Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-Power Variation-Aware Cores based on Dynamic Data-Dependent Bitwidth Truncation

Increasing variability of transistor parameters in nanoscale era renders modern circuits prone to timing failures. To address such failures, designers adopt pessimistic timing/voltage guardbands, which are estimated under rare worst-case conditions, thus leading to power and performance overheads. Recent approximation schemes based on precision reduction may help to limit the incurred overheads, but the precision is reduced statically in all operations. This results in unnecessary quality loss, since these schemes neglect the fact that only few long latency paths (LLPs) may be prone to failures, and such paths may be activated rarely. In this paper, we propose a variation-aware framework that minimizes any quality loss by dynamically truncating the bitwidth only for operands triggering the LLPs. This is achieved by predicting at runtime the excitation of the LLPs based on the processed operands. The applied truncation, which we implement by setting a number of least-significant bits to a constant value of zero, can effectively reduce the delay of the excited LLPs, providing sufficient timing slack to avoid failures without using conservative guardbands. To facilitate the adoption of such a scheme within pipelined cores and limit the incurred overheads, we also shape the path distribution appropriately for isolating the LLPs in a single pipeline stage. Additionally, to evaluate the efficacy of our framework, we perform post-layout dynamic timing analysis based on real operands that we extract from a variety of applications. When applied to the implementation of an IEEE-754 compatible double precision floating-point unit (FPU) in a 45nm technology, our approach eliminates timing failures under 8% delay variations with no performance loss. Our design comes at a cost of up-to 4.48% power and 0.34% area overheads, while the occasional operand truncation incurs minimal quality-loss in terms of relative error, up-to 4.1 • 10−6. Finally, when compared to an FPU with pessimistic margins, our technique can save up-to 44.3% power.
To Stir or Not to Stir: Online Estimation of Liquid Properties for Pouring Actions

Our brains are able to exploit coarse physical models of fluids to solve everyday manipulation tasks. There has been considerable interest in developing such a capability in robots so that they can autonomously manipulate fluids adapting to different conditions. In this paper, we investigate the problem of adaptation to liquids with different characteristics. We develop a simple calibration task (stirring with a stick) that enables rapid inference of the parameters of the liquid from RBG data. We perform the inference in the space of simulation parameters rather than on physically accurate parameters. This facilitates prediction and optimization tasks since the inferred parameters may be fed directly to the simulator. We demonstrate that our "stirring" learner performs better than when the robot is calibrated with pouring actions. We show that our method is able to infer properties of three different liquids -- water, glycerin and gel -- and present experimental results by executing stirring and pouring actions on a UR10. We believe that decoupling of the training actions from the goal task is an important step towards simple, autonomous learning of the behavior of different fluids in unstructured environments.
The Blood-Vessels of the Developing Spinal Cord of Xenopus laevis

Sterzi (1904) studied the blood-vessels of the developing spinal cord in representatives of various vertebrate groups. He correlated the early development of the vascular plexus on the lateral aspect of the neural tube with the mitotic activity within its lateral walls. He also correlated the greater vascularity of the grey matter, compared with that of the white matter, with the greater functional activity of the former. From the observation that there are 15 separate vessels that are constant in position and time of appearance during the development of the spinal cord of the chick, Feeney & Watterson (1946) reached the tentative conclusion that the pattern of the blood-vessels is determined by localized structural or physiological changes, or both. Observations on mammals by Craigie (1925), Petren (1938), and Gyllensten (1959) indicated a marked increase in vascularity of the cerebral cortex while differentiation was proceeding. Quantitative observations on the blood-vessels of the spinal cord during development are lacking.
Volterra series identification and its applications in structural identification of nonlinear block-oriented systems

This paper considers the identification of a Volterra system and its applications in structural identification of nonlinear block-oriented models. Any order of the Volterra output is estimated separately via multilevel excitations and optimizations. Then, each order of the Volterra kernels is estimated independently with improved accuracy. Finally, relationships between the first and the second order Volterra kernel functions of block-oriented models are exploited to determine the structures of nonlinear block-oriented systems. The simulation studies verify the effectiveness of the proposed Volterra series identification method and the structure identification method for nonlinear block-oriented systems.
The relative role of glacial refugia and longstanding barriers in the diversification of a fossorial squamate

