Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Critical path reduction for scalar programs

Pipelined processors employ hardware bypassing to eliminate certain pipeline hazards. By passing is logically simple but can be costly, especially in wide issue and deeply pipelined machines. In this paper bypassing is studied in detail, with an emphasis on designs in which the bypassing network is not complete. Cycle-level simulations of a model of integer and floating-point pipelines running some of the SPEC92 benchmarks show that at least half of the instructions executed used a bypassed register result from a previous instruction. Missing bypasses induce interlock stalls. The paper reports measurements of the performance impact of a number of pipeline configurations with incomplete bypassing networks. This impact ranges from a slowdown of just a few percent for a configuration with one late bypass missing to a slowdown of almost a factor of two for the integer pipe with no bypassing at all. Two types of code alterations reduce the new interlock stalls. A simple code transformation, the interchange of operands in instructions that perform commutative operations, cuts the performance loss from interlock stalls in certain configurations between about 20 and 50 percent. The second transformation is to reschedule code within basic blocks to avoid any missing bypasses. In five individual experiments with a small number of configurations and two benchmarks, this rescheduling saved 25 to 50 percent of the interlock stalls. In certain configurations both transformations can be applied.
Noise-invariant Neurons in the Avian Auditory Cortex: Hearing the Song in Noise

Given the extraordinary ability of humans and animals to recognize communication signals over a background of noise, describing noise invariant neural responses is critical not only to pinpoint the brain regions that are mediating our robust perceptions but also to understand the neural computations that are performing these tasks and the underlying circuitry. Although invariant neural responses, such as rotation-invariant face cells, are well described in the visual system, high-level auditory neurons that can represent the same behaviorally relevant signal in a range of listening conditions have yet to be discovered. Here we found neurons in a secondary area of the avian auditory cortex that exhibit noise-invariant responses in the sense that they responded with similar spike patterns to song stimuli presented in silence and over a background of naturalistic noise. By characterizing the neurons' tuning in terms of their responses to modulations in the temporal and spectral envelope of the sound, we then show that noise invariance is partly achieved by selectively responding to long sounds with sharp spectral structure. Finally, to demonstrate that such computations could explain noise invariance, we designed a biologically inspired noise-filtering algorithm that can be used to separate song or speech from noise. This novel noise-filtering method performs as well as other state-of-the-art de-noising algorithms and could be used in clinical or consumer oriented applications. Our biologically inspired model also shows how high-level noise-invariant responses could be created from neural responses typically found in primary auditory cortex.
Computational Exploration of Vortex Nucleation in Type II Superconductors Using a Finite Element Method in Ginzburg-Landau Theory

Computational Exploration of Vortex Nucleation In Type II Superconductors Using a Finite Element Method in Ginzburg-Landau Theory Alden Roy Pack Department of Physics and Astronomy, BYU Master of Science Using a finite element method, we numerically solve the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations of superconductivity to explore vortex nucleation in type II superconductors. We consider a cylindrical geometry and simulate the transition from a superconducting state to a mixed state. Using saddle-node bifurcation theory we evaluate the superheating field for a cylinder. We explore how surface roughness and thermal fluctuations influence vortex nucleation. This allows us to simulate material inhomogeneities that may lead to instabilities in superconducting resonant frequency cavities used in particle accelerators.
HIV Clients as Agents for Prevention: A Social Network Solution

HIV prevention efforts to date have not explored the potential for persons living with HIV to act as change agents for prevention behaviour in their social networks. Using egocentric social network analysis, this study examined the prevalence and social network correlates of prevention advocacy behaviours (discussing HIV in general; encouraging abstinence or condom use, HIV testing, and seeking HIV care) enacted by 39 HIV clients in Uganda. Participants engaged in each prevention advocacy behaviour with roughly 50–70% of the members in their network. The strongest determinant of engaging in prevention advocacy with more of one's network members was having a greater proportion of network members who knew one's HIV seropositive status, as this was associated with three of the four advocacy behaviours. These findings highlight the potential for PLHA to be key change agents for HIV prevention within their networks and the importance of HIV disclosure in facilitating prevention advocacy.
MICROFLUIDICALLY CRYO-COOLED INDUCTIVELY COUPLED SPIRAL MICROCOILS FOR MR MICROSCOPY

The development of a microfluidically cryo-cooled and inductively coupled spiral microcoil for magnetic resonance (MR) microscopy with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is presented. The microcoil was inductively coupled to a secondary coil that was directly coupled to a transmission line. This configuration eliminated thermal flux through direct connection when the microcoil was cryo-cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature with a microfluidic liquid nitrogen flow channel to reduce the thermal noise of the microcoil. The measured quality factor (Q) of the microcoil integrated with a parallel plate capacitor was improved by 6 times when cryo-cooling the microcoil, corresponding to an SNR enhancement of 4 fold.
Hybrid estimation of spacecraft attitude dynamics and rate sensor alignment parameters

