Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An approach to execute conditional branches onto SIMD multi-context reconfigurable architectures

Reconfigurable architectures have becoming very relevant in recent years. In this paper we propose a methodology dedicated to analyze interactive applications in order to execute them in a SIMD reconfigurable architecture taking into account power/performance trade-offs. This methodology starts from a kernel description of the interactive application. Kernels are conditionally executed depending on dynamic conditions like user's input data manipulation. The volume of data involved in this kind of applications combined with user's actions occurring at unexpected times strongly impact on performance. We define an execution model to deal with conditional branches accompanied by a data prefetch scheme in order to avoid reconfigurable processing unit stalls due to operands unavailability. Experimental results satisfy time constraints of interactive applications and show a power effective solution for them.
Strengthening communication to overcome lateral violence.

AIM This quality improvement project aims to reduce nurse-to-nurse lateral violence and create a more respectful workplace culture through a series of workshops. BACKGROUND Lateral violence is common and pervasive in nursing, with detrimental physical, psychological and organizational consequences. METHODS This project describes the organization-wide pre- and post-intervention survey of registered nurses' perception of lateral violence and turnover. RESULTS After the workshop series, nurses who reported experiencing verbal abuse fell from 90 to 76%. A greater percentage of nurses perceived a workplace that was respectful to others and in which it was safe to express opinions. After the workshop series, a greater percentage of nurses felt determined to solve the problem after an incident of lateral violence, while a smaller percentage felt powerless. Nursing turnover and vacancy rates dropped. CONCLUSIONS Educational workshops that enhanced awareness of lateral violence and improved assertive communication resulted in a better working environment, reduction in turnover and vacancy rates, and reduced incidence of lateral violence. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Nurse managers must raise awareness of lateral violence with individual and organizational consequences. Nursing leadership can effect organizational change to lesson lateral violence and enhance a healthy workplace culture by replicating our intervention or components of our workshops.
A mechanism to enable spatial reasoning in JBoss Drools

Reasoning systems tapping into the physical world often have to deal not only with temporal relations but also with spatial relations while performing complex event processing. Spatio-temporal relations are a special kind of relations as all events are intertwined via these relations. Treating spatiotemporal relations similarly to other relations will have a significant negative impact in the system performance while reasoning. Therefore, spatio-temporal relations have to be treated differently. JBoss Drools 6 is a production rule system which provides facilities for complex event processing with temporal relations but currently lacks capabilities for spatial reasoning. In this paper, we introduce a mechanism which provides such a capability. The mechanism is implemented directly in the events therefore no Drools source code modifications are necessary. The feasibility of such a mechanism is evaluated from the performance viewpoint. With our spatial reasoning implementation in place, Drools can be claimed capable for spatio-temporal complex event processing.
Dual-Hop Amplify-and-Forward MIMO Relaying with Antenna Selection in Nakagami-m Fading

In this contribution, we propose an antenna selection scheme in dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AaF) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relaying in Nakagami-m fading channels. In each hop, the transmit and receive antenna pair that maximizes the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver is selected for transmission. We derive new closed-form expressions for the exact outage probability and the exact symbol error rate (SER), relying on the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the instantaneous end-to-end SNR. Furthermore, we derive simple closed-form expressions for the asymptotic outage probability and the asymptotic SER, revealing the diversity order of the proposed scheme. Specifically, the diversity order is equal to the minimum of two parameters: first, the product of the number of source and relay antennas and the first hop fading parameter, and second, the product of the number of relay and destination antennas and the second hop fading parameter. Our derived results apply to general operating scenarios with distinct Nakagami-m fading parameters and average SNRs in each hop.
Send Orders of Reprints at Reprints@benthamscience.org Phenotypic Constraints and Phenotypic Hitchhiking in a Promiscuous Enzyme

Covarying phenotypic traits can limit natural selection's ability to modify these traits. Most evolutionary studies on trait covariation use the comparative method to study complex traits of multicellular organisms. Simpler traits have the advantage of being amenable to experimental evolution. Here we study such a simple molecular system, the TEM-1 beta-lactamase protein, a promiscuous enzyme that hydrolyses antibiotics, and thus confers antibiotic resistance to bacteria. We mutagenized large populations of TEM-1, and selected in these populations for activity on the four different antibiotics ampicillin, carbenicillin, oxacillin, and penicillin G. While mutagenesis alone lead to highly correlated changes in enzyme activity on the four antibiotics, subsequent selection was able to modify this activity covariation substantially, and even lead to uncorrelated activities. We found that selection on one antibiotic A may be more effective in increasing activity on another antibiotic B then selection on antibiotic B itself. We call this phenomenon phenotypic hitchhiking. It can be readily explained through quantitative genetic theory as a consequence of differing variances in covarying traits. It may help engineer macromolecules with desirable properties through directed evolution. Our analysis is a first step towards systematic analysis of trait covariation in experimental molecular systems. It shows that selection may readily modify the phenotypic constraints that limit its efficacy.
A Multi-objective Approach for Workflow Scheduling in Heterogeneous Environments

