Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transparent Caching for RMA Systems

The constantly increasing gap between communication and computation performance emphasizes the importance of communication-avoidance techniques. Caching is a well-known concept used to reduce accesses to slow local memories. In this work, we extend the caching idea to MPI-3 Remote Memory Access (RMA) operations. Here, caching can avoid inter-node communications and achieve similar benefits for irregular applications as communication-avoiding algorithms for structured applications. We propose CLaMPI, a caching library layered on top of MPI-3 RMA, to automatically optimize code with minimum user intervention. We demonstrate how cached RMA improves the performance of a Barnes Hut simulation and a Local Clustering Coefficient computation up to a factor of 1.8x and 5x, respectively. Due to the low overheads in the cache miss case and the potential benefits, we expect that our ideas around transparent RMA caching will soon be an integral part of many MPI libraries.
Additive manufacturing in orthodontics

In recent years, digitalization and Additive Manufacturing (AM) have opened new perspectives in the field of personalized complex medical and dental prostheses production and could be very useful also in orthodontics. Additively manufactured clear aligners for treating orthodontic malocclusions have been tested and evaluated. The treatment began with a three-dimensional scan of the patient’s study cast and occlusion, followed by a treatment simulation using the software for the orthodontic planning and design of teeth models in a normal occlusion. The aligners were made from a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) foil by thermoforming it over the model made by laser sintering. The process has been tested and evaluated. Apart from the relatively well-known clear aligner treatment, a new appliance for the treatment of Class II malocclusions in growing patients has been developed. The fixed sagittal guidance (FSG) appliance is individually designed to fit on the upper molars. It consists of a crown and occlusal inclined plane. The crown has been designed using 3D dental design software and produced by selective laser melting (SLM) technology. After finishing the FSG is bonded on both upper molars. During closing of the jaw, the appliance provides guidance anteriorly and inferiorly to correct the sagittal and vertical deficiency in growing patients and produces favorable and measurable dentofacial and skeletal changes. These two different types of appliances represent the first use of additive manufacturing for orthodontic praxis in Slovenia. The results show the great potential and future perspectives of additive manufacturing in orthodontic treatment.
Differential emergence of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from on-farm breeding substrates in Northern Ireland

SUMMARY Biting midges of the genus Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are vectors of a number of viral diseases worldwide. Following the unforeseen outbreak of bluetongue in northern Europe (2006–2009) there was a need to clarify on-farm breeding substrates utilized by temperate Culicoides spp. Six substrates (cow dung, cow slurry, horse dung, sheep dung, maize silage and soil) were investigated for Culicoides spp. emergence over a 31-week period. Overall, most Obsoletus group Culicoides emerged from the cow dung and the most Pulicaris group Culicoides emerged from the sheep dung. Furthermore, Culicoides of the Obsoletus group were found to be abundant in cow slurry and sheep dung. Temperature played a significant role in the emergence times of adult Culicoides. The Obsoletus group appear to have undergone 3 generations during the experimental period. The sex ratio of emergent Obsoletus group Culicoides was affected by substrate type, with a greater proportion of males emerging from cow dung and slurry compared with the other substrates.
Navigating Expert Reliability: are Criminal Standards of Certainty Being Left on the Dock?

This article shows that, as to profferes of asserted expert testimony, civil defendants win their Daubert reliability challenges to plaintiff's profferes most of the time, and that criminal defendant's virtually always lose their reliability challenges to government proffers. And, when civil defendants' profferes are challenged by plaintiffs, those defendants uisually win, but when criminal defendants' proffers are challenged by the prosecution, the criminal defendants usually lose. The article then goes on to examine, in detail, various categories of expert proffers in criminal cases, including "syndrome evidence", polygraph, bite mark, handwriting, modus operandi, and eye witness weakness, to shed light on whether the system bias revealed in the statistical breakdown is illusory or real. Finally, an afterword analyzes the last year's cases, and makes observations on apparent trends.
Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis in Differentiation of Erysipelothrix Species Strains

ABSTRACT We report here the first analysis of Erysipelothrixspp. using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Seventy strains of Erysipelothrix spp. were analyzed.SmaI, AscI, and NotI were tested for the ability to cleave the DNA extracted from those strains, and among them, SmaI was the most reliable enzyme. Sixty-three distinct PFGE patterns were produced, and no DNA degradation was observed, allowing the identification of all of the strains. Based on these results and on those of a previous analysis using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA and ribotyping, PFGE withSmaI might be considered to be more sensitive than those methods and to be the best method for epidemiological studies of strains of this genus.
A fixed transconductance bias technique for CMOS analog integrated circuits

