Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving Bounds for FPGA Logic Minimization

We present a methodology for improving the bounds of combinational designs implemented on networks of lookup tables, moving them closer to the theoretical minimum. Our work effectively extends optimality to span logic minimization and technology mapping. We obtain a proof of optimality by restricting ourselves to 4-input look-up tables (LUTs) and generating all possible circuits up to a certain area or latency depending on the optimization mode. Since simple-minded generation would take a long time, we develop levels of abstraction (steps) and techniques to restrict and order the search space, and produce results in practical time. We use logic decomposition to break up large designs, using the resulting trees to guide our search and prune the search space. The price of this optimality is that we are limited to small blocks; however, such blocks can be used to build larger designs.
Mental Models, Expectations and Implications of Client-Side Scanning: An Interview Study with Experts

Client-Side Scanning (CSS) is discussed as a potential solution to contain the dissemination of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). A significant challenge associated with this debate is that stakeholders have different interpretations of the capabilities and frontiers of the concept and its varying implementations. In this paper, we explore stakeholders’ understandings of the technology and the expectations and potential implications in the context of CSAM by conducting and analyzing 28 semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of experts. We identified mental models of CSS and the expected challenges. Our results show that CSS is often a preferred solution in the child sexual abuse debate due to the lack of an alternative. Our findings illustrate the importance of further interdisciplinary discussions to define and comprehend the impact
Using TLA+ in the Development of a Safety-Critical Fault-Tolerant Middleware

Creating and implementing fault-tolerant distributed algorithms is a challenging task in highly safety-critical industries. Using formal methods supports design and development of complex algorithms. However, formal methods are often perceived as an unjustifiable overhead.This paper presents the experience and insights when using TLA+ and PlusCal to model and develop fault-tolerant and safety-critical modules for TAS Control Platform, a platform for railway control applications up to safety integrity level (SIL) 4.We show how formal methods helped us improve the correctness of the algorithms, improved development efficiency and how part of the gap between model and implementation has been closed by translation to C code. Additionally, we describe how we gained trust in the formal model and tools by following a specific design process called property-driven design, which also implicitly addresses software quality metrics such as code coverage metrics.
Embedding Task Structure for Action Detection

We present a straightforward, flexible method to enhance the accuracy and quality of action detection by expressing temporal and structural relationships of actions in the loss function of a deep network. We describe ways to represent otherwise implicit structure in video data and demonstrate how these structures reflect natural biases that improve network training. Our experiments show that our approach improves both accuracy and edit-distance of action recognition and detection models over a baseline. Our framework leads to improvements over prior work and obtains state-of-the-art results on multiple benchmarks. The code is available here.
Characteristics of multiple Ca(2+)‐activated K+ channels in acutely dissociated chick ciliary‐ganglion neurones.

