Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mobile backhaul in heterogeneous network deployments: Technology options and power consumption

Mobile communication networks account for 0.5% of the global energy consumption, a value that is expected to double within the next five years. For this reason, means of reducing the energy consumption in cellular mobile radio networks has recently gained great interest within the research community. In mobile networks the backhaul contribution to the total power consumption is usually neglected because of its limited impact compared to that of the radio base stations. However, meeting the almost exponential increase in mobile data traffic requires a large number of (mainly small) base stations. This means that backhaul networks will take a significant share of the cost and the energy consumption in future systems. Their actual contribution to the energy consumption will depend on the radio base station deployment scenario as well as on the technology and topology choices for the backhaul itself. This paper presents an initial assessment of the power consumption of two established backhaul technologies, i.e., fiber and microwave. For the microwave case, three backhaul topologies are considered, i.e., tree, ring and star, while for the fiber case only one topology is analysed, i.e., a dedicated point-to-point star. The presented results, assuming off-the-shelf products and based on todays network capacity levels, confirm the importance of considering the backhaul when minimizing the total power consumption in heterogeneous network scenarios. They also show the impact of the basic technology and topology choices of the backhaul for minimizing total power consumption.
Test of a majority-based reversible (quantum) 4 bits ripple-carry adder in adiabatic calculation

Quantum computing and circuits are of growing interest and so is reversible logic as it plays an important role in the synthesis of circuits dedicated to quantum computation. Moreover, reversible logic provides an alternative to classical computing machines, that may overcome many of the power dissipation problems in the near future. As a proof of concept we designed and tested a reversible 4 bits ripple-carry adder based on a do-spy-undo structure. This paper presents some performances obtained with such a chip processed in standard 0.35 µm CMOS technology and used in real reversible calculation (in this study, computations are performed in both directions such that addition and subtraction are made reversibly with the same chip). We also discuss the superiority of using adiabatic signals over classical rectangular pulses when using dual-line pass-transistor logic gates. Adiabatic signals allow the signal energy stored on the various capacitances of the circuit to be redistributed rather than being dissipated as heat. Finally, we show that adiabatic signals allow to avoid calculation errors introduced by the use of conventional rectangular pulses and allow to drastically reduce the number of pulse resynchronization in large circuits.
Compositional Real-Time Scheduling of Mixed-Criticality Real-Time Systems

Compositional real-time scheduling frameworks provide ways for building large and complex real-time embedded systems from independent sub-systems. This paper introduces a novel scheme for scheduling a component of Mixed-Criticality (MC) sporadic tasks on uniprocessor system. It characterizes the mixed criticality resource allocations, and the interface model for abstracting the real-time requirements of such a component. The demand bound function and supply bound function for the low and high criticality modes are derived to determine the schedulability of a component in both modes. The execution times of jobs are monitored in this approach. If it is detected that the behavior of system is inconsistent with low criticality level, then tasks of low criticalities are discarded and the priorities of high criticality tasks are re-ordered in high criticality mode to guarantee the schedulabilty of high criticality tasks. We propose a new algorithm, which schedules a component of mixed criticality jobs in low mode through MC Rate Monotonic (MC-RM) algorithm by applying period transformation, and guarantees the schedulabilty by using MC Earliest Deadline First (MC-EDF) algorithm in high mode.
Overlapping camera clustering through dominant sets for scalable 3D reconstruction

In this work we present a method for clustering large unordered sets of cameras. Our method uses camera view information available from Structure-from-Motion (SfM) for computing a set of overlapping clusters suited for Multi-View Stereo (MVS) reconstruction. Our formulation of the problem uses the game theoretic model of dominant sets to find competing clustering solutions with computational simplicity. The overlapping solutions ensure more robust partial reconstructions. Experimental evaluations show that our method produces more regular cluster and overlap configurations with respect to the state of the art. This allows more scalable and higher quality reconstructions, while speeding up 6 times with respect to a MVS which uses all images at once.
Multiplex analysis of the most common mutations related to hereditary haemochromatosis: two methods combining specific amplification with capillary electrophoresis

We present the first application of a multiplex multicolour assay for the simultaneous detection of three of the most frequent mutations related to hereditary haemochromatosis (C282Y, H63D and S65C), using fluorescent detection and capillary electrophoresis. We describe two methods: the first is based on a single base extension assay, resulting in a single base difference of the extended products; and the second is a competitive allele‐specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR), based on competition between allele‐specific primers. Specificity of the latter primers is enhanced with a mismatch at the antepenultimate nucleotide. Primers are designed to amplify products of different sizes and with different fluorescent dyes in order to accurately distinguish all possible combinations of genotypes (homozygous and heterozygous for each mutation) in a multiplex PCR analysis. An advantage of the present approach is that capillary electrophoresis analysis of the amplified products enables easy, rapid, unambiguous and high resolution discrimination between wild‐type and mutant alleles, although different mutations may be present in the multiplex analysis. This will facilitate automated genotyping for routine molecular diagnostics and large‐scale genetic studies.
Difference engine

