Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
POMR: a power-aware interconnect optimization methodology

As VLSI technologies scale down, the average die size is expected to remain constant or to slightly increase with each generation. This results in an average increase in the global interconnect lengths. To mitigate their impact, buffer insertion has become the most widely used technique. However, unconstrained buffering is expected to require several hundreds of thousands of global interconnect buffers. This increased number of buffers is destined to adversely impact the chip power consumption. In this paper, an optimal power maze routing and buffer insertion/sizing problem for a two-pin net is formulated, as a shortest paths ranking problem. The pseudopolynomial time bound of the new formulation fits well within the context of the increased number of buffers. In fact, power savings as high as 25% for the 130-nm technology with a 10% sacrifice in delay is achieved. Furthermore, with the advent of dual threshold technologies, power sensitive applications can substantially benefit from adopting dual threshold buffers. Accordingly, the proposed problem formulation is extended to incorporate the selection of the buffer threshold voltage, where a twofold increase in power savings is observed. During the assessment of the impact of technology scaling using a set of MCNC Benchmarks, an average power saving as high as 35% with a 10% sacrifice in delay is observed. In addition, there is a 10% variation in the power savings when accounting for the process variations.
Determination of ionic permeability coefficients of the plasma membrane of Xenopus laevis oocytes under voltage clamp.

1. A method of estimating absolute ionic permeability coefficients which does not depend on the use of impermeant substitutes is reported. 2. The method is based on a pump leak model of the Xenopus laevis oocyte membrane. The procedure consists of measuring, in the same experiment, the pump current and the currents generated under voltage clamp by the partial substitution of one or two ions at a time. For each experimental condition, the measured currents are substituted in a Goldman‐Hodgkin‐Katz type equation with two unknowns (the permeability coefficients). The set of equations thus generated enables the computation of all the ionic permeability coefficients. 3. The Xenopus oocyte membrane (stages IV and V, Dumont, 1972) has been found to be permeable to conventional ion substitutes such as N‐methyl‐D‐glucamine (NMG), sulphate, isethionate and gluconate. 4. The values for sodium, potassium and chloride permeability coefficients obtained from sixty‐eight pooled experiments were, respectively, 5.44, 17.41 and 1.49 x 10(‐8) cm s‐1. 5. The diffusional currents for sodium, potassium and chloride computed from the experiments referred to above were, respectively, ‐1.16, 0.69 and ‐0.038 microA cm‐2. 6. A stoichiometry of the Na+‐K+ pump exchange of 3/1.8 was computed. 7. The intracellular concentrations of sodium, potassium and chloride ions, as determined by ion‐selective microelectrodes, were, respectively, 10.1 +/‐ 0.66 mM (n = 12), 109.5 +/‐ 3.3 mM (n = 13) and 37.7 +/‐ 1.18 mM (n = 19), corresponding to equilibrium potentials of 61, ‐95 and ‐28 mV. 8. Since chloride is not at equilibrium across the membrane, we propose that there is an inward uphill Cl‐ transport.
Belvedere: stimulating students' critical discussion

ASSTRACT We describe “Belvedere; a system to support students engaged in critical discussion of science and public policy issues. The design is intended to address cognitive and metacognitive limitations of unpracticed beginners while supporting their practice of this complex skill. The limitations include (1) difficulty in focusing attention given the abstract and complex nature of theories and arguments, (2) lack of domain knowledge, and (3) lack of motivation. Belvedere addresses these limitations by (1) giving arguments a concrete diagrammatic fo~ and providing tools for focusing on particular problems encountered in the construction and evaluation of complex arguments; (2) providing access to on-line information resources; and (3) supporting students working in small groups to construct documents to be shared with others. Both prior psychological research and formative evaluation studies with users shaped the interface design.
Role for p38 Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase in Platelet Aggregation Caused by Collagen or a Thromboxane Analogue (*)