A fixed transconductance bias circuit technique is proposed. This circuit forces the transconductance of a MOSFET operating in saturation to track the conductance of a precise off-chip resistor. Unlike its predecessors, the operation of this circuit does not depend on the square law of the MOSFET, and its performance does not degrade with variations in supply voltage and temperature. Simulation results in a 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process are given.
Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis of SmaI Digests of Lactococcal Genomic DNA, a Novel Method of Strain Identification

The pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern of SmaI digests of 29 strains of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and subsp. cremoris were determined. Unrelated strains yielded markedly different patterns of digestion products. Bacteriophage-resistant derivatives of four strains, generated by a method analogous to that used regularly in some cheese factories, yielded patterns that were identical or almost identical to that of the parent strain. It is proposed that a 16-h PFGE run with a pulse time increasing linearly from 1 to 20 s, which separates fragments between 50 and 240 kilobase pairs (kbp) and produces a pattern containing around 15 bands, can be used as a reliable procedure for strain identification in the lactococci. SmaI digests of 24 of the strains were analyzed by PFGE at three different pulse times to determine accurately the sizes of fragments bigger than 8 kbp. The sum of the sizes of all of the fragments in the digest of a strain provided an estimate of the genome size of the strain. For all the strains analyzed, this estimate was within the range of 2.0 to 2.7 Mbp, with no apparent difference between L. lactis subsp. lactis, L. lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis and L. lactis subsp. cremoris strains.
Mechano-optical switching in a MEMS integrated photonic crystal slab waveguide

A photonic crystal slab waveguide (PhC-WG) with an integrated MEMS bimorph cantilever actuator has been successfully fabricated using deep UV lithography and surface micromaching techniques. The cantilever is equipped with tips that are self-aligned with respect to the holes of the PhC-WG such that on electrostatic actuation, with modest voltages of less than 10 V, these tips move into the holes. This provides electro-opto-mechanical modulation of light-transmission, up to 80%, for interaction lengths as short as 10 µm. The device is monolithically integrated and designed to operate in the C-band of the telecommunication wavelengths.
EnergyTest: A tool for assessing building energy sustainability

There is a growing interest in the development of (nearly) zero-energy buildings (ZEBs), i.e., buildings that deliver (nearly) the same amount of energy to the supply grid as it is drawn from it on a yearly basis. This paper investigates the ability of such ZEBs to performing in a truly self-sustainable fashion, i.e., minimising the frequency of energy exchange with the outer grid, through appropriate charging/discharging actions of a storage system. A realistic simulation environment called EnergyTest is developed on purpose to simulate the electrical load consumption in an aggregate of houses, in order to perform the sustainability assessment.
The advances and challenges of Gene Therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Since the discovery of the dystrophin gene (DMD gene) thirty years ago, several therapeutic approaches have been investigated to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). This includes cell therapy, exon jumping, exonic knockout, and the CinDel method. In this article, we present the challenges of developping a treatment for DMD and the advances of these various approaches. We included the new CRISPR-Cas9 system, which permits not only major progress in the development of new treatments based on genome editing but also the production of new animal models.
Plant Chromatin Structure

INTRODUCTION 235 NUCLEOSOMES IN HIGHER PLANTS 237 Microscopic Investigations 237 Biochemical and Biophysical Investigations 237 CHROMATIN PROTEINS . 240 Histones . 240 Histone Genes 243 High Mobility Group Proteins " . "" . ". 244 STRUCTURE OF ACTIVE CHROMATIN AND SPECIFIC GENES 245 SUMMARy . 249
Human Resource Flow and Software Firm Performance: The Role of Direct vs. Indirect Competitors

Recent years have witnessed increasingly stiff competition for talents among software firms. The economic impact of obtaining workers from or losing workers to competing firms, however, has rarely been quantified. Built on the literature of human resource flow and firm competition, this study examines the impact of human resource flows from and to different types of competitors on company performance. In particular, we divide competitors into direct and indirect competitors according to their market and resource similarity. Using a large dataset on labour mobility derived from LinkedIn.com, we quantify the impact of employees who came from or joined direct and indirect competitors respectively. We find that employees from competitors bring great benefits to the recipient firms. Specifically, a 1 percent increase of the number of employees from direct (indirect) competitors that join the focal company in the previous year increases the company’s economic value added by 0.054 (0.074) percent in the current year. Our results also contribute to the existing literature on human resources and company strategy and provide practical implications to recruiters and policy makers in the software industry.
Flexible, Portable, and Practicable Solution for Routing in VANETs: A Fuzzy Constraint Q-Learning Approach

