Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Fetch Rate and Reorder Bufier Size on Speculative Pre-Execution

Pre-execution systems reduce the impact of cache misses and branch mispredictions by forking a slice, a code fragment derived from the program, in advance of frequently mispredicted branches and frequently missing loads in order to either resolve the branch or prefetch the load. Because unnecessary instructions are omitted the slice reaches the branch or load before the main thread does, for loads this time margin can reduce or even eliminate cache miss delay. Published results have shown significant improvements for some benchmarks, on the order of 20%, with many showing at least single-digit improvements. These studies left unexamined two system parameters that one would expect pre-execution to be sensitive to: fetch rate and reorder buffer size. Higher fetch rate would allow the main thread to reach the troublesome load sooner, but would not affect the slice and so the slice’s margin is reduced. Studies have shown large potential margins for slices, but the fetch rate effect has not been measured. A second system parameter is reorder buffer size. A larger reorder buffer would allow a system to hide more of the miss latency that preexecution reduces. To test the sensitivity to these factors pre-execution schemes were simulated on systems with varying fetch rates and reorder buffer sizes. Results show that higher fetch rate does not reduce pre-execution speedup in most benchmarks. Reorder buffer size sensitivity varies, some benchmarks are insensitive to reorder buffer size increases beyond 256 entries, but still benefit from preexecution, the benefit due in large part to prefetching those loads that provide values for frequently mispredicted branches. The benchmarks that are sensitive to reorder buffer size are also the ones that benefit most from pre-execution.
Calculations of the pressure drop in the natural circulation boiler evaporator

The paper presents different models used to determine pressure losses in two-phase flows: the homogeneous model, the Lockhart-Martinelli, the Friedel and the Chisholm phase-slip models and the Martinelli-Nelson graphical method. The pressure losses are calculated for the evaporator of an OP-210 boiler with the output of 210×103 kg/h operating in one of the Polish power plants. The results obtained by means of the presented models are compared to each other.
Effects of husk and harvest time on carotenoid content and acceptability of roasted fresh cobs of orange maize hybrids

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a major public health problem in many developing countries. Orange maize is preferred as green maize and consumed roasted on the cob, especially in Nigeria. This research work was to evaluate the effects of harvest time and husk on the carotenoid contents and sensory properties of roasted orange maize hybrids. The results showed that husk (roasting forms) and harvesting time had significant effects (P ≤ 0.001) on the carotenoids and the sensory properties. There was general increase in β-carotene and provitamin A (PVA) values as the harvesting time increases. The β-carotene and PVA values for roasted orange maize hybrids with husk were higher than those for roasted without husk. Hybrid 5 had the highest β-carotene concentration and PVA value at 27 days after pollination (DAP) and 34DAP when unprocessed and roasted without husk. This information can help researchers in choosing proper roasting methods to increase the retention of high levels of β-carotene and PVA in orange maize that can be delivered to consumers through nutrition education.
Tuning the Size, Shape and Density of γ′-GayFe4−yN Nanocrystals Embedded in GaN

Phase-separated semiconductor systems hosting magnetic nanocrystal (NCs) are attracting increasing attention, due to their potential as spintronic elements for the next generation of devices. Owing to their morphology- and stoichiometry-dependent magnetic response, self-assembled γ ’-Ga y Fe 4 − y N NCs embedded in a Fe δ -doped GaN matrix, are particularly versatile. It is studied and reported here, how the tuning of relevant growth parameters during the metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy process affects the crystalline arrangement, size, and shape of these self-assembled nanostructures. In particular, it is found that the Ga-flow provided during the δ -doping, determines the amount of Fe incorporated into the layers and the spatial density of the NCs. Moreover, the in-plane dimensions of the NCs can also be controlled via the Ga-flow, conditioning the aspect-ratio of the embedded nanostructures. These findings are pivotal for the design of nanocrystal arrays with on-demand size and shape, essential requirements for the implementation into functional devices.
Abstractions for Usable Information Flow Control in Aeolus

Despite the increasing importance of protecting confidential data, building secure software remains as challenging as ever. This paper describes Aeolus, a new platform for building secure distributed applications. Aeolus uses information flow control to provide confidentiality and data integrity. It differs from previous information flow control systems in a way that we believe makes it easier to understand and use. Aeolus uses a new, simpler security model, the first to combine a standard principal-based scheme for authority management with thread-granularity information flow tracking. The principal hierarchy matches the way developers already reason about authority and access control, and the coarse-grained information flow tracking eases the task of defining a program's security restrictions. In addition, Aeolus provides a number of new mechanisms (authority closures, compound tags, boxes, and shared volatile state) that support common design patterns in secure application design.
Adaptation in E-Learning Environments through the Service-Based Framework and its Application for AdeLE

