Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shader performance analysis on a modern GPU architecture

This paper presents an analysis of the performance of the shader processing units in a modern graphics processor unit (GPU) architecture using real graphic applications. The architecture of a modern GPU is described and a simulator and associated framework used to evaluate the architecture is introduced. The paper analyses the effects in performance of different configurations of the shader processing units and compares a classic GPU with a unified shader GPU. The evaluated unified shader architecture proves to be 15% to 30% more efficient, in terms of area, with a 2% to 7% improvement in performance when compared with a similar nonunified architecture
Optimizing VM Checkpointing for Restore Performance in VMware ESXi

Cloud providers are increasingly looking to use virtual machine checkpointing for new applications beyond fault tolerance. Existing checkpointing systems designed for fault tolerance only optimize for saving checkpointed state, so they cannot support these new applications, which require better restore performance. Improving restore performance requires a predictive technique to reduce the number of disk accesses to bring in the VM's memory on restore. However, complex VM workloads can diverge at any time due to external inputs, background processes, and timing variation, so predicting which pages the VM will access on restore to reduce faults to disk is impossible. Instead, we focus on predicting which pages the VM will access together on restore to improve the efficiency of disk accesses. To reduce the number of faults to disk on restore, we group memory pages likely to be accessed together into locality blocks. On each fault, we can load a block of pages that are likely to be accessed with the faulting page, eliminating future faults and increasing disk efficiency. We implement support for locality blocks, along with several other optimizations, in a new checkpointing system for VMware ESXi Server called Halite. Our experiments show that Halite reduces restore overhead by up to 94% for a range of workloads.
Object-oriented segmentation for microscopy images of lung tissue

Image segmentation is a very important process in image processing; and it plays an extremely important role in the field of image recognition, image analysis and image understanding. The quality of segmentation will directly affect the efficiency and results on identification, analysis and understanding. According to the information entropy (IE) in information theory and the theory of mathematical morphology (MM), we analyze and process the microscopy image of lung tissue. Also with the idea of object-oriented, we give a reasonable definition for the target area of image, and provide a better solution for separating the target and background in an effective way.
AxiSketcher: Interactive Nonlinear Axis Mapping of Visualizations through User Drawings

Visual analytics techniques help users explore high-dimensional data. However, it is often challenging for users to express their domain knowledge in order to steer the underlying data model, especially when they have little attribute-level knowledge. Furthermore, users' complex, high-level domain knowledge, compared to low-level attributes, posits even greater challenges. To overcome these challenges, we introduce a technique to interpret a user's drawings with an interactive, nonlinear axis mapping approach called AxiSketcher. This technique enables users to impose their domain knowledge on a visualization by allowing interaction with data entries rather than with data attributes. The proposed interaction is performed through directly sketching lines over the visualization. Using this technique, users can draw lines over selected data points, and the system forms the axes that represent a nonlinear, weighted combination of multidimensional attributes. In this paper, we describe our techniques in three areas: 1) the design space of sketching methods for eliciting users' nonlinear domain knowledge; 2) the underlying model that translates users' input, extracts patterns behind the selected data points, and results in nonlinear axes reflecting users' complex intent; and 3) the interactive visualization for viewing, assessing, and reconstructing the newly formed, nonlinear axes.
A Graphical Approach for Solving NP-Hard Combinatorial Problems

In this paper we consider a graphical realization of dynamic programming. The concept is discussed on the partition and knapsack problems. In contrast to dynamic programming, the new algorithm can also treat problems with non-integer data without necessary transformations of the corresponding problem. We compare the proposed method with existing algorithms for these problems on small-size instances of the partition problem with n ≤ 10 numbers. For almost all instances, the new algorithm considers on average substantially less ”stages” than the dynamic programming algorithm.
Neem Seed Oil Induces Apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA MB-231 Human Breast Cancer Cells

Background: In traditional Indian medicine, azadirachta indica (neem) is known for its wide range of medicinal properties. Various parts of neem tree including its fruit, seed, bark, leaves, and root have been shown to possess antiseptic, antiviral, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, antiulcer, antimalarial, antifungal and anticancer activity. Materials and Methods: MCF-7 and MDA MB-231 cells were exposed to various concentrations of 2% ethanolic solution of NSO (1-30 µl/ml) and further processed for cell viability, cell cycle and apoptosis analysis. In addition, cells were analyzed for alteration in Mitochondrial Membrane Potential (MMP) and generation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) using JC-1 and DCFDA staining respectively. Results: NSO give 50% inhibition at 10 µl/ml and 20 µl/ml concentration in MCF-7 and MDA MB-231 cells respectively and, arrests cells at G0/G1 phase in both the cell types. There was a significant alteration in mitochondrial membrane potential that leads to the generation of ROS and induction of apoptosis in NSO treated MCF-7 and MDA MB-231 cells. Conclusion: The results showed that NSO inhibits the growth of human breast cancer cells via induction of apoptosis and G1 phase arrest. Collectively these results suggest that NSO could potentially be used in the management of breast cancer.
On the formal verification of component-based embedded operating systems