Virtual machine monitors (VMMs) are a popular platform for Internet hosting centers and cloud-based compute services. By multiplexing hardware resources among virtual machines (VMs) running commodity operating systems, VMMs decrease both the capital outlay and management overhead of hosting centers. Appropriate placement and migration policies can take advantage of statistical multiplexing to effectively utilize available processors. However, main memory is not amenable to such multiplexing and is often the primary bottleneck in achieving higher degrees of consolidation. Previous efforts have shown that content-based page sharing provides modest decreases in the memory footprint of VMs running similar operating systems and applications. Our studies show that significant additional gains can be had by leveraging both subpage level sharing (through page patching) and incore memory compression. We build Difference Engine, an extension to the Xen VMM, to support each of these---in addition to standard copy-on-write full-page sharing---and demonstrate substantial savings across VMs running disparate workloads (up to 65%). In head-to-head memory-savings comparisons, Difference Engine outperforms VMware ESX server by a factor 1.6--2.5 for heterogeneous workloads. In all cases, the performance overhead of Difference Engine is less than 7%.
Dynamic skinning: adding real-time dynamic effects to an existing character animation

This paper proposes a simple and efficient technique to enhance classical animations of characters by adding a dynamic response of the skin to the movement of the underlying skeleton. The dynamic effects are locally added to the shape obtained through the standard skinning by specifying flesh elements. Our solution relies on a new second skinning operation that blends the current flesh volume computed through smooth skinning with its position in a dynamic frame attached to the skeleton through a visco-elastic element which, combined with a set of weights, controls the local behavior of tissues. We show how the weights can be automatically computed, taking into account the morphology of the limb. The resulting real-time technique is well suited to video games or any application where we need to add dynamic effects, at almost no cost, to an existing animation sequence.
A Statistical Approach to Biometric Identity Verification Based on Heart Sounds

One of the most recent innovations in the field of biometric recognition is the usage of heart sounds as physiological traits for identity verification. In this paper, we propose a statistical approach, supported by Gaussian Mixture Models, to the the problem of biometric identity verification based on heart sounds. The system is validated on a database of heart sounds acquired from 147 people, and shows a significant performance improvement with respect to other approaches, yielding an Equal Error Rate of 15.53 %.
Tension in Chemistry and Its Contents

This article makes a case for a positive role of tension in the creative process in chemistry. I begin with an argument that there is an inherent tension in what makes molecules interesting—their positioning along various polar axes. One of these, the age-old differentiation between useful (to society and for personal profit) commercialization and pure understanding of molecules and their reactions is characteristic. The question of whether there are any bad molecules then leads me to ethical concerns in chemistry, and a particular working out of these in interactions of chemists in the Middle East. An analysis is made of the special tensions involved in publishing, especially in citation ethics; chemists publish a lot, so this is situation ethics worked out on a daily basis. I then find in the literature of psychology good evidence for the positive value of moderate stress in stimulating creativity. It is obvious that too much tension leads to distress, and there are some institutional aspects of chemistry that do not come out well here. But all in all, the dynamic middle is alive, and it leads to good new science.
Health Care Reform and the Number of Doctor Visits - an Econometric Analysis

The paper evaluates the German health care reform of 1997, using the individual number of doctor visits as outcome measure. A new econometric model, the Probit-Poisson-log-normal model with correlated errors, describes the data better than existing count data models. Moreover, it has an attractive structural interpretation, as it allows the reforms to have a different effect at different parts of the distribution. The overall effect of the reform was a 10 percent reduction in the number of doctor visits. The effect was much larger in the lower part of the distribution than in the upper part.
Mindful Parenting, Affective Attunement, and Maternal Depression: A Call for Research

A power assist apparatus which includes a battery pack that connects with a motor housing with the battery pack being removably mounted on the frame of the bicycle and the motor housing being mounted on a mounting plate which is carried by one of the support wheels of the bicycle. The power assist apparatus is designed to not only assist in the manual operation of the bicycle but also as a sole source of power for the bicycle. The mounting plate is to be affixed to the frame of the bicycle upon the desired location being selected for the mounting plate. The motor assembly operates a drive gear, pulley or sprocket which connects to a driven gear, pulley or sprocket which is mounted in conjunction with one of the support wheels of the bicycle. The motor housing may be disconnectable from the mounting plate as also the battery pack is capable of being disengaged from the frame of the bicycle permitting the bicycle to be used as a conventional bicycle without the power assist apparatus. The motor assembly is indexed to the axle of the support wheel maintaining accurate alignment in all operating conditions and upon repeated engagements and disengagements of the support wheel from the bicycle frame.
Typestate-based semantic code search over partial programs

