Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Grammatical evolution of a robot controller

An autonomous mobile robot requires an onboard controller that allows it to perform its tasks for long periods in isolation. One possibility is for the robot to adapt to its environment using some form of artificial intelligence. Evolutionary techniques such as genetic programming (GP) offer the possibility of automatically programming the controller based on the robot's experience of the world. Grammatical evolution (GE) is a recent evolutionary algorithm that has been successfully applied to various problems, particularly those for which GP has been successful. We present a method for applying GE to autonomous robot control and evaluate it in simulation for the Khepera robot.
Unpacking the Motivational Process of Ethical Leadership: A Self-concept Perspective

Drawing on the group value model,we proposed a self-concept based model linking ethical leadership to positive employee outcomes by highlighting both interactional justice and organization-based self-esteem(OBSE)as two sequential mediators.A survey data collected from 206 Chinese employees were used to justify the hypotheses developed.The results indicated that there is significant indirect effect from ethical leadership to OBSE by the conduction of interactional justice.Further,the relationships between ethical leadership and employee work outcomes(task performance,job satisfaction and conscientiousness)were sequentially mediated by interactional justice and OBSE.Theoretical and practical implications were discussed at the end.
Dynamic adaptive scheduling for virtual machines

With multi-core processors becoming popular, exploiting their computational potential becomes an urgent matter. The functionality of multiple standalone computer systems can be aggregated into a single hardware computer by virtualization, giving efficient usage of the hardware and decreased cost for power. Some principles of operating systems can be applied directly to virtual machine systems, however virtualization disrupts the basis of spinlock synchronization in the guest operating system, which results in performance degradation of concurrent workloads such as parallel programs or multi-threaded programs in virtual machines. Eliminating this negative influence of virtualization on synchronization seems to be a non-trivial challenge, especially for concurrent workloads. In this work, we first demonstrate with parallel benchmarks that virtualization can cause long waiting times for spinlock synchronization in the guest operating system, resulting in performance degradation of parallel programs in the virtualized system. Then we propose an adaptive dynamic coscheduling approach to mitigate the performance degradation of concurrent workloads running in virtual machines, while keeping the performance of non-concurrent workloads. For this purpose, we build an adaptive scheduling framework with a series of algorithms to dynamically detect the occurrence of spinlocks with long waiting times, and determine and execute coscheduling of virtual CPUs on physical CPUs in the virtual machine monitor. We have implemented a prototype (ASMan) based on Xen and Linux. Experiments show that ASMan achieves better performance for concurrent workloads, while maintaining the performance for non-concurrent workloads. ASMan coscheduling depends directly on the dynamic behavior of virtual CPUs, unlike other approaches which depend on static properties of workloads and manual setting of rules. Therefore, ASMan achieves a better trade-off between coscheduling and non-coscheduling in the virtual machine monitor, and is an effective solution to this open issue.
A " B-i " C T C   U 1 the Ideal Computation Theory Course 1.1 Course Goals

A “big-ideas” approach to an undergraduate Computation The ory course is described. The aim of this approach to the Theory is to focu s the student on those of the Theory’s concepts and tools that are more like ly to be relevant to a student’s non-theoretical endeavors. By explaini ng why these are the “big” concepts, the course also prepares the student to a ssimilate these concepts into his /her conceptual toolkit. 1 The Ideal Computation Theory Course
A compilation technique to increase X3D performance and safety

As virtual worlds grow more and more complex, virtual reality browsers and engines face growing challenges. These challenges are centered on performance on one hand (an interactive framerate is always required) and complexity on the other hand (the larger and more articulated a virtual world, the more immersive the experience). The usual implementation of an engine or browser for running virtual worlds features an object-oriented architecture of classes. This architecture is a source of often underestimated overhead in terms of dynamic dispatching, and dynamic lookups by scripts when they try to access portions of the scene are both costly and possible sources of mistakes. In this paper we discuss how we have tackled the problem of increasing performance in X3D browsers while also making scripts safe. We have used a compilation technique that removes some overhead and which allows us to introduce safety for scripts that access the state
Teaching reform and assessment system reconstruction of engineering professional courses based on CMPEMFM: a case of SCM course

In order to improve college students' engineering application skills and innovation ability in SCM control, a positive teaching method and assessment system is proposed base on the case method and project evaluation method feedback model (CMPEMFM) to reconstruct the SCM course teaching and assessment system. Under the teaching reform and application of mechanical and electronic engineering major, the results show that the learning interest, application, cooperation and innovation abilities are improved. Admittedly, there are some challenges, but the positive effects overweigh the negative effects. It can be extended to other practical and professional courses teaching.
Forodesine in the treatment of relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma: an evidence-based review

