Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Low-Complexity Synchronization Based Cache Coherence Solution for Many Cores

Computer architectures make a dramatic turn away from improving single-processor performance towards improved parallel performance through integrating many cores in one chip. However, providing directory based coherence protocols for these platforms is too complex and expensive. As a substitute, we propose a synchronization based cache coherence solution, which uses different cache policies according to three flexible software guided scopes (exclusion, producer and consumer scopes) to solve the data-race and coherence problem. Furthermore, this protocol implements word dirty bits (only one bit per word is needed in each L1 cache line) and a special hardware synchronization manager (HSM) to support multi-writer, the write-validate policy and to eliminate the remote un-cache spinning at the “flag”. We evaluate Godson-T, a platform supporting this protocol, against an idealized interleaved dual tag directory based protocol on the Splash2 and two bioinformatics benchmarks. The performance of the synch-based protocol is degraded only at 3.2% on average, but the real chip area is reduced at 32% even if the overhead of HSM is included.
fUML-Driven Performance Analysis through the MOSES Model Library

The growing request for high-quality applications for embedded systems demands model-driven approaches that facilitate their design as well as the verification and validation activities. In this paper we present MOSES, a model-driven performance analysis methodology based on Foundational UML (fUML). Implemented as an executable model library, MOSES provides data structures, as Classes, and algorithms, as Activities, which can be imported to instrument fUML models and then to carry out the performance analysis of the modeled system through fUML model simulation. An industrial case study is provided to showMOSES at work, its achievements and its future challenges.
Handling Noise in Single Image Deblurring Using Directional Filters

State-of-the-art single image deblurring techniques are sensitive to image noise. Even a small amount of noise, which is inevitable in low-light conditions, can degrade the quality of blur kernel estimation dramatically. The recent approach of Tai and Lin [17] tries to iteratively denoise and deblur a blurry and noisy image. However, as we show in this work, directly applying image denoising methods often partially damages the blur information that is extracted from the input image, leading to biased kernel estimation. We propose a new method for handling noise in blind image deconvolution based on new theoretical and practical insights. Our key observation is that applying a directional low-pass filter to the input image greatly reduces the noise level, while preserving the blur information in the orthogonal direction to the filter. Based on this observation, our method applies a series of directional filters at different orientations to the input image, and estimates an accurate Radon transform of the blur kernel from each filtered image. Finally, we reconstruct the blur kernel using inverse Radon transform. Experimental results on synthetic and real data show that our algorithm achieves higher quality results than previous approaches on blurry and noisy images.
How to Motivate Adults to Check for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Using Three Types of Triggers

In the United States, about 1/3 of seniors die with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) or a related dementia. Age, family history, education, and lifestyle are some of the most important factors leading to AD among adults. This research paper investigates how to motivate adults who are 50 years or older to visit a/their primary physician regularly in order to discover AD in the early stage by the influence of three triggers. Fogg’s Behavioral Model (FBM) was used as the basis for this study. This research involved conducting semi-structured interviews in three case studies using three triggers: oral documentation, video, and a smartphone app. The findings showed that the smartphone app and the oral documentation triggers had a positive impact in motivating people to have the intention to carry out the target behavior. However, the video trigger had low impact in terms of motivating people.
Using Physical Modeling and RGB-D Registration for Contact Force Sensing on Deformable Objects

In this paper we propose a method to estimate the force applied to a manipulated deformable object by processing information provided by an external vision sensor, in this case a consumer RGB-D camera. By measuring the deformations undergone by the object through a registration technique, the idea is to retrieve the contact force which minimises the deviation between the measured and the simulated deformations, given a simple interaction model and by employing a fitting process. The system resorts to a realistic mesh-based Finite Element Method model to accurately model deformations, whose elastic parameters are estimated in advance using the vision system and a force sensor. Experimental results are presented for the case of a compressive point-wise contact force applied, at static equilibrium, on a deformable object.
Heteroscedasticity in Stochastic Frontier Models: a Monte Carlo Analysis

This paper uses Monte Carlo experimentation to investigate the finite sample properties of the maximum likelihood (ML) estimators of the half-normal stochastic frontier production functions in the presence of heteroscedasticity. It is found that when heteroscedasticity exists correcting for it leads not only to a substantial improvement of the statistical properties of estimators but also to improved efficiency and ranking measures. On the other hand correcting for heteroscedasticity when there is none has serious adverse results. Hence, there is a need for testing for heteroscedasticity and if there is any the appropriate correction should be made.
Knockdown of the HDAC1 Promotes the Directed Differentiation of Bone Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Cardiomyocytes