Traditional scheduling research usually targets make span as the only optimization goal, while several isolated efforts addressed the problem by considering at most two objectives. In this paper we propose a general framework and heuristic algorithm for multi-objective static scheduling of scientific workflows in heterogeneous computing environments. The algorithm uses constraints specified by the user for each objective and approximates the optimal solution by applying a double strategy: maximizing the distance to the constraint vector for dominant solutions and minimizing it otherwise. We analyze and classify different objectives with respect to their impact on the optimization process and present a four-objective case study comprising make span, economic cost, energy consumption, and reliability. We implemented the algorithm as part of the ASKALON environment for Grid and Cloud computing. Results for two real-world applications demonstrate that the solutions generated by our algorithm are superior to user-defined constraints most of the time. Moreover, the algorithm outperforms a related bi-criteria heuristic and a bi-criteria genetic algorithm.
Achieving dynamic interfaces with agent concepts

Traditionally, interfaces of software entities, modules and components are immutable at runtime and carry no information on the meanings of the underlying implementation. We believe this definition of interface imposes a rigid view or context on the interaction of software entities, which impedes software re-use and the development of open / adaptive systems. We propose a novel analysis and design construct called a dynamic interface. Dynamic interfaces capture the social ability of agents and can be evolved consistently at runtime. Semantic information about the underlying implementation is also built into the dynamic interface, while preserving information hiding. We envisage the new dynamic interface construct to be complementary to traditional immutable interfaces. The two constructs can be used consistently in applications to address different requirements. We describe a prototype implementation of the dynamic interface construct. The implementation leverages the agent concepts of goals, roles, protocols, agents and services from the ROADMAP meta-model. The initial evaluation on its flexibility and performance indicates that dynamic interfaces have potential as an industry strength design and implementation construct.
They're just not that into it: adolescent reading engagement in French immersion

Supervisory Committee Dr. James Nahachewsky, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Supervisor Dr. Ruthanne Tobin, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Departmental Member Dr. Catherine Caws, Department of French Outside Member Middle school French immersion teachers often report that they have a difficult time engaging their students in second language reading. This research used a constructivist, critical, and pragmatic approach to case study to explore middle school French immersion students’ perceptions of themselves as readers of French and of their experiences with reading in French. The research sought to understand, through thematic cross-case analysis, which themes appear most prominently in student accounts of their experiences with reading in French. Four major themes were identified: choice, assigned work, understanding, and interest. Additionally, the research sought to identify which instructional strategies might be most effective in promoting student engagement in reading in an additional language. The findings suggest a need for highly differentiated instructional models that emphasize teaching students how to assess a text for its appropriateness to their interests and reading level and providing students with ample time for free, independent reading.
Perspective taking, empathic concern, and perceived humanness of people with dementia

ABSTRACT Past work has documented the detrimental psychological and health outcomes of negative age stereotypes and dehumanization of older adults. We investigated the role of perspective taking in enhancing positive perceptions of humanness of older individuals with dementia. To manipulate perspective taking, participants either imagined the situation of an older woman with dementia (n = 35), remained objective and detached (n = 37), or received no instructions (n = 35). We measured evidence of impairments of humanness needed to conclude personhood loss for the woman with dementia (i.e., humanness standards). Compared to stay-objective participants, imagine-other and no-instructions participants asked for more evidence of impairments of uniquely human characteristics, but not of human nature characteristics, in order to conclude personhood loss for the woman with dementia. Empathic concern for the woman with dementia mediated this effect. We discuss the importance of studying perceptions of personhood of those with dementia with a focus on the person with dementia and his or her social and personal connections with others. Strategies for developing and maintaining healthy relationships with persons with dementia based on active perspective taking are also discussed.
Need-For-Approval and Physical versus Social Reality Effects on Judgemental Shifts

