Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soft–Input Soft–Output Single Tree-Search Sphere Decoding

Soft-input soft-output (SISO) detection algorithms form the basis for iterative decoding. The computational complexity of SISO detection often poses significant challenges for practical receiver implementations, in particular in the context of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. In this paper, we present a low-complexity SISO sphere-decoding algorithm, based on the single tree-search paradigm proposed originally for soft-output MIMO detection in Studer (“Soft-output sphere decoding: Algorithms and VLSI implementation,” IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun., vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 290-300, Feb. 2008). The new algorithm incorporates clipping of the extrinsic log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) into the tree-search, which results in significant complexity savings and allows to cover a large performance/complexity tradeoff region by adjusting a single parameter. Furthermore, we propose a new method for correcting approximate LLRs - resulting from sub-optimal detectors - which (often significantly) improves detection performance at low additional computational complexity.
Impact of brine-induced stratification on the glacial carbon cycle

Abstract. During the cold period of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, about 21 000 years ago) atmospheric CO2 was around 190 ppm, much lower than the pre-industrial concentration of 280 ppm. The causes of this substantial drop remain partially unresolved, despite intense research. Understanding the origin of reduced atmospheric CO2 during glacial times is crucial to comprehend the evolution of the different carbon reservoirs within the Earth system (atmosphere, terrestrial biosphere and ocean). In this context, the ocean is believed to play a major role as it can store large amounts of carbon, especially in the abyss, which is a carbon reservoir that is thought to have expanded during glacial times. To create this larger reservoir, one possible mechanism is to produce very dense glacial waters, thereby stratifying the deep ocean and reducing the carbon exchange between the deep and upper ocean. The existence of such very dense waters has been inferred in the LGM deep Atlantic from sediment pore water salinity and δ18O inferred temperature. Based on these observations, we study the impact of a brine mechanism on the glacial carbon cycle. This mechanism relies on the formation and rapid sinking of brines, very salty water released during sea ice formation, which brings salty dense water down to the bottom of the ocean. It provides two major features: a direct link from the surface to the deep ocean along with an efficient way of setting a strong stratification. We show with the CLIMBER-2 carbon-climate model that such a brine mechanism can account for a significant decrease in atmospheric CO2 and contribute to the glacial-interglacial change. This mechanism can be amplified by low vertical diffusion resulting from the brine-induced stratification. The modeled glacial distribution of oceanic δ13C as well as the deep ocean salinity are substantially improved and better agree with reconstructions from sediment cores, suggesting that such a mechanism could have played an important role during glacial times.
Toward Cache-Friendly Hardware Accelerators

Increasing demand for power-efficient, high-performance computing has spurred a growing number and diversity of hardware accelerators in mobile Systems on Chip (SoCs) as well as servers and desktops. Despite their energy efficiency, fixed-function accelerators lack programmability, especially compared with general-purpose processors. Today’s accelerators rely on software-managed scratchpad memory and Direct Memory Access (DMA) to provide fixed-latency memory access and data transfer, which leads to significant chip resource and software engineering costs. On the other hand, hardware-managed caches with support for virtual memory and cache coherence are well-known to ease programmability in general-purpose processors, but these features are not commonly supported in today’s fixed-function accelerators. As a first step toward cache-friendly accelerator design, this paper discusses limitations of scratchpad-based memories in today’s accelerators, identifies challenges to support hardware-managed caches, and explores opportunities to ease the cache integration.
Assessment of Myoelectric Controller Performance and Kinematic Behavior of a Novel Soft Synergy-Inspired Robotic Hand for Prosthetic Applications

Myoelectric artificial limbs can significantly advance the state of the art in prosthetics, since they can be used to control mechatronic devices through muscular activity in a way that mimics how the subjects used to activate their muscles before limb loss. However, surveys indicate that dissatisfaction with the functionality of terminal devices underlies the widespread abandonment of prostheses. We believe that one key factor to improve acceptability of prosthetic devices is to attain human likeness of prosthesis movements, a goal which is being pursued by research on social and human–robot interactions. Therefore, to reduce early abandonment of terminal devices, we propose that controllers should be designed so as to ensure effective task accomplishment in a natural fashion. In this work, we have analyzed and compared the performance of three types of myoelectric controller algorithms based on surface electromyography to control an underactuated and multi-degrees of freedom prosthetic hand, the SoftHand Pro. The goal of the present study was to identify the myoelectric algorithm that best mimics the native hand movements. As a preliminary step, we first quantified the repeatability of the SoftHand Pro finger movements and identified the electromyographic recording sites for able-bodied individuals with the highest signal-to-noise ratio from two pairs of muscles, i.e., flexor digitorum superficialis/extensor digitorum communis, and flexor carpi radialis/extensor carpi ulnaris. Able-bodied volunteers were then asked to execute reach-to-grasp movements, while electromyography signals were recorded from flexor digitorum superficialis/extensor digitorum communis as this was identified as the muscle pair characterized by high signal-to-noise ratio and intuitive control. Subsequently, we tested three myoelectric controllers that mapped electromyography signals to position of the SoftHand Pro. We found that a differential electromyography-to-position mapping ensured the highest coherence with hand movements. Our results represent a first step toward a more effective and intuitive control of myoelectric hand prostheses.
Regulation of Cytosolic Calcium in Plants

