Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Content-Aware Low-Power Configurable Aging Mitigation for SRAM Memories

Aging through Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) significantly jeopardizes reliability of SRAM-based memories. We propose a content-aware microarchitectural-level technique for mitigating aging of these SRAM-based memories, by altering the input and output data. The goal is to achieve cost-effective lifetime improvement through low-power aging balancing of all memory cells. For a configurable design, we perform power, area, and aging analysis of different aging balancing circuits. This analysis is leveraged to design a novel aging resilient memory architecture. To curtail the power overhead while still achieving a balanced aging, our architecture employs an anti-aging controller that leverages the data characteristics to take spatio-temporal aging balancing decisions. It dynamically selects: (1) which aging balancing circuit to activate, (2) at what time instant the circuit should be activated, and (3) on which SRAM cells aging balancing should be applied. This is achieved by identifying different configuration parameters, which can be adjusted at run time to balance the aging of SRAM memories. Our experiments demonstrate significant aging improvements at a low power overhead. In addition, we perform sensitivity analysis of different parameters of our architecture to demonstrate power vs. reliability tradeoffs under different run-time scenarios.
Comparison of Volunteer Motivations in Different Youth Sport Organizations

Abstract Volunteers are a crucial component of the work force in the sport industry, particularly in youth sports. Understanding the factors that cause and sustain sport volunteerism would assist sport organizations in recruiting and retaining volunteers. The purpose of the current study was to compare motivation among volunteers at different youth sport organizations/events. Research participants (n=1,099) were four groups of volunteers working at international, national, local and special-needs youth sport organizations/events, who responded to the Modified Volunteer Functions Inventory for Sports (MVFIS) with six factors: Values, Understanding, Social, Career, Enhancement and Protective. A factorial (2×4) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that the mean vector MVFIS factor scores were significantly different among the various organization types and between genders. Follow-up analyses revealed that volunteers working at the international and special-needs sport events displayed higher motivations in all six factor areas than volunteers at the national and local organizations. Female volunteers were higher in Values and Understanding factors.
Exploration for Object Mapping Guided by Environmental Semantics using UAVs

This paper presents a strategy to autonomously explore unknown indoor environments, focusing on 3D mapping of the environment and performing grid level semantic labeling to identify all available objects. Unlike conventional exploration techniques that utilize geometric heuristics and information gain theory on an occupancy grid map, the work presented in this paper considers semantic information, such as the class of objects, in order to gear the exploration towards environmental segmentation and object labeling. The proposed approach utilizes deep learning to map 2D semantically segmented images into 3D semantic point clouds that encapsulate both occupancy and semantic annotations. A next-best-view exploration algorithm is employed to iteratively explore and label all the objects in the environment using a novel utility function that balances exploration and semantic object labeling. The proposed strategy was evaluated in a realistically simulated indoor environment, and results were benchmarked against other exploration strategies.
Conserved size and periodicity of pyramidal patches in layer 2 of medial/caudal entorhinal cortex

To understand the structural basis of grid cell activity, we compare medial entorhinal cortex architecture in layer 2 across five mammalian species (Etruscan shrews, mice, rats, Egyptian fruit bats, and humans), bridging ∼100 million years of evolutionary diversity. Principal neurons in layer 2 are divided into two distinct cell types, pyramidal and stellate, based on morphology, immunoreactivity, and functional properties. We confirm the existence of patches of calbindin‐positive pyramidal cells across these species, arranged periodically according to analyses techniques like spatial autocorrelation, grid scores, and modifiable areal unit analysis. In rodents, which show sustained theta oscillations in entorhinal cortex, cholinergic innervation targeted calbindin patches. In bats and humans, which only show intermittent entorhinal theta activity, cholinergic innervation avoided calbindin patches. The organization of calbindin‐negative and calbindin‐positive cells showed marked differences in entorhinal subregions of the human brain. Layer 2 of the rodent medial and the human caudal entorhinal cortex were structurally similar in that in both species patches of calbindin‐positive pyramidal cells were superimposed on scattered stellate cells. The number of calbindin‐positive neurons in a patch increased from ∼80 in Etruscan shrews to ∼800 in humans, only an ∼10‐fold over a 20,000‐fold difference in brain size. The relatively constant size of calbindin patches differs from cortical modules such as barrels, which scale with brain size. Thus, selective pressure appears to conserve the distribution of stellate and pyramidal cells, periodic arrangement of calbindin patches, and relatively constant neuron number in calbindin patches in medial/caudal entorhinal cortex. J. Comp. Neurol. 524:783–806, 2016. © 2015 The Authors. The Journal of Comparative Neurology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Localization of the Escherichia coli cell division protein FtsI (PBP3) to the division site and cell pole