The increasing complexity of embedded systems is pushing their design to System-Level, thus leading to a convergence between software and hardware. Consequently, operating systems in this realm are also being required to deliver their services both as software and as hardware. In such a scenario, it is desirable to verify system properties regardless of whether its components are instantiated at software or hardware. In this paper, we describe an approach to formally verify functional correctness and safety properties of such system-level component. The approach is illustrated by a case study of EPOS' scheduler, whose implementation can be driven to yield both a software instance compiled by the GCC C++ compiler or a hardware instance synthesized by the CatapultC ESL tool. We demonstrate that the scheduler follows its specification regardless of the domain for which it is instantiated. We also demonstrate that the proposed approach causes no run-time overhead, since the adopted Software Model Checking techniques are deployed at compile-time.
Understanding Differences between Adopters and Nonadopters of Information Technology Project portfolio Management

With the increased interest among organizations in managing Information Technology (IT) projects as a portfolio, there has been a growing need for research on factors influencing adoption of IT Project Portfolio Management (ITPPM). ITPPM allows organizations to improve the alignment of IT projects with organizational strategy, by balancing the risks and returns from inter-related projects. To contribute to our understanding of ITPPM, this study examines the adoption of ITPPM through the theoretical lens of diffusion of innovation. Using the technology, organization, and environment (TOE) framework, we model ITPPM adoption and test our model using survey data from 302 project managers. Our results show that an organization's external pressure, ITPPM costs, organizational support, quality of data on existing IT projects, number of IT projects within the organization, and business resistance are significantly related to the adoption decision. We also find interesting results in how expected benefits of ITPPM and compatibility are perceived as equally important by both adopters and nonadopters. In light of the increasingly complex IT project management environment faced by organizations, our paper helps managers to understand and focus on key enablers of ITPPM adoption and better manage ITPPM inhibitors.
Histopathology of type C liver disease for determining hepatocellular carcinoma risk factors.

AIM To evaluate the histopathological findings of type C liver disease to determine risk factors for development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS We studied 232 patients, who underwent liver biopsy for type C chronic liver disease between 1992 and 2009, with sustained virological response (SVR) after interferon therapy. The patients were divided into two groups according to the F stage 0 + 1 + 2 group (n = 182) and F3 + 4 group (n = 50). We prospectively observed and compared the incidence of HCC of the patients with SVR in the F0 + 1 + 2 and F3 + 4 groups. Then, the background factors and liver histopathological findings, including the degree of fibrosis, F stage, inflammation, necrosis, bile duct obstruction, fat deposition, and degree of irregular regeneration (IR) of hepatocytes, were correlated with the risk of developing HCC. RESULTS HCC developed in three of 182 (1.6%) patients in the F0 + 1 + 2 group, and four of 50 (8.0%) in the F3 + 4 group. The cumulative incidence of HCC in the former group was found to be significantly lower than in the F3 + 4 group (log rank test P = 0.0224). The presence of atypical hepatocytes among IR of hepatocytes in the F3 + 4 group resulted in a higher cumulative incidence of HCC, and was significantly correlated with risk of HCC development (RR = 20.748, 95%CI: 1.335-322.5, P = 0.0303). CONCLUSION Atypical hepatocytes among the histopathological findings of type C liver disease may be an important risk factor for HCC development along with progression of liver fibrosis.
Analytical model for the mean weights of two adaptive interpolated-FIR filter structures

This paper presents an analytical model for the mean weight behavior of two AIFIR structures using the LMS algorithm to adapt the sparse filter weights. The introduction of an interpolating block cascaded with the adaptive sparse filter imposes signal correlations. On the other hand, it is well known that such correlations are disregarded by the independence theory, which is the base for the stochastic analysis of the LMS algorithm. The proposed models have been derived without using the independence theory. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed analytical models as compared with the classical analysis.
On handing down our tools to robots: Single-phase kinesthetic teaching for dynamic in-contact tasks

