Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the efficiency of reductions in /spl mu/-SIMD media extensions

Many important multimedia applications contain a significant fraction of reduction operations. Although, in general, multimedia applications are characterized for having high amounts of Data Level Parallelism, reductions and accumulations are difficult to parallelize and show a poor tolerance to increases in the latency of the instructions. This is specially significant for /spl mu/-SIMD extensions such as MMX or AltiVec. To overcome the problem of reductions in /spl mu/-SIMD ISAs, designers tend to include more and more complex instructions able to deal with the most common forms of reductions in multimedia. As long as the number of processor pipeline stages grows, the number of cycles needed to execute these multimedia instructions increases with every processor generation, severely compromising performance. The paper presents an in-depth discussion of how reductions/accumulations are performed in current /spl mu/-SIMD architectures and evaluates the performance trade-offs for near-future highly aggressive superscalar processors with three different styles of /spl mu/-SIMD extensions. We compare a MMX-like alternative to a MDMX-like extension that has packed accumulators to attack the reduction problem, and we also compare it to MOM, a matrix register ISA. We show that while packed accumulators present several advantages, they introduce artificial recurrences that severely degrade performance for processors with high number of registers and long latency operations. On the other hand, the paper demonstrates that longer SIMD media extensions such as MOM can take great advantage of accumulators by exploiting the associative parallelism implicit in reductions.
Correlation between the output signals from a dual polarized antenna

Dual polarized antennas are traditionally characterized in terms of a port-to-port isolation co-polar and cross-polar patterns. We identify the critical parameter when the antenna is used as as sensor in a polarization diversity reception system. This turns out to be the far-field coupling between the two channels, the inverse of which characterizes the orthogonality of the channels. We derive an expression for the power correlation between the outputs of a dual polarized antenna when used in different environments. The expression is used to analyze two ideal antenna types: a dual polarized aperture coupled patch element and a pair of orthogonal slanted dipoles, both over an infinite ground plane. Both antennas have /spl plusmn/45/spl deg/ linear polarizations, which is preferable since they provide identical azimuth patterns and equal mean power. We show that under Gaussian assumptions about the incident fields, the far-field coupling provides valuable insight to the correlation between the output signals from the two channels of a dual polarized antenna.
A Framework for Fast Face and Eye Detection

Face detection is an essential step in many computer vision applications like surveillance, tracking, medical analysis, facial expression analysis etc. Several approaches have been made in the direction of face detection. Among them, Haar-like features based method is a robust method. In spite of the robustness, Haar - like features work with some limitations. However, with some simple modifications in the algorithm, its performance can be made faster and more robust. The present work refers to the increase in speed of operation of the original algorithm by down sampling the frames and its analysis with different scale factors. It also discusses the detection of tilted faces using an affine transformation of the input image.
HAMACK: a Honeynet Architecture against MAlicious Contents in KAD

Theme : MAnagement of DYnamic NEtworks and ServicesEquipes-Projets MADYNESRapport de recherche n ° 6994 | April 2009 | 22 pagesAbstract:In this paper, we propose a new P2P Honeynet architecture called HAMACKthat bypasses the Sybil attack protection mechanisms introduced recently inKAD. HAMACK is composed of distributed Honeypeers in charge of monitoringand acting on speci c malicious contents in KAD by controlling the indexationof keywords and les. Our architecture allows to: (1) transparently monitor allthe requests sent to the targeted contents in the network, (2) eclipse maliciousentries of the DHT, and (3) attract the download requests of peers searchingfor malicious contents towards the Honeypeers by poisoning the DHT referenceswith fake les and sources. Early results on the KAD network demonstrate theapplicability and the eciency of our approach.Key-words: P2P networks, DHT, Sybil attack, honeypot, KAD, monitoring
An Intrusion Alert Correlation Approach Based on Finite Automata

Intrusion alert analysis system correlates alerts that generated by one or more IDS(s), and yields a succinct attack scenario which reflects an intrusion process. This paper presents an intrusion alert analysis model consists of four modules: alert formalization, alert filtering, alert fusion and correlation, and scenario visualization. Alerts are fused and correlated using approach based on finite automata. Three kinds of high-level views of attacks are generated, i.e. process-critical scenario, attacker-critical scenario, and victim-critical scenario. Experiments show that the approach can reduce the redundancy of intrusion alerts and correlate them well.
Role of tolerance to resource demand – supply mismatch in a model of annual plants