This paper deals with attitude dynamics estimation and rate sensor calibration of spacecraft at the same time during a designed maneuver. This study has been motivated from that both estimation of the moment of inertia and calibration of gyros for precision attitude control are usually performed by a pre-designed 3-axis maneuver for them, respectively. Spacecraft attitude dynamics to be estimated consist of the attitude quaternion, the body angular rate, and the moment of inertia. The gyro sensor calibration terms include the gyro scale factor, misalignments and the bias vector. The equations of motion of spacecraft are augmented by estimation and calibration parameters for an extended Kalman filter design to estimate states and measurement parameter errors together. Estimation and calibration results are shown in numerical simulations.
Personal Care Product Use Predicts Urinary Concentrations of Some Phthalate Monoesters

Phthalates are multifunctional chemicals used in a variety of applications, including personal care products. The present study explored the relationship between patterns of personal care product use and urinary levels of several phthalate metabolites. Subjects include 406 men who participated in an ongoing semen quality study at the Massachusetts General Hospital Andrology Laboratory between January 2000 and February 2003. A nurse-administered questionnaire was used to determine use of personal care products, including cologne, aftershave, lotions, hair products, and deodorants. Phthalate monoester concentrations were measured in a single spot urine sample by isotope dilution–high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Men who used cologne or aftershave within 48 hr before urine collection had higher median levels of monoethyl phthalate (MEP) (265 and 266 ng/mL, respectively) than those who did not use cologne or aftershave (108 and 133 ng/mL, respectively). For each additional type of product used, MEP increased 33% (95% confidence interval, 14–53%). The use of lotion was associated with lower urinary levels of monobutyl phthalate (MBP) (14.9 ng/mL), monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP) (6.1 ng/mL), and mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP) (4.4 ng/mL) compared with men who did not use lotion (MBP, 16.8 ng/mL; MBzP, 8.6 ng/mL; MEHP, 7.2 ng/mL). The identification of personal care products as contributors to phthalate body burden is an important step in exposure characterization. Further work in this area is needed to identify other predictors of phthalate exposure.
Ceftriaxone, a Beta-Lactam Antibiotic, Modulates Apoptosis Pathways and Oxidative Stress in a Rat Model of Neuropathic Pain

Purpose. In our previous study, ceftriaxone, a beta-lactam antibiotic, elicited antinociceptive effects in the chronic constriction injury (CCI) of neuropathic pain. In this study, we assessed apoptosis and oxidative stress in the spinal cord of neuropathic rats treated with ceftriaxone. Methods. 45 male Wistar rats were divided as naïve, sham, normal saline-treated CCI rats, and CCI animals treated with the effective dose of ceftriaxone. Involvement of Bax, Bcl2, and caspases 3 and 9, important contributors of programmed cell death (apoptosis), was determined using western blotting at days 3 and 7. The markers of oxidative stress including malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were measured on days 3 and 7. Results. Increased Bax/Bcl2 ratio and cleaved active forms of caspases 3 and 9 were observed in the spinal cord of CCI rats on day 3. Ceftriaxone attenuated the increased levels of Bax and cleaved forms of caspases 3 and 9, while it increased Bcl2 levels. Bax and active forms of caspases declined by day 7. Consequently, comparison among groups showed no difference at this time. CCI enhanced MDA and decreased GSH on days 3 and 7, while ceftriaxone protected against the CCI-induced oxidative stress. Conclusion. Our results suggest that ceftriaxone, an upregulator/activator of GLT1, could concomitantly reduce oxidative stress and apoptosis and producing its new analogs lacking antimicrobial activity may represent a novel approach for neuropathic pain treatment.
TOPIC # 8 : PERSONAL EXPOSURE CHARACTERISTICS SYNOPSIS

RAPID Engineering Project #4 (Bracken et al., 1997a) summarized past efforts and developed guidelines for contemporaneous PE monitoring. Guidelines for PE study design provide recommendations for selecting the field characteristics to be measured; selecting appropriate instrumentation; developing a sampling strategy; establishing time-activity record-keeping protocols; and developing plans for data management, data analysis, and documentation of the study's methods and results. Additional discussion and references for topics discussed in this synopsis are available in the RAPID #4 report.
Study on the Dental Fear, Anxiety, Depression

Results: The degree of fear and anxiety in the dentist was higher in women than in men. There was no significant difference in fear and anxiety according to ages, and education and monthly income were not even in the most difference. Fear and instability felt when people were treated by the people around them were more severe than when they were treated by themselves. There was no difference in fear or anxiety according to the periodical dental visits. It was found that dental fear increased when there was no aura, depression, crying, sharp nerves, and it was found that the time to sit on the dental chair and the fear of dental smell were the highest.
Adipose tissue cholesteryl ester transfer protein mRNA in response to probucol treatment: cholesterol and species dependence.

