Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Merge-by-Wire: Algorithms and System Support

Automakers are trying to make vehicles more intelligent and safe by embedding processors which can be used to implement ldquoby-wirerdquo applications for taking smart decisions on the road or assisting the driver in doing the same. Given this proliferation, there is a need to minimize the computing power required without affecting the performance and safety of the applications. The latter is especially important since these by-wire applications are distributed and real-time in nature and involve deadline bound computations on critical data gathered from the environment. These applications have stringent requirements on the freshness of data items and completion time of the tasks. Our work studies one such safety-related automotive application namely, automatic merge control (AMC) which ensures safe vehicle maneuver in the region where two or more roads intersect.As our contributions, we (i) propose two merge algorithms for amc: head of the lane (HoL) and all feasible sequences (AFS) (ii) demonstrate how DSRC-based wireless communication protocol can be leveraged for the development of AMC (iii) present a real-time approach towards designing AMC by integrating mode-change and real-time repository concepts for reducing the processing power requirements and (iv) provide a scheduling strategy to meet AMC taskspsila timing requirements. Simulations and implementation on robotic vehicular platforms demonstrate the advantages of using our approach for constructing merge-by-wire systems.
Improvements in mood during Greenwood Music Workshops

We report a service evaluation of the influence that making simple percussive instruments in natural and urban settings has on mood. Thirty-five out of the forty-eight vulnerable adults aged 18-68 successfully filled out a modified DASS 21 at the beginning and end of a three-day workshop. Six of the participants completed the workshop in an urban setting to offer a direct comparison between that and a natural setting of a woodland, with the phenomenon of biophilia taken into consideration. Due to the personal circumstances of nine participants, another course took place in a semi urban indoor environment. There was a decrease in depression, stress and anxiety across both urban and natural environments. The urban mood ratings improved more than those in the natural setting, but the mood ratings in the natural setting were better overall. Individual feedback given by volunteers about the course is explored in the discussion.
Synemin and vimentin are components of intermediate filaments in avian erythrocytes

Synemin, a high-molecular-weight protein associated with intermediate filaments in muscle, and vimentin, an intermediate-filament subunit found in many different cell types, have been identified by immunologic and electrophoretic criteria as components of intermediate filaments in mature avian erythrocytes. Desmin, the predominant subunit of intermediate filaments in muscle, has not been detected in these cells. Two dimensional immunoautoradiography of proteolytic fragments of synemin and vimentin demonstates that the erythrocyte proteins are highly homologous, if not identical, to their muscle counterparts. Double immunoflurorescence reaveals that erythrocyte synemin and vimentin co-localize in a cytoplasmic network of sinuous filaments that extends from the nucleus to the plasma membrane and resists aggregation by colcemid. Erythrocytes that are attached to glass cover slips can be sonicated to remove nuclei and nonadherent regions of the plasma membrane; this leaves elliptical patches of adherent membrane that retain mats of vimentin- and synemin-containing intermediate filaments, as seen by immunofluorescence and rotary shadowing. Similarly, mechanical enucleation of erythrocyte ghosts in suspension allows isolation of plasma membranes that retain a significant fraction of the synemin and vimentin, as assayed by electrophoresis, and intermediate filaments, as seen in thin sections. Both synemin and vimentin remain insoluble along with spectrin and actin, in solutions containing nonionic detergent and high salt. However, brief exposure of isolated membrane to distilled water releases the synemin and vimentin together in nearly pure form, before the release of significant amounts of spectrin and actin. These data suggest that avian erythrocyte intermeditate filaments are somehow anchored to the plasma membrane; erythrocytes may thus provide a simple system for the study of intermediate filaments and their mode of interaction with membranes. In addition, these data, in conjunction with previous data from muscle, indicate that synemin is capable of associating with either desmin or vimentin and may thus perform a special role in the structure or function of intermediate filaments in erythrocytes as well as muscle.
Risk-based Testing Techniques: A Perspective Study

Doing more with less has become a mantra for IT organization in today’s business environment. Nowadays, there are more projects, more competitive pressures and greater failure risk which needs to be managed with fewer resources with tighter timelines. But with all these constraints, there's simply no room for compromise on quality and stability in today’s competitive world especially in case of important business critical applications. So, instead of doing more with less and risking late projects, increased costs or low quality, we need to find ways to achieve better with less. The focus of testing has to be placed on aspects of software that matter most with an aim of reducing the risk of failure as well as ensuring the quality and stability of the business applications. This can be achieved by applying the principle of Risk Based Prioritization of tests, known as Risk-based testing (RBT). The aim of Risk Based testing approach is to ensure that appropriate testing activities are identified and prioritized based on risk. The primary role of risk-based testing is to optimize available resources and time without affecting the quality of the product. RBT approach reduces the risk of failure to the business and increase customer satisfaction. In this light, this paper presents the progress different risk-based testing metrics to measure and control test cases and test activities progress, efforts and costs. IT organizations must adopt a focused approach and a comprehensive methodology for end-to-end testing. Riskbased testing helps quantify and mitigate risks in the lifecycle of applications, and prioritize tests more effectively. Under RBT, we create Optimized Regression Test Suite based on Business Severity and Priority. The Success of testing team will be the ability to identify high risk defects in software and ensure they are fixed.
Job strain in the public sector and hospital in-patient care use in old age: a 28-year prospective follow-up