We present a novel code search approach for answering queries focused on API-usage with code showing how the API should be used. To construct a search index, we develop new techniques for statically mining and consolidating temporal API specifications from code snippets. In contrast to existing semantic-based techniques, our approach handles partial programs in the form of code snippets. Handling snippets allows us to consume code from various sources such as parts of open source projects, educational resources (e.g. tutorials), and expert code sites. To handle code snippets, our approach (i) extracts a possibly partial temporal specification from each snippet using a relatively precise static analysis tracking a generalized notion of typestate, and (ii) consolidates the partial temporal specifications, combining consistent partial information to yield consolidated temporal specifications, each of which captures a full(er) usage scenario. To answer a search query, we define a notion of relaxed inclusion matching a query against temporal specifications and their corresponding code snippets. We have implemented our approach in a tool called PRIME and applied it to search for API usage of several challenging APIs. PRIME was able to analyze and consolidate thousands of snippets per tested API, and our results indicate that the combination of a relatively precise analysis and consolidation allowed PRIME to answer challenging queries effectively.
Random Access over Wireless Links: Optimal Rate and Activity Probability Selection

In this paper, we consider a random access scheme over wireless fading channels based on slotted ALOHA where each user independently decides whether to send a packet or not to a common receiver at any given time slot. To characterize the system throughput, i.e., the expected sum- rate, an information theoretic formulation is developed. We consider two scenarios: classical slotted ALOHA where no multi-user detection (MUD) capability is available and slotted ALOHA with MUD. Our main contribution is that the optimal rates and channel activity probabilities can be characterized as a function of the user distances to the receiver to maximize the system throughput. In addition, we address the issue of fairness among the users and provide solutions, which guarantee a minimum amount of individual throughput.
4‐Substituted Thioquinolines and Thiazoloquinolines: Potent, Selective, and Tween‐80 in vitro Dependent Families of Antitubercular Agents with Moderate in vivo Activity

Two new families of closely related selective, non‐cytotoxic, and potent antitubercular agents were discovered: thioquinolines and thiazoloquinolines. The compounds were found to possess potent antitubercular properties in vitro, an activity that is dependent on experimental conditions of MIC determination (resazurin test and the presence or absence of Tween‐80). To clarify the therapeutic potential of these compound families, a medicinal chemistry effort was undertaken to generate a lead‐like structure that would enable murine efficacy studies and help elucidate the in vivo implications of the in vitro observations. Although the final compounds showed only limited levels of systemic exposure in mice, modest levels of efficacy in vivo at nontoxic doses were observed.
Involvement of the N-terminal B-box Domain of Arabidopsis BBX32 Protein in Interaction with Soybean BBX62 Protein*

Background: AtBBX32 is a member of the B-box protein family from A. thaliana. Its molecular mechanism is poorly understood. Results: We demonstrate functional interactions of AtBBX32 with soybean BBX62 (GmBBX62). Conclusion: The N-terminal B-box domain plays a key role in mediating the interaction between AtBBX32 and GmBBX62. Significance: Our data offer novel insight into the role of B-box domains in mediating protein-protein interactions between different plant B-box proteins. Previous studies have demonstrated that Arabidopsis thaliana BBX32 (AtBBX32) represses light signaling in A. thaliana and that expression of AtBBX32 in soybean increases grain yield in multiple locations and multiyear field trials. The BBX32 protein is a member of the B-box zinc finger family from A. thaliana and contains a single conserved Zn2+-binding B-box domain at the N terminus. Although the B-box domain is predicted to be involved in protein-protein interactions, the mechanism of interaction is poorly understood. Here, we provide in vitro and in vivo evidence demonstrating the physical and functional interactions of AtBBX32 with another B-box protein, soybean BBX62 (GmBBX62). Deletion analysis and characterization of the purified B-box domain indicate that the N-terminal B-box region of AtBBX32 interacts with GmBBX62. Computational modeling and site-directed mutagenesis of the AtBBX32 B-box region identified specific residues as critical for mediating the interaction between AtBBX32 and GmBBX62. This study defines the plant B-box as a protein interaction domain and offers novel insight into its role in mediating specific protein-protein interactions between different plant B-box proteins.
Space-Time Multiple Access: Linear Growth in the Sum Rate

It is known that some of the spectacular capacity gains of using multiple antennas on a point-to-point rich scattering channel, namely linear growth with the number of antennas, can also be obtained in a multi-user environment. We give the constant of proportionality of linear growth in the sum-capacity when the number of users and antennas grow simultaneously, but with fewer users than antennas. We assume that the transmitter and receivers know the channel. Because of the linear growth in sum-capacity, we can accommodate more users simply by adding more antennas, without increasing total transmitted power or bandwidth or lowering the rate to existing users. We dub any scheme that can achieve linear growth in this fashion a space-time multiple access scheme. Channel-hardening arguments show that a “channel-inversion” technique used in point-to-point multiple-antenna links achieves a large fraction of this linear growth in a multi-user environment without excessive transmitter power. Thus, multiple-antennas offer a tremendous advantage in designing scheduling, networking, and multiple-access protocols in rich scattering environments.
Bayesian inference with rescaled Gaussian process priors

