Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Flexible and Portable Large-Scale DGEMM Library for Linpack on Next-Generation Multi-GPU Systems

In recent years, high performance computing has benefitted greatly from special accelerator cards such as GPUs. Matrix multiplication performed by the BLAS function DGEMM is one of the prime examples where such accelerators excel. DGEMM is the computational hotspot of many tasks, among them the Linpack benchmark. Current GPUs achieve more than 1 TFLOPS real performance in this task. Being connected via PCI Express, one can easily install multiple GPUs in a single compute node. This enables the construction of multi-TFLOPS systems out of off-the-shelf components. At such high performance, it is often complicated to feed the GPUs with sufficient data to run at full performance. In this paper we first analyze the scalability of our DGEMM implementation for multiple fast GPUs. Then we suggest a new scheme optimized for this situation and we present an implementation.
Prescribing is not the only issue for nurses and drugs.

A leading consultant physician once told me that if it wasn't for nurses then doctors would be making terrible mistakes in their prescribing of drugs. He went on to point out how senior nurses throughout his medical career had helped him with his prescribing by either pointing out where he had got a dose wrong or had incorrectly prescribed medication for a patient. Throughout my nursing career I have spent a considerable amount of time correcting and helping doctors with their prescribing. In fact, just last week there was a situation in my practice where a doctor wrote up a prescription sheet wrongly.
Nitric oxide: does it have an etiological role in pre-eclampsia?

AIM To determine evidence of nitric oxide (NO) in decidual biopsies and fetal membranes of preeclamptic women. BACKGROUND Nitric oxide, a potent vasodilator, has been postulated to have a role in the etiology of preeclampsia. Investigations in peripheral blood have led to conflicting results. We therefore decided to study whether immunohistochemically detectable nitric oxide is produced in the decidua and within the fetal membranes. METHODS Forty-two pregnant women at 28 weeks gestation or more were enrolled. Twenty were normotensive and 22 had preeclampsia. Women with chronic hypertension, diabetes and multiple pregnancies were excluded. Maternal blood samples prior to cesarean section (CS), decidual biopsies during CS, and fetal membrane specimens were obtained. The tissue specimens were fixed immediately (after delivery of the baby and placenta) in formalin, washed, and embedded in paraffin. Immunohistochemical staining for nitric oxide synthases (NOS) I, II, III was performed and reviewed in conjunction with routine hematoxylin and eosin sections, using light microscopy. RESULTS There was no statistically significant difference in the level of immunostaining of nitric oxide synthases in both normotensive and hypertensive patients. DISCUSSION The severity of blood pressure did not influence expression of nitric oxide synthases.
Performance problems you can fix: a dynamic analysis of memoization opportunities

Performance bugs are a prevalent problem and recent research proposes various techniques to identify such bugs. This paper addresses a kind of performance problem that often is easy to address but difficult to identify: redundant computations that may be avoided by reusing already computed results for particular inputs, a technique called memoization. To help developers find and use memoization opportunities, we present MemoizeIt, a dynamic analysis that identifies methods that repeatedly perform the same computation. The key idea is to compare inputs and outputs of method calls in a scalable yet precise way. To avoid the overhead of comparing objects at all method invocations in detail, MemoizeIt first compares objects without following any references and iteratively increases the depth of exploration while shrinking the set of considered methods. After each iteration, the approach ignores methods that cannot benefit from memoization, allowing it to analyze calls to the remaining methods in more detail. For every memoization opportunity that MemoizeIt detects, it provides hints on how to implement memoization, making it easy for the developer to fix the performance issue. Applying MemoizeIt to eleven real-world Java programs reveals nine profitable memoization opportunities, most of which are missed by traditional CPU time profilers, conservative compiler optimizations, and other existing approaches for finding performance bugs. Adding memoization as proposed by MemoizeIt leads to statistically significant speedups by factors between 1.04x and 12.93x.
Feasibility Studies on Si-Based Biosensors

