Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associative Convolutional Layers

We provide a general and easy to implement method for reducing the number of parameters of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) both during the training and inference phases. We introduce a simple trainable auxiliary neural network which can generate approximate versions of “slices” of the sets of convolutional ﬁlters of any CNN architecture from a low dimensional “code” space. These slices are then concatenated to form the sets of ﬁlters in the CNN architecture. The auxiliary neural network, which we call “Convolutional Slice Genera-tor” (CSG), is unique to the network and provides the association among its convolutional layers. We apply our method to various CNN architectures including ResNet, DenseNet, MobileNet and ShuﬄeNet. Experiments on CIFAR-10 and ImageNet-1000, without any hyper-parameter tuning, show that our approach reduces the network parameters by approximately 2 × while the reduction in accuracy is conﬁned to within one percent and sometimes the accuracy even improves after compression. Interestingly, through our experiments, we show that even when the CSG takes random binary values for its weights that are not learned, still acceptable performances are achieved. To show that our approach generalizes to other tasks, we apply it to an image segmentation architecture, Deeplab V3, on the Pascal VOC 2012 dataset. Results show that without any parameter tuning, there is ≈ 2 . 3 × parameter reduction and the mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) drops by ≈ 3%. Fi-nally, we provide comparisons with several related methods showing the superiority of
Measurement of Heavy Flavor Yield and Azimuthal Anisotropy at Forward Angles in Cu + Au Collisions at a Center-of-Mass Collision Energy Per Nucleon of 200 GeV

Heavy flavor quarks are produced early in heavy ion collisions and will experience the full evolution of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Measurements at forward rapidity may be influenced as much, or more, by the cold nuclear matter effects as by the hot nuclear matter effects associated with a QGP. As the medium evolves, the initial spatial anisotropy of participants is converted to an azimuthal anisotropy in the momentum space of outgoing particles. Therefore, the momentum spectra modification and anisotropy parameters provide useful information about the heavy quark interaction with the bulk medium. Asymmetric heavy ion collisions, such as Cu+Au, provide a unique geometry with which to study the dynamics of the heavy quarks, relative to that in symmetric collisions. In particular, asymmetries in the yields between the Cu-going and Au-going directions may help unentangle the so-called cold nuclear matter effects from the hot nuclear matter effects indicative of a QGP. In addition, the parameters v2 and v3 may be modified in asymmetric collisions relative to the symmetric collisions due to the unique geometry provided in midcentral Cu+Au collisions. This dissertation presents the measurement of the yield and azimuthal anisotropy of single muons originating from heavy flavor decays in √ sNN [center-of-mass energy per nucleon] = 200 GeV Cu+Au collisions.
Concurrent Programming

As we learned in Chapter 8, logical control flows are concurrent if they overlap in time. This general phenomenon, known as concurrency, shows up at many different levels of a computer system. Hardware exception handlers, processes, and Unix signal handlers are all familiar examples. To this point, we have treated concurrency mainly as a mechanism that the kernel uses to run multiple application programs. But concurrency is not just limited to the kernel. It can play an important role in application programs as well. For example, we have seen how Unix signal handlers allow applications to respond to asynchronous events such as the user typing ctrl-c, or the program accessing an undefined area of virtual memory. Application-level concurrency is useful in other ways as well: Computing in parallel on multiprocessors. In a uniprocessor with a single CPU, concurrent flows are interleaved, with only one flow actually executing on the CPU at any point in time. However, there are machines with multiple CPUs, called multiprocessors, that can truly execute multiple flows simultaneously. Parallel applications that are partitioned into concurrent flows can sometimes run much faster on such machines. This is especially important for large-scale database and scientific applications. Accessing slow I/O devices. When an application is waiting for data to arrive from a slow I/O device such as a disk, the kernel keeps the CPU busy by running other processes. Individual applications can exploit concurrency in a similar way by overlapping useful work with I/O requests. Interacting with humans. People who interact with computers demand the ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time. For example, they might want to resize a window while they are printing a document. Modern windowing systems use concurrency to provide this capability. Each time the user requests some action (say by clicking the mouse), a separate concurrent logical flow is created to perform the action. Reducing latency by deferring work. Sometimes, applications can use concurrency to reduce the latency of certain operations by deferring other operations and performing them concurrently. For example, a dynamic storage allocator might reduce the latency of individual free operations by deferring coalescing to a concurrent " coalescing " flow that runs at a lower priority, soaking up spare CPU cycles as they become available.
An Empirical Analysis of C Preprocessor Use