Background: high job strain increases the risk of health decline, but little is known about the specific consequences and long-term effects of job strain on old age health. Objectives: purpose was to investigate whether physical and mental job strain in midlife was associated with hospital care use in old age. Methods: study population included 5,625 Finnish public sector employees aged 44–58 years who worked in blue- and white-collar professions in 1981. The number of in-patient hospital care days was collected from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register for the 28-year follow-up period. Results: rates of hospital care days per 1,000 person-years for men were 7.78 (95% confidence interval [CI] 7.71–7.84) for low, 9.68 (95% CI 9.50–9.74) for intermediate and 12.56 (95% CI 12.47–12.66) for high physical job strain in midlife. The corresponding rates for women were 6.63 (95% CI 6.57–6.68), 7.91 (95% CI 7.87–7.95) and 10.35 (95% CI 10.25–10.42), respectively. Rates were parallel but lower for mental job strain. Reporting high physical job strain in midlife increased the risk of hospital care in old age compared with those who reported low job strain, fully adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.17 (95% CI 1.00–1.38) for men and 1.42 (95% CI 1.25–1.61) for women. These associations were robust in analyses confined to hospital care that took place after the employees had turned 65 years. Conclusion: exposure to high mental and, particularly, high physical job strain in midlife may set employees on a higher healthcare use trajectory which persists into old age.
Modulation strategy with minimum switching losses for three-phase AC-DC matrix converters

Passive three-phase rectifier circuits are very popular for ac-dc power conversion. However, they do not have the capability to reverse the power flow, which is demanded by some recent potential smart-grid applications, such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) power transfer. As an alternative, this paper analyzes the behavior of three-phase ac-dc matrix converters. Among the modulation strategies that minimize the switching losses, the one leading to the minimum output current ripple is chosen. The behavior of this modulation strategy is experimentally tested.
A Method for High-Precision Characterization of the ${Q}$ -Slope of Superconducting RF Cavities

We propose a novel method for high-precision determination of a quality factor Q0 of a superconducting radio-frequency cavity as a function of the strength of the field excited in the cavity, the so-called Q-slope. Usually, the cavity parameters are measured only at resonance for different cavity field strengths, but such a single data point measurement for a given field strength results in a 10%-15% uncertainty in Q0 . In contrast, we propose a method that improves the accuracy of Q0 determination by an order of magnitude. We vary the phase of an excited stabilized field in the cavity and measure the reflection coefficient of the cavity as a function of the phase. The procedure is repeated for different strengths of the excited field. Given the fact that the complex reflection coefficient of a cavity describes a perfect circle in polar coordinates as a function of the field phase for a constant field strength, we find the coupling coefficient much more accurately by fitting the overdetermined set of measured data to the circle for each value of the cavity field. From the time-decay measurement, which allows least-squares minimization, we accurately find the total (loaded) quality factor and deduce Q0 with an uncertainty of around 1%.
Memory access aware on-line voltage control for performance and energy optimization

This paper describes an off-chip memory access-aware runtime DVFS control technique that minimizes energy consumption subject to constraints on application execution times. We consider application phases and the implications of changing cache miss rates on the ideal power control state. We first propose a two-stage DVFS algorithm based on formulating the throughput-constrained energy minimization problem as a multiple-choice knapsack problem (MCKP). This algorithm uses a power model that adapts to application phase changes by observing processor hardware performance counter values. The solutions it produces provide upper bounds on the energy savings achievable under a performance constraint. However, this algorithm assumes a priori (oracle or profiling-based) knowledge of application phase change behavior. To relax this assumption, we propose P-DVFS, an predictive DVFS algorithm for on-line minimization of energy consumption under a performance constraint without requiring a priori knowledge of an application's behavior. P-DVFS uses hardware performance counter based performance and power models. It predicts remaining execution time online in order to control voltage and frequency settings to optimize energy consumption and performance. The P-DVFS problem is formulated as a multiple-choice knapsack problem, which can be efficiently and optimally solved online. We evaluated P-DVFS using direct measurement of a real DVFS-equipped system. When bounding performance loss to at most 20% of that at the maximum frequency and voltage, P-DVFS leads to energy consumptions within 1.83% of the optimal solution for our problem instances on average with a maximum deviation of 4.83%. In addition to producing results approaching those of an oracle formulation, P-DVFS reduces power consumption for our problem instances by 9.93% on average, and up to 25.64%, compared with the most advanced related work.
Detection of Moving Targets by Focusing in UWB SAR—Theory and Experimental Results