T-cell lymphoma is a rare hematologic malignancy with an incidence rate between 10% and 20% of that of non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) generally have a poor prognosis when treated with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone (CHOP)/CHOP-like chemotherapy; once relapse occurs, it is mostly regarded as an incurable disease. To overcome the chemorefractoriness of PTCL, several novel agents have been developed. Since the first approval of pralatrexate, a dihydrofolate reductase inhibitor, for relapsed/refractory PTCL by the US Food and Drug Administration, several new agents, such as romidepsin (histone deacetylase inhibitor), brentuximab vedotin (antibody–drug conjugate targeting CD30), chidamide (histone deacetylase inhibitor), and mogamulizumab (anti-CC chemokine receptor 4 monoclonal antibody), have been approved as a therapeutic option for relapsed/refractory PTCL in several countries, including the US, Europe, China, and Japan. Forodesine is a novel, potent purine nucleoside phosphorylase inhibitor that is effective against T-cell malignancies. Although the clinical development of forodesine was discontinued in the US and Europe, a multicenter Phase I/II study of oral forodesine for relapsed PTCL was recently completed in Japan. The overall response rate was 24% (10 of 41 patients), which included four patients with complete response. In general, the toxicity of forodesine is manageable. As the study met the primary end point, forodesine was approved for the treatment of relapsed/refractory PTCL in Japan in March 2017, which was the first approval of forodesine in the world. As forodesine is an oral formulation, it is more convenient than other novel intravenous agents approved for PTCL. However, it is necessary to appropriately manage opportunistic infections and secondary lymphomas possibly associated with long-lasting lymphocytopenia caused by forodesine. In this manuscript, we have summarized the currently available evidence for forodesine and discussed the clinical implications for PTCL treatment.
A Tree-Based Web Service Indication Scheme for Service Tracking in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Due to the progress of modern automobiles, using vehicles as sensors to gather information is no longer an unreachable idea. Although the cost of providing services on a specific node is extremely high in Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANets), to locate a particular node and provide services in Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANets) is much easier than in MANets because vehicles are always limited on roads. Particularly, public transportation systems are very suitable for providing Web services. In our approach, we purpose a geo-aware tree-based service tracking scheme to locate the specific service in the particular area. The virtual backbone is predefined according to the main roads in the city. It consists of geo-grids and is further organized to a tree structure. The tree structure, which is the higher layer of the virtual backbone, can be used to facilitate service location tracking since any grid inside the tree has only one route to the root. Based on footprints left by services on the branches of tree, we can easily find the specific service and access data of interests on VANets. The footprints will be updated when the service move from one grid to another or be cleared when the service jump into another branch of the tree structure.
Ultrasound simulation on a GPGPU - Reducing memory bottleneck using compression

The simulation of ultrasound signals is a computationally intensive task from the perspective of the number of floating point operations required and memory bandwidth. This project involves simulating realistic ultrasound signals using the Westervelt Equation on a GPGPU with a focus on the memory bandwidth bottleneck. This project explores a data compression technique which uses floating point to fixed point conversion to reduce the memory bandwidth. Using this approach, we are able to achieve a performance gain of around 20% with respect to running time while reducing the memory bandwidth by around 50% over the baseline GPU implementation for grid sizes of 2560 x 2560 and above.
Methods in Molecular BiologyTM PCR Protocols SECOND EDITION

1. Introduction The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a powerful method for fast in vitro enzymatic amplifications of specific DNA sequences. PCR amplifications can be grouped into three different categories: standard PCR, long PCR, and multiplex PCR. Standard PCR involves amplification of a single DNA sequence that is less than 5 kb in length and is useful for a variety of applications, such as cycle sequencing, cloning, mutation detection, etc. Long PCR is used for the amplification of a single sequence that is longer than 5 kb and up to 40 kb in length. Its applications include long-range sequencing; amplification of complete genes; PCR-based detection and diagnosis of medically important large-gene insertions or deletions; molecular cloning; and assembly and production of larger recombinant constructions for PCR-based mutagenesis (1,2). The third category, multiplex PCR, is used for the amplification of multiple sequences that are less than 5 kb in length. Its applications include forensic studies; pathogen identification; linkage analysis; template quantitation; genetic disease diagnosis; and population genetics (3–5). Unfortunately, there is no single set of conditions that is optimal for all PCR. Therefore, each PCR is likely to require specific optimization for the template/primer pairs chosen. Lack of optimization often results in problems, such as no detectable PCR product or low efficiency amplification of the chosen template; the presence of nonspecific bands or smeary background; the formation of " primer-dimers " that compete with the chosen template/primer set for amplification; or mutations caused by errors in nucleotide incorporation. It is particularly important to optimize PCR that will be used for repetitive diagnostic or analytical procedures where optimal amplification is required. The objective of this chapter is to discuss the parameters that may affect the specificity, fidelity, and efficiency of PCR, as well as approaches that can be taken to achieve optimal PCR amplifications. Optimization of a particular PCR can be time consuming and complicated because of the various parameters that are involved. These parameters include the following: (1) quality and concentration of DNA template; (2) design and concentration of primers; (3) concentration of magnesium ions; (4) concentration of the four deoxynucleotides (dNTPs); (5) PCR buffer systems; (6) selection and concentration of DNA poly-merase; (7) PCR thermal cycling conditions; (8) addition and concentrations of PCR additives/cosolvents; and (9) use of the " hot start " technique. Optimization of PCR
Stall-Time Fair Memory Access Scheduling ( STFM ) : Enabling Fair and High-Throughput Sharing of Chip Multiprocessor DRAM Systems ∗