1. Whole‐cell and single‐channel recordings were used to characterize Ca(2+)‐activated K+ channels (IK(Ca)) in acutely dissociated chick‐ganglion neurones. 2. Application of depolarizing voltage steps resulted in outward currents that could be separated according to their dependence on external Ca2+ and/or holding potential. IK(Ca) was the only outward current that could be evoked from holding potentials of ‐50 mV or less. IK(Ca) was eliminated by bath application of Ca(2+)‐free salines. A voltage‐dependent outward current (IK(V)) could be evoked from more negative holding potentials in Ca(2+)‐free salines. IK(V) was only partially blocked by as much as 30 mM‐tetraethylammonium (TEA). 3. Tail currents associated with IK(Ca) reversed close to the K+ equilibrium potential (EK). IK(Ca) tail currents appeared sigmoidal, but the falling phase of the tail currents could be fitted with exponential curves that decayed faster at more negative membrane potentials. 4. IK(Ca) was blocked completely and reversibly by 10 mM‐TEA. IK(Ca) was substantially reduced (80‐90%) by as little as 1 mM‐TEA. 5. Total IK(Ca) was reduced but not eliminated by saturating concentrations of apamin (200 nM). This blockade was not reversible with up to 30 min of washing. Application of 100 microM‐d‐tubocurare (dTC) also produced a partial blockade of total IK(Ca). 6. Whole‐cell current‐clamp recordings showed that IK(Ca) contributed to the late phases of spike repolarization and was the dominant current flowing during the spike after‐hyperpolarization (AHP). Application of 200 nM‐apamin caused a reduction in the duration of the AHP. This reduction was best seen when multiple spikes were evoked by prolonged (20‐50 ms) injections of depolarizing current. 7. Three distinct types of IK(Ca) channels could be observed in inside‐out patches in the presence of free Ca2+ concentrations of 2 x 10(‐7) M, but not in the presence of free Ca2+ at concentrations of less than 10(‐9) M. These had unitary chord conductances of 190 pS (i1), 110 pS (i2), and 45 pS (i3) with [K+]o = 150 mM and [K+]i = 75 mM. Each of these three channels had distinct kinetic properties. The 45 pS channel was most sensitive to activation by Ca2+ and could be detected at free Ca2+ concentrations as low as 10(‐8) M. 8. All three IK(Ca) channels could be observed in inside‐out patches held at membrane potentials where IK(V) was fully inactivated. Application of 10 mM‐TEA caused a complete block of IK(Ca) channels in outside‐out patches. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
ANNALES DE L’INSTITUT FOURIER

— We examine various examples of horosymmetric manifolds which exhibit interesting properties with respect to canonical metrics. In particular, we determine when the blow-up of a quadric along a linear subquadric admits Kähler– Einstein metrics, providing inﬁnitely many examples of manifolds with no Kähler– Ricci solitons that are not K-semistable. Using a diﬀerent construction, we provide an inﬁnite family of Fano manifolds with no Kähler–Einstein metrics but which admit coupled Kähler–Einstein metrics. Finally, we elaborate on the relationship between Kähler–Ricci solitons and the more general concept of multiplier Hermitian structures and illustrate this with examples related to the two previous families. Résumé. — Nous considérons diﬀérents exemples de variétés horosymétriques qui possèdent des propriétés intéressantes pour l’étude de métriques canoniques. En particulier, nous déterminons quand l’éclatement d’une quadrique le long d’une sous-quadrique linéaire admet une métrique de Kähler–Einstein, ce qui fournit une inﬁnité d’exemples de variétés de Fano lisses sans solitons de Kähler–Ricci et qui ne sont pas K-semistables. Au moyen d’une construction diﬀérente, nous construisons une famille inﬁnie de variétés de Fano sans métriques de Kähler– Einstein qui admettent des métriques de Kähler–Einstein couplées. Enﬁn, nous mentionnons un lien possible entre solitons de Kähler–Ricci et des familles plus générales de structures multiplicative hermitiennes, et illustrons ce phénomène avec des exemples liés aux familles précédentes.
Information sources, methods and challenges: perspective of first year undergraduate students of University of Cape Coast, Ghana

For the University of Cape Coast first-year students, research is an important step in determining the knowledge that best suits their needs. This study investigated the purpose of searching for information, major sources of information, information search strategies, and the challenges in information search, using the quantitative descriptive survey design. The sample size was 486, with 48.8% of the respondents aged between 21 to 30. Firstly, the results indicated that the main purpose of searching for information was ‘knowledge enables a student to articulate a current theory in their own words’. Secondly, Google was the major source of obtaining information for students. Thirdly, students indicated that the main method used for information search was through browsing the internet. Lastly, low internet speed was identified as the major challenge to information seeking by students at the University of Cape Coast. The Internet of Things has made information access easier for students. Libraries are also essential sources of information that can help students make independent choices, take personal and group actions, write down ideas in different ways, and solve academic, socio-economic, and political challenges. To enhance group discussions and knowledge exchange, the Sam Jonah Library of the University of Cape Coast should provide adequate information sources through the use of Knowledge Commons, Social Learning Commons,and Development Information Commons.
A Polymorphic Type and Effect System for Detecting Mobile Functions

