Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the power-reliability tradeoff in on-chip networks

1. Motivation Continuous scaling of transistor dimensions has enabled the exponential increase in performance and functionality of integrated circuits since its introduction. However, power and reliability issues have been rising similarly and endanger the future performance gain (Kim et al. 2003). To model all influencing parameters in different architectures and to explore the design space of miscellaneous complex systems requires tremendous computational effort because billions of transistors are expected to be integrated on a single die by the end of this decade. Conventional bus-based or point-to-point connected communication structures are used to implement such complex systems. Though, they exhibit various drawbacks with the increasing number of modules and on-chip communication traffic, whereas scalability and communication bandwidth are the most limiting characteristics. Thus, this work targets Networks-on-Chip (NoC) which seem promising to become the dominating system paradigm to designing complex integrated systems (Benini et al. 2002). An NoC consists of independent computational resources that can be of any kind – e.g. general purpose processors, memories, I/Os or intellectual properties (IP). Those different resources are interconnected by an on-chip network that is constructed in a layered approach based on the OSI reference model (see Fig. 1 a). Such a system approach allows concurrent and separated computation as well as communication and already includes redundancy implicitly. Even though, all redundant components and additional features of NoC increase the reliability, they also rise the power consumption so that these two aspects have to be traded off against each other. The first and intuitive approach to evaluate the described trade-off is to implement the system using hardware description languages (HDL) which enable fairly accurate results. High flexibility can additionally be achieved by
Functional limitations and disability among elders in the Framingham Study.

BACKGROUND The measurement of physical disability as an indication of the impact of disease is commonly seen in research. However, these measures often do not clearly differentiate between functional limitations and daily performance of an activity. METHODS We measured the differences between self-reported disability and observed functional limitations in six activities of daily living tasks among community-dwelling elders. The value of functional limitations vs disability measures in determining risk factors for disablement was ascertained. RESULTS Systematic differences were found among the 1453 participants. At least 89% of the time when a difference was identified, the subjects ranked disability greater than the functional limitations observed. For those who were cognitively impaired, discrepancies occurred up to 11% of the time. In determining risk factors for disablement, we found that neurological impairments were associated with both functional limitations and disability, while sociocultural factors were associated with disability only. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that physical functional limitations and disability in the elderly are two distinct concepts and that the measure of choice should be determined by research objectives and the type of population being studied.
Use of serious games for motivational balance rehabilitation of cerebral palsy patients

Research studies show that serious games help to motivate users in rehabilitation and therapy is better when users are motivated. In this work we experiment with serious games for cerebral palsy patients, who rarely show capacity increases with therapy which causes them demotivation. For this reason, we have implemented balance rehabilitation video games for this group of patients. The video games were developed using the prototype development paradigm, respecting the requirements indicated by physiotherapists and including desirable features for rehabilitation serious games presented in the literature. A set of patients who abandoned therapy last year due to loss of motivation, has tested the video game for a period of 6 months. Whilst using the video game no patients have abandoned therapy, showing the appropriateness of games for this kind of patients.
Do mice selectively bred for high locomotor activity have a greater reliance on lipids to power submaximal aerobic exercise ?

Patterns of fuel use during locomotion are determined by exercise intensity and duration, and are remarkably similar across many mammalian taxa. However, as lipids have a high yield of ATP per mole and are stored in large quantities, their use should be favored in endurance-adapted animals. To examine capacity for alteration or differential regulation of fuel use patterns, we studied two lines of mice that had been selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running (HR), including one characterized by small hindlimb muscles (HRmini) and one without this phenotype (HRnormal), as well as a non-selected control line. We evaluated: 1) maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max); 2) whole-body fuel use during exercise by indirect calorimetry; 3) cardiac properties; and 4) many factors involved in regulating lipid use. HR mice achieved an increased VO2max compared to control mice, potentially in part due to HR cardiac capacities for metabolic fuel oxidation and the larger relative heart size of HRmini mice. HR mice also exhibited enhanced whole-body lipid oxidation rates at 66% VO2max, but HRmini, HRnormal, and control mice did not differ in the proportional mix of fuels sustaining exercise (% total VO2). However, HRmini gastrocnemius muscle had elevated fatty acid translocase (FAT/CD36) sarcolemmal protein and cellular mRNA, fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) cytosolic protein, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α mRNA, and mass-specific activities of citrate synthase, β-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, and hexokinase. Therefore, high-running mouse lines had whole-body fuel oxidation rates commensurate with maximal aerobic capacity, despite notable differences in skeletal muscle metabolic phenotypes.
Systems Analysis of Shoot Apical Meristem Growth and Development: Integrating Hormonal and Mechanical Signaling

