Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated placement for custom digital designs

Custom layouts of digital blocks are often used in mixed-signal designs in order to meet the critical performance requirements. Unlike traditional standard-cell based digital placement, custom-cell based digital placement may need to consider special routing patterns and pre-wires, very high design utilization, topology placement constraints, etc. This talk will address several unique placement problems for custom digital designs. First, spine style routing is often used in custom digital designs because of limited layer routing; it is necessary for placement to consider the spine topology to improve the routability. Second, the cell-level oxide diffusion (OD) sharing can help to reduce placement area, if custom cells are designed with common power and ground portions. Third, placement also needs to consider the electrostatic discharge (ESD) issue by enlarging the spacing between some cells to avoid direct power ground path. Last but not least, placement migration is another important and challenging issue; the resulting placement should follow not only the physical hierarchy of the design but also all additional topology placement constraints so that the resulting layout can meet the performance requirements.
Approximate Top-k Retrieval from Hidden Relations

We consider the evaluation of approximate top-k queries from relations with a-priori unknown values. Such relations can arise for example in the context of expensive predicates, or cloud-based data sources. The task is to find an approximate top-k set that is close to the exact one while keeping the total processing cost low. The cost of a query is the sum of the costs of the entries that are read from the hidden relation. A novel aspect of this work is that we consider prior information about the values in the hidden matrix. We propose an algorithm that uses regression models at query time to assess whether a row of the matrix can enter the top-k set given that only a subset of its values are known. The regression models are trained with existing data that follows the same distribution as the relation subjected to the query. To evaluate the algorithm and to compare it with a method proposed previously in literature, we conduct experiments using data from a context sensitive Wikipedia search engine. The results indicate that the proposed method outperforms the baseline algorithms in terms of the cost while maintaining a high accuracy of the returned results.
Robot finger control for rolling on curved surfaces

In this work the problem of designing a low complexity state feedback controller which enforces the domination of the rolling motion of a spherical robotic fingertip upon a curved surface is considered. Fingertip rolling is essential for robot object fine positioning and manipulation and should be explicitly considered as a control objective. The prescribed performance control methodology is employed. Under the designed controller, the sliding and spinning regime of the robot tip motion is quickly suppressed, a desired position and normal force is reached with prespecified transient and steady state behavior while contact maintenance is guaranteed. Simulations validate the approach.
Model predictive control versus traditional proportional delay differentiation algorithms

An approximated quadratic programming optimization is proposed to determine a model predictive controller to guarantee end-to-end delay in the DiffServ architecture. The proposed algorithm, called the suboptimal model predictive control scheduler (SMPCS), regulates the service rates of aggregated traffic classes dynamically, such that some constraints on proportional or absolute delay can be guaranteed. This paper investigates SMPCS complexity and its implementation problems in high-speed routers. The main problem of model predictive control (and one which has limited its use to slow processes) is its complexity. Optimization is the most computationally complex part in a model predictive controller. To enable efficient implementation of such a computationally expensive algorithm, this paper proposes to reduce the precision of the optimizer while maintaining near-optimal values for the manipulated variables (service rates). Both control-theoretic analysis and simulations demonstrate that SMPCS performs stable and acceptable quality-of-service differentiations at core routers while maintaining end-to-end delay constraints.
Intelligent Automated Intrusion Response System based on fuzzy decision making and risk assessment

The most important aim of Automated Intrusion Response Systems (AIRSs) is selecting responses that impose less cost on the protected system and which are able to neutralize intrusions progress effectively. Cost-sensitive AIRSs use different methods to launch efficient responses. In this regard, risk assessment as a component for assessing intrusion danger on the system is introduced in many papers. However, most available risk assessment methods produce ambiguous results. Fuzzy logic is known as an effective method to be used in the process of risk assessment. This is mainly because fuzzy approach reduces the level of uncertainty of risk factors. To assess risk by fuzzy methods, risk parameters which are extracted from the traffic patterns are used as inputs of fuzzy systems. The aim of this paper is to introduce an AIRS based on fuzzy risk assessment to evaluate the risk of each intrusion in real time and apply a suitable response for protecting web applications. We also introduce a method for applying responses retroactively. The results of applied method show the effective performance of the proposed method in terms of cost-sensitivity and time to response.
Simulating a Senate Office: The Impact on Student Knowledge and Attitudes

