Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Static timing analysis using backward signal propagation

In this paper, we address the problem of signal pruning in static timing analysis (STA). Traditionally, signals are propagated through the circuit and are pruned, such that only the signal with the latest arrival time at each node is propagated forward. This signal pruning is a key to the linear run time of STA. However, it was previously observed that a signal with the latest arrival time may not be the most critical signal, as an earlier signal with a larger transition time can result in a longer delay in the down-stream logic. Hence, arrival time based pruning can result in an optimistic delay, incorrect critical paths, and discontinuities of the delay during circuit optimization. Although algorithms were proposed to remedy this issue, they rely on propagation of multiple signals and have an exponential worst-case complexity. In this paper, we propose a new timing analysis algorithm, which uses a two pass traversal of the circuit. In the initial backward traversal, we construct delay tables which record the required time at a node as a function of the transition time at that node. This is followed by a forward traversal where signals are pruned not based on arrival times but based on slack. The proposed algorithm corrects the accuracy problems of the arrival time based pruning while at the same time maintaining the linear run time of STA. We implemented our algorithm and demonstrated its accuracy and efficiency.
Computing cylindrical algebraic decomposition via triangular decomposition

Cylindrical algebraic decomposition is one of the most important tools for computing with semi-algebraic sets, while triangular decomposition is among the most important approaches for manipulating constructible sets. In this paper, for an arbitrary finite set <i>F</i> ⊂ [<i>y<sub>1</sub></i>,. ,<i>y<sub>n</sub></i>] we apply comprehensive triangular decomposition in order to obtain an <i>F</i>-invariant cylindrical decomposition of the <i>n</i>-dimensional complex space, from which we extract an <i>F</i>-invariant cylindrical algebraic decomposition of the <i>n</i>-dimensional real space. We report on an implementation of this new approach for constructing cylindrical algebraic decompositions.
Understanding Patient Portal Use: Implications for Medication Management

Background The Internet can be leveraged to provide disease management support, including medication adherence promotion that, when tailored, can effectively improve adherence to medications. The growing adoption of patient portals represents an opportunity to support medication management and adherence more broadly, but virtually no data exist about the real and potential impact of existing portals on these outcomes. Objective We sought to (1) understand who uses an existing patient portal and reasons for use and nonuse, (2) understand how portal users are using a portal to manage their medications, and (3) explore participants’ ideas for improving portal functionality for medication management and adherence support. Methods A total of 75 adults with type 2 diabetes participated in a mixed-methods study involving focus groups, a survey, and a medical chart review. We used quantitative data to identify differences between portal users and nonusers, and to test the relationship between the frequency of portal use and glycemic control among users. We used qualitative methods to understand how and why participants use a portal and their ideas for improving its medication management functionality. Results Of the enrolled participants, 81% (61/75) attended a focus group and/or completed a survey; portal users were more likely than nonusers to participate in that capacity (Fisher exact test; P=.01). Users were also more likely than nonusers to be Caucasian/white (Fisher exact test; P<.001), have higher incomes (Fisher exact test; P=.005), and be privately insured (Fisher exact test; P<.001). Users also tended to have more education than nonusers (Mann–Whitney U; P=.05), although this relationship was not significant at P<. 05. Among users, more frequent use of a portal was associated with better A1C (Spearman rho =–0.30; P=.02). Reasons for nonuse included not knowing about the portal (n=3), not having access to a computer (n=3), or having a family member serve as an online delegate (n=1). Users reported using the portal to request prescription refills/reauthorizations and to view their medication list, and they were enthusiastic about the idea of added refill reminder functionality. They were also interested in added functionality that could streamline the refill/reauthorization process, alert providers to fill/refill nonadherence, and provide information about medication side effects and interactions. Conclusions Although there are disparities in patient portal use, patients use portals to manage their medications, are enthusiastic about further leveraging portals to support medication management and adherence, and those who use a portal more frequently have better glycemic control. However, more features and functionality within a portal platform is needed to maximize medication management and adherence promotion.
Evidence for Permo-Triassic colonization of the deep sea by isopods

The deep sea is one of the largest ecosystems on Earth and is home to a highly diverse fauna, with polychaetes, molluscs and peracarid crustaceans as dominant groups. A number of studies have proposed that this fauna did not survive the anoxic events that occurred during the Mesozoic Era. Accordingly, the modern fauna is thought to be relatively young, perhaps having colonized the deep sea after the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. To test this hypothesis, we performed phylogenetic analyses of nuclear ribosomal 18S and 28S and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and 16S sequences from isopod crustaceans. Using a molecular clock calibrated with multiple isopod fossils, we estimated the timing of deep-sea colonization events by isopods. Our results show that some groups have an ancient origin in the deep sea, with the earliest estimated dates spanning 232–314 Myr ago. Therefore, anoxic events at the Permian–Triassic boundary and during the Mesozoic did not cause the extinction of all the deep-sea fauna; some species may have gone extinct while others survived and proliferated. The monophyly of the ‘munnopsid radiation’ within the isopods suggests that the ancestors of this group evolved in the deep sea and did not move to shallow-water refugia during anoxic events.
Evaluating the Resolution of Deep Mantle Plumes in Teleseismic Traveltime Tomography

