Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feeding a DHA-enriched diet increases skeletal muscle protein synthesis in growing pigs: association with increased skeletal muscle insulin action and local mRNA expression of insulin-like growth factor 1

Dietary n-3 PUFA have been demonstrated to promote muscle growth in growing animals. In the present study, fractional protein synthesis rates (FSR) in the skeletal muscle of growing pigs fed a DHA-enriched (DE) diet (DE treatment) or a soyabean oil (SO) diet (SO treatment) were evaluated in the fed and feed-deprived states. Feeding-induced increases in muscle FSR, as well as the activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin and protein kinase B, were higher in the DE treatment as indicated by the positive interaction between diet and feeding. In the fed state, the activation of eIF4E-binding protein 1 in the skeletal muscle of pigs on the DE diet was higher than that in pigs on the SO diet (P <0·05). Feeding the DE diet increased muscle insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) expression (P <0·05) and insulin action (as demonstrated by increased insulin receptor (IR) phosphorylation, P <0·05), resulting in increased IR substrate 1 activation in the fed state. However, no difference in plasma IGF-1 concentration or hepatic IGF-1 expression between the two treatments was associated. The increased IGF-1 expression in the DE treatment was associated with increased mRNA expression of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 5A and decreased mRNA expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase, non-receptor type 3 in skeletal muscle. Moreover, mRNA expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase, non-receptor type 1 (PTPN1), the activation of PTPN1 and the activation of NF-κB in muscle were significantly lower in the DE treatment (P <0·05). The results of the present study suggest that feeding a DE diet increased feeding-induced muscle protein synthesis in growing pigs, and muscle IGF-1 expression and insulin action were involved in this action.
Simulation in teaching regional anesthesia: current perspectives

The emerging subspecialty of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine represents an opportunity to evaluate critically the current methods of teaching regional anesthesia techniques and the practice of acute pain medicine. To date, there have been a wide variety of simulation applications in this field, and efficacy has largely been assumed. However, a thorough review of the literature reveals that effective teaching strategies, including simulation, in regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine are not established completely yet. Future research should be directed toward comparative-effectiveness of simulation versus other accepted teaching methods, exploring the combination of procedural training with realistic clinical scenarios, and the application of simulation-based teaching curricula to a wider range of learner, from the student to the practicing physician.
Aligning Software-related Strategies in Multi-Organizational Settings

Aligning the activities of an organization with its business goals is a challenging task that is critical for success. Alignment in a multi-organizational setting requires the integration of different internal or external organizational units. The anticipated benefits of multi-organizational alignment consist of clarified contributions and increased transparency of the involved organizational units. The GQM+Strategies approach provides mechanisms for explicitly linking goals and strategies within an organization and is based on goal-oriented measurement. This paper presents the process and first-hand experience of applying GQM+Strategies in a multi-organizational setting from the aerospace industry. Additionally, the resulting GQM+Strategies grid is sketched and selected parts are discussed. Finally, the results are reflected on and an overview of future work is given.
Low-energy off-chip SDRAM memory systems for embedded applications

Memory systems are dominant energy consumers, and thus many energy reduction techniques for memory buses and devices have been proposed. For practical energy reduction practices, we have to take into account the interaction between a processor and cache memories together with application programs. Furthermore, energy characterization of memory systems must be accurate enough to justify various techniques. In this article, we build an in-house energy simulator for memory systems that is accelerated by special hardware support while maintaining accuracy. We explore energy behavior of memory systems for various values of the processor and memory clock frequencies and cache configuration. Each experiment is performed with 24M instruction steps of real application programs to guarantee accuracy.The simulator is based on precise energy characterization of memory systems including buses, bus drivers, and memory devices by a cycle-accurate energy measurement technique. We characterize energy consumption of each component by an energy state machine whose states and transitions are associated with the dynamic and static energy costs, respectively. Our approach easily characterizes the energy consumption of complex SDRAMs. We divide and quantify energy components of main memory systems for high-level reduction. The energy simulator enables us to devise practical energy reduction schemes by providing the actual amount of reduction out of the total energy consumption in main memory systems. We introduce several practical energy reduction techniques for SDRAM memory systems and demonstrate energy reduction ratio over the SDRAM memory systems with commercial SDRAM controller chipsets. We classify the SDRAM memory systems into high-performance and mid-performance classes and achieve suitable system configurations for each class. For instance, a typical high-performance 32-bit, 64 MB SDRAM memory system consumes 19.6 mJ, 33.8 mJ, 35.4 mJ, and 37.0 mJ for 24M instructions of an MP3 decoder, a JPEG compressor, a JPEG decompressor, and an MPEG4 decoder, respectively. Our reduction scheme saves 12.7 mJ, 15.1 mJ, 15.5 mJ, and 14.8 mJ, and the reduction ratios are 64.8%, 44.6%, 43.8%, and 40.1%, respectively, without compromising execution speed.
Hybrid HMM/ANN systems for training independent tasks: experiments on Phonebook and related improvements

