Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing last-level cache designs for CMP architectures

The emergence of hardware accelerators, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), has challenged the interaction between processing elements (PEs) and main memory. In architectures like the Cell/B.E. or GPUs, the PEs incorporate local memories which are fed with data transferred from memory using direct memory accesses (DMAs). We expect that chip multiprocessors (CMP) with DMA-managed local memories will become more popular in the near future due to the increasing interest in accelerators. In this work we show that, in that case, the way cache hierarchies are conceived should be revised. Particularly for last-level caches, the norm today is to use latency-aware organizations. For instance, in dynamic nonuniform cache architectures (D-NUCA) data is migrated closer to the requester processor to optimize latency. However, in DMA-based scenarios, the memory system latency becomes irrelevant compared with the time consumed for moving the DMA data, so latency-aware designs are, a priori, inefficient. In this work, we revisit the last-level cache designs in DMA-based CMP architectures with master-worker execution. Two scenarios are evaluated. First, we consider a set of private caches with data replication across them, where coherency of the copies is ensured through a hardware protocol. In this scenario, a PE has a nearby copy of the datum, improving cache access latency. Second, we consider a partitioned cache, where the allocation of a datum to a cache block is determined based on its physical address. In this scenario, there are no copies of data, and access to a datum has a variable latency. In contrast with traditional load/store-based architectures, we found that the partitioned last-level cache scheme outperforms the cache with data replication for DMA-based scenarios.
A framework for the study of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers: spillover of bat pathogens as a case study

Many serious emerging zoonotic infections have recently arisen from bats, including Ebola, Marburg, SARS-coronavirus, Hendra, Nipah, and a number of rabies and rabies-related viruses, consistent with the overall observation that wildlife are an important source of emerging zoonoses for the human population. Mechanisms underlying the recognized association between ecosystem health and human health remain poorly understood and responding appropriately to the ecological, social and economic conditions that facilitate disease emergence and transmission represents a substantial societal challenge. In the context of disease emergence from wildlife, wildlife and habitat should be conserved, which in turn will preserve vital ecosystem structure and function, which has broader implications for human wellbeing and environmental sustainability, while simultaneously minimizing the spillover of pathogens from wild animals into human beings. In this review, we propose a novel framework for the holistic and interdisciplinary investigation of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers, using the spillover of bat pathogens as a case study. This study has been developed to gain a detailed interdisciplinary understanding, and it combines cutting-edge perspectives from both natural and social sciences, linked to policy impacts on public health, land use and conservation.
Individual Differences and the Development of Internet Addiction

Internet addiction (IA) has emerged as a universal issue, but its international estimates vary due to different screening instruments and different samples. The present study aims to estimate the risk of IA in a school-based nationally representative sample of Slovenian adolescents and ascertain the interplay between IA, sociodemographic factors, free-time activities, self-control, and perceived satisfaction with life. Overall, the present study found that adolescents at greater risk for developing IA tend to be more passive in their free time, since they watch TV and play video games more than their peers, as well as chat on social media. Adolescents presenting high risk of IA displayed poorer levels of self-control in most cases and reported to be generally less satisfied with their lives in comparison to adolescents presenting low risk of IA.
Using Language Modelling to Integrate Speech Recognition with a Flat Semantic Analysis

One-stage decoding as an integration of speech recognition and linguistic analysis into one probabilistic process is an interesting trend in speech research. In this paper, we present a simple one-stage decoding scheme that can be realised without the implementation of a specialized decoder, nor the use of complex language models. Instead, we reduce an HMM-based semantic analysis to the problem of deriving annotated versions of the conventional language model, while the acoustic model remains unchanged. We present experiments with the ATIS corpus (Price, 1990) in which the performance of the one-stage method is shown to be comparable with the traditional two-stage approach, while requiring a signiﬁ-cantly smaller increase in language model size.
Design guidelines for smart appliances

Embedded intelligence can help controlling and reducing the energy consumption of appliances to a significant amount. Such a smart appliance will consist of a communication interface, a local processing and decision unit and the appliance's actual function. Sophisticated functions for such a device will involve a notion of real-time with a respective time format, a generic database that contains energy usage logs, error messages, warnings and real-time measurements for power usage, and an embedded self-description that allows to integrate the device into a system with minimum manual configuration. While there exists concepts for smart plugs and smart outlets that can be applied to “smarten” an existing device, in general we need to assume that the variety of appliances and technologies will require the support for various architectures including software solutions that integrate into the functions of an appliance with existing computing power, e.g. a DVD player or a state-of-the-art television set. Thus there is a need for architectural services with flexibility for different hosting systems while keeping the interoperability with respect to a smart home control system.
An Improved Trust Metric for Trust-Aware Recommender Systems