Moving-target detection in ultrawideband (UWB) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is associated with long integration time and must accommodate azimuth focusing for reliable detection. This paper presents the theory on detection of moving targets by focusing and experimental results on single-channel SAR data aimed at evaluating the detection performance. The results with respect to both simulated and real data show that the ability to detect moving targets increases significantly when applying the proposed detection technique. The improvement in signal-to-clutter noise ratio, which is a basic requisite for evaluating the performance, reaches approximately 20 dB, using only single-channel SAR data. This gain will be preserved for the case of multichannel SAR data. The reference system for this study is the airborne UWB low-frequency SAR Coherent All RAdio BAnd Sensing II.
Our Bodies in the Trolley’s Path, or Why Self-driving Cars Must *Not* Be Programmed to Kill

The discourse around self-driving cars has been dominated by an emphasis on their potential to reduce the number of accidents. At the same time, proponents acknowledge that self-driving cars would inevitably be involved in fatal accidents where moral algorithms would decide the fate of those involved. This is a necessary trade-off, proponents suggest, in order to reap the benefits of this new technology. In this article, I engage this argument, demonstrating how an undue optimism and enthusiasm about this technology is obscuring our ability to see what is at stake and explaining how moving beyond the dominant utilitarian framings around this technology opens up a space for both ethical inquiry and innovative design. I suggest that a genuine caring concern for the many lives lost in car accidents now and in the future—a concern that transcends false binary trade-offs and that recognizes the systemic biases and power structures that make certain groups more vulnerable than others—could serve as a starting point to rethink mobility, as it connects to the design of our cities, the well-being of our communities, and the future of our planet.
Inequality of educational opportunity: the relationship between access, affordability, and quality of private schools in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract Using data from a census of private schools in one of Lagos, Nigeria’s administrative jurisdictions, this paper explores the linkages between a heterogeneous sector of private schools and issues of school access, affordability, quality, and ultimately social mobility for households at the bottom of the income distribution. Although a large private education market has buoyed Lagos’s growth towards near-universal primary enrolment, this heterogeneous school sector appears to be providing socially stratifying paths towards educational attainment. We apply Lucas’s theory of effectively maintained inequality to assess the extent to which access to higher quality education services within the private sector is determined by cost. We find that higher-cost private schools provide students with greater opportunities to study in institutions with higher quality inputs and increased potential for progression within the educational system. As such, it is highly likely that these schools are primarily accessible to students at the upper ends of the income distribution.
Economic Consequences of Hiring an Auditor With Industry Expertise: An Empirical Analysis Among NPOs

This study examines economic consequences of auditor choice in the Belgian nonprofit (NP) setting, where the identity of both the audit firm and the audit partner is required to be disclosed. Specifically, we examine the influence of auditor choice in favor of an auditor with industry expertise on future contributions (being the sum of donations and grants) received among a large sample of Belgian nonprofit organizations (NPOs). Consistent with a signaling perspective, our results indicate that NPOs benefit from engaging an audit partner with industry expertise, by positively influencing future contributions received by the NPO. However, we observe no significant effect of audit firm industry expertise on future contributions received. Our results therefore suggest that NPOs’ resource providers presume that industry expertise is situated at the signing partner level rather than at the audit firm level.
Grid Reconfigurable Optical Wireless Network (GROW-Net) - A New Hybrid Optical Wireless Access Network Architecture

We propose a novel hybrid optical wireless access network architecture that is designed for highly populated metropolitan area. This hybrid access network consists of an optical grid network providing broadband backhauling, and many wireless mesh networks penetrating into the neighborhoods to provide low cost, ubiquitous links. This hybrid access network architecture is scalable and flexible enough to easily meet varying demands for bandwidth of end users: As bandwidth demand increases, the capacity of the hybrid access network can be upgraded by deploying more access points in the wireless mesh network until its performance begins to degrade due to high hop-counts. As the performance degrade occurs, additional fiber are deployed (or dark fibers activated) to enhance the overall network capacity. On the optical grid backhauling network, we propose a hierarchical loop routing protocol to enhance the routing efficiency. Intra-cell hybrid adaptive routing protocols and algorithms are proposed to achieve the optimum network performance provided by this hybrid access network.
Long-term pegylated interferon- α and its potential in the treatment of melanoma

