Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variable-precision rendering

We propose the idea of using variable-precision geometry transformations and lighting to accelerate 3D graphics rendering. Multiresolution approaches reduce the numberof primitives to be rendered; our approach complements the multiresolution techniques as it reduces theprecisionof each graphics primitive. Our method relates the minimum number of bits of accuracy required in the input data to achieve a desired accuracy in the display output. We achieve speedup by taking advantage of (a) SIMD parallelism for arithmetic operations, now increasingly common on modern processors, and (b) spatial-temporal coherence in frame-to-frame transformations and lighting. We show the results of our method on datasets from several application domains including laser-scanned, procedural, and mechanical CAD datasets. CR Categories: I.3. 3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation—Viewing algorithms; I.3. 5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling—Hierarchy and geometric transformations; I.3. 6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques—Graphics data structures and data types. Additional
Towards Cohesive Anomaly Mining

In some applications, such as bioinformatics, social network analysis, and computational criminology, it is desirable to find compact clusters formed by a (very) small portion of objects in a large data set. Since such clusters are comprised of a small number of objects, they are extraordinary and anomalous with respect to the entire data set. This specific type of clustering task cannot be solved well by the conventional clustering methods since generally those methods try to assign most of the data objects into clusters. In this paper, we model this novel and application-inspired task as the problem of mining cohesive anomalies. We propose a general framework and a principled approach to tackle the problem. The experimental results on both synthetic and real data sets verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.
Dendritic fibroblasts in three-dimensional collagen matrices.

Cell motility determines form and function of multicellular organisms. Most studies on fibroblast motility have been carried out using cells on the surfaces of culture dishes. In situ, however, the environment for fibroblasts is the three-dimensional extracellular matrix. In the current research, we studied the morphology and motility of human fibroblasts embedded in floating collagen matrices at a cell density below that required for global matrix remodeling (i.e., contraction). Under these conditions, cells were observed to project and retract a dendritic network of extensions. These extensions contained microtubule cores with actin concentrated at the tips resembling growth cones. Platelet-derived growth factor promoted formation of the network; lysophosphatidic acid stimulated its retraction in a Rho and Rho kinase-dependent manner. The dendritic network also supported metabolic coupling between cells. We suggest that the dendritic network provides a mechanism by which fibroblasts explore and become interconnected to each other in three-dimensional space.
Capturing the geometric structure of episodic memories for naturalistic experiences

The human memory system is adept at cataloging the rich dynamics of ongoing experience. However, traditional trial-based memory experiments cannot capture these dynamics, and therefore cannot be used to study them. By constraining participants’ experiences in an experiment to occur in temporally discrete trials, often arranged in a randomized order, the temporal, contextual, and emotional structure of those in-lab experiences necessarily differ from the naturalistic experiences we encounter in everyday life. Here we investigate how people verbally recall continuous videos by characterizing and relating the thematic dynamics, or “trajectories,” of the stimulus and participants’ recalls. Unlike trial-based studies of memory wherein participants attempt to recall the precise stimuli they encounter, naturalistic recall entails capturing the fundamental geometric components of the stimulus topic trajectory. The precise words participants use to describe the stimulus, and the level of detail and number of distinct events they recall, vary considerably across participants. Nevertheless, all of the participants’ recall narratives captured the fundamental “shape” of the original stimulus. We view this work as providing a window into which aspects of naturalistic experiences must be preserved, and which might be more flexible, in considering whether and how those experiences are remembered.
Highly scalable network on chip for reconfigurable systems

An efficient methodology for building the billion-transistors systems on chip of tomorrow is a necessity. Networks on chip promise to be the solution for the numerous technological, economical and productivity problems. We believe that different types of networks are required for each application domains. Our approach therefore is to have a very flexible network design, highly scalable, that allows to easily accommodate the various needs. This paper presents the design of our network on chip, which is part of the platform we are developing for reconfigurable systems. The present design allows us to instantiate arbitrary network topologies, has a low latency and high throughput.
Evolutionary multi-objective optimization in robot soccer system for education

As the robot soccer system becomes stabilized, it has been used as an educational platform with which various topics on mobile robotics can be taught. As one of key topics in the education of mobile robotics is computational intelligence-based navigation, this paper proposes a multiobjective population-based incremental learning (MOPBIL) algorithm to obtain the fuzzy path planner for optimal path to the ball, minimizing three objectives such as elapsed time, heading direction and posture angle errors in a robot soccer system. MOPBIL employs the probabilistic mechanism, which generates new population using probability vectors. As the probability vectors are updated by referring to nondominated solutions, population converges to Pareto-optimal solution set. Simulation and experiment results show the effectiveness of the proposed MOPBIL from the viewpoint of the proximity to the Pareto-optimal set, size of the dominated space, coverage of two sets and diversity metric. By implementing each of the solutions into the educational platform, it can be educated how multi-objective optimization is realized in the real-world problem.
Seed eluates on the germination blotter : a germinability test?