E-learning may provide a lot of useful features in a wide range of learning and teaching situations. However, the provision of static learning material will not meet the requirements of the users. We believe that well-tailored, highly personalized learning sessions are needed. Regarding to this background, the research project AdeLE (Adaptive e-Learning with Eye-Tracking) aims to develop and implement a solution framework for personalised adaptive e-learning based on realtime user behaviour. In this paper we introduce the Service-Based Framework (SBF) a reusable, scalable and flexible architecture for adaptation systems and point out its application for AdeLE.
Physical Behavior of Ternary Portland Cement Mortar Mixtures Incorporating Pozzolan and Filler

This work shows the results carried out by mixtures of Portland cement mortars with twoadditions: ash brick ovens (CELU) which acting as pozzolan, and ground expanded perlite (PEM)as filler. The objective of this research is to determine whether by adding a pozzolan and fillermixtures base Portland cement is possible to increase physical and mechanical behavior. There were3 mixtures: the control and 2 more: one with substitution of 7% CELU, and other with 7% CELU+5%PEM respectively, carrying out tests of normal consistency, setting, fluency, simple compression,indirect tension, ultrasonic pulse velocity and electrical resistivity at the ages of 3, 7, 14, 28 and 120days. The results were favorable in the mixture that incorporates both materials (CELU+PEM).
CellsKiller Cell Ig-Like Receptors in Human NK Direct Role in the Inhibitory Function of Tyrosine Phosphatase-2 (SHP-2) Can Play a Src Homology Region 2-Containing Protein

The inhibitory forms of killer cell Ig-like receptors (KIR) are MHC class I-binding receptors that are expressed by human NK cells and prevent their attack of normal cells. Substantial evidence indicates that the mechanism of KIR-mediated inhibition involves recruitment of the protein tyrosine phosphatase, Src homology region 2-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase (SHP)-1, to phosphorylated immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs (ITIMs). However, the functional signiﬁcance of parallel recruitment of a SHP-1-related phosphatase, SHP-2, to KIR ITIMs has not been addressed. In the present study, our results with mutant forms of a classical KIR, KIR3DL1, show a direct correlation between SHP-2 recruitment and functional inhibition of target cell conjugation and cytotoxicity. In addition, KIR3DL1 inhibition of target cell cytotoxicity is blocked by overexpression of a dominant-negative form of SHP-2. Finally, KIR3DL1 fused directly with the catalytic domain of SHP-2 inhibits both target cell conjugation and cytotoxicity responses. These results strongly indicate that SHP-2 catalytic activity plays a direct role in inhibitory KIR functions, and SHP-2 inhibits NK cell activation in concert with SHP-1. The Journal of Immunology, 2003, 170: 4539–4547.
Voltage Dependence of Cardiac Excitation–Contraction Coupling: Unitary Ca2+ Current Amplitude and Open Channel Probability

Excitation–contraction coupling in cardiac myocytes occurs by Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release, where L-type Ca2+ current evokes a larger sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ release. The Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release amplification factor or gain (SR Ca2+ release/ICa) is usually assessed by the Vm dependence of current and Ca2+ transients. Gain rises at negative Vm, as does single channel ICa (iCa), which has led to the suggestion that the increases of iCa amplitude enhances gain at more negative Vm. However, ICa=NPo×iCa (where NPo is the number of open channels), and NPo and iCa both depend on Vm. To assess how iCa and NPo separately influence Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release, we measured ICa and junctional SR Ca2+ release in voltage-clamped rat ventricular myocytes using “Ca2+ spikes” (confocal microscopy). To vary iCa alone, we changed [Ca2+]o rapidly at constant test Vm (0 mV) or abruptly repolarized from +120 mV to different Vm (at constant [Ca2+]o). To vary NPo alone, we altered Ca2+ channel availability by varying holding Vm (at constant test Vm). Reducing either iCa or NPo alone increased excitation–contraction coupling gain. Thus, increasing iCa does not increase gain at progressively negative test Vm. Such enhanced gain depends on lower NPo and reduced redundant Ca2+ channel openings (per junction) and a consequently smaller denominator in the gain equation. Furthermore, modest iCa (at Vm=0 mV) may still effectively trigger SR Ca2+ release, whereas at positive Vm (and smaller iCa), high and well-synchronized channel openings are required for efficient excitation–contraction coupling. At very positive Vm, reduced iCa must explain reduced SR Ca2+ release.
INVESTIGATION OF CHANGES OF STRUCTURAL-MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF FATTY FILLING FOR SYNBIOTIC WAFERS

