Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VecRA

Graphics processing units (GPUs) are now widely used in embedded systems for manipulating computer graphics and even for general-purpose computation. However, many embedded systems have to manage highly restricted hardware resources in order to achieve high performance or energy efficiency. The number of registers is one of the common limiting factors in an embedded GPU design. Programs that run with a low number of registers may suffer from high register pressure if register allocation is not properly designed, especially on a GPU in which a register is divided into four elements and each element can be accessed separately, because allocating a register for a vector-type variable that does not contain values in all elements wastes register spaces. In this article, we present a vector-aware register allocation framework to improve register utilization on shader architectures. The framework involves two major components: (1) element-based register allocation that allocates registers based on the element requirement of variables and (2) register packing that rearranges elements of registers in order to increase the number of contiguous free elements, thereby keeping more live variables in registers. Experimental results on a cycle-approximate simulator showed that the proposed framework decreased 92% of register spills in total and made 91.7% of 14 common shader programs spill free. These results indicate an opportunity for energy management of the space that is used for storing spilled variables, with the framework improving the performance by a geometric mean of 8.3%, 16.3%, and 29.2% for general shader processors in which variables are spilled to memory with 5-, 10-, and 20-cycle access latencies, respectively. Furthermore, the reduction in the register requirement of programs enabled another 11 programs with high register pressure to be runnable on a lightweight GPU.
Self-tunable transformation function for enhancement of high contrast color images

Abstract. A new image enhancement technique based on a self-tunable transformation function to improve the visual quality of images captured with low dynamic range devices in extreme lighting conditions is presented. This technique consists of four processes: histogram adjustment, dynamic range compression, contrast enhancement, and nonlinear color restoration. Histogram adjustment on each spectral band is performed to minimize the effect of illumination. Dynamic range compression is accomplished by a newly designed inverse sine nonlinear function that provides various nonlinear curvatures with an image dependent parameter. A nonlinear curve generated by this parameter is used to modify the intensity of each pixel in the luminance image. A nonlinear color restoration process based on the chromatic information and luminance of the original image is employed. The effectiveness of this technique is evaluated on various natural images and aerial images, and compared with other state-of the art techniques. A quantitative evaluation is performed by estimating the number of Harris corners and speeded up robust features on wide area motion imagery data. The application of the proposed algorithm on face detection is also demonstrated. The evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed method holds significant benefits for surveillance and security applications and also as a preprocessing technique for object detection and tracking applications.
An unification of Inner Distance Shape Context and Local Binary Pattern for Shape Representation and Classification

In this paper, we propose a combined classifier approach based on Inner Distance Shape Context (IDSC) and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) to classify shapes accurately. The inner-distance is insensitive to shape articulations and the LBP is invariant to rotation and shift of the shape. The Dynamic Programming (DP) in case of IDSC and Earth Movers Distance (EMD) metric in case of LBP were respectively employed to obtain similarity and hence used to classify given query shape based on maximum similarity value. The experiments are conducted on publicly available shape datasets namely MPEG-7, Kimia-99, Kimia-216, Myth and Tools-2D and the results are presented by means of Bulls eye score and precision-recall metric. The comparative study is also provided with the well known approaches to determine the retrieval accuracy of the proposed approach. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach yield significant improvements over baseline shape matching algorithms.
Pros and Cons of Cryptography , Steganography and Perturbation techniques

Cryptology was as significant as weapons during the World War II and the Cold War. There were lots of studies to develop robust crypto-systems and to use them in communications. These studies have continued up to now. Today some of those crypto-systems called as “classical crypto-systems” are improved and still being used. Mostly we can secure our data in three ways first one is cryptography where content of the message is kept secret by encoding it, secondly Steganography where the message is embedded in another medium, third perturbation technique which performs some operation on actual data so that its actual meaning is not obvious/disclosed.Here we have a comparative study on cryptography, steganography and perturbation technique with pros and cons of each.
"PRINCIPLES OF PHYLOGENETICS: ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION"

Readings Hansen, T. 1997. Stabilizing selection and the comparative analysis of adaptation. Evolution 51:13411351. Ackerly, D. D. 2009. Conservatism and diversification of plant functional traits: Evolutionary rates versus phylogenetic signal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106:19699-19706. Blomberg, S. P., and T. Garland, Jr. 2002. Tempo and mode in evolution: phylogenetic inertia, adaptation and comparative methods. J. Evol. Biol. 15:899-910.
Older Driver "Looked But Did Not See" Errors at Intersections: Using Change Blindness Methods to Assess Turn Decision Accuracy

