Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A brief overview of the challenges of the multicore roadmap

Multicore chips are widely seen as the solution to continue the race toward ever more processing power, or in short, the continuation of Moore's Law. However, this poses many difficult challenges at different abstraction levels, as the preservation of dependability in the physical layer (related to the reduction of dimensions), the consumption and dissipation of the energy, the selection of the physical architecture beyond the current symmetric multiprocessing, the definition of a distributed operating system, and last but not least, the automatic and seamlessly parallelization of applications. Although many problems have been studied separately for a long time by academics, finding a satisfactory trade-off is an open issue. We will begin by reviewing the different challenges. Then, we will focus on the problem of dependability in the physical layer, and especially on the Network on Chip (NoC). Here, the future is in the generalization of total self-healing to NoCs, i.e., in self-detection of errors, self-diagnosis of faults, and self-repair at runtime, while preserving the efficiency of communications in the presence of an increasing percentage of defective elements. We shall briefly discuss the numerous constraints which apply to self-healing NoCs, and make that numerous tradeoffs are possible. The subject is widely open.
A symbolic approach to reconstruct polyhedral scene from single 2D line drawing

Scene reconstruction based on polyhedral solids is an important problem in computer vision. Generally speaking, an efficient representation is to use a line drawing which is regarded as a projection of the 3D object. In this paper, we consider a single line drawing whose face topology is already known and all the vertices are given in the 2D projection. To recover the possible 3D polyhedra which project to the line drawing, we present a symbolic geometric algorithm based on the Grassmann-Cayley algebra. A number of examples demonstrate its outstanding performance which can lead to an very significant simplifications in symbolic manipulation of geometric data.
A robust unsupervised speaker clustering of speech utterances

This paper aims at developing and investigating efficient, robust and unsupervised algorithm for speaker clustering. Each utterance is modeled as a single Gaussian model distribution. A novel distance metric is proposed in this paper for the purpose of determining stopping criteria. The advantage of the proposed method is that it achieves comparable performance without requiring an adjusting threshold term. In this paper, we adopt the framework of agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) with the merging criterion using Kullback-Leibler (KL) distance. The proposed stopping criterion can ensure a right number of speaker clusters. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated with various experiments on data from NIST and HUB5, respectively.
On uncoded high rate transmission over synchronous Gaussian multiple-access channels

On Gaussian multiple-access channels a penalty in power efficiency is to be paid if total transmission rate is higher than 1 bit/s/Hz per dimension. This usually results from the need for higher order modulation schemes required to maintain orthogonality of all users' signal waveforms. In this paper, we show that keeping binary modulation and accepting some multiple-access interference, is a more power efficient strategy by presenting simulation results of transmission systems outperforming orthogonal schemes for rates between 1.25 and 1.75 bit/s/Hz, per dimension.
Monetizing spambot activity and understanding its relation with spambot traffic features

A myriad of studies are reporting an exponential increase in the number and size of worldwide botnets [1, 2, 15, 17, 20, 21]. For instance, it has been reported that the Storm botnet increased by a factor of three during the second quarter of 2008. The reason of such exponential growth is the financial gain that these spam botnets can generate [1, 2, 3]. Absent grounded empirical data, it is challenging to reconcile "revenue estimates" that can range from $2M/day for one spam botnet [4]. Paxson et. al [1] have documented 82,000 and 37,00 monthly orders for seven counterfeit pharmacies and counterfeit software stores, respectively. The spammers running all these spams generally purchase time from a bot master to launch a spam campaign with a single objective to increase their respective profit margins from such spam campaigns.
Interference-free scheduling with bounded delay in cluster-tree wireless sensor networks