Cytosolic Ca2+ has been likened to a kind of cellular fire (Rasmussen et al., 1990). The metaphor is apt in an obvious way because it suggests that transient or localized elevations in cytosolic Ca2+-like a fire contained in a hearth-may be useful to plant cells for performing certain tasks, whereas uncontrolled or prolonged elevations in cytosolic Caz+-like a fire loose on the roof-are destructive of normal cellular processes. The metaphor is also apt in a less obvious way because it suggests that large elevations in cytosolic Ca2+, like the combustion of roofs, are energetically favored, spontaneous events that the cell must constantly work to prevent. There is now considerable evidence to support both of these views of cytosolic Ca2+ in plants. Measurements of cellular Caz+ have shown that plant cells, like those of a11 other organisms, avoid potentially toxic effects of Ca2+ by maintaining levels in the cytosol and nucleus that are 3 to 4 orders of magnitude lower than the levels in other cellular compartments (Felle, 1988b; Bush et al., 1989; Gilroy et al., 1990). There is, therefore, a large gradient for calcium directed into the cytosol across most cellular membranes, a gradient that is potentially useful for amplifying signals that impinge on the cell by transducing them into a regulated increase in cytosolic Ca2+. At the same time that Ca2+ levels and gradients have been measured in plant cells, a number of cellular processes have been identified that depend on changes in cytosolic Ca2+ for their activation (Johannes et al., 1991). This has led plant scientists to adopt the theory that Ca2+ acts as an intracellular messenger, conveying information about the nature of a particular stimulus or stress impinging on the cell to target proteins that guide the cellular response. Establishing the validity of this theory for plant cells has been the aim of much of the work on Ca2+ regulation in recent years. The purpose of this review is to consider what is currently known about Ca2+ regulation in plant cells with the aim of understanding, metaphorically speaking, why plant cells play with fire and how they avoid getting bumed. According to the intracellular messenger theory, Ca2+ and a small group of other compounds play a pivotal role in signal transduction by communicating signal perception at a localized receptor to other parts of the cell, where the effectors of the cellular response are located (Fig. 1). In animal cells, Ca2+mediated signal transduction pathways have been shown to be enormously varied and complex in the temporal and spatial organization of the signal, as well as in the proteins
The influence of indirect association rules on recommendation ranking lists

Association rules are often utilized in Web recommendation systems for creation of suggested items lists. However, lists obtained in this way may be too short. Indirect association rules are introduced to extend classical, direct association rules and supplement the knowledge they contribute. The relation between ranking lists created on the basis of association rules and hyperlinks existing on Web pages has also been examined in the paper.
Aqueous Chemical Weathering of a Mars Analog Lithology: Kinetic Modeling for a Ferrar Dolerite Composition

FOR A FERRAR DOLERITE COMPOSITION. A. C. McAdam, M. Yu. Zolotov, M. V. Mironenko, L. A. Leshin, and T. G. Sharp, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Arizona State University, Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, amcadam@asu.edu, 2 Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 19 Kosygin Str. , Moscow 119991, Russia, Sciences and Exploration Directorate, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771.
ARCTIS - A MATLAB® Toolbox for Archaeological Imaging Spectroscopy

Imaging spectroscopy acquires imagery in hundreds or more narrow contiguous spectral bands. This offers unprecedented information for archaeological research. To extract the maximum of useful archaeological information from it, however, a number of problems have to be solved. Major problems relate to data redundancy and the visualization of the large amount of data. This makes data mining approaches necessary, as well as efficient data visualization tools. Additional problems relate to data quality. Indeed, the upwelling electromagnetic radiation is recorded in small spectral bands that are only about ten nanometers wide. The signal received by the sensor is, thus quite low compared to sensor noise and possible atmospheric perturbations. The often small, instantaneous field of view (IFOV)—essential for archaeologically relevant imaging spectrometer datasets—further limits the useful signal stemming from the ground. The combination of both effects makes radiometric smoothing techniques mandatory. The present study details the functionality of a MATLAB®-based toolbox, called ARCTIS (ARChaeological Toolbox for Imaging Spectroscopy), for filtering, enhancing, analyzing, and visualizing imaging spectrometer datasets. The toolbox addresses the above-mentioned problems. Its Graphical User Interface (GUI) is designed to allow non-experts in remote sensing to extract a wealth of information from imaging spectroscopy for archaeological research. ARCTIS will be released under creative commons license, free of charge, via website (http://luftbildarchiv.univie.ac.at).
Importance of Single-Core Performance in the Multicore Era