Although many instructors are now using simulations and other experiential pedagogies in their classrooms, the effectiveness of such tools has generally not been examined in a systematic way. In this paper, we assess the effectiveness of a simulation of the legislative process in the U.S. Senate as a tool for teaching college students about the workings of the American political system. We used pre- and postcourse surveys in two “Introduction to American Government” courses, one of which utilized traditional teaching methods, such as lectures and tests, and one of which supplemented these traditional methods with an online simulation. We compare the changes in political knowledge and attitudes within groups but focus on the differences and similarities between the “control” and “experimental” groups. We find that simulations can be an effective tool for civic education, but that their objectives must be clear and expectations should be reasonable. Students who participated in the simulation gained considerable knowledge of the legislative process compared to their peers in the traditional course, and their levels of cynicism decreased.
Electromagnetic NDT and condition monitoring - A personal view

This paper will review the research and development of eddy current NDT testing, condition monitoring and the associated instruments, which the author has been closely involved over the past decade. Eddy current testing and imaging is firstly introduced, focusing on property measurement of porous metals and imaging liquid metals. Condition monitoring is then presented from fundamental aspects in the high voltage insulation diagnosis to applications in large-scale generators and power plants. Finally, the challenges we will face in these areas are summarised.
Implementation of the Ficus Replicated File System

As we approach nation-wide integration of computer systems, it is clear that le replication will play a key role, both to improve data availability in the face of failures, and to improve performance by locating data near where it will be used. We expect that future le systems will have an extensible, modular structure in which features such as replication can be \slipped in" as a transparent layer in a stackable layered architecture. We introduce the Ficus replicated le system for NFS and show how it is layered on top of existing le systems. The Ficus le system di ers from previous le replication services in that it permits update during network partition if any copy of a le is accessible. File and directory updates are automatically propagated to accessible replicas. Con icting updates to directories are detected and automatically repaired; con icting updates to ordinary les are detected and reported to the owner. The frequency of communications outages rendering inaccessible some replicas in a large scale network and the relative rarity of con icting updates make this optimistic scheme attractive. Stackable layers facilitate the addition of new features to an existing le system without reimplementing existing functions. This is done in a manner analogous to object-oriented programming with inheritance. By structuring the le This work was sponsored by DARPA under contract number F29601-87-C-0072. This author is also associated with Locus Computing Corporation. system as a stack of modules, each with the same interface, modules which augment existing services can be added transparently. This paper describes the implementation of the Ficus le system using the layered architecture.
A graph-based approach to modeling and detecting composition conflicts related to introductions

The goal of this paper is to model and detect composition conflicts related to introductions. Within this context, we identify several categories of composition conflicts. To analyze the causes of these conflicts precisely, we first model the structure of programs as graphs. Next, we model introductions as graph transformation rules. We define explicit rules to describe when composition conflicts related to introductions occur. We built a prototype tool that detects and visualizes the occurrence of such conflicts in AspectJ programs, making use of an existing graph analysis and rewriting tool. The graph-based models are generated automatically from the source code of Java programs and AspectJ introductions. However, our approach does not make strong assumptions about either the aspect or base language; it has been designed to be applicable to other AOP languages.
Citizenship and identity: living in diasporas in post-war Europe?

Diaspora, as a venerated concept, has a strong placement in our political and intellectual discourses. My article questions the deployment of diaspora as an analytical category in explaining the contemporary immigration experience. Focusing peculiarly on the ethnic axis of homelands and abroad, theories of diaspora overlook the transgressions of the national and lose sight of the new dynamics and topography of membership. I suggest that a more productive perspective is achieved by focusing our analytical providence on the proliferating sites of making and enacting citizenship. I do this by elaborating two paradoxes underlying the contemporary formations of citizenship: a) the increasing decoupling of rights and identities, the two main components of citizenship; b) the tendency towards particularistic claims in public spheres and their legitimation through universalistic discourses of personhood. These paradoxes warrant that we have new forms of making claims, mobilizing identity and practising citizenship, which lie beyond the limiting dominion of ethnically informed diasporic arrangements, transactions and belongings.
Biochemical and Spatial Coincidence in the Provisional Ser/Thr Protein Kinase Interaction Network of Mycobacterium tuberculosis*♦

