Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An ultra-fast hybrid simulation framework for ASIP

ISS (Instruction Set Simulator) plays an important role in pre-silicon software development for ASIP. However, the speed of traditional simulation is too slow to effectively support full-scale software development. In this paper, we propose a hybrid simulation framework which further improves the previous simulation methods by aggressively utilizing the host machine resources. The utilization is achieved by categorizing instructions of ASIP application into two types, namely custom and basic instructions, via binary instrumentation. Then in a way of hybrid simulation, only custom instructions are simulated on the ISS and basic instructions are executed fast and natively on the host machine. We implement this framework for an industrial ASIP to validate our approach. Experimental results show that when the implemented ISS, namely GS-Sim, is applied to practical multimedia decoders, an average simulation speed up to 1058.5MIPS can be achieved, which is 34.7 times of the state-of-art dynamic binary translation simulator and is the fastest to the best of our knowledge.
The role of auditory feedback during phonation: studies of Mandarin tone production

Abstract Auditory feedback during speech plays an important role in the control of articulation. The sound of a speaker's voice is used to calibrate speaking volume and vocal pitch and also influences the precision of articulation. In two experiments, the speech feedback system is studied by exposing subjects to modified auditory feedback regarding their vocal pitch. In previous work, Jones & Munhall (2000) demonstrated that short-term exposure to altered feedback regarding vocal pitch led to aftereffects in pitch production when feedback was returned to normal. The adaptation suggests that a remapping between produced pitch and expected feedback occurred. In the first study, native speakers of Mandarin were exposed to sudden pitch feedback perturbations while producing /ma/ as a high, flat tone. All subjects showed rapid compensation in response to the perturbation. In the second study, Mandarin speakers were asked to say the same tonal stimulus in two experimental conditions. In one condition, auditory feedback regarding their F 0 was slowly shifted up one semitone without their awareness. In a contrasting condition, their feedback was slowly shifted down one semitone. Results indicate that subjects compensated for the pitch-shifted feedback and negative aftereffects were observed when feedback was suddenly returned to normal after the short-term exposure to the altered feedback. These results parallel those found for English speakers and suggest that despite having an obligatory underlying phonetic representation, the acoustic-motor representation is malleable.
Targeted PARACEST nanoparticle contrast agent for the detection of fibrin

A lipid‐encapsulated perfluorocarbon nanoparticle molecular imaging contrast agent that utilizes a paramagnetic chemical exchange saturation transfer (PARACEST) chelate is presented. PARACEST agents are ideally suited for molecular imaging applications because one can switch the contrast on and off at will simply by adjusting the pulse sequence parameters. This obviates the need for pre‐ and postinjection images to define contrast agent binding. Spectroscopy (4.7T) of PARACEST nanoparticles revealed a bound water peak at 52 ppm, in agreement with results from the water‐soluble chelate. Imaging of control nanoparticles showed no appreciable contrast, while PARACEST nanoparticles produced >10% signal enhancement. PARACEST nanoparticles were targeted to clots via antifibrin antibodies and produced a contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) of 10 at the clot surface. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
1/f-Like Scaling in Normal Neutrophil Dynamics: Implications for Hematologic Monitoring

Daily neutrophil counts show considerable variability in normal subjects. The dynamics of these apparently erratic fluctuations have not been characterized. We hypothesized that this variability might reflect the kind of 1/f-like (inverse power-law) spectrum seen in other physiologic processes. Fast Fourier transform analysis of neutrophil count data over 64 consecutive days from four previously reported normal volunteers showed a good fit (r = 0.84; p 0.001) to the predicted power-law regression line (y = ¿1.14x ¿1.05). Further characterization of normal and pathologic neutrophil spectra may have diagnostic value.
A bipolar Marx generator for a mobile electroporation device

Since 2000 a mobile electroporation device has been operated for scientific and testing purposes. Now a breakdown of the insulation at one Marx generator output to ground has occurred due to an electric overstressing. This failure makes a redesign of the Marx generator necessary. For the redesign a bipolar Marx generator with a transient insulation to ground has been compared to one with a fixed center ground connection. The paper describes why the solution with the fixed ground connection is considered to be more suitable for the application in the mobile electroporation device.
Partial island submergence and speciation in an adaptive radiation: a multilocus analysis of the Cuban green anoles