Convergecast is a typical form of data collection in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), wherein nodes sample data from the environment and send them to a common destination. In order to prolong the network lifetime, a duty-cycle mechanism is usually coupled with a routing tree structure, in which nodes are organized in clusters. Each cluster aggregates data and sends them towards the root of the tree. However, clusters can interfere each other if their active time is not properly chosen. Furthermore, scheduling can lead to a long data delivery delay when a duty-cycle mechanism is used. In this article, we introduce a receiver-oriented scheduling algorithm for cluster-tree WSNs which provides a bounded latency for convergecast data collection. In contrast with most of the existing works in the literature, where two nodes are assumed to interfere if they are at most 2 hops away, we address the more general and realistic case where interfering nodes can be up to t hops away from each other, where te2. We first show that the minimum-latency convergecast problem is NP-hard for cluster-based WSNs with arbitrary topologies. We then focus on tree-based WSNs and derive bounds on the latency for convergecast data collection. We also propose a heuristic to obtain a t-interference-free scheduling in O(nt) time, where n is the number of clusters in the WSN. We finally validate our findings by simulation on both synthetic topologies and routing trees obtained from WSN deployments.
Recent Trends in Pharmacological Activity of Alkaloids in Animal Colitis: Potential Use for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic and disrupted inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. IBD have two main conditions, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and have been extensively investigated in recent years. Antibiotics derived from salicylates, steroids, immunosuppressors, and anti-TNF therapy are part of the therapeutic arsenal for IBD. However, very often patients stop responding to treatments over the time. In this context, searching for alternative agents is crucial for IBD clinical management. Natural products derived from medicinal plants are an interesting therapeutic alternative, since several studies have proven effective treatments in animal models of intestinal inflammation. Several naturally occurring compounds are potent antioxidants, both as free radical scavengers and as modulators of antioxidant enzymes expression and activity. A number of natural compounds have also been proved to inhibit the release of proinflammatory cytokines, decreasing the activation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), which is important to the inflammatory response in IBD. The alkaloids are substances of a very diverse class of plant secondary metabolites; an extensive list of biological activities has been attributed to alkaloids, such as being anticholinergic, antitumor, diuretic, antiviral, antihypertensive, antiulcer, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory. In the present work, studies on the pharmacological activity of alkaloids in experimental models of IBD were reviewed.
Stepmothers’ Perceptions and Experiences of the Wicked Stepmother Stereotype

Stepfamilies are a common family form. Despite this, negative stereotypes of stepfamilies, and in particular, stepmothers still exist. This study used qualitative methods to examine stepmothers’ experiences of the wicked stepmother stereotype. One hundred and thirty-four stepmothers living in New Zealand completed an online questionnaire about their experiences of the stereotype and strategies for coping. The majority of stepmothers reported awareness of or identification with the stereotype in salient stepfamily situations. These included situations in which they judged themselves according to gendered expectations of motherhood. They also perceived they were stereotyped by stepchildren, stepchildren’s mothers, and social institutions. They reported a number of cognitive and behavioral strategies for coping with the stigma attached to the wicked stepmother stereotype, including seeking support, using humor, adopting a resistant attitude, engaging in strategies designed to minimize the relevance of the stereotype, and concealment.
Analytic solution of the classic probabilistic load flow problem on a full AC model

Since the 1970s the application of probabilistic methods to power system analysis was addressed in many papers. Main objective was and still is to find a probabilistic counterpart to the deterministic Load Flow Calculation techniques that can cope with uncertainty about the grid usage. The term “Classical Probabilistic Load Flow Problem” refers to the problem to determine probability information about a line's absolute current from the probability information about nodal powers. Until now approaches that use model simplifications leading to inherent imprecision were used to address this problem. In this paper the authors present a novel approach that allows for the exact solution of the before described ‘Classical Probabilistic Load Flow Problem’ based on a full-steady state AC-network model.
Is the Macronutrient Intake of Formula-Fed Infants Greater Than Breast-Fed Infants in Early Infancy?

