Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the potential of tolerant region reuse for multimedia applications

The recent years have shown an interesting evolution in the mid-end to low-end embedded domain. Portable systems are growing in importance as they improve in storage capacity and in interaction capabilities with general purpose systems. Furthermore, media processing is changing the view embedded processors are designed, keeping in mind the emergence of new application domains such as those for PDA systems or for the third generation of mobile digital phones (UMTS). The performance requirements of these new kind of devices are not those of the general-purpose domain, where traditionally the premium goal is the highest performance. Embedded systems must face ever increasing real time requirements as well as power consumption constraints. Under this special scenario, instruction/region reuse arises as a promising way of increasing the performance of media embedded processors and, at the same time, reducing the power consumption. Furthermore, media and signal processing applications are a suitable target for instruction/region reuse, given the large amount of redundancy found in media data working sets. In this paper we propose a novel region reuse mechanism that takes advantage of the tolerance of media algorithms to losses in the precision of computation. By identifying regions of code where an input data set is processed into an output data set, we can reuse computational instances using the result of previous ones with a similar input data set (hence the term tolerant reuse). We will show that conventional region reuse is barely able to provide more than a 8% in reduction of executed instructions (even with significantly big tables) in a typical JPEG encoder application. On the other hand, when applying the concept of tolerance, we are able to provide a reduction of more than 25% of the number of executed instructions with tables smaller than 1KB (with only small degradations in the quality of the output image), and up to a 40% of reduction (and no visually perceptible differences) with bigger tables .
IIeal Pouch‐Anal Anastomoses Complications and Function in 1005 Patients

BackgroundRestorative proctocolectomy and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) has become an established surgery for patients with chronic ulcerative colitis and familial adenomatous polyposis. PurposeThe authors report the results of an 11-year experience of restorative proctocolectomy and IPAA at a tertiary referral center. MethodsChart review was performed for 1005 patients undergoing IPAA from 1983 through 1993. Preoperative histopathologic diagnoses were ulcerative colitis (n = 858), familial adenomatous polyposis (n = 62), indeterminate colitis (n = 75), and miscellaneous (n = 10). Information was obtained regarding patient demographics, type and duration of diseases, previous operations, and indications for surgery. Data were collected on surgical procedure and postoperative pathologic diagnosis. Early (within 30 days after surgery) and late complications were noted. Follow-up included an annual function and quality-of-life questionnaire, physical examination, and biopsies of the pouch and anal transitional zone. ResultsOf the 1005 patients (455 women), postoperative histopathologic diagnoses were as follows: ulcerative colitis (n = 812), familial adenomatous polyposis (n = 62), indeterminate colitis (n = 54), Crohn's disease (n = 67), and miscellaneous (n = 10). During a mean follow-up time of 35 months (range 1–125 months), histopathologic diagnoses were changed for 25 patients. The overall mortality rate was 1% (n = 10 patients, early = 4, late = 6); one death (0.1%) was related to pouch necrosis and sepsis. The overall morbidity rate was 62.7% (1218 complications in 630 patients; early, n - 27.5%; late, n = 50.5%). Septic complication and reoperation rates were 6.8% and 24%, respectively. The ileal pouch was removed in 34 patients (3.4%), and it is nonfunctional in 11 (1%). Functional results and quality of life were good to excellent in 93% of the patients with complete data (n = 645) and are similar for patients with ulcerative colitis, familial adenomatous polyposis, indeterminate colitis, and Crohn's disease. Patients who underwent operations from 1983 through 1988 have similar functional results and quality of life compared with patients who underwent operations after 1988.
Do Membership Associations Affect Entrepreneurship? The Effect of Type, Composition, and Engagement

This article focuses on how membership associations can increase entrepreneurial activity in communities by facilitating access to resources that enable entrepreneurs to launch businesses. While much research differentiates membership associations based on association type, this article suggests that their effect on entrepreneurship may be better assessed by examining the composition of each association’s membership and their engagement in associational activities. An exploratory analysis of every community in the contiguous United States from 1999 to 2008 reveals that when it comes to facilitating entrepreneurial activity, association type may be less relevant than whether the association is sociodemographically diverse and whether its members are also members of other associations. However, engagement may not be as important when assessing an association’s ability to encourage entrepreneurial activity. These findings suggest that future research should look beyond association type and examine additional characteristics by which membership associations can be differentiated.
Stochastic Path Generation Guided by Saccadic Object Detection 1

