Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimization of Xeon Phi Core Use with Negligible Execution Time Impact

For many years GPUs have been components of HPC clusters (Titan and Piz Daint), while only in recent years has the Intel® Xeon Phi™ been included (Tianhe-2 and Stampede). For example, GPUs are in 14% of systems in the November 2015 Top500 list, while the Xeon Phi™ is in 6%. Intel® came out with Xeon Phi™ to compete with NVIDIA GPUs by offering a unified environment that supports OpenMP and MPI, and by providing competitive and easier-to-utilize processing power with less energy consumption. Maximum Xeon Phi™ execution-time performance requires that programs have high data parallelism and good scalability, and use parallel algorithms. And, improved Phi™ power performance and throughput can be achieved by reducing the number of cores employed for application execution. Accordingly, the objectives of this paper are to: (1) Demonstrate that some applications can be executed with fewer cores than are available to users with a negligible impact on execution time: For 59.3% of the 27 application instances studied, doing this results in better performance and for 37% using less than half of the available cores results in performance degradation of not more than 10% in the worst case. (2) Develop a tool that provides the user with the optimal number of cores to employ: We designed an algorithm and developed a plugin for the Periscope Tuning Framework, an automatic performance tuner, that for a given application provide the user with an estimation of this number. (3) Understand if performance metrics can be used to identify applications that can be executed with fewer cores with a negligible impact on execution time: We identified, via statistical analysis, the following three metrics that are indicative of this, at least for the application instances studied: low L1 Compute to Data Access ratio, i.e., the average number of computations that are performed per byte of data loaded/stored in the L1 cache, high use of data bandwidth, and, to a lesser extent, low vectorization intensity.
Using the mimetic technique to increase AUC . Some very preliminary ideas

The Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) has been recognised as a very robust measure for classification evaluation. Recent efforts have focussed on modifying existing algorithms to improve their AUC or even to use AUC as a search criterion [6]. In this paper, we suggest the possibility that we could improve the AUC of existing models and techniques, without changing the techniques or retraining the models. The idea is based on the mimetic technique, which retrains a classifier using an invented dataset.
Project proposal - EE368 Digital Image Processing Sparse Recovery for 3D Localization Microscopy

Localization-based super-resolution microscopy such as STORM and (F)PALM has advanced the resolution of optical microscopy up to tens of nanometers. Those techniques capture thousands of images and computationally locates sparsely-excited single molecules at sub-pixel level. The estimated locations are accumulated from the multiple images to reconstruct a single image achieving spatial resolution beyond optical diffraction limit. The algorithm was initially developed to estimate locations of completely-isolated emitters and was inherently not applicable for images with high molecular densities. This limitation increased the required number of images and restricted temporal resolution. To overcome this limitation, a method based on a sparsity promoting prior was applied to estimate the locations of single molecules whose emissions are spatially overlapping [1]. The method achieved 3 sec temporal resolution and performed live cell imaging. While some methods have already achieved accurate localization almost close to Cramér-Rao lower bound, there are trade-offs between accuracy and temporal resolution. Tens of algorithms have been developed for the localization based on different approach, and their performance has been quantitatively analyzed with a set of consistent criteria [2]. Even though most algorithms estimate the locations in 2D, several algorithms have been extended to estimate 3D locations from a single image by encoding axial information on a point spread function (PSF). For example, DH-PSF is designed to change its angle along optical axis so that the depth of an emitter can be estimated from the captured angle. While the 3D localization from low density images has been becoming matured, it is still challenging for high density images. Toward this difficulty, one initial attempt combined the dictionary-based sparse recovery with double-helix PSF (DH-PSF) [3]. Their method exploits a dictionary whose columns store 2D images of DH-PSFs shifted over a 3D super-resolution grid. Even though their method was shown to be effective for high density images, it incurs expensive computational cost to handle the huge dictionary so that an input image with more than 100 × 100 pixels is impractical. Therefore, a large input image must be split into a number of small patches. To overcome this limitation, we identify the image formation model of 3D single molecule localization microscopy with convolutional sparse model. Since our approach stores only a set of kernels with small support, a large input image can be used at a time. Furthermore, by exploiting a fast deconvolution algorithm for convolutional sparse model [4, 5], we develop a computationally efficient algorithm for 3D localization.
Fusion of image scheme based on Mallet algorithm and curvelet transform