In this paper, we evaluate multi-Gaussian HMM systems and hybrid HMM/ANN systems in the framework of task independent training for small size (75 words) and medium size (600 words) vocabularies. To do this, we use the Phonebook database (Pitrelli et al., 1995) which is particularly well suited to this kind of experiment since (1) it is a very large telephone database and (2) the size and content of the test vocabulary is very flexible. For each system, different HMM topologies are compared to test the influence of state tying (with a number of parameters approximately kept constant) on the recognition performance. Two lexica (Phonebook and CMU) are also compared and it is shown that the CMU lexicon leads to significantly better performance. Finally, it is shown that with a quite simple system and a few adaptations to the basic HMM/ANN scheme, recognition performance of 98.5% and 94.7% can easily be achieved, respectively on a lexicon of 75 and 600 words (isolated words, telephone speech and lexicon words not present in the training data).
Networked feedback control over fading channels and the relation to H2 control

This paper studies multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) discrete-time networked control systems (NCS). It assumes that a fading channel exists between the controller output and plant input. This fading channel is modeled by (white) multiplicative random processes that distort the control signal and thus weaken the mean-square (MS) stabilizability of the underlying NCS. A unitary matrix is introduced to encode and decode the control signal at the two ends of the fading channel based on which an innovative resource allocation method is developed to mitigate the channel fading. The main results of this paper reveal the true nature of H2 control for MS stabilization and provide a synthesis procedure for design of the NCS over the fading channel.
Free-Form Gesture Authentication in the Wild

Free-form gesture passwords have been introduced as an alternative mobile authentication method. Text passwords are not very suitable for mobile interaction, and methods such as PINs and grid patterns sacrifice security over usability. However, little is known about how free-form gestures perform in the wild. We present the first field study (N=91) of mobile authentication using free-form gestures, with text passwords as a baseline. Our study leveraged Experience Sampling Methodology to increase ecological validity while maintaining control of the experiment. We found that, with gesture passwords, participants generated new passwords and authenticated faster with comparable memorability while being more willing to retry. Our analysis of the gesture password dataset indicated biases in user-chosen distribution tending towards common shapes. Our findings provide useful insights towards understanding mobile device authentication and gesture-based authentication.
Embodied and Embedded Theory in Practice: The Student-Owned Learning-Engagement (SOLE) Model

The demands on academic staff in all sectors to adopt best ODL practices to create effective and efficient models of learning in the face of increasing external pressures show no signs of abating. The massification of higher education, diversified access, and pressures to meet institutional visions and research objectives demand of teaching staff an increasingly public design process subject to peer review in numerous forms. Expectations of systematized pedagogical planners and embedded templates of learning within the institutional virtual learning environments (VLEs) have, so far, failed to deliver the institutional efficiencies anticipated. In response, a new model of learning design is proposed with a practical, accessible, and freely available toolkit that embodies and embeds pedagogical theories and practices. The student-owned learning-engagement (SOLE) model aims to support professional development within practice, constructive alignment, and holistic visualisations, as well as enable the sharing of learning design processes with the learners themselves.
Between Middlemen and Interlopers: History, Diaspora, and Writing on the Lebanese of West Africa

Abstract:This article explores representations of the Lebanese in West Africa from the colonial to the postcolonial and contemporary eras. It contextualizes a diverse body of scholarly and vernacular works by examining the arrival of the Lebanese, their patterns of settlement, and the growth of their communities, while also demonstrating how academic studies of these populations developed alongside the accounts of Lebanese migrant authors and travel writers. It identifies three genres of scholarly analysis. The first focused on the Lebanese as “middlemen” in the colonial and early independence eras. The second inserted the migrants in discourses of dependency and underdevelopment during the Cold War period. The third, contemporary trend contemplates the migrants’ roles in globalizing forms of religious and national identity on one hand and the history and historiography of empire on the other. Recent works have further repositioned the story of West Africa’s Lebanese in ways that show how the migrants and their descendants reasserted their ties to their ancestral “homeland,” while redefining what it meant to be Lebanese from diasporic perspectives. Ultimately, scholarship on the Lebanese of West Africa represents a case study of the evolution of historical and social scientific deliberations on “strangers” in colonial and postcolonial societies. Periodizing this body of work demonstrates how theoretical constructs of race, religion, belonging, and identity have evolved in tandem with the historical unfolding of colonialism, decolonization, and nationalism in West Africa.
Unichos: a full system simulator for thin client platform

