Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Universal Approximation Property and Equivalence of Stochastic Computing-based Neural Networks and Binary Neural Networks

Large-scale deep neural networks are both memory intensive and computation-intensive, thereby posing stringent requirements on the computing platforms. Hardware accelerations of deep neural networks have been extensively investigated in both industry and academia. Specific forms of binary neural networks (BNNs) and stochastic computing based neural networks (SCNNs) are particularly appealing to hardware implementations since they can be implemented almost entirely with binary operations. Despite the obvious advantages in hardware implementation, these approximate computing techniques are questioned by researchers in terms of accuracy and universal applicability. Also it is important to understand the relative pros and cons of SCNNs and BNNs in theory and in actual hardware implementations. In order to address these concerns, in this paper we prove that the "ideal" SCNNs and BNNs satisfy the universal approximation property with probability 1 (due to the stochastic behavior). The proof is conducted by first proving the property for SCNNs from the strong law of large numbers, and then using SCNNs as a "bridge" to prove for BNNs. Based on the universal approximation property, we further prove that SCNNs and BNNs exhibit the same energy complexity. In other words, they have the same asymptotic energy consumption with the growing of network size. We also provide a detailed analysis of the pros and cons of SCNNs and BNNs for hardware implementations and conclude that SCNNs are more suitable for hardware.
In Praise of Serial Addition ( Locally Connected Architectures )

—This paper will briefly review nanoelectronic challenges while focusing on reliability. We shall present and analyze a series of CMOS-based examples for addition starting from the device level and moving up to the gate, the circuit, and the block level. Our analysis, backed by simulation results, on comparing parallel and serial addition shows that serial adders are more reliable and also dissipate less. Their reliability can be improved by using reliability-enhanced gates and/or other redundancy techniques (e.g., multiplexing). Additionally, the architectural technique of short-circuiting the outputs (of several redundant devices/gates/blocks) exhibits an inherent fault detection mechanism, as both transient and permanent faults could be detected based on current changes. The choice of CMOS is due to the broad design base available (but the ideas can be translated to other technologies), while addition was chosen due to its very solid background (both theoretical and practical). The design approach will constantly be geared towards enhancing reliability as much as possible at all the levels. Theory and simulations will support the claim that a serial adder is a very serious candidate for highly reliable and low power operations. Finally, our simulations will identify the V DD range where the power-delay-product and energy-delay-product are minimized. These suggest that a reliable (redundant) solution can also be a low power one if using serial architectures, and trading speed for power (e.g., by dynamically varying the supply voltage both above and below V th).
Cardiomyopathy responsive to gluten withdrawal in a patient with coeliac disease

A 57-year-old man with iron deficiency anaemia developed general malaise, exertional dyspnoea and features of cardiac failure out of proportion to his anaemia (haemoglobin 120 g/L). Investigations showed a severely dilated left ventricle with an ejection fraction of 15%, due to dilated cardiomyopathy. He was treated with high-dose diuretics, ACE inhibitors and β-blocker therapy. Subsequent investigation into his iron deficiency anaemia revealed a new diagnosis of coeliac disease. After starting a gluten-free diet, his cardiac function improved markedly, with ejection fraction reaching 70%, allowing his cardiac medications to be withdrawn. This case suggests a link between coeliac disease and cardiomyopathy.
Practical Linked Data Access via SPARQL: The Case of Wikidata

SPARQL is one of the main APIs for accessing linked data collections. Compared to other modes of access, SPARQL queries carry much more information on the precise information need of users, and their analysis can therefore yield valuable insights into the practical usage of linked data sets. In this paper, we focus on Wikidata, the knowledge-graph sister of Wikipedia, which offers linked data exports and a heavily used SPARQL endpoint since 2015. Our detailed analysis of Wikidata’s server-side query logs reveals several important differences to previously studied uses of SPARQL over large knowledge graphs. Wikidata queries tend to be much more complex and varied than queries observed elsewhere. Our analysis is founded on a simple but effective separation of robotic from organic traffic. Whereas the robotic part is highly volatile and seems unpredictable even on larger time scales, the much smaller organic part shows clear trends in individual human usage. We analyse query features, structure, and content to gather further evidence that our approach is essential for obtaining meaningful results here.
A 201.4GOPS 496mW real-time multi-object recognition processor with bio-inspired neural perception engine

The visual attention mechanism, which is the way humans perform object recognition [1], was applied to the implementation of a high performance object recognition chip [2]. Even though the previous chip achieved 50% gain of computational cost [2], it could recognize only one object in a frame so that it is not suitable for advanced multi-object recognition applications such as video surveillance, intelligent robots, and autonomous vehicle navigation [3].
Association between Polymorphisms in the Promoter Regions of Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) and Risk of Cancer Metastasis: A Meta-Analysis