Aged seeds of Scots pine left different eluate spots on the blotter in a germinator after about 24 hours' incubation. Fresh seeds do not give off sucheluates. Among the leached substances were found proteins, nucleic acids, amino acids, fats, sugars, etc. The eluate spots are visible on the blotter only after development by simple biochemical methods used in paper chromatography. Possibility of using this eluate-development-method as a seed viability test, and other practical aspects, are discussed.
Individual Variations in Serum Melatonin Levels through Time: Implications for Epidemiologic Studies

Melatonin, a marker for the circadian rhythm with serum levels peaking between 2AM and 5AM, is hypothesized to possess anti-cancer properties, making it a mechanistic candidate for the probable carcinogenic effect of circadian rhythm disruption. In order to weigh epidemiologic evidence on the association of melatonin with cancer, we must first understand the laboratory and biological sources of variability in melatonin levels measured in samples. Participants for this methodological study were men enrolled in the Prostate Lung Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO). We measured serum melatonin levels over a five year period in 97 individuals to test if melatonin levels are steady over time. The Pearson correlation coefficient between two measures separated by 1 year was 0.87, while the correlation between two measures separated by 5 years was to 0.70. In an additional cross-sectional study of 292 individuals, we used Analysis of Variance to identify differences in melatonin levels between different lifestyle and environmental characteristics. Serum melatonin levels were slightly higher in samples collected from 130 individuals during the winter, (6.36±0.59 pg/ml) than in samples collected from 119 individuals during the summer (4.83±0.62 pg/ml). Serum melatonin levels were lowest in current smokers (3.02±1.25 pg/ml, p = 0.007) compared to never (6.66±0.66 pg/ml) and former (5.59±0.50 pg/ml) smokers whereas BMI did not significantly affect serum melatonin levels in this study. In conclusion, the high 5 year correlation of melatonin levels implies that single measurements may be used to detect population level associations between melatonin and risk of cancer. Furthermore, our results reiterate the need to record season of sample collection, and individual characteristics in order to maximize study power and prevent confounding.
Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis for prediction of Gene Ontology annotations

Consistency and completeness of biomolecular annotations is a keypoint of correct interpretation of biological experiments. Yet, the associations between genes (or proteins) and features correctly annotated are just some of all the existing ones. As time goes by, they increase in number and become more useful, but they remain incomplete and some of them incorrect. To support and quicken their time-consuming curation procedure and to improve consistence of available annotations, computational methods that are able to supply a ranked list of predicted annotations are hence extremely useful. Starting from a previous work on the automatic prediction of Gene Ontology (GO) annotations based on the Singular Value Decomposition of the annotation matrix, where every matrix element corresponds to the association of a gene with a feature, we propose the use of a modified Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (pLSA) algorithm, named pLSAnorm, to better perform such prediction. pLSA is a statistical technique from the natural language processing field, which has not been used in bioinformatics annotation prediction yet; it takes advantage of the latent information contained in the analyzed data co-occurrences. We proved the effectiveness of the pLSAnorm prediction method by performing k-fold cross-validation of the GO annotations of two organisms, Gallus gallus and Bos taurus. Obtained results demonstrate the efficacy of our approach.
State and Parameter Estimation for Nonlinear Delay Systems Using Sliding Mode Techniques

In this technical note, a class of time varying delay nonlinear systems is considered where both parametric uncertainty and structural uncertainty are involved. The uncertain parameters are embedded in the system nonlinearly. The bound on the structural uncertainty takes nonlinear form and is time delayed. A sliding mode observer is proposed to estimate the system state and an adaptive law is proposed to estimate the unknown parameters simultaneously. Using the Lyapunov-Razuminkhin approach, sufficient conditions are developed such that the error system is uniformly ultimately bounded. A simulation on a bioreactor system shows the effectiveness of the approach.
Filtering techniques to improve trace-cache efficiency