In a chip multiprocessor (CMP) system, where multiple on-chip cores share a common memory interface, simultaneous memory requests from different threads can interfere with each other. Unfortunately, conventional memory scheduling techniques only try to optimize for overall data throughput and do not account for this inter-thread interference. Therefore, different threads running concurrently on the same chip can experience extremely different memory system performance: one thread can experience a severe slowdown or starvation while another is unfairly prioritized by the memory scheduler. Our MICRO-40 paper proposes a new memory access scheduler, called the Stall-Time Fair Memory scheduler (STFM), that provides performance fairness to threads sharing the DRAM memory system. The key idea of the proposed scheduler is to equalize the DRAM-related slowdown experienced by each thread due to interference from other threads, without hurting overall system performance. To do so, STFM estimates at run-time each thread’s slowdown due to sharing the DRAM system and prioritizes memory requests of threads that are slowed down the most. Unlike previous approaches to DRAM scheduling, STFM comprehensively takes into account inherent memory characteristics of each thread and therefore does not unfairly penalize threads that use the DRAM system without interfering with others. We show how STFM can be configured by the system software to control unfairness and to enforce thread priorities. Our results show that STFM significantly reduces the unfairness in the DRAM system while also improving system throughput on a wide variety of workloads and CMP systems. For example, averaged over 32 different workloads running on an 8-core CMP, the ratio between the highest DRAM-related slowdown and the lowest DRAM-related slowdown reduces from 5.26X to 1.4X, while system throughput improves by 7.6%. We qualitatively and quantitatively compare STFM to one new and three previously-proposed memory access scheduling algorithms, including Network Fair Queueing. Our results show that STFM provides the best fairness, system throughput, and scalability.
Incorporation of the Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion System (M2P2) in a Manned Mission to Mars

This paper presents two variations of a manned mission to Mars incorporating the MiniMagnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2) System, under development at the University of Washington by Professor Robert Winglee, as a less expensive, flexible alternative to the traditional nuclear propulsion systems proposed in the NASA Mars Reference Mission. The M2P2 produces a magnetic plasma bubble that interacts with the ambient solar wind to produce an energy-efficient, high specific impulse thrust. Two scenarios are presented to show the versatility of the M2P2 propulsion system. The first consists of a standard mission similar to the NASA Mars Reference Mission, in which cargo is sent to the Martian surface prior to the piloted mission. The second scenario is a non-traditional mission, in which a single, piloted mission is sent to Mars with multiple landers. These landers would be able to explore multiple sites on the surface of Mars. Multiple orbit trajectories with varying total and Martian surface stay times have been calculated to show the time flexibility of this advanced propulsion system versus the limited launch windows dictated by traditional propulsion systems. The minimum round trip time is shown to be 1.7 years, with potentially 50% less departure mass from low Earth orbit than required by the Mars Reference Mission. † Department of Geophysics * Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Scattering Tomography by Monte Carlo Voting

In this paper, we propose a new tomography method called Monte Carlo Voting to visualize the crosssectional surfaces of scattering media. Since the incident light repeats a collision with small particles in scattering media, there are many light paths. To trace them, we use the Monte Carlo ray tracing algorithm and compute the attenuation ratio that represents the likelihood of hidden objects for each light path. The distribution of hidden objects is estimated by voting the attenuation ratio along the light path. Monte Carlo Voting statistically solves the tomography problem by combining Monte Carlo ray tracing and the voting process. Experiments using simulated and real images show that the distribution of hidden objects can be roughly estimated even when strong scatterings are observed.
Permutation indexing: fast approximate retrieval from large corpora