Background: Ser/Thr protein kinases (STPKs) form multilayered signaling networks that mediate cellular responses in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Results: A preliminary interaction network for the STPKs in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is described. Conclusion: STPKs that cross-phosphorylate are often co-localized, suggesting multiple activation mechanisms. Significance: The initial map of this prokaryotic STPK network provides a framework for defining the logic of M. tuberculosis signaling pathways. Many Gram-positive bacteria coordinate cellular processes by signaling through Ser/Thr protein kinases (STPKs), but the architecture of these phosphosignaling cascades is unknown. To investigate the network structure of a prokaryotic STPK system, we comprehensively explored the pattern of signal transduction in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Ser/Thr kinome. Autophosphorylation is the dominant mode of STPK activation, but the 11 M. tuberculosis STPKs also show a specific pattern of efficient cross-phosphorylation in vitro. The biochemical specificity intrinsic to each kinase domain was used to map the provisional signaling network, revealing a three-layer architecture that includes master regulators, signal transducers, and terminal substrates. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that the STPKs are specifically localized in the cell. Master STPKs are concentrated at the same subcellular sites as their substrates, providing additional support for the biochemically defined network. Together, these studies imply a branched functional architecture of the M. tuberculosis Ser/Thr kinome that could enable horizontal signal spreading. This systems-level approach provides a biochemical and spatial framework for understanding Ser/Thr phospho-signaling in M. tuberculosis, which differs fundamentally from previously defined linear histidine kinase cascades.
Class Separability in Spaces Reduced By Feature Selection

We investigated the geometrical complexity of several high-dimensional, small sample classification problems and its changes due to two popular feature selection procedures, forward feature selection (FFS) and linear programming support vector machine (LPSVM). We found that both procedures are able to transform the problems to spaces of very low dimensionality where class separability is improved over that in the original space. The study shows that geometrical complexities have good potentials for comparing different feature selection methods in aspects relevant to classification accuracy, yet independent of particular classifier choices
Agrammatism: Behavioral Description and Neurobiological Explanation

Subjects with brain damage resulting in agrammatic aphasia frequently omit or substitute function items (function words and inflectional affixes). However, they show only mild deficits in using meaningful content words. Agrammatics' performance on comprehension tests reveals a rather complex pattern. They usually understand active sentences correctly, but perform on chance level on passives. The same contrast is observed for more complex sentence types, such as subject vs. object clefts or relatives. This complex comprehension pattern suggests that agrammatism is a syntactic disturbance that selectively affects particular sentence structures. Nevertheless, it is possible that both the production and comprehension patterns go back to an access problem for grammatical morphemes. If an agrammatic aphasic comprehends only 50% of these morphemes, she or he may well be problem-free in understanding the resulting pruned active sentences in which some of the grammatical morphemes are missing. In contrast, she or he is likely to arrive at the wrong meaning when confronted with pruned passives. This hypothesis raises the question of how fully competent speakers interpret ungrammatical pruned strings derived from well-formed sentences by systematically deleting function items. Experimental data demonstrate that competent speakers approximate the agrammatic comprehension pattern when being presented with pruned strings. This argues that agrammatism can, indeed, be viewed as a deficit in processing function words and inflectional affixes, which may manifest itself in production and/or comprehension tasks. Assuming that cortical cell assemblies with distinct topographies correspond to content words and grammatical morphemes, it is possible to explain agrammatism in terms of lesions to these neuronal networks. This neurobiological model can explain additional aspects of agrammatics' performance.
National and state-level politics on social media : Twitter, Australian political discussions, and the online commentariat

This paper examines the use of Twitter for long-term discussions around Australian politics, at national and state levels, tracking two hashtags during 2012: #auspol, denoting national political topics, and #wapol, which provides a case study of state politics (representing Western Australia). The long-term data collection provides the opportunity to analyse how the Twitter audience responds to Australian politics: which themes attract the most attention and which accounts act as focal points for these discussions. The paper highlights differences in the coverage of state and national politics. For #auspol, a small number of accounts are responsible for the majority of tweets, with politicians invoked but not directly contributing to the discussion. In contrast, #wapol stimulates a much lower level of tweeting. This example also demonstrates that, in addition to citizen accounts, traditional participants within political debate, such as politicians and journalists, are among the active contributors to state-oriented discussions on Twitter.
Bcl-2 maintains the mitochondrial membrane potential, but fails to affect production of reactive oxygen species and endoplasmic reticulum stress, in sodium palmitate-induced β-cell death