We present a (generalizable) method aimed to simultaneously transfer positional and force requirements encoded in a physical human skill (wood planing) from a human instructor to a robotic arm through kinesthetic teaching. We achieve our goal through a novel use of a common sensory configuration, constituted by a force/torque sensor mounted between the tool and the flange of a robotic arm. The robotic arm is endowed with integrated torque sensors at each joint. The mathematical model used to capture the general dynamic of the interaction between the human user and the wood surface is based on Dynamic Movement Primitives. During reenactment of the task, the system can imitate and generalize the demonstrated spatial requirements, as well as their associated force profiles. Therefore, the robotic arm acquires the capacity to reproduce the dynamic profile for in-contact tasks requiring an articulated coordination in the distribution of forces. For example, the capacity to effectively operate the plane on a wood plank over multiple strokes, according to the demonstration of the human instructor.
Reduced Prevalence of Malaria Infection in Children Living in Houses with Window Screening or Closed Eaves on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea

Background Previous studies demonstrated that fewer mosquitoes enter houses which are screened or have closed eaves. There is little evidence about the effect on malaria infection in humans that changes in house construction may have. This study examines the impact of protective housing improvements on malaria infection on Bioko Island. Methodology/Principal Findings Data from the annual malaria indicator surveys between 2009 and 2012 were used to assess trends in housing characteristics and their effect on RDT confirmed malaria infection in household members. Odds ratios were adjusted for socio-economic status of the household.22726 children between the ages of 2 and 14 years were tested for P. falciparum. Prevalence of infection in those living in houses with open eaves was 23.0% compared to 18.8% for those living in houses with closed eaves (OR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.67 - 0.98). The prevalence of infection for children in screened houses was 9.1% versus 20.1% for those living in unscreened houses (OR = 0.44, 95% CI 0.27 - 0.71). The proportion of houses with closed eaves increased from 66.0% in 2009 to 74.3% in 2012 (test for trend p = 0.01). The proportion of screened houses remained unchanged over time at 1.3%. Conclusion/Significance As a malaria control intervention, house modification has the advantages that it is not affected by the growing threat of insecticide resistance; it protects all household members equally and at all times while indoors; and it offers protection against a number of vector borne diseases. The study provides evidence in support of efforts to regulate or encourage housing improvements which impede vector access into residences as part of an integrated vector control approach to complement existing measures which have been only partially successful in reducing malaria transmission in some parts of Bioko.
Incremental Majorization-Minimization Optimization with Application to Large-Scale Machine Learning

Majorization-minimization algorithms consist of successively minimizing a sequence of upper bounds of the objective function. These upper bounds are tight at the current estimate, and each iteration monotonically drives the objective function downhill. Such a simple principle is widely applicable and has been very popular in various scientific fields, especially in signal processing and statistics. We propose an incremental majorization-minimization scheme for minimizing a large sum of continuous functions, a problem of utmost importance in machine learning. We present convergence guarantees for nonconvex and convex optimization when the upper bounds approximate the objective up to a smooth error; we call such upper bounds “first-order surrogate functions. ” More precisely, we study asymptotic stationary point guarantees for nonconvex problems, and for convex ones, we provide convergence rates for the expected objective function value. We apply our scheme to composite optimization and obtain a new incremental proximal gradient algorithm with linear convergence rate for strongly convex functions. Our experiments show that our method is competitive with the state of the art for solving machine learning problems such as logistic regression when the number of training samples is large enough, and we demonstrate its usefulness for sparse estimation with nonconvex penalties.
Minimally invasive treatments for benign prostatic enlargement: systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Objective To compare the effectiveness and risk profile of minimally invasive interventions against the current standard of transurethral resection of the prostate. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Data sources Electronic and paper records up to March 2006. Review methods We searched for all relevant randomised controlled trials. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed quality. Meta-analyses of prespecified outcomes were performed with fixed and random effects models and reported using relative risks or weighted mean difference. Results 3794 abstracts were identified; 22 randomised controlled trials met the inclusion criteria. These provided data on 2434 participants. The studies evaluated were of moderate to poor quality with small sample sizes. Minimally invasive interventions were less effective than transurethral resection of the prostate in terms of improvement in symptom scores and increase in urine flow rate, with most comparisons showing significance despite wide confidence intervals. Rates of reoperation were significantly higher for minimally invasive treatments. The risk profile of minimally invasive interventions was better than that of transurethral resection, with fewer adverse events. The results, however, showed significant heterogeneity. Conclusion Which minimally invasive intervention is the most promising remains unclear. Their place in the management of benign prostate enlargement will continue to remain controversial until well designed and well reported randomised controlled trials following CONSORT guidelines prove they are superior and more cost effective than drug treatment, or that strategies of sequential surgical treatments are preferred by patients and are more cost effective than the more invasive but more effective tissue ablative interventions such as transurethral resection.
A Green Fluorescent Protein with Photoswitchable Emission from the Deep Sea