We propose and discuss a simulation model of annual plants competing for a single resource. Plants are characterised by their tolerance to a shortage of it and the maximum number of seeds a plant could produce in a year. Interaction among plants is reduced to blocking a part of the resource by the plant’s nearest neighbours. Spatial and temporal external conditions remain unchanged. We consider two systems - plants of one type (target plants) and a mixture of two types, when the second type differs from the target ones only by the tolerance to a shortage or surplus of the resource. We show how the life cycle of a plant depends on its tolerance, supply of the resource and how it is affected by the presence of the second type of annuals. We demonstrate that coexistence of the two species is possible, and we determine the conditions for it.
Delegation and Contracting Hierarchies: An Overview

Delegation is a pervasive phenomenon in firms, procurement contracting, financial and regulatory institutions. Owners frequently delegate management of the firm to top level managers, who in turn delegate management of divisions to middle level managers. In procurement contracting, the purchaser often contracts with a single ‘prime’ contractor, delegating the responsibility of subcontracting with diverse upstream suppliers. Trading intermediaries such as wholesalers and retailers are delegated decisions concerning distribution and pricing of products. Financial intermediaries are delegated authority by depositors to make loans and supervise lenders. Regulated firms are often delegated authority by regulators to select their own production levels and contract with their upstream suppliers. These are but a few instances of how decision-making typically gets dispersed among a large number of agents, instead of being concentrated in one central authority. Those delegated authority may themselves be directly involved in
Exploring Query Categorisation for Query Expansion: A Study

The vocabulary mismatch problem is one of the important challenges facing traditional keyword-based Information Retrieval Systems. The aim of query expansion (QE) is to reduce this query-document mismatch by adding related or synonymous words or phrases to the query. Several existing query expansion algorithms have proved their merit, but they are not uniformly beneficial for all kinds of queries. Our long-term goal is to formulate methods for applying QE techniques tailored to individual queries, rather than applying the same general QE method to all queries. As an initial step, we have proposed a taxonomy of query classes (from a QE perspective) in this report. We have discussed the properties of each query class with examples. We have also discussed some QE strategies that might be effective for each query category. In future work, we intend to test the proposed techniques using standard datasets, and to explore automatic query categorisation methods.
Engineered chloroplast dsRNA silences cytochrome p450 monooxygenase, V‐ATPase and chitin synthase genes in the insect gut and disrupts Helicoverpa armigera larval development and pupation

Summary In the past two decades, chloroplast genetic engineering has been advanced to achieve high‐level protein accumulation but not for down‐regulation of targeted genes. Therefore, in this report, lepidopteran chitin synthase (Chi), cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (P450) and V‐ATPase dsRNAs were expressed via the chloroplast genome to study RNA interference (RNAi) of target genes in intended hosts. PCR and Southern blot analysis confirmed homoplasmy and site‐specific integration of transgene cassettes into the chloroplast genomes. Northern blots and real‐time qRT‐PCR confirmed abundant processed and unprocessed dsRNA transcripts (up to 3.45 million copies of P450 dsRNAs/μg total RNA); the abundance of cleaved dsRNA was greater than the endogenous psbA transcript. Feeding of leaves expressing P450,Chi and V‐ATPase dsRNA decreased transcription of the targeted gene to almost undetectable levels in the insect midgut, likely after further processing of dsRNA in their gut. Consequently, the net weight of larvae, growth and pupation rates were significantly reduced by chloroplast‐derived dsRNAs. Taken together, successful expression of dsRNAs via the chloroplast genome for the first time opens the door to study RNA interference/processing within plastids. Most importantly, dsRNA expressed in chloroplasts can be utilized for gene inactivation to confer desired agronomic traits or for various biomedical applications, including down‐regulation of dysfunctional genes in cancer or autoimmune disorders, after oral delivery of dsRNA bioencapsulated within plant cells.
Financial Analysis of Early Stand Treatments in Southwest Oregon

Eng, Helge; Johnson, K. Norman; Fight, Roger D. 1990. Financial analysis of early stand treatments in southwest Oregon. Res. Pap. PNW-RP-427. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 25 p. Management guidelines for economically efficient early stand treatments were developed by identifying treatments that would maximize financial returns over the rotation for coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesfi) in southwest Oregon. Short rotations and low stand densities (trees per acre) gave the highest financial returns in all cases. Usually precommercially thinning to a low stand density was more advantageous than planting at low density. Fertilization as soon as possible was always profitable. The financially optimal management regimes for low-cost and high-cost reforestation were identical if the returns justified keeping the site in forest production. Costly treatments were not financially justifiable on lowproductivity sites where reforestation is difficult unless investment conditions are favorable.
Protein–RNA specificity by high-throughput principal component analysis of NMR spectra