The Neotropics host the highest number of species of the biological realms, but the roles of Pleistocene climatic oscillations and longstanding geographic barriers on the origins of this remarkable biodiversity remains debated. Here, we test the relative contribution of these evolutionary mechanisms on the genetic and phenotypic diversification of Amphisbaena pretrei, a poorly studied amphisbaenid from eastern Brazil. Ecological niche modelling identified a large area along the coast of north-eastern Brazil that remained climatically stable since the last glacial maximum (21 kyr). Morphological analysis revealed the existence of differentiation in the southernmost sampled locality, despite generalized morphometric conservatism. Genetic structure was organized into two clades that are separated by the São Francisco river and that diverged some 3 Myr, before the recent Pleistocene glacial cycles. Coalescent analyses rejected all scenarios that included demographic changes, supporting instead diversification under population stability, also confirmed by neutrality tests. Taken together, our results support a prominent role of the São Francisco river as a longstanding barrier favouring the diversification of the fossorial A. pretrei, relative to recent Pleistocenic demographic dynamics. Generally, this study shows that including species with diverse natural histories is necessary before attempting any generalization regarding the evolutionary processes underlying Neotropical biodiversity.
microRNAs in asthma pathogenesis - from mouse to man

Asthma is a heterogenic disease affecting over 300 million people of all ages and socioeconomic status worldwide. The disease is characterized by chronic airway inflammation, reversible airflow obstruction, wheeze, cough and shortness of breath. Although asthma has been traditionally described by phenotypes such as immune cell type or allergy, it is clear that a variety of subtypes have emerged, adding further complexity to the disease. microRNAs are small, non-coding RNAs that act as regulatory molecules, binding to one or several target mRNAs, often resulting in translational silencing. In recent years, microRNAs have been the subject of many studies in order to better understand the mechanisms driving asthma development as well as discovery of potential biomarkers for asthma. In this review, we focus on the emerging role of microRNAs in asthma, from animal models to human cohorts.
A study of median nerve cross sectional area in patients with mild to moderate idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome

Introduction: Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common entrapment neuropathy and is caused by median nerve compression at the wrist as it passes through carpal tunnel. Aim: To detect cross sectional area (CSA) of median nerve at the level of distal palmar crease and ratio of cross sectional area at level of proximal carpal tunnel to area 5 cm proximal to carpal tunnel using ultrasound. Materials and Methods: Consecutive patients of age between 18 and 70 years, who presented with paraesthesia of hands (aggravated by holding or keeping hand elevated or with history of nocturnal worsening) and electrophysiological confirmed as mild to moderate idiopathic cases of carpal tunnel syndrome were included in the study. Baseline nerve conduction study was done as per standard protocol for carpal tunnel syndrome. Nerve ultrasound was done with high frequency linear-array transducer (7-14 Hz). Results: 50 wrists in 30 Patients with CTS were studied. Females were more involved with a male: female ratio of 1:5. Mean age was 56.8 years (range 25–82 years). Majority of the cases were bilateral (67%). Dominant hand was involved more (80%) than non-dominant one. Most common symptoms were numbness (100%) and paraesthesia on holding (90.91%). On nerve ultrasound, all patients had CSA of median nerve at proximal carpal tunnel more than 10 square millimetre . The wrist fore-arm CSA ratio was more than 1 in all cases. Majority of the hands were having a cross sectional area 10-11.9 square millimetre and more than 16 square millimetre. We found correlation between CSA at distal palmar crease and median sensory conduction studies. Conclusion: Our study affirms previous studies in demonstrating the usefulness of ultrasonography in diagnosing CTS. Median nerve Cross-sectional area can be used for clinical screening of Carpal tunnel syndrome patients. Keyword: Carpal tunnel syndrome, Cross sectional area, Wrist-ultrasound.
Growth response of pastured Simmental calves to a high by-pass protein creep supplement

One hundred and thirty-seven cow-calf pairs on pasture in southeastern Alberta, were randomly allocated to one of two treatments no supplement (NOS) or a high by-pass protein (70% of CP) creep supplement (HPS) at an intake of 1.5 kg head−1 d−1. Calf weaning weights and pre-weaning ADG were higher (P < 0.01) in calves fed HPS (306.0 kg and 1.49 kg d−1) compared with NOS (298.2 kg and 1.41 kg d−1), respectively. However, it was uneconomical to feed this high by-pass creep as the feed cost of a kg of additional gain at weaning was $9.60. Key words: Creep supplement, pasture, growth, beef cattle
Paneth Cell α-Defensins from Rhesus Macaque Small Intestine