We define a language with a functional core and constructs for transmitting and receiving values across remote sites in which mobile agents have a natural representation as function closures. We present the dynamic semantics of this language in relational style. We develop a static type and effect system where the types are annotated so that the effects expose potentially mobile functions and channels. Finally, we prove the consistency of this system with respect to the dynamic semantics.
Robust optical-flow based self-motion estimation for a quadrotor UAV

Robotic vision has become an important field of research for micro aerial vehicles in the recent years. While many approaches for autonomous visual control of such vehicles rely on powerful ground stations, the increasing availability of small and light hardware allows for the design of more independent systems. In this context, we present a robust algorithm able to recover the UAV ego-motion using a monocular camera and on-board hardware. Our method exploits the continuous homography constraint so as to discriminate among the observed feature points in order to classify those belonging to the dominant plane in the scene. Extensive experiments on a real quadrotor UAV demonstrate that the estimation of the scaled linear velocity in a cluttered environment improved by a factor of 25% compared to previous approaches.
Digital Commons

Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is a pediatric autoimmune disease associated with characteristic rash and proximal muscle weakness. To gain insight into differential lymphocyte gene expression in JDM, peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 4 new-onset JDM patients and 4 healthy controls were sorted into highly enriched lymphocyte populations for RNAseq analysis. NK cells from JDM patients had substantially greater differentially expressed genes (273) than T (57) and B (33) cells. Upregulated genes were associated with the innate immune response and cell cycle, while downregulated genes were associated with decreased ribosomal RNA. Suppressed ribosomal RNA in JDM NK cells was validated by measuring transcription and phosphorylation levels. We con ﬁ rmed a population of low ribosome expressing NK cells in healthy adults and children. This population of low ribosome NK cells was substantially expanded in 6 treatment-naïve JDM patients and was associated with decreased NK cell degranulation. The enrichment of this NK low ribosome population was completely abrogated in JDM patients with quiescent disease. Together, these data suggest NK cells are highly activated in new-onset JDM patients with an increased population of low ribosome expressing NK cells, which correlates with decreased NK cell function and resolved with control of active disease.
Design Tradeoffs in Applying Content Addressable Storage to Enterprise-scale Systems Based on Virtual Machines

This paper analyzes the usage data from a live deployment of an enterprise client management system based on virtual machine (VM) technology. Over a period of seven months, twenty-three volunteers used VM-based computing environments hosted by the system and created over 800 checkpoints of VM state, where each checkpoint included the virtual memory and disk states. Using this data, we study the design tradeoffs in applying content addressable storage (CAS) to such VM-based systems. In particular, we explore the impact on storage requirements and network load of different privacy properties and data granularities in the design of the underlying CAS system. The study clearly demonstrates that relaxing privacy can reduce the resource requirements of the system, and identifies designs that provide reasonable compromises between privacy and resource demands.
Pitch synchronous spectral analysis for a pitch dependent recognition of voiced phonemes - PISAR

Humans use the pitch of their conversational partner as an important feature for improving the communication and the understanding especially in noisy situations. This knowledge is taken to investigate the idea of a pitch synchronous spectral analysis and a pitch dependent recognition of voiced speech segments. A first approach is presented for realizing this pitch dependent processing. Its applicability is shown for recognizing the voiced segments of the Timit database.
KLASIFIKASI JENIS DAN TINGKAT KEMATANGAN BUAH PEPAYA BERDASARKAN FITUR WARNA, TEKSTUR DAN BENTUK MENGGUNAKAN SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE ( Classification of Types and Levels of Ripeness of Papaya Fruit Based on Color, Texture and Shape Features Using Support Vector Machine