The aim of this paper is to summarize the efforts carried out so far in the fabrication of Si-based biosensors by a team of researchers in Catania, Italy. This work was born as a collaboration between the Catania section of the Microelectronic and Microsystem Institute (IMM) of the CNR, the Surfaces and Interfaces laboratory (SUPERLAB) of the Consorzio Catania Ricerche and two departments at the University of Catania: the Biomedical Science and the Biological Chemistry and Molecular Biology Departments. The first goal of our study was the definition and optimization of an immobilization protocol capable of bonding the biological sensing element on a Si-based surface via covalent chemical bonds. We chose SiO2 as the anchoring surface due to its biocompatibility and extensive presence in microelectronic devices. The immobilization protocol was tested and optimized, introducing a new step, oxide activation, using techniques compatible with microelectronic processing. The importance of the added step is described by the experimental results. We also tested different biological molecule concentrations in the immobilization solutions and the effects on the immobilized layer. Finally a MOS-like structure was designed and fabricated to test an electrical transduction mechanism. The results obtained so far and the possible evolution of the research field are described in this review paper.
A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for portfolio optimisation

The use of heuristic evolutionary algorithms to address the problem of portfolio optimisation has been well documented. In order to decide which assets to invest in and how much to invest, one needs to assess the potential risk and return of different portfolios. This problem is ideal for solving using a Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) that maximises return and minimises risk. We are working on a new MOEA loosely based on Zitzler's Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA2) [20] using Value at Risk (VaR) as the risk constraint. This algorithm currently uses a dynamic population in order to overcome the problem of loosing solutions. We are also investigating a dynamic diversity and density operator.
The role of asymptotic sampling zero dynamics in the sampled-data control of continuous nonlinear systems

It is known that controllers designed based on an approximate discrete time model can fail when applied to the real process. This is a well studied problem in nonlinear systems theory. Here we exploit recent results on the asymptotic sampling zeros of nonlinear systems to gain insight into one failure mechanism for sampled-data controllers for continuous time nonlinear systems. It is argued that the sampled-data model has to account, in some way, for the sampling zero dynamics if high-bandwidth control of a continuous nonlinear system is required.
Reactive oxygen species mediate abnormal contractile response to sympathetic nerve stimulation and noradrenaline in the vas deferens of chronically diabetic rats: effects of in vivo treatment with antioxidants

Previous studies suggest that a link exists between increased oxidative stress and diabetic neuropathy. Moreover, antioxidants may protect neurones from the degenerative effects of reactive oxygen species. In our study, we used streptozotocin (STZ)‐diabetic rats in a 8‐month chronic diabetes model to study the effects of in vivo treatment with stobadine (ST), a pyridoindole antioxidant, and vitamin E. STZ‐diabetic rats were treated with ST (24.7 mg/kg/day), vitamin E (d,l‐alpha‐tocopheryl acetate, 400–500 IU/kg/day) or ST plus vitamin E through an intra‐oral catheter for a 8‐month period beginning 10 days after STZ injection. Blood glucose and HbA1c levels were increased in diabetic rats by about 400 and 100%, respectively. Antioxidant treatment significantly decreased haemoglobin glycosylation (P < 0.05). We also determined the effects of chronic diabetes on sympathetic neurotransmission by measuring the contractility of isolated vas deferens. Furthermore, we investigated contractions elicited by electrical field stimulation (EFS) (1–64 Hz) which were significantly decreased in diabetic rats when compared with control rats. Treatment with ST or vitamin E alone partly enhanced the amplitude of the contractions induced by EFS, but a combination of ST and vitamin E treatment showed no additional effects. Contractile response of the vas deferens to exogenous noradrenaline, was increased in diabetic rats when compared with control rats. While the addition of vitamin E alone had no effect, ST completely returned noradrenaline‐induced contractions to basal levels. The tension induced by 120 mm KCl was not statistically different among the experimental groups. In normal rats, EFS‐induced contractions were significantly inhibited by pyrogallol (10−4 m), a free‐radical generator. Percentage inhibition of pyrogallol on EFS (32 Hz)‐induced contractions in ring sections was 48 ± 5.8 in control, 75 ± 5.5 in untreated‐diabetic, 54 ± 2.7 in ST‐treated diabetic, and 58 ± 4.7 in vitamin E‐treated diabetic rats. Combining both ST and vitamin E treatment had the same effects as each antioxidant alone with a percent inhibition of 48 ± 6.8. These results are consistent with the degenerative changes seen in sympathetic nerves and the abnormal function observed in chronically diabetic rats, leading to a decrease in EFS response and an increase in response to adrenergic agonists in the vas deferens. Furthermore, we demonstrated that reactive oxygen species are responsible for impaired sympathetic neurotransmission and abnormal function of diabetic vas deferens, and that a combination of antioxidants may be better for the therapy of reproductive system disabilities in male diabetics.
Probiotics and therapeutic effect in clinical practice - Review