Since the recent emergence of conformity research, few investigations have attempted to relate judgmental shifts to both relevant personality dimensions and different psy­ chological situations, i.e., physical and social reality. The E studied the effects of need-for-approval, internal versus external locus of reinforcement, pressure,and physi­ cal versus social reality on judgmental shifts. A completely crossed-factorial design with two levels of each factor was used. The criterion was the mean number of judgmental shifts, with the latter being defined as a shift in judgment from an initial position about a stimulus object to an alternative position. The Ss were 160 female introductory psychology students. Experimental groups (n=5) were tested via a modified Crutch­ field apparatus in the presence of the E. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: physical reality-high pressure; physical reality-low pres­ sure; social reality-high pressure; and social reality-low pressure. The physical reality task necessitated a judgment as to the larger of two clusters of dots on each of nine trials. The task of social reality required a judgment on each of nine trials as to whether or not pictures of men, xi some having been described as convicted murderers, were in fact convicted murderers. High pressure was defined as the apparent disagreement of three and agreement of one member about a judgment, or disagreement by all four members of the group. Low pressure was composed of three agreeing and one disagreeing member of the group or four agreements. Analysis of variance revealed that I—E and pressure were significant main effects. Analysis of simple main effects showed that pressure was significant for both reality levels, need—for—approval was significant for I-E, and that I-E was significant for high need-for—approval JBs, and social reality. The major findings were: 1. Low need—for—approval S_s do not differ in number of judgmental shifts in either reality. 2. High and low need-for-approval Ss_ do not differ in mean number of judgmental shifts in physical reality when exposed to high pressure. 3. Social reality does not seem to create a difference between high and low need-for—approval Sj3 in judgmental shifts under a condition of high pressure. 4. No distinction between the psychological relevance of social and physical reality was found for high need-forapproval Ss. The investigator concluded that further research is needed to find personality correlates of judgmental shift­ ing behavior, and that there should be more work done in an r attempt to delineate the dimension called "social reality".
RISE: Improving the streaming processors reliability against soft errors in GPGPUs

With hundreds of cores integrated into a single chip, the general-purpose computing on graphic processing units (GPGPUs) provide high computing power to accelerate parallel applications. However, they are prone to manifest high soft-error vulnerability due to the lack of fault detection and tolerance. Especially, streaming processors become the reliability hot-spot in GPGPUs. This paper explores two opportunistic soft-error detection techniques to cost-effectively improve the streaming processors reliability. Observing that the streaming processors are not fully utilized during the branch divergence and pipeline stalls caused by the long latency operations, we propose to Recycle the streaming processors Idle time for Soft-Error detection (RISE) and obtain the good fault coverage with negligible performance degradation. RISE is composed of full-RISE and partial-RISE. Full-RISE selectively triggers the redundancy for a set of warps so that leverages the fully idled streaming processors during the pipeline stall time for the error detection. Partial-RISE performs the redundancy for a number of threads in certain warps using the partially idled streaming processors during the branch divergence. Our experimental results show that RISE shows strong capability in improving the SPs soft-error reliability by 43% with negligible (e.g. 4%) performance loss.
Multi-texturing approach for paint appearance simulation on virtual vehicles

This paper proposes a new approach for paint appearance simulation. Coatings color and appearance change significantly according to lighting and observation conditions. The aim of this study is to propose both real time and accurate solutions for painted surface simulation. To solve real time constraints, we have chosen to simulate the paint appearance thanks to textures. Each texture represents an appearance criterion of the coating directly linked with the paint composition (layers and micro-components). A final multi-pass algorithm is applied to combine these different textures. Especially, we describe the building and the combination of the different textures used to simulate respectively color, metallic appearance, environment reflection and tension effects. In any case, a validation step will be performed through subjective and quantitative comparisons between simulation results and reality. Finally optimization for real time paint simulation, applied to driving simulation to increase traffic vehicle realism, is carried out.
VisualRank for Image Retrieval from Large-Scale Image Database

VisualRank provide ranking among images to be retrieved by measuring common visual features of the images. The similarity between images is measured by measuring similarity within extracted features like Texture, Color and Gray Histogram. Image ranked higher, when most of image features matched to features of query image. In this paper, VisualRank approach is based on k-means clustering and minimum distance findings among images is used. The results of experimental study of proposed algorithm are shown with analysis of resultant image features. The images are retrieved based on selection of images with maximum similarity features.
Ultrastructure of Tumor Cells during Mitosis1-2