Defining the RNA target selectivity of the proteins regulating mRNA metabolism is a key issue in RNA biology. Here we present a novel use of principal component analysis (PCA) to extract the RNA sequence preference of RNA binding proteins. We show that PCA can be used to compare the changes in the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum of a protein upon binding a set of quasi-degenerate RNAs and define the nucleobase specificity. We couple this application of PCA to an automated NMR spectra recording and processing protocol and obtain an unbiased and high-throughput NMR method for the analysis of nucleobase preference in protein–RNA interactions. We test the method on the RNA binding domains of three important regulators of RNA metabolism.
GIS supporting the plan of BTS (base transceiver stations) for mobile network in urban context

In recent years the technological development in general and the spread on the territory of antennas for mobile phones urged a state of widespread public concern repeatedly verging the social alarm. The need for a greater territorial coverage of mobile telephone service, due to the continuous request of users and to the presence of more operators in the market, led an intensification of the installations that not only made to a progressive decrease the power radiated from individual installations, it also required that they be placed closer to homes with consequent concern of the population for their own health. It is known that for assessing the levels of electromagnetic field in a particular place or around a given source (thus assessing the potential risk for the population nearby living) should be campaigns to measure or apply the theoretical methods (analytical or numerical). The Municipality of Reggio Calabria in 2006 started a project having as its main purpose the development of a GIS (Geographic Information System), capable of "storing" the results of measurement campaigns and also to apply a theoretical model for developing scenarios of exposure to electromagnetic field. The aim is to assess whether the presence of fixed installations for cellular phone is compatible with the health of citizens, or if the values of exposure to electromagnetic fields produced by them are within the limits set by law. This was achieved through the implementation of a Geographical Information System able to manage, store, process all data (both alphanumeric that geographical) relating to devices GSM, GPRS, UMTS with also the possibility to update the database (Technical data characteristics antennas) and insert new installations. In addition to the management, GIS is able to calculate the electromagnetic field produced by the antennas. The SIT is therefore the final collector, performing in a single "container" the stacking phase and the monitoring of electromagnetic radiation (in operational band of GSM, GPRS, UMTS), and finally support the phases related to the remediation of areas with anomalous values of the electromagnetic field, thus supporting the planning phase of the distribution of antennas in urban context.
Is the Market Surprised by Poor Earnings Realizations following Seasoned Equity Offerings?

Abstract We examine the stock price reaction to earnings announcements in the five years following seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). On average, post-SEO earnings announcements are met with a significantly negative abnormal stock price reaction. Although this negative reaction accounts for a disproportionately large portion of long-run post-SEO abnormal stock returns, on average, abnormal stock price reactions to post-seo earnings announcements are reliably negative only within the smallest quartile of equity issuers. For small firms, therefore, these findings are broadly consistent with the hypothesis that firms issue equity when the market overestimates the firm's future earnings perfomance.
Selective Iterative Water-filling for Digital Subscriber Loops

This paper proposes a low-complexity selective iterative water-filling (SIW) algorithm that can considerably enhance the performance of IW. Unlike the highly complicated and centralized OSM, the SIW has a complexity of at most N times that of IW algorithm and is quasi-autonomous requiring very little centralized coordination. Simulation results in realistic DSL scenarios indicate that the performance of the proposed SIW can approach that of the OSM
Multi-word Term Extraction for Bulgarian

The goal of this paper is to compile a method for multi-word term extraction, taking into account both the linguistic properties of Bulgarian terms and their statistical rates. The method relies on the extraction of term candidates matching given syntactic patterns followed by statistical (by means of Log-likelihood ratio) and linguistically (by means of inflectional clustering) based filtering aimed at improving the coverage and the precision of multi-word term extraction.
Path Planning in Repetitive Environments