Failure of the directed differentiation of the transplanted stem cells into cardiomyocytes is still a major challenge of cardiac regeneration therapy. Our recent study has demonstrated that the expression of histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) is decreased in bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) during their differentiation into cardiomyocytes. However, the potential roles of HDAC1 in cardiac cell differentiation of BMSCs, as well as the mechanisms involved are still unclear. In current study, the expression of HDAC1 in cultured rat BMSCs is knocked down by lentiviral vectors expressing HDAC1-RNAi. The directed differentiation of BMSCs into cardiomyocytes is evaluated by the expression levels of cardiomyocyte-related genes such as GATA-binding protein 4 (GATA-4), Nirenberg, Kim gene 2 homeobox 5 (Nkx2.5), cardiac troponin T (CTnT), myosin heavy chain (MHC), and connexin-43. Compared with that in control BMSCs, the expression of these cardiomyocyte-related genes is significantly increased in these HDAC1 deficient stem cells. The results suggest that HDAC1 is involved in the cardiomyocyte differentiation of BMSCs. Knockdown of the HDAC1 may promote the directed differentiation of BMSCs into cardiomyocytes.
Maternal Demographic and Placental Risk Factors in Term Low Birth Weight in Ghana

Background: Several studies report on factors that associate preterm birth and intrauterine growth restriction with low birth weight (LBW). However, few studies discuss risk factors that associate with LBW for full-term births. No such studies exist that involve a population from Ghana. Method: We used a nested case-control study approach to examine maternal socio-demographic and placental factors that contribute significantly to term LBW in Ghana. We assessed also the incidence of LBW in general at a major teaching hospital facility in Ghana. Results: Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to investigate maternal sociodemographic and placental factors that associate with LBW. Following the preliminary univariate analysis, a stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that unstable income source, single motherhood, combined effect of pre-eclampsia and anaemia; ORs of 5.366 (95% CI: 1.986 to 14.497), 21.390 (95% CI: 3.610 to 126.734) and 3.246 (95% CI: 1.074 to 9.814), respectively, and placental weight and irregular insertion of the umbilical cord (variables scaled by a factor of 10-2 to aid interpretation) ORs 0.28 (95% CI: 0.115 to 0.683), 0.010 (95% CI: 0.001 to 0.173 respectively) on the chorionic plate, were risk factors for LBW. The socio-demographic and placental factors reveal a core role of maternal and infant nutritional deficiencies in term LBW in Ghana. The general prevalence of LBW in the Hospital facility was 6.2%. Conclusion: We conclude that poor maternal and infant nutrient supply is key factors in term LBW in Ghana. These factors are amenable to appropriate nutritional and educational interventions.
A Search Strategy Guided by Uncovered Branches for Concolic Testing

Test generation plays an important role in software testing. Concolic testing runs concrete executions on programs simultaneously with symbolic executions. It faces the same problem as symbolic execution when generating test inputs, namely the combinatorial explosion of the path space. Most of the existing approaches can search only a fraction of the path space. Therefore, how to cover as many branches as possible with a few test inputs becomes an important research issue. Upon this issue, the paper proposes a heuristic search strategy based on inter-procedural control flow graph. The proposed strategy calculates the approximate mathematic expectation of uncovered branches. Then this expectation guides the search process to select the optimal branch to form a path condition. According to the path condition, the test input that may cover a large number of uncovered branches is generated. Experiments on three classes of test benchmarks show that, compared to the other strategies, the proposed strategy can significantly reduce the number of test inputs for covering reachable branches, and achieve high branch coverage quickly.
Natural transformation in Campylobacter species

Growing cells of Campylobacter coli and C. jejuni were naturally transformed by naked DNA without the requirement for any special treatment. Transformation frequencies for homologous chromosomal DNA were approximately 10(-3) transformants per recipient cell in C. coli and 10(-4) in C. jejuni. Maximum competence was found in the early log phase of growth. Campylobacters preferentially took up their own DNA in comparison with Escherichia coli chromosomal DNA, which was taken up very poorly. Three new Campylobacter spp. -to-E. coli shuttle plasmids, which contained additional cloning sites and selectable markers, were constructed from the shuttle vector pILL550A. These plasmid DNAs were taken up by campylobacters much less efficiently than was homologous chromosomal DNA, and transformation into plasmid-free cells was very rare. However, with the use of recipients containing a homologous plasmid, approximately 10(-4) transformants per cell were obtained. The tetM determinant, originally obtained from Streptococcus spp. and not heretofore reported in Campylobacter spp. , was isolated from an E. coli plasmid and was introduced, selecting for tetracycline resistance, by natural transformation into C. coli.
Policy Iteration is well suited to optimize PageRank

