Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Parallelization in a Binary Rewriter

Today, nearly all general-purpose computers are parallel, but nearly all software running on them is serial. However bridging this disconnect by manually rewriting source code in parallel is prohibitively expensive. Automatic parallelization technology is therefore an attractive alternative. We present a method to perform automatic parallelization in a binary rewriter. The input to the binary rewriter is the serial binary executable program and the output is a parallel binary executable. The advantages of parallelization in a binary rewriter versus a compiler include (i) compatibility with all compilers and languages, (ii) high economic feasibility from avoiding repeated compiler implementation, (iii) applicability to legacy binaries, and (iv) applicability to assembly-language programs. Adapting existing parallelizing compiler methods that work on source code to work on binary programs instead is a significant challenge. This is primarily because symbolic and array index information used in existing compiler parallelizers is not available in a binary. We show how to adapt existing parallelization methods to achieve equivalent parallelization from a binary without such information. Preliminary results using our x86 binary rewriter called Second Write on a suite of dense-matrix regular programs including the externally developed Polybench suite of benchmarks shows an average speedup of 5.1 from binary and 5.7 from source with 8 threads compared to the input serial binary on an x86 Xeon E5530 machine, and 14.7 from binary and 15.4 from source with 32 threads compared to the input serial binary on a SPARC T2. Such regular loops are an important component of scientific and multi-media workloads, and are even present to a limited extent in otherwise non-regular programs.
Postmortem Accumulation of Tubulin in Postsynaptic Density Preparations

Abstract: Postsynaptic density (PSD) preparations isolated from canine cerebral cortex that had been left at 0–37°C for various times were found to become enriched in two bands in a time‐ but not temperature‐dependent manner. The two bands were identified as tubulin subunits by gel mobility and immunology. Of all the isolated synaptic structures the increase in tubulin occurred primarily in the PSD fraction. The increase of tubulin also occurred in PSD preparations isolated from canine cerebellum and rat forebrain. Results obtained when PSD fractions were isolated from canine brain obtained as rapidly as possible after the death of the animal indicate that the maximum amount of tubulin in the PSD preparations is 2.5% of total Coomassie blue‐stained protein as determined by scanning of gel electrophoretograms. These results imply that tubulin is probably not a major structural protein of the PSD as it exists in situ.
A novel measurement method for respiration rate by electromagnetic frequency sweep

The non-contact measurement of the respiration rate of a subject offers several interesting applications in hospital as well as in domestic environments. The use of electromagnetic waves has been proved to be a feasible approach to this purpose. In this paper, authors present a novel measurement method, based on the transmission of a frequency sweep and the measurement of the reflection coefficient (S11), to determine the respiration rate of the monitored subject without contact. The proposed method places itself at the half-way between continuous wave (CW) and ultra wide band (UWB) techniques, offering some advantages of both methods and improving its feasibility. Experimental tests have been carried out on voluntary subjects simultaneously measured with two reference systems in order to compare respiration frequency values. Results show a good correlation between the data measured during tests, proving that the proposed method is a valid approach to the issue of the noncontact assessment of the respiration rate both in clinical and domestic environments.
Removing illumination from image pair for stereo matching

Stereo vision has long been studied and a great variety of algorithms have been proposed to estimate the disparities from the stereo image pairs. However, when stereo matching algorithms are applied to real world images, especially out door image sequences under sunlight, they can hardly produce desirable disparity maps as they perform on standard stereo image pairs. Consequently, we proposed a method based on histogram equalization and tophat filter to mitigate the influence brought by illumination. Then, belief propagation is used in our method to generate the disparity map. In order to evaluate the effectivity of the proposed methods, some experiments are executed with two outdoor stereo sequences and the results indicate that disparity maps after preprocessing through our method perform much better than directly using stereo matching algorithms.
Cooperative Bounded Model Checking Using STE and Hybrid Three-Valued SAT Solving

This paper presents a cooperative bounded model checking (BMC) method for RTL designs. The method firstly extends the Boolean DPLL algorithm into a unified procedure to solve hybrid satisfiability problems for RTL circuits, and then changes this solver to a hybrid three-valued SAT solver. Symbolic trajectory evaluation (STE) assertions are transformed to a three-valued problem combining the expansion method in BMC and the abstraction of STE. The experimental results comparing with ordinary BMC which based on an ordinary hybrid SAT solver demonstrate the efficiency of our approach
Subjective Quality Assessment for Impaired Videos with Varying Spatial and Temporal Information

The new era of digital communication has brought up many challenges that network operators need to overcome. The high demand of mobile data rates require improved networks, which is a challenge for the operators in terms of maintaining the quality of experience (QoE) for their consumers. In live video transmission, there is a sheer need for live surveillance of the videos in order to maintain the quality of the network. For this purpose objective algorithms are employed to monitor the quality of the videos that are transmitted over a network. In order to test these objective algorithms, subjective quality assessment of the streamed videos is required, as the human eye is the best source of perceptual assessment. In this paper we have conducted subjective evaluation of videos with varying spatial and temporal impairments. These videos were impaired with frame freezing distortions so that the impact of frame freezing on the quality of experience could be studied. We present subjective Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for these videos that can be used for fine tuning the objective algorithms for video quality assessment. Keywords—Frame freezing, mean opinion score, objective assessment, subjective evaluation.
Administration of 8-OH-DPAT into the midbrain raphe nuclei: effects on medial hypothalamic NE-induced feeding.

