Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Revisiting Behavior Amplification of NAND Flash-Based Storage Devices in Embedded Systems

NAND Flash-based devices (e.g., Solid State Disks) emerge as popular storage devices with ultra-fast performance in embedded systems. Previously, write amplification (i.e., page program operation amplification), resulting from restriction operations (i.e., out-of-place update and erase-before-write operations) in NAND Flash, is an essential metric to evaluate excessive page program operations in NAND Flash space and write endurance of NAND Flash. However, overhead caused by read and erase operations is not taken into account by write amplification. This typical overhead gives rise to bad impacts on data reliability in NAND Flash space as long as scaling of NAND flash memory process technology. In this paper, we propose a new evaluation metric called Bamp to explore all behaviors amplification (i.e., read, program, and erase) in NAND Flash-based devices. We obtain the value of Bamp in the term of energy consumption when user data is written to devices. Given a write-dominated workload condition, there are also excessive read and erase operations besides extra program operations in storage devices of embedded systems. Therefore, write amplification cannot comprehensively evaluate amplification behaviors in NAND Flash-based devices based on given amounts of written data in workload. We employ a measurement system to obtain the values of Bamp for NAND Flash-based devices in the term of energy consumption under a workload condition. From experimental results, Bamp can provide comprehensive analysis overhead per user data written in a NAND Flash-based device in comparison to write amplification. In addition, using Bamp, we can apply a right NAND Flash-based device in embedded systems.
An effective Kalman filtering method for enhancing speech in the presence of colored noise

The Kalman filtering algorithm for speech enhancement is easily implemented and is efficient under white noise environments. This paper proposes an effective Kalman filtering algorithm for enhancing speech corrupted by colored noise, based on a whitened matrix. Compared with the conventional Kalman filtering algorithms to handle colored noise, the proposed Kalman filtering algorithm has low computational complexity and overcomes the difficulty of estimating the covariance matrix of colored noise. Simulation results confirm that the proposed Kalman filtering algorithm has better performance than several conventional algorithms in decreasing colored noise and speech distortion.
SNR Performance Comparison of 1 . 4 um Pixel : FSI , Light-guide , and BSI

SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) at low light condition is a key performance of image sensor. To improve SNR performance with high sensitivity and low crosstalk, advanced light-guide and backside illumination (BSI) pixel technologies are developed. Comparing with the conventional frontside illumination (FSI) technology, SNR10 is improved by 16% for light-guide and by 36% for BSI at the 1.4um pixel node.
Isolation and purification of microbial community DNA from soil naturally enriched for chitin

We made an attempt to isolate and purify metagenomic DNA from chitin enriched soil. In this communication we report a modified direct lysis method for soil DNA extraction including initial pre-lysis washing of sample, followed by a rapid polyvinylpyrrolidone-agarose-based purification and electroelution of DNA using Gene-capsule™ assembly. Rapidity was achieved using low molarity conducting media (sodium-borate buffer) for electrophoresis by reducing run time for both the gel electrophoresis and electroelution. Extracted DNA was sufficiently pure and of high quality, evidenced by amplification of 16S rDNA and chitinase genes by PCR. Metagenomic nature of the DNA was confirmed by running V3 (16S rDNA) region amplicons using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. This method requires 30 min for purification, and less than 2 h for complete execution of protocol and becomes the first report on the isolation of metagenomic DNA from soil naturally enriched for chitin.
Time to treatment benefit for adult patients with Fabry disease receiving agalsidase β: data from the Fabry Registry

Background Agalsidase β is a form of enzyme replacement therapy for Fabry disease, a genetic disorder characterised by low α-galactosidase A activity, accumulation of glycosphingolipids and life-threatening cardiovascular, renal and cerebrovascular events. In clinical trials, agalsidase β cleared glycolipid deposits from endothelial cells within 6 months; clearance from other cell types required sustained treatment. We hypothesised that there might be a ‘lag time’ to clinical benefit after initiating agalsidase β treatment, and analysed the incidence of severe clinical events over time in patients receiving agalsidase β. Methods The incidence of severe clinical events (renal failure, cardiac events, stroke, death) was studied in 1044 adult patients (641 men, 403 women) enrolled in the Fabry Registry who received agalsidase β (average dose 1 mg/kg every 2 weeks) for up to 5 years. Results The incidence of all severe clinical events was 111 per 1000 person-years (95% CI 84 to 145) during the first 6 months. After 6 months, the incidence decreased and remained stable within the range of 40–58 events per 1000 patient-years. The largest decrease in incidence rates was among male patients and those aged ≥40 years when agalsidase β was initiated. Conclusions Contrary to the expected increased incidence of severe clinical events with time, adult patients with Fabry disease had decreased incidence of severe clinical events after 6 months treatment with agalsidase β 1 mg/kg every 2 weeks. Trial registration number NCT00196742.
Rooms Take Note: Room Takes Notes!