Background A variety of studies have evaluated the associations between polymorphisms in the promoter regions of Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and cancer metastasis. However, the results remain inconclusive. To better understand the roles of MMP polymorphisms in metastasis, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis. Methods Electronic databases were searched (from January 2000 to June 2011) for any MMP genetic association studies in metastasis. Overall and subgroup analyses were performed. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to evaluate the associations between MMP polymorphisms and metastasis. Statistical analysis was performed with Review Manager 5.0 and STATA11.0. Results Thirty-three studies addressing five MMP polymorphisms were analyzed among 10,516 cancer cases (4,059 metastasis-positive cases and 6,457 metastasis-negative cases). For MMP1 (−1607)1G/2G, genotype 2G/2G increased the overall risk of metastasis under the recessive model (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.05–1.98). In subgroup analysis based on cancer type, associations were found in head/neck and breast cancer under the recessive model, and also in breast cancer under the dominant model. For MMP3 (−1171) 5A/6A, the polymorphism decreased the overall risk of metastasis under two genetic models (recessive: OR = 0.80, 95%CI = 0.64–0.99, dominant: OR = 0.72, 95%CI = 0.56–0.93). The polymorphisms of MMP7 (−181) A/G and MMP9 (−1562) C/T increased metastatic risk. However, no association was observed between MMP2 (−1306) C/T and metastasis. Conclusions Our investigations demonstrate that polymorphisms in the promoter regions of MMP1, 3, 7 and 9 might be associated with metastasis in some cancers. Further studies with large sample size for MMP2 should be conducted.
Cross-Modal Attention Effects in the Vestibular Cortex during Attentive Tracking of Moving Objects.

The midposterior fundus of the Sylvian fissure in the human brain is central to the cortical processing of vestibular cues. At least two vestibular areas are located at this site: the parietoinsular vestibular cortex (PIVC) and the posterior insular cortex (PIC). It is now well established that activity in sensory systems is subject to cross-modal attention effects. Attending to a stimulus in one sensory modality enhances activity in the corresponding cortical sensory system, but simultaneously suppresses activity in other sensory systems. Here, we wanted to probe whether such cross-modal attention effects also target the vestibular system. To this end, we used a visual multiple-object tracking task. By parametrically varying the number of tracked targets, we could measure the effect of attentional load on the PIVC and the PIC while holding the perceptual load constant. Participants performed the tracking task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results show that, compared with passive viewing of object motion, activity during object tracking was suppressed in the PIVC and enhanced in the PIC. Greater attentional load, induced by increasing the number of tracked targets, was associated with a corresponding increase in the suppression of activity in the PIVC. Activity in the anterior part of the PIC decreased with increasing load, whereas load effects were absent in the posterior PIC. Results of a control experiment show that attention-induced suppression in the PIVC is stronger than any suppression evoked by the visual stimulus per se. Overall, our results suggest that attention has a cross-modal modulatory effect on the vestibular cortex during visual object tracking. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In this study we investigate cross-modal attention effects in the human vestibular cortex. We applied the visual multiple-object tracking task because it is known to evoke attentional load effects on neural activity in visual motion-processing and attention-processing areas. Here we demonstrate a load-dependent effect of attention on the activation in the vestibular cortex, despite constant visual motion stimulation. We find that activity in the parietoinsular vestibular cortex is more strongly suppressed the greater the attentional load on the visual tracking task. These findings suggest cross-modal attentional modulation in the vestibular cortex.
Overweight in Celiac Disease: Prevalence, Clinical Characteristics, and Effect of a Gluten-Free Diet

BACKGROUND:It is well established that a minority of celiac patients present with “classic” symptoms due to malabsorption. However, few studies have focussed on the distribution of body mass index (BMI) in celiac populations and its relationship to clinical characteristics, or on its response to treatment.METHODS:We reviewed BMI measurements and other clinical and pathological characteristics from a database of 371 celiac patients diagnosed over a 10-yr period and seen by a single gastroenterologist. To assess response to gluten exclusion, we compared BMI at diagnosis and after 2 yr treatment in patients with serological support for dietary compliance.RESULTS:Mean BMI was 24.6 kg/m2 (range 16.3–43.5). Seventeen patients (5%) were underweight (BMI <18.5), 211 (57%) were normal, and 143 (39%) were overweight (BMI ≥25), including 48 (13% of all patients) in the obese range (BMI ≥30.0). There was a significant association between low BMI and female gender, history of diarrhea, reduced hemoglobin concentration, reduced bone mineral density (BMD), osteoporosis, and higher grades (subtotal/total) of villous atrophy. Of patients compliant with a gluten-free diet, 81% had gained weight after 2 yr, including 82% of initially overweight patients.CONCLUSIONS:Few celiac patients are underweight at diagnosis and a large minority is overweight; these are less likely to present with classical features of diarrhea and reduced hemoglobin. Failed or delayed diagnosis of celiac disease may reflect lack of awareness of this large subgroup. The increase in weight of already overweight patients after dietary gluten exclusion is a potential cause of morbidity, and the gluten-free diet as conventionally prescribed needs to be modified accordingly.
Clinical relevance of terminal Schwann cells: An overlooked component of the neuromuscular junction