Collaborative Filtering (CF) is the most widely used technique for Recommender Systems. However, user similarity alone is not enough for recommendation. We propose that trust is another important issue in recommender systems. Due to data sparsity of the item ratings matrix, we may not find the similar neighbors of the active user and thus CF Recommender Systems often fails in this condition. Taking trust into consideration can alleviate those problems. We consider replacing similarity weight with trust weight by trust propagation over the trust network. And we propose that trust decreases along propagation. A comparison between MoleTrust and our trust metric-DecTrust based on Epinions.com dataset shows that our trust metric can improve the accuracy while keeping coverage.
A systematic review of patient-reported measures of burden of treatment in three chronic diseases

Background Burden of treatment refers to the workload of health care and its impact on patient functioning and well-being. There are a number of patient-reported measures that assess burden of treatment in single diseases or in specific treatment contexts. A review of such measures could help identify content for a general measure of treatment burden that could be used with patients dealing with multiple chronic conditions. We reviewed the content and psychometric properties of patient-reported measures that assess aspects of treatment burden in three chronic diseases, ie, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and heart failure. Methods We searched Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid PsycINFO, and EBSCO CINAHL through November 2011. Abstracts were independently reviewed by two people, with disagreements adjudicated by a third person. Retrieved articles were reviewed to confirm relevance, with patient-reported measures scrutinized to determine consistency with the definition of burden of treatment. Descriptive information and psychometric properties were extracted. Results A total of 5686 abstracts were identified from the database searches. After abstract review, 359 full-text articles were retrieved, of which 76 met our inclusion criteria. An additional 22 articles were identified from the references of included articles. From the 98 studies, 57 patient-reported measures of treatment burden (full measures or components within measures) were identified. Most were multi-item scales (89%) and assessed treatment burden in diabetes (82%). Only 15 measures were developed using direct patient input and had demonstrable evidence of reliability, scale structure, and multiple forms of validity; six of these demonstrated evidence of sensitivity to change. We identified 12 content domains common across measures and disease types. Conclusion Available measures of treatment burden in single diseases can inform derivation of a patient-centered measure of the construct in patients with multiple chronic conditions. Patients should take part in developing the measure to ensure salience and relevance.
Spoofing countermeasures for the protection of automatic speaker recognition systems against attacks with artificial signals

The vulnerability of automatic speaker recognition systems to imposture or spoofing is widely acknowledged. This paper shows that extremely high false alarm rates can be provoked by simple spoofing attacks with artificial, non-speech-like signals and highlights the need for spoofing countermeasures. We show that two new, but trivial countermeasures based on higher-level, dynamic features and voice quality assessment offer varying degrees of protection and that further work is needed to develop more robust spoofing countermeasure mechanisms. Finally, we show that certain classifiers are inherently more robust to such attacks than others which strengthens the case for fused-system approaches to automatic speaker recognition.
Package design optimization and materials selection for stack die BGA package

Due to an expanding consumer electronics market and the need for form factor reduction, stack packages have been gaining popularity in the last 3 years. With the incorporation of silicon die stacking, there is a corresponding increase in biomaterial coupling and interfacial adhesion becomes a prime reliability under the exposure of both moisture and thermal excursion. With the requirement for higher solder reflow temperatures for lead-free applications, the problem becomes even more severe. It becomes increasingly important to understand the combined effects of material selection and package structure on the interfacial delamination under temperature excursion in the presence of moisture. This paper presents a detailed analysis into the effects of packaging materials and structure on interfacial delamination under temperature excursion in the presence of moisture for two die stack fine pitch BGA (D2-FBGA). Upfront analysis based on thermo-mechanical modelling is performed prior to a full design of experiments (DOE) investigation. The current DOE matrix includes variation in mold compound delamination and other test factors such as geometrical variations in die stacking and the selection of mold compound influence the intensity of delamination.
Automata Construction for PSL