The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is a small population of stem cells that continuously generates organs and tissues. This review covers our current understanding of organ initiation by the SAM in Arabidopsis thaliana. Meristem function and maintenance involves two major hormones, cytokinins and auxins. Cytokinins appear to play a major role in meristem maintenance and in controlling meristematic properties, such as cell proliferation. Self-organizing transport processes, which are still only partially understood, lead to the patterned accumulation of auxin at particular positions, where organs will grow out. A major downstream target of auxin-mediated growth regulation is the cell wall, which is a determinant for both growth rates and growth distribution, but feedbacks with metabolism and the synthetic capacity of the cytoplasm are crucial as well. Recent work has also pointed at a potential role of mechanical signals in growth coordination, but the precise mechanisms at work remain to be elucidated.
Investigation of thermomigration in composite SnPb solder joints

Due to the increasing functional demand and miniaturization in high-density microelectronics packaging, thermomigration in flip chip solder joints owing to Joule heating becomes a serious reliability issue. In recent years, a series of researches have been devoted to examining the failure mechanism of thermomigration in eutectic SnPb and lead-free solder joints. However, only a few studies were focused on the thermomigration phenomenon at room temperature. Also, the investigation of thermomigration in solder joints of commercial products was insufficient.
Big Data Analytics – Where to go from Here

Big Data analytics and Cloud Computing are headlining the current IT initiatives. The information pool that is generated worldwide doubles every 20 month. Echoing McKinsey [17], Big Data refers to dataset sizes that are beyond the ability of typical database tools to capture, store, manage, and analyze the data assets. There is no explicit definition of how big a dataset has to be to be labeled Big Data. Nevertheless, new technologies have to be in place to manage the Big Data phenomenon. IDC refers to Big Data as a new generation of technologies and architectures that are designed to extract value economically from very large volumes of a wide variety of data by enabling high velocity capture, discovery, and analysis features [1]. Volume is synonymous with big in Big Data. Volume is a relative term though where smaller-sized companies may deal with TB of data as opposed to larger firms that may operate on PB and EB datasets. Anyhow, the data volume will continue to grow, regardless of an organization's size. Data comes from a variety of sources, both internal and external and in a variety of data types. So to reiterate, the term Big Data refers to the vast amount of heterogeneous (structured, semi-structured, unstructured) data that is generated at a rapid pace and basically yields the traditional data analysis tools used for RDBMS environments as useless. Further, the proliferation of smart-phones, tablets, sensors, and cameras combined with the popularity of social networks and the ease of world-wide Internet access contributes to the fact that most data generated today is labeled as unstructured or semi-structured, respectively. Traditionally, Hadoop (HDFS and MapReduce) was considered as the Java based, parallel/distributed batch processing platform of choice to analyze massive amounts of data (PetaBytes+). Since 2012 though, there is a clear shift in that organizations are moving the majority of their data management tasks from batch to real-time [15]. The Big Data and Hadoop ecosystems as well as Cloud Computing continue to evolve. Organizations are moving beyond questions such as what and how to store towards deriving meaningful and timely analytics from their data to interactively respond to real business scenarios.
Corticofugal projections to the vestibular nuclei in squirrel monkeys: Further evidence of multiple cortical vestibular fields

Single‐ and multiple‐unit recordings were made from nerve cells located in the different nuclei of the brainstem vestibular nuclear complex (VNC) of anaesthetized squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) by conventional sterotaxic techniques. After neurons responding to semicircular canal stimulation in a yaw, roll, or pitch direction or to otholith stimulation were identified, small amounts of retrograde tracer substances were deposited at the recording sites. Up to three different tracers were administered to different parts of the VNC in the same animal (Fast Blue, HRP‐WGA, and Rhodamine‐dextranes). After adequate survival times, the animals were sacrificed. Following histological processing, the cortical grey matter was screened systematically for cells labelled with the retrograde tracers (fluorescence microscopy or light microscopy for HRP processing). Labelled nerve cells which clearly project to the VNC directly were found predominantly in the cytoarchitectonic layer 5 of seven different cortical areas: (1) The parieto‐insular vestibular cortex PIVC, which in squirrel monkeys consists mainly of the medial area Ri and parts of the anterior area Ig; (2) area 7ant, which presumably corresponds to the macaque area 2v; (3) area 3aV, a vestibular field of area 3a; (4) the temporal area T3 bordering on area Ri; (5) the premotor area 6a; and (6, 7) the areas 6c and 23c of the anterior cingulate cortex. The PIVC, area 7ant, and area 3aV form the “inner cortical vestibular circuit” (Guldin et al.: J. Comp. Neurol. 326:375–401, '92) while the other cortical areas mentioned also have direct projections to the structures of the inner cortical vestibular circuit. It is speculated that the direct projections of the cortical vestibular structures to the brainstem vestibular nuclei regulate the vestibulo‐ocular, the vestibulo‐spinal, and the optokinetic reflexes mediated through the VNC, thus preventing counteractions of these reflexes during voluntary, goal‐directed head movements or locomotion. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Click-based Hot Fixes for Underperforming Torso Queries