p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) was identified in platelets on the basis of (a) its reactivity with antibodies to C-terminal and N-terminal peptides, and (b) its ability to activate MAPK-activated protein kinase-2, which phosphorylates the small heat shock protein, hsp27. p38 MAPK was activated in platelets by collagen fibers, a collagen-related cross-linked peptide, thrombin, or the thromboxane analogue U46619. A highly specific inhibitor of p38 MAPK, a pyridinyl imidazole known as SB203580, inhibited the platelet enzyme in vitro (IC 0.5 μM). At similar concentrations it also inhibited agonist-stimulated phosphorylation of hsp27 in platelets, and platelet aggregation and secretion induced by minimal aggregatory concentrations of collagen or U46619, but not thrombin. Inhibition of aggregation was overcome by increasing agonist dose. SB203580 might act by inhibiting thromboxane generation, but this was only inhibited by 10-20% at low agonist concentrations. p38 MAPK provides a crucial signal, which is necessary for aggregation caused by minimal concentrations of collagen fibers or U46619. Thrombin or high doses of these agonists generate signals that bypass the enzyme, or render the enzyme no longer rate-limiting.
DNA fragment size determination on agarose gel by using the application GEL

We have developed an application to calculate double-stranded DNA fragment size on an agarose gel. This application is named GEL and is implemented for two different platform: MS-DOS and Macintosh. Both implementations allow entry of the relative migration distance of a DNA fragment of an agarose gel containing up to 20 different wells and up to 20 bands per well. Up to three different standards can be present on the gel, and the application will use the closest standard to calculate the fragment size. Both applications have a familiar user interface: the Turbo Vision interface for the MS-DOS implementation and the familiar Macintosh interface for the Macintosh implementation. In addition, the MS-DOS implementation has an extensive context on-line help.
TOD-Tree: Task-Overlapped Direct Send Tree Image Compositing for Hybrid MPI Parallelism and GPUs

Modern supercomputers have thousands of nodes, each with CPUs and/or GPUs capable of several teraflops. However, the network connecting these nodes is relatively slow, on the order of gigabits per second. For time-critical workloads such as interactive visualization, the bottleneck is no longer computation but communication. In this paper, we present an image compositing algorithm that works on both CPU-only and GPU-accelerated supercomputers and focuses on communication avoidance and overlapping communication with computation at the expense of evenly balancing the workload. The algorithm has three stages: a parallel direct send stage, followed by a tree compositing stage and a gather stage. We compare our algorithm with radix-k and binary-swap from the IceT library in a hybrid OpenMP/MPI setting on the Stampede and Edison supercomputers, show strong scaling results and explain how we generally achieve better performance than these two algorithms. We developed a GPU-based image compositing algorithm where we use CUDA kernels for computation and GPU Direct RDMA for inter-node GPU communication. We tested the algorithm on the Piz Daint GPU-accelerated supercomputer and show that we achieve performance on par with CPUs. Last, we introduce a workflow in which both rendering and compositing are done on the GPU.
Laparoscopic endoscopic cooperative surgery

Laparoscopic and endoscopic cooperative surgery (LECS) is a newly developed concept for tumor dissection of the gastrointestinal tract that was first investigated for local resection of gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). The first reported version of LECS for GIST has been named ‘classical LECS’ to distinguish it from other modified LECS procedures, such as inverted LECS, a combination of laparoscopic and endoscopic approaches to neoplasia with a non‐exposure technique (CLEAN‐NET), and non‐exposed endoscopic wall‐inversion surgery (NEWS). These modified LECS procedures were developed for dissection of malignant tumors which may seed tumor cells into the abdominal cavity. While these LECS‐related procedures might prevent tumor seeding, their application is limited by several factors, such as tumor size, location and technical difficulty. Currently, classical LECS is a safe and useful procedure for gastric submucosal tumors without mucosal defects, independent of tumor location, such as proximity to the esophagogastric junction or pyloric ring. For future applications of LECS‐related procedures for other malignant diseases with mucosal lesions such as GIST with mucosal defects and gastric cancer, some improvements in the techniques are needed.
Poisoning-related bowel infarction: Characteristics and outcomes