A review regarding the relationships between probiotics and the health is presented. After a brief historical introduction, the main mechanisms and beneficial effects of probiotics, the immune system, probiotics like microorganisms and beneficial effects of probiotics on health are presented. Clinical studies with probiotics are discussed in detail. Many experimental studies have found that probiotics are specific effects for all diseases studied and discussed in this review. This review underlines the potential interest in probiotics for the management of diseases pathology.
Environmental Effects on Allergen Levels in Commercially Grown Non-Genetically Modified Soybeans: Assessing Variation Across North America

Soybean (Glycine max) is a hugely valuable soft commodity that generates tens of billions of dollars annually. This value is due in part to the balanced composition of the seed which is roughly 1:2:2 oil, starch, and protein by weight. In turn, the seeds have many uses with various derivatives appearing broadly in processed food products. As is true with many edible seeds, soybeans contain proteins that are anti-nutritional factors and allergens. Soybean, along with milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, and wheat, elicit a majority of food allergy reactions in the United States. Soybean seed composition can be affected by breeding, and environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, moisture, insect/pathogen load, and/or soil nutrient levels). The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of genotype and environment on allergen and anti-nutritional proteins in soybean. To address genetic and environmental effects, four varieties of non-GM soybeans were grown in six geographically distinct regions of North America (Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Ontario, and Pennsylvania). Absolute quantification of proteins by mass spectrometry can be achieved with a technique called multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), during which signals from an endogenous protein are compared to those from a synthetic heavy-labeled internal standard. Using MRM, eight allergens were absolutely quantified for each variety in each environment. Statistical analyses show that for most allergens, the effects of environment far outweigh the differences between varieties brought about by breeding.
A system for real time processing of neural signals for use as prosthetic controllers

A system is described for use as a neural prosthetic controller in humans that is undergoing testing in sub-human primates. It provides transcutaneous power induction for ultra long-term use of devices that monitor neural activity in the motor cortex. These neural signals will be used to control muscle stimulators and other prosthetic devices.
Coordinated Attention and Resuscitation in Code Blue Events through the CARES System: A Preliminary Evaluation

Code Blue refers to a medical situation in which a patient suffers cardiac or respiratory arrest and requires immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). A few systems have been developed to support these types of situations. In this paper, we present a preliminary evaluation of CARES, a system that employs mobile technology to support the coordination of response teams in Code Blue emergencies to minimize response times. The evaluation of the CARES system is aimed at exploring the usefulness and ease of use constructs in medical staff. From the data collected, participants agree that the system would be easy to use. Particularly, the Ease of Use factor was rated generally higher that the Usefulness construct by our participants.
A Flux-limited Sample of Bright Clusters of Galaxies from the Southern Part of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey: The Catalog and log N-log S

