Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental demonstration that offspring sex ratio varies with maternal condition.

Sex ratio theory predicts that, if prevailing ecological or social circumstances differentially influence the fitness benefits of offspring of each sex, parents should adjust their production accordingly to maximize fitness. For species in which sex is chromosomally determined, such as birds and mammals, a differential effect of maternal condition on the fitness of male and female young is one important route whereby selection is expected to favor a bias in the offspring sex ratio at birth or egg laying. However, despite its central place in sex allocation theory, this hypothesis has rarely been tested in wild populations. We manipulated maternal condition upward and downward in a sexually dimorphic wild bird and examined the effect on offspring survival and on offspring sex ratio. The survival to fledging of male, but not female, young was substantially reduced if they came from less well provisioned eggs produced by females in relatively poor condition. As female condition, and thereby her capacity to produce high quality eggs, declined, she progressively skewed the sex ratio of her eggs toward females; i.e., she produced more of the sex with the higher survival prospects. The decline in the survival of male offspring, and the sex ratio bias, was removed when maternal condition was enhanced. These results provide experimental evidence of an adaptive, facultative adjustment of sex ratio in response to changes in maternal condition in wild birds.
Recognizing emotions from speech

Automatic Emotion Recognition (AER) from speech is one of the most important sub domains in affective computing. Recent technological advances have enabled human users to interact with computers in ways previously unimaginable. Beyond the confines of the keyboard and mouse, new modalities for human-computer interaction such as voice, gesture, and force-feedback are emerging. This paper explores the Linear Prediction Coefficients (LPC) of speech signal for characterizing the basic emotions from speech. The emotions used in this study are sad, anger, happy, disgust, fear, and boredom. For capturing the emotion specific information from these higher order relations, neural network (NN) is used. The decrease in the error during training phase of the NN's and the emotion recognition performance of the models, demonstrate that the excitation source component of speech contains emotion-specific information and is indeed being captured by the NN.
Rate optimization for incremental redundancy and repetition coding in relay networks

The deployment of relay nodes is a viable solution to fulfil the demands of high throughput and ubiquitous access for future mobile radio communications. A relay can cooperate by transmitting either a repetition of the previously transmitted signal (repetition coding) or by sending new code bits which have not been transmitted before (incremental redundancy). In this paper, a general optimization method for the achievable code rates in an adaptive relay network with repetition coding and incremental redundancy is presented.
Exploiting potentially dead blocks for improving data cache reliability against soft errors

Soft errors due to energetic particle strikes are a big concern for systems to run in a reliable manner. This reliability concern have been more serious with technology scaling and aggressive leakage control mechanisms. Since cache memories consume the largest fraction of on-chip real estate, they are more vulnerable to soft errors, as compared to many other system components. This paper proposes a solution to the problem of designing a reliable data cache without trading reliability for performance and area, which is a typical characteristic of conventional parity and ECC based protection techniques. Although parity is simple and fast, it can detect only odd numbered errors without correcting any of them. On the other hand, ECC techniques are more complex and time-consuming, and have the capability of correcting some of the errors. Our technique enhances data cache reliability by storing the replica(s) of data items in active use into cache lines which hold data not likely to be reused. The bookkeeping information about replicas is maintained in a small fully associative cache called shadow cache. By exploiting the replicas to correct the soft errors enhances the data reliability. Since we keep the replicas in potentially dead blocks, the performance loss is negligible with a little extra chip area requirement for the shadow cache. Our experimental results indicate that our technique, compared to the previous similar two techniques, is more effective for enhancing the L1 data cache reliability in modern Superscalar machines with only negligible degradation in performance.
GLARE: Global and local wiring aware routability evaluation