Background. Bowel infarction (BI) is a rare complication of poisoning. We aimed to describe the characteristics of BI in poisoned patients compared to nonpoisoned patients. Methods. A retrospective review over a 4-year period of patients hospitalized in an intensive care unit who were diagnosed with BI; Mann–Whitney and Fischer's exact tests were used for comparisons. Results. Seventeen patients with BI [11 F/6 M, 66-year olds (55–72), median (25–75% percentiles)], including five out of around 1,800 poisoned patients, were identified (toxicants: nicardipine + venlafaxine, amlodipine, propranolol + hydroxyzine, dextropropoxyphene + clomipramine, and turpentine). Clinical presentation and severity were comparable between both groups. However, poisoned patients were significantly younger (p = 0.03) with less cardiovascular disease (p = 0.04) and fewer risk factors (p = 0.008). Delayed BI occurred 48 h (36–60) after the start of vasopressor administration [15.5 mg/h (4.5–30.0) norepinephrine and 6.0 mg/h (4.9–6.3) epinephrine]. Typical poisoning-related injury was jejunal ischemia without ileal localization. The predominant mechanism was nonocclusive mesenteric ischemia. Mortality was lower in poisoned patients (20 vs. 90%, p = 0.009). Conclusion. Physicians should be aware that, despite patient age and the lack of cardiovascular risk factors, BI may rarely complicate severe poisonings requiring elevated doses of vasopressors and may present in a delayed fashion.
Pilot study of modified LMB‐based therapy for children with ataxia–telangiectasia and advanced stage high grade mature B‐cell malignancies

Children with ataxia–telangiectasia (A–T) and cancer have a poorer prognosis due in part to increased treatment‐related toxicity. We piloted a curative intent approach in five children with A–T who presented with advanced stage (III, n = 2; IV, n = 3) B‐NHL (diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma, n = 4; Burkitt leukemia, n = 1) using a modified LMB‐based protocol. Two achieved sustained CCR (one, CCR at 6 years; one, pulmonary death after 3 years in CCR). Two died from toxicity during induction and 1 failed induction with progressive disease. Novel therapeutic approaches which overcome drug resistance and are less toxic are needed for children with A–T and B‐NHL. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2014;61:360–362. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Acquiring linguistic argument structure from multimodal input using attentive focus

This work is premised on three assumptions: that the semantics of certain actions may be learned prior to language, that objects in attentive focus are likely to indicate the arguments participating in that action, and that knowing such arguments helps align linguistic attention on the relevant predicate (verb). Using a computational model of dynamic attention, we present an algorithm that clusters visual events into action classes in an unsupervised manner using the Merge Neural Gas algorithm. With few clusters, the model correlates to coarse concepts such as come-closer, but with a finer granularity, it reveals hierarchical substructure such as come-closer-one-object-static and come-closer-both-moving. That the argument ordering is non-commutative is discovered for actions such as chase or come-closer-one-object-static. Knowing the arguments, and given that noun-referent mappings that are easily learned, language learning can now be constrained by considering only linguistic expressions and actions that refer to the objects in perceptual focus. We learn action schemas for linguistic units like ldquomoving towardsrdquo or ldquochaserdquo, and validate our results by producing output commentaries for 3D video.
Theatre Is a Valid Add-On Therapeutic Intervention for Emotional Rehabilitation of Parkinson's Disease Patients

Conventional medical treatments of Parkinson's disease (PD) are effective on motor disturbances but may have little impact on nonmotor symptoms, especially psychiatric ones. Thus, even when motor symptomatology improves, patients might experience deterioration in their quality of life. We have shown that 3 years of active theatre is a valid complementary intervention for PD as it significantly improves the well-being of patients in comparison to patients undergoing conventional physiotherapy. Our aim was to replicate these findings while improving the efficacy of the treatment. We ran a single-blinded pilot study lasting 15 months on 24 subjects with moderate idiopathic PD. 12 were assigned to a theatre program in which patients underwent “emotional” training. The other 12 underwent group physiotherapy. Patients were evaluated at the beginning and at the end of their treatments, using a battery of eight clinical and five neuropsychological scales. We found that the emotional theatre training improved the emotional well-being of patients, whereas physiotherapy did not. Interestingly, neither of the groups showed improvements in either motor symptoms or cognitive abilities tested by the neuropsychological battery. We confirmed that theatre therapy might be helpful in improving emotional well-being in PD.
Some geometrical methods for constructing contradiction measures on Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy sets