Thin client is a kind of interactive and graphics device in client/server and browser/server environment, which combines local and remote computing resources. The applications on the thin client (e.g., browsers) often heavily rely on the support of operating system and the functionalities of network and graphics. Hence, traditional performance evaluation methods, such as instrumentation and application-level simulation, cannot help due to their inherent limitation. This paper presents the design and implementation of Unichos, a full system simulator for thin client platform. Unichos models the complete target hardware system in object-oriented structure, and supports the unmodified Linux 2.4 kernel and graphics and network applications. Unichos is the first full system simulator, which focuses on portability for more architectures of thin client platforms by combining the retargetable instruction template and the extensible device model. Finally, we present the Unichos performance under detailed simulation status and introduce two case studies which demonstrate the advantages of Unichos for performance evaluation.
FWF-Proposal ADynNet : Gracefully Degrading Agreement in Directed Dynamic Networks

Dynamic networks, instantiated, e.g., by wireless sensor networks, mobile ad-hoc networks and vehicle area networks as well as by peer-to-peer and even social networks, are becoming ubiquitous nowadays. The primary properties of such networks are (i) sets of participants (called processes in the sequel) that are a priori unknown and potentially time-varying, (ii) time-varying connectivity between processes, and (iii) the absence of central control. Such assumptions make it already very difficult to setup and maintain the basic communication system, and create particular challenges for the design of robust distributed services for applications running on such dynamic networks. Accurately modeling communication in dynamic networks is challenging:
A Novel Method for Single-Channel CSAR Ground Moving Target Imaging

Recently, the parameter estimation and focusing of ground moving target in the circular SAR (CSAR) attracts widely interest in researchers. In this paper, a sub-aperture-based frequency domain algorithm that divides the CSAR trajectory into sub-apertures is proposed, which achieves better focusing quality than that of the traditional straight-line fitting method. First, the CSAR sub-aperture is fitted by a parabola with special curvature, and the effectiveness of this fitting is analyzed. Next, a parameter estimation method is proposed to estimate the motion parameters of the ground moving target for each sub-aperture. Finally, the moving target is refocused based on the estimation results. Simulation as well as the real CSAR data processing results verified the theoretical analysis of the proposed method.
Trust in Private and Common Property Experiments

We report the results from a series of experiments designed to investigate behavior in two settings that are frequently posited in the policy literature as generating different outcomes: private property and common property. The experimental settings closely parallel earlier experimental studies of the investment or trust game. The primary research question relates to the effect of the initial allocation of property rights on the level of trust that subjects will extend to others with whom they are linked. We find that assigning the initial endowments as common property of each of N pairs of a first mover and second mover leads to marginally greater cooperation or trust than when the initial endowments are fully owned by the two individual movers as their, respective, private property. SubjectsA¢? decisions are also shown to be correlated with attitudes toward trust and fairness that are measured in post-experiment questionnaires.
Design of Low Power Memristor Non-Volatile Dram Cell with Footer Switch

In this paper Memristor based non-volatile DRAM was proposed. DRAM has low transistor count per cell compared to SRAM which promotes Moore's law in VLSI designs. The main drawback is its dynamic nature, hence the need for signal refreshing. The reduction of charge on the storage capacitor is due to leakage. The fast feature size scaling has caused sharp increase in the leakage, resulting in need for the leakage power to be treated carefully. In this research besides adding the non-volatile property to the 3T1D DRAM cell, a method to reduce idle power using sleeper transistor was also propose hence the designing of the 5T1D1M cell. The circuit achieves this by reducing the idle leakage current with the use of FinFETs and sleepy keeper transistor. The designs and simulations were done with the help of cadence virtuoso tool at 45nm technology.
A fast clustering algorithm in image segmentation

Image segmentation is the basis of image analysis & understanding, and a crucial part and an oldest and hardest problem of image processing. Clustering, a vital element of model identification field means distinguishing and classifying things that are provided with similar properties. As it so happens that the problem of image segmentation is exactly the problem of classifying pixel set of image, clustering analysis is naturally applied into image segmentation. Based on image segmentation and model identification technologies and considering application characteristics of clustering method into image segmentation, this paper proposes a fuzzy clustering application into image segmentation.
A compact wide-locking range divide-by-4 static divider for mm-wave applications

A wide-locking range divide-by-4 static frequency divider for the mm-wave wireless applications is proposed. The capacitive-bridged inductive shunt peaking technique is investigated for widening the locking range and a compact layout area. The divider is realized in 65nm LP CMOS with a small area of 100μm × 160μm occupied. Measurement results show the present divider achieves an operation range percentage of 35.2%, from 34GHz to 48.5GHz with a current consumption of 25mA at 1.2V supply voltage.
Mechanical characterization of fixed undifferentiated and differentiating mESC