We describe the selection of an X-ray flux-limited sample of bright clusters of galaxies in the southern hemisphere, based on the first analysis of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey data (RASS1). The sample is constructed starting from an identification of candidate clusters in RASS1, after which their X-ray fluxes are remeasured using the steepness-ratio technique. This method is better suited than the RASS1 standard algorithm to measuring flux from extended sources. The final sample is count-rate-limited in the ROSAT hard band (0.5-2.0 keV), so that as a result of the distribution of NH, its effective flux limit varies between ~3 and 4×10−12 ergs cm-2 s-1 over the selected area. This covers the δ<2. °5 part of the south Galactic cap region (b<-20°), excluding patches of low RASS1 exposure time and of the Magellanic Clouds area, for a total of 8235 deg2. One hundred and thirty candidate sources fulfill our selection criteria for bona fide clusters of galaxies in this area. Of these, 101 are Abell/ACO clusters, while 29 do not have a counterpart in these catalogs. Of these clusters, 126 (97%) have a redshift, and for these we compute an X-ray luminosity. 20% of the cluster redshifts come from new observations, as part of the ESO Key Program survey of RASS clusters that is currently under completion. Considering the intrinsic biases and incompletenesses introduced by the flux selection and source identification processes, we estimate the overall completeness to be better than 90%. The observed number count distribution, log N-log S, is well fitted by a power law with slope α=1.34±0.15 and normalization A=11.87±1.04 sr-1 (10-11 ergs cm-2 s-1)α, in good agreement with other measurements.
On the Recognition of Handwritten Math Equations

Handwriting recognition is a classic machine learning problem that has led to extensive research and a number of highly accurate solutions. Some handwriting recognition algorithms are achieving near-human level performance. We employ tools used in handwriting recognition to handwritten math equations. While typing is generally much faster than writing by hand, math equations have the opposite property: writing equations by hand is more efficient than typesetting them. Furthermore, whereas handwritten equations are human-readable, the “code” of typesetting languages are often highly nested and difficult to edit. These problems of typesetting present an opportunity for improving the workflow of writing math equations digitally. In addition, recognizing mathematical equations is important for digitalizing past scientific works.
Managing the Quality of UML Models in Practice

abStract Many studies have been carried out to investigate what makes up good quality software. Some of the early BLOCKINmodels BLOCKINthat BLOCKINdefine BLOCKINthe BLOCKINquality BLOCKINof BLOCKINsoftware BLOCKINcome BLOCKINfrom BLOCKINBoehm BLOCKIN(1976) BLOCKINand BLOCKINMcCall BLOCKIN(1977). BLOCKINWorks BLOCKINin this BLOCKINfield BLOCKINof BLOCKINquality BLOCKINmodels BLOCKINhave BLOCKINtraditionally BLOCKINfocused BLOCKINon BLOCKINquality BLOCKINof BLOCKINthe BLOCKINfinal BLOCKINsoftware BLOCKINproduct. BLOCKINSince BLOCKINthe 1970's BLOCKINmodels BLOCKINof BLOCKINsoftware BLOCKINhave BLOCKINbeen BLOCKINused BLOCKINand BLOCKINthis BLOCKINhas BLOCKINrecently BLOCKINattracted BLOCKINmuch BLOCKINattention BLOCKINthrough BLOCKINthe popularity of model-driven BLOCKINsoftware BLOCKINdevelopment BLOCKIN(MDSD). BLOCKINHowever, BLOCKINquality BLOCKINof BLOCKINsoftware BLOCKINmodels BLOCKINhas rarely BLOCKINbeen BLOCKINconsidered BLOCKIN(Lange BLOCKIN& BLOCKINChaudron, BLOCKIN2005). BLOCKINIn BLOCKINthe BLOCKINsoftware BLOCKINdevelopment BLOCKINlife BLOCKINcycle, BLOCKINthe BLOCKINability to assure software quality long before the testing phase may save a lot of money since less defects found in the testing phase will mean less effort to be allocated for rework. Currently, the importance of model quality is starting to gain attention from computer scientists. Work in this area has since focused on developing tools, metrics, and frameworks to improve the quality of models that guide implementation, particularly in the context of UML modeling which has become the de facto standard for building object oriented software. Quality of models can be considered from many different perspectives. In this chapter, we will consider the following perspectives: Firstly, is the model complete in the sense that it describes the information that developers need to know about a system? Secondly, we look at the degree in which a model of a system and an implementation correspond. This degree of correspondence indicates to what extent analyses of—or predictions based on the model are valid for the implementation. We present the main BLOCKINfindings BLOCKINfrom BLOCKINcase BLOCKINstudies BLOCKINinto BLOCKINquality BLOCKINof BLOCKINmodeling BLOCKINin BLOCKINthe BLOCKINsoftware BLOCKINindustry BLOCKINas BLOCKINwell BLOCKINas BLOCKINfindings BLOCKINfrom a survey amongst professional software developers. We also provide a discussion on the contemporary methods for design quality assessments.
Diversity of viral photosystem-II psb A genes in the largest channel reservoir of Kazakhstan

