Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Going Deeper with Embedded FPGA Platform for Convolutional Neural Network

In recent years, convolutional neural network (CNN) based methods have achieved great success in a large number of applications and have been among the most powerful and widely used techniques in computer vision. However, CNN-based methods are com-putational-intensive and resource-consuming, and thus are hard to be integrated into embedded systems such as smart phones, smart glasses, and robots. FPGA is one of the most promising platforms for accelerating CNN, but the limited bandwidth and on-chip memory size limit the performance of FPGA accelerator for CNN. In this paper, we go deeper with the embedded FPGA platform on accelerating CNNs and propose a CNN accelerator design on embedded FPGA for Image-Net large-scale image classification. We first present an in-depth analysis of state-of-the-art CNN models and show that Convolutional layers are computational-centric and Fully-Connected layers are memory-centric. Then the dynamic-precision data quantization method and a convolver design that is efficient for all layer types in CNN are proposed to improve the bandwidth and resource utilization. Results show that only 0.4% accuracy loss is introduced by our data quantization flow for the very deep VGG16 model when 8/4-bit quantization is used. A data arrangement method is proposed to further ensure a high utilization of the external memory bandwidth. Finally, a state-of-the-art CNN, VGG16-SVD, is implemented on an embedded FPGA platform as a case study. VGG16-SVD is the largest and most accurate network that has been implemented on FPGA end-to-end so far. The system on Xilinx Zynq ZC706 board achieves a frame rate at 4.45 fps with the top-5 accuracy of 86.66% using 16-bit quantization. The average performance of convolutional layers and the full CNN is 187.8 GOP/s and 137.0 GOP/s under 150MHz working frequency, which outperform previous approaches significantly.
Throughput-Optimized OpenCL-based FPGA Accelerator for Large-Scale Convolutional Neural Networks

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have gained popularity in many computer vision applications such as image classification, face detection, and video analysis, because of their ability to train and classify with high accuracy. Due to multiple convolution and fully-connected layers that are compute-/memory-intensive, it is difficult to perform real-time classification with low power consumption on today? s computing systems. FPGAs have been widely explored as hardware accelerators for CNNs because of their reconfigurability and energy efficiency, as well as fast turn-around-time, especially with high-level synthesis methodologies. Previous FPGA-based CNN accelerators, however, typically implemented generic accelerators agnostic to the CNN configuration, where the reconfigurable capabilities of FPGAs are not fully leveraged to maximize the overall system throughput. In this work, we present a systematic design space exploration methodology to maximize the throughput of an OpenCL-based FPGA accelerator for a given CNN model, considering the FPGA resource constraints such as on-chip memory, registers, computational resources and external memory bandwidth. The proposed methodology is demonstrated by optimizing two representative large-scale CNNs, AlexNet and VGG, on two Altera Stratix-V FPGA platforms, DE5-Net and P395-D8 boards, which have different hardware resources. We achieve a peak performance of 136.5 GOPS for convolution operation, and 117.8 GOPS for the entire VGG network that performs ImageNet classification on P395-D8 board.
Sunitinib‐Related Fulminant Hepatic Failure: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Drug‐induced hepatotoxicity is an infrequent but life‐threatening complication. Sunitinib is a multitargeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for treatment of renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumor. However, results from preapproval clinical trials suggest an equivocal hepatic risk profile for sunitinib. We describe a 75‐year‐old woman with renal cell carcinoma who was admitted to the intensive care unit after experiencing fulminant hepatic failure during sunitinib therapy. The patient's hepatic and renal chemistries had been within normal limits throughout four previous cycles of sunitinib therapy spanning 9 months. After the fifth cycle, she complained of a 3‐day history of severe diarrhea and dehydration. Her abnormal laboratory test results included the following: total bilirubin level 5.9 mg/dl, aspartate aminotransferase level 3872 U/L, alanine aminotransferase level 3332 U/L, ammonia level 897 μg/dl, and an international normalized ratio of 4.8. Use of the Naranjo adverse drug reaction probability scale indicated a possible relationship between sunitinib and hepatotoxicity. Supportive care including aggressive intravenous hydration and reversal of coagulopathy was successful. The patient was discharged home on hospital day 7 without apparent longstanding sequelae. Clinicians should be aware of this possible adverse effect of sunitinib, and continued pharmacovigilance is imperative to accurately quantify the possible risk of sunitinib‐related hepatotoxicity.
Treatment Options for Patients with Hepatitis C: Role of Pharmacists in Optimizing Treatment Response and Managing Adverse Events