This is the first empirical study of the use of the C macro preprocessor, Cpp. To determine how the preprocessor is used in practice, this paper analyzes 26 packages comprising 1.4 million lines of publicly available C code. We determine the incidence of C preprocessor usage-whether in macro definitions, macro uses, or dependences upon macros-that is complex, potentially problematic, or inexpressible in terms of other C or C++ language features. We taxonomize these various aspects of preprocessor use and particularly note data that are material to the development of tools for C or C++, including translating from C to C++ to reduce preprocessor usage. Our results show that, while most Cpp usage follows fairly simple patterns, an effective program analysis tool must address the preprocessor. The intimate connection between the C programming language and Cpp, and Cpp's unstructured transformations of token streams often hinder both programmer understanding of C programs and tools built to engineer C programs, such as compilers, debuggers, call graph extractors, and translators. Most tools make no attempt to analyze macro usage, but simply preprocess their input, which results in a number of negative consequences; an analysis that takes Cpp into account is preferable, but building such tools requires an understanding of actual usage. Differences between the semantics of Cpp and those of C can lead to subtle bugs stemming from the use of the preprocessor, but there are no previous reports of the prevalence of such errors. Use of C++ can reduce some preprocessor usage, but such usage has not been previously measured. Our data and analyses shed light on these issues and others related to practical understanding or manipulation of real C programs. The results are of interest to language designers, tool writers, programmers, and software engineers.
Link-level measurements from an 802.11b mesh network

This paper analyzes the causes of packet loss in a 38-node urban multi-hop 802.11b network. The patterns and causes of loss are important in the design of routing and error-correction protocols, as well as in network planning.The paper makes the following observations. The distribution of inter-node loss rates is relatively uniform over the whole range of loss rates; there is no clear threshold separating "in range" and "out of range. " Most links have relatively stable loss rates from one second to the next, though a small minority have very bursty losses at that time scale. Signal-to-noise ratio and distance have little predictive value for loss rate. The large number of links with intermediate loss rates is probably due to multi-path fading rather than attenuation or interference.The phenomena discussed here are all well-known. The contributions of this paper are an understanding of their relative importance, of how they interact, and of the implications for MAC and routing protocol design.
Merging black hole binaries in gaseous environments: simulations in general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics

Merging supermassive black hole-black hole (BHBH) binaries produced in galaxy mergers are promising sources of detectable gravitational waves. If such a merger takes place in a gaseous environment, there is a possibility of a simultaneous detection of electromagnetic and gravitational radiation, as the stirring, shock heating and accretion of the gas may produce variability and enhancements in the electromagnetic flux. This can provide a wealth of opportunities to study gravitational physics, accretion physics, and cosmology. We investigate this scenario by performing fully general relativistic, (magneto)hydrodynamic simulations of merging, equal-mass, nonspinning BHBH binaries embedded in gaseous environments. We evolve the metric using the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura (BSSN) formulation with standard moving puncture gauge conditions and handle the magnetohydrodynamics via a high-resolution shock-capturing (HRSC) scheme. In the limit of negligible gas angular momentum, we consider both “binary Bondi accretion” in which the binary is at rest relative to the ambient gas cloud, as well as “binary Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion” in which the binary moves relative to the gas cloud. The gas cloud is assumed to be homogeneous far from the binary and governed by a Γ-law equation of state. During the binary inspiral, we find evidence for significant enhancements in both the accretion rate and luminosity over values for a single black hole of the same mass as the binary. We also consider disk-like accretion flows with significant gas angular momentum. In this case, we track the inspiral starting from a binary separation of 10M , where M is the total binary mass. Disks are allowed to relax in the “early inspiral” epoch to provide quasistationary initial data. We then evolve the spacetime metric and matter during the “late inspiral and merger” epochs. The later simulations are designed to track BHBH inspiral following disk-binary decoupling, through merger and ringdown. Finally, we present results from the first fully general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of an equal-mass BHBH embedded in a magnetized circumbinary accretion disk. Prior to decoupling, we find that the competition between the binary tidal torques and the effective viscous torque due to MHD turbulence depletes the disk interior to the binary orbit but induces a two-stream accretion flow onto the BHs and a mildly relativistic polar outflow. Following decoupling we find that the accretion rate is reduced, while the electromagnetic luminosity peaks near merger due to shock heating.
Some fixed point results for dual contractions of rational type