Sympatric speciation is often proposed to account for species–rich adaptive radiations within lakes or islands, where barriers to gene flow or dispersal may be lacking. However, allopatric speciation may also occur in such situations, especially when ranges are fragmented by fluctuating water levels. We test the hypothesis that Miocene fragmentation of Cuba into three palaeo–archipelagos accompanied species–level divergence in the adaptive radiation of West Indian Anolis lizards. Analysis of morphology, mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA) and nuclear DNA in the Cuban green anoles (carolinensis subgroup) strongly supports three pre dictions made by this hypothesis. First, three geographical sets of populations, whose ranges correspond with palaeo–archipelago boundaries, are distinct and warrant recognition as independent evolutionary lineages or species. Coalescence of nuclear sequence fragments sampled from these species and the large divergences observed between their mtDNA haplotypes suggest separation prior to the subsequent unification of Cuba ca. 5 Myr ago. Second, molecular phylogenetic relationships among these species reflect historical geographical relationships rather than morphological similarity. Third, all three species remain distinct despite extensive geographical contact subsequent to island unification, occasional hybridization and introgression of mtDNA haplotypes. Allopatric speciation initiated during partial island submergence may play an important role in speciation during the adaptive radiation of Anolis lizards.
Teechain: Scalable Blockchain Payments using Trusted Execution Environments

Blockchain protocols such as Bitcoin are gaining traction for exchanging payments in a secure and decentralized manner. Their need to achieve consensus across a large number of participants, however, fundamentally limits their performance. We describe Teechain , a new off-chain payment protocol that utilizes trusted execution environments (TEEs) to perform secure, efficient and scalable fund transfers on top of a blockchain, with asynchronous blockchain access. Teechain introduces secure payment chains to route payments across multiple payment channels. Teechain mitigates failures of TEEs with two strategies: (i) backups to persistent storage and (ii) a novel variant of chain-replication. We evaluate an implementation of Teechain using Intel SGX as the TEE and the operational Bitcoin blockchain. Our prototype achieves orders of magnitude improvement in most metrics compared to existing implementations of payment channels: with replicated Teechain nodes in a trans-atlantic deployment, we measure a throughput of over 33 , 000 transactions per second with 0 . 1 second latency.
What do you think overdiagnosis means? A qualitative analysis of responses from a national community survey of Australians

Objective Overdiagnosis occurs when someone is diagnosed with a disease that will not harm them. Against a backdrop of growing evidence and concern about the risk of overdiagnosis associated with certain screening activities, and recognition of the need to better inform the public about it, we aimed to ask what the Australian community understood overdiagnosis to mean. Design, setting and participants Content analysis of verbatim responses from a randomly sampled community telephone survey of 500 Australian adults, between January and February 2014. Data were analysed independently by two researchers. Main outcome measures Analysis of themes arising from community responses to open-ended questions about the meaning of overdiagnosis. Results The sample was broadly representative of the Australian population. Forty per cent of respondents thought overdiagnosis meant exaggerating a condition that was there, diagnosing something that was not there or too much diagnosis. Twenty-four per cent described overdiagnosis as overprescribing, overtesting or overtreatment. Only 3% considered overdiagnosis meant doctors gained financially. No respondents mentioned screening in conjunction with overdiagnosis, and over 10% of participants were unable to give an answer. Conclusions Around half the community surveyed had an approximate understanding of overdiagnosis, although no one identified it as a screening risk and a quarter equated it with overuse. Strategies to inform people about the risk of overdiagnosis associated with screening and diagnostic tests, in clinical and public health settings, could build on a nascent understanding of the nature of the problem.
Oxygen pressure induced the electrical properties of amorphous LaAlO3 dielectric deposited by pulsed laser deposition at room temperature

The amorphous LaAlO3 (LAO) thin films were prepared with different oxygen flow rate using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at room temperature and without additional thermal treatment. The Al/LAO/ITO MIM capacitor stacks were deployed to test the variation of its electrical characteristics in conjunction with atomic force microscopy (AFM), Alpha-step profiler, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and tunneling electron microscopy (TEM) measurements. In this study, the leakage current and capacitance density of up to 10-9 A/cm2 and 71.5 nF/cm2, respectively, were achieved with optimum oxygen pressures.
An Integrated Model of Executive Functioning is Helpful for Understanding ADHD and Associated Disorders

Objective: The aim of this study is to test the discriminative capacity of executive function (EF) tasks to better define the cognitive functioning of children with ADHD and comorbidities. Method: One hundred four children were presented with a battery of new EF tasks and a rating scale filled out by parents. Results: Preliminary analysis of the neuropsychological tasks revealed the presence of five factors: Speed of Processing, Inhibition, Planning, Execution, and Retrospective Memory. All children with ADHD were impaired in Execution (a measure describing the capacity to achieve a goal). ADHD-only children were specifically impaired in Planning, while ADHD + reading disorder (RD) children were impaired in Speed of Processing and Retrospective Memory. Children with ADHD + oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) did not show impairment in any other EF domains. The five EF processes correlated with the EF Questionnaire. Conclusion: The present study describes different cognitive profiles in children with ADHD with or without comorbid disorders using neuropsychological EF measures.
Photobacterium profundum under Pressure: A MS-Based Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics Study