There was grounded the choice of functional ingredients for creating the synbiotic complex, consisted of immobilized bifidobacteria and inulin. There was demonstrated the necessity to realize the process of immobilization for “defending” bifidobacteria cells from the effect of unfavorable factors. There was determined the number of microorganisms’ cells and mass share of inulin for introducing in the recipe of a fatty filling. There was studied the influence of synbiotics on structural-mechanical properties of a fatty filling for wafers. The limit speed, that the high-quality filling can be received at, was established, according to experimental data. It was studied, that the decrease of the fat quantity in the mass and simultaneous increase of the solid phase leads to the increase of the filling firmness that allows to shorten of the process of wafer layers cooling. There was grounded the expedience of using the synbiotic complex in the technology of wafers fatty filling that allows to receive new wafer types of the functional directionality.
Optical properties of an anterior lamellar human cornea model based on fibrin-agarose

The optical evaluation carried out using the Inverse Adding-Doubling (IAD) method to determine the scattering and the absorption coefficients of the bioengineered human corneal stromas showed that this type of artificial biomaterials shared many similarities with native control cornea after four weeks of development in culture. Their absorption and reduced scattering coefficients values were higher than the ones of the control cornea, but their spectral behaviors of both coefficients were similar. Time of development in culture was an influencing factor on the results.
Wireless LAN performance under varied stress conditions in vehicular traffic scenarios

Mobile ad-hoc networking with wireless LAN infrastructure can be employed to build inter-vehicle communication based applications. The associated high velocities and hostile driving environments pose a challenge to the performance of a wireless LAN. This paper assesses the performance of a wireless local area network in different vehicular traffic and mobility scenarios. The network throughput and the quality of the wireless communication channel, measured on IEEE 802.11b compliant equipment, are observed to degrade with increasingly stressful communication scenarios. The test scenarios are varied by conducting the experiments under different vehicular mobility, peer-distance and driving environment conditions. We present results that can facilitate development of efficient applications for inter-vehicular communication. We also suggest optimization measures through aggression control via variations in packet size.
Hypergraph p-Laplacian: A Differential Geometry View

The graph Laplacian plays key roles in information processing of relational data, and has analogies with the Laplacian in differential geometry. In this paper, we generalize the analogy between graph Laplacian and differential geometry to the hypergraph setting, and propose a novel hypergraph p-Laplacian. Unlike the existing two-node graph Laplacians, this generalization makes it possible to analyze hypergraphs, where the edges are allowed to connect any number of nodes. Moreover, we propose a semi-supervised learning method based on the proposed hypergraph p-Laplacian, and formalize them as the analogue to the Dirichlet problem, which often appears in physics. We further explore theoretical connections to normalized hypergraph cut on a hypergraph, and propose normalized cut corresponding to hypergraph p-Laplacian. The proposed p-Laplacian is shown to outperform standard hypergraph Laplacians in the experiment on a hypergraph semi-supervised learning and normalized cut setting.
An (E,E)‐α‐farnesene synthase gene of soybean has a role in defence against nematodes and is involved in synthesizing insect‐induced volatiles

Summary Plant terpene synthase genes (TPSs) have roles in diverse biological processes. Here, we report the functional characterization of one member of the soybean TPS gene family, which was designated GmAFS. Recombinant GmAFS produced in Escherichia coli catalysed the formation of a sesquiterpene (E,E)‐α‐farnesene. GmAFS is closely related to (E,E)‐α‐farnesene synthase gene from apple, both phylogenetically and structurally. GmAFS was further investigated for its biological role in defence against nematodes and insects. Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the most important pathogen of soybean. The expression of GmAFS in a SCN‐resistant soybean was significantly induced by SCN infection compared with the control, whereas its expression in a SCN‐susceptible soybean was not changed by SCN infection. Transgenic hairy roots overexpressing GmAFS under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter were generated in an SCN‐susceptible soybean line. The transgenic lines showed significantly higher resistance to SCN, which indicates that GmAFS contributes to the resistance of soybean to SCN. In soybean leaves, the expression of GmAFS was found to be induced by Tetranychus urticae (two‐spotted spider mites). Exogenous application of methyl jasmonate to soybean plants also induced the expression of GmAFS in leaves. Using headspace collection combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis, soybean plants that were infested with T. urticae were shown to emit a mixture of volatiles with (E,E)‐α‐farnesene as one of the most abundant constituents. In summary, this study showed that GmAFS has defence roles in both below‐ground and above‐ground organs of soybean against nematodes and insects, respectively.
Multipath Streaming: Fundamental Limits and Efficient Algorithms