Faster weight gain early in infancy may contribute to a greater risk of later obesity in formula-fed compared to breast-fed infants. One potential explanation for the difference in weight gain is higher macronutrient intake in formula-fed infants during the first weeks of life. A systematic review was conducted using Medline to assess the macronutrient and energy content plus volume of intake in breast-fed and formula-fed infants in early infancy. All studies from healthy, term, singleton infants reporting values for the composition of breast milk during the first month of life were included. The energy content of colostrum (mean, SEM: 53.6 ± 2.5 kcal/100 mL), transitional milk (57.7 ± 4.2 kcal/100 mL), and mature milk (65.2 ± 1.1 kcal/100 mL) was lower than conventional infant formula (67 kcal/100 mL) on all days analyzed. The protein concentration of colostrum (2.5 ± 0.2 g/100 mL) and transitional milk (1.7 ± 0.1 g/100 mL) was higher than formula (1.4 g/100 mL), while the protein content of mature milk (1.3 ± 0.1 g/100 mL) was slightly lower. Formula-fed infants consume a higher volume and more energy dense milk in early life leading to faster growth which could potentially program a greater risk of long-term obesity.
Transplants of Fibroblasts Genetically Modified to Express BDNF Promote Regeneration of Adult Rat Rubrospinal Axons and Recovery of Forelimb Function

Adult mammalian CNS neurons do not normally regenerate their severed axons. This failure has been attributed to scar tissue and inhibitory molecules at the injury site that block the regenerating axons, a lack of trophic support for the axotomized neurons, and intrinsic neuronal changes that follow axotomy, including cell atrophy and death. We studied whether transplants of fibroblasts genetically engineered to produce brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) would promote rubrospinal tract (RST) regeneration in adult rats. Primary fibroblasts were modified by retroviral-mediated transfer of a DNA construct encoding the human BDNF gene, an internal ribosomal entry site, and a fusion gene of lacZ and neomycin resistance genes. The modified fibroblasts produce biologically active BDNF in vitro. These cells were grafted into a partial cervical hemisection cavity that completely interrupted one RST. One and two months after lesion and transplantation, RST regeneration was demonstrated with retrograde and anterograde tracing techniques. Retrograde tracing with fluorogold showed that ∼7% of RST neurons regenerated axons at least three to four segments caudal to the transplants. Anterograde tracing with biotinylated dextran amine revealed that the RST axons regenerated through and around the transplants, grew for long distances within white matter caudal to the transplant, and terminated in spinal cord gray matter regions that are the normal targets of RST axons. Transplants of unmodified primary fibroblasts or Gelfoam alone did not elicit regeneration. Behavioral tests demonstrated that recipients of BDNF-producing fibroblasts showed significant recovery of forelimb usage, which was abolished by a second lesion that transected the regenerated axons.
Association of an educational program in mindful communication with burnout, empathy, and attitudes among primary care physicians.