ABSTRACT Antimicrobial peptides are secreted by small intestinal Paneth cells as components of innate immunity. To investigate the role of α-defensins in enteric host defenses in nonhuman primates, α-defensin cDNAs were isolated, α-defensin peptides were purified from rhesus macaque small bowel, and the bactericidal activities of the peptides were measured. Six rhesus enteric α-defensin (RED) cDNAs, RED-1 to RED-6, were identified in a jejunum cDNA library; the deduced RED peptides exhibited extensive diversity relative to the primary structures of rhesus myeloid α-defensins. RED-4 was purified from monkey jejunum, and N-terminal peptide sequencing of putative RED-4 peptides identified two N termini, RTCYCRTGR… and TCYCRTGRC…; these corresponded to alternative N termini for the RED-4 molecules, as deduced from their molecular masses and RED cDNAs. In situ hybridization experiments localized RED mRNAs exclusively to small intestinal Paneth cells. Recombinant RED-1 to RED-4 were purified to homogeneity and shown to be microbicidal in the low micromolar range (≤10 μg/ml) against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, with individual peptides exhibiting variable target cell specificities. Thus, compared to myeloid α-defensins from rhesus macaques, enteric α-defensin peptides are highly variable in both primary structure and activity. These studies should facilitate further analyses of the role of α-defensins in primate enteric immunity.
Robustness of Distance-to-Default

Distance-to-default (DD) is a measure of default risk derived from observed stock prices and book leverage using the structural credit risk model of Merton (1974). Despite the simplifying assumptions that underlie its derivation, DD has proven empirically to be a strong predictor of default. We use simulations to show that the empirical success of DD may well be a result of its strong robustness to model misspecifications. We consider a number of deviations from the Merton model which involve different asset value dynamics and different default triggering mechanisms. We show that, in general, DD is successful in ranking firms’ default probabilities, even if the underlying model assumptions are altered. A possibility of large jumps in asset value or stochastic volatility challenge the robustness of DD. We propose a volatility adjustment of the distance-to-default measure that significantly improves the ranking of firms with stochastic volatility, but this measure is less robust to model misspecifications than DD.
Comparison of Douglas-fir site index and height growth curves in the Pacific Northwest

Site index and height growth curves produced by the major Douglas-fir (Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco) site index studies in the Pacific Northwest are graphically compared. Results indicate that differences in the height growth pattern of Douglas-fir increase with increasing distance between regions. Height growth differences were extremely small between the northern Rockies and the east side of the Cascades and were rather large between the Rockies and the west side of the Cascades. The relatively small differences between the northern Rockies and the Cascade crest fell between these two extremes. Very small differences were also found between Montana and northern Idaho. A second result of the comparisons is that the type of data and the resulting methodology used to develop the site index curve system are strongly related to the similarity of the resulting curves. Curves derived from felled-tree, stem-analysis studies were quite similar to each other, but differed substantially from curves derived .
Evidence-based supportive care in multiple myeloma

ABSTRACT Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy characterized by an abnormal clone of plasma cells in the bone marrow. MM and its therapy increase the risk of complications like anemia, osteolytic lesions, pain, infections, and renal abnormalities in MM patients. Supportive care for MM patients improves the quality of life. Treatment with bisphosphonates decreases skeletal-related events. Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are done in cases of vertebral compression fractures. Prophylactic antibiotics and antivirals can decrease infections related to morbidity. Plasmapheresis in patients with renal dysfunctions decreases dialysis dependency and improve quality of life.
Biostimulator Enhancement of Kentucky Bluegrass Sod

This study was conducted to determine if foliar-applied biostimulators could enhance harvestability and transplanting of Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) sod. The systemic triazole fungicides propiconazole at 42 mg.m −2 and triadimefon at 150 mg.m −2 enhanced post-transplant rooting and sod strength of bluegrass. Propiconazole had the best sod enhancement effect, increasing sod tensile strength 23% and increasing transplant root lift strength 64% across three experiments. The synthetic cytokinin benzyladenine (BA) at 6 mg.m −2 and seaweed extract (SWE, a freeze-dried extract of the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum) at 0.3 ml product/m 2 had little effect (.)
Integrative taxonomy of the Clavus canalicularis species complex (Drilliidae, Conoidea, Gastropoda) with description of four new species

ABSTRACT The conoidean family Drilliidae Olsson, 1964 is a species-rich lineage of marine gastropods, showing a high degree of diversification in comparison to other families of Conoidea. Despite intensive molecular phylogenetic studies during the last decade that have led to notable rearrangements of conoidean systematics, the genus- and species-level taxonomy of Drilliidae has not thus far been affected and remains entirely based on shell features. In the current study we revisit species delimitation in a morphological cluster of species from the Indo-Pacific referred to as the Clavus canalicularis complex, using an integrative taxonomy approach. The species in the complex possess robust thick-walled shells typically over 15 mm in height with sculpture of prominent rounded nodules located at the whorl’s shoulder, sometimes sharp and squamiform, or producing long spines. We find that in addition to five known species, the complex comprises four new species. These are described as Clavus brianmayi n. sp. (New Caledonia), Clavus davidgilmouri n. sp. (the Philippines), Clavus andreolbrichi n. sp. (Vanuatu and New Ireland) and Clavus kirkhammetti n. sp. (Madagascar). Clavus exasperatus (Reeve, 1843), which was previously considered widely distributed in Indo-Pacific, is shown to be confined to the western Indian Ocean.
‘Unintended Cities’ and Inoperative Violence. Housing Resistance in Yangon