In this paper we discuss path planning in a special class of dynamic environments, namely repetitive environments, in which the motions of the moving obstacles are periodic (i.e. repetitive). For such environments it is possible to generate a roadmap in a preprocessing stage, which can be used multiple times to quickly solve individual planning queries. This in contrast to general dynamic environments, whose transitoriness invalidates the premise that a preprocessed roadmap can be used multiple times. Our approach is suitable for any robot with any number of degrees of freedom in two- and three dimensional workspaces, and applications can be found, amongst others, in virtual environments and computer games. I. I NTRODUCTION Path planning is of great importance in various fields such as robotics and virtual environments. The problem is generally formulated as finding a path for a robot between two query configurations that avoids collisions with the obstacles in the environment. Most research has focused on the problem of path planning in static environments, where the geometry of the environment is known in advance and the obstacles do not move. Many solutions to this problem have been presented, most of them being probabilistic (8), (9). They can roughly be subdivided into two classes: single-shot and multiple-shot. Single-shot approaches aim to solve a single planning query as fast as possible. The most popular method is the Rapidly- exploring Random Tree (RRT)-approach (7), where a random tree of possible paths is grown outward from the start until it can be connected to the goal configuration. Multiple-shot approaches do some (relatively expensive) preprocessing on the environment, such that (multiple) individual path planning queries can be answered quickly. They are useful when ex- pectedly many queries will be done in the same environment. The most well-known approach is the Probabilistic Roadmap (PRM)-method (6), (12). In the preprocessing stage, it gen- erates a roadmap that represents the connectivity of the fre e space by connecting randomly sampled configurations with straight-line paths. Individual queries are then answered by connecting the start and goal to the roadmap, and searching for a shortest path (using e.g. Dijkstra's). Both PRM and RRT are proven to be probabilistically complete, and have successfully been used in complex, high-dimensional configuration space s. The extension of the path planning problem to dynamic
Long-Term Effects of Physical Exercise on Verbal Learning and Memory in Middle-Aged Adults: Results of a One-Year Follow-Up Study

A few months of physical exercise have been shown to increase cognition and to modulate brain functions in previously sedentary, mainly older adults. However, whether the preservation of newly gained cognitive capacities requires an active maintenance of the achieved fitness level during the intervention is not yet known. The aim of the present study was to test whether cardiovascular fitness one year after an exercise intervention was linked to cognitive variables. Twenty-five healthy participants (42-57 years of age) took part in a follow-up assessment one year after the end of a supervised exercise intervention. Measurements included a cardiovascular fitness test, psychometric tests of verbal learning and memory and selective attention as well as questionnaires assessing physical activity and self-efficacy beliefs. Recognition scores of participants with higher cardiovascular fitness at follow-up did not change significantly during the follow-up period; however, the scores of participants with lower cardiovascular fitness decreased. One year after the end of the physical training intervention, previously sedentary participants spent more hours exercising than prior to the intervention. The time participants spent exercising correlated with their self-efficacy beliefs. These results demonstrate a direct link between verbal learning and cardiovascular fitness and show that positive effects of physical interventions on learning and memory do need an active maintenance of cardiovascular fitness.
Discriminating clear sky from clouds with MODIS

The MODIS cloud mask uses several cloud detection tests to indicate a level of confidence that the MEDIS is observing clear skies. It will be produced globally at single-pixel resolution; the algorithm uses as many as 14 of the MEDIS 36 spectral bands to maximize reliable cloud detection and to mitigate past difficulties experienced by sensors with coarser spatial resolution or fewer spectral bands. The MEDIS cloud mask is ancillary input to MEDIS land, ocean, and atmosphere science algorithms to suggest processing options. The MEDIS cloud mask algorithm will operate in near real time in a limited computer processing and storage facility with simple easy-to-follow algorithm paths. The MEDIS cloud mask algorithm identifies several conceptual domains according to surface type and solar illumination, including land, water, snow/ice, desert, and coast for both day and night. Once a pixel has been assigned to a particular domain (defining an algorithm path), a series of threshold tests attempts to detect the presence of clouds in the instrument field of view. Each cloud detection test returns a confidence level that the pixel is clear ranging in value from 1 (high) to zero (low). There are several types of tests, where detection of different cloud conditions relies on different tests. Tests capable of detecting similar cloud conditions are grouped together. While these groups are arranged so that independence between them is maximized, few, if any, spectral tests are completely independent. The minimum confidence from all tests within a group is taken to be representative of that group. These confidences indicate absence of particular cloud types. The product of all the group confidences is used to determine the confidence of finding clear-sky conditions. This paper outlines the MEDIS cloud masking algorithm. While no present sensor has all of the spectral bands necessary for testing the complete MEDIS cloud mask, initial validation of some of the individual cloud tests is presented using existing remote sensing data sets.
Distributed Storage and Analysis of Massive Urban Road Traffic Flow Data Based on Hadoop

Because of the traditional methods failing to solve the efficient storage and analyze the problems with rapid growth of the massive traffic flow data, This paper adopts the distributed database HBase of Hadoop to store huge amounts of the urban road traffic flow data. By applying the distributed computing framework of MapReduce, statistical analysis of the traffic flow data is carried out. The experimental results validate the ability of Hadoop cluster, whose efficient storage, computing, scalability can deal with the problem of storing and processing the massive traffic flow data.