Differences in the type of papaya fruit and the level of maturity of ripe and unripe papayas can be seen from the color, texture and shape. Manually, consumers can check by looking at the condition of the papaya fruit based on its distinguishing characteristics. This manual method can of course produce different conclusions for each person. Errors also often occur because this manual method is very dependent on understanding the characteristics of papaya fruit and the level of accuracy. Therefore, we need a system that can classify the type and level of maturity automatically. In this research, a system is developed that can classify types and levels of maturity based on color, texture and shape features using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) method. The statistical approach method and the GLCM method are used in the feature extraction process. Color features in the HSI and YCbCr color spaces, texture features with GLCM and Horizontal Vertical Projection Integral shape features. The total data used in this study were 600 images of papaya fruit which were divided into training data and test data. The highest accuracy for the Bangkok dataset is obtained on the HSI feature, which is 66%, while for the California dataset it is obtained on the HSI feature, which is 65%.
Extended PIN Authentication Scheme Allowing Multi-Touch Key Input

In this paper, we report our trial to make a better form of personal identification number(PIN) authentication for a mobile device. We think that mobile users should be given a more secure alternative authentication because PIN authentication has well-known flaws. However, proposed alternative schemes change the authentication method drastically and that may discomfort mobile users. Our approach is to just change the input operation of PIN authentication by allowing more than one number at a time using a multi-touch enabled screen. We implemented a web-based prototype system and conducted an informal user study using it. The results of the study indicate that PIN input time, input errors and secret memorability of the proposed scheme were no worse than those of conventional PIN authentication. We also discuss the mathematical security level and other advantages of the scheme.
Unraveling Rural Land Conflicts in Bangladesh: Stakeholders, Power Dynamics, and Paths to Resolution

Conflicts over rural land have plagued Bangladesh since its independence. Rural land issues continue to remain unresolved, and violence related to land is still on the rise. The investigation of those engaged in these disputes and the dynamics of their relationships, however, has received very little attention. The current study maps those involved in land conflicts and their relational interplay in the context of rural Bangladesh. The study utilizes qualitative methods of data collection, including KII interviews, focus group discussions, and expert interviews. Through purposive sampling, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions involved a group of relevant stakeholders in land conflicts in the study areas who provided needed information, ideas, and insights on land issues in the area. The study finds that the power structure of the village affects benefit distribution and the resolution of land disputes. Local political leaders and “Matbors” have an impact on how disputes are resolved. Law enforcement authorities are ineffective at resolving violent conflicts, and corrupt land office staff are also of no help, prolonging such conflicts. The study recommends implementing empathy-building workshops, digitizing the land management system, and improving the judicial process to reduce disputes among stakeholders in rural Bangladesh.
HyperLogLog: the analysis of a near-optimal cardinality estimation algorithm

This extended abstract describes and analyses a near-optimal probabilistic algorithm, HYPERLOGLOG, dedicated to estimating the number of \emphdistinct elements (the cardinality) of very large data ensembles. Using an auxiliary memory of m units (typically, "short bytes''), HYPERLOGLOG performs a single pass over the data and produces an estimate of the cardinality such that the relative accuracy (the standard error) is typically about $1.04/\sqrt{m}$. This improves on the best previously known cardinality estimator, LOGLOG, whose accuracy can be matched by consuming only 64% of the original memory. For instance, the new algorithm makes it possible to estimate cardinalities well beyond $10^9$ with a typical accuracy of 2% while using a memory of only 1.5 kilobytes. The algorithm parallelizes optimally and adapts to the sliding window model.
Impact of Renewable Energy Consumption on Carbon Emission in Power System: A Case Study on China's Provincial Panel Data

China's efforts in promoting renewable energy are recognized as a strategy for mitigating its carbon footprint. This paper focuses on power system and utilizes provincial panel data in China to examine the relationship between renewable energy consumption and carbon emission. Firstly, descriptive analysis of important variable data is carried out to establish the basis for regression analysis. Secondly, sample data from 30 provinces in China is used to conduct empirical test based on the time span from 2014 to 2019. Finally, the findings demonstrate that the implementation of renewable energy can effectively diminish both overall and regional carbon emission and also indicate that factors such as trade openness and economic growth also exert an influence on carbon emission.
Inflammatory mediators in autoimmune lacrimal gland disease in MRL/Mpj mice.