Probucol treatment results in an increase in plasma concentrations of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) which may account, in part, for the effects of this agent on plasma concentrations of HDL cholesterol. We have examined the mechanism by which probucol increases plasma CETP and have determined the associated changes in the plasma distribution of high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles. Studies were carried out in nine hypercholesterolemic subjects and five normal volunteers. Probucol treatment resulted in a 31% increase in plasma concentrations of CETP and a 23% decrease in HDL cholesterol (P < 0.01). The plasma concentration of LpA-I decreased by 40% (P < 0.01) whereas no change occurred in the LpA-I/A-II subclass of HDL. Plasma CETP increased significantly by 1 week of therapy and remained stable over 10 to 14 weeks of therapy. In spite of the significant increase in plasma concentrations of CETP, the abundance of CETP mRNA in peripheral adipose tissue decreased markedly (P < 0.001). These results suggested that probucol may alter CETP synthesis in another tissue such as liver or, alternatively, may have other effects on CETP secretion into or catabolism out of the plasma pool. Further studies were carried out in hamsters because, in this species, adipose tissue is a major site and liver is a negligible site for CETP synthesis. Hamsters were fed probucol with or without dietary cholesterol because this species was previously shown to respond to dietary cholesterol with an increase in adipose tissue mRNA levels and in plasma CETP concentrations, thus providing the opportunity to determine whether probucol would alter these parameters independently of the dietary cholesterol effect. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A Constraint Programming System for Music Composition , Preliminary Results

We propose an environment for musical constraint solving, adapted to contemporary composition, in the visual programming language OpenMusic. The composer start with a predefined score and set constraint between some objects in a visual way. These constraints are translated in a specific syntax in order to be solved using an algorithm of adaptive research. Adaptive search refines the concept of cost function by taking the weight of each variable into account. We show that this algorithm is well adapted to musical problems. The first experimental results on real musical problems are satisfying, in terms of implementation and computation time.
Artificial potential biased probabilistic roadmap method

Probabilistic roadmap methods (PRM) have been successfully used to solve difficult path planning problems but their efficiency is limited when the free space contains narrow passages through which the robot must pass. This paper presents a new sampling scheme that aims to increase the probability of finding paths through narrow passages. Here, a biased sampling scheme is used to increase the distribution of nodes in narrow regions of the free space. A partial computation of the artificial potential field is used to bias the distribution of nodes.
A New Classification Algorithm Based on Certainty Architecture

This paper proposed a kind of classification algorithm which brought in certainty factors of expert system as certainty theory proof based on certainty and support architecture aimed at the problem that classical association rules algorithm based on confidence and support architecture couldn't generates association rules accurately facing some questions on mathematical statistics. With experiment verified, this classification algorithm based on certainty and support architecture has a better performance improved the accuracy and perceptiveness of association rules effectively.
Fingerprint Biometrics via Low-cost Sensors and Webcams

The diffusion of mobile cameras and webcams is rapidly growing. Unfortunately, images produced by these kinds of sensors during the acquisition of human fingertips are very different from the images obtained by dedicated fingerprint sensors, especially as quality is concerned. At the present stage of the research, fingerprint biometrics can be successfully achieved in real-life applications only by using dedicated sensors and scanners. In the literature a paramount quantity of methods which are extremely effective in processing fingerprints obtained by classical sensors and procedures is presented. In this paper, we investigate new techniques to suitably process the camera images of fingertips in order to produce images which are as similar as possible to the ones coming from dedicated sensors. This will allow for directly reusing the large and valuable experience presented in the literature for fingerprint recognition and verification in environments in which mobile cameras and webcams are already or can easily become available and dedicated devices are not required by the desired security level. The proposed technique encompasses a prefiltering step, the segmentation of the fingertip image, a fingertip registration phase, the dedicated processing techniques for the ridge enhancement, and a post-processing phase. In our research we tested the identification capability of the proposed methods by using a state-of-the-art, public software for minutiae extraction and matching. The effects of different registration algorithms on the identification accuracy are also discussed and the final system has been compared with the use of commercial dedicated sensors.
Investigating landscape pattern and its dynamics in Daqing, China