The strongest evidence to support the classical plume hypothesis comes from seismic imaging of the mantle beneath hot spots. However, imaging results are often ambiguous and it is questionable whether narrow plume tails can be detected by present‐day seismological techniques. Here we carry out synthetic tomography experiments based on spectral element method simulations of seismic waves with period T > 10 s propagating through geodynamically derived plume structures. We vary the source‐receiver geometry in order to explore the conditions under which lower mantle plume tails may be detected seismically. We determine that wide‐aperture (4,000–6,000 km) networks with dense station coverage (<100–200 km station spacing) are necessary to image narrow (<500 km wide) thermal plume tails. We find that if uncertainties on traveltime measurements exceed delay times imparted by plume tails (typically <1 s), the plume tails are concealed in seismic images. Vertically propagating SKS waves enhance plume tail recovery but lack vertical resolution in regions that are not independently constrained by direct S paths. We demonstrate how vertical smearing of an upper mantle low‐velocity anomaly can appear as a plume originating in the deep mantle. Our results are useful for interpreting previous plume imaging experiments and guide the design of future experiments.
MyAV: An all-round virtual machine monitor for mobile environments

Recently, various security issues in mobile devices have appeared due to improvement of the performance of mobile devices and the emergence of open mobile platforms. In this paper, we present MyAV, which is an all-round virtual machine monitor, to support various platforms from x86 desktops to ARM embedded platforms by minimizing the processor dependencies. It provides a secure execution environment using newly proposed technique of kernel-user address space separation. Many security vendors offer many different solutions including vaccine development for mobile devices, but it is still difficult to respond quickly to new malware. Another solution is resource isolation using virtual machine to share conventional hardware in a safe environment. However, existing virtual machines are unsuitable to be applied to mobile devices, because the original purpose of those virtual machines is based on server virtualization technology for operating a large number of guests. We present our design considerations using the resource isolation technique and report various experimental results based on the x86 desktop and an ARM embedded environment.
A unified homing and obstacle avoiding algorithm for autonomous mobile robots

A homing and obstacle avoiding algorithm is described. It takes as its input the current position and heading of a robot-vehicle relative to a desired position and heading and then 'maps' the 'difference' between them directly into actions for the controllers of motion and heading to act on. It includes explicitly, and in a separate phase of the overall computation the kinematic and dynamic constraints of a non-holonomic vehicle. The algorithm has been designed to allow range and bearing information about unmapped obstacles to modify the actions of a robot-vehicle. The authors show some of the obstacle avoiding behaviour. Since the objects are unmapped they could be other moving vehicles. To overcome uncertainty in the actual movement the algorithm continually recomputes the control actions needed to achieve the goal. Thus the algorithm has the potential to be extended to situations where the goal location is changing. <<ETX>>
Towards a Sensor Network Architecture: Lowering the Waistline

Wireless sensor networks have the potential to be tremendously beneficial to society. Embedded sensing will enable new scientific exploration, lead to better engineering, improve productivity, and enhance security. Research in sensor networks has made dramatic progress in the past decade, bringing these possibilities closer to reality. Hardware, particularly radio technology, is improving rapidly, leading to cheaper, faster, smaller, and longer-lasting nodes. Many systems challenges, such as robust multihop routing, effective power management, precise time synchronization, and efficient in-network query processing, have stable and compelling solutions. Several complete applications have been deployed that demonstrate all of these research accomplishments integrated into a coherent system, including some at relatively large scale [5, 17]. But the situation in sensornets, while promising, also has problems. The literature presents an alphabet soup of protocols and subsystems that make widely differing assumptions about the rest of the system and how its parts should interact. The extent to which these parts can be combined to build usable systems is quite limited. In order to produce running systems, research groups have produced vertically integrated designs in which their own set of components are specifically designed to work together, but are unable to interoperate with the work of others. This inherent incompatibility greatly reduces the synergy possible between research efforts and impedes progress. It is the central tenet of this paper that the primary factor currently limiting research progress in sensornets today is not any specific technical challenge (though many remain, and deserve much further study) but is instead the lack of an overall sensor network architecture. Such an architecture would identify the essential services and their conceptual relationships. Such a decomposition would make it possible to compose components in a manner that promotes interoperability, transcends generations of technology, and allows innovation.
Role of c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase activation in apoptosis induced by removal of the growth factors