The question of knowing whether the policy Iteration algorithm (PI) for solving Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) has exponential or (strongly) polynomial complexity has attracted much attention in the last 50 years. Recently, Fearnley proposed an example on which PI needs an exponential number of iterations to converge. Though, it has been observed that Fearnley’s example leaves open the possibility that PI behaves well in many particular cases, such as in problems that involve a fixed discount factor, or that are restricted to deterministic actions. In this paper, we analyze a large class of MDPs and we argue that PI is ecient in that case. The problems in this class are obtained when optimizing the PageRank of a particular node in the Markov chain. They are motivated by several practical applications. We show that adding natural constraints to this PageRank Optimization problem (PRO) makes it equivalent to the problem of optimizing the length of a stochastic path, which is a widely studied family of MDPs. Finally, we conjecture that PI runs in a polynomial number of iterations when applied to PRO. We give numerical arguments as well as the proof of our conjecture in a number of particular cases of practical importance.
A Research Note on the Influence of Outcome Knowledge on Audit Partners' Judgments

Audit partners may be called upon to evaluate, ex post, the work of another auditor. One example of such an evaluation is a Peer Review. An experiment was conducted that examined the influence of outcome knowledge on the going concern and peer evaluation judgments of 122 audit partners from Canada and the United States. Outcome information was manipulated at three levels—no outcome, negative outcome, and positive outcome information. The results confirm previous research and show that audit partners are subject to the influence of outcome information. Negative outcome information influenced (1) audit partners' assessments of the likelihood of the client's continued existence (hindsight effects), (2) the evaluation of the incumbent auditor's judgment (outcome effects), and (3) judgments of the importance of evidence items. Auditors who received outcome information tended to rate outcome‐consistent items of evidence as more important. This suggests that the biasing effect of outcome knowledge operates by ac.
Mosaic paternal uniparental (iso)disomy for chromosome 20 associated with multiple anomalies

Uniparental disomy for a number of human chromosomes is associated with clinical abnormalities. We report a child with a complex chromosomal rearrangement involving chromosome 20 (45,XY,psu dic (20;20)(p13;p13)) and paternal uniparental isodisomy for chromosome 20 in peripheral blood and bone marrow. This patient had multiple congenital abnormalities including microtia/anotia, micrencephaly, congenital heart disease, neuronal subependymal heterotopias, and colonic agangliosis. Molecular studies on DNA from peripheral blood demonstrated paternal uniparental inheritance of chromosome 20. However, fibroblasts demonstrated a mosaic karyotype, with one cell line having 45 chromosomes, including the pseudodicentric chromosome 20 (75% of cells), and a second cell line having 46 chromosomes, including the pseudodicentric chromosome 20, and a normal chromosome 20 (trisomy 20) (25% of cells). FISH experiments using a sub‐telomeric probe that maps ∼120 kb from the 20p telomere, showed that both copies of these sequences were present on the rearranged chromosome, consistent with deletion of a very small interval. This leads us to suggest that in addition to trisomy 20 mosaicism, paternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 20 could contribute to his clinical phenotype. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Innovations in Practice: Adolescent Mentalization-Based Integrative Therapy (AMBIT) - a new integrated approach to working with the most hard to reach adolescents with severe complex mental health needs.

BACKGROUND 'Hard to reach' young people are associated by virtue of their serious, multiple, and complex needs, the difficulty of delivering effective help to them, and their poor long-term outcomes. There is a lack of published evidence relating to the effectiveness of interventions directed at this group. METHOD We review these concerns and the options available to service commissioners and clinicians seeking, if not an evidence-based approach then at least an evidence-oriented one. A mentalization-based multimodal intervention (AMBIT) is briefly described, proposing a new kind of specialist practitioner and taking a radically different approach to treatment manualization. RESULTS A brief description is given of the different settings in which AMBIT is currently being developed, deployed, and evaluated, and of lessons learned. CONCLUSIONS AMBIT offers promise as an evolving 'open source' framework supporting development of evidence-based local practice in chaotic complex settings.
Meanings of modesty and the hijab amongst Muslim women in Glasgow, Scotland

