Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hardware Algorithms For Tile-Based Real-Time Rendering

In this dissertation, we present the GRAphics AcceLerator (GRAAL) framework for developing embedded tile-based rasterization hardware for mobile devices, meant to accelerate real-time 3-D graphics (OpenGL compliant) applications. The goal of the framework is a low-cost, low-power, high-performance design that delivers good image quality. We focus on several key problem areas in tile-based rasterization, such as: rasterization and triangle traversal, antialiasing, and geometrical primitive list sorting. We present an original triangle traversal hardware algorithm implementation, composed of a systolic primitive scan-conversion subsystem and a logic-enhanced memory subsystem, able to deliver 4 pixel positions per clock cycle in a very advantageous spatial pattern, exploited to reduce the power consumption and increase the throughput, to the pixel processing pipelines for rasterization. Area-sampling antialiasing is achieved with a pixel-coverage mask generation algorithm that reduces the mask storage costs by exploiting the quadrant symmetry property when deriving on the fly, via computationally inexpensive operations, the required coverage masks. The costs are reduced by an order of magnitude and the image quality, i.e., coverage mask accuracy, almost doubles when compared to prior state-of-the-art implementations. At the front end of the rasterization process, as the host processor needs to be able to process different other system tasks in a system-on-chip embedded architecture, we propose a novel and efficient hardware primitive list sorting algorithm that lowers on the one hand the effort of the host processor required to generate the primitive tiling lists and reduces on the other hand the external memory traffic. For an implementation footprint similar to an 8KB SRAM memory macro, the number of the instructions on the host processor for tiling list generation was lowered by 4–9x and the memory cost by 3–6x, for our embedded benchmark suite GraalBench, when compared to the software driver implementation alone. Our estimations indicate that the GRAAL design, clocked at a frequency of 200MHz, can sustain a rendering and fill rate of 2.4 million triangles/s and 460 million pixels/s for typical 3-D graphics scenes.
A High Affinity Fungal Nitrate Carrier with Two Transport Mechanisms*

We have expressed the CRNA high affinity nitrate transporter from Emericella (Aspergillus)nidulans in Xenopus oocytes and used electrophysiology to study its properties. This method was used because there are no convenient radiolabeled substrates for the transporter. Oocytes injected with crnA mRNA showed nitrate-, nitrite-, and chlorite-dependent currents. Although the gene was originally identified by chlorate selection there was no evidence for transport of this anion. The gene selection is explained by the high affinity of the transporter for chlorite, and the fact that this ion contaminates solutions of chlorate. The pH-dependence of the anion-elicited currents was consistent with H+-coupled mechanism of transport. At any given voltage, currents showed hyperbolic kinetics with respect to extracellular H+, and these data could be fitted with a Michaelis-Menten relationship. But this equation did not adequately describe transport of the anion substrates. At higher concentrations of the anion substrates and more negative membrane voltages, the currents were decreased, but this effect was independent of changes in external pH. These more complicated kinetics could be fit by an equation containing two Michaelis-Menten terms. The substrate inhibition of the currents could be explained by a transport reaction cycle that included two routes for the transfer of nitrate across the membrane, one on the empty carrier and the other proton coupled. The model predicts that the substrate inhibition of transporter current depends on the cytosolic nitrate concentration. This is the first time a high affinity nitrate transport activity has been characterized in a heterologous system and the measurements show how the properties of the CRNA transporter are modified by changes in the membrane potential, external pH, and nitrate concentration. The physiological significance of these observations is discussed.
Staphylococcal Ecb Protein and Host Complement Regulator Factor H Enhance Functions of Each Other in Bacterial Immune Evasion

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen causing more than a tenth of all septicemia cases and often superficial and deep infections in various tissues. One of the immune evasion strategies of S. aureus is to secrete proteins that bind to the central complement opsonin C3b. One of these, extracellular complement binding protein (Ecb), is known to interfere directly with functions of C3b. Because C3b is also the target of the physiological plasma complement regulator, factor H (FH), we studied the effect of Ecb on the complement regulatory functions of FH. We show that Ecb enhances acquisition of FH from serum onto staphylococcal surfaces. Ecb and FH enhance mutual binding to C3b and also the function of each other in downregulating complement activation. Both Ecb and the C-terminal domains 19–20 of FH bind to the C3d part of C3b. We show that the mutual enhancing effect of Ecb and FH on binding to C3b depends on binding of the FH domain 19 to the C3d part of C3b next to the binding site of Ecb on C3d. Our results show that Ecb, FH, and C3b form a tripartite complex. Upon exposure of serum-sensitive Haemophilus influenzae to human serum, Ecb protected the bacteria, and this effect was enhanced by the addition of the C-terminal domains 19–20 of FH. This finding indicates that the tripartite complex formation could give additional protection to bacteria and that S. aureus is thereby able to use host FH and bacterial Ecb in a concerted action to eliminate C3b at the site of infection.
Distributed real-time operating system (DRTOS) modeling in SpecC