Photobacterium profundum SS9 is a Gram-negative bacterium, originally collected from the Sulu Sea. Its genome consists of two chromosomes and a 80 kb plasmid. Although it can grow under a wide range of pressures, P. profundum grows optimally at 28 MPa and 15°C. Its ability to grow at atmospheric pressure allows for both easy genetic manipulation and culture, making it a model organism to study piezophily. Here, we report a shotgun proteomic analysis of P. profundum grown at atmospheric compared to high pressure using label-free quantitation and mass spectrometry analysis. We have identified differentially expressed proteins involved in high pressure adaptation, which have been previously reported using other methods. Proteins involved in key metabolic pathways were also identified as being differentially expressed. Proteins involved in the glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway were up-regulated at high pressure. Conversely, several proteins involved in the oxidative phosphorylation pathway were up-regulated at atmospheric pressure. Some of the proteins that were differentially identified are regulated directly in response to the physical impact of pressure. The expression of some proteins involved in nutrient transport or assimilation, are likely to be directly regulated by pressure. In a natural environment, different hydrostatic pressures represent distinct ecosystems with their own particular nutrient limitations and abundances. However, the only variable considered in this study was atmospheric pressure.
A Trp53fl/flPtenfl/fl mouse model of undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma mediated by adeno-Cre injection and in vivo bioluminescence imaging

Genetic mouse models of soft tissue sarcoma provide critical insights into disease pathophysiology, which are oftentimes unable to be extracted from human tumor samples or xenograft models. In this study we describe a mouse model of soft tissue sarcoma mediated by adenoviral-Cre recombinase injection into Trp53fl/fl/Ptenfl/fl lox-stop-lox luciferase mice. Injection of adenovirus expressing Cre recombinase, either subcutaneously or intramuscularly in two experimental groups, results in viral infection and gene recombination with 100% penetrance within the first 24 hours following injection. Luciferase expression measured by real-time bioluminescence imaging increases over time, with an initial robust increase following viral injection, followed by a steady rise over the next several weeks as primary tumors develop and grow. Intramuscular injections were more commonly associated with evidence of systemic viral distribution than subcutaneous injections. All mice developed soft tissue sarcomas at the primary injection site, with histological examination identifying 93% of tumors as invasive pleomorphic sarcomas based on microscopic morphology and immunohistochemical expression of sarcoma markers. A lymphocytic infiltrate was present in 64% of the sarcomas in this immunocompetent model and 71% of tumors expressed PD-L1. This is the first report of a viral-Cre mediated Trp53/Pten mouse model of undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma. The bioluminescence imaging feature, along with high penetrance of the model and its immunological characteristics, makes it suited for pre-clinical studies of soft tissue sarcoma.
Audiovisual Narrative Creation and Creative Retrieval: How Searching for a Story Shapes the Story

Media professionals – such as news editors, image researchers, and documentary filmmakers - increasingly rely on online access to digital content within audiovisual archives to create narratives. Retrieving audiovisual sources therefore requires an in-depth knowledge of how to find sources digitally. These storytelling practices intertwine search technologies with the user’s ideas and production cultures. This paper presents qualitative research insights into how media professionals search in digital archives to create (trans)medial narratives, and uses the notion of creative retrieval to unravel the dynamics of audiovisual narrative production. Creative retrieval combines ideas about the effects of media convergence on media content, theories about serendipitous information retrieval, and studies of creativity to argue that retrieval practices of media professionals who create audiovisual narratives are governed by organizational, technological and content affordances and constraints. The paper furthermore exemplifies the first stage of an ongoing research project in which a user-centered design approach guides open source self-learning search algorithm development to support creative retrieval.
Effects of Abiotic Factors on the Phylogenetic Diversity of Bacterial Communities in Acidic Thermal Springs