FtsI, also known as penicillin‐binding protein 3, is a transpeptidase required for the synthesis of peptidoglycan in the division septum of the bacterium, Escherichia coli. FtsI has been estimated to be present at about 100 molecules per cell, well below the detection limit of immunoelectron microscopy. Here, we confirm the low abundance of FtsI and use immunofluorescence microscopy, a highly sensitive technique, to show that FtsI is localized to the division site during the later stages of cell growth. FtsI was also sometimes observed at the cell pole; polar localization was not anticipated and its significance is not known. We conclude (i) that immunofluorescence microscopy can be used to localize proteins whose abundance is as low as approximately 100 molecules per cell; and (ii) that spatial and temporal regulation of FtsI activity in septum formation is achieved, at least in part, by timed localization of the protein to the division site.
Modularity first: a case for mixing AOP and attribute grammars

We have reimplemented the frontend of the extensible AspectBench Compiler for AspectJ, using the aspect-oriented meta-compiler JastAdd. The original frontend was purely object-oriented. Each frontend extends Java with AspectJ and an additional set of pointcuts in a modular fashion. In this paper we give a detailed comparison of both approaches and show a number of advantages of using JastAdd: the implementation is half the size, twice as fast, concerns are better localised, extensions are composable, and computations are automatically scheduled. JastAdd provides a very constrained form of static AOP where only inter-type declarations and method execution interception are supported. However, additional modularisation mechanisms from the compiler construction community are supported in the form of demand-driven evaluation and attribute grammars. Our implementation would not have benefited from a richer pointcut language, while both demand-drive evaluation and declarative attributes were essential in enabling composable extensions and flexible modularisation. We believe that the AOP community at large can benefit from acknowledging demand-driven evaluation as an important modularisation mechanism. Also, reference attribute grammars enhance the extensible implementation of graphbased computations that rely on context-sensitive information.
Accuracy of molecular mass determination of proteins in solution by small-angle X-ray scattering

One of the most important overall parameters, which can be derived from small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments on macromolecular solutions is the molecular mass (MM) of the solute. In particular, for a monodisperse protein solution, MM of the solute is calculated from the extrapolated scattering intensity at zero angle I(0). Assessing MM by SAXS provides valuable information about the oligomeric state and absence of unspecific aggregation in solution. The value of MM can either be estimated by comparison with a protein standard with a known MM or by determining the absolute scattering intensity using, e.g., water scattering. In both cases, knowledge about the solute concentration and about the partial specific volume of the protein is required. By measuring 13 well characterized globular proteins with MMs ranging from 13.7 to 669 kDa we analyze the sources of possible systematic deviations and assess the accuracy of MM determination using SAXS. The data indicate that all these proteins have approximately the same `effective' value of the partial specific volume of about 0.7425 cm3 g−1. It is shown that both inter-protein and water calibration can be used for molecular mass determination by SAXS and in most cases the errors do not exceed 10%.
An empirical study into gender differences in the relationships among academic, social and psychological adjustments of university support

There are three dimensions through which to measure university support for students’ transition to university life: academic adjustment, social adjustment and psychological adjustment. Previous research studies show that there are relationships among those adjustments. However, less is known about gender differences in these relationships. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceived gender differences in perception of the relationships among these adjustments during the first year undergraduate transition period. The study is based on a survey of 114 first year undergraduate students from a Hong Kong local university. The findings show that (1) female students perceive social adjustment to have more influence on academic adjustment than male students, (2) female students perceive psychological adjustment to have more influence on academic adjustment than male students, and (3) there is no significant difference in the relationship between social and academic adjustments for female and male students.
An Evaluation of Parser Robustness for Ungrammatical Sentences

For many NLP applications that require a parser, the sentences of interest may not be well-formed. If the parser can overlook problems such as grammar mistakes and produce a parse tree that closely resembles the correct analysis for the intended sentence, we say that the parser is robust . This paper compares the performances of eight state-of-the-art dependency parsers on two domains of ungrammat-ical sentences: learner English and machine translation outputs. We have developed an evaluation metric and conducted a suite of experiments. Our analyses may help practitioners to choose an appropriate parser for their tasks, and help developers to improve parser robustness against ungrammatical sentences.
Optimal online deterministic algorithms and adaptive heuristics for energy and performance efficient dynamic consolidation of virtual machines in Cloud data centers

