Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Benchmark Subsetting Approaches

To reduce the simulation time to a tractable amount or due to compilation (or other related) problems, computer architects often simulate only a subset of the benchmarks in a benchmark suite. However, if the architect chooses a subset of benchmarks that is not representative, the subsequent simulation results will, at best, be misleading or, at worst, yield incorrect conclusions. To address this problem, computer architects have recently proposed several statistically-based approaches to subset a benchmark suite. While some of these approaches are well-grounded statistically, what has not yet been thoroughly evaluated is the: 1) absolute accuracy; 2) relative accuracy across a range of processor and memory subsystem enhancements; and 3) representativeness and coverage of each approach for a range of subset sizes. Specifically, this paper evaluates statistically-based subsetting approaches based on principal components analysis (PCA) and the Plackett and Burman (P&B) design, in addition to prevailing approaches such as integer vs. floating-point, core vs. memory-bound, by language, and at random. Our results show that the two statistically-based approaches, PCA and P&B, have the best absolute and relative accuracy for CPI and energy-delay product (EDP), produce subsets that are the most representative, and choose benchmark and input set pairs that are most well-distributed across the benchmark space. To achieve a 5% absolute CPI and EDP error, across a wide range of configurations, PCA and P&B typically need about 17 benchmark and input set pairs, while the other five approaches often choose more than 30 benchmark and input set pairs
Mammalian Expression Cloning of Two Human Trophoblast Suppressors of Major Histocompatibility Complex Genes

PROBLEM: Human trophoblasts suppress interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ)‐simulated expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II genes and thereby protect the conceptus from maternal immune attack. The mechanism of this suppression is poorly understood. METHOD OF STUDY: IFN‐γ‐responsive HeLa cells were stably transfected with trophoblast cDNA expression libraries and screened by negative immunoselection with an antibody to HLA‐DR. RESULTS: Two suppressor cDNAs were isolated. One encoded the untranslated RNA trophoblast STAT utron (TSU), which blocked STAT1 nuclear translocation and can theoretically form triplex RNA–DNA at the class II transactivator gene promoters. The other encoded the N‐terminal 28 residues of chorionic somatomammotropin (hCS). TSU‐related genes were detected in human and macaque, but not in mouse, genomic DNA. CONCLUSIONS: The genetics of two human trophoblast MHC suppressors suggest that these functions have been gained in human placenta in recent evolutionary history. TSU and hCS play critical roles in suppression of MHC genes, which may lead to silencing by DNA methylation.
AtPng1p. The First Plant Transglutaminase1[w]

Studies have revealed in plant chloroplasts, mitochondria, cell walls, and cytoplasm the existence of transglutaminase (TGase) activities, similar to those known in animals and prokaryotes having mainly structural roles, but no protein has been associated to this type of activity in plants. A recent computational analysis has shown in Arabidopsis the presence of a gene, AtPng1p, which encodes a putative N-glycanase. AtPng1p contains the Cys-His-Asp triad present in the TGase catalytic domain. AtPng1p is a single gene expressed ubiquitously in the plant but at low levels in all light-assayed conditions. The recombinant AtPng1p protein could be immuno-detected using animal TGase antibodies. Furthermore, western-blot analysis using antibodies raised against the recombinant AtPng1p protein have lead to its detection in microsomal fraction. The purified protein links polyamines—spermine (Spm) > spermidine (Spd) > putrescine (Put)—and biotin-cadaverine to dimethylcasein in a calcium-dependent manner. Analyses of the γ-glutamyl-derivatives revealed that the formation of covalent linkages between proteins and polyamines occurs via the transamidation of γ-glutamyl residues of the substrate, confirming that the AtPng1p gene product acts as a TGase. The Ca2+- and GTP-dependent cross-linking activity of the AtPng1p protein can be visualized by the polymerization of bovine serum albumine, obtained, like the commercial TGase, at basic pH and in the presence of dithiotreitol. To our knowledge, this is the first reported plant protein, characterized at molecular level, showing TGase activity, as all its parameters analyzed so far agree with those typically exhibited by the animal TGases.
Learned Quality Enhancement via Multi-Frame Priors for HEVC Compliant Low-Delay Applications

Networked video applications, e.g., video conferencing, often suffer from poor visual quality due to unexpected network fluctuation and limited bandwidth. In this paper, we have developed a Quality Enhancement Network (QENet) to reduce the video compression artifacts, leveraging the spatial and temporal priors generated by respective multi-scale convolutions spatially and warped temporal predictions in a recurrent fashion temporally. We have integrated this QENet as a stand-alone post-processing subsystem to the High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) compliant decoder. Experimental results show that our QENet demonstrates the state-of-the-art performance against default in-loop filters in HEVC and other deep learning based methods with noticeable objective gains in Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and subjective gains visually.
A Dependable System Architecture for Safety-Critical Respiratory-Gated Radiation Therapy

This experience report describes the design and implementation of safety-critical software and hardware for respiratory gating of a medical linear accelerator. Respiratory gating refers to a radiotherapy technique for treating cancer in the lung, liver, and abdomen, where tumors move while a patient breathes. A computer software program tracks the position of the tumor within the human body using X-ray fluoroscopy. When the tumor is in the correct position, the linear accelerator is triggered, delivering a beam of radiation toward the target. As part of the gating system, a comprehensive strategy for safety has been developed. This paper describes these safety features, focusing on the online monitoring techniques used to confirm the proper operation of the fluoroscopic imaging panels and the pattern recognition algorithms used for tumor identification
Spoofed Fingerprint Detection Based on Time Series Fingerprint Image Analysis

The primary purpose of fingerprint recognition is to make sure that user authentication is reliable. Fully connected Convolutional networks help to attain good performance in classifying a time-series sequence of captured fingerprint images. In this paper, we work on the approach of detecting spoofed fingerprints from these sequences by combining the use of Convolutional Neural Networks and Long Short Term Memory networks. Our proposed model has superior performance, with minimum amount of processing and optimal model size. The experiments, carried out on a dataset [1] of real and spoofed fingerprints, prove that the proposed approach is effective in detecting spoofed fingerprints
Specific Electricity Consumption optimization of Raw Grinding Workshop in a Moroccan Cement Plant

The cement plants are the most energy intensive industry. The objective of this study is to optimize the specific electricity consumption of the raw mill workshop for Moroccan cement plant while ensuring the adequate product quality and mill stability. After description of the manufacturing process of clinker and cement three parameters those are mill throughput, hydraulic pressure and mill outlet temperature were retained to test their effect on the mill specific electricity consumption (SECmill) and mill vibration (V). Response surface methodology with the composite central design was followed to analyze and optimize the process. Two models predicting the SECmill and V in function of the three parameters studied were developed, respectively. Basing on the statistical results, these models predict the optimum values of the SECmill and V, with satisfactory error. The optimal configuration to minimize the workshop’s specific power consumption was obtained for a maximum mill outlet temperature of 112.5°C, a maximum capacity of mill feed throughput and an average mill rollers hydraulic pressure of 133 bar. The predicted vibration corresponding to this configuration was well below the maximum thresholds that the mill can handle.
Feature Extraction From Analog Wafermaps: A Comparison of Classical Image Processing and a Deep Generative Model

Semiconductor manufacturing is a highly innovative branch of industry, where a high degree of automation has already been achieved. For example, devices tested to be outside of their specifications in electrical wafer test are automatically scrapped. In this paper, we go one step further and analyze test data of devices still within the limits of the specification, by exploiting the information contained in the analog wafermaps. To that end, we propose two feature extraction approaches with the aim to detect patterns in the wafer test dataset. Such patterns might indicate the onset of critical deviations in the production process. The studied approaches are: 1) classical image processing and restoration techniques in combination with sophisticated feature engineering and 2) a data-driven deep generative model. The two approaches are evaluated on both a synthetic and a real-world dataset. The synthetic dataset has been modeled based on real-world patterns and characteristics. We found both approaches to provide similar overall evaluation metrics. Our in-depth analysis helps to choose one approach over the other depending on data availability as a major aspect, as well as on available computing power and required interpretability of the results.
Nations, Cultures, and Individuals

As an introduction to the five articles in this section that present data analyses focused at the nation level, three dilemmas pertinent to nation-level studies are discussed. First, reasons are exploredas to why it is valuable for psychologists to give attention to the national contexts within which the behavior of individuals has more typically been studied. Second, there is some discussion of the extent to which causal explanations of cultural differences can be sustained. Finally, it is argued that nation-level studies have a crucial and growing role to play in explaining variations in the findings of individual-level studies conducted at different locations.
Radiation Response of Ce-Codoped Germanosilicate and Phosphosilicate Optical Fibers

We report an experimental investigation on the effects of Ce-codoping in determining the radiation response of germanosilicate and phosphosilicate Optical Fibers (OFs) in the UV-Visible domain and up to doses of 1 MGy(SiO2). We show that the addition of Ce strongly impacts the Radiation Induced Attenuation (RIA) of both types of fibers. In the first case the radiation induced losses increase, whereas in the second one decrease. By combining the online RIA measurements with the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) ones, we are able to infer the basic microscopic mechanisms taking place under irradiation, which involve the cerium codopant and some of the known Ge-related or P-related defects. More precisely, we found that part of the Ce atoms are incorporated in the glass matrix as Ce3+ ions by the production process and act as electron donor centers under irradiation. Consequently, the concentrations of radiation induced hole centers of Ge and P are drastically reduced. The reported results give an insight into possible ways of exploiting Ce codoping to control the radiation sensitivity of the OFs. Moreover, the OFs doped with cerium and phosphorous show a strongly reduced saturation effect at high radiation doses that make them a potential candidate for RIA-based dosimetry applications in a wide range of radiation doses.
Thermoelectric Cooling Read for Resolving Read Disturb With Inrush Current Issue in OTS-PRAM

Phase change random access memory with ovonic threshold switch (OTS-PRAM) has been recently highlighted as an alternative to dynamic random access memory to meet the demand for memory capacity expansion in multicore processing. However, read disturb with inrush current (RDI) occurs owing to the snapback phenomenon caused by the threshold switching of the OTS selector in the OTS-PRAM cell, which should be resolved for realizing the practical use of OTS-PRAM. In this study, the RDI is analyzed in detail for the first time. Based on this analysis, a novel thermoelectric cooling read technique (TCR) that utilizes the thermoelectric effect in the storage material of the OTS-PRAM is proposed for effectively resolving the RDI issue. The proposed TCR is verified using the Sentaurus TCAD simulator, and a core structure with the proposed TCR is evaluated. HSPICE simulation results with a memory industry-compatible 0.25-μm core circuit design rule for 20-nm PRAM technology show that the proposed TCR has a power gain of 67%, system performance improvement of 13.9%, and slight area overhead of 3% as compared to the SET-back write technique, which was the most promising technique for resolving the RDI issue until now.
High Isolation Single Pole Four Throw RF MEMS Switches for X band

This work presents low loss RF-MEMS Single Pole Four Throw (SP4T) switch for X band. The present work is inspired from the fact that electrostatically actuated RF MEMS switches have superior RF performance over the state-of-the-art solid-state switches. Since an optimized design for Single Pole Multi Throw (SPMT) switch is difficult to realize, this work proposes a new design to achieve low loss and high isolation. The idea is to realize a combination of SPST (Single-Pole-Single-Throw) series and shunt switching in each arm of the SP4T model. The actuation voltage, isolation and insertion losses are optimized. The electro-mechanical modeling of the proposed device is done in CoventorWare and electro-magnetic modeling in HFSS. The simulation of the proposed design shows an actuation voltage of 12 V for capacitive shunt configuration and 13.75 V for the lateral series switch. The insertion loss and isolation are better than 1 dB and -50 dB respectively in the X band. The excellent RF characteristics make the switches suitable as MEMS varactors for high frequency applications and in tunable MEMS filters and phaseshifters.
Perceptions and Responses to Conflict: Comparing Men and Women in Recreational Settings

This study explored if incidence of and coping response to recreation conflict differed between men and women. The socio-psychological literature offers inconclusive evidence on this, and two hypotheses have emerged. The situational hypothesis attributes coping differences to the nature of the conflict whereas the dispositional hypothesis attributes coping differences to inherent differences between men and women. To test these two hypotheses, data were collected from 521 cross-country skiers and 451 hikers. Factor analysis, t-tests, and analysis of covariance found that men reported more visitor interaction and trail quality conflicts than did women while hiking, but only more trail quality conflicts when cross-country skiing. In their response to conflict, no significant difference in coping strategies emerged between men and women. Findings provide tentative support for the situational hypothesis of coping, strengthen the existing research on coping, and add to the literature on women's recreational experiences.
A Sweet Sound? Food Names Reveal Implicit Associations between Taste and Pitch

Sounds (high- and low-pitched) have been shown to be implicitly associated with basic tastes (sour and bitter—see Crisinel and Spence, 2009 Neuroscience Letters 464 39–42). In the present study, a version of the implicit association test was used to assess the strength of the association between high-pitched sounds and names of sweet-tasting foodstuffs, and between low-pitched sounds and names of salty-tasting foodstuffs (experiment 1). A similar task, the go/no-go association task was then used to evaluate the relative strengths of these associations (experiment 2). Analysis of the sensitivity of participants' responses suggested that both sour- and sweet-tasting (names of) food items were associated with high-pitched sounds. This result highlights the existence of robust cross-modal associations between certain sounds and basic tastes.
Resilience and Career Counseling: Describing the Utility of Quadrant Mapping

This article describes the manner in which educational psychology students (n = 11 females) used quadrant mapping when doing career counseling with Grade 9 youths (n=88, 47 = male, 41 = female) in a rural secondary school in South Africa. Quadrant mapping involves a depiction of measured intrapersonal and environmental risk factors and protective resources. The qualitative case study generated data which was based on individual interviews with students during four intervals (documented in field notes), observations of educational psychology interventions by students (documented in field notes), and students' intervention planning and reflections (recorded in reflective diaries). Students facilitated the interventions (in the form of educational psychology assessment and intervention sessions) with the participating youth. Data was thematically analysed. Students either used postmodern approaches exclusively, or combined postmodern approaches with adapted existing career counseling measures for quadrant mapping. Quadrant mapping is useful for cross-cultural career counseling, establishing assets in resource-scarce settings, as well as for use with groups and in schools.
Speaker detection using the timing structure of lip motion and sound

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to speaker detection by an integration of audio-visual information using the cue of timing structure. We first extract feature sequences of lip motion and sound, and segment each of them into temporal intervals. Then, we construct a cross-media timing-structure model of human speech by learning the temporal relations of overlapping intervals. Based on the learned model, we realize speaker detection by evaluating the timing structure of the observed video and audio. Our experimental result shows the effectiveness of using temporal relations of intervals for speaker detection.
Multi-hop PSO based routing protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks with Energy Harvesting

In this paper, three energy efficient routing strategies for a design of a Particle Swarm Optimization based Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) routing algorithm are presented. The first strategy maximizes the energy of the node with the lowest energy (the worst performing node) in the WSN, the second strategy maximizes the overall WSN energy and the third strategy maximizes the energy of the worst performing node while improving network latency. The best of these strategies is further tested in a WSN with energy harvesting nodes. The results are compared with a benchmark variant of the Low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) protocol, called the LEACH-Centralized Sleeping (CS). The results show that the strategy that maximizes the overall network energy can improve the network lifetime better. The results further show that the energy harvesting aware routing protocol can extend the lifetime of a WSN more than a protocol that is not energy harvesting aware.
Is ECG triggering for motion artefact reduction in dual-source CT angiography of the ascending aorta still required with high-pitch scanning? The role of ECG-gating in high-pitch dual-source CT of the ascending aorta.

OBJECTIVE: To compare electrocardiographic (ECG)-triggered high-pitch (HP) dual-source CT angiography (CTA) with non-ECG-triggered HP CTA of the aorta, particularly the ascending aorta, with regard to image quality, motion artefacts, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and radiation dose. METHODS: 59 consecutive patients who had been referred for CTA for known or suspected aortic disease, previous aortic intervention or planned transapical or transfemoral aortic valve implantation were prospectively included. Patients underwent CTAs with HP, using a dual-source CTA system, with [control group (Group A); n = 30] or without (Group B; n = 29) ECG triggering after randomization. For evaluation, image quality and a motion artefact score (MAS) were assessed in a blinded fashion at different predefined anatomic regions. CNR and SNR were measured at the same levels. Radiation dose estimates and contrast enhancement were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: There were no significant differences for image quality and MAS. The intra-arterial contrast resolution was significantly higher at the level of the aortic arch and descending aorta in the non-triggered group (CNR values, p = 0.002-0.018). No significant differences in the radiation dose were found. CONCLUSION: Non-triggered HP dual-source CTA provided comparable results with regard to image quality, MAS, CNR, SNR and radiation doses compared with ECG-triggered HP CTA. Therefore, ECG triggering of the ascending aorta might be obviated when HP scanning is available. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: HP dual-source CTA might obviate ECG triggering in the ascending aorta. Non-triggered HP CTA of the ascending aorta provides an excellent image quality.
Intonation Variation in a Mandarin Sentence for Three Expressions: Interrogative, Exclamatory and Declarative

Abstract This study investigated two aspects of Mandarin Chinese: (1) the acoustic correlates of intonations of a sentence for three expressions, declarative, interrogative and exclamatory, and (2) the influence of intonation on the four tones in the sentence-final position. A corpus was prepared and 6 speakers recorded the corpus. Acoustical analysis was made for the 1,824 test items. Results show that the duration of syllable nuclei in a sentence varies according to word position rather than intonation except that in the sentence-final position. Both intonation and word position have influenced the fundamental frequency, tone range, and peak amplitude of syllable nuclei. The duration, fundamental frequency and peak amplitude of the four tones in sentence-final position are modified by intonation. However, the basic characteristic of the shape of the four tones remains very close to that of tones in isolated words.