Image fusion is to integrate the information of two or more source images in order to obtain the more accurate, comprehensive and reliable description of the same scene. One of the most important fields about image analysis and computer vision is image fusion. With the development of multi-sensors, it is possible to obtain data from different sensors. A new and improved image can be got if taking into account all the images. A new image fusion scheme based on Mallet Transform is proposed in this paper. Since medical images have several objects and curved structures, it is expected that the curve let transform would be better in their fusion. The visual Effect of the fused image and experimental data show that the proposed scheme is a feasible and effective method for image fusion.
Lifetime Incidence and the Distributional Burden of Excise Taxes

This implies that low-income households in one year have some chance of being higher-income households in other years, and significantly affects the estimated distributional burden of excise taxes. This paper shows that household expenditures on gasoline, alcohol, and tobacco as a share of total consumption (a proxy for lifetime income) are much more equally distributed than expenditures as a share of annual income. From a longer-horizon perspective, excise taxes on these goods are therefore much less regressive than standard analyses suggest.
NeuroEnveloping: a transferable character skin deformation technique

We proposed a character skin deformation method, namely neuroEnveloping. The main idea relies on employing artificial neural networks to learn how to synthesize deformable skin from example shapes paired with skeleton postures of a character. Furthermore, having encoded the deformation information in the neural networks, the skinning model can be applied for the deformation of other similar characters. The character skin is decomposed into patches according to a base control mesh which is introduced as a common platform in the proposed framework. The deformation of each patch of the character is controlled by a trained neural network. We devised an effective stitching operator to eliminate discontinuities between neighboring patches. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can generate aesthetically pleasing results at interactive speed.
The Ethical State?: Social Liberalism in Australia

The ethical state a state committed to the common good and equal opportunity was a central tenet of the social-liberal theory that emerged in Britain in the late nineteenth century. Here, Marian Sawer explores how the new nation of Australia enthusiastically embraced the ideal. Translated as the 'fair go', and accepted by major policy makers on both the left and right of politics, social liberalism gave rise to the distinctively Australian institution of wage arbitration, and to other aspects of the welfare state such as public education, parks and pensions. For early Australian feminists it offered the alluring prospect of equality with men. A century later, the idea of the fair go may still resonate in political rhetoric, but liberalism has become a somewhat tarnished ideal. The dream of the ethical state lies in tatters, eroded by economic rationalism and user-pays ideology, and degraded by political machination. Has the social-liberal vision of the state as a vehicle for social justice completely run its course? Sawer argues no. Her timely book offers an astute critique of the challenges facing social-liberal thought, and issues a rallying cry for its revival.
International Finance

International Finance presents the corporate uses of international financial markets to upper undergraduate and graduate students of business finance and financial economics. Combining practical knowledge, up-to-date theories, and real-world applications, this textbook explores issues of valuation, funding, and risk management. International Finance shows how theoretical applications can be brought into managerial practice. The text includes an extensive introduction followed by three main sections: currency markets; exchange risk, exposure, and risk management; and long-term international funding and direct investment. Each section begins with a short case study, and each of the sections' chapters concludes with a CFO summary, examining how a hypothetical chief financial officer might apply topics to a managerial setting. The book also contains end-of-chapter questions to help students grasp the material presented. Focusing on international markets and multinational corporate finance, International Finance is the go-to resource for students seeking a complete understanding of the field. Rigorous focus on international financial markets and corporate finance concepts An up-to-date and practice-oriented approach Strong real-world examples and applications Comprehensive look at valuation, funding, and risk management Introductory case studies and "CFO summaries," and end-of-chapter quiz questions Solutions to the quiz questions are available online
DAG BASED APPROACH FOR FAULT TOLERANCE IN WIRELESS MULTIMEDIA SENSOR NETWORK

Data aggregation, information trust, and fault tolerance is considered to enhance the correctness and trustworthiness of collected information. It is based on the multilayer aggregation architecture of WMSNs, existing trust-based framework for data aggregation with fault tolerance with a goal to reduce the impact of erroneous data and provide measurable trustworthiness for aggregated result. DAG method provides fault tolerance for packet loss by forming a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), which allows a node to have multiple parent nodes. In particular, this framework can evaluate both discrete data and continuous media streams in WMSNs through a uniform mechanism, which can significantly improve the quality of multimedia information as well as more precisely evaluate the trustworthiness of collected information.
Turbulent flow simulation around two-dimensional hydrofoil

In this paper, the flow around a single foil has been simulated. Effort has been made to search for better ways for imposing the interface conditions of the multi-mesh system and partial slip condition on the foil wall. Simulated results are compared with the available experimental measurement. The features of present approach of the large eddy simulation for flow around foil is discussed.
Documenting requirements specifications using natural language requirements boilerplates