The rapid growth in demand for computational power driven by modern service applications combined with the shift to the Cloud computing model have led to the establishment of large‐scale virtualized data centers. Such data centers consume enormous amounts of electrical energy resulting in high operating costs and carbon dioxide emissions. Dynamic consolidation of virtual machines (VMs) using live migration and switching idle nodes to the sleep mode allows Cloud providers to optimize resource usage and reduce energy consumption. However, the obligation of providing high quality of service to customers leads to the necessity in dealing with the energy‐performance trade‐off, as aggressive consolidation may lead to performance degradation. Because of the variability of workloads experienced by modern applications, the VM placement should be optimized continuously in an online manner. To understand the implications of the online nature of the problem, we conduct a competitive analysis and prove competitive ratios of optimal online deterministic algorithms for the single VM migration and dynamic VM consolidation problems. Furthermore, we propose novel adaptive heuristics for dynamic consolidation of VMs based on an analysis of historical data from the resource usage by VMs. The proposed algorithms significantly reduce energy consumption, while ensuring a high level of adherence to the service level agreement. We validate the high efficiency of the proposed algorithms by extensive simulations using real‐world workload traces from more than a thousand PlanetLab VMs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A New Modular Approach for Tightly Coupled Fluid/Structure Analysis

Static aeroelastic computations are made using a C++ executable developed for closely coupled fluid-structure analyses. The fluid flow is modeled using Euler/Navier-Stokes equations and the structure is modeled using finite elements. The FORTRAN-based fluid and structure codes are integrated in a C++ environment in which the flow and structural solvers are treated as separate object files, and the data exchange between them is accomplished using I/O. Use of this technique to solve transonic flow over a partially flexible surface is presented, and its ability to accurately predict flow-induced deformations associated with nonlinear structures is demonstrated.
Estimating reaction norms for age and size at maturation when age at first

We describe a novel method to estimate the probabilities of maturing at age as a function of size; these probabilities can often be interpreted as probabilistic reaction norms for age and size at maturation. Such estimations are useful for describing the maturation process independently of the processes of growth and mortality, and they can also help to disentangle phenotypic plasticity from evolutionary changes in maturation. The estimation method can be used when mature and immature individuals are representatively sampled over two consecutive seasons, even when maturing individuals are not distinguished. Confidence intervals are derived for the reaction norm parameters using a bootstrap approach. Using simulated data, the method is shown to be asymptotically unbiased and robust to moderate violations of the main simplifying assumptions. However, it is relatively sensitive to small sample sizes: the method is not robust when fewer than about 100 individuals (mature and immature) are sampled from a cohort at a certain age. The method is illustrated by an application to Georges Bank cod stock (Gadus morhua) but can be used for any type of organism.
Investigation into hippocampal nerve cell damage through the mineralocorticoid receptor in mice

Stress-associated neuropsychiatric disease is associated with glucocorticoid levels; however, the behavior of mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) under conditions of stress remain to be elucidated. Steroid receptors in the brain are classified into glucocorticoid receptors (GR) and/or MR, exhibiting a difference in affinity for corticosteroids. The hippocampus is one of the most stress-susceptible regions in the brain. In the present study, it was investigated whether the two steroid receptors affect hippocampal neuron damage. The effect of fludrocortisones (FD) on hippocampal neurons caused by FD-containing cholesterol pellets subcutaneously embedded in the backs of mice (FD pellet group, 80 mg cholesterol and 20 mg FD) was investigated. A significant extension of the tail length by ~2.22 fold was observed in the FD pellet group compared with that in the control group as elucidated via the comet assay. Cytotoxicity (pyknosis and degranulation) and DNA fragmentation due to the death of nerve cells were observed using Kluver-Barrera staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling. Compared with the sham group mice, hippocampal neuron damage was observed in the adrenalectomized mice and the damage was suppressed by the combinatorial use of spironolactone, which suggested MR-induced hippocampal neuron damage. In conclusion, the present study clearly indicated a regional difference in vulnerability and/or sensitivity to corticosteroids. MR sensitivity to corticosteroids was high in the CA3 region and pyramidal cells of the hippocampus, which may therefore be vulnerable to corticosteroids. Thus, it is clearly suggested that MR function is important in the stress response.
The qualifications and competencies held by effective workplace trainers

Are appropriately qualified trainers educating the workforce? The purpose of this study was to investigate the qualifications and competencies of workplace trainers and, determine if there is a relationship between these attributes and their effectiveness. Using a survey questionnaire, 303 trainers responded to an effective trainer model developed from the literature and validated in a Delphi study. The variables of interest were statistically tested using factor analysis, discriminant analysis, Pearson correlational analysis, and MANOVA. The results of this research show that trainers who have formal teaching qualifications and who have been in training positions for more than ten years, identify with the effective trainer model. This Australian research supports much of the previous research conducted in North America with some interesting differences.
A comparative study on ontology development methodologies towards building semantic conflicts detection ontology for heterogeneous web services