To examine why “looked but did not see” errors occur, a modified version of the flicker technique to induce change blindness was used to examine the effects of time constraints on decision-making at intersections on young (18-25), middle-aged (26-64), young-old (65-73), and old-old (74+) drivers. Thirty-six intersection photographs were manipulated so that one object (i.e., pedestrian, vehicle, sign or traffic control device) in the scene would change when the images were alternated using the modified flicker method. Sixty-two participants viewed the intersections for either five or eight seconds and were asked to decide whether it was safe to turn left, right or continue straight through each intersection. Younger and middle-aged drivers made more correct decisions than older drivers, with older drivers frequently failing to see changes that were relevant to a correct decision. Logistic regression analysis of the data indicated that age and time were significant predictors of decision performance in 14 of the 36 intersections. A qualitative analysis of drivers’ self-reported reasons for making a go or no go decision supported the quantitative finding that older drivers either failed to see important changes in the scene or to not see all the relevant information to make an accurate decision under time pressure. Overall, older drivers appeared to rely heavily on the traffic control devices (e.g., lights) in the intersection to make decisions, often to the exclusion of other important objects, such as pedestrians and vehicles. The utility of the modified flicker method to assess driver performance and future research is discussed. TRB 2003 Annual Meeting CD-ROM Paper revised from original submittal.
Asynchronous Remote Method Invocation in Java

Java RMI is the computational model used to develop distributed systems in the Java language. Although widely used in the construction of distributed systems, the use of Java RMI is limited because this middleware does not allow asynchronous method invocations. This paper presents FlexRMI, a Java based system that supports asynchronous invocations of remote methods. FlexRMI is completely implemented in Java, making use of the reflection and dynamic proxy facilities of this language. The implementation is also compatible with standard Java RMI distributed systems.
How One Cause Discounts or Augments Another: A Connectionist Account of Causal Competition

The authors investigated the degree of discounting and augmentation of a target cause by an alternative cause given a varying number of observations on the alternative cause while holding its degree of covariation constant. Two experiments showed that more observations of the alternative cause resulted in greater discounting or augmentation of a target cause. This sample size effect cannot be explained by current attribution theories based on statistical notions or belief updating but can be accounted for by a connectionist framework. In addition, the authors found that the sample size effect was stronger when the information was presented in a sequential trial-by-trial format as opposed to a summarized format but found no effect of information order. Possible extensions of statistical models with confidence weights that take account of sample size were considered and simulated but none accommodated the data as well as connectionist models.
Identification of intracellular carriers for the endocannabinoid anandamide

The endocannabinoid anandamide (arachidonoyl ethanolamide, AEA) is an uncharged neuromodulatory lipid that, similar to many neurotransmitters, is inactivated through its cellular uptake and subsequent catabolism. AEA is hydrolyzed by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), an enzyme localized on the endoplasmic reticulum. In contrast to most neuromodulators, the hydrophilic cytosol poses a diffusional barrier for the efficient delivery of AEA to its site of catabolism. Therefore, AEA likely traverses the cytosol with the assistance of an intracellular carrier that increases its solubility and rate of diffusion. To study this process, AEA uptake and hydrolysis were examined in COS-7 cells expressing FAAH restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, or the Golgi apparatus. AEA hydrolysis was detectable at the earliest measurable time point (3 seconds), suggesting that COS-7 cells, normally devoid of an endocannabinoid system, possess an efficient cytosolic trafficking mechanism for AEA. Three fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) known to be expressed in brain were examined as possible intracellular AEA carriers. AEA uptake and hydrolysis were significantly potentiated in N18TG2 neuroblastoma cells after overexpression of FABP5 or FABP7, but not FABP3. Similar results were observed in COS-7 cells stably expressing FAAH. Consistent with the roles of FABP as AEA carriers, administration of the competitive FABP ligand oleic acid or the selective non-lipid FABP inhibitor BMS309403 attenuated AEA uptake and hydrolysis by ≈50% in N18TG2 and COS-7 cells. Taken together, FABPs represent the first proteins known to transport AEA from the plasma membrane to FAAH for inactivation and may therefore be novel pharmacological targets.
Simple SSVEP detection using spectrum intensity ratio and threshold

In recent years, Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential (SSVEP) is often used as a basis for Brain Computer Interface (BCI) [1]. The feature extraction is significant problem to achieve the SSVEP based BCI. Various signal processing and classification techniques are proposed to extract SSVEP from Electroencephalograph (EEG). We introduced a spectrum intensity ratio as a simple characterization and separation of SSVEP. However, it is difficult to classify an unseeing state of subjects. In addition, the comparison with conventional method is not tried yet. In this paper, we adopt a classification using threshold to reject the unseeing state.
Teaching Children to Share through Stories.