System level design of an embedded computing system involves a multi-step process to refine the system from an abstract specification to an actual implementation by defining and modeling the system at various levels of abstraction. System level design supports evaluating and optimizing the system early in design exploration. Embedded computing systems may consist of multiple processing elements, memories, I/O devices, sensors, and actors. The selection of processing elements includes instruction-set processors and custom hardware units, such as application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and field programmable gate array (FPGA). Real-time operating systems (RTOS) have been used in embedded systems as an industry standard for years and can offer embedded systems the characteristics such as concurrency and time constraints. Some of the existing system level design languages, such as SpecC, provide the capability to model an embedded system including an RTOS for a single processor. However, there is a need to develop a distributed RTOS modeling mechanism as part of the system level design methodology due to the increasing number of processing elements in systems and to embedded platforms having multiple processors. A distributed RTOS (DRTOS) provides services such as multiprocessor tasks scheduling, interprocess communication, synchronization, and distributed mutual exclusion, etc. In this thesis, we develop a DRTOS model as the extension of the existing SpecC single RTOS model to provide basic functionalities of a DRTOS implementation, and present the refinement methodology for using our DRTOS model during system level synthesis. The DRTOS model and refinement process are demonstrated in the SpecC SCE environment. The capabilities and limitations of the DRTOS modeling approach are presented.
Short-current pulse-based maximum-power-point tracking method for multiple photovoltaic-and-converter module system

This paper proposes a novel maximum-power-point tracking (MPPT) method with a simple algorithm for photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems. The method is based on use of a short-current pulse of the PV to determine an optimum operating current where the maximum output power can be obtained and completely differs from conventional hill-climbing-based methods. In the proposed system, the optimum operating current is instantaneously determined simply by taking a product of the short-current pulse amplitude and a parameter k because the optimum operating current is exactly proportional to the short current under various conditions of illuminance and temperature. Also, the system offers an identification capability of k by means of fast power-versus-current curve scanning, which makes the short-current pulse-based MPPT method adaptive to disturbances such as shades partially covering the PV panels and surface contamination. The above adaptive MPPT algorithm has been introduced into a current-controlled boost chopper and a multiple power converter system composed of PV-and-chopper modules. Various operating characteristics have experimentally been examined on this multiple PV-and-chopper module system from a practical viewpoint and excellent MPPT performance has been confirmed through the tests.
Immigration and House Prices in the UK Filipa

Immigration and House Prices in the UK This article studies the effect of immigration on house prices in the UK. It finds that immigration has a negative effect on house prices and presents evidence that this negative effect is due to the mobility response of the native population. Natives respond to immigration by moving to different areas and those who leave are at the top of the wage distribution. This generates a negative income effect on housing demand and pushes down house prices. The negative effect of immigration on house prices is driven by local areas where immigrants have lower education. JEL Classification: J61, R21
A Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil or nuts reduces the incidence of major cardiovascular events in high-risk patients

Commentary on: Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvado J, et al. Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet. N Engl J Med 2013;368:1279–90. [OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] The Mediterranean diet has long been associated with lower risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, which is mainly based on results from observational studies. The PREDIMED study was a well-designed, large-scale randomised trial of 7447 middle-aged participants from Spain with high cardiovascular risk but no CVD. The participants were allocated to three groups: a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extravirgin olive oil (group 1), a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts (group 2) and a control group that followed a healthy diet with strong advice to reduce dietary fat (group 3). The primary endpoint of the … [1]: {openurl}? query=rft.jtitle%253DNew%2BEngland%2BJournal%2Bof%2BMedicine%26rft.stitle%253DNEJM%26rft.issn%253D0028-4793%26rft.aulast%253DEstruch%26rft.volume%253D368%26rft.spage%253D1279%26rft.atitle%253DPrimary%2BPrevention%2Bof%2BCardiovascular%2BDisease%2Bwith%2Ba%2BMediterranean%2BDiet. %26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1056%252FNEJMoa1200303%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F23432189%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref? access_num=10.1056/NEJMoa1200303&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref? access_num=23432189&link_type=MED&atom=%2Febmed%2F19%2F1%2F10.atom [4]: /lookup/external-ref? access_num=000316989900005&link_type=ISI
Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization ( TACE ) to Treat Primary or Metastatic Liver Malignancies Policy # 00227