To implement anticipative road following process in vehicle systems, a sto- chastic perception-control coupling is introduced on the satellite-roadway-vehicle network. In this scheme, the random shift of the boundary probability is detected via the saccadic perception process and interpolated by using stochastic growth dynamics to generate con- tinuous trajectories subjected to the unexpectable decisions of humans. The robustness and effectiveness of stochastic path generation scheme are evaluated through simulation studies.
How history justifies system architecture (or not)

The revision history of a software system conveys important information about how and why the system evolved in time. The revision history can also tell us which parts of the system are coupled by common changes: "whenever the database schema was changed, the sqlquery() method was altered, too. " This "evolutionary" coupling can be compared with the coupling as imposed by the system architecture; differences indicate anomalies which may be subject to restructuring. Our ROSE prototype analyzes fine-grained coupling between software entities as indicated by common changes. It turns out that common changes are a good indicator for modularity, that evolutionary coupling should be determined between syntactical entities (rather than files or modules), and that common changes can indicate coupling between software entities and nonprogram artifacts that is unavailable to the analysis of a single version.
Effects of acute administration of methamphetamine on Narp mRNA in rat brain

Narp (neuronal activity‐regulated pentraxin) is a secreted immediate early gene product functioning as a cluster factor for the AMPA receptor subtype of glutamate receptors. This study was designed to examine the effects of acute administration of methamphetamine (MAP) on the Narp gene in rat brain using reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR). Acute administration of MAP [4.6? mg/kg, intraperitoneally (i.p.)] increased Narp mRNA in the prefrontal cortex, whereas the same treatment with MAP decreased Narp mRNA in the hippocampus. Therefore, Narp gene could be involved in the MAP‐induced effects.
Learning Cost Functions for Mobile Robot Navigation in Environments with Deformable Objects

The ability to reliably navigate through their environment is an important prerequisite for truly autonomous robots. In this paper, we consider the problem of path planning in environments with non-rigid obstacles such as curtains or plants. We present an approach that combines probabilistic roadmaps with a physical simulation of object deformations to determine a path that optimizes the trade-off between the deformation cost and the distance to be traveled. We describe how our approach utilizes Finite Element theory for calculating the deformation cost. Since the high computational requirements of the corresponding simulation prevent this method from being applicable online, we present an approximative approach that uses a preprocessing step to determine a deformation cost function for each object. This cost function allows us to estimate the deformation costs of arbitrary paths through the objects and is used to evaluate the trajectories generated by the roadmap planner online. We present experiments which demonstrate that the resulting algorithm is highly accurate and at the same time allows to quickly calculate paths in environments with deformable objects.
Assessment Centres: Breaking with Tradition

The current business world is very different to that in which the original assessment centres were designed 50 years ago. The traditional centre still serves well for selection at lower organisational levels, but nowadays the need is for accurate diagnosis of development needs that include the delegate in the assessing process. Time must also be allocated for delegates and assessors to agree on evaluation of performance and sketch out a development plan. Hoechst (UK), seeking to develop managerial staff to director level, decided to adopt this Development Centre method. The Development Centre is described, and its impact assessed by Hoechst's divisional executive director.
Women's Talk in Public Contexts

This paper examines the distribution and function of women's and men's contributions to formal discourse. Evidence is provided that males talk for longer and make more frequent contributions than females in formal contexts such as seminars, TV discussions and full-class exchanges in classrooms. These contexts are ones in which talk is highly valued because contributions generally have status-enhancing potential. Moreover, the predominant function of talk in these contexts tends to be expository. Women tend to contribute more talk in less formal contexts and their contributions often facilitate exploratory talk—talk which assists a more extensive exploration of issues. An analysis of the types of elicitations which occurred in formal public seminars in New Zealand and their distribution between the sexes illustrates these points. The paper ends with some practical suggestions of ways in which the unequal distribution of public discourse between women and men might be reduced.
My house of value: school intervention programme investigating aspects of self-knowing, knowing of the other, identity, diversity and interaction

The project My house of value was implemented at a fourth grade primary school classroom for 10-year-old students in Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of the project was to examine how pupils realise identity and diversity in their broad sense, how they deal with stereotypical thoughts and how they understand interaction in both positive and negative ways. This was achieved through certain activities during the art lesson, which gave them the opportunity to express themselves in various ways. The method included observation and discussion in classroom, analysis of teachers' diaries and students' works and interviews with students reflecting on the various activities of the project. The final results showed that many pupils could realise that the diversities between identities are more than similarities, but this fact was not necessarily negative. They also became aware of stereotypical thinking concerning the self and the other. They also realised the complication of human intercultural encounters since emotions and experiences are involved. Finally, they concluded that the different ways of knowing the other include different means of communication. The implementation of the project showed that such activities can have a positive impact on pupils especially if they are incorporated in everyday curriculum and classroom practice.
Safe Policy Iteration