The natural language (NL) is frequently applied to document the stakeholders' statements and their needs during requirement elicitation activities. Nevertheless, the use of generic NL has potential for the issues of unclear and inconsistent requirements. These issues may result from the diverse interpretations by the stakeholders or other various sources of documents and artefacts. Additionally, the issues of ambiguity and incompleteness have contributed to the volatility problems to the elicited requirements, and lead to more complex situations, if the software has been deployed to the client site. The main objective of this paper was to discuss the definition and application of predefined boilerplates to specify the requirements in the form of NL statements. In this study, the proposed boilerplates were defined and classified based on two main types of requirements, namely functional and non-functional (performance, constraints, and specific quality). The applicability of the predefined boilerplates was demonstrated using the industrial strength of MediNET system (a healthcare application) case study. As a summary, the predefined boilerplates were found helpful, especially among novice requirement engineers to express and specify their requirements in a consistent manner and a standardized way. The motivation of this study was to facilitate a better way of documenting the elicited requirements from the stakeholders, particularly in specifying the requirements based on the predefined boilerplates, relatively to improve the quality of the NL statements.
Distributional Similarity, Phase Transitions and Hierarchical Clustering

We describe a method for automatically clustering words according to their distribution in particular syntactic contexts. Words are represented by the relative frequency distributions of contexts in which they appear, and relative entropy is used to measure the dissimilarity of those distributions. Clusters are represented by "typical" context distributions averaged from the given words according to their probabilities of cluster membership, and in many cases can be thought of as encoding coarse sense distinctions. Deterministic annealing is used to find lowest distortion sets of clusters. As the annealing parameter increases, existing clusters become unstable and subdivide, yielding a hierarchical "soft" clustering of the data.
Cell-Based in Vitro Blood–Brain Barrier Model Can Rapidly Evaluate Nanoparticles’ Brain Permeability in Association with Particle Size and Surface Modification

The possibility of nanoparticle (NP) uptake to the human central nervous system is a major concern. Recent reports showed that in animal models, nanoparticles (NPs) passed through the blood–brain barrier (BBB). For the safe use of NPs, it is imperative to evaluate the permeability of NPs through the BBB. Here we used a commercially available in vitro BBB model to evaluate the permeability of NPs for a rapid, easy and reproducible assay. The model is reconstructed by culturing both primary rat brain endothelial cells and pericytes to support the tight junctions of endothelial cells. We used the permeability coefficient (Papp) to determine the permeability of NPs. The size dependency results, using fluorescent silica NPs (30, 100, and 400 nm), revealed that the Papp for the 30 nm NPs was higher than those of the larger silica. The surface charge dependency results using Qdots® (amino-, carboxyl-, and PEGylated-Qdots), showed that more amino-Qdots passed through the model than the other Qdots. Usage of serum-containing buffer in the model resulted in an overall reduction of permeability. In conclusion, although additional developments are desired to elucidate the NPs transportation, we showed that the BBB model could be useful as a tool to test the permeability of nanoparticles.
ASSIGNING VALUES TO LIFE: COMPARING METHODS FOR VALUING HEALTH RISKS

We examine five approaches economists and health policy analysts have developed for evaluating policy affecting health a safety: cost-of-illness, willingness-to-pay, cost-effectiveness analysis, risk-risk analysis, and health-health analysis. We examine the theoretical basis and empirical application of each approach and investigate the influences that assumptions embedded in each approach have on policy guidance. We reach four principal conclusions. First, the approaches are not interchangeable: they measure different things. Even estimates using the same approach are often not comparable because, in practice, there is little consistency in the application of any of the approaches. Second, the usefulness of each approach depends on the unit of account. The philosophical decision to eschew the monetization of health costs or benefits constrains the ability of the approach to rank policy options and to gauge the social desirability of policy. Third, all of the approaches except risk-risk analysis and one variation of cost-effectiveness analysis incorporate the effects of income and circumstance. As a result, policy guidance could be influenced by the distribution of income. Fourth, the theory and practice of willingness-to-pay estimation are in opposition. While it is now common practice for regulatory agencies to adopt the willingness-to-pay approach for estimating health and safety benefits, they do so by assuming away the importance of individual preferences. We build on these four conclusions to suggest the appropriate use of each approach.
Culicidae Community Composition and Temporal Dynamics in Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve, Cachoeiras de Macacu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A temporal observational study was conducted of the Culicidae fauna in a remnant area of Atlantic Forest within a private reserve (Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve-REGUA) presenting typical vegetation cover of dense rain forest, with some patches recovering a floristic composition similar to that of the original community. Research was carried out to analyze the influence of climatic factors (mean monthly temperature, rainfall, and air relative humidity) on the temporal dynamics of the mosquito communities that occur in the reserve. The completeness of the mosquito inventory was assessed with individual-based rarefaction-extrapolation curves. Differences in species composition between sites and months were tested with PERMANOVA. True diversities of orders 0, 1, and 2 (effective numbers) were estimated and compared between sites, months, and years. Multiple stepwise regressions were used to assess relationships between climatic variables, measures of diversity, and abundances of the most common species. There were significant interactive effects between year and site on measures of diversity. However, diversity estimates showed little variation among months, and these were weakly correlated with climatic variables. Abundances of the most common species were significantly related to temperature or relative humidity, but not rainfall. The presence of mosquito species known to be vectors of human diseases combined with an intermittent flow of visitors to the study area suggests there is a risk of disease transmission that warrants further monitoring.
Prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern of Campylobacter species in foods of animal origin.

