Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Temperature-Aware Power Estimation Methodology

Reducing power consumption, improving designer productivity and mitigating thermal effects are grand challenges for future CMOS-based designs in the nanometer regime [1]. Solving these challenges requires a power estimation methodology that is temperature aware and simple, fast and accurate. In this paper, we present such a power estimation methodology that utilizes data from different levels of modeling abstraction and is applicable to both current and future processors. Our methodology leverages design data from the gatelevel model and activity factors from the structural RTL model and refines the initial power estimates based on a thermal and power grid model. We demonstrate our methodology using a SOC-style, tiled, general purpose, chip multiprocessor implemented at 130nm and provide scaled-down estimates at 90nm, 65nm, 45nm and 32nm technologies.
On-board Bluetooth-based Relative Localization for Collision Avoidance in Micro Air Vehicle Swarms

A current limitation of using Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) in teams is the high risk of collisions between members. Knowledge of relative location is needed in order to facilitate evasive maneuvers. We propose an on-board Bluetooth-based relative localization method. Bluetooth is a light-weight and energy efficient communication technology that is readily available on even the smallest MAV units. In this work, it is exploited for communication between team members to exchange on-board states (velocity, height, and orientation), while the strength of the communication signal is used to infer relative range. The data is fused on-board by each drone to obtain a relative estimate of the location and motion of all other team members. Furthermore, a collision avoidance controller is proposed based on collision cones. It is designed to deal with the expected relative localization errors by adapting the collision cones during flight and enforcing a clock-wise evasion maneuver. The system was tested with a team of AR-Drones 2.0 flying in a 4mx4m arena at the same height. The system showed promising results. When using two AR-Drones and off-board velocity/orientation estimates, the drones were able to fly around the arena for a cumulative time of 25 minutes with only one collision. With three AR-Drones under the same conditions, flight time to collision was 3 minutes. With two AR-Drones flying with on-board velocity estimation, the time to collision was approximately 3 minutes due to the disturbances in velocity estimates. Simulations show that even better results can be expected with smaller MAVs.
Teaching Spam and Spyware at the University of C@1g4ry

The University of Calgary is attacking the problems of spam and spyware from the angle of education. “Spam and Spyware” is a computer science course offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level, that objectively examines the legal, ethical, and technical aspects of spam and spyware and their countermeasures. We believe that this is the only course of its kind in the world. Furthermore, students are given hands-on experience in a secure laboratory, developing software for spamming, spyware, and defenses against them. This paper documents our course and its rationale.
Upper and Lower Bounds on the Cost of a Map-Reduce Computation

In this paper we study the tradeoff between parallelism and communication cost in a map-reduce computation. For any problem that is not "embarrassingly parallel," the finer we partition the work of the reducers so that more parallelism can be extracted, the greater will be the total communication between mappers and reducers. We introduce a model of problems that can be solved in a single round of map-reduce computation. This model enables a generic recipe for discovering lower bounds on communication cost as a function of the maximum number of inputs that can be assigned to one reducer. We use the model to analyze the tradeoff for three problems: finding pairs of strings at Hamming distance d, finding triangles and other patterns in a larger graph, and matrix multiplication. For finding strings of Hamming distance 1, we have upper and lower bounds that match exactly. For triangles and many other graphs, we have upper and lower bounds that are the same to within a constant factor. For the problem of matrix multiplication, we have matching upper and lower bounds for one-round map-reduce algorithms. We are also able to explore two-round map-reduce algorithms for matrix multiplication and show that these never have more communication, for a given reducer size, than the best one-round algorithm, and often have significantly less.
Biocatalysis and Strategies for Enzyme Improvement

Biotransformation with the help of enzymes can greatly improve the rate and stereospecificity of reactions in organic chemistry. However, the use of organic solvents and harsh conditions in biotechnological applications often correlates with enzyme deactivation or a dramatic drop in catalytic activity. Detailed molecular understanding of the protein structure and conformational dynamics allows us to address such limitations and to finely tune catalytic activity by modifying the solvent, the support, or the active site of the enzyme. Along with physico-chemical methods of enzyme stabilization, such as additive approach, chemical modification, and immobilization of enzymes, approaches of enzyme engineering based on DNA recombination can be used to enhance the performance of biocatalysts. Since successful synthetic and industrial applications of biocatalysts require systems that are not only stable and active, but can also be reused in a continuous flow process reducing the production cost, the goal of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the vast scope of techniques available for enzyme improvement, highlighting their opportunities and limitations for the real-world technological processes.
Extracorporal Shock Wave Therapy for Calcifying Tendinitis of the Shoulder