The 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)1A agonist 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT) has been shown to elicit dose-dependent feeding in satiated rats when injected into the midbrain raphe nuclei. Because the feeding-stimulatory effects of this compound are associated with reduced 5-HT release in forebrain, and because recent evidence suggests that medial hypothalamic norepinephrine (NE) and 5-HT may function antagonistically in the control of feeding, the present study sought to determine whether 8-OH-DPAT would enhance feeding induced by infusing NE into the medial hypothalamus. All experiments were conducted using ad libitum-fed adult male rats with two indwelling cannulas, one aimed at the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), the other at either the dorsal or median raphe. In the first series of experiments rats received a fixed dose of 8-OH-DPAT (0.8 nmol) microinjected into the dorsal or median raphe, as well as NE (0, 10, 20 nmol) administered into the PVN. In the second series, rats received varying doses of raphe 8-OH-DPAT (0, 0.4, 0.8 nmol) coinjected with a single dose of PVN NE (20 nmol). Results indicated that 8-OH-DPAT and NE both elicited reliable increases in 1-h food intake, although their effects did not interact. In the final series, rats were injected with subthreshold doses of both compounds. While combined injections of 8-OH-DPAT and NE modestly increased feeding compared with saline control, this increase was not significantly greater than intake found after injection of 8-OH-DPAT or NE alone. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Level Set Approach to Anisotropic Wet Etching of Silicon

In this paper a methodology for the three dimensional (3D) modeling and simulation of the profile evolution during anisotropic wet etching of silicon based on the level set method is presented. Etching rate anisotropy in silicon is modeled taking into account full silicon symmetry properties, by means of the interpolation technique using experimentally obtained values for the etching rates along thirteen principal and high index directions in KOH solutions. The resulting level set equations are solved using an open source implementation of the sparse field method (ITK library, developed in medical image processing community), extended for the case of non-convex Hamiltonians. Simulation results for some interesting initial 3D shapes, as well as some more practical examples illustrating anisotropic etching simulation in the presence of masks (simple square aperture mask, convex corner undercutting and convex corner compensation, formation of suspended structures) are shown also. The obtained results show that level set method can be used as an effective tool for wet etching process modeling, and that is a viable alternative to the Cellular Automata method which now prevails in the simulations of the wet etching process.
Learning to Invert Local Binary Patterns

In this work, we have proposed to invert the local binary patterns (LBP) descriptor. The success of the inversion gives rise to two applications: face de-appearance and re-appearance. The de-appearance, based on image-LBP forward mapping, is thorough in the sense that not only the identity information but also the soft-biometric information of the subject is removed. The re-appearance yields face reconstruction with high fidelity and also enables secure application with a unique encryption key. The reappearance is achieved by learning the inverse mapping of the LBP descriptors through an `0-constrained coupled dictionary learning scheme that jointly learns two overcomplete dictionaries in both the pixel and the LBP domains such that inverse mapping from the LBP domain to the pixel domain is made possible without knowing the mapping function explicitly. The procedure also comes naturally with high selectivity when reconstructing the faces with various LBP encryption keys. We have shown the effectiveness of our proposed approach on the FRGC ver 2.0 database which involves large-scale fidelity test and face verification experiments using the state-of-the-art commercial and academic face matchers.
Vinclozolin and p,p'-DDE alter androgen-dependent gene expression: in vivo confirmation of an androgen receptor-mediated mechanism.