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been attracting interest for their potential uses in driving assistance, traffic monitoring, and entertainment systems. However, due to vehicle movement, limited wireless resources, and the lossy characteristics of a wireless channel, providing a reliable multihop communication in VANETs is particularly challenging. In this paper, we propose PFQ-AODV, which is a portable VANET routing protocol that learns the optimal route by employing a fuzzy constraint Q-learning algorithm based on ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing. The protocol uses fuzzy logic to evaluate whether a wireless link is good or not by considering multiple metrics, which are, specifically, the available bandwidth, link quality, and relative vehicle movement. Based on an evaluation of each wireless link, the proposed protocol learns the best route using the route request (RREQ) messages and hello messages. The protocol can infer vehicle movement based on neighbor information when position information is unavailable. PFQ-AODV is also independent of lower layers. Therefore, PFQ-AODV provides a flexible, portable, and practicable solution for routing in VANETs. We show the effectiveness of the proposed protocol by using both computer simulations and real-world experiments.
Mathematical Modelling of Crack Fractography after Implant Failure of Titanium 4.5 LCP Used for Flexible Bridging Osteosynthesis in a Miniature Pig

Biomechanics of fracture fixation and testing of mechanical properties of bone/implant construct from the viewpoint of checking the strength and resistance ability to acting forces are of current interest. Computer modelling known as mathematical modelling is regarded as an alternative to mechanical testing of properties on a testing machine. As a result, we get a 3D model of a real object (i.e., implant for fracture fixation in our case), which can be exposed to deformation processes in the environment of the mathematical software in order to characterize forces acting on the implant and subsequently analyze the forces causing the implant failure (broken plate). The goal of this study was to employ mathematical-statistical modelling for determination of forces that caused failure (broken implant) of a five-hole titanium 4.5 mm Locking Compression Plate. This plate has been used for flexible bridging osteosynthesis of segmental femoral diaphyseal defect in a miniature pig to investigate bone healing after transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells in combination with biocompatible scaffolds. Mathematical modelling has been performed with COMSOL Multiphysics software. Numerical study that describes deformation processes taking place in implant failure demonstrates the possibilities of deformation of five-hole titanium 4.5 mm LCP in the case of exceeding the elastic limits of a material. Knowledge of the forces acting on implants used for fracture fixation acquired from mathematical modelling might be used in clinical practice in order to prevent undesirable implant failure. Plate, bone defect, fracture, deformation, crack driving face, stress field
Vision based Obstacle Avoidance and Odometery for Swarms of Small Size Robots

In multi-robotic systems, an approach to the coordination of multiple robots with each other is called swarm robotics. In swarm robotic systems, small size robots with limited memory and processing resources are used. Integration of vision sensors in such robots can complicate the design of the robots but at the same time, a single vision sensor can be used for multiple objectives as it provide rich surrounding information. As the vision algorithms are normally computationally demanding and robots in swarm systems has limited memory and processing capabilities, so the requirements of light weight vision algorithms also arises. In this research, the use of vision sensor information is made for achieving multiple objectives. A solution to obstacle avoidance, which is the basic requirement as robots move in a cluttered environment and also odometry which is essential for robot localization, is provided using only visual clues. The approach developed in this research is computationally less expensive and suitable for small size robots, where processing and memory constraints limit the use of computationally expensive approaches. To achieve this a library of vision algorithms is developed and customized for Blackfin processor based robotic systems.
Efficient Skeletonization of Volumetric Objects

Skeletonization promises to become a powerful tool for compact shape description, path planning, and other applications. However, current techniques can seldom efficiently process real, complicated 3D data sets, such as MRI and CT data of human organs. In this paper, we present an efficient voxel-coding based algorithm for Skeletonization of 3D voxelized objects. The skeletons are interpreted as connected centerlines. consisting of sequences of medial points of consecutive clusters. These centerlines are initially extracted as paths of voxels, followed by medial point replacement, refinement, smoothness, and connection operations. The voxel-coding techniques have been proposed for each of these operations in a uniform and systematic fashion. In addition to preserving basic connectivity and centeredness, the algorithm is characterized by straightforward computation, no sensitivity to object boundary complexity, explicit extraction of ready-to-parameterize and branch-controlled skeletons, and efficient object hole detection. These issues are rarely discussed in traditional methods. A range of 3D medical MRI and CT data sets were used for testing the algorithm, demonstrating its utility.
A Fully Automated System for Measuring Cellular Mechanical Properties

As a novel effective label-free biomarker, the mechanical properties of cells have become increasingly important. However, the current methods of mapping cellular mechanical properties are mostly carried out manually, resulting in measurements that are time-consuming with low efficiency. In this article, a fully automated system of measuring the mechanical properties of cells based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) is proposed. In this system, the cells are recognized using an image-processing method and the relative position of the cell, and the AFM tip is accurately calibrated by the local scan method, meaning that the mechanical properties of cells can be measured sequentially without performing the step of AFM imaging. In addition, with the implementation of the automation, the high-throughput measurement of cellular mechanical properties can be performed rapidly. The capability of our system is validated on Raji cells, and the results indicate that the measurement rate of our system is 26 times faster than that of the traditional manual method, providing the technology for high-throughput measurement of cellular mechanical properties.
Enhanced release of plasminogen activator inhibitor(s) but not of plasminogen activators by cultured rat glial cells treated with interleukin‐1