The fine structure of the mitotic process of solid hepatoma cells of rat has been described. The replication and migration of centrioles, appearance and disappearance of spindle tubules and kinetochores, and movement and replication of chromo somes resemble those reported in other cell systems. It has been observed that the nucleoli persist throughout all stages of cell division. The Golgi apparatus retains its discrete entity of laminar and vesicular components during the entire mitotic cycle. Remnants of the nuclear envelopes have been observed in all phases, even in telophase, after the reconstruc tion of the nuclear membrane of the daughter cells is com pleted. Penetration of rough endoplasmic reticula into the mitotic apparatus may appear in metaphase and anaphase. In telophase, cytokinesis is initiated by symmetrical invagination of the plasma membrane and, at certain stages, mitochondria may move freely in the region of the intercellular bridge which connects the daughter cells. The mitotic activities of these tumor cells represent the be havior of the cellular organelles in natural and unaltered nu tritional environment.
Making the Internet-of-Things a reality: From smart models, sensing and actuation to energy-efficient architectures

Advances in the physical sciences and engineering enable the development of internet-of-things (IoT) to understand, interface / interact and engineer physical world (systems). However, the deployment of multitude of wireless sensors and agents spanning many application domains (e.g., environmental, healthcare, smart interconnected vehicles and trucks, smart buildings) leads not only to tremendous requirements for communicating massive amounts of multiscale heterogeneous data, but also calls for developing efficient strategies for mathematical modeling of the sensed data while overcoming the energy wall. To address these outstanding challenges, out-of-the-box approaches need to be explored. In this tutorial paper, we discuss these outstanding problems and describe a few far-reaching design methodologies that achieve the most sought after features in autonomous IoT, viz. intelligent mining, smart trustworthy sensing, closed-loop (networked) control, and energy efficiency. Internet-of-things, autonomy, compact yet accurate models, network control, networks-on-chip, manycore.
Capacity bounds for wireless ergodic fading Broadcast Channels with partial CSIT

The two-user wireless ergodic fading Broadcast Channel (BC) with partial Channel State Information at the Transmitter (CSIT) is considered. The CSIT is given by an arbitrary deterministic function of the channel state. This characteristic yields a full control over how much state information is available, from perfect to no information. A novel approach is developed to adapt and explicitly evaluate the well-known UV-outer bound for the Gaussian fading channel using the entropy power inequality. Our approach indeed sheds light on the role of broadcast auxiliaries in the fading channel. It is shown that the derived outer bound is optimal for the channel with perfect CSIT. Our bounds are also directly applicable to the case without CSIT which has been recently considered in several papers. Next, the approach is developed to analyze for the fading BC with secrecy. In the case of perfect CSIT, a full characterization of the secrecy capacity region is derived for the channel with common and confidential messages. This result completes a gap in a previous work by Ekrem and Ulukus. For the channel without common message, the secrecy capacity region is also derived when the transmitter has access only to degradedness ordering of the channel.
Machine Learning Algorithms for Characterization of EMG Signals

  Abstract —In the last decades, the researchers of the human arm prosthesis are using different types of machine learning algorithms. This review article firstly gives a brief explanation about type of machine learning methods. Secondly, some recent applications of myoelectric control of human arm prosthesis by using machine learning algorithms are compared. This study presents two different comparisons based on feature extraction methods which are time series modeling and wavelet transform of EMG signal. Finally, of characterization of EMG for of human arm prosthesis have been and discussed.
Oficinas para o desenvolvimento da prática baseada em evidências entre lideranças de enfermagem: estudo piloto

The objective of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of motivational workshops to implement Evidence Based Practice (EBP) among nursing leaders. This was a pilot, virtually experimental, before and after type study, conducted in a public teaching hospital. Researchers applied the Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire and The Barriers to Research Utilization Scale and analyzed differences of means via Student’s t-test for paired samples or Wilcoxon’s test for non-parametric data. Although they had positive attitudes towards EBP, the workshops were not effective in broadening skills ( initial mean=109.8; final mean=107, p=0.58 ). However, they significantly reduced the perception of barriers ( initial mean=73.2; final mean=66.6, p<0.10 ), the main ones being related to the lack of authority to propose changes, and work overload. Researchers observed that the intervention was effective for motivational purposes. Conducting new research to assess the inclusion of this practice in units headed by nursing leaders is encouraged.
Multithreaded Linear Hashing with Disk Buffer

Multi-core computers have become increasingly popular, in order to improve the performance of index in database systems on multi-core computers, and this paper presents an alternative algorithm of linear hashing and multithreaded disk buffer on multi-core computers. In this algorithm, records can be inserted into hash table concurrently by different threads. The key of the parallel insertion is to make traditional insertion into batch insertion. Multithreaded disk buffer is developed for multithreaded linear hashing, making multithreads allocate and release memory simultaneously as much as possible. It is applied to maximize memory utilization and to minimize the number of disk accesses. Our experimental result shows that, compared to traditional serial linear hashing, multithread linear hashing achieves a higher performance on multi-core computers.