This paper presents a study of the policy improvement step that can be usefully exploited by approximate policy-iteration algorithms. When either the policy evaluation step or the policy improvement step returns an approximated result, the sequence of policies produced by policy iteration may not be monotonically increasing, and oscillations may occur. To address this issue, we consider safe policy improvements, i.e., at each iteration we search for a policy that maximizes a lower bound to the policy improvement w.r. t. the current policy. When no improving policy can be found the algorithm stops. We propose two safe policy-iteration algorithms that differ in the way the next policy is chosen w.r. t. the estimated greedy policy. Besides being theoretically derived and discussed, the proposed algorithms are empirically evaluated and compared with state-of-the-art approaches on some chain-walk domains and on the Blackjack card game.
A 2.6 $\mu \text{W}$ –1.2 mW Autonomous Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvester Interface IC with Conduction-Angle-Controlled MPPT and up to 95% Efficiency

This paper presents an IC optimized to interface small-scaled electromagnetic vibration energy harvesters. The interface IC tracks the optimum conduction angle of the implemented active AC–DC input stage, enabling maximum power point tracking without the need for a system clock, harvester disconnection, or any external sensor. The optimum conduction angle tracking control nominally requires 815 nW. An energy buffer can autonomously be charged via the interface, employing a hysteretic input voltage-controlled inductive DC–DC boost converter, to 4.2 V for IC input powers between 2.6 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 1.2 mW with a peak power conversion efficiency of 95%. The 4.2 V is even reached when harvesting from weak vibrations of only 0.2 m/s<sup>2</sup> acceleration peak amplitudes and input voltages of around 570 mV. Buffer charging with up to 91% of the maximal available harvester power is accomplished, and cold startup is enabled. The IC prototype in 0.35 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS draws a quiescent current of 272 nA from the energy buffer at 4.2 V and a quiescent power of 639 nW at 3 V. In order to supply an application, such as a wireless sensor node, the IC can be configured to generate a regulated voltage and to ensure reliable operation by means of an overvoltage protection.
A Novel Distributed Recommendation Framework Using Big Data in Social Context

Recently big data have become a research hotspot and been successfully exploited in a few applications such as data mining and business modeling. Although big data contain a plenty of treasures for all the fields of computer science, it is very difficult for the current computing paradigms and computer hardware to efficiently process and utilize big data to attain what are looked forward to. In this work, we explore the possibility of employing big data in recommendation systems. We have proposed a simple recommendation system framework BDRSF (Big Data Recommendation System Framework), which is based on big data with social context theories and has abilities in obtaining the Recommender based on the idea of supervised learning through big data training. Its main idea can be divided into three parts: (1) reduce the scale of the current recommendation problems according to the essence of recommending; (2) design a rational Recommender and propose a novel supervised learning algorithm to get it; (3) utilize the Recommender to deal with the later recommendation problems. Experimental results show that BDRSF outperforms conventional recommendation systems, which clearly indicates the effectiveness and efficiency of big data with social context in personalized recommendation.
Mechanisms of Electrical Stimulation with Neural Prostheses

Individual electric and geometric characteristics of neural substructures can have surprising effects on artificially controlled neural signaling. A rule of thumb approved for the stimulation of long peripheral axons may not hold when the central nervous system is involved. This is demonstrated here with a comparison of results from the electrically stimulated cochlea, retina, and spinal cord. A generalized form of the activating function together with accurate modeling of the neural membrane dynamics are the tools to analyze the excitation mechanisms initiated by neural prostheses. Analysis is sometimes possible with a linear theory, in other cases, simulation of internal calcium concentration or ion channel current fluctuations is needed to see irregularities in spike trains. Spike initiation site can easily change within a single target neuron under constant stimulation conditions of a cochlear implant. Poor myelinization in the soma region of the human cochlear neurons causes firing characteristics different from any animal data. Retinal ganglion cells also generate propagating spikes within the dendritic tree. Bipolar cells in the retina are expected to respond with neurotransmitter release before a spike is generated in the ganglion cell, even when they are far away from the electrode. Epidural stimulation of the lumbar spinal cord predominantly stimulates large sensory axons in the dorsal roots which induce muscle reflex responses. Analysis with the generalized activating function, computer simulations of the nonlinear neural membrane behavior together with experimental and clinical data analysis enlighten our understanding of artificial firing patterns influenced by neural prostheses.
Automatic fence insertion for shared memory multiprocessing