Trillas et al. (1999, Soft computing, 3 (4), 197–199) and Trillas and Cubillo (1999, On non-contradictory input/output couples in Zadeh's CRI proceeding, 28–32) introduced the study of contradiction in the framework of fuzzy logic because of the significance of avoiding contradictory outputs in inference processes. Later, the study of contradiction in the framework of Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy sets (A-IFSs) was initiated by Cubillo and Castiñeira (2004, Contradiction in intuitionistic fuzzy sets proceeding, 2180–2186). The axiomatic definition of contradiction measure was stated in Castiñeira and Cubillo (2009, International journal of intelligent systems, 24, 863–888). Likewise, the concept of continuity of these measures was formalized through several axioms. To be precise, they defined continuity when the sets ‘are increasing’, denominated continuity from below, and continuity when the sets ‘are decreasing’, or continuity from above. The aim of this paper is to provide some geometrical construction methods for obtaining contradiction measures in the framework of A-IFSs and to study what continuity properties these measures satisfy. Furthermore, we show the geometrical interpretations motivating the measures.
Incorrect Interpretation of Moving-filter Continuous Particulate Air Monitor Responses

AbstractThe graphs supplied by the vendors of moving-filter continuous particulate air monitors (CPAMs) in their sales literature show linear curves on a log-log scale, with net count rate on one axis and concentration on the other. The implication is that the monitor user is to read the concentration from the graph, given an observed net count rate, at any time. For the nominal filter speeds commonly used for these monitors, using the graph in this way is incorrect. The graphs do not state the limitations of the calculation: (1) the nuclide measured must be long-lived; (2) the concentration of that nuclide in the sampled air must remain constant; and (3) the reading of the net count rate must be obtained after a specific time, called the “transit time. ” This time is typically on the order of several hours. Reading the net count rate at any time earlier than this will result in an incorrect concentration estimate. Given that a major purpose of a CPAM is to alert plant personnel to a change in airborne radioactivity concentrations, by definition when this happens the concentration is not constant. Thus, using the supplied curves will result in an incorrect estimate of that concentration. The solution is to use instead a fixed-filter CPAM and a previously-published quantitative method. With this approach, there is no need to attempt to estimate a concentration, much less to assume that it is constant over long periods of time or that it can only change in a stair-step manner. With this alternative to a moving-filter CPAM, a signal proportional to the time-integrated worker intake can be generated continuously for any time-varying air concentration, including the sums-of-exponentials shapes expected during transient events in compartmental systems.
outputs Government for you ( EGOV 4 U ) : a realist evaluation of ” success ” and ” failure ” Conference Item

‘eGovernment for You’ (EGOV4U) was a European Commission (EC) funded project developed to pilot models of multi-channel, public and community e-services designed to tackle social exclusion and disadvantage through a range of initiatives delivered by five project partners from a variety of European countries. Project evaluation employed a theory driven approach and the use of mixed methods for data capture and analysis. This paper employs the realist CMO (context+mechanism = outcome) approach to evaluate EGOV4U and produce an analysis of some of the key generative mechanisms, causal powers and contiguous contexts relevant to participants in a large-scale, trans-national development project.
Mutual Exclusivity of Hyaluronan and Hyaluronidase in Invasive Group A Streptococcus*

