Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
jCT: A Java Code Tomograph

We are concerned with analyzing software, in particular, with its nature and how developer decisions and behavior impact the quality of the product they produce. This is the domain of empirical software engineering where measurement seeks to capture attributes affecting the product, process, and resources of software development. A well-established means to study software attributes is metrics data mining. But, even though a variety of frameworks have emerged that can distill desired measures from software systems (e.g., JHawk or SonarJ), a systematic approach to collecting measures from large data sets has still eluded us. For this reason, we have developed the Java Code Tomograph (jCT), a novel framework for metrics extraction and processing. jCT offers an extensible measurement infrastructure with built-in support for the curated repositories Qualitas Corpus and Helix. With jCT, large-scale empirical studies of code within the same software system or across different software systems become feasible. In this paper, we provide an overview of jCT's main design features and discuss its operation in relation to the effectiveness of the framework.
Proceedings From the Symposium on Kidney Disease in Older People: Royal Society of Medicine, London, January 19, 2017

People are living longer. On the whole, they have healthier lives and many of the problems previously seen at a younger age now appear in their later years. Kidneys, like other organs, age, and kidney disease in the aged is a prime example. In the United Kingdom, as in other developed countries, the prevalence of end stage kidney disease is highest in the 70- to 79-year-old age group. There are many older people who require renal replacement and are now considered for dialysis. While older patients with end-stage renal disease invariably aspire for a better quality of life, this needs a specialized approach and management. In January 2017, the Royal Society of Medicine held a seminar in London on “Kidney Disease in Older People” with presentations from a multidisciplinary body of experts speaking on various aspects of kidney problems in this age group and its management. The objectives were to increase awareness and improve the understanding of nephrology in the context of geriatric medicine but also geriatrics in its interface with nephrology, especially in the area of chronic kidney disease.
Young teenagers' experiences of domestic abuse

This article reports on the first findings from the Boys to Men Research Project. In total, 1143 pupils aged 13–14 years completed a questionnaire to assess their experiences of domestic abuse as victims, witnesses and perpetrators. Overall, 45% of pupils who had been in a dating relationship reported having been victimised, 25% having perpetrated it, with the only difference in rates of victimisation and perpetration between boys and girls being in relation to sexual victimisation. Of the whole sample, 34% reported having witnessed it in their own family. There was a relationship between victimisation and perpetration with the vast majority of perpetrators (92%) also reporting experiencing abuse from a boyfriend/girlfriend. There was also a relationship between experiencing abuse and help seeking from adults, with those who have been victimised less likely to say they would seek help if they were hit by a partner than those who had yet to experience any abuse. The relationship between help seeking and experiences of abuse is further complicated by gender, with girls twice as likely to seek help than boys, but with girls who have previously hit a partner among the most reticent group. The paper concludes with highlighting the implications of these findings for those undertaking preventative work in schools.
Priming for Novel Associations: Evidence for an Attentional Component

Two experiments investigated mechanisms underlying the priming effect for novel associations in stem completion, by manipulating attention at test. Experiment 1 demonstrated that dividing attention at test did not reduce overall priming, but abolished the novel association priming effect. Experiment 2 required subjects to report all completions generated for a stem, and showed that reinstating context enhanced the target output position, and that dividing attention eliminated this effect of context as well as reducing total output. These results were taken to argue that when stems allow multiple solutions, the reinstatement of context serves to promote the sampling of the word with which it was paired at study in preference to other words activated by the stem, and that this effect of context demands attentional resources. This interpretation also provides an explanation for the discrepancy in the novel association priming effects observed with amnesic subjects.
A low-power low-mismatch low-glitch class AB first-generation switched-current memory cell and its applications

In this paper, a low-power low-mismatch low-glitch class AB I/sup st/-generation switched-current memory cell is presented. The technique is relatively simple based on a I/sup st/-generation SI memory cell. The power supply is /spl plusmn/1 V. The average low power consumption is 52 /spl mu/W. A maximum useful sampling frequency is 15.7 MHz. Comparisons to other techniques are presented. The paper demonstrates better output waveforms in terms of low offset and mismatch errors, and low glitches. Applications for a delay cell and a modified bilinear integrator are also demonstrated.
The challenge of evaluating pain and a pre-incisional local anesthetic block