Apoptosis plays a crucial role for generation of lymphocyte repertoire, clonal contraction, and elimination of virus‐infected cells. Since IL‐3‐dependent pro‐B cell line Baf‐3 resulted in rapid induction of apoptotic cell death upon IL‐3 withdrawal, it would by very valuable for analysis of apoptosis induction by growth factor deprivation. First, we confirmed that Baf‐3 cells underwent loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) and apoptosis in a time‐dependent manner when they were cultured in the RPMI‐1640 medium without IL‐3. Induction of apoptosis and loss of ΔΨm was determined by DiOC6 and annexin V staining method using flow cytometer, respectively. Deprivation of IL‐3 induced upregulation of proapoptotic molecule Bax, in conjunction with slight down‐regulation of anti‐apoptotic molecule Bcl‐xL, which was assessed by Western blotting. Since Bcl‐xL‐overexpressing Baf‐3 cells showed some resistance to IL‐3‐deprivation, Bcl‐xL prevents apoptosis induced by IL‐3 withdrawal. Finally, a sustained JNK1 activation was observed prior to induction of apoptosis upon IL‐3 deprivation. Dominat‐negative form of JNK1 and JNK inhibitor sp600125 partially inhibit the apoptosis upon IL‐3 deprivation, suggesting that a sustained JNK1 activation was involved in the induction of apoptosis. Together, IL‐3 deprivation of IL‐3‐dependent cell line Baf‐3 induces a sustained JNK1 activation, followed by a decline of the ratio of Bcl‐xL to Bax, leading to loss of ΔΨm, and finally apoptosis.
Additive non-Gaussian noise channels: mutual information and conditional mean estimation

It has recently been shown that the derivative of the input-output mutual information of Gaussian noise channels with respect to the signal-to-noise ratio is equal to the minimum mean-square error. This paper considers general additive noise channels where the noise may not be Gaussian distributed. It is found that, for every fixed input distribution, the derivative of the mutual information with respect to the signal strength is equal to the correlation of two conditional mean estimates associated with the input and the noise respectively. Special versions of the result are given in the respective cases of additive exponentially distributed noise, Cauchy noise, Laplace noise, and Rayleigh noise. The previous result on Gaussian noise channels is also recovered as a special case
Functional programs as compressed data

We propose an application of programming language techniques to lossless data compression, where tree data are compressed as functional programs that generate them. This “functional programs as compressed data” approach has several advantages. First, it follows from the standard argument of Kolmogorov complexity that the size of compressed data can be optimal up to an additive constant.Secondly, a compression algorithm is clean: it is just a sequence of β-expansions (i.e., the inverse of β-reductions) for λ-terms. Thirdly, one can use program verification and transformation techniques (higher-order model checking, in particular) to apply certain operations on data without decompression. In this article, we present algorithms for data compression and manipulation based on the approach, and prove their correctness. We also report preliminary experiments on prototype data compression/transformation systems.
Food-Borne Trematodiases

SUMMARY An estimated 750 million people are at risk of infections with food-borne trematodes, which comprise liver flukes (Clonorchis sinensis, Fasciola gigantica, Fasciola hepatica, Opisthorchis felineus, and Opisthorchis viverrini), lung flukes (Paragonimus spp.), and intestinal flukes (e.g., Echinostoma spp., Fasciolopsis buski, and the heterophyids). Food-borne trematodiases pose a significant public health and economic problem, yet these diseases are often neglected. In this review, we summarize the taxonomy, morphology, and life cycle of food-borne trematodes. Estimates of the at-risk population and number of infections, geographic distribution, history, and ecological features of the major food-borne trematodes are reviewed. We summarize clinical manifestations, patterns of infection, and current means of diagnosis, treatment, and other control options. The changing epidemiological pattern and the rapid growth of aquaculture and food distribution networks are highlighted, as these developments might be associated with an elevated risk of transmission of food-borne trematodiases. Current research needs are emphasized.
Oral capecitabine as an alternative to i.v. 5-fluorouracil-based adjuvant therapy for colon cancer: safety results of a randomized, phase III trial.