ABSTRACT Urban development and city expansion in Yangon, Myanmar happened through the forced resettlement of people from the city toward the periphery. Forced resettlement has become the main mode of urban production since the British colonisation, and is sustained by laws, orders and policies. Building on Benjamin’s and Agamben’s essays on violence, we claim that it is possible to interrupt the endless cycle of law and violence by locating violence outside the debate around ‘means and ends’. Stemming from the authors’ experience and repeated encounters with practices of social mobilisation of women in Yangon over the last five years, we have traced the potential for deactivating the ‘signature’ of violence in the everyday practices of resistance of urban dwellers in the township of HlaingTharYar in Yangon. Through the incremental occupation, trespassing and building up of peripheral ‘vacant’ land, organised women’s groups are challenging the spatial order established by post/colonial regimes.
Access Control and Resource Allocation for M2M Communications in Industrial Automation

Machine-to-machine communication with autonomous data acquisition and exchange plays a key role in realizing the “control”-oriented tactile Internet applications such as industrial automation. In this paper, we develop a two-stage access control and resource allocation algorithm. In the first stage, we propose a contract-based incentive mechanism to motivate some delay-tolerant machine-type communication devices to postpone their access demands in exchange for higher access opportunities. In the second stage, a long-term cross-layer online resource allocation approach is proposed based on Lyapunov optimization, which jointly optimizes rate control, power allocation, and channel selection without prior knowledge of channel states. Particularly, the joint power allocation and channel selection problem is formulated as a two-dimensional matching problem, and solved by a pricing-based stable matching approach. Finally, the performance of the proposed algorithm is verified under various simulation scenarios.
A Context-Aware Multiarmed Bandit Incentive Mechanism for Mobile Crowd Sensing Systems

Smart city is a key component in Internet of Things, so it has attracted much attention. The emergence of mobile crowd sensing (MCS) systems enables many smart city applications. In an MCS system, sensing tasks are allocated to a number of mobile users. As a result, the sensing related context of each mobile user plays a significant role on service quality. However, some important sensing context is ignored in the literature. This motivates us to propose a context-aware multiarmed bandit (C-MAB) incentive mechanism to facilitate quality-based worker selection in an MCS system. We evaluate a worker’s service quality by its context (i.e., extrinsic ability and intrinsic ability) and cost. Based on our proposed C-MAB incentive mechanism and quality evaluation design, we develop a modified Thompson sampling worker selection (MTS-WS) algorithm to select workers in a reinforcement learning manner. MTS-WS is able to choose effective workers because it can maintain accurate worker quality information by updating evaluation parameters according to the status of task accomplishment. We theoretically prove that our C-MAB incentive mechanism is selection efficient, computationally efficient, individually rational, and truthful. Finally, we evaluate our MTS-WS algorithm on simulated and real-world datasets in comparison with some other classic algorithms. Our evaluation results demonstrate that MTS-WS achieves the highest cumulative utility of the requester and social welfare.
Hot Topic Community Discovery on Cross Social Networks

The rapid development of online social networks has allowed users to obtain information, communicate with each other and express different opinions. Generally, in the same social network, users tend to be influenced by each other and have similar views. However, on another social network, users may have opposite views on the same event. Therefore, research undertaken on a single social network is unable to meet the needs of research on hot topic community discovery. “Cross social network” refers to multiple social networks. The integration of information from multiple social network platforms forms a new unified dataset. In the dataset, information from different platforms for the same event may contain similar or unique topics. This paper proposes a hot topic discovery method on cross social networks. Firstly, text data from different social networks are fused to build a unified model. Then, we obtain latent topic distributions from the unified model using the Labeled Biterm Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LB-LDA) model. Based on the distributions, similar topics are clustered to form several topic communities. Finally, we choose hot topic communities based on their scores. Experiment result on data from three social networks prove that our model is effective and has certain application value.
Separation of Natural Keratin Protein from The Chicken Feather Waste

Protein is an important nutrient needed by our body to maintain body structures and is an important in- gredient for cosmetic products. Chicken feathers have high level of keratin protein content and can become a suitable protein source. So, the present research has conducted to extract keratin protein from chicken feathers. The chicken feathers were reduced using sodium sulfide solution and later on separating the protein from chemicals. The percentage of keratin protein is evaluated by use of biuret test and FTIR analysis. The analysis by FTIR confirmed the presence of carboxyl acid and amino groups in the protein solution. The biuret test helps in determining the concentration of protein obtained from different methods. Thus these two tests confirm the presence of protein in the solution. From this research, it is concluded that keratin protein can be extracted from chicken feathers.