During the past 2 years, 40 patients referred to the authors' hospital for persistent calcifying tendinitis of the shoulder were seen on prospective followup after undergoing a single extracorporal shock wave therapy. During a single therapy session, all patients received 1500 impulses of the energy density 0.28 mj/mm2 in plexus anesthesia. Followup examinations were done at 6 and 24 weeks. In 62.5% of the patients partial or complete disintegration of the deposit was observed. Statistical analysis showed significant improvement both of subjective and objective criteria. According to the Constant score, 60% of the patients reached normal values, and 72.5% of the patients had no or only occasional discomfort. Only 6 patients (15%) reported no improvement at the 24-week followup.
Accuracy of Siemens HearCheck™ Navigator as a Screening Tool for Hearing Loss

Methods: Design: Analytical, cross-sectional study Setting: Tertiary Public University Hospital Patients: Patients seen at the Ear Unit of a tertiary public university hospital from June 2009 to August 2010 were tested using the Siemens HearCheckTM Navigator and pure tone audiometry, inside a soundproof audiometry booth and in a quiet room with an ambient noise of 50dB, with a different investigator for each examination. Each ear was treated as a separate subject. Results obtained from the HearCheckTM Navigator were designated as observed values and were classified as “no hearing loss” for green light, and “with hearing loss” for yellow or red lights. Results were compared with pure tone air conduction averages designated as gold standard values. Normal hearing acuity (0-25 dB) was classified as no hearing loss. Pure tone air conduction averages of 26dB and above were classified as “with hearing loss” and were further stratified as mild hearing loss (26-40dB) and moderate or worse hearing loss (>41 dB). Observed and gold standard values were compared and tabulated in a 2x2 table for all levels of hearing loss, mild hearing loss, and moderate or worse hearing loss. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the Siemens HearCheckTM Navigator inside a soundproof audiometry booth and in a quiet room were determined using pure tone audiometry as the gold standard.
Identical oligomeric and fibrillar structures captured from the brains of R6/2 and knock-in mouse models of Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is a late-onset neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized neuropathologically by the presence of neuropil aggregates and nuclear inclusions. However, the profile of aggregate structures that are present in the brains of HD patients or of HD mouse models and the relative contribution of specific aggregate structures to disease pathogenesis is unknown. We have used the Seprion ligand to develop a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based method for quantifying aggregated polyglutamine in tissues from HD mouse models. We used a combination of electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE) to investigate the aggregate structures isolated by the ligand. We found that the oligomeric, proto-fibrillar and fibrillar aggregates extracted from the brains of R6/2 and HdhQ150 knock-in mice were remarkably similar. Using AFM, we determined that the nanometre globular oligomers isolated from the brains of both mouse models have dimensions identical to those generated from recombinant huntingtin exon 1 proteins. Finally, antibodies that detect exon 1 Htt epitopes differentially recognize the ligand-captured material on SDS–PAGE gels. The Seprion-ligand ELISA provides an assay with good statistical power for use in preclinical pharmacodynamic therapeutic trials or to assess the effects of the genetic manipulation of potential therapeutic targets on aggregate load. This, together with the ability to identify a spectrum of aggregate species in HD mouse tissues, will contribute to our understanding of how these structures relate to the pathogenesis of HD and whether their formation can be manipulated for therapeutic benefit.
Bioinspired Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Wrapped Geobacter sulfurreducens as a Hybrid Electrocatalyst for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Doping/decorating of graphene or reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with heteroatoms provides a promising route for the development of electrocatalysts which will be useful in many technologies, including water splitting. However, current doping approaches are complicated, not eco-friendly, and not cost-effective. Herein, we report the synthesis of doped/decorated rGO for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) using a simple approach that is cost-effective, sustainable, and easy to scale up. The OER catalyst was derived from the reduction of GO by an exo-electron-transferring bacterium, Geobacter sulfurreducens. Various analytical tools indicate that OER active elements such as Fe, Cu, N, P, and S decorate the rGO flakes. The hybrid catalyst (i.e., Geobacter/rGO) produces a geometric current density of 10 mA cm–2 at an overpotential of 270 mV versus the reversible hydrogen electrode with a Tafel slope of 43 mV dec–1 and possesses high durability, as evidenced through 10 h of stability testing. Electrochemical analyses.
Controlling interferences in smart building IoT networks using machine learning

The coexistence of many internet of things (IoT) networks in smart buildings poses a major challenge because they interfere mutually. In most settings this results in a greedy approach where each IoT node optimises its own performance parameters like increasing transmit-power, etc. However, this means that interference levels are increased, battery powers are wasted, and spectrum resources are exhausted in high dense settings. To control interference levels, share spectrum resources, and lower the overall powerconsumptions this paper proposes a centralised control scheme which is based on a nonlinear cost function. This cost function is optimised by using machine learning in the form of a binary particle swarm optimisation (BPSO) algorithm. It has been found that this approach shares the spectrum in a fair way, it saves power and lowers the interference levels, and it dynamically adapts to network changes.
Government and school community member perception on childhood obesity prevention in the primary school settings of Brunei Darussalam