Background. Our objective was to test the effectiveness of a local anesthetic line block administered before surgery in reducing postoperative pain scores in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy (OVHX). Methods. This study is a prospective, randomized, blinded, clinical trial involving 59 healthy female dogs. An algometric pressure-measuring device was used to determine nociceptive threshold, and compared to three subjective pain scales. Group L/B received a line block of lidocaine (4 mg/kg) and bupivacaine (1 mg/kg) subcutaneously in the area of the incision site and saline subcutaneously as premedication; group L/BM (positive control) received a similar block and morphine (0.5 mg/kg) subcutaneously for premedication; and group SS (negative control) received a saline line block and saline premedication. Criteria for rescue analgesia were defined before the study. Dogs were assessed prior to surgery, at extubation (time 0) and at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 24 h post-recovery. The data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA, and a Split Plot Repeated Measures ANOVA with one grouping factor and one repeat factor (time). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results. Approximately 33% of dogs required rescue analgesia at some point during the study, with no significant difference between groups. There was no significant difference between treatment groups with any assessment method. Conclusions. As there were no statistically significant differences between positive and negative controls, the outcome of this technique cannot be proven.
Exterminating bugs via collective information recycling

End-user software is executed billions of times daily, but the corresponding execution details (“by-products”) are discarded. We hypothesize that, if suitably captured and aggregated, these by-products could substantially speed up the process of testing programs and proving them correct. Ironically, both testing and debugging involve simulating real-world conditions and executions, in essence trying to recreate in the lab some of these (previously available, but discarded) execution details. This position paper proposes a way to recoup the execution information that is lost during everyday software use, aggregate it, and automatically turn it into bug fixes and proofs. The goal is to enable software to improve itself by “learning” from past failures and successes, leveraging the information-rich execution by-products that today are being wasted. We view every execution of a program as a test run and aggregate executions across the lifetime of a program into one gigantic test suite — i.e., we remove the distinction between software use and software testing and verification — with the purpose of substantially reducing software bug density.
Using LLVM for Optimized Lightweight Binary Re-Writing at Runtime

Providing new parallel programming models/abstractions as a set of library functions has the huge advantage that it allows for an relatively easy incremental porting path for legacy HPC applications, in contrast to the huge effort needed when novel concepts are only provided in new programming languages or language extensions. However, performance issues are to be expected with fine granular usage of library functions. In previous work, we argued that binary rewriting can bridge the gap by tightly coupling application and library functions at runtime. We showed that runtime specialization at the binary level, starting from a compiled, generic stencil code can help in approaching performance of manually written, statically compiled version. In this paper, we analyze the benefits of post-processing the re-written binary code using standard compiler optimizations as provided by LLVM. To this end, we present our approach for efficiently converting x86-64 binary code to LLVM-IR. Using the mentioned generic code for arbitrary 2d stencils, we present performance numbers with and without LLVM postprocessing. We find that we can now achieve the performance of variants specialized by hand.
Industrial Linkages and Export Spillovers from FDI

In this paper we investigated the hypothesis of export spillovers from foreign multinationals to domestic firms using a data set of UK manufacturing firms from 1992 to 1999. Unlike previous studies we allow not only for the possibility of horizontal (i.e. intra-industry) and regional externalities, but also for vertical ones (i.e. inter-industry: forward and backward). Deploying the Heckman selection process we modelled the two decisions of whether to export or not, and how much to export, separately. The results indicate that the decision to start exporting is positively associated with the presence of foreign firms in the same industry and region; furthermore, export-oriented foreign affiliates seem to be the source of stronger export spillovers. The decision concerning how much to export is affected positively by foreign firms in downstream industries and by those in the same industry and region that do not export.
Speeding up K-Means Algorithm by GPUs

Cluster analysis plays a critical role in a wide variety of applications, but it is now facing the computational challenge due to the continuously increasing data volume. Parallel computing is one of the most promising solutions to overcoming the computational challenge. In this paper, we target at parallelizing k-Means, which is one of the most popular clustering algorithms, by using the widely available Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Different from existing GPU-based k-Means algorithms, we observe that data dimension is an important factor that should be taken into consideration when parallelizing k-Means on GPUs. In particular, we use two different strategies for low-dimensional data sets and high-dimensional data sets respectively, in order to make the best use of the power of GPUs. For low-dimensional data sets, we exploit GPU on-chip registers to significantly decrease data access latency. For high-dimensional data sets, we design a novel algorithm which simulates matrix multiplication and exploits GPU on-chip registers and also on-chip shared memory to achieve high compute-to-memory-access ratio. As a result, our GPU-based k-Means algorithm is three to eight times faster than the best reported GPU-based algorithm.
Modelling and Analysis of Dynamic Spectrum Access in Cognitive Radio Networks with Self-Similar Traffic

The growing proliferation of wireless devices in contemporary wireless networks requires more spectrum usage. As a consequence, spectrum bands are pressingly getting congested. However, a number of frequency bands licensed to operators are under utilized for transmission. Cognitive Radio (CR), as a promising technique for improving spectrum utilization, can dynamically allocate spectrum. In this paper, we investigate the performance of a CR network composed of a primary/licensed user and a number of secondary/unlicensed users, which are subject to self-similar traffic flows and contend for a unique channel. An analytical model is developed to isolate the primary and secondary users from the original networks. Further, we address the queueing performance of individual secondary users by employing a decomposition approach. The comparison between analytical and simulation results validates the accuracy of the developed model.
EasyAlign: An Automatic Phonetic Alignment Tool Under Praat