Background: Serotype M4 group A Streptococcus lack hyaluronic acid (HA) capsule, but are capable of causing human disease. Results: Encapsulation was achieved by introducing the hasABC capsule synthesis operon in the absence of HA-degrading enzyme hyaluronate lyase (HylA). Conclusion: Capsule expression does not enhance M4 GAS virulence. Significance: We demonstrate a mutually exclusive interaction between GAS capsule and HylA expression. A recent analysis of group A Streptococcus (GAS) invasive infections in Australia has shown a predominance of M4 GAS, a serotype recently reported to lack the antiphagocytic hyaluronic acid (HA) capsule. Here, we use molecular genetics and bioinformatics techniques to characterize 17 clinical M4 isolates associated with invasive disease in children during this recent epidemiology. All M4 isolates lacked HA capsule, and whole genome sequence analysis of two isolates revealed the complete absence of the hasABC capsule biosynthesis operon. Conversely, M4 isolates possess a functional HA-degrading hyaluronate lyase (HylA) enzyme that is rendered nonfunctional in other GAS through a point mutation. Transformation with a plasmid expressing hasABC restored partial encapsulation in wild-type (WT) M4 GAS, and full encapsulation in an isogenic M4 mutant lacking HylA. However, partial encapsulation reduced binding to human complement regulatory protein C4BP, did not enhance survival in whole human blood, and did not increase virulence of WT M4 GAS in a mouse model of systemic infection. Bioinformatics analysis found no hasABC homologs in closely related species, suggesting that this operon was a recent acquisition. These data showcase a mutually exclusive interaction of HA capsule and active HylA among strains of this leading human pathogen.
Immunofluorescence microscopy of SNAP23 in human skeletal muscle reveals colocalization with plasma membrane, lipid droplets, and mitochondria

Synaptosomal‐associated protein 23 (SNAP23) is a SNARE protein expressed abundantly in human skeletal muscle. Its established role is to mediate insulin‐stimulated docking and fusion of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) with the plasma membrane. Recent in vitro research has proposed that SNAP23 may also play a role in the fusion of growing lipid droplets (LDs) and the channeling of LD‐derived fatty acids (FAs) into neighboring mitochondria for β‐oxidation. This study investigates the subcellular distribution of SNAP23 in human skeletal muscle using immunofluorescence microscopy to confirm that SNAP23 localization supports the three proposed metabolic roles. Percutaneous biopsies were obtained from the m. vastus lateralis of six lean, healthy males in the rested, overnight fasted state. Cryosections were stained with antibodies targeting SNAP23, the mitochondrial marker cytochrome c oxidase and the plasma membrane marker dystrophin, whereas intramuscular LDs were stained using the neutral lipid dye oil red O. SNAP23 displayed areas of intense punctate staining in the intracellular regions of all muscle fibers and continuous intense staining in peripheral regions of the cell. Quantitation of confocal microscopy images showed colocalization of SNAP23 with the plasma membrane marker dystrophin (Pearson's correlation coefficient r = 0.50 ± 0.01). The intense punctate intracellular staining colocalized primarily with the mitochondrial marker cytochrome C oxidase (r = 0.50 ± 0.012) and to a lesser extent with LDs (r = 0.21 ± 0.01) visualized with oil red O. We conclude that the observed subcellular distribution of SNAP23 in human skeletal muscle supports the three aforementioned metabolic roles.
Automatic genre identification for content-based video categorization

Presents a set of computational features originating from our study of editing effects, motion, and color used in videos, for the task of automatic video categorization. These features besides representing human understanding of typical attributes of different video genres, are also inspired by the techniques and rules used by many directors to endow specific characteristics to a genre-program which lead to certain emotional impact on viewers. We propose new features whilst also employing traditionally used ones for classification. This research, goes beyond the existing work with a systematic analysis of trends exhibited by each of our features in genres such as cartoons, commercials, music, news, and sports, and it enables an understanding of the similarities, dissimilarities, and also likely confusion between genres. Classification results from our experiments on several hours of video establish the usefulness of this feature set. We also explore the issue of video clip duration required to achieve reliable genre identification and demonstrate its impact on classification accuracy.
Increased Migration by Stimulation of Thymidine Phosphorylase in Endothelial Cells of Different Origin

Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) catalyzes the phosphorylytic cleavage of thymidine to thymine and deoxyribose-1-phosphate. The latter may be involved in the angiogenic stimulation of TP. In the present study, we investigated whether thymidine and deoxyribose (dR) could stimulate angiogenesis in vitro of two types of endothelial cells (isolated from umbilical veins (HUVEC) and endothelial colony forming cells (ECFC)), and whether the stereoisomer L-deoxyribose (L-dR) and the thymidine phosphorylase inhibitor (TPI) could reduce this. Both cell types had a low TP activity. Thymidine increased the migration of both HUVECs and ECFCs, but dR only that of the ECFCs. The invasion was not changed by any of the agents tested. In conclusion, TP may play a role in the migration of HUVECs and ECFCs, but not the invasion.