechanical strength of 404.3 megapascals, more than eight times that of natural wood. The cellulose nanofibers in our engineered material backscatter solar radiation and emit strongly in mid-infrared wavelengths, resulting in continuous subambient cooling during both day and night. We model the potential impact of our cooling wood and find energy savings between 20 and 60%, which is most pronounced in hot and dry climates.
In vitro and in vivo antibacterial activity of T-1982, a new semisynthetic cephamycin antibiotic

The activities of T-1982 (sodium 7 beta-[(2R, 3S)-2-(4-ethyl-2, 3-dioxo-1-piperazine-carboxamido)-3-hydroxybutanamido]-7 alpha-methoxy-3-[(1-methyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)thiomethyl]-3-cephem-4-carboxylate) against various gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria were compare with those of cefmetazole, cefoxitin, cefazolin, and cefoperazone. T-1982 was active against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, including genera resistant to the other cephalosporins. T-1982 exhibited greater activity than did cefmetazole, cefoxitin, cefazolin, or cefoperazone against Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, and Serratia marcescens and was also highly active against Bacteroides fragilis. T-1982 was as stable to various beta-lactamases as were cefmetazole and cefoxitin. The therapeutic activities of T-1982 in mice experimentally infected with various gram-negative bacteria were superior to those of cefmetazole, cefoxitin, cefazolin, and cefoperazone.
Pushing the speed limit of constant-time discrete Gaussian sampling. A case study on the Falcon signature scheme.

Sampling from a discrete Gaussian distribution has applications in lattice-based post-quantum cryptography. Several efficient solutions have been proposed in recent years. However, making a Gaussian sampler secure against timing attacks turned out to be a challenging research problem. In this work, we present a toolchain to instantiate an efficient constant-time discrete Gaussian sampler of arbitrary standard deviation and precision. We observe an interesting property of the mapping from input random bit strings to samples during a Knuth-Yao sampling algorithm and propose an efficient way of minimizing the Boolean expressions for the mapping. Our minimization approach results in up to 37% faster discrete Gaussian sampling compared to the previous work. Finally, we apply our optimized and secure Gaussian sampler in the lattice-based digital signature algorithm Falcon, which is a NIST submission, and provide experimental evidence that the overall performance of the signing algorithm degrades by at most 33% only due to the additional overhead of ‘constant-time’ sampling, including the 60% overhead of random number generation. Breaking a general belief, our results indirectly show that the use of discrete Gaussian samples in digital signature algorithms would be beneficial.CCS CONCEPTS• Security and privacy $\rightarrow$ Side-channel analysis and counter-measures; Digital signatures; Hardware attacks and countermeasures; Cryptography.