We provide a user-friendly automatic phonetic alignment tool for continuous speech, named EasyAlign. It is developed as a plug-in of Praat, the popular speech analysis software, and it is freely available. Its main advantage is that one can easily align speech from an orthographic transcription. It requires a few minor manual steps and the result is a multi-level annotation within a TextGrid composed of phonetic, syllabic, lexical and utterance tiers. Evaluation showed that the performances of this HTK-based aligner compare to human alignment and to other existing alignment tools. It was originally fully available for French, English. Community’s interests for its extension to other languages helped to develop a straight-forward methodology to add languages. While Spanish and Taiwan Min were recently added, other languages are under development.
Segregation of R5 and X4 HIV-1 variants to memory T cell subsets differentially expressing CD62L in ex vivo infected human lymphoid tissue

Objective The mechanisms of HIV-triggered immunodeficiency were examined by determining the segregation of R5 and X4 HIV-1 variants into memory T cell subsets expressing differentially a homing receptor, CD62L-selectin, in human lymphoid tissue. Methods Subpopulations of CD3 and intracellular p24 gag-positive cells in human lymphoid tissue infected ex vivo with X4 HIV-1 variant NL4-3 and R5 HIV-1 variant AD8 were analysed for expression of the T cell memory markers CD45RO and CD45RA, the T cell homing receptor for lymphoid tissue CD62L, and the HIV-1 coreceptors CCR5 and CXCR4. Results Memory CD4 T cells were the predominant targets for productive infection of lymphoid tissue ex vivo with both R5 and X4 HIV-1. R5 HIV-1 predominantly infected CD62L-negative memory T cells, which selectively express CCR5. In contrast, X4 HIV-1 variants predominantly infected CD62L+ memory T cells, although CXCR4 coreceptor was equally expressed by memory T cells of both CD62L-positive and CD62L-negative subsets. A high proportion of X4 HIV-1, but not of R5 HIV-1, productively infected T cells, displayed a CD45RA+CD45RO+ phenotype. Conclusion The selective expression of the CCR5 coreceptor by CD62L-negative terminally differentiated memory T cells correlates with the preferential productive infection of these cells with the R5 HIV-1 variant. The predominance of X4 HIV-1 variants in less-differentiated memory T cells may be related to their recent activation state, as suggested by the coexpression of both CD45RA and CD45RO molecules on their surface. Differential homing of CD62L-positive and CD62L-negative cells suggests different routes of dissemination of X4 and R5 viruses.
Min-wise independent groups with respect to any linear order

A molded plastic container comprises an outer container having a first end wall portion. A tubular member extends from end to end through the interior of the container. The end wall portion defines a first annular area of weakness, the tubular member communicating with the end wall adjacent the first annular area of weakness. The user may apply longitudinal pressure on the end of the tubular member opposite to the end wall to rupture the first annular area and to permit the tubular member to slidingly advance out of the container interior through the ruptured area of the end wall, to serve as a pouring spout.
Mismatches as milestones in dance movement therapy

This paper explores the concept of mismatches between verbal and non-verbal content and its relation to dance movement therapy (DMT). Relying on interdisciplinary works in linguistics, developmental psychology and DMT, it is shown that although it might be common belief that DMT deals mainly with matching the patient's movements, in reality, mismatches are very common. Moreover, the article shows how mismatches, applied in a broad sense that includes clashing and opposing in various manners, may become a practical tool in clinical practice. To conclude, examples of how mismatches may be implemented in clinical work are given.
Iris Detection and Normalization in Image Domain Based on Morphological Features

The interface of computer technologies and biology is having a huge impact on society. Human recognition research projects promises new life to many security-consulting. Iris recognition is considered to be the most reliable biometric authentication system. Very few iris recognition algorithms were commercialized. We implemented a system that process two different kinds of iris databases: CASIA and UPOL. The first is grayscale data; noise free of reflections but containing obstructions; e.g. eyelids and eyelashes. While the second is RGB data; noise free of obstructions; because it is segmented, but it contains reflections. The circular iris and pupil of the eye image were segmented using Morphological operators and Hough transform. The localized iris region was then normalized into a rectangular block to account for imaging inconsistencies. This method provides accurate features as well as accurate signature of the human iris in a simple and fast way.
Information Technology in the Service of Peacebuilding: The Case of Cyprus

