Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A compact Verilog-A ReRAM switching model

The translation of emerging application concepts that exploit Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) into large-scale practical systems requires realistic, yet computationally efficient, empirical models that can capture all observed physical devices. Here, we present a Verilog-A ReRAM model built upon experimental routines performed on TiOx-based prototypes. This model was based on custom biasing protocols, specifically designed to reveal device switching rate dependencies on a) bias voltage and b) initial resistive state. Our model is based on the assumption that a stationary switching rate surface m(R,v) exists for sufficiently low voltage stimulation. The proposed model comes in compact form as it is expressed by a simple voltage dependent exponential function multiplied with a voltage and initial resistive state dependent second order polynomial expression, which makes it suitable for fast and/or large-scale simulations.
Neural Correlates of Morphological Processing: Evidence from Chinese

Morphological decomposition is an important part of complex word processing. In Chinese, this requires a comprehensive consideration of phonological, orthographic and morphemic information. The left inferior frontal gyrus (L-IFG) has been implicated in this process in alphabetic languages. However, it is unclear whether the neural mechanisms underlying morphological processing in alphabetic languages would be the same in Chinese, a logographic language. To investigate the neural basis of morphological processing in Chinese compound words, an fMRI experiment was conducted using an explicit auditory morphological judgment task. Results showed the L-IFG to be a core area in Chinese morphological processing, consistent with research in alphabetic languages. Additionally, a broad network consisting of the L-MTG, the bilateral STG and the L-FG that taps phonological, orthographic, and semantic information was found to be involved. These results provide evidence that the L-IFG plays an important role in morphological processing even in languages that are typologically different.
Öğretme Yaklaşımları Envanterinin Türkçe’ye Uyarlanması ve Türkiye’deki Öğretim Elemanlarının Öğretme Yaklaşımlarının İncelenmesi

The aim of this research is to adapt the Approaches to Teaching Inventory into Turkish culture and analyze the teaching approaches of academics working at education faculties in terms of various variables. In the light of this aim, two subsequent sub studies were conducted. In the first phase of the study, the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) was adapted to Turkish culture. During the adaptation phase, language equivalence was analyzed both through interviews conducted with foreign language experts and through the correlation scores between the original and the Turkish forms. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis which was conducted on data gathered from 140 academics working at 35 different education faculties in Turkey confirmed the two-factor model of ATI as student centered and teacher centered. Reliability studies of ATI were carried out through Cronbach α, and McDonald ω coefficients and results revealed that ATI has the appropriate psychometric properties to be used in Turkish studies. In the second phase of the study, 185 academics working at 31 different education faculties were reached and their teaching approaches were analyzed based on the level of the course, number of students in their classes, their academic titles, and seniority variables. As a result of the analysis, it was found that academics adopted a more teacher-focused approach to teaching at undergraduate level courses whereas they adopted a more student-focused approach to teaching at graduate level courses. It was also found in terms of class size that academics adopted a more teacher-focused approach to teaching when the class size exceeded 20 students. In addition, in terms of academic titles, associate professors adopted a more student focused teaching approach compared to lecturer doctors and research assistant doctors. Moreover, a negative and weak relationship was found between seniority and teacher focused approach to teaching.
Anonymizing high dimensional data by taxonomy free grouping

Privacy protection in publishing high dimensional data is a challenging problem. Surprisingly, there are very few works on this problem. Nevertheless, the latest approach proposed so far suffers two drawbacks, namely introduction of excessive information loss and dependence on a given generalization taxonomy. To address the issues, this paper proposes a taxonomy free grouping approach for anonymizing high dimensional data. This approach assigns transactions into groups based on the hamming distances among transactions, and derives a collection of item bags to represent each transaction group. Experiments on real world data show that this approach outperforms the state of the art approach.
Do systemic risk factors impact invasive findings from virtual histology? Insights from the international virtual histology registry.