©2017 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana An independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without permission from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana. Page 1 of 22 Applies to all products administered or underwritten by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and its subsidiary, HMO Louisiana, Inc.(collectively referred to as the “Company”), unless otherwise provided in the applicable contract. Medical technology is constantly evolving, and we reserve the right to review and update Medical Policy periodically.
Reconfiguration of two-dimensional meshes embedded in hypercubes

Proposes a method of reconfiguring 2D meshes embedded in hypercubes. Our reconfiguration for link failures consists of two stages. The first stage assigns the d dimensions of the hypercubes to two directions with respect to rows and columns in the mesh, so that the number of disconnected pairs with adjacent rows and columns becomes smaller. The second stage re-establishes the mesh communication by assigning the Cartesian product of two Gray code sequences, which represent the order of healthy rows and columns to every node. We introduce graphs with edges corresponding to connections between rows or columns, and search the sequences. Then either an approach based on the depth-first search or one based on a genetic algorithm is applied to the graphs. The approach is made valid for node failures by regarding a faulty node as a node without healthy links. Simulation results show that our method reconfigures embedded meshes efficiently with relatively short computation time.
Poly[[aqua(μ2-oxalato)(μ2-2-oxidopyridinium-3-carboxylato)dysprosium(III)] monohydrate]

In the title complex, {[Dy(C6H4NO3)(C2O4)(H2O)]·H2O}n, the DyIII ion is coordinated by seven O atoms from two 2-oxidopyridinium-3-carboxylate ligands, two oxalate ligands and one water molecule, displaying a distorted bicapped trigonal-prismatic geometry. The carboxylate groups of the 2-oxidopyridinium-3-carboxylate and oxalate ligands link dysprosium metal centres, forming layers parallel to (100). These layers are further connected by intermolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding interactions involving the coordinated water molecules, forming a three-dimensional supramolecular network. The uncoordinated water molecule is involved in N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding interactions within the layer.
An improved method for joint image registration and superresolution

Superresolution reconstruction (SRR) is an effective approach for improving spatial resolution of image, which need not change the original imaging system hardware. Among the SRR methods, jointly estimate image registration and superresolution can overcome the serve aliased between low resolution images. However, further studies are still necessary for choose appropriate prior mode for better preserving edge of image. Also it is important for the choice of adaptive regularization parameters in the SRR based on regularization/maximum a posteriori (MAP) method. In this paper, we propose a method for joint image registration and SRR method based on MAP framework. In the reconstruction, the initial high resolution image is firstly obtained by the shift-and-add method. Then, the edge-preserved MRF model is used to improve the reconstructed image quality. Moreover, adaptive regularization method is used in the SRR. Experimental results demonstrate our improved SRR method effective.
"Dad, Stop Crashing My Car!": Making Use of Probing to Inspire the Design of Future In-Car Interfaces

In order to envision novel in-car user interfaces, it is important to investigate driver and passenger behavior as well as to identify relevant context factors that influence this behavior. Automotive user interfaces are often concentrated on drivers and their needs, whereas passengers and their needs are paid little attention to. In this paper we report on a probing study, which aimed at revealing novel design ideas for interfaces for both, car drivers and passengers. The overall goal of the study was to get inspired by actual driver and passenger behavior. In particular, we investigated past behaviors and what we can learn from these episodes for automotive interface design. We illustrate the user-centered process of generating innovative design concepts for the automotive domain based on the results of the probing study. Additionally, we introduce three resulting design concepts by means of design sketches and textual descriptions to provide insights on the concrete results of our efforts. We discuss probing as a method to generate novel design ideas for the automotive UI community and reflect on the three emerged design concepts which focus on collaboration, behavior change, and entertainment in the car.
Localization and periodicity in unstable homotopy theory

In this paper, we develop a hierarchy of natural localizations of spaces, called the vn-periodizations for n > 0, which may be used to expose and study periodic phenomena in unstable homotopy theory. These vn-periodizations act less radically than the corresponding homological localizations [2] and respect fibrations to a very considerable extent. A major part of this paper is devoted to developing the general theory of periodizations of spaces, thereby providing a foundation for the study of the vn-periodization and many others. Some of this general theory has been developed independently by Dror Farjoun [13], [14], and we refer the reader to his work for an alternative approach with other interesting general results. During the past decade, remarkable progress was made by Ravenel, Hopkins, Devinatz, and Smith [12], [16], [17], [33] toward a global understanding of stable periodic phenomena, and we hope that the present paper will help to prepare the way for a similar understanding of unstable periodic phenomena. An excellent exposition of localization and periodicity in stable homotopy theory is now available in Ravenel's book [35]. Major features of stable homotopy are understood "chromatically" as manifestations of more basic periodic phenomena. These phenomena belong to a hierarchy starting with those detected rationally, followed by those detected in classical K-theory and in the successive Morava K-theories. Most fundamentally, each finite CW-spectrum has an intrinsic periodicity given by a "vn self-map" which becomes a selfequivalence after suitable localization. For simplicity, we describe our results in the pointed homotopy category Hoo of connected CW-complexes. For spaces W, Y E Hoo , we call Y W-periodic or W-local when the pointed mapping space map. (W, Y) is contractible, or equivalently when [Xt W, Y] * for t > 0. As shown more generally in [3, Corollary 7.2], [10], or [13], there is a natural initial example X -+ PwX of a map from X to a W-periodic space PwX in Hoo, and we call this the W-periodization or W-localization of X. Our notation is derived from the classical example where W = Sn+l and PwX is the n-th Postnikov section
A novel low complexity energy‐efficient resource allocation for OFDM systems