The trace cache is becoming an important building block of modern, wide-issue, processors. The paper has three main contributions: it indicates that trace cache optimizations directed to reducing power consumption are do not necessarily coincide with optimisations directed to increasing fetch bandwidth; it extends our understanding on how well the trace cache utilizes its resources and introduces a new trace-cache organization based on filtering techniques. We observe that: (1) the majority of traces that are inserted into the trace-cache are rarely used again before being replaced; (2) the majority of the instructions delivered for execution originate from the fewer traces that are heavily and repeatedly used; and that (3) techniques that aim to improve instruction fetch bandwidth may increase the number of traces built during program execution. Based on these observations, we propose splitting the trace cache into two components: the filter trace-cache (FTC) and the main trace-cache (MTC). The FTC/MTC organization exhibits an important benefit: it decreases the number of traces built, thus reducing power consumption while improving overall performance. An extension of the filtering concept involves adding a second level (L2) trace-cache that stores less frequent traces that are replaced in the FTC or the MTC. The extra level of caching allows for order-of-magnitude reduction in the number of trace builds. Second level trace cache proves particularly useful for applications with large instruction footprints.
Secure Compilation to Protected Module Architectures

A fully abstract compiler prevents security features of the source language from being bypassed by an attacker operating at the target language level. Unfortunately, developing fully abstract compilers is very complex, and it is even more so when the target language is an untyped assembly language. To provide a fully abstract compiler that targets untyped assembly, it has been suggested to extend the target language with a protected module architecture—an assembly-level isolation mechanism which can be found in next-generation processors. This article provides a fully abstract compilation scheme whose source language is an object-oriented, high-level language and whose target language is such an extended assembly language. The source language enjoys features such as dynamic memory allocation and exceptions. Secure compilation of first-order method references, cross-package inheritance, and inner classes is also presented. Moreover, this article contains the formal proof of full abstraction of the compilation scheme. Measurements of the overhead introduced by the compilation scheme indicate that it is negligible.
Word Counts in Response to Cognitively Demanding Essay Prompts as Reflections of General Cognitive Ability and Broad Cognitive Abilities

WORD COUNTS IN RESPONSE TO COGNITIVELY DEMANDING ESSAY PROMPTS AS REFLECTIONS OF GENERAL COGNITIVE ABILITY AND BROAD COGNITIVE ABILITIES Michael Beaumont Armstrong Old Dominion University, 2018 Director: Dr. Richard N. Landers Natural language processing techniques can be used to analyze text and speech data. These techniques have been applied within many domains to date but have only recently been examined in the domain of personnel assessment. By linking workplace-relevant constructs such as general cognitive ability (GCA) to natural language processing outcomes such as word counts, a foundation for language-based psychological assessment of those abilities can be laid. Over 400 participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to write cognitively demanding essays and complete a battery of cognitive tests. Essays were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationship between GCA and word count categories as well as the relationship between broad cognitive abilities and word count categories. Latent GCA added incremental prediction of unique word use over latent verbal ability and incremental prediction of preposition use over latent short-term memory. Although not statistically significant, latent GCA and latent verbal ability related to various LIWC word count categories the strongest out of the abilities measured, yielding small to medium effect sizes in both positive and negative directions. Latent short-term memory and latent fluid reasoning were weakly related or unrelated to the LIWC word count categories observed. Word counting approaches to natural language processing may partially express GCA and latent verbal ability, but not latent short-term memory and latent fluid reasoning in cognitively demanding essay contexts.
Identification of a gene encoding a melanoma tumor antigen recognized by HLA-A31-restricted tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes [published erratum appears in J Exp Med 1995 Mar 1;181(3):1261]

The availability of antitumor cytotoxic T lymphocytes which can be generated from either peripheral blood lymphocytes after stimulation in vitro or tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) has made it possible to identify a number of melanoma antigens presented by major histocompatibility complex class I molecules. The present and previous studies indicated that TIL586 recognized an antigen expressed on most melanoma and normal melanocytes in the context of the HLA-A31 molecule. We report here the cloning of a cDNA that directs the expression of the shared melanoma antigen recognized by this TIL. The DNA sequence analysis revealed that the cDNA was almost identical to the gene encoding tyrosinase-related protein 1 or glycoprotein gp75 which was originally identified by serum antibodies in a patient with melanoma. The gene was found to be expressed only in melanoma, normal melanocyte cell lines, and retina, but not in other normal tissues tested. The gp75 antigen presented by HLA-A31 may therefore constitute a useful immune target for specific treatment of patients with melanoma, since both antibody- and T cell-mediated immune responses can be generated against this antigen.
Forest Products Journal 23

to 13 inches in diameter were harvested and bunched at sustained rates of 1 to 2 trees per minute. For 16-year-oJd loblolly pin~ on dry loamy-clay soil, force to Bever lateral roots (including force to penetrate soil) did not exceed 75,000 pounds; lifting force did not exceed 65,000 pounds. The stump-taproot portion of loblolly pines harvested n8r Cedartown, Georgia, averaged 18 percent of the green weight of merchantable stems from 2-inch stump height to about a 3inch top diameter outside bark. In slash pine and longleaf pine plantations row-thinned near Panama City, Florida, the stump-taproot averaged 22 percent of merchantable stem weight to a 2-inch top outside bark. On loamy-clay eoila Abstract
A study on university student engagement within a forensic science course