Abstract Background. Sodium palmitate causes apoptosis of β-cells, and the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 has been shown to counteract this event. However, the exact mechanisms that underlie palmitate-induced pancreatic β-cell apoptosis and through which pathway Bcl-2 executes the protective effect are still unclear. Methods. A stable Bcl-2-overexpressing RINm5F cell clone (BMG) and its negative control (B45) were exposed to palmitate for up to 8 h, and cell viability, mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm), reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and NF-κB activation were studied in time course experiments. Results. Palmitate exposure for 8 h resulted in increased cell death rates, and this event was partially counteracted by Bcl-2. Bcl-2 overexpression promoted in parallel also a delayed induction of GADD153/CHOP and a weaker phosphorylation of BimEL in palmitate-exposed cells. At earlier time points (2–4 h) palmitate exposure resulted in increased generation of ROS, a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm), and a modest increase in the phosphorylation of eIF2α and IRE1α. BMG cells produced similar amounts of ROS and displayed the same eIF2α and IRE1α phosphorylation rates as B45 cells. However, the palmitate-induced dissipation of Δψm was partially counteracted by Bcl-2. In addition, basal NF-κB activity was increased in BMG cells. Conclusions. Our results indicate that Bcl-2 counteracts palmitate-induced β-cell death by maintaining mitochondrial membrane integrity and augmenting NF-κB activity, but not by affecting ROS production and ER stress.
Robust filtering for a class of nonlinear systems via quadratic boundedness

This paper presents a new robust exponentially bounded filter for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems based on quadratic boundedness. The system under study is described by a state-space model with norm bounded noise, polytopic uncertainties, and nonlinear input meeting the sector-bounded constraints. A robust filter is designed such that the estimation error is exponentially bounded for all admissible uncertainties as well as nonlinear input. Furthermore, the minimum upper bound to the estimation error is obtained by solving a quasi-convex optimization problem of linear matrix inequality (LMI). The new LMI characterizations do not involve any product of the Lyapunov matrix and the system matrices. It enables one to check the existence of solutions by using parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions. A concrete application to Chua's circuit shows the applicability and validity of the proposed approach.
Spearman's Test Score Model: a Restatement

A re-examination of Spearman's (1910) paper led to the conclusion that he did not subscribe to a platonic distinction between true and error scores, or to the restrictive and empirically intractable postulate of constant true scores in repeated measurements with the same test. He argued instead for the reality of possible systematic variations in observed scores under repeated measurements, variations which required determination and not elimination, with an overlay of nonsystematic variations due to factors whose modes of operation were such as to baffle investigation and control. Spearman's distinction was a pragmatic one between the predictable and the unpredictable with theoretical overtones hitherto overlooked in psychometrics, and contained an implied plea for an experimental psychometrics.
Analysis of personal computer workloads

Most published research on system behavior and workload characterization has been based on either Unix systems or large (usually IBM) mainframe systems. It is reasonable to believe that user behaviors and workloads are different for PC systems. Further, the aspects of system design and most-needed study have changed from the mainframes that were dominant in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Unix systems that became so popular in the 1980s, to the PCs that seem to be rapidly taking over many or most aspects of computing. Our analysis focuses instead on Microsoft Windows 95, which is currently the most widely used computer operating system; the newly released Windows 98 is very similar. In this paper, we describe a workload analysis based on 36 sets of traces collected from Intel Pentium-based PCs running the Windows 95 operating system. Following the discussion of our Windows 95 trace data, we present some descriptive and statistical characterizations of this data, directed principally at user behavior and file system behavior.
Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC) Regulates the Migration of Luteinizing Hormone-Releasing Hormone Neurons to the Basal Forebrain

Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) neurons migrate from the vomeronasal organ (VNO) to the forebrain in all mammals studied. In mice, most LHRH neuron migration is dependent on axons that originate in the VNO but bypass the olfactory bulb and project into the basal forebrain. Thus, cues that regulate the trajectories of these vomeronasal axons are candidates for determining the destination of LHRH neurons. Using in situ hybridization techniques, we examined the expression of Deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC), a vertebrate receptor for the guidance molecule netrin-1, during development of the olfactory system. DCC is expressed by cells in the olfactory epithelium (OE) and VNO, and in cells migrating from the OE and VNO from embryonic day 11 (E11) to E14. Some DCC+ cells on vomeronasal axons in the nose also express LHRH. However, DCC expression is downregulated beginning at E12, so few if any LHRH neurons in the forebrain also express DCC. In rat, DCC is expressed on TAG-1+ axons that guide migrating LHRH neurons. We therefore examined LHRH neuron migration in DCC−/− mice and found that trajectories of the caudal vomeronasal nerve and positions of LHRH neurons are abnormal. Fewer than the normal number of LHRH neurons are found in the basal forebrain, and many LHRH neurons are displaced into the cerebral cortex of DCC−/−mice. These results are consistent with the idea that DCC regulates the trajectories of a subset of vomeronasal axons that guide the migration of LHRH neurons. Loss of DCC function results in the migration of many LHRH neurons to inappropriate destinations.