The language PSL [1] is a temporal logic standardized by the Accellera standards organization and currently undergoing the process of becoming an IEEE standard. The core of PSL, denoted here LTL WR, is an extension of the linear temporal logic LTL. The extension takes two orthogonal directions. In one direction the logic is interpreted over finite, possibly truncated, as well as infinite words. Truncated words are words that are finite, but not necessarily maximal. Reasoning over truncated words (as well as maximal words) is important for incomplete verification methods such as simulation and bounded model checking as well as for supporting abort/reset operators [7]. In another direction, new basic formulas and operators are added to the language. The new basic formulas are weak and strong regular expressions [6], and the new operators are suffix conjunction/implication that combine regular expressions with other formulas. In this document we provide automata construction for LTL WR. We show that for every LTL WR formula φ there exists a Büchi automaton whose size is exponential in the size of φ. In addition, we classify the complexity of model checking simple properties of the regular expression layer. The suggested constructions can be used in the process of model checking PSL properties using the automata-theoretic approach. A construction for a logic extending LTL with suffix conjuction/implication operators, interpreted over infinite words appears in [9]. A construction for a logic extending LTL with suffix conjunction/implication operators, interpreted over finite/infinite maximal words appears in [10]. A construction for reasoning over truncated words, via reset operators appears in [2]. Our contribution is twofold. First, we are the first to show a construction for weak regular expressions.
Synergetic Effects of PARP Inhibitor AZD2281 and Cisplatin in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Vitro and in Vivo

Cisplatin is a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug for treatment of oral carcinoma, and combinatorial effects are expected to exert greater therapeutic efficacy compared with monotherapy. Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation is reported to be involved in a variety of cellular processes, such as DNA repair, cell death, telomere regulation, and genomic stability. Based on these properties, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors are used for treatment of cancers, such as BRCA1/2 mutated breast and ovarian cancers, or certain solid cancers in combination with anti-cancer drugs. However, the effects on oral cancer have not been fully evaluated. In this study, we examined the effects of PARP inhibitor on the survival of human oral cancer cells in vitro and xenografted tumors derived from human oral cancer cells in vivo. In vitro effects were assessed by microculture tetrazolium and survival assays. The PARP inhibitor AZD2281 (olaparib) showed synergetic effects with cisplatin in a dose-dependent manner. Combinatorial treatment with cisplatin and AZD2281 significantly inhibited xenografted tumor growth compared with single treatment of cisplatin or AZD2281. Histopathological analysis revealed that cisplatin and AZD2281 increased TUNEL-positive cells and decreased Ki67- and CD31-positive cells. These results suggest that PARP inhibitors have the potential to improve therapeutic strategies for oral cancer.
Minimal 2-dominating sets in trees

We provide an algorithm for listing all minimal 2-dominating sets of a tree of order n in time 𝒪(1.3248n ). This implies that every tree has at most 1.3248n minimal 2-dominating sets. We also show that this bound is tight.
Interleukin-22 in Graft-Versus-Host Disease after Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is a potential curative treatment for hematologic malignancies and non-malignant diseases. Because of the lower toxicity of reduced intensity conditioning, the number of transplants is in constant increase. However, allo-HSCT is still limited by complications, such as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), which is associated with important morbidity and mortality. Acute GVHD is an exacerbated inflammatory response that leads to the destruction of healthy host tissues by donor immune cells. Recently, the contribution of innate immunity in GVHD triggering has been investigated by several groups and resulted in the identification of new cellular and molecular effectors involved in GVHD pathogenesis. Interleukin-22 (IL-22) is produced by both immune and adaptive cells and has both protective and inflammatory properties. Its role in GVHD processes has been investigated, and the data suggest that its effect depends on the timing, the target tissue, and the origin of the producing cells (donor/host). In this review, we discuss the role of IL-22 in allo-HSCT and GVHD.
Distributions of Print Sizes in U.S. Newspapers

In this study, the authors measured the print sizes in 10 sections of over 100 U.S. newspapers and found that within a newspaper, the print sizes among sections may vary by more than a factor of 2 and that among newspapers, the print size of a single section may vary by a factor of more than 1.5. These findings challenge the assumption that newspapers use a standard print size and thus that persons with low vision can read all newspapers with magnifiers that are appropriate for reading 1 M print (1.45mm). The authors also give guidelines for low vision specialists in recommending magnification.
The First Ontological Challenge to the IAT: Attitude or Mere Familiarity?