Cyanobacteria of the genera Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus are an important contributors to photosynthetic productivity in the water ecosystems. The discovery of genes (psbA, psbD) that encode key photosystem II proteins (D1, D2) in the genomes of phages that infect these cyanobacteria suggests new models for the regulation, function and evolution of photosynthesis in the immense aqueous ecosystems. Potential recombination of phage and host genes requires studying diversity of these genes in phages of different ponds. Here, using metagenomic data the largest channel reservoir of Kazakhstan samples, we show that the different viral psbA genes are presented in the environment.
Chronic Expression of RCAN1-1L Protein Induces Mitochondrial Autophagy and Metabolic Shift from Oxidative Phosphorylation to Glycolysis in Neuronal Cells*

Background: RCAN1s are stress-inducible proteins that have been shown to bind to the adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT). Results: RCAN1-1L can open the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, shift metabolism from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis, and induce mitophagy. Conclusion: RCAN1-1L is a regulator of mitochondrial autophagy (mitophagy). Significance: This helps to understand how RCAN1s can contribute to cell death/survival and human disease. Expression of the RCAN1 gene can be induced by multiple stresses. RCAN1 proteins (RCAN1s) have both protective and harmful effects and are implicated in common human pathologies. The mechanisms by which RCAN1s function, however, remain poorly understood. We identify RCAN1s as regulators of mitochondrial autophagy (mitophagy) and demonstrate that induction of RCAN1-1L can cause dramatic degradation of mitochondria. The mechanisms of such degradation involve the adenine nucleotide translocator and mitochondrial permeability transition pore opening. We also demonstrate that RCAN1-1L induction can shift cellular bioenergetics from aerobic respiration to glycolysis, yet RCAN1-1L has very little effect on cell division, whereas it has a cumulative negative effect on cell survival. These results shed the light on mechanisms by which RCAN1s can protect or harm cells and by which they may operate in human pathologies. They also suggest that RCAN1s are important players in autophagy and such elusive phenomena as the mitochondrial permeability transition pore.
Odor Discrimination Using Neural Decoding of Olfactory Bulbs in Rats

This paper presents a novel method for inferring the odor based on neural activities observed from rats’ main olfactory bulbs. Multi-channel extra-cellular single unit recordings were done by micro-wire electrodes (tungsten, 50μm, 32 channels) implanted in the mitral/tufted cell layers of the main olfactory bulb of anesthetized rats to obtain neural responses to various odors. Neural response as a key feature was measured by substraction of neural firing rate before stimulus from after. For odor inference, we have developed a decoding method based on the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation. The results have shown that the average decoding accuracy is about 100.0%, 96.0%, 84.0%, and 100.0% with four rats, respectively. This work has profound implications for a novel brain-machine interface system for odor inference. Keywords—biomedical signal processing, neural engineering, olfactory,neural decoding, BMI
Trade-off between energy consumption and target delay for wireless sensor network

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) consists of unattended sensors with limited storage, energy (battery power) and computational and communication capabilities. Since battery power is the most crucial resource for sensor nodes and delay time is a critical metric for certain WSN applications, data diffusion between source sensors and sink should be done in an energy efficient and timely manner. We characterize the trade off between the energy consumption and source to sink delay in order to extend the operation of individual sensors and hence increase the lifetime of the WSN. To achieve this goal, the transmission range of sensors is first decomposes into certain ranges based on a minimal distance between consecutive forwarding sensors and then classifies these ranges due to Degree of Interest. It is also shown that the use of sensor nodes which lie on or closely to the shortest path between the source and the sink helps minimize these two metrics.