In this paper, we study energy efficiency of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing based system under power constraint and minimum rate requirement with system circuit power consideration. The optimal radio resource allocation is then formulated as an energy‐efficient maximisation where we propose a novel low complexity solution for obtaining the optimal solution. The solution consists of the optimal source transmission power and its distribution among subcarriers. In spite of the iterative solution with high computational complexity in previous works, we propose a quickly convergent low complexity scheme based on solving a nonlinear logarithmic equation. To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method, we compared its accuracy through simulations with the optimal solution in systems with and without circuit power consideration. Simulation studies indicate that the proposed method provide accurate solutions in both low and high signal to noise ratio regimes. The simulation results also indicate using our proposed method results in a significant improvement in the computational complexity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Construction and genetic selection of small transmembrane proteins that activate the human erythropoietin receptor

This work describes a genetic approach to isolate small, artificial transmembrane (TM) proteins with biological activity. The bovine papillomavirus E5 protein is a dimeric, 44-amino acid TM protein that transforms cells by specifically binding and activating the platelet-derived growth factor β receptor (PDGFβR). We used the E5 protein as a scaffold to construct a retrovirus library expressing ∼500,000 unique 44-amino acid proteins with randomized TM domains. We screened this library to select small, dimeric TM proteins that were structurally unrelated to erythropoietin (EPO), but specifically activated the human EPO receptor (hEPOR). These proteins did not activate the murine EPOR or the PDGFβR. Genetic studies with one of these activators suggested that it interacted with the TM domain of the hEPOR. Furthermore, this TM activator supported erythroid differentiation of primary human hematopoietic progenitor cells in vitro in the absence of EPO. Thus, we have changed the specificity of a protein so that it no longer recognizes its natural target but, instead, modulates an entirely different protein. This represents a novel strategy to isolate small artificial proteins that affect diverse membrane proteins. We suggest the word “traptamer” for these transmembrane aptamers.
Temporal Analysis of Genetic Structure to Assess Population Dynamics of Reintroduced Swift Foxes

Reintroductions are increasingly used to reestablish species, but a paucity of long‐term postrelease monitoring has limited understanding of whether and when viable populations subsequently persist. We conducted temporal genetic analyses of reintroduced populations of swift foxes (Vulpes velox) in Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan) and the United States (Montana). We used samples collected 4 years apart, 17 years from the initiation of the reintroduction, and 3 years after the conclusion of releases. To assess program success, we genotyped 304 hair samples, subsampled from the known range in 2000 and 2001, and 2005 and 2006, at 7 microsatellite loci. We compared diversity, effective population size, and genetic connectivity over time in each population. Diversity remained stable over time and there was evidence of increasing effective population size. We determined population structure in both periods after correcting for differences in sample sizes. The geographic distribution of these populations roughly corresponded with the original release locations, which suggests the release sites had residual effects on the population structure. However, given that both reintroduction sites had similar source populations, habitat fragmentation, due to cropland, may be associated with the population structure we found. Although our results indicate growing, stable populations, future connectivity analyses are warranted to ensure both populations are not subject to negative small‐population effects. Our results demonstrate the importance of multiple sampling years to fully capture population dynamics of reintroduced populations.
Stable modeling of different European power markets

In this paper, we address the issue of modeling spot prices of different European power markets. With the German, Nordic and Polish power markets, we consider three markets at a very different stage of liberalization. After summarizing the stylized facts about spot electricity prices, we provide a comparison of the considered markets in terms of price behavior. We find that there are striking differences: while for the Nordic and German power exchange prices show heavy tails, spikes, high volatility and heteroscedasticity, returns of spot prices in the Polish market can be modeled adequately by the Gaussian distribution. We introduce the stable Paretian distribution to capture heavy tails, high kurtosis and asymmetries in electricity spot prices. We further provide ARMA/GARCH time series models with Gaussian and stable innovations for modeling the behavior of the different markets.