Isik and Turkoglu [Some Fixed Point Theorems in Ordered Partial Metric Spaces, Journal of Inequalities and Special Functions, Volume 4 Issue 2(2013), Pages 13-18] established new fixed point results in complete partial metric spaces. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a dual contraction of rational type and to obtain some new fixed point results in dual partial metric spaces for dominating and dominated mappings. These results extend various comparable results existing in literature. Moreover, we give an example that shows the usefulness and effectiveness of these results among corresponding fixed point theorems established in partial metric spaces.
Fixed Point and Common Fixed Point Results for Contraction Mappings in Gb - Cone Metric Spaces

The intent of this paper is to introduce the concept of Gb-cone metric and we describe some basic properties of such metric. Further, we establish some fixed point theorems for self-mappings satisfying the contractive type conditions and a common fixed theorem for two weakly compatible self-mappings satisfying the contractive condition in Gb- cone metric spaces without the assumption of normality. Moreover, some examples are provided to illustrate the usability of the obtained results.
Sparse MRI with a Markov Random Field Prior for the Subband Coefficients

Recent work on compressed sensing in magnetic resonance imaging (CS-MRI) indicates benefits of modelling the structure of sparse coefficients. Comprehensive studies are available for tree-structured models. Much less work has been done on using statistical models for intra-scale (spatial) dependencies, like Markov Random Field (MRF) models in CS-MRI, although initial studies showed great potentials. We present here an efficient greedy algorithm with MRF priors and demonstrate encouraging performance in comparison to related methods, including those based on tree-structured sparsity.
Pre-Training With Whole Word Masking for Chinese BERT

Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) has shown marvelous improvements across various NLP tasks, and its consecutive variants have been proposed to further improve the performance of the pre-trained language models. In this paper, we aim to first introduce the whole word masking (wwm) strategy for Chinese BERT, along with a series of Chinese pre-trained language models. Then we also propose a simple but effective model called MacBERT, which improves upon RoBERTa in several ways. Especially, we propose a new masking strategy called MLM as correction (Mac). To demonstrate the effectiveness of these models, we create a series of Chinese pre-trained language models as our baselines, including BERT, RoBERTa, ELECTRA, RBT, etc. We carried out extensive experiments on ten Chinese NLP tasks to evaluate the created Chinese pre-trained language models as well as the proposed MacBERT. Experimental results show that MacBERT could achieve state-of-the-art performances on many NLP tasks, and we also ablate details with several findings that may help future research. We open-source our pre-trained language models for further facilitating our research community.1
THE EFFECTS OF HEAD-CENTRIC REST FRAMES ON EGOCENTRIC DISTANCE PERCEPTION IN VIRTUAL REALITY by YAHYA HMAITI