Industry routers are very complex and time consuming, and are becoming more so with the explosion in design rules and design for manufacturability requirements that multiply with each technology node. Global routing is just the first phase of a router and serves the dual purpose of (i) seeding the following phases of a router and (ii) evaluating whether the current design point is routable. Lately, it has become common to use a “light mode” version of the global router, similar to today's academic routers, to quickly evaluate the routability of a given placement. This use model suffers from two primary weaknesses: (i) it does not adequately model the local routing resources, while the model is important to remove opens and shorts and eliminate DRC violations, (ii) the metrics used to represent congestion are non-intuitive and often fail to pinpoint the key issues that need to be addressed. This paper presents solutions to both issues, and empirically demonstrates that incorporating the proposed solutions within a global routing based congestion analyzer yields a more accurate view of design routability.
Circulating Vitamin D Metabolites and Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE People with type 1 diabetes are at high risk of premature atherosclerosis. Existing evidence suggests that impaired vitamin D metabolism may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis. We tested associations of circulating vitamin D metabolite concentrations with subclinical atherosclerosis among 1,193 participants with type 1 diabetes in the DCCT/EDIC study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We measured plasma concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, and 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D by mass spectrometry at the end of the DCCT. In a staggered cross-sectional design, we tested associations with coronary artery calcium (CAC), measured by computed tomography a median of 10 years later, and with common and internal carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), measured by B-mode ultrasonography on two occasions a median of 4 years later and a median of 10 years later. We hypothesized that lower concentrations of each vitamin D metabolite would be associated with increased risk of CAC and greater carotid IMT. RESULTS At the time metabolites were measured, mean age was 32.4 years and mean duration of diabetes was 7.5 years. The prevalence and severity of CAC tended to be lower—not higher—with lower concentrations of each vitamin D metabolite. For instance, in a fully adjusted multinomial logistic model, a 25 nmol/L lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D was associated with a 0.8-fold decrease in the odds of having higher CAC (95% CI 0.68–0.96, P = 0.01). No vitamin D metabolite was associated with either common or internal mean IMT. CONCLUSIONS We did not find evidence linking impaired vitamin D metabolism with increased subclinical atherosclerosis in type 1 diabetes.
An efficient algorithm for exploiting multiple arithmetic units

This paper describes the methods employed in the floating-point area of the System/360 Model 91 to exploit the existence of multiple execution units. Basic to these techniques is a simple common data busing and register tagging scheme which permits simultaneous execution of independent instructions while preserving the essential precedences inherent in the instruction stream. The common data bus improves performance by efficiently utilizing the execution units without requiring specially optimized code. Instead, the hardware, by 'looking ahead' about eight instructions, automatically optimizes the program execution on a local basis. The application of these techniques is not limited to floating-point arithmetic or System/360 architecture. It may be used in almost any computer having multiple execution units and one or more 'accumulators. ' Both of the execution units, as well as the associated storage buffers, multiple accumulators and input/output buses, are extensively checked.
An Experimental Test of Criminal Behavior Among Juveniles and Young Adults

We report results from economic experiments that provide a direct test of the hypothesis that criminal behavior responds rationally to changes in the possible rewards and in the probability and severity of punishment. The experiments involve decisions that are best described as petty larceny, and are done using high school and college students who can anonymously take real money from each other. We find that decisions about whether and how much to steal are, in general, rational and responsive to the variations in tradeoffs, and sometimes, though not always, to the overall availability of criminal opportunities.
SOHO Network Performance Optimization via Local Caching with the Presence of a Main Bottleneck, the Accessing WAN Link

in this research, we propose a cost effective way to improve SOHO network performance by deploying web caching through virtual server, extensive experiments have been designed and conducted on real networks to measure the performance improvement, followed by quantitative analysis. We have found that certain applications are rendered useless due to large delay and low bandwidth environments. However, with simple Caching in place any user on the LAN can in effect make the internet feel more responsive for all other users with a reduced latency and increased available bandwidth, potentially saving time and money in the process. These benefits come more so from the offering of lower latencies rather than higher available bandwidth to the SOHO network. We also found that network environments need to be configured carefully, in order to better support certain services such as streaming video or live content like VOIP and online gaming.
The Ariadne's Clew Algorithm

We present a new approach to path planning, called the "Ariadne's clew algorithm". It is designed to find paths in high-dimensional continuous spaces and applies to robots with many degrees of freedom in static, as well as dynamic environments -- ones where obstacles may move. The Ariadne's clew algorithm comprises two sub-algorithms, called SEARCH and EXPLORE, applied in an interleaved manner. EXPLORE builds a representation of the accessible space while SEARCH looks for the target. Both are posed as optimization problems. We describe a real implementation of the algorithm to plan paths for a six degrees of freedom arm in a dynamic environment where another six degrees of freedom arm is used as a moving obstacle. Experimental results show that a path is found in about one second without any pre-processing.
Forward Error Protection for low-delay packet video

We study different forward error correction (FEC) codes for packet video streaming over erasure channels with strict delay constraints. Our study includes traditional maximum distance separable (MDS) codes and streaming burst erasure codes with optimal delay performance. We develop a continuous-times model to calculate burst error correction capabilities of these codes with a delay constraint. Our analysis also incorporates Systematic Lossy Error Protection (SLEP) that achieves stronger error protection in exchange for a slight drop in video quality when error correction is needed. We provide simulation results for transmitting H.264/AVC encoded video over a bursty packet erasure channel and show that the combination of streaming erasure codes and SLEP greatly outperforms conventional MDS FEC for video streaming with a tight delay constraint.
Interference management under multi-channel for device-to-device underlaying cellular networks