Astroglial cells are known to proliferate during development of the nervous system, as well as during post‐traumatic gliosis. We have previously shown that the proliferation of cultured astrocytes can be stimulated by the urokinase‐type (uPA) of plasminogen activator (PA) and that astrocytes are able to release such uPA upon stimulation with basic fibroblast growth factor, which is known to act as a mitogen for these cells.
A Novel Centralized Strategy for Coded Caching with Non-uniform Demands

Despite significant progress in the caching literature concerning the worst case and uniform average case regimes, the algorithms for caching with nonuniform demands are still at a basic stage and mostly rely on simple grouping and memory-sharing techniques. In this work we introduce a novel centralized caching strategy for caching with nonuniform file popularities. Our scheme allows for assigning more cache to the files which are more likely to be requested, while maintaining the same sub-packetization for all the files. As a result, in the delivery phase it is possible to perform linear codes across files with different popularities without resorting to zero-padding or concatenation techniques. We will describe our placement strategy for arbitrary range of parameters. The delivery phase will be outlined for a small example for which we are able to show a noticeable improvement over the state of the art.
Design of Frequency-and Polarization-Reconfigurable Antenna Based on the Polarization Conversion Metasurface

A frequency- and polarization-reconfigurable antenna composed of a metasurface, a planar slot antenna, and a metallic reflector is proposed in this letter. The metasurface is made up of 64 identical patches, and all the patches are on the top surface of the substrate. In order to extend the bandwidth of the antenna, the planar slot antenna adopts a double-slot structure. The reconfiguration of frequency and polarization can be achieved by adjusting the relative positions between the metasurface and the planar slot antenna. The antenna can be reconfigured to linear polarization, and left-hand and right-hand circular polarizations. At the same time, the gain of the antenna is improved. In order to verify this method, a frequency- and polarization-reconfigurable antenna is designed. Simulation and experimental results show that the polarization reconfiguration can be achieved from 8 to 11.2 GHz (fractional bandwidth of 33.33%) by adjusting the distance among the metasurface, source antenna, and metallic reflector. The maximum gain can achieve 16.5 dBi.
The model of possible Web data retrieval

In the Dempster-Shafer's theory of evidence, for incorporating uncertainty, the valuation assigns to the data tables the degrees of belief for these data. Firstly, we are looking for the answers to the following questions. Is there a valuation-based system in which combination and marginalization operate on valuations? Has this system prosperities analogical to the t-norm system? In the t-norm system of the valuation for the specific database attributes configuration can be described the algebra of possible data set in which can be interpreted the Information Retrieval Logic.
Quadratic optimization of force distribution in walking machines

Energy efficiency remains a problem in walking machines. One approach to improving energy efficiency involves solving for an optimal set of foot forces which minimizes the power supplied to DC motor actuators at each instant. Energy regenerated by the motors, which may be significant, is generally lost and should be explicitly taken into account to produce the optimal force distribution. A method to produce this optimal solution using quadratic programming is developed in this paper. The results are compared to three suboptimal quadratic programming approaches which minimize internal forces, a weighted norm of joint torques, and finally power without accounting for regeneration, all on a simulated hexapod. It is found that the common approach of minimizing internal forces may often result in poor energy efficiency.
p-Cycles: An overview

One of the most promising techniques of network protection i.e. p-Cycles (pre-planned, preconfigured-cycles) is reviewed in this paper. In this paper we provide a survey of the main work on p-cycles to date. The characteristics of p-cycles and various types of protection provided by them are discussed. Finally, some possible extensions or enhancements of the p-cycle concept are discussed.
Estimation of surface moisture in a composite coal stockpile

ii | P a g e Abstract This dissertation, through a literature survey, investigated the different types of moisture in coal, what parameters affect coal moisture content as well as technologies and methods for drying coal. It was found that the parameter that affects surface moisture the greatest was particle size and in particular, the -500μm size fraction. Based on this knowledge a hypothesis was developed. The hypothesis states that each size fraction contributes to the total surface moisture content relative to the size fractions equilibrium surface moisture content and weighting within the overall size distribution. The total surface moisture content is then the sum of these individual contributions.
Two-stage voltage regulator for laptop computer CPUs and the corresponding advanced control schemes to improve light-load performance

This paper presents a two-stage voltage regulator (VR) for the laptop computer CPUs. The advanced control schemes to improve light-load efficiency are also discussed. The test results show that the two-stage solution achieves higher efficiency than the single-stage solution over a wide load range under the entire input voltage range. It is a promising solution for future laptop VRs.