Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feldspar – A Functional Embedded Language for Digital Signal Processing *

Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms are usually designed and described on an abstract level and than transformed to a DSP chip speciﬁc C code by expert programmers. The problem is that the gap between the abstract description and the platform dependent code is huge and even the C code optimized for two diﬀerent chips diﬀer a lot. This makes it expensive to rewrite the algorithms each time a new chip is targeted. We expect that designing and implementing a high-level domain-speciﬁc language (DSL) will make the implementation of algorithms easier and a compiler together with platform-speciﬁc code generator and optimizer modules will take the burden of target-dependent low-level programming oﬀ the programmers. To address these problems, we propose a new programming language called Feldspar (Functional Embedded Language for Digital Signal Processing and Parallelism). We started the design and implementation of this language a year ago, and now we have a compiler prototype which translates programs written in Feldspar into hardware-indepdendent ISO C99-compilant code.
Paukendrainage und Mittelohrbelüftung: Indikationen, Komplikationen und deren Behandlung

Zusammenfassung Die Paukendrainage ist der häufigste chirurgische Eingriff in Deutschland überhaupt mit dem Ziel der Gewährleistung von Mittelohrventilation und Sekretabfluß aus der Paukenhöhle sowie sofortiger Hörverbesserung und Vermeidung von Komplikationen und Spätfolgen wie Trommelfell-, Paukenhöhlenpathologien und Entwicklungsbeeinträchtigungen. Die volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung wird dadurch unterstrichen, dass in Deutschland etwa jährlich 300 000 Parazentesen durchgeführt werden. Solange die benötigte Mittelohrventilation nicht vorhersagbar und ideale Materialien und Techniken für das Offenhalten nicht gefunden sind, bleibt die Art der Paukendrainage eine immer wieder neu zu treffende individuell an den Patienten anzupassende Abwägungsentscheidung. In diesem Zusammenhang werden die verschiedenen Techniken der Paukendrainage und Mittelohrventilation wie konventionelle Parazentese, Laser-Parazentese, Kurz- und Langzeitpaukenröhrcheneinlage sowie Indikationen, Komplikationen und deren Behandlung beschrieben.
The Alternative Snake - and Other Animals

In this paper I introduce a new way of generating and describing shapes which was largely inspired by reading D'Arcy Thompson's classic "On Growth and Form" [1]. There are suggestive parallels between my system and "coupled oscillation" models of handwriting [2] and locomotion [3]. Like many others the system involves a mapping from a space of "implicit parameters" to the space of observables. I limit discussion to the simplest case in which a single parameter G is mapped into 2-D Euclidean space by two Fourier series x(Q),y(Q) whose coefficients may be restricted or cross-constrained in various ways. One application to computer vision is in defining "snakes" - contour models which are fitted to image data by gradient-climbing techniques [4,5]. I
A Form-based Framework for Class Extensions

Class extensions allow for a modular addition of new behavior to an existing class hierarchy. However, the reliance on position-dependent parameters in mainstream programming languages has often a negative impact on the way new behavior can be specified. This observation has led us to explore the concept of forms, which are first-class extensible records that, in combination with a small set of purely asymmetric operators, provide a core language for an extensible, flexible, and robust software development approach. In this paper, we present a refinement of our recent work on a substitution-free lambda calculus with forms. More precisely, we develop the λF@-calculus in which names are replaced with shared forms and parameter passing is modeled using explicit contexts and show, how this calculus can be used to model open classes, a key mechanism for class extensions. A Form-based Framework for Class Extensions Markus Lumpe Department of Computer Science Iowa State University 113 Atanasoff Hall Ames, IA-50011, USA lumpe@cs.iastate. edu
Rapid diagnosis Of tuberculous meningitis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Using a rapid and highly sensitive method for the diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we detected the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome in CSF of 5 of 6 patients with clinically diagnosed tuberculous meningitis. The genome was not present in CSF from 10 patients with other types of meningitis and 10 normal controls.
Vector-space ranking with effective early termination

Considerable research effort has been invested in improving the effectiveness of information retrieval systems. Techniques such as relevance feedback, thesaural expansion, and pivoting all provide better quality responses to queries when tested in standard evaluation frameworks. But such enhancements can add to the cost of evaluating queries. In this paper we consider the pragmatic issue of how to improve the cost-effectiveness of searching. We describe a new inverted file structure using quantized weights that provides superior retrieval effectiveness compared to conventional inverted file structures when early termination heuristics are employed. That is, we are able to reach similar effectiveness levels with less computational cost, and so provide a better cost/performance compromise than previous inverted file organisations.
Low‐Cost Manufacturing of Bioresorbable Conductors by Evaporation–Condensation‐Mediated Laser Printing and Sintering of Zn Nanoparticles