Conventionally, biologists detect cell status visually based on protein markers. These assays are often qualitative and do not quantitatively define the outcome of a cell progression during differentiation. Consequently, we propose to develop an atomic force microscopy (AFM) based system that can be used to mechanically manipulate and characterize an individual cell. We have also connected a haptic feedback interface comprising of a PHANToM haptic feedback device to obtain a qualitative force feedback response when the AFM probe contacts the cell membrane. The system has the capability of measuring forces in nN range and provides a haptic display of the cell indentation forces in real time. We conducted experiments on mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC) roughly 10 mum in diameter and 7-10 mum in height at the interphase stage of the cell division process. Specifically, we performed single indentation studies of 2-2.5 mum on multiple fixed mESC, - early differentiating (6 days under differentiation conditions) and undifferentiated to determine the local elastic modulus of the cell membrane. Our experimental results indicate that the mechanical property of undifferentiated mESC differs from differentiating mESC in fixed cells.
Dense Linear Algebra on Distributed Heterogeneous Hardware with a Symbolic DAG Approach

Dense Linear Algebra on Distributed Heterogeneous Hardware with a Symbolic DAG Approach George Bosilca Thomas Herault Aurelien Bouteiller Piotr Luszczek Anthony Danalis Jack J. Dongarra January 24, 2012 Introduction and Motivation Among the various factors that drive the momentous changes occurring in the design of microprocessors and high end systems [1], three stand out as especially notable: 1. the number of transistors per chip will continue the current trend, i.e. double roughly every 18 months, while the speed of processor clocks will cease to in- crease; 2. the physical limit on the number and bandwidth of the CPUs pins is becoming a near-term reality; 3. a strong drift toward hybrid/heterogeneous systems for petascale (and larger) systems is taking place. While the first two involve fundamental physical limitations that current technology trends are unlikely to overcome in the near term, the third is an obvious consequence of the first two, combined with the economic necessity of using many thousands of computational units to scale up to petascale and larger systems. More transistors and slower clocks require multicore designs and an increased par- allelism. The fundamental laws of traditional processor design – increasing transistor density, speeding up clock rate, lowering voltage – have now been stopped by a set of physical barriers: excess heat produced, too much power consumed, too much energy leaked, and useful signal overcome by noise. Multicore designs are a natural evolu- tionary response to this situation. By putting multiple processor cores on a single die, architects can overcome the previous limitations, and continue to increase the num- ber of gates per chip without increasing the power densities. However, since excess heat production means that frequencies cannot be further increased, deep-and-narrow pipeline models will tend to recede as shallow-and-wide pipeline designs become the norm. Moreover, despite obvious similarities, multicore processors are not equiva- lent to multiple-CPUs or to SMPs. Multiple cores on the same chip can share various
Energy-Efﬁcient Resource Allocation for Device-to-Device Underlay Communication

—Device-to-device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular networks is expected to bring signiﬁcant beneﬁts for utilizing resources, improving user throughput and extending battery life of user equipments. However, the allocation of radio and power resources to D2D communication needs elaborate coordination, as D2D communication can cause interference to cellular communication. In this paper, we study joint channel and power allocation to improve the energy efﬁciency of user equipments. To solve the problem efﬁciently, we introduce an iterative combinatorial auction algorithm, where the D2D users are considered as bidders that compete for channel resources, and the cellular network is treated as the auctioneer. We also analyze important properties of D2D underlay communication, and present numerical simulations to verify the proposed algorithm.
Lower Extremity Strength and the Range of Motion in Relation to Squat Depth

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine which variables of the range of motion (ROM) and strength of the hip, and ankle are associated with squat depth. In total, 101 healthy subjects (64 males, 37 females) participated in the study. Outcome measures consisted of the ROM of hip flexion, hip internal rotation, external rotation, ankle dorsiflexion with an extended and flexed knee joint, and strength of the hip flexor and ankle dorsiflexor. Squat depth was measured using SIMI motion analysis software. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between variables and squat depth. Multiple stepwise regression analysis was performed to determine variables associated with squat depth. The multiple regression model indicated that ankle dorsiflexion with a flexed knee and the hip flexion ROM were significantly associated with squat depth in male subjects (R2 = 0.435) and ankle dorsiflexion with an extended knee and dorsiflexor strength were significantly associated with squat depth in female subjects (R2 = 0.324). Thus, exercises to increase the ROM of the ankle dorsiflexion, hip flexion, and dorsiflexor strength can be recommended to improve squat performance. Future studies should assess an increased ROM of the ankle dorsiflexion, hip flexion, or dorsiflexor strength effect on deep squat performance.