ABSTRACT Acidic thermal springs offer ideal environments for studying processes underlying extremophile microbial diversity. We used a carefully designed comparative analysis of acidic thermal springs in Yellowstone National Park to determine how abiotic factors (chemistry and temperature) shape acidophile microbial communities. Small-subunit rRNA gene sequences were PCR amplified, cloned, and sequenced, by using evolutionarily conserved bacterium-specific primers, directly from environmental DNA extracted from Amphitheater Springs and Roaring Mountain sediment samples. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and colorimetric assays were used to analyze sediment chemistry, while an optical emission spectrometer was used to evaluate water chemistry and electronic probes were used to measure the pH, temperature, and Eh of the spring waters. Phylogenetic-statistical analyses found exceptionally strong correlations between bacterial community composition and sediment mineral chemistry, followed by weaker but significant correlations with temperature gradients. For example, sulfur-rich sediment samples contained a high diversity of uncultured organisms related to Hydrogenobaculum spp. , while iron-rich sediments were dominated by uncultured organisms related to a diverse array of gram-positive iron oxidizers. A detailed analysis of redox chemistry indicated that the available energy sources and electron acceptors were sufficient to support the metabolic potential of Hydrogenobaculum spp. and iron oxidizers, respectively. Principal-component analysis found that two factors explained 95% of the genetic diversity, with most of the variance attributable to mineral chemistry and a smaller fraction attributable to temperature.
Odyssey: A Multi-Store System for Evolutionary Analytics

We present a data analytics system, Odyssey, that is being developed at NEC Labs in collaboration with NEC’s commercial business units and our academic collaborators. The design principles of the system are based on the business requirements identified through extensive surveys and communications with the practitioners and customers. Most notable high-level requirements are: 1) The analytics system should be able to effectively use both structured and unstructured data sources. 2) Business requirements are not captured in a single simple metric but combination of metrics, such as value of data, performance, monetary costs, and they are dynamic. The system should manage data by observing constantly changing metric values. 3) Time-to-insight is very important, so the system should enable immediate exploratory querying of data without heavy prerequisite processes. 4) The system should efficiently support both ad-hoc queries and application workloads. 5) Very often there are already data analytics solutions / products in place (such as a traditional data warehouse), hence the system should be able to incorporate the existing settings. The data analysis is performed in a rapidly changing way and includes the new role of data scientist who is tasked with finding the benefit in big data, which come from disparate sources. The trend of collecting ever-growing data with unknown and unproven benefits, and the nature of the exploratory queries that are posed on these datasets represent an emerging type of data analysis. The fluid nature of this analysis is that the analyst may start by posing simple questions on the data but then evolve towards more sophisticated reasoning as well as apply sophisticated techniques. The evolutionary nature of the investigation is due to the analyst who may not initially be able to express her goals well, thus modifying her workflow slightly and iteratively refining it until achieving the intent. The evolutionary process may also require incorporating more data sources into the analysis to obtain richer and more confident answers. We call this iterative process by which an analyst finds bene-
Adaptive linear predictors for real-time tracking

Enlarging or reducing the template size by adding new parts, or removing parts of the template, according to their suitability for tracking, requires the ability to deal with the variation of the template size. For instance, real-time template tracking using linear predictors, although fast and reliable, requires using templates of fixed size and does not allow on-line modification of the predictor. To solve this problem we propose the Adaptive Linear Predictors (ALPs) which enable fast online modifications of pre-learned linear predictors. Instead of applying a full matrix inversion for every modification of the template shape as standard approaches to learning linear predictors do, we just perform a fast update of this inverse. This allows us to learn the ALPs in a much shorter time than standard learning approaches while performing equally well. We performed exhaustive evaluation of our approach and compared it to standard linear predictors and other state of the art approaches.
Emotional scholar-fandoms: negotiating researcher identity in a study with reality show participants

This article analyses the research practice of interviewing media participants by critically reflecting on the process of interviewing former reality show contestants. I argue that interviewing was not a straightforward process but rather a deeply emotional one. The interview process complicated my scholar-fan identity, my feelings about the research process and my reality TV fandom. It was only through a process of self-reflexive analysis and research practice that I could successfully negotiate these two identities. In the following article, I show how I came to adopt this self-reflexive position, and reflect on how this position could better inform future research in celebrity studies. In addition, this paper contributes to the rich body of scholarship on interview research methodologies by emphasizing the key role that interviewing has to play in shaping the relationships between celebrities, fans and academics.
Cascaded model predictive control of voltage source inverter with active damped LCL filter

In this paper, a cascaded model predictive control algorithm is applied to a grid connected voltage source inverter with LCL filter. The cascaded approach allows the use of one switched and one linear model, hence simplifying the implementation of the model predictive control algorithms. By using a detailed model of the inverter, active damping is achieved without any additional active damping algorithms. The control algorithm is verified by simulations in an ideal case and a realistic case where computational delays are considered.