We investigate streaming over multiple links. A file is split into small units called chunks that may be requested on the various links according to some policy and received after some random delay. After a start-up time called pre-buffering time, received chunks are played at a fixed speed. There is starvation if the chunk to be played has not yet arrived. We provide lower bounds (fundamental limits) on the starvation probability of any policy. We further propose simple, order-optimal policies that require no feedback. For general delay distributions, we provide tractable upper bounds for the starvation probability of the proposed policies, allowing to select the pre-buffering time appropriately. We specialize our results to: 1) links that employ Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) or opportunistic scheduling at the packet level; 2) links shared with a primary user; and 3) links that use fair rate sharing at the flow level. We consider a generic model, so that our results give insight into the design and the performance of media streaming over: 1) wired networks with several paths between the source and the destination; 2) wireless networks featuring spectrum aggregation; and 3) multi-homed wireless networks.
First experimental results on adaptation algorithms for lower limbs active orthoses

In this work we present the first experimental results on gait-pattern adaptation for lower limb orthoses. The adaptation algorithm considers the orthosis-patient interaction forces and the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) criterion, allowing the patient to modify the gait-pattern as his/her degree of voluntary locomotion still maintaining the walking stability. A set of neural networks (NN) are used to decrease the time-consuming computation of the model and ZMP-based trajectory generation. The first neural network approximates the inverse dynamics and the ZMP optimization, while the second one works in the optimization procedure, giving an adapted desired trajectory according to orthosis-patient interaction. This trajectory adaptation is added directly to the trajectory generator, also reproduced by a set of neural networks. Also, a robust controller based on the ℋ∞ method is designed to attenuate the effects of external disturbances and parametric uncertainties in the trajectory tracking errors. Experimental results of the proposed NN-based adaptation algorithm, with one of the ankle joints of the model was replaced by an actual active orthosis, are presented.
MIRACLE: Mobility Prediction Inside a Coverage Hole Using Stochastic Learning Weak Estimator

In target tracking applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), one of the important but overlooked issues is the estimation of mobility behavior of a target inside a coverage hole. The existing approaches are restricted to networks with effective coverage by wireless sensors. Additionally, those works implicitly considered that a target does not change its mobility pattern inside the entire tracking region. In this paper, we address the above lacunae by designing a stochastic learning weak estimation-based scheme, namely mobility prediction inside acoverage hole (MIRACLE). The objectives of MIRACLE are two fold. First, one should be able to correctly predict the mobility pattern of a target inside a coverage hole with low computational overhead. Second, if a target changes its mobility pattern inside the coverage hole, the proposed estimator should give some estimation about all possible transitions among the mobility models. We use the trajectory extrapolation and fusion techniques for exploring all possible transitions among the mobility models. We validate the results with simulated traces of mobile targets generated using network simulator NS-2. Simulation results show that MIRACLE estimates the mobility patterns inside coverage hole with an accuracy of more than 60% in WSNs.
METIS-II: Low-Resource MT for German to English

METIS-II was a EU-FET MT project running from October 2004 to September 2007, which aimed at translating free text input without resorting to parallel corpora. The idea was to use ‘basic’ linguistic tools and representations and to link them with patterns and statistics from the monolingual target-language corpus. The METIS-II project has four partners, translating from their ‘home’ languages Greek, Dutch, German, and Spanish into English. The paper outlines the basic ideas of the project, their implementation, the resources used, and the results obtained. It emphazises on the German implementation.
Polarimetric classification of scattering centers using M-ary Bayesian decision rules

A Bayes-optimal decision rule is presented for detection and classification of scattering centers in clutter. Scattering centers are modeled as one of M canonical reflectors with unknown amplitude, phase and orientation angle; clutter is modeled as a spherically invariant random vector. A choice of costs in the Bayes risk is shown to yield a two-stage classification rule. The first stage is a Neyman-Pearson detector which rejects clutter, whereas the second stage classifies the detection in one of the M target classes. The resulting decision rule yields computationally simple implementation, intuitive geometric interpretation, and posterior estimation of decision uncertainty. Performance of the proposed classifier is illustrated on imagery from an airborne UHF-hand radar.
HIV Treatment as Prevention: Models, Data, and Questions—Towards Evidence-Based Decision-Making

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) for those infected with HIV can prevent onward transmission of infection, but biological efficacy alone is not enough to guide policy decisions about the role of ART in reducing HIV incidence. Epidemiology, economics, demography, statistics, biology, and mathematical modelling will be central in framing key decisions in the optimal use of ART. PLoS Medicine, with the HIV Modelling Consortium, has commissioned a set of articles that examine different aspects of HIV treatment as prevention with a forward-looking research agenda. Interlocking themes across these articles are discussed in this introduction. We hope that this article, and others in the collection, will provide a foundation upon which greater collaborations between disciplines will be formed, and will afford deeper insights into the key factors involved, to help strengthen the support for evidence-based decision-making in HIV prevention.