Cyprus, an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, has been divided by force since 1974. Citizens of the two partitions have not been allowed to cross the cease-fire line, controlled by the United Nations Force, or to have any kind of communication between them. This article describes the innovative use of information technology to break the communication barrier between the two geographically isolated communities and to facilitate the creation of a shared vision and a concrete strategy toward achieving this vision.
A Reusability-Aware Cache Memory Sharing Technique for High Performance CMPs with Private L2 Caches

For high-performance chip multiprocessors (CMPs) to achieve their maximum performance potential, an efficient support for memory hierarchy is important. Since off-chip accesses require a long latency, high-performance CMPs are typically based on multiple levels of on-chip cache memories. For example, most current CMPs support two levels of on-chip caches. While the L1 cache architecture of these CMPs is almost same, the L2 cache organization is quite different. All the processors in the CMP may share the same L2 cache or each processor may have its own private L2 cache. While a private L2 cache has a short access time, a shared L2 cache can better adapt to varying memory requirements of each processor. In this paper, we propose an on-chip L2 cache organization which takes advantage of both a private L2 cache and a shared L2 cache. In skeleton, our L2 cache organization is based on a private L2 cache organization which has the short access latency. When a cache block in the private L2 cache is selected for an eviction, our proposed organization first evaluates the reusability of the cache block. If the cache block is likely to be reused, we save the evicted cache block in one of peer L2 caches which may have efficiently invalid blocks. By selectively writing evicted cache blocks to peer L2 caches, the proposed L2 cache organization can effectively simulate a shared L2 cache. Experimental results using a CMP simulator showed that the proposed L2 cache organization improved the average memory latency by 14% on average over a pure private L2 cache organization for the SPLASH2 benchmark programs.
Deconstructing consumer behaviour: theory and practice

This paper challenges the conventional opposition, or distinction, between consumer behaviour theory and practice. This binary dualism, it is argued, is predicated on a simplistic ‘either/or’ logic that ignores the effects theory and practice have on each other. Furthermore, it obscures a hierarchical relationship between academic researchers and marketing practitioners in which basic research is more dominant and privileged than applied research. In response to these criticisms, an alternative ‘both/and’ logic is proposed for exploring the interrelationships between consumer behaviour theory and practice and new social relations among consumer researchers
Memory and logic integration for System-in-a-Package

System-in-a-Package (SiP), a generalization of System-on-a-Chip (SoC), provides a cost-effective solution for large-scale memory and logic integration and an attractive alternative for embedded memory. The key elements of SiP memory/logic integration technology include IO redistribution; solder bumping; and flip chip assembly. Two SiP platforms: Chip-on-Chip technology and Chip-Laminate-Chip technology are introduced in this paper. An innovative configurable area-IO memory architecture for System-in-a-Package is presented. A 512 K SRAM chip has been designed to verify this approach.
Genetic deficiency of Smad 3 protects the kidneys from atrophy and interstitial fibrosis in 2 K 1 C hypertension

Warner GM, Cheng J, Knudsen BE, Gray CE, Deibel A, Juskewitch JE, Lerman LO, Textor SC, Nath KA, Grande JP. Genetic deficiency of Smad3 protects the kidneys from atrophy and interstitial fibrosis in 2K1C hypertension. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 302: F1455–F1464, 2012. First published February 29, 2012; doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00645. 2011. —Although the two-kidney, oneclip (2K1C) model is widely used as a model of human renovascular hypertension, mechanisms leading to the development of fibrosis and atrophy in the cuffed kidney and compensatory hyperplasia in the contralateral kidney have not been defined. Based on the wellestablished role of the transforming growth factor (TGF)signaling pathway in renal fibrosis, we tested the hypothesis that abrogation of TGF/Smad3 signaling would prevent fibrosis in the cuffed kidney. Renal artery stenosis (RAS) was established in mice with a targeted disruption of exon 2 of the Smad3 gene (Smad3 KO) and wild-type (WT) controls by placement of a polytetrafluoroethylene cuff on the right renal artery. Serial pulse-wave Doppler ultrasound assessments verified that blood flow through the cuffed renal artery was decreased to a similar extent in Smad3 KO and WT mice. Two weeks after surgery, systolic blood pressure and plasma renin activity were significantly elevated in both the Smad3 KO and WT mice. The cuffed kidney of WT mice developed renal atrophy (50% reduction in weight after 6 wk, P 0.0001), which was associated with the development of interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy, and interstitial inflammation. Remarkably, despite a similar reduction of renal blood flow, the cuffed kidney of the Smad3 KO mice showed minimal atrophy (9% reduction in weight, P not significant), with no significant histopathological alterations (interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy, and interstitial inflammation). We conclude that abrogation of TGF/ Smad3 signaling confers protection against the development of fibrosis and atrophy in RAS.