This paper first investigates what the best multicore configuration will be in the future, when the number of usable transistors further increases. Comparing five multicore models: single-core, many-core, heterogeneous multicore, scalable homogeneous multicore, and dynamically configurable multicore, surprisingly unveils that single-core performance is a key to improve multicore performance. Based on the findings, this paper secondly proposes a technique to improve single-core performance. It is based on Intel's Turbo Boost technology. From the detailed simulations, it is found that the technique achieves single-core performance improvement.
Development framework for firewall processors

High-performance firewalls can benefit from the increasing size, speed and flexibility of advanced reconfigurable hardware. However direct translation of conventional firewall rules in a router-based rule set often leads to inefficient hardware implementation. Moreover, such lowlevel description of firewall rules tends to be difficult to manage and to extend. We describe a framework, based on the high-level policy specification language Ponder for capturing firewall rules as authorization policies with user-definable constraints. Our framework supports optimisations to achieve efficient utilisation of hardware resources. A pipelined firewall implementation developed using this approach running at 10 MHz is capable of processing 2.5 million packets per second, which provides similar performance to a version without optimisation and is about 50 times faster than a software implementation running on a 700 MHz PIII processor.
A New Bibliometric Index Based on the Shape of the Citation Distribution

In order to improve the h-index in terms of its accuracy and sensitivity to the form of the citation distribution, we propose the new bibliometric index . The basic idea is to define, for any author with a given number of citations, an “ideal” citation distribution which represents a benchmark in terms of number of papers and number of citations per publication, and to obtain an index which increases its value when the real citation distribution approaches its ideal form. The method is very general because the ideal distribution can be defined differently according to the main objective of the index. In this paper we propose to define it by a “squared-form” distribution: this is consistent with many popular bibliometric indices, which reach their maximum value when the distribution is basically a “square”. This approach generally rewards the more regular and reliable researchers, and it seems to be especially suitable for dealing with common situations such as applications for academic positions. To show the advantages of the -index some mathematical properties are proved and an application to real data is proposed.
More about soft terms and FCNC in realistic string constructions

In realistic four-dimensional string constructions the presence of anomalous U(1)'s is generic. In addition, the associated Fayet-Iliopoulos contribution to the D-term can break the extra gauge symmetries. As a consequence, physical particles can appear combined with other states. We show that even if a three-generation standard-like model has originally flavour-independent soft scalar masses, the particle mixing contribution may generate non-universality among them. Thus FCNC effects which were apparently absent reappear. We also discuss the size of these contributions in an explicit model, and how they can be suppressed.
Skills for Productivity: Vocational Education and Training in Developing Countries

This study discusses the need for developing countries to improve economic productivity. It draws on lessons from successful country experiences with skills training to develop an approach to the development of public training policies. The authors suggest that improving the job skills of the work force in developing countries is necessary if they are to compete in today's economic climate. The book is written for policymakers, academic and professional advisers, training professionals, and the staff of international agencies supporting economic and social development. A flexible, trained workforce can greatly improve economic efficiency and appropriate policies can greatly improve efficiency and equity of skills development. The main focus of the study is on programs offered by private and public preemployment vocational and technical schools and vocational training centers. The study provides options for public policy and strategies for reform.
MicroRNA Expression Is Required for Pancreatic Islet Cell Genesis in the Mouse

OBJECTIVE—The generation of distinct cell types during the development of the pancreas depends on sequential changes in gene expression. We tested the hypothesis that microRNAs (miRNAs), which limit gene expression through posttranscriptional silencing, modulate the gene expression cascades involved in pancreas development. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—miRNAs were cloned and sequenced from developing pancreata, and expression of a subset of these genes was tested using locked nucleic acid in situ analyses. To assess the overall contribution of miRNAs to pancreatic development, Dicer1, an enzyme required for miRNA processing, was conditionally deleted from the developing pancreas. RESULTS—Sequencing of small RNAs identified over 125 miRNAs, including 18 novel sequences, with distinct expression domains within the developing pancreas. To test the developmental contribution of these miRNAs, we conditionally deleted the miRNA processing enzyme Dicer1 early in pancreas development. Dicer-null animals displayed gross defects in all pancreatic lineages, although the endocrine cells, and especially the insulin-producing β-cells, were most dramatically reduced. The endocrine defect was associated with an increase in the notch-signaling target Hes1 and a reduction in the formation of endocrine cell progenitors expressing the Hes1 target gene neurogenin3. CONCLUSIONS—The expression of a unique profile of miRNAs is required during pancreas development and is necessary for β-cell formation.
On the Asymptotic Behaviour of Some Towers of Function Fields over Finite Fields