We use rescaled Gaussian processes as prior models for functional parameters in nonparametric statistical models. We show how the rate of contraction of the posterior distributions depends on the scaling factor. In particular, we exhibit rescaled Gaussian process priors yielding posteriors that contract around the true parameter at optimal convergence rates. To derive our results we establish bounds on small deviation probabilities for smooth stationary Gaussian processes.
IMAGE AND VIDEO QUALITY ASSESSMENT BASED ON THE SIMILARITY OF EDGE PROJECTIONS

The goal of image or video quality assessment is to evaluate if a distorted image or video is of a good quality by quantifying the difference between the original and distorted images or videos. In this paper, to assess the visual quality of an arbitrary distorted image or a compressed video, visual features of the image or video are compared with those of the original image or video instead of direct comparison of two images or videos. As visual features, we use directional edge projections that are simply obtained by projecting vertical and horizontal edges detected by vertical and horizontal Sobel masks, respectively. Then, to assess the image or video quality, edge projections are compared using the similarity measures of one-dimensional histograms such as the histogram difference, histogram intersection, Kullback-Leibler divergence, �-square test, and Bhattacharyya distance. Experimental results using LIVE data set and 140 video clips that are compressed with H.263 and H.264/AVC show the effectiveness of the proposed methods through the comparison with conventional algorithms such as the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity, mean singular value decomposition, and edge PSNR (EPSNR) methods.
Flue Gas Cleaning Using a Wet-type Plasma Reactor

Within the last 10 years, various kinds of corona-induced non-thermal plasmas have been investigated in order to remove gaseous pollutants, such as SO2 and NO, from air and exhaust gases. Normally, the gas treatment is carried out at or above room temperature by the conventional dry-type corona reactor. However, this treatment is still inadequate for the removal of certain stable gases present in the flue gas mixture. In this work, a wet-type corona reactor (needle-water electrode) is presented that can simultaneously remove NO and SO2 from flue gas at low temperatures and at atmospheric pressure. The effect of water vapor and oxygen concentration on the plasma remediation of SO2 and NO using wet-type plasma reactor were studied. The experimental results show both removal rate of NO and SO 2 are improved in wet-type reactor than that of dry-type reactor. The SO2 and NO conversion increased with increasing water vapor and oxygen content in the flue gas
A simple uneven rotation clustering algorithm for wireless sensor networks

Clustering algorithm can prolong the life time of wireless sensor networks, but cost of reconstruction is large. Energy load imbalance for multi-hop transmission is also a problem. Therefore, this paper proposes a simple uneven rotation clustering (SURC) algorithm to reduce cost of reconstruction and solve problem of hotspots. Besides, nodes in cluster work alternately, further saving energy. The experiment shows that the algorithm not only effective saves energy and solves imbalanced load, but significantly extends the survival time of network.
Multi-modality imaging to assess metabolic response to dichloroacetate treatment in tumor models

Reverting glycolytic metabolism is an attractive strategy for cancer therapy as upregulated glycolysis is a hallmark in various cancers. Dichloroacetate (DCA), long used to treat lactic acidosis in various pathologies, has emerged as a promising anti-cancer drug. By inhibiting the pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase, DCA reactivates the mitochondrial function and decreases the glycolytic flux in tumor cells resulting in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. We recently documented that DCA was able to induce a metabolic switch preferentially in glycolytic cancer cells, leading to a more oxidative phenotype and decreasing proliferation, while oxidative cells remained less sensitive to DCA treatment. To evaluate the relevance of this observation in vivo, the aim of the present study was to characterize the effect of DCA in glycolytic MDA-MB-231 tumors and in oxidative SiHa tumors using advanced pharmacodynamic metabolic biomarkers. Oxygen consumption, studied by 17O magnetic resonance spectroscopy, glucose uptake, evaluated by 18F-FDG PET and pyruvate transformation into lactate, measured using hyperpolarized 13C-magnetic resonance spectroscopy, were monitored before and 24 hours after DCA treatment in tumor bearing mice. In both tumor models, no clear metabolic shift was observed. Surprisingly, all these imaging parameters concur to the conclusion that both glycolytic tumors and oxidative tumors presented a similar response to DCA. These results highlight a major discordance in metabolic cancer cell bioenergetics between in vitro and in vivo setups, indicating critical role of the local microenvironment in tumor metabolic behaviors.