The terminal Schwann cell (tSC), a type of nonmyelinating Schwann cell, is a significant yet relatively understudied component of the neuromuscular junction. In addition to reviewing the role tSCs play on formation, maintenance, and remodeling of the synapse, we review studies that implicate tSCs in neuromuscular diseases including spinal muscular atrophy, Miller–Fisher syndrome, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, among others. We also discuss the importance of these cells on degeneration and regeneration after nerve injury. Knowledge of tSC biology may improve our understanding of disease pathogenesis and help us identify new and innovative therapeutic strategies for the many patients who suffer from neuromuscular disorders and nerve injuries.
Nanocomposites Based on CdS Quantum Dots for Laser Control Devices

Here we report about study the novel class of nanocomposite for optical control devices. It was observed that nanocomposite based on cadmium sulfide quantum dots in silica matrix can change its optical properties under irradiation of UV-light. These changes are expressed as increasing of optical absorbance coefficient and not only decreasing of luminescence intensity but in some cases red-shifting of maximum. Dependence of quantum dot optical properties upon the kind of matrix and polarization degree of modifying radiation was obtained.
Fat Supplementation to the Periparturient Dairy Cow : Does Fatty Acid Profile Matter ?

The addition of supplemental fatty acid (FA) sources to diets is a common practice in dairy nutrition to increase dietary energy density and to support milk production. Recently, the effects of individual FA on digestibility, metabolism, and production responses of dairy cows has received renewed attention. In fresh cows, the high metabolic demand of lactation and reduced DMI during the immediate postpartum period result in a state of negative energy balance. Approaches to increasing energy intake of postpartum cows include increasing starch content of the diet and supplementing FA to increase the energy density of the diet. However, feeding high starch diets that promote greater ruminal propionate production during early lactation could be hypophagic and therefore further reduce DMI and increase the risk of ruminal acidosis and displaced abomasum (Allen and Piantoni, 2013). Regarding supplemental FA, some authors suggest that caution should be exercised when using dietary FA to increase the caloric density of diets in early lactation dairy cows, since a high lipid load may affect the endocrine system, feed intake, and increase the risk for metabolic disorders (Kuhla et al., 2016). However, just as we recognize that not all protein sources are the same it is important to remember that not all FA or FA supplements are the same. We will briefly review the biological processes and quantitative changes during the metabolism of FA, the digestibility of these FA, and their overall impact on performance. Our emphasis in the current paper is on recent research supplementing palmitic (C16:0), stearic (C18:0), oleic (cis-9 C18:1), omega-3, and omega-6 acids on feed intake, nutrient digestibility, and milk production.
Evaluating the personality structure of semi-captive Asian elephants living in their natural habitat

Data on personality for long-lived, highly social wild mammals with high cognitive abilities are rare. We investigated the personality structure of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) by using a large sample of semi-captive timber elephants in Myanmar. Data were collected during 2014–2017 using questionnaires, for which elephant riders (mahouts) rated 28 behavioural adjectives of elephants. Repeated questionnaires were obtained for each elephant from several raters whenever possible, resulting in 690 ratings of 150 female and 107 male elephants. We started by performing a confirmatory factor analysis to compare the fit of our data to a previously published captive elephant personality structure. Owing to a poor fit of this model to our data, we proceeded by performing explanatory factor analysis to determine the personality structure in our study population. This model suggested that personality in these elephants was manifested as three factors that we labelled as Attentiveness, Sociability and Aggressiveness. This structure did not differ between the sexes. These results provide the basis for future research on the link between personality and reproductive success in this endangered species and more generally, help to resolve the selective pressures on personalities in long-lived, highly social species.
Perceptual load effects on processing distractor faces indicate face-specific capacity limits

The claim that face perception is mediated by a specialized “face module” that proceeds automatically, independently of attention (e.g., Kanwisher, 2000) can be reconciled with load theory claims that visual perception has limited capacity (e.g., Lavie, 1995) by hypothesizing that face perception has face-specific capacity limits. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the effects of face and nonface perceptual load on distractor face processing. Participants searched a central array of either faces or letter strings for a pop star versus politician's face or name and made speeded classification responses. Perceptual load was varied through the relevant search set size. Response competition effects from a category-congruent or -incongruent peripheral distractor face were eliminated with more than two faces in the face search task, but were unaffected by perceptual load in the name search task. These results support the hypothesis that face perception has face-specific capacity limits and resolve apparent discrepancies in previous research.
On a non-local equation arising in population dynamics