Students in university lectures try to capture the classroom experience by taking notes. In many classes, this is a tedious process and distracts the student from concentrating on the lecture. In this paper, we present a classroom that takes media-enhanced notes on behalf of the students thereby allowing them to give more attention to understanding the material rather than trying to record it. We describe the requirements of a note-taking classroom and discuss how we met them using simple techniques and small amounts of human intervention.
CAPTURE BY LEAST SQUARES MATCHING TRACKING ALGORITHM

In this paper we present a method to extract 3-D information of the shape and movement of the human body using video sequences acquired with three CCD cameras. This work is part of a project aimed at developing a highly automated system to model most realistically human bodies from video sequences. Our image acquisition system is currently composed of three synchronized CCD cameras and a frame grabber which acquires a sequence of triplet images. From the video sequences, we extract two kinds of 3-D information: a three dimensional surface measurement of the visible body parts for each triplet and 3-D trajectories of points on the body. Our approach to surface measurement is based on multi-image matching, using the adaptive least squares method. A semi automated matching process determines a dense set of corresponding points in the triplets, starting from few manually selected seed points. The tracking process is also based on least squares matching techniques, thus the name LSMTA (Least Squares Matching Tracking Algorithm). The spatial correspondences between the three images of the different views and the temporal correspondences between subsequent frames are determined with a least squares matching algorithm. The advantage of this tracking process is twofold: firstly, it can track natural points, without using markers; secondly, it can also track entire surface parts on the human body. In the last case, the tracking process is applied to all the points matched in the region of interest. The result can be seen as a vector field of trajectories (position, velocity and acceleration) which can be checked with thresholds and neighborhood-based filters. Key points on the body can be defined in the vector field of trajectories and tracked through the sequence leading to a result comparable to the conventional motion capture systems.
Cooperative communication in spatially modulated MIMO systems

This paper analyzes the performance of a selective Decode-and-Forward (DF) protocol based cooperative space-time block coded spatial modulation (STBC-SM) MIMO system. Further, the analysis is presented for a Kronecker MIMO channel model considering spatial correlated channel conditions. The results are also derived for the diversity order of the system based on a high signal to noise ratio (SNR) characterization of the performance followed by the optimal power allocation between the source and relay. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves a lower pair-wise error probability (PEP) in comparison to other schemes such as the conventional cooperative Alamouti-STBC and non-cooperative transmission.
Backward Jeu de Taquin Slides for Composition Tableaux and a Noncommutative Pieri Rule

We give a backward jeu de taquin slide analogue on semistandard reverse composition tableaux. These tableaux were first studied by Haglund , Luoto , Mason and van Willigenburg when defining quasisymmetric Schur functions. Our algorithm for performing backward jeu de taquin slides on semistandard reverse composition tableaux results in a natural operator on compositions that we call the jdt operator. This operator in turn gives rise to a new poset structure on compositions whose maximal chains we enumerate. As an application, we also give a noncommutative Pieri rule for noncommutative Schur functions that uses the jdt operators.
Modeling water emission from low-mass protostellar envelopes

Context. Within low-mass star formation, water vapor plays a key role in the chemistry and energy balance of the circumstellar material. The Herschel Space Observatory will open up the possibility to observe water lines originating from a wide range of excitation energies. Aims. Our aim is to simulate the emission of rotational water lines from envelopes characteristic of embedded low-mass protostars. A large number of parameters that influence the water line emission are explored: luminosity, density, density slope, and water abundances. Methods. Both dust and water emission are modeled using full radiative transfer in spherical symmetry. The temperature profile is calculated for a given density profile. The H2O level populations and emission profiles are in turn computed with a non-LTE line code. The results are analyzed to determine the diagnostic value of different lines, and are compared with existing observations. Results. Lines can be categorized in: (i) optically thick lines, including ground-state lines, mostly sensitive to the cold outer part; (ii) highly excited (Eu > 200–250 K) optically thin lines sensitive to the abundance in the hot inner part; and (iii) lines which vary from optically thick to thin depending on the abundances. Dust influences the emission of water significantly by becoming optically thick at the higher frequencies, and by pumping optically thin lines. Conclusions. A good physical model of a source, including the correct treatment of dust, is a prerequisite for inferring the water abundance structure and possible jumps at the evaporation temperature from observations. The inner warm (T > 100 K) envelope can be probed by highly excited lines, while a combination of excited and spectrally resolved ground state lines probes the outer envelope. Observations of H 18 O lines, although weak, provide even stronger constraints on abundances.
Equalizing Energy Distribution in Sensor Nodes through Optimization of RPL