In general, the hardware memory consistency model in a multiprocessor system is not identical to the memory model at the programming language level. Consequently, the programming language memory model must be mapped onto the hardware memory model. Memory fence instructions can be inserted by the compiler where needed to accomplish this mapping. We have developed and implemented several fence insertion and optimization algorithms in our Pensieve compiler project. We present the different fence insertion optimization techniques that were used in this system to guarantee sequential consistency at the language level, and compare them using performance data. Our techniques target two hardware relaxed memory consistency models provided by SMPs based on IBM Power 3 and Intel Pentium 4. Our fence insertion optimization shows up to 17.2% and 32.7% performance improvement on average, with the IBM PowerPC and Intel Pentium 4 (Xeon) multiprocessors respectively.
Explorer Targeting of Rac GTPases blocks the spread of intact human breast cancer

High expression of Rac small GTPases in invasive breast ductal carcinoma is associated with poor prognosis, but its therapeutic value in human cancers is not clear. The aim of the current study was to determine the response of human primary breast cancers to Rac-based drug treatments ex vivo. Three-dimensional organotypic cultures were used to assess candidate therapeutic avenues in invasive breast cancers. Uniquely, in these primary cultures, the tumour is not disaggregated, with both epithelial and mesenchymal components maintained within a three-dimensional matrix of type I collagen. EHT 1864, a small molecule inhibitor of Rac GTPases, prevents spread of breast cancers in this setting, and also reduces proliferation at the invading edge. Rac1+ epithelial cells in breast tumours also contain high levels of the phosphorylated form of the transcription factor STAT3. The small molecule Stattic inhibits activation of STAT3 and induces effects similar to those seen with EHT 1864. Pan-Rac inhibition of proliferation precedes down-regulation of STAT3 activity, defining it as the last step in Rac activation during human breast cancer invasion. Our data highlights the potential use of Rac and STAT3 inhibition in treatment of invasive human breast cancer and the benefit of studying novel cancer treatments using three-dimensional primary tumour tissue explant cultures.
Legal Innovation for Social Change: Exploring Change and Resistance to Different Types of Sustainability Laws

In this article I argue that a desirable future direction for political psychology would be to pay more attention to social-psychological processes involved in the response to innovative laws, in particular those devised with sustainability and environmental protection aims. This involves taking into account the following premises: (1) innovation and change are not unitary phenomena; instead there are different types of innovation; (2) legal and policy innovation is a specific type and is highly central in an era when global challenges are increasingly dealt with by global treaties which are then translated into national laws with a call to transform local practices; (3) offering attention to the reception of such innovation involves developing specific conceptual tools; (4) devising a typology of legal innovation is one step in this direction; (5) furthering our comprehension of how people, groups, and institutions receive--i.e., accept, contest--legal innovation for sustainability is important for helping to push forward sustainability goals, which are legislated but far from attained.The present article outlines theoretical tools for addressing psychosocial processes involved in the reception of legal innovation, drawing mostly on the approach of social representations and the literature of environmental psychology, and offers three criteria for a typology of laws. Finally I present some examples of responses to subtypes of legal innovation from the sustainability domain, taken as an illustrative case, and discuss differences and commonalities in the processes of acceptance and resistance that each mobilizes. Language: en
Investigating the relationship between the distribution of local semantic concepts and local keypoints for image annotation

The problem of image annotation has gained increasing attention from many researchers in computer vision. Few works have addressed the use of bag of visual words for scene annotation at region level. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between the distribution of local semantic concepts and local keypoints located in image regions labelled with these semantic concepts. Based on this study, we investigate whether bag of visual words model can be used to efficiently represent the content of natural scene image regions, so images can be annotated with local semantic concepts. Also, this paper presents local from global approach which study the influence of using visual vocabularies generated from general scene categories to build bag of visual words at region level. Extensive experiments are conducted over a natural scene dataset with six categories. The reported results have shown the plausibility of using the BOW model to represent the semantic information of image regions.
Models of disability: the relationship between theory and practice in non-statutory organizations

Drawing on a study exploring the meaning of the ‘learning society’ for adults with learning difficulties, this article examines the relationship between theory and practice in a number of voluntary and user organizations active in the learning disability field. It begins by outlining the ethos of normalization and the social model of disability. Nine out of 10 organizations taking part in the study explicitly or implicitly identified the social model as the main framework for their activities. However, significant inconsistencies in agencies’ accounts are identified at theoretical, policy and practice levels. A number of possible explanations for these findings are examined.