Chronic hepatitis C is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality and poses a considerable socioeconomic burden. Improved treatment regimens, including the standard of care pegylated interferon alfa and ribavirin, have increased sustained virologic response rates; however, treatment has a long duration and is often associated with adverse events that may affect adherence. The goal of therapy is viral eradication and reduced disease‐related complications such as fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The clinical outcome of hepatitis C virus infection is altered with antiviral treatment, which can be influenced by host (e.g., weight, ethnicity, health) and viral (e.g., genotype, baseline viremia) factors. Overall, sustained virologic response was attained by 54–63% of patients in clinical trials treated with pegylated interferon alfa−2a or −2b and ribavirin. However, this benefit is not without risk. Interferon‐induced adverse events include flu‐like symptoms, bone marrow suppression, and emotional or cognitive effects, whereas hemolytic anemia accounts for most ribavirin dosage reductions. These adverse events may be ameliorated with dosage adjustments, symptom therapy, and judicious use of preventive strategies (e.g., antidepressants, hematopoietic growth factors). Appropriate management of adverse events can increase treatment adherence, thereby enhancing outcomes and improving quality of life. Pharmacists are in an ideal position to improve the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C by providing education about the disease and its treatments and associated adverse events and by emphasizing the importance of treatment adherence for successful outcomes.
Long-Face Craniofacial Morphology: Cause or Effect of Weak Masticatory Musculature?

The masticatory performance of subjects with a long-face (LF) craniofacial morphology is considerably reduced compared with subjects with a vertically normal skull form, which has been put forward repeatedly as a major determinant of this excessively vertical growth pattern. The author evaluated the validity of this assumption by analyzing the geometrical data of the jaw closing muscles of 54 subjects with different vertical craniofacial form obtained from magnetic resonance imaging scans. Subsequently, these geometrical data served as input in a 2-dimensional mechanical model of the mandible to predict maximum bite force. It was found that LF jaw closing muscles are up to 33% smaller compared with normal subjects, whereas variation in spatial orientation and mechanical advantage was less pronounced. Bite force predictions overestimated LF bite forces, which is probably attributable to a reduced intrinsic strength of LF jaw muscles. Because LF jaw muscles show a reduced size (quantitative aspect), as well as a reduced intrinsic strength (qualitative aspect), the occurrence of disuse dystrophy of the masticatory muscles during the development of LF morphology is plausible. Therefore, it is a realistic scenario that the reduced size of the LF jaw muscles is the effect, rather than the cause of their excessive vertical growth pattern.
What Belongs Together Comes Together: Activity-centric Document Clustering for Information Work

Multitasking and interruptions in information work make frequent activity switches necessary. Individuals need to recall and restore earlier states of work which generally involves retrieval of information objects. To avoid resulting tooling time an activity-centric organization of information objects has been proposed. For each activity a collection with related information objects (like documents, websites etc.) is created to improve information access and serve as a memory aid. While the manual maintenance of such information collections is a tedious task and becomes an interruption on its own, the automatic maintenance of such collections using activity mining is promising. Activity mining utilizes interaction histories to extract unique activities based on the stream of interaction with information objects. For activity mining, existing work shows varying success in limited study setups. In this paper, we present a method for activity mining to generate activity-centric information object collections automatically from interaction histories. The technique is a hybrid approach considering all information types used in previous work -- activity stream and accessed content related information. Method performance is evaluated based on interaction histories collected during real work data from eight information workers collected over several weeks. For the dataset our hybrid approach shows on average a performance of 0.53 ARI up to 0.77 ARI, outperforming single metric-based approaches.
An Antimicrobial Stewardship Program with a Focus on Reducing Fluoroquinolone Overuse

The fluoroquinolones have become the leading class of antimicrobial agents prescribed to adults in the United States. Resistance of key pathogens to fluoroquinolones has developed rapidly in parallel with increased prescribing of these drugs. We describe our pharmacist‐led antimicrobial stewardship program that focused on reducing inappropriate prescribing of fluoro‐quinolones, with the goals of limiting the development of resistance and improving patient outcomes. Core strategies were regular monitoring and reporting of resistance trends observed on institutional antibiograms, performing drug audits and related studies with intervention and feedback to prescribers, implementing an automatic parenteral‐to‐oral conversion program, establishing and implementing a β‐lactam‐based institutional guideline for empiric therapy, and educating prescribers. This successful program reduced empiric prescribing of fluoroquinolones by 30%, improved susceptibility for all antipseudomonal agents against Pseudomonas aeruginosa overall by 10%, and decreased mortality associated with P. aeruginosa infections by 2‐fold. Our stewardship program clearly demonstrated that pharmacists can take on leadership roles to positively change antimicrobial prescribing at the institutional level and improve patient outcomes.
Antihyperlipidemic and renoprotective activities of methanolic extract of Canscora decussata extract in alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits

The current study was designed to evaluate the hypolipidemic and renopro-tective effects of methanolic extract of powdered Canscora decussata whole plant in the diabetic rabbits. Thirty rabbits were divided into five groups having 6 animals each including normal and diabetic controls groups, the remaining groups received methanolic extract in 400 and 600 mg/kg doses and another group got pioglitazone (3 mg/kg) for 30 days. Serum levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, albumin, globulin and total proteins were estimated by using commercially available kits. The results showed that extract significantly (p<0.01) decreased the raised parameters including triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol, atherogenic index, Coronary risk index up to normal values compared to diabetic rabbits. However, it significantly increased HDL-cholesterol, albumin, globulin and total protein levels. Therefore, it is suggested that methanolic extract of C. decussata exerts hypolipidemic and renoprotective effects in the alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/bjp.v8i3. 15506 Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology Vol.8(3) 2013 323-327
Overcoming Drug Resistance in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer

Metastatic breast cancer is generally considered to be incurable, with response rates and duration of response progressively declining with subsequent lines of treatment. Tumors are either intrinsically resistant to systemic therapy or acquire resistance at some point during multiple courses of therapy. Mechanisms of drug resistance are numerous and include accelerated drug efflux, drug activation and inactivation, alterations in drug target, processing of drug‐induced damage, and evasion of apoptosis. Targeted anticancer agents for the treatment of breast cancer, such as hormonal agents or the more recently approved epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, are also associated with intrinsic and acquired resistance. A variety of strategies have been devised to prevent or overcome resistance to systemic anticancer therapy, including drug combinations and sequential regimens. However, it appears that resistance to established cytotoxic and targeted agents is inevitable. Novel agents with reduced susceptibility to resistance may prevent or delay the emergence of resistance and improve survival in patients with common solid tumors, including metastatic breast cancer. We are hopeful that further elucidation of the cellular and molecular processes that allow tumor cells to develop resistance and the use of new agents to combat these mechanisms will improve outcomes for patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Comparison of Parafoveal Retinal Thickness in Eyes with Idiopathic Macular Hole to that with Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment after Vitrectomy

Background:The foveal contour is asymmetrical in the horizontal optical coherence tomographic (OCT) images in idiopathic macula holes (IMHs) successfully closed by pars plana vitrectomy (PPV). The purpose of this study was to compare the parafoveal retinal contour after PPV followed by gas tamponade for IMHs to that after vitrectomy for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD). Design:Retrospective study. Participants:Eleven eyes of 11 IMH patients and 10 eyes of 10 RRD patients who underwent PPV. Methods: The internal limiting membrane (ILM) was stained with indocyanine green and peeled in the IMH group but not in the RRD group. The postoperative retinal thickness was measured by spectral-domain OCT. Main outcome measures:The parafoveal thicknesses of the operated eyes were compared to the corresponding areas of the fellow un-operated eyes. Results: In the IMH group, the average postoperative thickness of the temporal sector was 312.6 μm and that of the corresponding area of the fellow eyes was 330.2 μm (P <0.05). Similarly, the thickness of the nasal sector was 362.6 μm and that of the fellow eyes was 345.8 μm (P<0.05). These differences were not observed in the RRD group. Additional measurements showed that the inner retinal layer was thinner in the temporal retina and the outer retinal layer was thicker in the nasal retina in the IMH group. Conclusions:The postoperative asymmetrical foveal contour was observed in only the IMH group. We suggest that these alterations were caused by procedures, such as ILM peeling, rather than the gas tamponade.
Clique Tree Inequalities and the Symmetric Travelling Salesman Problem

The linear programming cutting plane approach for solving the travelling salesman problem has recently proven to be highly successful, cf. Crowder and Padberg Crowder, H. P., M. W. Padberg. 1980. Solving large-scale symmetric travelling salesman problems to optimality. Management Sci.26 495--509. , Grotschel Grotschel, M. 1980a. On the symmetric travelling salesman problem: Solution of a 120 city problem. Math. Programming Stud.12 61--77. , Padberg and Hong Padberg, M. W. , S. Hong. 1980. On the symmetric travelling salesman problem: A computational study. Math. Programming Stud.12 78--107. One of the reasons for this success is certainly the fact that instead of ordinary cutting planes Gomory-cuts etc. problem-specific cutting planes could be used which define facets of the underlying integer programming polytopes. In this paper we shall define a new class of inequalities clique tree inequalities valid for the travelling salesman polytope which properly contains many of the known classes of inequalities like subtour elimination constraints, 2-matching constraints, comb inequalities, and we show that all these new inequalities induce facets of the travelling salesman polytope. Since the general structure of these new inequalities is quite simple we hope that it will be possible to use the inequalities efficiently in cutting plane procedures for the travelling salesman problem.
Implicit calibration using predicted gaze targets