Introduction: Childhood obesity is increasing in the Southeast Asian region, including in the nation of Brunei Darussalam. Within the public health focus on obesity prevention, specific settings, including primary schools, have been singled out as suitable sites for action. Recognizing that stakeholders are, in their various roles, producers of policy or implementers of practice, the purpose of this study in Brunei was to establish a baseline for interventions as well as to establish strengths and limitations in the current practice. Methods: Semi-structured interview with government and school community stakeholders was conducted, and transcriptions were thematically analyzed. Results: Three themes emerged from the data. The first theme was “children’s eating habits today = healthy adult population tomorrow;” many of the stakeholders believed that, if healthy eating is not practiced from an early stage, this can lead to the development of harmful diet-related diseases in the future. The second theme was “barriers to effectively addressing the issue of childhood obesity;” all were able to identify barriers such as workforce issues to address obesity prevention and health promotion activities. The third theme was “parental responsibility for children’s diet and physical activity habits. ” The majority of respondents believed that parents are responsible for the rise in childhood obesity in Brunei. Conclusions: The widespread ethos of personal responsibility for health behaviors has resulted in policies having a heavy emphasis on individual health behavior management and blame for the problem being directed primarily at parents. This individualization of the problem of childhood obesity is a barrier to the planning and implementation of ecological interventions.
The Comparison of Cervical Repositioning Errors According to Smartphone Addiction Grades

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to compare cervical repositioning errors according to smartphone addiction grades of adults in their 20s. [Subjects and Methods] A survey of smartphone addiction was conducted of 200 adults. Based on the survey results, 30 subjects were chosen to participate in this study, and they were divided into three groups of 10; a Normal Group, a Moderate Addiction Group, and a Severe Addiction Group. After attaching a C-ROM, we measured the cervical repositioning errors of flexion, extension, right lateral flexion and left lateral flexion. [Results] Significant differences in the cervical repositioning errors of flexion, extension, and right and left lateral flexion were found among the Normal Group, Moderate Addiction Group, and Severe Addiction Group. In particular, the Severe Addiction Group showed the largest errors. [Conclusion] The result indicates that as smartphone addiction becomes more severe, a person is more likely to show impaired proprioception, as well as impaired ability to recognize the right posture. Thus, musculoskeletal problems due to smartphone addiction should be resolved through social cognition and intervention, and physical therapeutic education and intervention to educate people about correct postures.
Socially Assistive Robotics in the Treatment of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Socially assistive robotics is an emerging field of research focused on assisting people through social interaction. While much attention has been paid in the past to robots that provide assistance to people through physical contact, as well as to robots that entertain through social interaction, more recently attention has been paid on socially assistive robots that mediate communication and social exchange. In the paper the argument is developed describing an exploratory study related to the use of the seal robot Paro for the treatment of dementia. The case is illuminating since it highlights the potential of social robots in supporting non pharmacological therapeutic protocols for the dementia care
A low-power pulse position modulation transceiver

This paper presents a design of a pulse position modulation (PPM) transceiver. The proposed PPM receiver does not need clock forwarding or a reference clock. Moreover, the proposed receiver is implemented with a phase-locked loop and only a sampling flip-flop because need for a frequency detection circuit is eliminated. The duty-cycle distortions of the TX and RX clocks are tolerated without duty-cycle error correction. As a result, wire count and power consumption are minimized in the proposed transceiver. The proposed PPM transceiver is fabricated in 65-nm low-power CMOS technology, and dissipates 7 mW at 800-Mbps data rate. The proposed transceiver occupies a silicon area of 1.2 mm2. RMS jitter of the RX recovered clock is measured to 19.7 ps with PRBS-7 data pattern. The overall transceiver achieves an error-free operation.
Effectiveness of semi-supervised learning in bankruptcy prediction

Adoption of techniques from fields related with Data Science, such as Machine Learning, Data Mining and Predictive Analysis, in the task of bankruptcy prediction can produce useful knowledge for both the policy makers and the organizations that are already funding or are interested in acting towards this direction in the near future. The nature of this task prevents analysts from collecting large amount of data for building accurate predictive models. Semi-supervised algorithms overcome this phenomenon and can perform robust behavior based on a few data. Experiments using data from Greek firms have been made in this work, comparing many semi-supervised schemes against well-known supervised algorithms and the results are promising.
ACCURATE SPECTROSCOPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF OXIRANE: A VALUABLE ROUTE TO ITS IDENTIFICATION IN TITAN'S ATMOSPHERE AND THE ASSIGNMENT OF UNIDENTIFIED INFRARED BANDS