Ranking documents using their historical click-through rate (CTR) can improve relevance for frequently occurring queries, i.e., so-called head queries. It is difficult to use such click signals on non-head queries as they receive fewer clicks. In this paper, we address the challenge of dealing with torso queries on which the production ranker is performing poorly. Torso queries are queries that occur frequently enough so that they are not considered as tail queries and yet not frequently enough to be head queries either. They comprise a large portion of most commercial search engines' traffic, so the presence of a large number of underperforming torso queries can harm the overall performance significantly. We propose a practical method for dealing with such cases, drawing inspiration from the literature on learning to rank (LTR). Our method requires relatively few clicks from users to derive a strong re-ranking signal by comparing document relevance between pairs of documents instead of using absolute numbers of clicks per document. By infusing a modest amount of exploration into the ranked lists produced by a production ranker and extracting preferences between documents, we obtain substantial improvements over the production ranker in terms of page-level online metrics. We use an exploration dataset consisting of real user clicks from a large-scale commercial search engine to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. We conduct further experimentation on public benchmark data using simulated clicks to gain insight into the inner workings of the proposed method. Our results indicate a need for LTR methods that make more explicit use of the query and other contextual information.
Protecting data in cloud environment with attribute-based encryption

Traditional file systems cannot satisfy the recent requirements in the cloud environment. Meanwhile, current file systems designed for cloud computing cannot provide enough flexibility, fine-grained access control and access security. In this paper, a novel secure file sharing scheme based on attribute control is presented. In order to design a practical cloud file system with attribute based encryption, we give a systematic definition of attribute computing in cloud computing environment. Based on the definition, we present a secure and practical attribute based encryption scheme without pairings CP-ABE-WP under cloud computing scenarios. Then we design a secure cloud file system applying our CP-ABE-WP to provide data management and secure data sharing. According to our analysis and test, the scheme is chosen plaintext secure in selective ID model with acceptable performance and can satisfy the file sharing application in cloud computing.
A robust start-up Class-C CMOS VCO based on a common mode low frequency feedback loop

Many Class-C CMOS VCOs have been introduced in the last decade claiming to achieve improved phase noise performance and power efficiency with apparently no tradeoff, however only in the past two years implementation efforts have been focused on stability related issues of such oscillator architectures. In fact, oscillators exploiting time-varying bias techniques may present several stability points and for this reason dedicated start-up circuits are needed to reach the desired periodic steady state regime. In this paper we introduce a novel stabilization technique for a CMOS VCO polarized in Class-C via a common mode feedback loop with the aim to ensure a robust start-up with no significant phase-noise and power efficiency degradation. The VCO core is based on a crossed pair of NMOS devices refilling a symmetric resonator with a center tapered inductor and biased by a top PMOS current generator. The proposed Class-C VCO is implemented in a RF 55nm CMOS technology and is tunable over the frequency band 6.6-8.2 GHz with average phase noise lower than -127 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz offset and mean power consumption of 18mW, for a state-of-the-art figure-of-merit of -190 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz offset.
Ethics and Integrity in Auditing

This keynote lecture addresses ethics and integrity from the perspective of the auditing profession. The focus is on the vital role auditing plays in helping to promote good government and transparency. The remarks fall into four areas: how ethics and integrity form the foundation for auditing, the importance that the Government Accountability Office places on ethics and integrity in its own work, its role in speaking out and disclosing hard truths, and how the office helps to promote ethics and integrity in auditing around the world.
Pareto‐Improving Water Management Over Space and Time: The Honolulu Case

Proposals for marginal cost water pricing have often been found to be politically infeasible because current users will have to pay a higher price even though future users will be better off. We show how efficiency pricing can be rendered Pareto-improving, and thus politically feasible, by compensating the users suffering a loss due to higher prices. We also provide a method for determining efficient spatial and inter-temporal water management for a system with consumption at significantly different elevations supplied from a renewable coastal aquifer, which is subject to salinity if over-extracted.
Selective medium for isolation of Fusarium species and dematiaceous hyphomycetes from cereals

A selective medium containing 2 micrograms of dichloran per ml, 200 micrograms of chloramphenicol per ml, and 1.5% bacteriological peptone was developed for the isolation of Fusarium species and dematiaceous hyphomycetes from cereals. The medium, designated DCPA, was shown to select against species of Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium, and mucoraceous fungi. DCPA was evaluated for use as an enumeration medium and compared satisfactorily with dichloran-rose bengal-chloramphenicol agar when both media were tested with a range of cereal samples. Fusarium species and dematiaceous hyphomycetes produced well-formed colonies with good conidial production on DCPA, permitting rapid identification of such isolates on this medium.
Certificate-Based Encryption Without Random Oracles