Society’s fascination with forensic science has been on an increase for many years. Evidence of this is supported by the development of many tertiary education forensic science programs and the continued increase in student numbers within these programs. In this project, we investigate the reasoning behind why students find forensic science an engaging field of study. The students (n=88) of a third-year undergraduate crime scene investigation course were surveyed at the end of the course. A study was completed using the quantitative data collected that was then validated with the qualitative student responses. The message from the students was clear, with 81.61% indicating that collaborative laboratory sessions and crime scene house attendance were the favorite teaching techniques. The lab sessions being the favorite at 59.77%. The survey results suggest that the reason for engagement is the effect of a collaborative work environment that has extensive hands-on course content.
SAC: rethinking the cache replacement policy for SSD-based storage systems

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are widely used in storage systems. However, algorithms adopted by existing operating systems generally consider the underlying devices as hard disks, and thus are rarely optimized for SSDs. In this paper, we focus on a classical research issue, the cache replacement policy, and design a new policy by taking the parallelism of SSDs into account. A typical SSD contains several parallel channels. Some channels contain more hot data, thus are busy with read requests. The other channels may only contain cold data. So, workloads among these channels may be unbalanced. Requests issued to busy channels may take a while to address, whereas requests issued to idle channels may be served rapidly. We design a new cache replacement policy for read data, which considers the unbalanced workloads among channels. The policy gives higher priority to evicting pages from idle channels because they are more easily retrieved. On the other hand, pages from busy channels are protected. In this manner, the average latency for obtaining pages is reduced. However, SSDs are black boxes, with operating systems are blind to the channel from which a page comes. Therefore, we propose a simple scheme that determines whether a page is from a busy or an idle channel. The scheme monitor the page requests issued to the underlying storage device. When a page request is returned, and many page requests issued earlier than it have not been returned, the page is assumed to be from an idle channel. We compare our cache replacement policy with others via trace-driven simulations. The performance is measured in terms of average response time. Comparison candidates include LRU, ARC and the policy adopted by Linux. The experimental results show that our policy outperforms the other policies on most traces when workloads among channels are unbalanced.
Combining Offsets with Precedence Constraints to Improve Temporal Analysis of Cyclic Real-Time Streaming Applications

Stream processing applications executed on multiprocessor systems usually contain cyclic data dependencies due to the presence of bounded FIFO buffers and feedback loops, as well as cyclic resource dependencies due to the usage of shared processors. In recent works it has been shown that temporal analysis of such applications can be performed by iterative fixed-point algorithms that combine dataflow and response time analysis techniques. However, these algorithms consider resource dependencies based on the assumption that tasks on shared processors are enabled simultaneously, resulting in a significant overestimation of interference between such tasks. This paper extends these approaches by integrating an explicit consideration of precedence constraints with a notion of offsets between tasks on shared processors, leading to a significant improvement of temporal analysis results for cyclic stream processing applications. Moreover, the addition of an iterative buffer sizing enables an improvement of temporal analysis results for acyclic applications as well. The performance of the presented approach is evaluated in a case study using a WLAN transceiver application. It is shown that 56% higher throughput guarantees and 52% smaller end-to-end latencies can be determined compared to state-of-the-art.
Game theory approach for modeling competition over visibility on social networks

In Social Networks, such as facebook, linkedin, twitter, google+ and others, many members post messages to walls or to timelines of their friends, or to that of pages or of groups. There is permanent competition over visibility of content in these destination since timelines have finite capacity. As new content arrives, older content gets pushed away from the timeline. A selfish source that wishes to be more visible has to send from time to time new content thus preempting other content from the time-line. We assume that sending more content comes with some extra cost. We analyse the problem of selecting the rates of content creation as a non-cooperative game between several sources that share some common destination to which they send content. We identify conditions under which the problem can be reduced to the Kelly mechanism for which we compute explicitly the equilibrium. This is done in a very general probabilistic framework where time between arrival of content is only required to be stationary ergodic.