In this paper, we study the interference management problem for device to device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular networks. To improve the throughput of the D2D communication, the D2D pair can reuse multi-channel of cellular communication. We propose the game theoretic framework to jointly optimize the throughput of the D2D communication as well as guarantee the interference to the cellular communication. The simulation results verify the stability of the proposed method.
A 600-Mb/s encoder and decoder for low-density parity-check convolutional codes

A 600-Mb/s rate-1/2 (128,3,6) LDPC convolutional code encoder and decoder was implemented in a 90-nm CMOS process. The encoder operates at 1.1 GHz and includes built-in all-phase termination. The decoder design maximizes throughput while minimizing the number of memory banks and delivering an information throughput of 1 bit per clock cycle. The size of the decoder controller is minimized by sharing it among an arbitrary number of decoder processors. The decoder dissipates 0.61 nJ of energy per decoded information bit at an SNR of 2.0 and a throughput of 600 Mb/s. An integrated test system enables accurate power measurements for various SNR settings.
FAST: a low-complexity algorithm for efficient scheduling of DAGs on parallel processors

The DAG scheduling problem is a rich land of research and a plethora of algorithms for solving this problem have been reported in the literature. However, designing a scheduling algorithm of low complexity without sacrificing performance remains a challenging obstacle from a practical perspective. In this paper, we present a local search-based scheduling algorithm that attempts to meet this challenge. The proposed algorithm is called Fast Assignment using Search Technique (FAST). Its overall time complexity is only O(e) where e is the number of edges in the DAG. The algorithm works by first generating an initial solution and then refining it using local neighborhood search. The algorithm outperforms numerous previous algorithms while taking dramatically smaller execution times. The distinctive feature of our research is that the performance evaluation is not carried out using simulation, rather we have tested our proposed algorithm and compared it with other algorithms using a parallel compiler with real applications on the Intel Paragon.
The effect of social capital on exploration and exploitation : Modelling the moderating effect of environmental dynamism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to enter the debate on the antecedents of knowledge exploration and exploitation by investigating the role of social capital and environmental dynamisms. The contribution is grounded on existing insights that no empirical evidence exists on the link between social capital and exploration/exploitation behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – The model considers three social capital dimensions – structural, relational and cognitive. It also considers the moderation effect of environmental dynamism on the link between social capital and knowledge exploration and exploitation. Head physicians from Italian hospitals were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. The data set consists of 174 observations, analyzed using seemingly unrelated regression techniques. Findings – This research provides evidence of the positive effect of structural, relational and cognitive social capital on knowledge exploration and exploitation – thus adding to a literature which has thus far c.
US-LARP Progress on LHC IR Upgrades

We review the progress on LHC IR upgrades made by the US-LARP collaboration since the last CARE meeting in November 2004. We introduce a new optics design with doublet focusing, and discuss energy deposition calculations with an open mid-plane dipole. We present the results of a beam-beam experiment at RHIC. This experiment was the first phase of a planned test of the wire compensation principle at RHIC.
Parametric frequency radiation from a Nonlinear CRLH Transmission Line

In this paper we demonstrate parametric frequency leaky wave behaviour of a varactor-loaded Composite Right Left Hand Transmission Line (CRLH TL), subject to large signal excitation. Unlike the case of a linear CRLH TL where radiation occurs at the excitation frequency, we observe radiation at the self-generated parametric frequencies of the nonlinear structure. Good agreement between the frequency-dependent predicted and measured scan angles is observed for left-handed region propagation, and evidence of reversal of the propagation direction for right-handed region propagation is suggested.
Quality-aware collaborative question answering: methods and evaluation

Community Question Answering (QA) portals contain questions and answers contributed by hundreds of millions of users. These databases of questions and answers are of great value if they can be used directly to answer questions from any user. In this research, we address this collaborative QA task by drawing knowledge from the crowds in community QA portals such as Yahoo! Answers. Despite their popularity, it is well known that answers in community QA portals have unequal quality. We therefore propose a quality-aware framework to design methods that select answers from a community QA portal considering answer quality in addition to answer relevance. Besides using answer features for determining answer quality, we introduce several other quality-aware QA methods using answer quality derived from the expertise of answerers. Such expertise can be question independent or question dependent. We evaluate our proposed methods using a database of 95K questions and 537K answers obtained from Yahoo! Answers. Our experiments have shown that answer quality can improve QA performance significantly. Furthermore, question dependent expertise based methods are shown to outperform methods using answer features only. It is also found that there are also good answers not among the best answers identified by Yahoo! Answers users.
Tensile Lattice Strain Accelerates Oxygen Surface Exchange and Di ff usion in La 1 x Sr x CoO 3 δ Thin Films