The effects of symbolic modeling in the form of stories were examined in changing young children's sharing behavior and knowledge of sharing. Nursery school and kindergarten children who displayed a low frequency of sharing were assigned to experimental and control conditions. The experimental group heard stories and viewed slide tape shows of modeled sharing. The control group heard animal stories and viewed slide tape shows with no modeled sharing. The results were as follows: (a) The modeling group shared significantly more than the control group. (b) The modeling group increased their sharing across the three experimental days, and shared significantly more than the control group on both the second and third days. (c) The modeling group acquired significantly more knowledge about sharing. The findings provide strong evidence for the efficacy of models in both book and slide formats for young children.
Workplace conflict and employee well‐being: The moderating role of detachment from work during off‐job time

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to address the relation between task and relationship conflicts at work and employee well-being. It seeks to examine psychological detachment from work during off-job time as a moderator in the relation between conflicts and well-being. Design/methodology/approach – In a field study, 291 white-collar employees completed survey measures of task conflicts, relationship conflicts, psychological detachment from work during off-job time, and well-being. Control variables included workload and job control. Findings – Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that employees experiencing high levels of task conflicts and high levels of relationship conflicts report poorer well-being. As predicted, psychological detachment from work mitigated the negative relation between relationship conflicts and well-being. Contrary to expectations, psychological detachment failed to moderate the relation between task conflicts and well-being. Practical implications – The study suggests that employees should be encouraged to disengage mentally from work during leisure time. Originality/value – This study links research on workplace conflicts with research on recovery processes. It tests the moderator effect of psychological detachment from work on the association between workplace conflicts and well-being.
Decreased Fast Ripples in the Hippocampus of Rats with Spontaneous Recurrent Seizures Treated with Carbenoxolone and Quinine

Background. In models of temporal lobe epilepsy and in patients with this pathology, high frequency oscillations called fast ripples (FRs, 250–600 Hz) can be observed. FRs are considered potential biomarkers for epilepsy and, in the light of many in vitro and in silico studies, we thought that electrical synapses mediated by gap junctions might possibly modulate FRs in vivo. Methods. Animals with spontaneous recurrent seizures induced by pilocarpine administration were implanted with movable microelectrodes in the right anterior and posterior hippocampus to evaluate the effects of gap junction blockers administered in the entorhinal cortex. The effects of carbenoxolone (50 nmoles) and quinine (35 pmoles) on the mean number of spontaneous FR events (occurrence of FRs), as well as on the mean number of oscillation cycles per FR event and their frequency, were assessed using a specific algorithm to analyze FRs in intracranial EEG recordings. Results. We found that these gap junction blockers decreased the mean number of FRs and the mean number of oscillation cycles per FR event in the hippocampus, both during and at different times after carbenoxolone and quinine administration. Conclusion. These data suggest that FRs may be modulated by gap junctions, although additional experiments in vivo will be necessary to determine the precise role of gap junctions in this pathological activity associated with epileptogenesis.
Nanowires for solar cell applications

We present the method for growing GaAs nanowires by MBE without using gold as a catalyst. With careful choice of the growth parameters nanowires with length of several microns and diameters in the range of 20 nm up to 120 nm are obtained. By changing the growth conditions it is also possible to obtain radial and axial heterostructures. In view of using nanowires for photovoltaic applications, we will present the latest developments on the doping mechanisms of GaAs nanowires by MBE. Finally, we show how the fabrication of p-i-n junctions can be used for solar cell applications.
Distributed Space-Time Codes with Reduced Decoding Complexity

We address the problem of distributed space-time coding with reduced decoding complexity for wireless relay network. The transmission protocol follows a two-hop model wherein the source transmits a vector in the first hop and in the second hop the relays transmit a vector, which is a transformation of the received vector by a relay-specific unitary transformation. Design criteria is derived for this system model and codes are proposed that achieve full diversity. For a fixed number of relay nodes, the general system model considered in this paper admits code constructions with lower decoding complexity compared to codes based on some earlier system models
The Provision of Online Public Goods: Examining Social Structure in a Network of Practice

Networks of practice (NOPs) are social spaces where individuals working on similar problems self-organize to help each other and share perspectives about their occupational practice or common interests, and exist primarily through computer-mediated exchange. This exchange of knowledge through message postings produces an online public good, where all participants in the network can access the knowledge, regardless of their contribution. Thus, this research builds upon theories of collective action and public goods to better understand the provision and maintenance of knowledge in a network of practice. We use social network analysis to examine the following research questions: (1) What is the pattern of contribution that produces and sustains the public good? (2) Are NOPs maintained by a critical mass? (3) How does the heterogeneity of resources and interests of participants impact the collective action of the NOP? We find that the network of practice is sustained through generalized exchange, is supported by a critical mass of active members, and is shaped as a star. The critical mass is significantly related to tenure in the occupation, expertise, availability of local resources, and desire to enhance one’s reputation.
VideoWeb: Space-Time Aware Presentation of a Videoclip Collection