We study a one-dimensional non-local variant of Fisher's equation describing the spatial spread of a mutant in a given population, and its generalization to the so-called monostable nonlinearity. The dispersion of the genetic characters is assumed to follow a non-local diffusion law modelled by a convolution operator. We prove that, as in the classical (local) problem, there exist travelling-wave solutions of arbitrary speed beyond a critical value and also characterize the asymptotic behaviour of such solutions at infinity. Our proofs rely on an appropriate version of the maximum principle, qualitative properties of solutions and approximation schemes leading to singular limits.
Radiometric calibration and stability of the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI)

Landsat-8 and its two Earth imaging sensors, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) have been operating on-orbit for 2 1/2 years. The OLI radiometric calibration, which is monitored using on-board lamps, on-board solar diffusers, the moon and vicarious calibration techniques has been stable to within 1% over this period of time. The Coastal Aerosol band, band 1, shows the largest change at about 1% over the period; all other bands have shown no significant trend. OLI bands 1- 4 show small discontinuities in response (+0.1% to 0.2%) beginning about 7 months after launch and continuing for about 1 month associated with a power cycling of the instrument, though the origin of the recovery is unclear. To date these small changes have not been compensated for, but this will change with a reprocessing campaign that is currently scheduled for Fall 2015. The calibration parameter files (each typically covering a 3 month period) will be updated for these observed gain changes. A fitted response to an adjusted average of the lamps, solar and lunar results will represent the trend, sampled at the rate of one value per CPF.
Facilitating prevention in primary care.

not sustained in the United Kingdom. These include the universities, research councils, and medical research charities with their responsibilities for teaching and research; the health service with its need for better understanding of disease; and industry, particularly the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, they need reminding that the clinical, managerial, and teaching demands placed on some clinical academics are such that they have little chance of conducting high quality research and of obtaining research funds in competition with scientists without these responsibilities. The larger medical charities have a creditable record in supporting senior posts in which research time is protected, but many branches of medical research are not directly supported by charities oriented towards a specialty or disease, or the charities are too small to support career posts. We may hope that the heightened awareness of health research that has followed Professor Michael Peckham's appointment as director of research and development at the Department of Health will provide a boost for academic medicine. A consensus now calls for the creation of more consultant posts to reflect the growth of specialisation and the needs of an increasingly consultant led service. Such expansion needs to be accompanied by a commensurate increase in career posts in academic medicine, and these posts must offer the same financial rewards as their full time NHS counterparts. D K PETERS Regius Professor of Physic, University of Cambridge School of Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2SP
A Comparative Study of Syntactic Parsers for Event Extraction

The extraction of biomolecular events from text is an important task for a number of domain applications such as pathway construction. Several syntactic parsers have been used in Biomedical Natural Language Processing (BioNLP) applications, and the BioNLP 2009 Shared Task results suggest that incorporation of syntactic analysis is important to achieving state-of-the-art performance. Direct comparison of parsers is complicated by to differences in the such as the division between phrase structure- and dependency-based analyses and the variety of output formats, structures and representations applied. In this paper, we present a task-oriented comparison of five parsers, measuring their contribution to biomolecular event extraction using a state-of-the-art event extraction system. The results show that the parsers with domain models using dependency formats provide very similar performance, and that an ensemble of different parsers in different formats can improve the event extraction system.
Genetic Biomarkers for ALS Disease in Transgenic SOD1G93A Mice

The pathophysiological mechanisms of both familial and sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) are unknown, although growing evidence suggests that skeletal muscle tissue is a primary target of ALS toxicity. Skeletal muscle biopsies were performed on transgenic SOD1G93A mice, a mouse model of ALS, to determine genetic biomarkers of disease longevity. Mice were anesthetized with isoflurane, and three biopsy samples were obtained per animal at the three main stages of the disease. Transcriptional expression levels of seventeen genes, Ankrd1, Calm1, Col19a1, Fbxo32, Gsr, Impa1, Mef2c, Mt2, Myf5, Myod1, Myog, Nnt, Nogo A, Pax7, Rrad, Sln and Snx10, were tested in each muscle biopsy sample. Total RNA was extracted using TRIzol Reagent according to the manufacturer's protocol, and variations in gene expression were assayed by real-time PCR for all of the samples. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the linear correlation between transcriptional expression levels throughout disease progression and longevity. Consistent with the results obtained from total skeletal muscle of transgenic SOD1G93A mice and 74-day-old denervated mice, five genes (Mef2c, Gsr, Col19a1, Calm1 and Snx10) could be considered potential genetic biomarkers of longevity in transgenic SOD1G93A mice. These results are important because they may lead to the exploration of previously unexamined tissues in the search for new disease biomarkers and even to the application of these findings in human studies.