We present a nodes' remaining energy-aware objective function in order to equalize the energy distribution among the nodes with the ultimate goal of extending the lifetime of the network. Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) is the routing standard for the Internet of Things. It chooses the optimal routes from a source to a destination node based on specific metrics. Since the nodes in such networks have limited energy resource, the dying of a node may result in the loss of part of the network or the entire network depending on the topology. The designed objective function uses both expected transmission count (ETX) and remaining energy of parent nodes to determine the preferred parent. Simulations are carried out using Contiki OS and its Cooja emulator. The simulation results reveal that the proposed objective function increases the lifetime of the first node to die in the network compared to Minimum Rank with Hysteresis Objective Function (MRHOF). It is also observed that the nodes' energy depletion rate in the network, which uses the proposed nodes' energy-aware objective function, is closer to each other than the one using MRHOF.
Observational Constraints on Cool Disk Material in Quiescent Black Hole Binaries

We consider current observational constraints on the presence of cool, optically thick disk material in quiescent black hole binaries, specifically focusing on a case study of the prototypical system A0620-00. Such material might be expected to be present theoretically but is usually claimed to make a negligible contribution at optical and IR wavelengths. The primary argument is based on measurements of the veiling of stellar photospheric absorption lines, in which it is assumed that the disk spectrum is featureless. We use simulated spectra to explore the sensitivity of veiling measurements to uncertainties in companion temperature, gravity, and metallicity. We find that the derived veiling is extremely sensitive to a mismatch between the temperature and metallicity of the companion and template but that the effect of a plausible gravity mismatch is much smaller. In general, the resulting uncertainty in the amount of veiling is likely to be much larger than the usually quoted statistical uncertainty. We also simulate spectra in which the disk has an emergent spectrum similar to the star and find that in this case, optical veiling constraints are moderately robust. This is because the rotational broadening of the disk is so large that the two line profiles effectively decouple, and the measurement of the depth of stellar lines is largely unbiased by the disk component. We note, however, that this is only true at intermediate resolutions or higher and that significant bias might still affect low-resolution IR observations. Assuming that the optical veiling is reliable, we then examine the constraints on the temperature and covering factor of any optically thick disk component. These are stringent if the disk is warm (Teff ≳ 3500 K), but very temperature sensitive, and cooler disks are largely unconstrained by optical measurements. Current IR veiling estimates do not help much, representing rather high upper limits. Probably the best constraint comes from the relative amplitudes of ellipsoidal variations in different bands, as these are sensitive to differences in veiling that are expected for disks cooler than the companion star. A significant disk contribution in the IR, up to ~25%, is not ruled out in this or any other way considered, however.
Back to the Future ? The Case for English-Swedish Direct Machine Translation

Direct MT systems, unless of the statistical kind, are nowadays considered out of vogue. Yet, for a given language pair and text type what kind of system is required is largely an empirical and a practical question. In this paper we argue that in many cases of interest to MT, the structural shifts in going from English to Swedish are sufficiently restricted in numbers and kinds to allow for wordbased transfer followed by rules of reordering. We further present an implemented direct system, and an evaluation of it on a restricted domain. Finally, we discuss some of its shortcomings and ways to alleviate them.
Locality Between-Locality Embedding Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

In this paper, we propose a Locality Between-locality Embedding Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (LBENMF) in order to investigate the underlying subspace structure of a data set. The idea is to extend the NMF algorithm by incorporating the local structure, the between-locality information constraints into the original NMF decomposition. Therefore the latent semantic space with locality, between-locality information preserving properties are obtained from the given data set by using LBENMF. Our experimental results show that the effectiveness of the proposed LBENMF method.
Performances of Xen’s secured virtual networks

Nowadays server consolidation is a common practice, especially by means of virtualization. Typically the machine hosting the virtual network is not fully utilized; therefore it is interesting to use free computational resources to implement security solutions and to evaluate their costs. This paper shows and experimentally proves a basic model to foresee the resulting loss of performance, raised by the introduction of one or more firewalls and of the required additional virtual links when using Xen hypervisor for consolidation. Experiments prove the mathematical model presented but leave room for further analysis and enhancements of the model.
A Broad Symmetry Criterion for Nonparametric Validity of Parametrically Based Tests in Randomized Trials