Browsing to identify frame contents in a large collection of videoclips is tedious and time consuming if annotation or indexes are lacking. This paper presents a novel approach for presenting relationships among videoclips in a space-time aware manner, using a structure we call a VideoWeb. To construct such a VideoWeb, each individual clip is parsed into structural elements in accordance with its semantic meaning. Spatio-temporal correlations are then inferred among clips, based on structural similarity, in a whole-to-part manner. These correlations result in a set of strong relationships linking temporal sequence and spatial views, and weak relationships of spatial co-occurrence; both are graphically represented on a navigation board. Visualizing connectivity among clips provides clues enabling users to easily browse the videoclip collection in a purposeful manner. A VideoWeb faithfully represents the relationships among the videoclips, and it can be interactively manipulated to explore clips in a collection. Experimental results and user studies show that our approach can greatly facilitate browsing of a videoclip collection.
Refusing to apologize can have psychological benefits (and we issue no mea culpa for this research finding)

Despite an understanding of the perception and consequences of apologies for their recipients, little is known about the consequences of interpersonal apologies, or their denial, for the offending actor. In two empirical studies, we examined the unexplored psychological consequences that follow from a harm-doer's explicit refusal to apologize. Results showed that the act of refusing to apologize resulted in greater self-esteem than not refusing to apologize. Moreover, apology refusal also resulted in increased feelings of power/control and value integrity, both of which mediated the effect of refusal on self-esteem. These findings point to potential barriers to victim–offender reconciliation after an interpersonal harm, highlighting the need to better understand the psychology of harm-doers and their defensive behavior for self-focused motives.
Anaesthetists' attitudes to teamwork and safety

Summary A questionnaire survey was conducted with 222 anaesthetists from 11 Scottish hospitals to measure their attitudes towards human and organisational factors that can have an impact on effective team performance and consequently on patient safety. A customised version of the Operating Room Management Attitude Questionnaire (ORMAQ) was used. This measures attitudes to leadership, communication, teamwork, stress and fatigue, work values, human error and organisational climate. The respondents generally demonstrated positive attitudes towards the interpersonal aspects of their work, such as team behaviours and they recognised the importance of communication skills, such as assertiveness. However, the results suggest that some anaesthetists do not fully appreciate the debilitating effects of stress and fatigue on performance. Their responses were comparable with (and slightly more favourable than) those reported in previous ORMAQ surveys of anaesthetists and surgeons in other countries.
CPW-fed slot antenna with inset L-strip tuning stub for ultra-wideband

The coplanar waveguide fed slot antenna with inset L-stripe tuning stub is proposed for UWB applications. The antenna consists of two rectangular slots separated by center strip with CPW feed line. This antenna is design for match impedance with 50 ohm of characteristic impedance of transmission line by using inset L-stripe tuning stub for wideband matching. By adjusting dimension of inset L-strip tuning stub, the range of bandwidth can be achieved 144.6% (1.80 GHz - 11.2 GHz) of the center band coverage standard of IEEE 802.15a for ultra wideband operation. The characteristics of antenna are proposed and analyzed for instance input impedance, return loss, bandwidth, VSWR, and far field radiation patterns.
Cell cycle‐controlled proteolysis of a flagellar motor protein that is asymmetrically distributed in the Caulobacter predivisional cell.

Flagellar biogenesis and release are developmental events tightly coupled to the cell cycle of Caulobacter crescentus. A single flagellum is assembled at the swarmer pole of the predivisional cell and is released later in the cell cycle. Here we show that the MS‐ring monomer FliF, a central motor component that anchors the flagellum in the cell membrane, is synthesized only in the predivisional cell and is integrated into the membrane at the incipient swarmer cell pole, where it initiates flagellar assembly. FliF is proteolytically turned over during swarmer‐to‐stalked cell differentiation, coinciding with the loss of the flagellum, suggesting that its degradation is coupled to flagellar release. The membrane topology of FliF was determined and a region of the cytoplasmic C‐terminal domain was shown to be required for the interaction with a component of the motor switch. The very C‐terminal end of FliF contains a turnover determinant, required for the cell cycle‐dependent degradation of the MS‐ring. The cell cycle‐dependent proteolysis of FliF and the targeting of FliF to the swarmer pole together contribute to the asymmetric localization of the MS‐ring in the predivisional cell.