CONTEXT Primary care physicians report high levels of distress, which is linked to burnout, attrition, and poorer quality of care. Programs to reduce burnout before it results in impairment are rare; data on these programs are scarce. OBJECTIVE To determine whether an intensive educational program in mindfulness, communication, and self-awareness is associated with improvement in primary care physicians' well-being, psychological distress, burnout, and capacity for relating to patients. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Before-and-after study of 70 primary care physicians in Rochester, New York, in a continuing medical education (CME) course in 2007-2008. The course included mindfulness meditation, self-awareness exercises, narratives about meaningful clinical experiences, appreciative interviews, didactic material, and discussion. An 8-week intensive phase (2.5 h/wk, 7-hour retreat) was followed by a 10-month maintenance phase (2.5 h/mo). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Mindfulness (2 subscales), burnout (3 subscales), empathy (3 subscales), psychosocial orientation, personality (5 factors), and mood (6 subscales) measured at baseline and at 2, 12, and 15 months. RESULTS Over the course of the program and follow-up, participants demonstrated improvements in mindfulness (raw score, 45.2 to 54.1; raw score change [Delta], 8.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 7.0 to 10.8); burnout (emotional exhaustion, 26.8 to 20.0; Delta = -6.8; 95% CI, -4.8 to -8.8; depersonalization, 8.4 to 5.9; Delta = -2.5; 95% CI, -1.4 to -3.6; and personal accomplishment, 40.2 to 42.6; Delta = 2.4; 95% CI, 1.2 to 3.6); empathy (116.6 to 121.2; Delta = 4.6; 95% CI, 2.2 to 7.0); physician belief scale (76.7 to 72.6; Delta = -4.1; 95% CI, -1.8 to -6.4); total mood disturbance (33.2 to 16.1; Delta = -17.1; 95% CI, -11 to -23.2), and personality (conscientiousness, 6.5 to 6.8; Delta = 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1 to 5 and emotional stability, 6.1 to 6.6; Delta = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3 to 0.7). Improvements in mindfulness were correlated with improvements in total mood disturbance (r = -0.39, P < .001), perspective taking subscale of physician empathy (r = 0.31, P < .001), burnout (emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment subscales, r = -0.32 and 0.33, respectively; P < .001), and personality factors (conscientiousness and emotional stability, r = 0.29 and 0.25, respectively; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Participation in a mindful communication program was associated with short-term and sustained improvements in well-being and attitudes associated with patient-centered care. Because before-and-after designs limit inferences about intervention effects, these findings warrant randomized trials involving a variety of practicing physicians.
Finite element algorithm with adaptive quadtree-octree mesh refinement

Certain difficulties with the use of quadrilateral or hexahedral finite elements are related to mesh refinement and to element compatibility and quality after refinement. In this paper, special refinement elements are presented that make possible connecting two special elements to one edge of an 8 node quadrilateral element (2D). The main idea in refinement elements is to place some midside nodes outside the element area and to modify element shape functions in order to maintain continuity at a refinement edge. Special refinement elements allow to adaptively refine mesh in such a way that it fits the quadtree data structure. In the three-dimensional case, hexahedral elements with 20 nodes are employed. Placement of some nodes outside the element volume allows us to create a compatible octree refinement scheme.
Traveling among clusters: a way to reconsider the benefits of the cluster hypothesis

Relying on the Cluster Hypothesis which states that relevant documents tend to be more similar one to each other than to non-relevant documents, most of information retrieval systems organizing search results as a set of clusters seek to gather all relevant documents in the same cluster. We propose here to reconsider the benefits of the entailed concentration of the relevant information. Contrary to what is commonly admitted, we believe that systems which aim to distribute the relevant documents in different clusters, since being more likely to highlight different aspects of the subject, may be at least as useful for the user as systems gathering all relevant documents in a single group. Since existing evaluation measures tend to greatly favor the latter systems, we first investigate ways to more fairly assess the ability to reach the relevant information from the list of cluster descriptions. At last, we show that systems distributing the relevant information in different clusters may actually provide a better information access than classical systems.
How Safe Ladies Hand Bags Are: A Microbiological View

Introduction: Hand bag (HB) is commonly used multipurpose personal gadget of female. Objective: To identify the bacteria growth in HBs. Setting: Department of Microbiology, GSL Medical College, Rajahmundry. Methods: Internal area of the HB was swabbed by using a sterile swab and inoculated in blood agar, MacConkey agar and Nutrient agar. After incubation growth was identified. Results: Out of 320 samples growth was identified in 176 (55%) samples. Gram positive coccus was commonly isolated compared to gram negative bacilli. Out of four study groups, more number of employees hand bags were contaminated (63.75%) followed by illiterates (57.5%), post graduates (55%) and students (43.5%).
Challenges in Content-Based Image Indexing of Cultural Heritage Collections

Cultural heritage collections are being digitized and made available through online tools. Due to the large volume of documents being digitized, not enough manpower is available to provide useful annotations. Is this article, we discuss the use of automatic tools to both automatically index the documents (i.e., provide labels) and search through the collections. We detail the challenges specific to these collections as well as research directions that must be followed to answer the questions raised by these new data.
Neuro-Bio-Behavioral Mechanisms of Placebo and Nocebo Responses: Implications for Clinical Trials and Clinical Practice