It has been shown through several research investigations that users tend to underestimate distances in virtual reality (VR). Virtual objects that appear close to users wearing a Head-mounted display (HMD) might be located at a farther distance in reality. This discrepancy between the actual distance and the distance observed by users in VR was found to hinder users from benefiting from the full in-VR immersive experience, and several efforts have been directed toward finding the causes and developing tools that mitigate this phenomenon. One hypothesis that stands out in the field of spatial perception is the rest frame hypothesis (RFH), which states that visual frames of reference (RFs), defined as fixed reference points of view in a virtual environment (VE), contribute to minimizing sensory mismatch. RFs have been shown to promote better eye-gaze stability and focus, reduce VR sickness, and improve visual search, along with other benefits. However, their effect on distance perception in VEs has not been evaluated. To explore and better understand the potential effects that RFs can have on distance perception in VR, we used a blind walking task to explore the effect of three head-centric RFs (a mesh mask, a nose, and a hat) on egocentric distance estimation. We performed a mixed-design study where we compared the effect of each of our chosen RFs across different environmental conditions and target distances in different 3D environments. We found that at near and mid-field distances, certain RFs can improve the user’s distance estimation accuracy and reduce distance underestimation. Additionally, we found that participants judged distance more accurately in cluttered environments compared to uncluttered environments. Our findings show that the characteristics of the 3D environment are important in distance estimation-dependent tasks in VR and that the addition of head-centric RFs, a simple avatar augmentation method, can lead to meaningful improvements in distance judgments, user experience, and task performance in VR.
3D PRINTED POROUS CHITOSAN-BASED NANOCOMPOSITE SCAFFOLDS FOR BONE REGENERATION: IN VITRO and IN VIVO STUDY

INTRODUCTION: Bone regeneration still is a challenging task for the maxillofacial surgeon. Autografts and allografts were two extensively used procedures for bone repair in the past. Tissue engineering is a promising method for employing biomaterials to repair, regenerate, preserve, and enhance the function of injured cells or tissues. Bone scaffold should be designed precisely fitting the 3D shape of the recipient site. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study was to prepare and characterize chitosan-based hydrogel scaffolds made of chitosan/alginate and chitosan/alginate/nano-hydroxyapatite fabricated by 3D printing and we compared the efficacy of both scaffolds on bone regeneration in a rabbit model. MATERIALS & METHODS: Chitosan-based nanocomposite hydrogel scaffolds were prepared and fabricated by 3D printing. Group I: chitosan/ alginate (control group) and group II: chitosan/ alginate/ nano-hydroxyapatite. Each of the two groups were characterized for in-vitro cytotoxicity, swelling kinetics, hydrolytic degradation, and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). Moreover, the ability of these hydrogel scaffolds to enhance bone regeneration in a rabbit model was performed after 8 weeks using histological analysis. RESULTS: Cell viability results showed no cytotoxicity in either blank (group I) or loaded scaffolds (group II) on fibroblast cells after culture for 24h, 48h & 72h. Group I exhibited higher swelling rate after 5 days. Also, it demonstrated higher degradation rate compared to group II after 28 days. Histological examination of CS/AlG revealed higher bone formation (34%) compared to the HAP loaded scaffolds (26%). CONCLUSION: 3D printed custom-made porous CS/ALG and CS/ALG/HAP scaffolds showed good physical properties and bone regeneration. However, CS/ALG group showed enhanced bone formation compared HAP loaded scaffolds.
Algebraic Construction of the Sigma Function for General Weierstrass Curves

The Weierstrass curve X is a smooth algebraic curve determined by the Weierstrass canonical form, yr+A1(x)yr−1+A2(x)yr−2+⋯+Ar−1(x)y+Ar(x)=0, where r is a positive integer, and each Aj is a polynomial in x with a certain degree. It is known that every compact Riemann surface has a Weierstrass curve X, which is birational to the surface. The form provides the projection ϖr:X→P as a covering space. Let RX:=H0(X,OX(∗∞)) and RP:=H0(P,OP(∗∞)). Recently, we obtained the explicit description of the complementary module RXc of RP-module RX, which leads to explicit expressions of the holomorphic form except ∞, H0(P,AP(∗∞)) and the trace operator pX such that pX(P,Q)=δP,Q for ϖr(P)=ϖr(Q) for P,Q∈X\{∞}. In terms of these, we express the fundamental two-form of the second kind Ω and its connection to the sigma function for X.
Shift work and psychophysiological changes