Summary Pilot phases of a randomized clinical trial often suggest that a parametric model may be an accurate description of the trial’s longitudinal trajectories. However, parametric models are often not used for fear that they may invalidate tests of null hypotheses of equality between the experimental groups. Existing work has shown that when, for some types of data, certain parametric models are used, the validity for testing the null is preserved even if the parametric models are incorrect. Here, we provide a broader and easier to check characterization of parametric models that can be used to (i) preserve nonparametric validity of testing the null hypothesis, i.e., even when the models are incorrect, and (ii) increase power compared to the non‐ or semiparametric bounds when the models are close to correct. We demonstrate our results in a clinical trial of depression in Alzheimer’s patients.
WEE1 Kinase Inhibition Enhances the Radiation Response of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a fatal pediatric disease. Thus far, no therapeutic agent has proven beneficial in the treatment of this malignancy. Therefore, conventional DNA-damaging radiotherapy remains the standard treatment, providing transient neurologic improvement without improving the probability of overall survival. During radiotherapy, WEE1 kinase controls the G2 cell-cycle checkpoint, allowing for repair of irradiation (IR)-induced DNA damage. Here, we show that WEE1 kinase is one of the highest overexpressed kinases in primary DIPG tissues compared with matching non-neoplastic brain tissues. Inhibition of WEE1 by MK-1775 treatment of DIPG cells inhibited the IR-induced WEE1-mediated phosphorylation of CDC2, resulting in reduced G2–M arrest and decreased cell viability. Finally, we show that MK-1775 enhances the radiation response of E98-Fluc-mCherry DIPG mouse xenografts. Altogether, these results show that inhibition of WEE1 kinase in conjunction with radiotherapy holds potential as a therapeutic approach for the treatment of DIPG. Mol Cancer Ther; 12(2); 141–50. ©2012 AACR.
Modeling memory system performance of NUMA multicore-multiprocessors

The performance of many applications depends closely on the way they interact with the computer’s memory system: Many applications obtain good performance only if they utilize the memory system efficiently. Unfortunately, obtaining good memory system performance is often difficult, as developing memory system-aware (system) software requires a thorough and detailed understanding of both the characteristics of the memory system and of the interaction of applications with the memory system. Moreover, the design of memory systems evolves as newer processor generations appear on the market, thus the problem of software–hardware interaction must be revisited to understand the interaction of (already existing) software with newer memory system designs as well. This thesis investigates the memory system performance of a recent class of machines, multicore-multiprocessors with a non-uniform memory architecture (NUMA). A NUMA multicore-multiprocessor system consists of several processors where each processor integrates multiple cores. Typically, cores of a multicore processor share resources (e.g., last-level caches) and contention for these shared resources can result in significant performance degradations. NUMA multicore-multiprocessors are shared-memory computers, but the memory space of a NUMA multicore-multiprocessor system is partitioned between processors. Accessing the memory of a local processor takes less time than accessing the memory of other (remote) processors, therefore data locality (a low number of remote memory accesses) is critical for good performance on NUMA machines. This thesis presents a performance-oriented model for NUMA multicore-multiprocessors. The model considers two application classes, multiprogrammed workloads (workloads that consist of multiple, independent processes) and multithreaded programs (programs that consist of a number of threads that operate in a shared address space). The thesis presents an experimental analysis of memory system bottlenecks experienced by each application class. Moreover, the thesis presents techniques to reduce the performance-degrading effects of these bottlenecks. We determine (based on experimental analysis) that the performance of multiprogrammed workloads depends on both multicore-specific and NUMA-specific aspects of a NUMA multicore-multiprocessor’s memory system. Therefore, a process scheduler must find a balance between reducing cache contention and improving data locality; the N-MASS scheduler presented by the thesis attempts to strike a balance between these, sometimes contradicting, goals. N-MASS improves performance up to 32% over the default setup in current Linux implementations on a recent 2-processor 8-core machine. Based also on experimental analysis we find that data locality is of prime importance for the performance of multithreaded programs. The thesis presents extensions to two popular parallel programming frameworks, OpenMP and Intel’s Threading Building Blocks. The extensions
Programming Flows in Dense Mobile Environments: A Multi-user Diversity Perspective

The emergence of OpenFlow and Software Defined Networks brings new perspectives into how we design the next generation networks, where the number of base stations/access points as well as the devices per subscriber will be dramatically higher. In such dense environments, devices can communicate with each other directly and can attach to multiple base stations (or access points) for simultaneous data communication over multiple paths. This paper explores how networks can maximally enable this multi-path diversity through network programmability. In particular, we propose programmable flow clustering and set policies for inter-group as well as intra-group wireless scheduling. Further, we propose programmable demultiplexing of a single network flow onto multiple paths before the congestion areas and multiplexing them together post congestion areas. We show the benefits of such programmability first for legacy applications that cannot take advantage of multi-homing without such programmability. We then evaluate the benefits for smart applications that take advantage of multi-homing by either opening multiple TCP connections over multiple paths or utilizing a transport protocol such as MP-TCP designed for supporting such environments. More specifically, we built an emulation environment over Mininet for our experiments. Our evaluations using synthetic and trace driven channel models indicate that the proposed programmability in wireless scheduling and flow splitting can increase the throughput substantially for both the legacy applications and the current state of the art.