In an effort to provide an accurate spectroscopic characterization of oxirane, state-of-the-art computational methods and approaches have been employed to determine highly accurate fundamental vibrational frequencies and rotational parameters. Available experimental data were used to assess the reliability of our computations, and an accuracy on average of 10 cm−1 for fundamental transitions as well as overtones and combination bands has been pointed out. Moving to rotational spectroscopy, relative discrepancies of 0.1%, 2%–3%, and 3%–4% were observed for rotational, quartic, and sextic centrifugal-distortion constants, respectively. We are therefore confident that the highly accurate spectroscopic data provided herein can be useful for identification of oxirane in Titan's atmosphere and the assignment of unidentified infrared bands. Since oxirane was already observed in the interstellar medium and some astronomical objects are characterized by very high D/H ratios, we also considered the accurate determination of the spectroscopic parameters for the mono-deuterated species, oxirane-d1. For the latter, an empirical scaling procedure allowed us to improve our computed data and to provide predictions for rotational transitions with a relative accuracy of about 0.02% (i.e., an uncertainty of about 40 MHz for a transition lying at 200 GHz).
S137 Phosphorylation of Profilin 1 Is an Important Signaling Event in Breast Cancer Progression

Background Profilins are actin-modulating proteins regulating many intracellular functions based on their multiple and diverse ligand interactions. They have been implicated to play a role in many pathological conditions such as allergies, cardiovascular diseases, muscular atrophy, diabetes, dementia and cancer. Post-translational modifications of profilin 1 can alter its properties and subsequently its function in a cell. In the present study, we identify the importance of phosphorylation of profilin 1 at serine 137 (S137) residue in breast cancer progression. Methods/Principal Findings We found elevated profilin 1 (PFN) in human breast cancer tissues when compared to adjacent normal tissues. Overexpression of wild-type profilin 1 (PFN-WT) in breast cancer MCF7 cells made them more migratory, invasive and adherent independent in comparison to empty vector transfected cells. Mutation in serine phosphorylation site (S137) of profilin 1 (PFN-S137A) significantly abrogated these properties. Mutation affecting actin-binding ability (PFN-R74E) of profilin 1 enhanced its tumorigenic function whereas mutation affecting its poly-L-proline binding function (PFN-H133S) alleviated these mechanisms in breast cancer cells. PFN-WT was found to activate matrix metalloproteinases by zymography, MMP2 and MMP9 in presence of PDBu (phorbol 12, 13 dibutyrate, PI3K agonist) to enhance migration and invasion in MCF7 cells while PFN-S137A did not. Phosphorylation increased migration and invasion in other mutants of profilin 1. Nuclear profilin levels also increased in the presence of PDBu. Conclusions Previous studies show that profilin could be executing a dual role in cancer by either suppressing or promoting tumorigenesis in a context dependent manner. In this study we demonstrate for the first time that phosphorylation of profilin 1 at serine 137 enhances oncogenic properties in breast cancer cells. Inhibitors targeting profilin 1 phosphorylation directly or indirectly through inhibition of kinases that phosphorylate profilin could be valuable therapeutic agents that can alter its activity and thereby control the progression of cancer.
Strategic alignment: A missing link in the relationship between strategic consensus and organizational performance

Despite the increasing sophistication of the literature on strategic consensus and the compelling arguments linking it to organizational performance, empirical research has produced mixed findings. To address this conundrum, we examine the contingent role of strategic alignment—that is, to what extent decision makers place importance on strategic priorities that are responsive to, or fit, the demands of the external environment faced by the organization—as a salient missing link. Our findings from a sample of 349 university faculty members in 63 academic departments suggest that the consensus–performance relationship is stronger for lower levels of strategic alignment, whereas at higher levels of alignment, consensus appears to have little effect. Our discussion traces implications of these findings for existing theory and future research.
Relighting with 4D incident light fields

We present an image-based technique to relight real objects illuminated by a 4D incident light field, representing the illumination of an environment. By exploiting the richness in angular and spatial variation of the light field, objects can be relit with a high degree of realism.We record photographs of an object, illuminated from various positions and directions, using a projector mounted on a gantry as a moving light source. The resulting basis images are used to create a subset of the full reflectance field of the object. Using this reflectance field, we can create an image of the object, relit with any incident light field and observed from a flxed camera position.To maintain acceptable recording times and reduce the amount of data, we propose an efficient data acquisition method.Since the object can be relit with a 4D incident light field, illumination effects encoded in the light field, such as shafts of shadow or spot light effects, can be realized.