Vinclozolin and p,p'-DDE induce antiandrogenic developmental effects in vivo and are potent inhibitors of androgen receptor (AR) binding and AR-dependent gene expression in vitro. To determine whether this molecular mechanism is operative in vivo, the effects of these compounds on two androgen-regulated prostatic mRNAs were studied. Rats were sham operated or castrated and immediately implanted with one or two empty 2.5-cm silastic capsules or with one (1x) or two (2x) 2.5-cm capsules containing testosterone (T). T-implanted rats were treated by gavage for 4 days with vehicle (corn oil), vinclozolin (200 mg/kg/day), p,p'-DDE (200 mg/kg/day), or the antiandrogen flutamide (100 mg/kg/day) as a positive control. Vinclozolin, p,p'-DDE, and flutamide all induced a reciprocal decline in seminal vesicle (p < 0.01) and prostate (p < 0.01) weight as well as a reduction in immunohistochemical staining of AR in epididymal nuclei compared to vehicle-treated T-implanted controls. Specific AR antagonism was assessed by determining the ability of these chemicals to induce a testosterone-repressed prostatic message (i.e., TRPM-2) and/or repress a testosterone-induced prostatic message (i.e., prostatein subunit C3). Densitometry scans of Northern blots indicated that vinclozolin, p,p'-DDE, and flutamide each induced TRPM-2 mRNA and repressed C3 mRNA compared to vehicle-treated T-implanted controls. These antiandrogenic effects were competitively reduced in castrate rats implanted with two 2.5-cm T capsules (2x), where serum T levels were elevated more than twofold above physiological levels. Taken together, these data indicate that vinclozolin and p,p'-DDE act as antiandrogens in vivo by altering the expression of androgen-dependent genes.
Solving Man-Induced Large-Scale Conservation Problems: The Spanish Imperial Eagle and Power Lines

Background Man-induced mortality of birds caused by electrocution with poorly-designed pylons and power lines has been reported to be an important mortality factor that could become a major cause of population decline of one of the world rarest raptors, the Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti). Consequently it has resulted in an increasing awareness of this problem amongst land managers and the public at large, as well as increased research into the distribution of electrocution events and likely mitigation measures. Methodology/Principal Findings We provide information of how mitigation measures implemented on a regional level under the conservation program of the Spanish imperial eagle have resulted in a positive shift of demographic trends in Spain. A 35 years temporal data set (1974–2009) on mortality of Spanish imperial eagle was recorded, including population censuses, and data on electrocution and non-electrocution of birds. Additional information was obtained from 32 radio-tracked young eagles and specific field surveys. Data were divided into two periods, before and after the approval of a regional regulation of power line design in 1990 which established mandatory rules aimed at minimizing or eliminating the negative impacts of power lines facilities on avian populations. Our results show how population size and the average annual percentage of population change have increased between the two periods, whereas the number of electrocuted birds has been reduced in spite of the continuous growing of the wiring network. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that solving bird electrocution is an affordable problem if political interest is shown and financial investment is made. The combination of an adequate spatial planning with a sustainable development of human infrastructures will contribute positively to the conservation of the Spanish imperial eagle and may underpin population growth and range expansion, with positive side effects on other endangered species.
Nonconscious Priming After 17 Years

Individuals who saw pictures for 1 to 3 s in the laboratory were tested 17 years later by mail. Identification rates were significantly higher for fragments from these previously exposed targets than for novel fragments, whereas the same stimuli evoked no differences in control groups that had not been previously exposed to the pictures. Priming—the memorial advantage conferred by prior perceptual experience—was stable over the years (r = .51). Priming was dissociated from episodic memory, in that it was present even in subjects who reported no conscious recollection of their participation in the original laboratory session. These findings suggest that the perceptual representation system is an invulnerable memory system functioning below conscious awareness.
Hepatic metal ion transporter ZIP8 regulates manganese homeostasis and manganese-dependent enzyme activity

Genetic variants at the solute carrier family 39 member 8 (SLC39A8) gene locus are associated with the regulation of whole-blood manganese (Mn) and multiple physiological traits. SLC39A8 encodes ZIP8, a divalent metal ion transporter best known for zinc transport. Here, we hypothesized that ZIP8 regulates Mn homeostasis and Mn-dependent enzymes to influence metabolism. We generated Slc39a8-inducible global-knockout (ZIP8-iKO) and liver-specific–knockout (ZIP8-LSKO) mice and observed markedly decreased Mn levels in multiple organs and whole blood of both mouse models. By contrast, liver-specific overexpression of human ZIP8 (adeno-associated virus–ZIP8 [AAV-ZIP8]) resulted in increased tissue and whole blood Mn levels. ZIP8 expression was localized to the hepatocyte canalicular membrane, and bile Mn levels were increased in ZIP8-LSKO and decreased in AAV-ZIP8 mice. ZIP8-LSKO mice also displayed decreased liver and kidney activity of the Mn-dependent enzyme arginase. Both ZIP8-iKO and ZIP8-LSKO mice had defective protein N-glycosylation, and humans homozygous for the minor allele at the lead SLC39A8 variant showed hypogalactosylation, consistent with decreased activity of another Mn-dependent enzyme, &bgr;-1,4-galactosyltransferase. In summary, hepatic ZIP8 reclaims Mn from bile and regulates whole-body Mn homeostasis, thereby modulating the activity of Mn-dependent enzymes. This work provides a mechanistic basis for the association of SLC39A8 with whole-blood Mn, potentially linking SLC39A8 variants with other physiological traits.
Decreasing phantom limb pain through observation of action and imagery: a case series.

BACKGROUND Phantom limb pain is often resistant to treatment. Techniques based on visual-kinesthetic feedback could help reduce it. OBJECTIVE The objective of the current study was to test if a novel intervention combining observation and imagination of movements can reduce phantom limb pain. METHODS This single-case multiple baseline study included six persons with upper or lower limb phantom pain. Participants' pain and imagery abilities were assessed by questionnaires. After a 3-5-week baseline, participants received a two-step intervention of 8 weeks. Intervention 1 was conducted at the laboratory with a therapist (two sessions/week) and at home (three sessions/week); and Intervention 2 was conducted at home only (five times/week). Interventions combined observation and imagination of missing limb movements. Participants rated their pain level and their ease to imagine daily throughout the study. RESULTS Time series analyses showed that three participants rated their pain gradually and significantly lower during Intervention 1. During Intervention 2, additional changes in pain slopes were not significant. Four participants reported a reduction of pain greater than 30% from baseline to the end of Intervention 2, and only one maintained his gains after 6 months. Group analyses confirmed that average pain levels were lower after intervention than at baseline and had returned to baseline after 6 months. Social support, degree of functionality, and perception of control about their lives prior to the intervention correlated significantly with pain reduction. CONCLUSIONS Persons with phantom limb pain may benefit from this novel intervention combining observation and motor imagery. Additional studies are needed to confirm our findings, elucidate mechanisms, and identify patients likely to respond.
Mutation of a Major Keratin Phosphorylation Site Predisposes to Hepatotoxic Injury in Transgenic Mice

Simple epithelia express keratins 8 (K8) and 18 (K18) as their major intermediate filament (IF) proteins. One important physiologic function of K8/18 is to protect hepatocytes from drug-induced liver injury. Although the mechanism of this protection is unknown, marked K8/18 hyperphosphorylation occurs in association with a variety of cell stresses and during mitosis. This increase in keratin phosphorylation involves multiple sites including human K18 serine-(ser)52, which is a major K18 phosphorylation site. We studied the significance of keratin hyperphosphorylation and focused on K18 ser52 by generating transgenic mice that overexpress a human genomic K18 ser52→ ala mutant (S52A) and compared them with mice that overexpress, at similar levels, wild-type (WT) human K18. Abrogation of K18 ser52 phosphorylation did not affect filament organization after partial hepatectomy nor the ability of mouse livers to regenerate. However, exposure of S52A-expressing mice to the hepatotoxins, griseofulvin or microcystin, which are associated with K18 ser52 and other keratin phosphorylation changes, resulted in more dramatic hepatotoxicity as compared with WT K18-expressing mice. Our results demonstrate that K18 ser52 phosphorylation plays a physiologic role in protecting hepatocytes from stress-induced liver injury. Since hepatotoxins are associated with increased keratin phosphorylation at multiple sites, it is likely that unique sites aside from K18 ser52, and phosphorylation sites on other IF proteins, also participate in protection from cell stress.
Informatics concepts for primary education: preparing children for computational thinking

In Austria Informatics is not taught in primary schools, but the curriculum includes some issues in several subjects that are related to computational thinking. Teachers are not aware that they already teach and use informatics concepts in their daily lessons. Informatics didactics experts and teacher trainers have to inform them and reveal connections between their primary school contents and different informatics concepts. Furthermore, one general educational aim of the curriculum is the acquisition of elementary cultural techniques including a child-friendly approach to modern information and communication technologies (ICT). The aim of this paper is to show how this is possible in practice and lists informatics concepts already "hidden" in the primary school curriculum. It reports on different initiatives that aim at introducing informatics in primary schools as well as a sample project on computational thinking funded by the regional teacher support program Teaching Informatics creatively. The qualitative results of this and other primary school projects show that it is possible and worth integrating informatics already at this early stage.
Emerging Approaches to Evaluating the Usability of Health Information Systems

It is essential that health information systems are easy to use, meet user information needs and are shown to be safe. However, there are currently a wide range of issues and problems with health information systems related to human-computer interaction. Indeed, the lack of ease of use of health information systems has been a major impediment to adoption of such systems. To address these issues, the authors have applied methods emerging from the field of usability engineering in order to improve the adoption of a wide range of health information systems in collaboration with hospitals and other healthcare organizations throughout the world. In this chapter we describe our work in conducting usability analyses that can be used to rapidly evaluate the usability and safety of healthcare information systems, both in artificial laboratory and real clinical settings. We then discuss how this work has evolved towards the development of software systems (“virtual usability laboratories”) capable of remotely collecting, integrating and supporting analysis of a range of usability data.