Let F Fl be an algebraic function field of one variable, whose constant field is the finite field of cardinality l. Weil's theorem states that the number N=N(F ) of places of degree one of F Fl satisfies the estimate N l+1+2g l , (0.1) where g= g(F ) denotes the genus of F. It is well known that for g large with respect to l, the Weil bound (0.1) is not optimal; see [5, 9]. Drinfeld and Vladut [1] proved the following asymptotic result: Let Nl (g) :=max[N(F ) | F is a function field over Fl of genus g], and A(l) :=lim sup g Nl (g) g. (0.2) article no. 0147
Efficient planning in stochastic domains through exploiting problem characteristics

Partially observable Markov decision process POMDP can be used as a model for plan ning in stochastic domains However general POMDPs are computationally expensive to solve This paper investigates how might problem characteristics be exploited to cut down computation We consider planning problems where observations are informative of the world state and there are not much uncertainties in e ects of actions We describe a way of making use of such characteristics to improve previous algorithms for solving POMDPs Complexity analysis shows that the more informative the observations and the more predictable the e ects of the actions the more improvements can be achieved
Evaluation of electrodiagnostic changes in patient with multiple sclerosis

Article type Review article Although demyelination along the axons is the main manifestation of Multiple sclerosis (MS), peripheral nervous system (PNS) could be affected potentially too. In some studies PNS involvement is estimated to be more than 50 percent in MS patients. Accordingly, objective tests to confirm the severity of PNS involvement might be crucial in patients` management. Modern technological advances lead to innovation of computerized electrodiagnostic (EDX) techniques in recent years. Nerve conduction studies (NCS) provide reliable data about neuropathies. Although the frequency of PNS involvement varies in different population of MS patients, recognizing clinical and subclinical PNS impairments in MS patients is important for the treatment.
Finite-horizon Online Transmission Rate and Power Adaptation on a Communication Link with Markovian Energy Harvesting

As energy harvesting communication systems emerge, there is a need for transmission schemes that dynamically adapt to the energy harvesting process. In this paper, after exhibiting a finite-horizon online throughput-maximizing scheduling problem formulation and the structure of its optimal solution within a dynamic programming formulation, a low complexity online scheduling policy is proposed. The policy exploits the existence of thresholds for choosing rate and power levels as a function of stored energy, harvest state and time until the end of the horizon. The policy, which is based on computing an expected threshold, performs close to optimal on a wide range of example energy harvest patterns. Moreover, it achieves higher throughput values for a given delay, than throughput-optimal online policies developed based on infinite-horizon formulations in recent literature. The solution is extended to include ergodic time-varying (fading) channels, and a corresponding low complexity policy is proposed and evaluated for this case as well.
Conceptual Analysis of Current ME Artifacts in Terms of Coverage : A Contextual Approach

Intellectual and methodical support is needed to engineer, in a situational manner, methods for requirements engineering (RE), and more generally for information systems development (ISD). In this paper we define a contextual framework, based on semiotics, linguistics, and the activity theory, and apply it to analyze the coverage of support that current method engineering (ME) artifacts provide for ME. The analysis shows that ME artifacts are rather limited in their support of ME workflows and deploy perspectives that only partly cover multifaceted aspects of ME contexts and ISD contexts. Based on the analysis, we suggest a more systematic use of perspectives in crafting better ME artifacts.
A high-performance MPEG4 bitstream processing core

Entropy coding is one of the main techniques for lossless data compression in many multimedia applications. In video and image coding standards such as JPEG, MPEG1/2/4, and H.26x, the most often used entropy coding techniques include run-length coding and variable-length coding. Due to the demands of high quality video compression like DTV or HDTV, the complexity of entropy coding increases significantly. This fact motivates the design of the high performance entropy decoder proposed in this paper. The proposed IP core exploits the concurrent operations in the MPEG4 entropy decoding to achieve high performance in terms of limited hardware cost. The implementation results show that the proposed IP core operates at 125 MHz clock frequency (i.e. 2000 Mbit/s) with the cost of 0.22 mm/sup 2/ silicon area based on a 0.25 um CMOS technology.