PURPOSE MRL/MpJ-fas(+)/fas(+) (MRL/+) and MRL/MpJ-fas(lpr)/fas(lpr) (MRL/lpr) mice are congenic substrains of mice that have spontaneously developing lacrimal and salivary gland inflammation and are models for the human disorder Sjögren's syndrome. Nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha are proinflammatory and potential mediators of tissue damage. The presence of the inducible form of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), which catalyzes the production of NO, and the presence TNF-alpha in the lacrimal glands of MRL/MpJ mice were assessed. METHODS Lacrimal glands from MRL/+ and MRL/lpr mice, at ages 1 through 9 months, were evaluated by real-time RT-PCR for iNOS and TNF-alpha mRNA and by immunohistochemistry for the presence of iNOS and of TNF-alpha. Age-matched BALB/c lacrimal glands were used as the control. RESULTS By quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), mRNA for iNOS was detected in the lacrimal glands in significantly greater amounts in both MRL/+ (median, normalized to 18S rRNA, 2.90; P < 0.0003) and MRL/lpr mice (median 6.84, P < 0.001) than in BALB/c mice (median 0.34). By qPCR, mRNA for TNF-alpha in the lacrimal glands was detected in significantly greater amounts in aged MRL/+ mice than in BALB/c mice (median, normalized to actin, 221.8 vs. 77.8, P = 0.011) and in MRL/lpr mice than in BALB/c mice (median 136.7 vs. 72.5, P = 0.001). Immunohistochemistry demonstrated both iNOS and TNF-alpha in scattered mononuclear cells throughout the lacrimal glands and in mononuclear cells at the junction of the focal inflammatory infiltrates and normal acinar tissue in both MRL/+ and MRL/lpr mice. CONCLUSIONS As demonstrated by the greater presence of iNOS and TNF-alpha in the lacrimal glands of MRL/MpJ mice than in control glands, both NO and TNF-alpha are potential mediators of lacrimal gland damage in these murine models of Sjögren's syndrome.
Anandamide-derived Prostamide F2α Negatively Regulates Adipogenesis

Background: Adipogenesis is the process by which adipocytes are formed to maintain or expand fat depots. Results: Prostaglandin F2α ethanolamide (PGF2αEA) is produced from anandamide in preadipocytes and inhibits adipogenesis. Conclusion: Conversion of proadipogenic anandamide to antiadipogenic PGF2αEA is a novel mechanism for the regulation of adipogenesis. Significance: Discovering a PGF2αEA-mediated negative regulatory mechanism over adipogenesis may lead to the development of antiobesity therapies. Lipid mediators variedly affect adipocyte differentiation. Anandamide stimulates adipogenesis via CB1 receptors and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ. Anandamide may be converted by PTGS2 (COX2) and prostaglandin F synthases, such as prostamide/prostaglandin F synthase, to prostaglandin F2α ethanolamide (PGF2αEA), of which bimatoprost is a potent synthetic analog. PGF2αEA/bimatoprost act via prostaglandin F2αFP receptor/FP alt4 splicing variant heterodimers. We investigated whether prostamide signaling occurs in preadipocytes and controls adipogenesis. Exposure of mouse 3T3-L1 or human preadipocytes to PGF2αEA/bimatoprost during early differentiation inhibits adipogenesis. PGF2αEA is produced from anandamide in preadipocytes and much less so in differentiating adipocytes, which express much less PTGS2, FP, and its alt4 splicing variant. Selective antagonism of PGF2αEA receptors counteracts prostamide effects on adipogenesis, as does inhibition of ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Selective inhibition of PGF2αEA versus prostaglandin F2α biosynthesis accelerates adipogenesis. PGF2αEA levels are reduced in the white adipose tissue of high fat diet-fed mice where there is a high requirement for new adipocytes. Prostamides also inhibit zebrafish larval adipogenesis in vivo. We propose that prostamide signaling in preadipocytes is a novel anandamide-derived antiadipogenic mechanism.