We present a certificate-based encryption scheme which is fully secure in the standard model. Our scheme is based on the identity-based encryption scheme of Waters [16]. Although some generic constructions from IBE to CBE has been previously proposed, they use the Random Oracle heuristic or provide less practical schemes than ours. Finally, we point out that one of the existing generic constructions going from IBE to CBE is flawed.
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE PERSIAN VERSIONS OF THE ENRICH MARITAL SATISFACTION (BRIEF VERSION) AND KANSAS MARITAL SATISFACTION SCALES

Background: Evaluation of marital satisfaction using valid and reliable tools is crucial in Iran, regarding the increasing rate of divorce. In Western countries, the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) and ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (EMS) showed acceptable reliability and validity in determining how satisfied couples were in their marital relationship. The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the two questionnaires. Methods: This study was done on 100 subjects referred to the pre-divorce counseling centers and 200 participants from the general population of Rafsanjan City. The EMS (as a brief version of ENRICH) containing 10 satisfaction questions and KMSS containing three items were evaluated. Cronbakh’s alpha and item-scale correlations were calculated in order to assess the reliability of the tools. For testing construct validity three methods were used: convergent validity, known group comparison and factorial validity. Results: The Cronbach’s alpha of EMS and KMSS were 0.74 and 0.98, respectively. EMS consisted of two factors and KMSS had one factor. Satisfaction score obtained by both questionnaires were lower in the divorce group than the general population (P<0/001). Correlation coefficients between EMS and KMSS, and ENRICH were 0.82 and 0.32, respectively. Conclusion: The Persian version of the KMSS and EMS questionnaires showed acceptable reliability and validity. Keywords: Questionnaire, Marital satisfaction, validity, reliability, Iran
Path Loss Effect on Energy Consumption in a WSN

Energy consumption of nodes is a crucial factor that constrains the networks life time for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). WSNs are composed of small sensors equipped with low-power devices, and have limited battery power supply. The main concern in existing architectural and optimisation studies is to prolong the network lifetime. The lifetime of the sensor nodes is affected by different components such as the microprocessor, the sensing module and the wireless transmitter/receiver. The existing works mainly consider these components to decide on best deployment, topology, protocols and so on. Recent studies have also considered the monitoring and evaluation of the path loss caused by environmental factors. Path loss is always considered in isolation from the higher layers such as application and network. It is necessary to combine path loss computations used in physical layer, with information from upper layers such as application layer for a more realistic evaluation. In this paper, a simulation-based study is presented that uses path-loss model and application layer information in order to predict the network lifetime. Physical environment is considered as well. We show that when path-loss is introduced, increasing the transmission power is needed to reduce the amount of packets lost. This presents a tradeoff between the residual energy and the successful transmission rate when more realistic settings are employed for simulation. It is a challenging task to optimise the transmission power of WSNs, in presence of path loss, because although increasing the transmission power reduces the residual energy, it also reduces the number of retransmissions required.
Corpo e Modernidade na abordagem de Anthony Giddens: Uma Reflexão à Luz do Discurso pela Humanização do Parto*

Professora Adjunta do Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia e Doutora em Sociologia pela The New School for Social Research. E-mail: liliatavolaro@hotmail.com. Professor Adjunto do Departamento de Sociologia da Universidade de Brasília e Doutor em Sociologia pela The New School for Social Research. E-mail: sergiotavolaro@hotmail.com. * Uma primeira versão deste artigo foi apresentada no 34o Encontro Anual da ANPOCS. Os autores agradecem Frederic Vandenberghe e Cynthia Hamlin por acolherem a proposta. Agradecem também os comentários e sugestões recebidos. Texto enviado em 01/12/2010. Texto aprovado em 21/02/2011. Corpo e Modernidade na abordagem de Anthony Giddens: Uma Reflexão à Luz do Discurso pela Humanização do Parto*
Providing cost-effective on-chip network bandwidth in GPGPUs

Network-on-chip (NoC) bandwidth has a significant impact on overall performance in throughput-oriented processors such as GPG-PUs. Although it has been commonly assumed that high NoC bandwidth can be provided through abundant on-chip wires, we show that increasing NoC router frequency results in a more cost-effective NoC. However, router arbitration critical path can limit the NoC router frequency. Thus, we propose a direct all-to-all network overlaid on mesh (DA2mesh) NoC architecture that exploits the traffic characteristics of GPGPU and removes arbitration from the router pipeline. DA2mesh simplifies the router pipeline with 36% improvement of performance while reducing NoC energy by 15%.