: Shift work is considered a risk factor for health problems due to the continuous desynchronization and resynchronization of circadian rhythms. This study used heart rate measurement during sleep to determine whether shift work, and different length of this work, affects nonlinear aspects of cardiovascular dynamics, indicators of the autonomous nervous system, in healthy shift workers. The study included 48 healthy, premenopausal, female participants (nurses) divided in two groups of equal age and length of ser - vice. One group worked in a three-shift rotation system and the other (control) worked only the day shift. Cardiac activity (R-R intervals) was monitored continuously during sleep using the Data Logging System. Cardiac activity was recorded in both day and shift workers at night after the second consecutive day shift. Results showed that shift workers with up to 10 years of service had higher values of correlation dimension than the equivalent group of day workers but shift workers with more than 10 years of service had lower va - lues of correlation dimension than comparable groups of day workers. All shift workers, regardless of length of service, had significantly higher indices of determinism than day workers, but the index of determinism slightly enlarges with increased years of services. Generally, it seems that shift work has a negative impact on cardiovascular dynamics from the very beginning, and nonlinear parameters of cardiovascular dynamics can be potential predictors of future health problems.
Semi‐global edge‐consensus of linear discrete‐time multi‐agent systems with positive constraint and input saturation

, The authors study the semi-global edge-consensus of linear discrete-time multi-agent systems subject to edge state positive constraint and input saturation. By virtue of the positive system theory and low-gain feedback method, the distributed control protocols for undirected and directed networks are designed to guarantee the non-negative edge-consensus with input saturation. Then, sufficient conditions, which can guarantee the edge-consensus together with keeping the positive edge state constraint and avoiding the input saturation, are provided. Finally, two examples are presented to verify the theoretical results.
Quantifying the impact of nonadherence patterns on exposure to oral immunosuppressants

Background and objectives: Nonadherence to oral immunosuppressive drugs in renal transplant patients remains a major challenge. The objective of this study was to develop an adherence-exposure model that 1) quantifies the impact of nonadherence patterns on cyclosporine levels and 2) identifies nonadherence patterns that are associated with unfavorable transplantation outcomes. Design, setting, participants, and measurements: This model quantified variability in drug exposure, expressed as the coefficient of variation (CV%), for time-averaged and trough cyclosporine levels (C avg and C min , respectively), and percentage of days spent below the therapeutic C min target. Simulated patterns of nonadherence closely matched those observed in clinical practice for four nonadherence clusters and an “Others” category. Results: Patients in simulated nonadherence clusters 1–3 spent a mean (standard deviation) 5.8% (4.9), 9.0% (5.0), and 6.5% (3.4) of days below the C min target, compared with 76.8% (6.5) for cluster 4 and 38.3% (6.4) for the “Others” category. Mean (standard deviation) CV% values for C min were 24.1 (7.9), 35.4 (11.7), and 34.1 (10.6) for clusters 1–3, compared with 136.4 (23.6) for cluster 4 and 64.8 (10.3) for the “Others” category. Findings for C avg were similar. Conclusion: Based on nonadherence patterns and known relationships between CV% for C min and C avg , and transplantation outcomes, patients in cluster 4 and the “Others” category are expected to be at high risk of allograft rejection. The proposed drug adherence-exposure model is useful to identify high-risk patients who can be targeted for interventions aimed at enhancing drug adherence to optimize clinical long-term outcomes.
Explorer Cohort Profile : Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally ( STRADL ) : A questionnaire follow-up of Generation Scotland : Scottish Family Health Study ( GS : SFHS )

Citation for published version: Navrady, L, Wolters, M, MacIntyre, D, Clarke, T-K, Campbell, A, Murray, A, Evans, K, Seckl, J, Haley, C, Milburn , K, Wardlaw, J, Porteous, D, Deary, I & McIntosh, A 2017, 'Cohort Profile: Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally (STRADL): A questionnaire follow-up of Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS)' International Journal of Epidemiology, pp. 1-9. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyx115