Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of dual-VT SRAM cells with full-swing single-ended bit line sensing for on-chip cache

This paper compares different high-V/sub T/ and dual-V/sub T/ design choices for a large on-chip cache with single-ended sensing in a 0.13 /spl mu/m technology generation. The analysis shows that the best design is the one using a dual-V/sub T/ cell, with minimum channel length pass transistors, and low-V/sub T/ peripheral circuits. This dual-V/sub T/ circuit provides 20% performance gain with only 1.3/spl times/ larger active leakage power, and 2.4% larger cell area compared to the best design using high-V/sub T/ cells with nonminimum channel length pass transistors.
Prevalence of metabolic syndrome using weight and weight indices in an apparently healthy Nigerian population

Background : Notions about the metabolic syndrome (MS) emphasized the importance of obesity. This may prevent the early diagnosis of the condition in normal weight individuals. Aim : To determine variations in prevalence of MS according to different weight and weight indices. Materials and Methods : 342 apparently healthy subjects (men 164; women 178), aged 35 to 85 years were randomly selected for the study. 240 were urban residents while 102 were rural dwellers. Anthropometric measurements and fasting blood samples were collected between 8 am and 11 am. Body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) were calculated and fasting plasma glucose (FBG), triglycerides (TG) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) determined. Results : A total of 80 subjects had three or more of predictors of the MS giving prevalence of 23.4%. Prevalence increased with BMI: 6.6%, 27% and 38.7% at BMI 18.5 – 24.9, 25 – 29.9 and ≥30 kg/m 2 respectively. Similar trends were observed with waist circumference (WC) and waist–hip ratio (WHR): 5.8%, 22.1% and 58.6% at WC ≤82cm, 83 – 100cm and >100cm and 7.5%, 28% and 60% at WHR ≤0.85, 0.86 – 1.00, and >1.00 respectively. MS was most prevalent at the extreme ranges of weight measures. An appreciable percentage of normal weight individuals, 6.6%, 5.8% and 7.5% for BMI, WC and WHR had the MS. Conclusions : MS was present in normal weight individuals and screening for the condition should be considered in this group. Prevalence of MS increased with weight irrespective of the weight index considered. WC and WHR appear to be better index of MS than BMI. Urban residence is a risk factor and this may be due to unhealthy lifestyle. Keywords : Metabolic syndrome, body mass index, waist circumference, waisthip ratio, obesity
Virtual View Generation for 3D Digital Video

Virtual reality systems use digital models to provide interactive viewing. We present a 3D digital video system that attempts to provide the same capabilities for actual performances such as dancing. Recreating the original dynamic scene in 3D, the system allows photorealistic interactive playback from arbitrary viewpoints using video streams of a given scene from multiple perspectives.
Moderately high-protein enteral formula improved retinol-binding protein in tube-fed patients: A multicentre open study

Background: Long-term inadequate dietary consumption may increase the possibility of malnutrition, morbidity and mortality. Enteral nutrition (EN) is a beneficial support that could help to maintain nutritional status and gut function. Aim: Our aim was to evaluate the effect of moderately high-protein enteral formula containing fibre on nutritional status, and its safety. Method: A total of 23 tube-feeding-dependent adult patients were included in this multicentre, open-label study. The patients were fed with the study formula for 7–12 days or equal to the required nutritional support period, during which we performed physical examinations and assessed nutritional status. The primary endpoint was the statistical difference in nutritional status after the treatment, and the secondary outcome was the desirable safety profile. Results: A significant improvement in cumulative energy balance after intervention was observed (p = 0.008). However, the differences in nutritional status, weight and BMI before and after the intervention do not reach statistical significance. Retinol-binding protein (RBP), a marker for nutritional status, increased from baseline levels. Few cases of diarrhoea and constipation had been reported during the study as a safety concern. Conclusions: This study investigated the efficacy and safety of an enteral feed formulation containing fibre. The patients were nourished with the studied formulation via tube feeding for a short period without serious adverse events. After the intervention, the significant increase in cumulative energy balance was observed. However, an extended period of the intervention may be required to attain the significance in other indicators for nutritional status.
Image Processing for Virtual Restoration of Artworks

As tools for artwork restoration, image-processing techniques serve two purposes. They can be used as a guide to the actual restoration of the artwork (computer-guided restoration). Or, they can produce a digitally restored version of the work, which itself is valuable, although the restoration is only virtual and cannot be reproduced on the real piece of work (virtual restoration). We present two applications of digital image processing for restoring artworks. The first belongs to the class of computer-guided restoration techniques, and the second represents an example of virtual artwork restoration. The first example refers to cleaning dirty paintings. More specifically, we describe a technique that, by relying on cleaning a small patch of the painting, can foresee the final result when the same cleaning methodology is applied to the whole piece of work. Restorers can use it by applying a set of different cleaning methodologies to very small patches of the painting. They can then use the virtual cleaning software to determine which cleaning procedure is likely to give the best result, thus using digital image processing as a tool to guide the actual restoration of the artwork. In our second example, we present a system for removing cracks from old paintings and frescos. In many cases, cracks severely deteriorate the aspect of paintings both because of their number and their heaviness. Thus, a system capable of removing them is of great interest, even if the removal is only virtual.
A User-Centric Media Retrieval Competition: The Video Browser Showdown 2012-2014

The Video Browser Showdown is an international competition in the field of interactive video search and retrieval. It is held annually as a special session at the International Conference on Multimedia Modeling (MMM). The Video Browser Showdown evaluates the performance of exploratory tools for interactive content search in videos in direct competition and in front of an audience. Its goal is to push research on user-centric video search tools including video navigation, content browsing, content interaction, and video content visualization. This article summarizes the first three VBS competitions (2012-2014).
Visual Attention Retargeting

This article presents an introduction to visual attention retargeting, its connection to visual saliency, the challenges associated with it, and ideas for how it can be approached. The difficulty of attention retargeting as a saliency inversion problem lies in the lack of one-to-one mapping between saliency and the image domain, in addition to the possible negative impact of saliency alterations on image aesthetics. A few approaches from recent literature to solve this challenging problem are reviewed, and several suggestions for future development are presented.
Automating the Recognition of Stress and Emotion: From Lab to Real-World Impact

As Rosalind W. Picard reflects on the events that moved her from research to the lab to a real-world application, she can't help but think. who would have expected efforts to develop algorithms to perceive multimodal inputs would lead to a wearable that detects signals related to deep brain activation and issues potentially life-saving alerts?
Eye-Controlled Interfaces for Multimedia Interaction

The EU-funded MAMEM project (Multimedia Authoring and Management using your Eyes and Mind) aims to propose a framework for natural interaction with multimedia information for users who lack fine motor skills. As part of this project, the authors have developed a gaze-based control paradigm. Here, they outline the challenges of eye-controlled interaction with multimedia information and present initial project results. Their objective is to investigate how eye-based interaction techniques can be made precise and fast enough to let disabled people easily interact with multimedia information.
Mechanical performance comparison between RotaFlow and CentriMag centrifugal blood pumps in an adult ECLS model

Introduction: Centrifugal blood pumps have been widely adopted in conventional adult cardiopulmonary bypass and circulatory assist procedures. Different brands of centrifugal blood pumps incorporate distinct designs which affect pump performance. In this adult extracorporeal life support (ECLS) model, the performances of two brands of centrifugal blood pump (RotaFlow blood pump and CentriMag blood pump) were compared. Methods: The simulated adult ECLS circuit used in this study included a centrifugal blood pump, Quadrox D membrane oxygenator and Sorin adult ECLS tubing package. A Sorin Cardiovascular® VVR® 4000i venous reservoir (Sorin S.p.A., Milan, Italy) with a Hoffman clamp served as a pseudo-patient. The circuit was primed with 900ml heparinized human packed red blood cells and 300ml lactated Ringer’s solution (total volume 1200 ml, corrected hematocrit 40%). Trials were conducted at normothermia (36°C). Performance, including circuit pressure and flow rate, was measured for every setting analyzed. Results: The shut-off pressure of the RotaFlow was higher than the CentriMag at all measurement points given the same rotation speed (p < 0.0001). The shut-off pressure differential between the two centrifugal blood pumps was significant and increased given higher rotation speeds (p < 0.0001). The RotaFlow blood pump has higher maximal flow rate (9.08 ± 0.01L/min) compared with the CentriMag blood pump (8.37 ± 0.02L/min) (p < 0.0001). The blood flow rate differential between the two pumps when measured at the same revolutions per minute (RPM) ranged from 1.64L/min to 1.73L/min. Conclusions: The results obtained in this experiment demonstrate that the RotaFlow has a higher shut-off pressure (less retrograde flow) and maximal blood flow rate than the CentriMag blood pump. Findings support the conclusion that the RotaFlow disposable pump head has a better mechanical performance than the CentriMag. In addition, the RotaFlow disposable pump is 20-30 times less expensive than the CentriMag.
Suboptimal model predictive control (feasibility implies stability)

Practical difficulties involved in implementing stabilizing model predictive control laws for nonlinear systems are well known. Stabilizing formulations of the method normally rely on the assumption that global and exact solutions of nonconvex, nonlinear optimization problems are possible in limited computational time. In the paper, we first establish conditions under which suboptimal model predictive control (MPC) controllers are stabilizing; the conditions are mild holding out the hope that many existing controllers remain stabilizing even if optimality is lost. Second, we present and analyze two suboptimal MPC schemes that are guaranteed to be stabilizing, provided an initial feasible solution is available and for which the computational requirements are more reasonable.
Stochastic lexicon modeling for speech recognition

To optimally cope with continuous speech recognizer, we propose the stochastic lexicon model that effectively represents variations in pronunciation. In this lexicon model, the baseform of a word is represented by subword-states with a probability distribution of subword units as a two-level hidden Markov model (HMM) and this baseform is automatically trained by sample utterances. Also, the proposed approach can be applied to systems employing nonlinguistic recognition units.
Unbiased equation-error adaptive IIR filtering based on monic normalization

We present a novel may to remove the bias in equation-error based adaptive infinite impulse response (IIR) filtering by conceiving a scheme called monic normalization. It is found that normalizing all the coefficients of the denominator filter by the first coefficient after each adaptation removes the bias and leads to unbiased estimates. The analysis of stationary points is presented to show that the proposed method can indeed produce unbiased parameter estimates in the presence of noise. The computer simulation results also demonstrate that the proposed method performs better than or comparable to existing algorithms, while requiring much lower computational complexity.
Observer-based approach to fault detection and isolation for nonlinear systems

The design of a residual generator for fault detection and isolation (FDI) in nonlinear systems which are affine in the control signals and in the failure modes is studied, First, the problem statement used for linear systems is extended, and a set of sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution is given. Next, circumstances under which high-gain observers for uniformly observable systems can be used in the synthesis of the residual generator are provided.
Predicting the quality of enhanced wideband speech with a cochlear model.

Objective measures are commonly used in the development of speech coding algorithms as an adjunct to human subjective evaluation. Predictors of speech quality based on models of physiological or perceptual processing tend to perform better than measures based on simple acoustical properties. Here, a modeling method based on a detailed physiological model and a neurogram similarity measure is developed and optimized to predict the quality of an enhanced wideband speech dataset. A model capturing temporal modulations in neural activity up to 267 Hz was found to perform as well as or better than several existing objective quality measures.
MEC-ConPaaS: An Experimental Single-Board Based Mobile Edge Cloud

Cloud infrastructures are extremely flexible and powerful, but their data centers are located very far from the end users. To address the limitations of these systems, many researchers are designing mobile edge clouds which complement traditional clouds with additional resources located in immediate proximity of the end users. However, currently there exists no open-source mobile edge cloud implementation which can easily be deployed over a campus or a city center to support real-world experimentations. We therefore present the design and implementation of MEC-ConPaaS, a mobile-edge cloud platform, which aims to support future research on edge cloud applications and middlewares. The system exploits single-board computers such as Raspberry Pis which are an order of magnitude cheaper than any server machine and much easier to setup in a distributed setting. We demonstrate that these devices are powerful enough to support real cloud applications, and to support further research on these topics.
Firmness of purpose in life significantly influences emotional state and autonomic nervous activity

The present study was performed to clarify the influence of having a firm purpose in life (PIL) on psychological and physical stresses. Participants were 59 subjects (19 males and 40 fe- males) with a mean age of 30.9 years (standard deviation, 12.1; range, 18 - 68 years). We used a mental arithmetic (MA) test as a goaloriented stressor; the test was supposed to be finished before a time limit expired without using pencil and paper. We used a PIL test to assess the intensity of personal meaning in one’s life, an interest in mental arithmetic test (IMAT) to assess the intensity of interest in the MA test, and an anxiety inventory (AI) to assess the anxiety level of before and during the MA test. Heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and nose tip temperature (NTT) were recorded before and after MA. We used logistic regression modeling to estimate the odds ratio (OR) of independent variables of age, sex, PIL test score, AI score, HR, SBP, DBP, and NTT before the MA test. Multivariate-adjusted models showed that PIL test scores prior to the MA test significantly predicted the observed changes in AI score and HR. Other variables were not significant predictors. In conclusion, we found that a firm PIL decreased anxiety under psychological stress as measured with the MA test, even with objective evaluation by others. Having a firm PIL also lowered the response of the sympathetic nervous system to psych0logical stress.
Acceptability and Long‐Term Compliance with Drug Treatment for Hypercholesterolemia in Japanese Male Workers: I. Acceptability of Drug Treatment

Acceptability and Long‐Term Compliance with Drug Treatment for Hypercholesterolemia in Japanese Male Workers: 1. Acceptability of Drug Treatment: Masayuki Tatemichi, et al. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Toho University School of Medicine—We performed a prospective study to assess the acceptability and long‐ term compliance with drug treatment for hypercholesterolemia in Japanese male workers aged 40 to 57 yr with hypercholesterolemia detected in legally required periodical physical examinations. This paper describes the acceptability of statin‐based drug treatment. All eligible workers who had not improved after 3‐month diet therapy were recommended for drug treatment with simvastatin, a 3 hydroxy‐3‐ methylcoenzyme A reductase inhibitor. Subsequently, according to each individual preference, the subjects were divided to two groups: a group which accepted drug treatment (DT) and a group which rejected it. The subjects who did not accept drug treatment were further assigned to two groups according to their preference: a group which accepted only dietary intervention (Dl) and a non‐treatment group (NT). Among 1,278 workers recruited, 656 (51.3%) were placed in the DT group, 414 (32.4%) in the Dl group and 208 (16.3%) in the NT group. In the DT group, mean serum total cholesterol (TC) was the highest [272 ± 30 (SO) mg/dl]. The acceptability of drug treatment was significantly associated with the serum TC level, pre‐existing medical history of hypertension and a family history of ischemic heart disease (IHO). The occupational issues such as type of job, overtime worked, sleeping time and psychologicalstatus were different among the three groups, and habits of taking breakfast and daily exercise were associated with acceptability of drug treatment. These data suggest that acceptability of the drug treatment is low and associated with the work‐and lifestyle‐ related issues as well as IHO risk factors.
Stokes-Shift-Engineered Indium Phosphide Quantum Dots for Efficient Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) show promise because of their potential for low-cost, large-area, and high-efficiency energy harvesting. Stokes shift engineering of luminescent quantum dots (QDs) is a favorable approach to suppress reabsorption losses in LSCs; however, the use of highly toxic heavy metals in QDs constitutes a serious concern for environmental sustainability. Here, we report LSCs based on cadmium-free InP/ZnO core/shell QDs with type-II band alignment that allow for the suppression of reabsorption by Stokes shift engineering. The spectral emission and absorption overlap was controlled by the growth of a ZnO shell on an InP core. At the same time, the ZnO layer also facilitates the photostability of the QDs within the host matrix. We analyzed the optical performance of indium-based LSCs and identified the optical efficiency as 1.45%. The transparency, flexibility, and cadmium-free content of the LSCs hold promise for solar window applications.
To Review or Not to Review

1243 Provenzale and Stanley [6] improves reviewer performance significantly. The results of the study will be published in a forthcoming issue of the AJR. However, it will take several years of data collection to determine the long-term benefit of this strategy. We appreciate the efforts of our reviewers and will continue to look for new methods to assist them in providing consistent quality reviews. We will carefully monitor our CME process to be certain it is fair and assists with quality of reviews. Arumugam Rajesh University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust Leicester General Hospital Leicester, UK arajesh27@hotmail.com DOI:10.2214/AJR.11. 6873
[Effects of an intervention program for community-dwelling elderly to improve frailty and dietary habits].

OBJECTIVES The effects of a comprehensive intervention program for community-dwelling elderly on frailty and dietary habits were examined. METHODS We conducted randomized control trials to examine the efficacy of the intervention. To examine lasting changes, we made paired comparisons between pre- and post- intervention and at a three-month follow-up. The subjects were recruited in Hatoyama town, Saitama prefecture. The program was composed of exercise, nutritional education, and social participation and was held from October to December 2011. The exercise program aimed at fall prevention and took place twice per week for 60 min. The nutritional education aimed at prevention of malnutrition, and the social participation program aimed at prevention of "homeboundness"; both were held once per week for 30 min. Questionnaires inquired about frailty and dietary variety. A blood test was conducted to ascertain nutritional state, and a brief self-administered diet history questionnaire was used to estimate food and nutrient intake. To examine the efficacy of the intervention, 22 control subjects (CR) and 21 subjects in the intervention group (IV) were analyzed with intention to treat. To examine lasting changes, 16 subjects in IV who correctly completed surveys at each of the three time points were analyzed, using repeated ANOVA and a multiple comparison procedure. RESULTS 1. Men comprised 70-80% of subjects, and the average age was 75.7±5.4 and 74.7±5.4 years in IV and CR, respectively. 2. There was no significant difference in pre- and post-intervention changes between IV and CR in frailty, which was the main outcome of the study. 3. A significant difference in pre- and post-intervention values was noted in ① "homeboundness", one of the components of frailty (median [25-75%tile]): IV 0 [0-0] and CR 0 [0-1] (P=0.023); ② nutrient intake (mean±standard deviation [SD], energy ratio [%E]): protein, IV 2.3±0.7 and CR -0.3±2.0 (P=0.002); animal protein, IV 2.4±1.5 and CR -0.5±1.5 (P=0.002); and ③ food intake (mean±SD, g/1000 kcal): fish, IV 18.1±25.1 and CR -4.1±21.9 (P=0.004); egg, IV 5.0±11.2 and CR -2.1±11.3 (P=0.046). All variables improved in IV. 4. Lasting improvement was observed in "homeboundness" and protein intake [%E]. CONCLUSION Although the intervention did not improve frailty, it may improve frailty and dietary habits by improving homeboundness and increasing protein intake.