A colorful variety of fluorescent proteins (FPs) from marine invertebrates are utilized as genetically encoded markers for live cell imaging. The increased demand for advanced imaging techniques drives a continuous search for FPs with new and improved properties. Many useful FPs have been isolated from species adapted to sun-flooded habitats such as tropical coral reefs. It has yet remained unknown if species expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP)-like proteins also exist in the darkness of the deep sea. Using a submarine-based and -operated fluorescence detection system in the Gulf of Mexico, we discovered ceriantharians emitting bright green fluorescence in depths between 500 and 600 m and identified a GFP, named cerFP505, with bright fluorescence emission peaking at 505 nm. Spectroscopic studies showed that ∼15% of the protein bulk feature reversible ON/OFF photoswitching that can be induced by alternating irradiation with blue und near-UV light. Despite being derived from an animal adapted to essentially complete darkness and low temperatures, cerFP505 maturation in living mammalian cells at 37°C, its brightness and photostability are comparable to those of EGFP and cmFP512 from shallow water species. Therefore, our findings disclose the deep sea as a potential source of GFP-like molecular marker proteins.
IDR/QR: an incremental dimension reduction algorithm via QR decomposition

Dimension reduction is a critical data preprocessing step for many database and data mining applications, such as efficient storage and retrieval of high-dimensional data. In the literature, a well-known dimension reduction algorithm is linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The common aspect of previously proposed LDA-based algorithms is the use of singular value decomposition (SVD). Due to the difficulty of designing an incremental solution for the eigenvalue problem on the product of scatter matrices in LDA, there has been little work on designing incremental LDA algorithms that can efficiently incorporate new data items as they become available. In this paper, we propose an LDA-based incremental dimension reduction algorithm, called IDR/QR, which applies QR decomposition rather than SVD. Unlike other LDA-based algorithms, this algorithm does not require the whole data matrix in main memory. This is desirable for large data sets. More importantly, with the insertion of new data items, the IDR/QR algorithm can constrain the computational cost by applying efficient QR-updating techniques. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of the IDR/QR algorithm in terms of classification error rate on the reduced dimensional space. Our experiments on several real-world data sets reveal that the classification error rate achieved by the IDR/QR algorithm is very close to the best possible one achieved by other LDA-based algorithms. However, the IDR/QR algorithm has much less computational cost, especially when new data items are inserted dynamically.
2 3 N ov 2 00 5 Discrete vector on-site vortices

We study discrete vortices in coupled discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations. We focus on the vortex cross configuration that has been experimentally observed in photorefractive crystals. Stability of the single-component vortex cross in the anti-continuum limit of small coupling between lattice nodes is proved. In the vector case, we consider two coupled configurations of vortex crosses, namely the charge-one vortex in one component coupled in the other component to either the charge-one vortex (forming a double-charge vortex) or the charge-negative-one vortex (forming a, so-called, hidden-charge vortex). We show that both vortex configurations are stable in the anti-continuum limit if the parameter for the inter-component coupling is small and both of them are unstable when the coupling parameter is large. In the marginal case of the discrete two-dimensional Manakov system, the double-charge vortex is stable while the hidden-charge vortex is linearly unstable. Analytical predictions are corroborated with numerical observations that show good agreement near the anti-continuum limit but gradually deviate for larger couplings between the lattice nodes.
Identification of Real-Time Diagnostic Measures of Visual Distraction With an Automatic Eye-Tracking System

Objective: This study was conducted to identify eye glance measures that are diagnostic of visual distraction. Background: Visual distraction degrades performance, but real-time diagnostic measures have not been identified. Method: In a driving simulator, 14 participants responded to a lead vehicle braking at -2 or -2.7 m/s2 periodically while reading a varying number of words (6-15 words every 13 s) on peripheral displays (with diagonal eccentricities of 24°, 43°, and 75°). Results: As the number of words and display eccentricity increased, total glance duration and reaction time increased and driving performance suffered. Conclusion: Correlation coefficients between several glance measures and reaction time or performance variables were reliably high, indicating that these glance measures are diagnostic of visual distraction. It is predicted that for every 25% increase in total glance duration, reaction time is increased by 0.39 s and standard deviation of lane position is increased by 0.06 m. Application: Potential applications of this research include assessing visual distraction in real time, delivering advisories to distracted drivers to reorient their attention to driving, and using distraction information to adapt forward collision and lane departure warning systems to enhance system effectiveness.
Femtosecond Laser Cavity Characterization

Ultrafast pulses are used now days in physics, engineering, medicine and other research areas such as, materials processing, time resolved spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, pulse propagation, evolution of fast chemical processes, time resolved interference, etc. It is important to understand the physical processes that govern ultra fast laser pulse generation and shaping. In the present work, we characterize and find optimum operating conditions for a commercial Ti:Sa mode locked laser oscillator that generates pulses around 60 fs duration at 80 MHz repetition rate. Typical output power is 200 mW in mode locked operation.