Currently, bioresorbable electronic devices are predominantly fabricated by complex and expensive vacuum‐based integrated circuit (IC) processes. Here, a low‐cost manufacturing approach for bioresorbable conductors on bioresorbable polymer substrates by evaporation–condensation‐mediated laser printing and sintering of Zn nanoparticle is reported. Laser sintering of Zn nanoparticles has been technically difficult due to the surface oxide on nanoparticles. To circumvent the surface oxide, a novel approach is discovered to print and sinter Zn nanoparticle facilitated by evaporation–condensation in confined domains. The printing process can be performed on low‐temperature substrates in ambient environment allowing easy integration on a roll‐to‐roll platform for economical manufacturing of bioresorbable electronics. The fabricated Zn conductors show excellent electrical conductivity (≈1.124 × 106 S m−1), mechanical durability, and water dissolvability. Successful demonstration of strain gauges confirms the potential application in various environmentally friendly sensors and circuits.
Sleep in children with chronic illness, and the relation to emotional and behavioral problems--a population-based study.

OBJECTIVE To examine sleep and sleep problems in children with chronic illness, and the potential effect of emotional and behavioral problems. METHODS The Bergen Child Study is a total population study. Based on data from the second wave, information about sleep was given by 5,781 children and their parents, of which 496 children (8.6%) had a chronic illness. RESULTS There were no differences in time in bed between children with a chronic illness and their healthy peers. However, the chronic illness group reported more problems falling asleep and had more nighttime awakenings. The increased risk for sleep problems was reduced to a nonsignificant level when adjusting for emotional and behavioral problems. CONCLUSIONS The elevated rate of sleep problems and association with emotional and behavioral problems in children with chronic illness underline the importance of early detection and intervention in this group.
Effect of Heavy Metals Pollution on Soil Microbial Diversity and Bermudagrass Genetic Variation

Heavy metal pollution is a serious global environmental problem as it adversely affects plant growth and genetic variation. It also alters the composition and activity of soil microbial communities. The objectives of this study were to determine the soil microbial diversity, bermudagrass genetic variation in Cd contaminated or uncontaminated soils from Hunan province of China, and to evaluate Cd-tolerance of bermudagrass at different soils. The Biolog method, hydroponic experiments and simple sequence repeat markers were used to assess the functional diversity of microorganisms, Cd-tolerance and the genetic diversity of bermudagrass, respectively. Four of the sampling sites were heavily contaminated with heavy metals. The total bioactivity, richness, and microbial diversity decreased with increasing concentration of heavy metal. The hydroponic experiment revealed that bermudagrass populations collected from polluted sites have evolved, encompassing the feature of a higher resistance to Cd toxicity. Higher genetic diversity was observed to be more in contaminated populations than in uncontaminated populations. Heavy metal pollution can result in adverse effects on plant growth, soil microbial diversity and activity, and apparently has a stronger impact on the genetic structure. The results of this study provide new insights and a background to produce a genetic description of populations in a species that is suitable for use in phytoremediation practices.
A study of interference in synchronous systems

The influence of interference and coupling in synchronous systems is investigated. Our new approach based on the linear time-variant model in oscillatory systems lends new insight into interference and coupling phenomena in synchronous systems. According to the analysis, it is possible that a small perturbation to an oscillator is enhanced by positive feedback through coupling with another oscillatory system. This implies that the inherent phase error caused by thermal noise can lead to a large amount of jitter by interference even in the absence of external noise. The analysis also reveals the relationship between the jitter occurrence and frequency difference in a plesiochronous system. Additionally, it is shown that the coupling within a closed-loop system can limit the bandwidth of a phase-locked loop and cause the peak gain of the response of the phase error. We confirmed these analytical results by measurements conducted on test chips
Modelling and Output Power Evaluation of Series-Parallel Photovoltaic Modules

The performance of PV modules array is affected by several factors the most important one is the array configurations. This paper focuses on study of various array configurations like series, parallel and series/parallel combination theoretically by Matlab programming and experimentally at the outdoor exposure of Baghdad city under constant 1000W/m2 incident solar irradiance. Fifteen different connection type ten PV modules is chosen to examine the voltage, current and power production. In order to get maximum power of the array, it was found that the ten modules should be connected in parallel. While the lowest array configuration was when six parallel strings, two strings have four modules each and the others each one has one single module. In general, square or rectangle array produce much more power, above 30% greater than uneven connected arrays.
A multi-unit truthful double auction framework for secondary market