The placebo effect has often been considered a nuisance in basic and particularly clinical research. This view has gradually changed in recent years due to deeper insight into the neuro-bio-behavioral mechanisms steering both the placebo and nocebo responses, the evil twin of placebo. For the neuroscientist, placebo and nocebo responses have evolved as indispensable tools to understand brain mechanisms that link cognitive and emotional factors with symptom perception as well as peripheral physiologic systems and end organ functioning. For the clinical investigator, better understanding of the mechanisms driving placebo and nocebo responses allow the control of these responses and thereby help to more precisely define the efficacy of a specific pharmacological intervention. Finally, in the clinical context, the systematic exploitation of these mechanisms will help to maximize placebo responses and minimize nocebo responses for the patient's benefit. In this review, we summarize and critically examine the neuro-bio-behavioral mechanisms underlying placebo and nocebo responses that are currently known in terms of different diseases and physiologic systems. We subsequently elaborate on the consequences of this knowledge for pharmacological treatments of patients and the implications for pharmacological research, the training of healthcare professionals, and for the health care system and future research strategies on placebo and nocebo responses.
Stereo and kinect fusion for continuous 3D reconstruction and visual odometry

Robust and accurate 3D reconstruction of the scene is essential for many robotic and computer vision applications. We are proposing a system solution that can accurately reconstruct the scene both indoor and outdoor, in real-time. The system utilizes both active and passive visual sensors in conjunction with peripheral hardware for communication, and suggests a significant accuracy improvement over state-of-the-art SLAM algorithms via stereo visual odometry integration.
A possible contributor to the higher degree of girls reporting psychological symptoms compared with boys in grade nine?

BACKGROUND It is a recurrent finding that adolescent girls report psychological symptoms in a higher degree compared with boys. The explanations for this difference vary, but the psychosocial school environment has never been a focus in these explanations. The aim of this study was to analyse whether psychosocial factors at school were associated with a high degree of psychological symptoms among boys and girls in grade nine, with a special focus on sexual harassment. METHODS The study was based on a cross-sectional study including 336 pupils (175 girls and 161 boys) in grade nine (about 15 years old), who answered an extensive questionnaire. The non-response rate was negligible (<1%). Logistic regression analysis was used to analyse whether school-related factors (teacher support, classmate support, sexual harassment), body image, and parental support were associated with a high degree of psychological symptoms. RESULTS Sexual harassment at school was associated with a high degree of psychological symptoms among girls. CONCLUSIONS Sexual harassment must be acknowledged as a negative psychosocial school environmental factor of importance for the high degree of psychological ill-health symptoms among girls compared with boys.
College Students and Yik Yak: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study

This study, employing an exploratory mixed-methods approach, explores college students’ use of Yik Yak, a pseudo-anonymous social media platform that allows users to post short messages and engage primarily with other nearby users. Study 1 qualitatively examined student uses and perceptions of the app through 12 in-depth interviews with Yik Yak users. Study 2 conducted a content analysis of yaks (N = 3,905) from 24 colleges and universities to gain a better understanding of the content that students post and engage with inside the app. The combination of qualitative and quantitative findings offers insight into the complex phenomena of Yik Yak in a university setting. Limitations and future directions of research are discussed.
3 D Motion Retrieval Based on Revised Decision Tree

Motion capturing has become an important tool in fields such as sports sciences, biometrics, and particularly in computer animation, where large collections of motion material are accumulated in the production process. In this paper, we present a novel approach for motion retrieval based on data-driven decision tree with 3D temporal-spatial features. First 3D temporal-spatial features of each human joint are extracted with the help of keyspace. Because the gotten features of each joint are independent, a revised decision tree is automatically constructed by lookahead-based algorithm to reflect the influence of each point during the comparison of motion similarity. Experiment results show that our approaches are effective for motion data retrieval.