The landscape pattern of Daqing city, China has undergone a significant change in 1990–2000 as a result of the rapid urbanization process. The focus of this paper is to quantitatively capture landscape pattern and its spatial dynamics of Daqing city at the landscape level over the 10 years span. A traditional supervised classification (maximum likelihood classification) was carried out on Daqing region using three sets of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery, respectively acquired in 1990, 1996, and 2000, and the classification results were transformed to polygon layers and input into geographic information system (GIS) software. In order to facilitate our examination of landscape pattern and its dynamics in Daqing, we chose two categories of landscape indices with supplementary ecological meanings. They are patch‐based indices and spatial heterogeneity‐based indices. Specifically, for the first category, three representative indices (Patch size coefficient variation, Landscape shape index, and Area‐weighted mean patch fractal dimension) were calculated. For the latter category, Shannon's diversity index, Contagion index, Proximity index, and Fragment index were chosen and computed. Based on the derived indices, a general trend of landscape change was revealed: wetland was degraded into grassland resulting in a more fragmented pattern, whereas grassland was cultivated and taken over by agriculture. Forest coverage decreased with the small patch replaced by grassland and agriculture, while city was sprawling by merging neighbouring land cover and land use types. GIS‐based landscape index, coupled with remote sensing analysis, proved its unique value and effectiveness in assessing landscape pattern and dynamics.
Decompositions of a Higher-Order Tensor in Block Terms - Part I: Lemmas for Partitioned Matrices

In this paper we study a generalization of Kruskal's permutation lemma to partitioned matrices. We define the k'-rank of partitioned matrices as a generalization of the k-rank of matrices. We derive a lower-bound on the k'-rank of Khatri-Rao products of partitioned matrices. We prove that Khatri-Rao products of partitioned matrices are generically full column rank.
Explaining Language: A Behavioral Critique of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior

In Verbal Behavior (1957), Skinner attempted to offer a functional account of human language and made a point of contrasting his approach with the more traditional accounts available at the time. Rather than focus on the structure or mechanics of language (formal aspects of language), Skinner attempted to identify the conditions that gave rise to those behaviors. Although Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior has been influential, particularly in treating language deficits for individuals with autism, there are conceptual problems with the way he defined and categorized verbal behavior. In this paper we argue that Skinner’s analysis is in fact largely based on formal aspects (rather than functional) and that this has both created confusion and limited the utility of the analysis. Specifically, we argue that Skinner’s formal account makes it difficult to distinguish verbal from nonverbal behavior and to distinguish the various types of verbal responses from one another. We then summarize and respond to some of the contemporary defenses and criticisms of Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior. Finally, we argue that although Skinner’s analysis has had some practical utility, the conceptual benefits are questionable. S C I E N T I F I C A B S T R A C T Skinner (1957) offered a behavioral account of language in his book Verbal Behavior. Compared to more traditional, structural accounts of language at the time, Skinner’s analysis attempted to identify the variables that control and maintain verbal behavior. This behavioral account of language has proven useful, especially in the area of treating language deficits for individuals with autism. However, there exist conceptual problems with Skinner’s analysis. The definition of verbal behavior and subsequent taxonomy of verbal operants (or units) is based largely on formal properties. We suggest that these formal elements of Skinner’s analysis result in arbitrary distinctions that emphasize the form of behavior or stimuli. This is problematic, at a conceptual level, as distinguishing between verbal and nonverbal behavior and distinguishing between the different verbal operants necessitates not only a functional account of stimuli but identification of the source and form of stimuli. In this paper, we examine some of the contemporary defenses and criticisms of Skinner’s analysis. Lastly, we conclude that although Skinner’s analysis of language has had practical utility, the conceptual benefits are limited.
Discerning Culture in E-Learning and in the Global Workplaces

This paper explores issues relating to e-learning in the global workplaces and educational contexts. The literature on e-learning often touts the benefits of e-learning as an equalizing or democratizing force in learning and education at the detriment of significant challenges facing its implementation and eventual outcomes for users. Central to the challenges facing e-learning systems is cultural challenges. Therefore the author argues the need to attend to cultural issues in e-learning if e-learning is to be successful. First, the paper addresses the different dimensions of education as described by the learning societies. Second, the paper incorporates the role of culture in e-learning, and finally, implications of culture in e-learning in the global workplaces are addressed. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel. 2009.01. 013
Evaluation in participatory design: a literature survey

This paper focuses on evaluation in Participatory Design (PD), and especially upon how the central aims of mutual learning, empowerment, democracy and workplace quality have been assessed. We surveyed all Participatory Design Conference papers (1990-2014) and papers from special journal issues on PD, focusing on systematic, explicit evaluations. The survey resulted in 143 papers of which 66 were deemed relevant. Of these, 17 papers deal with evaluation of the above mentioned aims. Based on evaluation theory, we propose seven key questions through which to characterize evaluations in PD and analyze the 17 papers. Our analysis reveals that formal evaluations of PD's aims are rare; generally lack details on methods; are researcher- and not participant-led, and that a corpus of work around evaluations needs to be developed. We suggest more explicit, systematic evaluations of PD's central aims to enhance accountability, learning and knowledge building, and to strengthen PD internally and externally.