Based on interviews with 30 Muslim women in Glasgow, Scotland, the study explores the meanings that the women attach to modesty and the hijab. Fifteen of the 30 participants wear the hijab. The article begins with an overview of the debate between traditional Muslim scholars and Muslim feminists about whether the hijab is an Islamic obligation. It illuminates the significance of space, as veiling practices are deeply enmeshed and embedded in the spatial practices shaped by the local Scottish context. The findings and analysis reveal differences as well as similarities between wearers and non-wearers of the hijab. While the former regard the hijab as an embodiment of modesty, virtue and respect, the latter consider it an unnecessary piece of clothing. However, despite their contrasting views on veiling, both groups of participants hold remarkably similar views on the importance of female modesty.
Predicting Emotions in Groups: Some Lessons from September 11

First, this chapter examines the emotional responses of 10 different publics to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Through the application of power/status theory (Kemper, 1978), different publics are hypothesized to have different emotions. In all, six emotions—anger, sadness, fear, joy, guilt and shame—are differentially attributed to the ten publics. Second, this chapter inquires into the efficacy of predicting emotions for both individuals and groups. Predictions for individuals may have somewhat greater utility, given that they provide for enlightenment and control, but for both individuals and groups, emotions may be seen as intervening variables of relatively low sociological value. It would be more important sociologically to know the coping responses the emotions lead to. Here theory is relatively scant. Four structural conditions are proposed that may advance understanding of how, under certain conditions, emotions may lead to sociologically relevant coping. Finally, this chapter considers some differences between individual emotions and what may be called ‘group’ emotions. The principle difference is that individuals, even when emotionally conflicted, experience emotions in their entirety, while groups usually experience a division of labour of the emotion, with different members differentially invested in what can be seen as the dominant emotion of the group. Unlike in individuals, where conflicting emotions are likely to be resolved by a coping response that attempts to accommodate the competing emotions, group coping responses unfold in a social process that is sometimes violent, as different factions compete to establish their emotions and preferred coping responses as conclusive for the entire group.
Adaptation and validation of an FFQ for 6–10-year-old children

Abstract Objective To adapt and test the relative validity of an instrument measuring the usual food intake of 6–10-year-old children. Design An FFQ encompassing the preceding 6 months was adapted and compared with the average of three 24 h dietary recalls. Setting Private and public schools in Porto Alegre, capital city of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil, with 1·5 million inhabitants. Subjects Children aged 6–10 years attending grades 1–4 in private and public schools in Porto Alegre. Results Ninety-one children were studied. The FFQ overestimated all nutrients. Correlations with the values obtained by 24 h dietary recalls were mostly above 0·50. The deattenuated correlations increased for all nutrients. The κ coefficients for the adjusted nutrients varied from 0·12 (weak) to 0·34 (reasonable). Graphically, the FFQ was shown to underestimate some of the parameters and to overestimate others, with a wide CI for all nutrients. Conclusions The FFQ does not have the required relative validity to classify the intake levels of schoolchildren, and further investigation is required to understand the sources of error.
Personalizing Bibliographic Recommendation under Semantic Web Perspective

This paper describes a Recommender System for scientific articles in digital libraries for the Computer Science researchers’ community. The system employs the Dublin Core metadata standard for the documents description, the XML standard for describing user profile, which is based on the user’s Curriculum, and on service and data providers to generate recommendations. The main contribution of this work is to provide a recommendation mechanism based on the user academic curriculum reducing the human effort spent on the profile generation. In addition, this article presents and discusses some experiments that are based on quantitative and qualitative evaluations.
Stochastic Analysis of a Stable Normalized Least Mean Fourth Algorithm for Adaptive Noise Canceling With a White Gaussian Reference

The least mean fourth (LMF) algorithm has several stability problems. Its stability depends on the variance and distribution type of the adaptive filter input, the noise variance, and the initialization of the filter weights. A global solution to these stability problems was presented recently for a normalized LMF (NLMF) algorithm. Here, a stochastic analysis of the mean-square deviation (MSD) of the globally stable NLMF algorithm is provided. The analysis is done in the context of adaptive noise canceling with a white Gaussian reference input and Gaussian, binary, and uniform desired signals. The analytical model is shown to accurately predict the results of Monte Carlo simulations. Comparisons of the NLMF and NLMS algorithms are then made for various parameter selections. It is then shown under what conditions the NLMF algorithm is superior to NLMS algorithm for adaptive noise canceling.