Markus Kubicek,* Zhuhua Cai, Wen Ma, Bilge Yildiz, Herbert Hutter, and Jürgen Fleig Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9, A-1060 Vienna, Austria, and Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
Shortest Weighted Paths

It is often necessary to associate weights or other values with the edges of a graph. Such a “weighted” or “edge-labeled” graph can be defined as a triple G = (E, V, w) where w : E → eVal is a function mapping edges or directed edges to their values, and eVal is the set (type) of possible values. For a weighted graph eVal would typically be the real numbers, but for edge-labeled graphs they could be any type. There are a few ways to represent a weighted or edge-labeled graph. The first representation translates directly from representing the function w. In particular we can use a table that maps each edge (a pair of vertex identifiers) to its value. This would have type eVal edgeTable That is, the keys of the table are edges and the values are of type eVal. For example, for a weighted graph we might have: W = {(0,1) 7→ 0.7, (1,2) 7→ −2.0, (0,2) 7→ 1.5} This representation would allow us to look up the weight of an edge e using: w(e) = find W e. Another way to associate values with edges is to use a structure similar to the adjacency set representation for unweighted graphs and associate a value with each out edge of a vertex. In particular, instead of associating with each vertex a set of out-neighbors, we can associate each vertex with a table that maps each out-neighbor to its value. It would have type: (eVal vertexTable) vertexTable . The graph above would then be represented as: G = {0 7→ {1 7→ 0.7, 2 7→ 1.5} , 1 7→ {2 7→ −2.0} , 2 7→ {}} . We will mostly be using this second representation. †Lecture notes by Guy E Blelloch, Margaret Reid-Miller, and Kanat Tangwongsan.
Greater Calcium Intake is Associated with Better Bone Health Measured by Quantitative Ultrasound of the Phalanges in Pediatric Patients Treated with Anticonvulsant Drugs

We aimed to investigate and compare the effects of chronic antiepileptic therapy on bone health in pediatric patients using quantitative ultrasound of the phalanges (QUS) and controlling for potential confounding factors, particularly nutrient intake. The amplitude-dependent speed of sound (Ad-SoS) was measured in 33 epileptic children and 32 healthy children aged 6.5 ± 3.1 and 6.3 ± 1.1 (mean ± SD) years, respectively. There were no significant differences in the demographics such as age, weight and height between epileptic children and the control group children. None of the children in the epileptic or the treatment group were found to have a vitamin D deficiency. There were no significant differences in laboratory tests between groups. Lower QUS figures were found in the epileptic children (p = 0.001). After further adjustment for potential confounders such age, height, weight, calcium intake, vitamin D intake, physical activity and sex, the differences remained significant (p < 0.001). After further classification of the participants based on the tertile of calcium intake, no significant differences were found between patients and healthy controls in the greatest tertile of calcium intake (p = 0.217). We conclude that anticonvulsant therapy using valproate may lead to low bone mass in children and that an adequate intake of calcium might counteract such deleterious effects.
Glycemic Control in Diabetic Patients With Impaired Endogenous Insulin Secretory Capacity Is Vulnerable After a Natural Disaster: Study of Great East Japan Earthquake

In March 2011, the Tohoku district of Japan experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake. When treating numerous diabetic outpatients affected by this earthquake, we noticed that postdisaster glycemic control alterations varied among patients. Therefore, we speculated that predicting which diabetic patients have glycemic control that is vulnerable to an extreme situation such as a huge natural disaster is important for allocating limited medical resources effectively in times of great need. Furthermore, predicting who these patients are may enable us to provide them with guidance for postdisaster management in advance, thereby minimizing exacerbation of the diabetic condition. However, at present, there are no available markers predicting postdisaster diabetic vulnerability. Therefore, to identify potentially useful markers, we collected data on several metabolic parameters from 497 diabetic patients who had been followed up at hospitals located in the devastated areas prospectively at 1 and 3 months after the earthquake, and retrospectively using medical records from pre-earthquake time points. First, we divided the 497 diabetic outpatients into two groups (i.e., the …
TopicThunder at SemEval-2017 Task 4: Sentiment Classification Using a Convolutional Neural Network with Distant Supervision

In this paper, we propose a classifier for predicting topic-specific sentiments of English Twitter messages. Our method is based on a 2-layer CNN.With a distant supervised phase we leverage a large amount of weakly-labelled training data. Our system was evaluated on the data provided by the SemEval-2017 competition in the Topic-Based Message Polarity Classification subtask, where it ranked 4th place.