: Conventional interferons including interferon- α (IFN- α ) are cytokines used for years in the treatment of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Their half-life is short. Pegylated forms of IFN- α present an improved pharmacokinetic proﬁ le that rendered them the preferred IFNs in hepatitis therapy. In the last decade, pegylated interferons (PegIFNs) have been investigated in melanoma patients. We review the scientiﬁ c published literature on biology, pharmacokinetics, side effects and clinical applications of PegIFN- α in the treatment of stage III and IV melanoma. In the adjuvant setting, PegIFN α -2b has signiﬁ cant prolonged distant metastases free survival in patients with microscopic nodal involvement (stage TxN1aM0) and therefore is a promising treatment option in this patient population. In the palliative setting, monotherapy with PegIFN α -2 α can induce complete remissions in a minority of stage IV melanoma patients. The combination of monochemotherapy is feasible and may result in lasting complete remissions. Ongoing research must focus on the identiﬁ cation of patients who mostly beneﬁ t, so that unnecessary toxicity would be avoided. Combining PegIFNs and chemotherapy or targeted agents deserves further exploration.
The Thermal Conductivity of Polymer-derived Amorphous Si-O-C Compounds and Nano-composites

Silicon oxycarbide glasses can be produced over a range of Si–O–C compositions by the controlled pyrolysis of polymer precursors. We present measurements of the thermal conductivity of a silicon oxycarbide glass after two different heat treatments and two Si–O–C nano-composites, hot-pressed at 1600°C, up to 1000°C and compare them to fused silica, amorphous carbon, and SiC. The temperature dependence of their thermal conductivities is similar to other amorphous materials. The presence of low volume fractions of nanoparticles of hafnia (4.5 v/o) or zirconia (7.4 v/o) dispersed within the amorphous matrix only modifies the conductivity slightly, consistent with a simple Maxwell model, and does not affect the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity above room temperature.
Approaches to Bayesian Smooth Unimodal Regression

George Woodworth Dec 13, 1999 (Draft please send comments to george-woodworth@uiowa.edu) 1. Background Speech Articulation Data The data in Figure 1 were obtained by asking 51 subjects ranging in age from 8 to 73 years to track, using jaw movements alone, a dot moving sinusoidally in one dimension at . 6 Hz on a video monitor. Their jaw movements were captured electronically by means of strain guages and translated into the motion of a cursor which was to track (follow) the moving dot. Fidelity of tracking was measured in several ways, including TTD, the RMS difference between target and tracker shown in Figure 1. Low values of TTD indicate that the subject has high control of the speech articulator ((lips, jaw, or voice). The investigators believed ability to control speech articulators to be unimodal in age, reaching a broad optimum in early to middle adulthood. Hence, they wished to fit unimodal regressions to such data. The purpose was to establish agenorms against which to compare the performance of neurologically compromised individuals.
Stability for solution of Differential Variational Inequalitiy

In this paper we study the class of differential variational inequality(DVI) in a finite-dimension Euclidean space <n, which is the following form ẋ(t) = f(t, x(t)) + B(t, x(t))u(t) , x(0) = x0 ∈ <n 0 ≤ (ũ− u(t))T [G(t, x(t)) + F (u(t))] for almost all ũ ∈ K u(t) ∈ K We study stability and perturbation of the DVI under the OSL condition. Besides, we establish a Prior Bound Theorem, which is a useful tool to prove stability of DVI. In this paper, we replace the classical Lipshitz continuity by one-sided Lipschitz condition, which is important improvement of the conventional Lipschitz continuity.
3D Correspondence by Breadth-First Search Frontiers

This paper presents a novel, robust, and fast 3D shape correspondence algorithm applicable to the two snapshots of the same object in arbitrary deformation. Given two such frames as triangle meshes with fixed connectivity, our algorithm first classifies vertices into Breadth-First Search (BFS) frontiers according to their unweighted shortest path distance from a source vertex. This is followed by the rigid or non-rigid alignment of the corresponding frontiers of two meshes as the second and final step. This algorithm is flexible; high-resolution meshes are welcome. It is robust; results approved by human intuition as well as our own numerical correspondence error metric. It is fast; sequential running time turns out to be quadratic in number of vertices, whereas this upper bound can be pulled down as low as subquadratic O(V ) once the second step is naturally and easily parallelized. Due to consistent frontier selection, second step does the optimal work of O(V ) Hungarian assignment in less than a quadratic time.
Characterization of Scientific Workloads on Systems with Multi-Core Processors

Multi-core processors are planned for virtually all next-generation HPC systems. In a preliminary evaluation of AMD Opteron Dual-Core processor systems, we investigated the scaling behavior of a set of micro-benchmarks, kernels, and applications. In addition, we evaluated a number of processor affinity techniques for managing memory placement on these multi-core systems. We discovered that an appropriate selection of MPI task and memory placement schemes can result in over 25% performance improvement for key scientific calculations. We collected detailed performance data for several large-scale scientific applications. Analyses of the application performance results confirmed our micro-benchmark and scaling results