Aim: The aim was to determine the prevalence and evaluation of antibiotic resistance pattern and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Campylobacter species isolated from foods of animal origin. Materials and Methods: A total of 280 samples (comprising 150 chicken meat, 50 chevon and 80 milk) were collected from retail meat markets, slaughter houses and dairy farms and analyzed for isolation of Campylobacter species. A total of 29 isolates comprising 23 Campylobacter jejuni and 6 Campylobacter coli were recovered, characterized biochemically and confirmed by polymerase chain reaction. These isolates were then tested for antibiotic resistance pattern through disc diffusion method, and MIC was assessed by MIC strips. The antibiotic resistance assessment was performed against 8 antibiotics viz. ampicillin, co-trimoxazole, erythromycin, levofloxacin, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, and norfloxacin. Results: The prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in chicken meat, chevon and milk samples were observed 17.33%, 6% and 0%, respectively. All the isolates were resistant to co-trimoxazole but sensitive to erythromycin. All the isolates showed different resistance pattern for the rest of the antibiotics. MIC results revealed that all the isolates were within prescribed concentrations for sensitivity for the antibiotics tested. Conclusions: The foods of animal origin are source of Campylobacter infections to human beings. Thus, the development of antibiotic-resistant strains emphasizes the requirement of better surveillance and monitoring of the foods of animal origin and the use of antimicrobials in veterinary and human medicine require careful regulation.
GaitAssist: a daily-life support and training system for parkinson's disease patients with freezing of gait

Patients with Parkinson's disease often experience freezing of gait, which bears a high risk of falling, a prevalent cause for morbidity and mortality. In this work we present GaitAssist, a wearable system for freezing of gait support in daily life. The system provides real-time auditory cueing after the onset of freezing episodes. Furthermore, GaitAssist implements training exercises to learn how to handle freezing situations. GaitAssist is the result of a design process where we considered the input of engineers, clinicians and 18 Parkinson's disease patients, in order to find an optimal trade-off between system wearability and performance. We tested the final system in a user study with 5 additional patients. They reported a reduction in the freezing of gait duration as a result of the auditory stimulation provided, and that they feel the system enhanced their confidence during walking.
Quality Assessment of a Stereo Pair Formed From Two Synthesized Views Using Objective Metrics

When a stereo pair is formed from two synthesized views, it is unclear whether objective 2D quality metrics can provide a good estimation of the perceived quality. In this paper, this problem is addressed considering a 3D video represented in multiview video plus depth format. The performance of different state-of-the-art 2D quality metrics is analyzed in terms of correlation with subjective perception of video quality. A set of subjective data collected through formal subjective evaluation tests is used as benchmark. Results show that some objective metrics, including PSNR, do not predict well perceived quality of synthesized views. On the other hand, metrics such as VIF, VQM, MS-SSIM, or SSIM have a high correlation with perceived quality.
Have Inflation Targeting and EU labour Immigration Changed the System of Wage Formation in Norway

Collective agreements have played a central role in the system of wage formation in Norway for more than fifty years. Although the degree of coordination achieved has been variable, pattern wage bargaining has been a mainstay of the system. We investigate the degree of invariance in wage formation in Norway with respect to two recent structural changes: the transition towards inflation targeting in monetary policy and an unprecedented surge in labour supply due to higher immigration rates. We report empirical results that support the view that a semi-permanent high immigration may affect wages negatively in a significant way. However we do not find evidence that the stability of the arbitration system, and in particular the wage-bargaining pattern, has been changed by labour immigration or by inflation targeting monetary policy. An explanation of why we do not find evidence of structural changing effects of the transition of monetary policy, can be found in the fact that the wage arbitration system itself has syncronized the inflation expectations of the social partners. In that analysis, inflation targeting became a new layer of nominal stabilization, on top of the existing one.