The paper presents the algorithm supporting an implicit calibration of eye movement recordings. The algorithm does not require any explicit cooperation from users, yet it uses only information about a stimulus and an uncalibrated eye tracker output. On the basis of this data, probable fixation locations are calculated at first. Such a fixation set is used as an input to the genetic algorithm which task is to choose the most probable targets. Both information can serve to calibrate an eye tracker. The main advantage of the algorithm is that it is general enough to be used for almost any stimulation. It was confirmed by results obtained for a very dynamic stimulation which was a shooting game. Using the calibration function built by the algorithm it was possible to predict where a user will click with a mouse. The accuracy of the prediction was about 75%.
Wrist-worn pervasive gaze interaction

This paper addresses gaze interaction for smart home control, conducted from a wrist-worn unit. First we asked ten people to enact the gaze movements they would propose for e.g. opening a door or adjusting the room temperature. On basis of their suggestions we built and tested different versions of a prototype applying off-screen stroke input. Command prompts were given to twenty participants by text or arrow displays. The success rate achieved by the end of their first encounter with the system was 46% in average; it took them 1.28 seconds to connect with the system and 1.29 seconds to make a correct selection. Their subjective evaluations were positive with regard to the speed of the interaction. We conclude that gaze gesture input seems feasible for fast and brief remote control of smart home technology provided that robustness of tracking is improved.
The Complexity of Flowshop and Jobshop Scheduling

NP-complete problems form an extensive equivalence class of combinatorial problems for which no nonenumerative algorithms are known. Our first result shows that determining a shortest-length schedule in an m-machine flowshop is NP-complete for m ≥ 3. For m = 2, there is an efficient algorithm for finding such schedules. The second result shows that determining a minimum mean-flow-time schedule in an m-machine flowshop is NP-complete for every m ≥ 2. Finally we show that the shortest-length schedule problem for an m-machine jobshop is NP-complete for every m ≥ 2. Our results are strong in that they hold whether the problem size is measured by number of tasks, number of bits required to express the task lengths, or by the sum of the task lengths.
Design and validation of a simple eye-tracking system

To address the need for portable systems to collect high-quality eye movement data for field studies, this paper shows how one might design, test, and validate the spatiotemporal fidelity of a homebrewed eye-tracking system. To assess spatial and temporal precision, we describe three validation tests that quantify the spatial resolution and temporal synchronization of data acquisition. First, because measurement of pursuit eye movements requires a visual motion display, we measured the timing of luminance transitions of several candidate LCD monitors so as to ensure sufficient stimulus fidelity. Second, we measured eye position as human observers (n=20) ran a nine-point calibration in a clinical-grade chin rest, delivering eye-position noise of 0.22 deg (range: 0.09-0.29 deg) and accuracy of 0.97 deg (range: 0.54-1.89 deg). Third, we measured the overall processing delay in the system to be 5.6 ms, accounted for by the response dynamics of our monitor and the duration of one camera frame. The validation methods presented can be used: 1) to ensure that eye-position accuracy and precision are sufficient to support scientific and clinical studies and are not limited by the hardware or software, and 2) the eyetracker, display, and experiment-control software are effectively synchronized.
One-Processor Scheduling with Symmetric Earliness and Tardiness Penalties

We consider one-processor scheduling problems having the following form: Tasks T1, T2,. , TN are given, with each Ti having a specified length li and a preferred starting time ai or, equivalently, a preferred completion time bi. The tasks are to be scheduled nonpreemptively i.e., a task cannot be split on a single processor to begin as close to their preferred starting times as possible. We examine two different cost measures for such schedules, the sum of the absolute discrepancies from the preferred starting times and the maximum such discrepancy. For the first of these, we show that the problem of finding minimum cost schedules is NP-complete; however, we give an efficient algorithm that finds minimum cost schedules whenever the tasks either all have the same length or are required to be executed in a given fixed sequence. For the second cost measure, we give an efficient algorithm that finds minimum cost schedules in general, with no constraints on the ordering or lengths of the tasks.
Drug Fever

Drug fever is a common condition that is frequently misdiagnosed. It is a febrile response that coincides temporally with the administration of a drug and disappears after discontinuation of the offending agent. Drug fever is usually suspected when no other cause for the fever can be elucidated, sometimes after antimicrobial therapy has already been started. In nonsensitized individuals receiving a drug for the first time, the onset of fever is highly variable and differs among drug classes, but most commonly appears after 7–10 days of drug administration and rapidly reverses after discontinuation of the drug. Early diagnosis may reduce inappropriate and potentially harmful and expensive diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Rechallenge with the offending agent will usually cause recurrence of fever within a few hours, confirming the diagnosis. Rechallenge is controversial and should be performed with extreme caution, since there is a potential for a more severe drug reaction. We describe the mechanisms in the pathophysiology of drug fever and summarize the results of published case reports on the wide variety of agents that are implicated in causing drug fever. Special attention is paid to the role of antimicrobial agents in drug fever.