As one of the most powerful tools in game theory, double auction is widely utilized to tackle the spectrum allocation problem in a secondary market. In this paper, we propose a multi-unit double auction framework in which the conflict graph-based bidder group formation, the winner determination strategy, and the spectrum pricing are elaborately designed. Through an in-depth theoretical analysis, we prove that our auction scheme can achieve three critical properties including the individual rationality, the ex-post budget balance, and the truthfulness. Extensive simulation results validate that the proposed auction framework can significantly improve the user satisfaction degree.
Information Algebra

According to Shannon's classical information theory [19] information is measured by the reduction of uncertainty and the latter is measured by entropy . This theory is concerned with the transmission of symbols from a finite alphabet. The uncertainty concerns the question which symbol is sent and the information is given by a probabilistic model of the transmission channel and the symbol observed at the output of the channel. This leads to a statistical communication theory which is still the main subject of communication theory today.
Disturbance Rejection with Simultaneous Decoupling of Neutral Time Delay Systems

The following major aspects of the problem of disturbance rejection with simultaneous decoupling (DRD) for general neutral multi-delay systems, via proportional realizable state feedback, are resolved for the first time: the necessary and sufficient conditions for the problem to have a realizable solution and the general analytical expressions of the respective proportional realizable controller matrices
Heart Rate Topic Models

A key challenge in reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease is matching patients to treatments that are most appropriate for them. Different cardiac assessment tools have been developed to address this goal. Recent research has focused on heart rate motifs, i.e., short-term heart rate sequences that are over- or under-represented in long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings of patients experiencing cardiovascular outcomes, which provide novel and valuable information for risk stratification. However, this approach can leverage only a small number of motifs for prediction and results in difficult to interpret models. We address these limitations by identifying latent structure in the large numbers of motifs found in long-term ECG recordings. In particular, we explore the application of topic models to heart rate time series to identify functional sets of heart rate sequences and to concisely describe patients using task-independent features for various cardiovascular outcomes. We evaluate the approach on a large collection of real-world ECG data, and investigate the performance of topic mixture features for the prediction of cardiovascular mortality. The topics provided an interpretable representation of the recordings and maintained valuable information for clinical assessment when compared with motif frequencies, even after accounting for commonly used clinical risk scores.
A phase 2 clinical trial of nab‐paclitaxel in previously treated and chemotherapy‐naive patients with metastatic melanoma

nab‐Paclitaxel (ABI‐007, Abraxane), a 130‐nM, albumin‐bound (nab) particle form of Cremophor‐free paclitaxel, is approved for metastatic breast cancer. In the current study, the efficacy and safety of nab‐paclitaxel were evaluated in previously treated and chemotherapy‐naive patients with metastatic melanoma (MM).
Breast‐conserving Therapy for Macroscopically Multiple Cancers

Of 586 unilateral stage I–II breast cancers treated with conservative surgery and radiotherapy, 61 patients were found to have two or more macroscopic tumor nodules, diagnosed either clinically (n = 20), mammographically (n = 2), or on gross pathologic examination (n = 39). After a median follow-up of 71 months, 15 of 61 (25%) of the patients with multiple tumors developed recurrence in the treated breast, compared to 56 of 525 (11%) of patients with single cancers (p < 0.005). Local failure occurred in 6 of 37 (16%) of bifocal tumors and in 9 of 24 (35%) of patients with 3 or more tumor foci. Recurrence was more frequent for multiplicity diagnosed clinically or mammographically (8 of 22 patients, 36%) than when it was apparent only to the pathologist (7 of 39 patients, 18%). Only 1 of 21 bifocal tumors diagnosed on gross examination recurred. Local failure occurred in only 1 of 22 cases with clearly negative resection margins; the remaining recurrences were associated with positive (n = 3) or indeterminate margins (n = 11). In contrast with recurrences of unifocal breast cancers, local failures in these patients tended to be located at a distance from the original foci, to be multifocal, or to be diffuse, including skin involvement. Only four recurrences presented as a single focus in the vicinity of the original primary tumors. This study indicates that macroscopically multiple breast cancers are at higher local failure risk, especially if multiplicity is clinically apparent, or if three or more gross nodules are seen on pathologic examination. Negative resection margins appear to be essential for satisfactory results.
A probabilistic inference of participants interest level in a multi-party conversation based on multi-modal sensing