Inverted indexing is a ubiquitous technique used in retrieval systems including web search. Despite its popularity, it has a drawback - query retrieval time is highly variable and grows with the corpus size. In this work we propose an alternative technique, permutation indexing, where retrieval cost is strictly bounded and has only logarithmic dependence on the corpus size. Our approach is based on two novel techniques: (a) partitioning of the term space into overlapping clusters of terms that frequently co-occur in queries, and (b) a data structure for compactly encoding results of all queries composed of terms in a cluster as continuous sequences of document ids. Then, query results are retrieved by fetching few small chunks of these sequences. There is a price though: our encoding is lossy and thus returns approximate result sets. The fraction of the true results returned, recall, is controlled by the level of redundancy. The more space is allocated for the permutation index the higher is the recall. We analyze permutation indexing both theoretically under simplified document and query models, and empirically on a realistic document and query collections. We show that although permutation indexing can not replace traditional retrieval methods, since high recall cannot be guaranteed on all queries, it covers up to 77% of tail queries and can be used to speed up retrieval for these queries.
New binary descriptors based on BRISK sampling pattern for image retrieval

Over the last decade, feature point descriptors such as SIFT have become indispensable tools in the computer vision community. But, the descriptor's high computational overhead becomes a significant concern when it has to be on a device with limited computational and storage resources. In order to make descriptors faster to compute and more compact, several binary descriptors such as ORB and BRISK have been proposed. These binary descriptors are not successful in image retrieval, so we propose new binary descriptors to increase the accuracy while maintaining computational efficiency.
Life course body mass index, birthweight and lipid levels in mid-adulthood: a nationwide birth cohort study.

AIMS Improvement in lipid profiles is an important public health and clinical goal for which a better understanding is needed of biological pathways and influences. Evidence is scant on the role of growth, including trajectories of body mass index (BMI), so we aimed to determine whether particular life stages from birth to adulthood are important for lipid levels in mid-adulthood (45 years). METHODS AND RESULTS In the 1958 British birth cohort (n = 3927 men; 3897 women), weight and height were recorded at: birth (weight only), 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, and 45 years. Birthweight was inversely associated with triglycerides and in women with total- and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; associations were little affected by adjustment for 7-year BMI. Associations between lipids and BMI strengthened with age, e.g. in women, adult (45-year) triglycerides were elevated by 1.54% (95% confidence interval: 0.87-2.21%) and 3.57% (3.29-3.86%), respectively, per kg/m² higher BMI at 11 and 45 years. Body mass index gain was related to lipids, with strongest associations for the interval between 33 and 45 years, where a kg/m² gain in BMI was associated with ~0.6% higher total cholesterol and ~5.3% higher triglycerides. Associations between 45-year BMI and lipids were stronger for those with lowest than highest BMI at younger ages (P for interaction ≤0.05). A long duration of obesity and obesity in childhood but not thereafter were unrelated to adult lipid levels. CONCLUSIONS Our findings from a large population-based cohort highlight detrimental consequences of high adult BMI for lipids as most pronounced for those with a lower BMI at earlier life stages.
INFLUENCE OF NITRIC OXIDE IN THE CENTRAL AMYGDALA ON THE ACQUISITION AND EXPRESSION OF MORPHINE-INDUCED PLACE PREFERENCE IN MORPHINE SENSITIZED RATS

1. Department of Biology, Ashtian Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashtian, Iran. 2. Department of Biology, School of Science, Tehran North Branch, Azad University, Tehran, Iran. 3. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 4. Neuroscience Research Center, Baqiyatallah (a.s.) University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 5. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 6. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Semi-supervised learning of morphological paradigms and lexicons

We present a semi-supervised approach to the problem of paradigm induction from inflection tables. Our system extracts generalizations from inflection tables, representing the resulting paradigms in an abstract form. The process is intended to be language-independent, and to provide human-readable generalizations of paradigms. The tools we provide can be used by linguists for the rapid creation of lexical resources. We evaluate the system through an inflection table reconstruction task using Wiktionary data for German, Spanish, and Finnish. With no additional corpus information available, the evaluation yields per word form accuracy scores on inflecting unseen base forms in different languages ranging from 87.81% (German nouns) to 99.52% (Spanish verbs); with additional unlabeled text corpora available for training the scores range from 91.81% (German nouns) to 99.58% (Spanish verbs). We separately evaluate the system in a simulated task of Swedish lexicon creation, and show that on the basis of a small number of inflection tables, the system can accurately collect from a list of noun forms a lexicon with inflection information ranging from 100.0% correct (collect 100 words), to 96.4% correct (collect 1000 words).