Somebody once asked “Why is it that when people say ‘that’s a good question’ they never have a good answer? ” In response to the query of how we came to do this work, “good question” was indeed our own response, and as such we cannot promise to have a good answer. In spite of the irony that this exercise poses for us, who insist on a healthy distrust of introspective analysis, in this article we hope to communicate the many pleasures of our collaborative effort, the degree to which we are indebted to our critics, and the recognition that the larger understanding of implicit social cognition involves many others who constitute an integral part of this discovery.
How Misconduct Spreads: Auditors’ Role in the Diffusion of Stock-option Backdating

I study the role of external auditors in the diffusion of stock-option backdating in the U.S. to explore the role of professional experts in the diffusion of innovative practices that subvert stakeholders’ interests. Practices that are eventually accepted as misconduct may emerge as liminal practices—ethically and legally questionable but not clearly illegitimate or outlawed—and not be categorized as misconduct until social control agents notice, scrutinize, and react to them. I examine how the role of external auditors in the diffusion of stock-option backdating changed as the practice shifted from liminality to being illegal and illegitimate. The findings suggest that professional experts’ involvement in the diffusion of liminal practices is highly responsive to the institutional environment. Initially, professional experts diffuse these practices via local networks, but when the legal environment becomes more stringent, implying that the practice will become illegitimate, experts reverse their role and extinguish the practice. The larger network remains largely uninvolved in both diffusing and extinguishing the liminal practice until the practice is publicly exposed and labeled as illegal and illegitimate. The findings further show that the diffusion and then extinguishing of backdating before it was outlawed depended on the adopter’s geographic proximity to a local office of a complacent expert and on the absence of traceable communication about backdating between these offices. This combination set the stage for each office to develop independent views about backdating, leading some offices to view backdating favorably and diffuse it, and others to view it unfavorably and curtail it—even at the same time and within the same audit firm. This study contributes to research on the diffusion of misconduct by providing insight into the role of professional experts and the mechanisms and boundary conditions governing that role.
In vitro Solubility of Copper(II) Sulfate and Dicopper Chloride Trihydroxide for Pigs

This study was conducted to determine the solubility of copper (Cu) in two sources of copper(II) sulfate (CuSO4) including monohydrate and pentahydrate and three sources of dicopper chloride trihydroxide (dCCTH) including α-form (dCCTH-α), β-form (dCCTH-β), and a mixture of α- and β-form (dCCTH-αβ) at different pH and a 3-step in vitro digestion assay for pigs. In Exp. 1, Cu sources were incubated in water-based buffers at pH 2.0, 3.0, 4.8, and 6.8 for 4 h using a shaking incubator at 39°C. The CuSO4 sources were completely dissolved within 15 min except at pH 6.8. The solubility of Cu in dCCTH-α was greater (p<0.05) than dCCTH-β but was not different from dCCTH-αβ during 3-h incubation at pH 2.0 and during 2-h incubation at pH 3.0. At pH 4.8, there were no significant differences in solubility of Cu in dCCTH sources. Copper in dCCTH sources were non-soluble at pH 6.8. In Exp. 2, the solubility of Cu was determined during the 3-step in vitro digestion assay for pigs. All sources of Cu were completely dissolved in step 1 which simulated digestion in the stomach. In Exp. 3, the solubility of Cu in experimental diets including a control diet and diets containing 250 mg/kg of additional Cu from five Cu sources was determined during the in vitro digestion assay. The solubility of Cu in diets containing additional Cu sources were greater (p<0.05) than the control diet in step 1. In conclusion, the solubility of Cu was influenced by pH of digesta but was not different among sources based on the in vitro digestion assay.
PHONEME-LEVEL INDEXING FOR FAST AND VOCABULARY-INDEPENDENT VOICE / VOICE RETRIEVAL

This paper reports explorations on a novel approach for speech information retrieval with spoken queries. The method uses a two-layer decoding scheme, where the intermediary representation of speech is based on phonemes, which makes the system vocabularyindependent. Moreover, the use of synchronized lattices at this intermediary level is shown to improve the discriminative performance while decreasing the size of the parameter space, and with a very reasonable additional computational cost.
Keyword-propagation-based information enriching and noise removal for web news videos

The volume of Web videos have increased sharply through the past several years because of the evolvement of Web video sites.Enhanced algorithms on retrieval, classification and TDT (abbreviation of Topic Detection and Tracking) can bring lots of convenience to Web users as well as release tedious work from the administrators. Nevertheless, due to the the insufficiency of annotation keywords and the gap between video features and semantic concepts, it is still far away from satisfactory to implement them based on initial keywords and visual features. In this paper we utilize a keyword propagation algorithm based on manifold structure to enrich the keyword information and remove the noise for videos. Both text similarity and temporal similarity are employed to explore the relationship between any pair of videos and to construct the propagation model. We explore three applications, i.e., TDT, Retrieval and Classification based on a Web news video dataset obtained from a famous online video-distributing website, YouKu, and evaluate our approach. Experimental results demonstrate that they achieve satisfactory performance and always outperform the baseline methods.