Detecting degree of involvement during conversations is important for summarization, retrieval, and browsing applications. In this paper, we define the degree of involvement as the interest level that a group of participants show in the course of interactions, and propose the automatic detection scheme of scenes of high-interest based on multi-modal sensing. Our research is motivated by the fact that non-verbal information such as gesture and facial expressions plays an important role during a face-to-face conversation. Audio-visual features from the entire group are obtained by sensors located in a meeting room, and topics are extracted by applying latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) to the features. Then Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to infer interest level from the topics. We conducted experiments using recording of conversational scenes (total 2hours 43 minutes) with interest level labels of a five point scale. Interest level 4 or over is assigned as high and interest level 3 or under is assigned as low, with the result that the highest accuracy of our inference model can reach 87.3 %.
Selecting the Buffer Size for an IP Network Link

In this paper, we revisit the problem of selecting the buffer size for an IP network link. After a comprehensive overview of issues relevant to the link buffer sizing, we examine usefulness of existing guidelines for choosing the buffer size. Our analysis shows that the existing recommendations not only are difficult to implement in the context of IP networks but also can severely hurt interactive distributed applications. Then, we argue that the networking research community should change its way of thinking about the link buffer sizing problem: the focus should shift from optimizing performance for applications of a particular type to maximizing diversity of application types that IP networks can support effectively. To achieve this new objective, we propose using small buffers for IP network links. Selecting the Buffer Size for an IP Network Link Sergey Gorinsky and Anshul Kantawala and Jonathan Turner Applied Research Laboratory Department of Computer Science and Engineering Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA gorinsky,anshul,jst @arl.wustl. edu
Detecting Similarities of Rational Space Curves

We provide an algorithm to check whether two rational space curves are related by a similarity, i.e., whether they are equal up to position, orientation and scale. The algorithm exploits the relationship between the curvatures and torsions of two similar curves, which is formulated in a computer algebra setting. Helical curves, where curvature and torsion are proportional, need to be distinguished as a special case. The algorithm is easy to implement, as it involves only standard computer algebra techniques, such as greatest common divisors and resultants, and Grobner bases for the special case of helical curves.
New ways to enhance the functionality of paperboard by surface treatment – a review

This review summarizes recent development of functional materials to improve the barrier properties of paperboard with emphasis on bio‐based polymers. Focus is directed to novel application techniques and water‐borne, renewable coating materials. Some aspects on substrate properties and the requirements on food packaging are discussed as are the processability, convertability, recyclability and biodegradability of packaging materials. The functionality, advantages and disadvantages of several bio‐based polymers are presented in detail. Among these are starch and cellulose derivatives, chitosan, alginate, wheat gluten, whey proteins, polycaprolactone, poly(lactic acid) and polyhydroxyalkanoates. Also discussed is the enhancement of barrier properties by incorporation of nanosized materials, by application of thin protective top coatings and local reinforcement by self‐healing agents. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Subthreshold leakage power distribution considering within-die and die-to-die P-T-V variations

This paper presents a probabilistic framework for full-chip estimation of subthreshold leakage power distribution considering both within-die and die-to-die variations in process (P), temperature (T) and supply voltage (V). The results obtained under this framework are compared to BSlM results and are found to he more accurate in comparison to those obtained from existing statistical models. Using this framework, a quantitative analysis of the relative sensitivities of subthreshold leakage to P-T-V variations has been presented. For the first time, the effects of die-to-die channel length and temperature variations on subthreshold leakage are studied in combination with all within-die variations. It has been shown that for accurate estimation of subthreshold leakage, it is important to consider die-to-die temperature variations which can significantly increase the leakage power due to electrothermal couplings between power and temperature. Furthermore, the full-chip leakage power distribution arising due to both within-die and die-to-die P-T-V is calculated, which is subsequently used to estimate the leakage constrained yield under the impact of these variations. The calculations show that the yield is significantly lowered under the impact of within-die and die-to-die process and temperature variations.
Experimental comparison of orientation estimation algorithms in motion tracking for rehabilitation

This paper presents the experimental comparison of data fusion algorithms for human motion tracking in rehabilitation, using Inertial Measurement Units. Three algorithms for orientation estimation, taken from the scientific literature in the field, have been selected and their capability of accurately tracking the angle of a selected joint has been evaluated. In particular, two phases of experimental analysis have been carried out. The former, in laboratory, was directed to verify the capability of the algorithms of tracking a fixed angle range. In the latter, carried out in a rehabilitation center, the results obtained by the considered algorithms have been compared with those provided by a vision-based motion tracking system.