BACKGROUND Oral capecitabine achieves a superior response rate with an improved safety profile compared with bolus 5-fluorouracil-leucovorin (5-FU/LV) as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. We report here the results of a large phase III trial investigating adjuvant oral capecitabine compared with 5-FU/LV (Mayo Clinic regimen) in Dukes' C colon cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients aged 18-75 years with resected Dukes' C colon carcinoma were randomized to receive 24 weeks of treatment with either oral capecitabine 1250 mg/m(2) twice daily, days 1-14 every 21 days (n = 993), or i.v. bolus 5-FU 425 mg/m(2) with i.v. leucovorin 20 mg/m(2) on days 1-5, repeated every 28 days (n = 974). RESULTS Patients receiving capecitabine experienced significantly (P <0.001) less diarrhea, stomatitis, nausea/vomiting, alopecia and neutropenia, but more hand-foot syndrome than those receiving 5-FU/LV. Fewer patients receiving capecitabine experienced grade 3 or 4 neutropenia, febrile neutropenia/sepsis and stomatitis (P <0.001), although more experienced grade 3 hand-foot syndrome than those treated with 5-FU/LV (P <0.001). Capecitabine demonstrates a similar, favorable safety profile in patients aged <65 years or > or = 65 years old. CONCLUSIONS Based on its improved safety profile, capecitabine has the potential to replace 5-FU/LV as standard adjuvant treatment for patients with colon cancer. Efficacy results are expected to be available in Keywords: Adjuvant treatment, capecitabine, chemotherapy, colorectal cancer
Symmetrical buffer placement in clock trees for minimal skew immune to global on-chip variations

As the feature size of VLSI circuits scales down and clock rates increases, circuit performance is becoming more sensitive to process variations. This paper proposes an algorithm of symmetrical buffer placement in symmetrical clock trees to achieve zero-skew in theory, as well as robust low skew under process or environment variations. With the completely symmetrical structure, we can eliminate many factors of clock skew such as model inaccuracy, environment temperature and intra-die process variations. We devise a new dynamic programming scheme to handle buffer placement and wire sizing under the constraint of symmetry. By classifying the wires by tree levels and defining the level-dependent blockages, the potential candidate points in the gaps of circuit blocks can be fully explored. The algorithm is efficient for minimizing source-sink delay as well as other linear cost functions. Experiments show that our method helps to obtain a balanced design of clock tree with low delay, skew and power.
A treasure chest full of nanogranitoids: an archive to investigate crustal melting in the Bohemian Massif

Abstract The central European Bohemian Massif has undergone over two centuries of scientific investigation which has made it a pivotal area for the development and testing of modern geological theories. The discovery of melt inclusions in high-grade rocks, either crystallized as nanogranitoids or as glassy inclusions, prompted the re-evaluation of the area with an ‘inclusionist’ eye. Melt inclusions have been identified in a wide range of rocks, including felsic/perpotassic granulites, migmatites, eclogites and garnet clinopyroxenites, all the result of melting events albeit over a wide range of pressure/temperature conditions (800–1000°C/0.5–5 GPa). This contribution provides an overview of such inclusions and discusses the qualitative and quantitative constraints they provide for melting processes, and the nature of melts and fluids involved in these processes. In particular, data on trace-element signatures of melt inclusions trapped at mantle depths are presented and discussed. Moreover, experimental re-homogenization of nanogranitoids provided microstructural criteria allowing assessment of the conditions at which melt and host are mutually stable during melting. Overall this work aims to provide guidelines and suggestions for petrologists wishing to explore the fascinating field of melt inclusions in metamorphic terranes worldwide, based on the newest discoveries from the still-enigmatic Bohemian Massif.
The Generalized A* Architecture

We consider the problem of computing a lightest derivation of a global structure using a set of weighted rules. A large variety of inference problems in AI can be formulated in this framework. We generalize A* search and heuristics derived from abstractions to a broad class of lightest derivation problems. We also describe a new algorithm that searches for lightest derivations using a hierarchy of abstractions. Our generalization of A* gives a new algorithm for searching AND/OR graphs in a bottom-up fashion. We discuss how the algorithms described here provide a general architecture for addressing the pipeline problem -- the problem of passing information back and forth between various stages of processing in a perceptual system. We consider examples in computer vision and natural language processing. We apply the hierarchical search algorithm to the problem of estimating the boundaries of convex objects in grayscale images and compare it to other search methods. A second set of experiments demonstrate the use of a new compositional model for finding salient curves in images.
Generalized self spread-spectrum communications with turbo soft despreading and decoding

Self-spreading (SSP) is a spread spectrum technique where the spreading sequence is generated from data bits. Although SSP allows communications with low probability of interception by unintended receivers, despreading by the intended receiver is prone to error propagation. In this paper, we propose both a new transmitter and a new receiver based on SSP with the aim to a) reduce error propagation and b) increase the concealment of the transmission. We first describe a new technique for the generation of SSP spreading sequence, which generalizes SSPs of existing literature. We include also coding at the transmitter, in order to further reduce the effects of error propagation at the receiver. For the receiver, we propose a turbo architecture based on the exchange of information between a soft despreader and a soft-input soft-output decoder. We design the despreader in order to fully exploit the information provided by the decoder. Lastly, we propose a chip decoder that extracts the information on data bits contained in the spreading sequence from the received signal. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated and compared with existing spread-spectrum systems.