Semantic conflicts detection is considered to be one of the essential steps that should be carried out effectively, in order to pave the way towards establishing semantic interoperability between heterogeneous Web services. To achieve that, ontology plays the backbone of the detection process, which required to be implemented in a high quality manner. However, choosing a methodology to build this ontology is very difficult, since a considerable number of methodologies have been emerged to guide the ontology development process. Therefore, this study aims at reviewing and comparing the most accepted and used methodologies, with the aim of choosing an effective methodology from ontology engineering perspective to be recommended and used for building semantic conflicts detection ontology. Furthermore, to provide some useful insights for both theoretical and practical purposes to help ontology developers to choose the right methodology and to advance the state of the art. The comparison was performed against the common ontology development life cycle. The result of this survey and comparison recommend a methodology called METHONTOLOGY to be used for implementing semantic conflicts detection ontology.
Academic Achievement and Socioemotional Adjustment among Chinese University Students.

Chinese Americans have been considered as high achievers and excellent students. In this study, the academic performance, majors, study habits, and socioemotional adjustment of 177 Chinese university students were examined. Data were collected through official university records, questionnaires, and inventories. Students were divided into three groups, depending on place of birth and length of residency in the United States. Results indicated that the image of the high achieving, well-adjusted Chinese student is tempered when examining criteria other than grade point average. Although grades received by the three groups of Chinese exceeded the university average, recent immigrants apparently used certain strategies to compensate for limited English proficiency by taking reduced courseloads, studying more hours, and limiting career majors. There also was evidence that the recent immigrants were less socio-emotionally adjusted than were other Chinese students. Implications for counseling and research are discussed.
Analysis of Data Interruption in an LTE Highway Scenario with Dual Connectivity

This study evaluates whether last versions of Long Term Evolution with dual connectivity are able to support the latency and reliability requirements for the upcoming vehicular use-cases and time-critical applications. Data interruption times during handovers and cell management operations are evaluated by means of system level simulations for a high-speed scenario. The scenario models a highway covered by a macro layer and an ultra dense network of small cells distributed on both sides of the road. Results reveal that for single connectivity, and due to the large amount of handovers, terminals are unable to exchange data with the network about 5% of the time. This time is considerably reduced if dual connectivity with split bearer architecture is adopted, with less than 1%of time in data interruption. However, when adopting secondary cell group architecture, the relative data interruption time increases up to 6.9%.
RMCE-ASAP: a gene targeting method for ES and somatic cells to accelerate phenotype analyses

In recent years, tremendous insight has been gained on p53 regulation by targeting mutations at the p53 locus using homologous recombination in ES cells to generate mutant mice. Although informative, this approach is inefficient, slow and expensive. To facilitate targeting at the p53 locus, we developed an improved Recombinase-Mediated Cassette Exchange (RMCE) method. Our approach enables efficient targeting in ES cells to facilitate the production of mutant mice. But more importantly, the approach was Adapted for targeting in Somatic cells to Accelerate Phenotyping (RMCE-ASAP). We provide proof-of-concept for this at the p53 locus, by showing efficient targeting in fibroblasts, and rapid phenotypic read-out of a recessive mutation after a single exchange. RMCE-ASAP combines inverted heterologous recombinase target sites, a positive/negative selection marker that preserves the germline capacity of ES cells, and the power of mouse genetics. These general principles should make RMCE-ASAP applicable to any locus.
Feature Learning in Dynamic Environments: Modeling the Acoustic Structure of Musical Emotion

While emotion-based music organization is a natural process for humans, quantifying it empirically proves to be a very difficult task, and as such no dominant feature representation for music emotion recognition has yet emerged. Much of the difficulty in developing emotion-based features is the ambiguity of the ground-truth. Even using the smallest time window, opinions about emotion are bound to vary and reflect some disagreement between listeners. In previous work, we have modeled human response labels to music in the arousal-valence (A-V) emotion space with time-varying stochastic distributions. Current methods for automatic detection of emotion in music seek performance increases by combining several feature domains (e.g. loudness, timbre, harmony, rhythm). Such work has focused largely in dimensionality reduction for minor classification performance gains, but has provided little insight into the relationship between audio and emotional associations. In this work, we seek to employ regression-based deep belief networks to learn features directly from magnitude spectra. Taking into account the dynamic nature of music, we investigate combining multiple timescales of aggregated magnitude spectra as a basis for feature learning.