AIMS Cardiovascular risk factors such as elevated serum lipid levels are important in the development of coronary atherosclerosis. Radiofrequency (RF) analysis of intravascular ultrasound [IVUS, Virtual histology (VH)] offers a unique tool to study the composition of coronary atherosclerotic plaque in vivo. We used data from the multicentre VH registry to assess the association between cardiovascular risk factors and coronary plaque volume and composition. METHODS AND RESULTS Between August 2004 and July 2006, 990 patients in 42 centres were enrolled in a prospective, multicentre, non-randomized global VH registry. Coronary artery imaging was performed by conventional IVUS and RF-IVUS. The four RF-IVUS plaque components [dense calcium (DC), necrotic core (NC), fibrous (F) tissue, and fibro fatty (FF)] were analysed in every recorded frame. The results were expressed as mean cross-sectional areas, absolute volume, and percentage of total plaque volume. Risk factor assessment included evaluation of family history of previous myocardial infarction (MI), past or current smoking, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and the laboratory measurements. Patients with diabetes had an increased relative proportion of NC (6.47 +/- 0.28 vs. 5.86 +/- 0.14%, P = 0.037) and DC (4.58 +/- 0.27 vs. 3.90 +/- 0.14%, P = 0.017), and patients with hypertension had an increased relative proportion of FF, DC (4.35 +/- 0.16 vs. 3.57 +/- 0.17%, P = 0.02) and NC (6.24 +/- 0.17 vs. 5.60 +/- 0.19%, P = 0.01). Compared with patients with LDL-C <100 mg/dL, patients with LDL-C >160 mg/dL had higher plaque volume (342.1 +/- 26.2 vs. 318.6 +/- 10.7 mm(3)). Linear regression analysis showed a correlation between the level of HDL-C and F (r = -0.149, P < 0.01), FF (r = -0.106, P < 0.01), and NC (r = -0.90, P < 0.05). The level of LDL correlated with F (r = 0.110, P < 0.01). Patients with prior MI have an increased percentage of F (30.03 +/- 0.59 vs. 28.20 +/- 0.37%, P = 0.009). Smoking had no relevant effect on plaque composition. Treatment with acetylsalicylacid and statins reduced FF with altering plaque volume. CONCLUSION Radiofrequency-IVUS detects marked differences in coronary plaque composition related to the risk factor profile with particular focus on lipid levels. Greater amounts of NC were associated with diabetes, hypertension, MI, and low HDL-C. The effects of treatment of changes related to plaque composition are underway.
Discovering New Physics with Voronoi Tessellations

High energy experimental data can be viewed as a sampling of the relevant phase space. We point out that one can apply Voronoi tessellations in order to understand the underlying probability distributions in this phase space. Interesting features in the data can then be discovered by studying the properties of the ensemble of Voronoi cells. For illustration, we demonstrate the detection of kinematic "edges" in two dimensions, which may signal physics beyond the standard model. We motivate the algorithm with some analytical results derived for perfect lattices, and show that the method is further improved with the addition of a few Voronoi relaxation steps via Lloyd's method.
Leadership Development for High School Students in a Summer Performing Arts Program

Author(s): LeMire, Steven D. ; Achtenberg, Lindsay; Opp, Dean | Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a summer performing arts (SPA) program using elements of a servant leadership model to assess potential impacts of a SPA program on leadership skills development. High school students enrolled in a SPA program were given both a pre- and post-survey that included leadership questions. There was a growth in all five servant leadership factors with an overall standardized effect size of d = 0.48. The largest growth was for enabling others to take action through cooperation. Summer performing arts programs can positively impact student servant leadership abilities. The idea of youth leadership education may resonate with community business leaders when it comes to funding support for summer arts activities.
A Particle-based Dissolution Model using Chemical Collision Energy

We propose a new energy-based method for real-time dissolution simulation. A unified particle representation is used for both fluid solvent and solid solute. We derive a novel dissolution model from the collision theory in chemical reactions: physical laws govern the local excitation of solid particles based on the relative motion of the fluid and solid. When the local excitation energy exceeds a user specified threshold (activation energy), the particle will be dislodged from the solid. Unlike previous methods, our model ensures that the dissolution result is independent of solute sampling resolution. We also establish a mathematical relationship between the activation energy, the inter-facial surface area, and the total dissolution time â allowing for accurate artistic control over the global dissolution rate while maintaining the physical plausibility of the simulation. We demonstrate applications of our method using a number of practical examples, including antacid pills dissolving in water and hydraulic erosion of non-homogeneous terrains. Our method is straightforward to incorporate with existing particle-based fluid simulations.
Enhancing TCP splitting in satellite-terrestrial networks via ACK reservation

In this paper, we focus on the performance of TCP splitting in satellite-terrestrial hybrid networks. By simulation we show that long-time link outage has great negative impact on TCP throughput. To solve the problem, an ACK reservation scheme is proposed to speed up TCP recovery from link outage and analytical estimate of a key parameter of the scheme is provided for achieving high end-to-end TCP throughput. Simulation results validate our analysis, and show that after the end of link failure, the TCP source can be re-started using ACK reservation with virtually no additional lag leading to great improvement on bandwidth utilization and end-to-end throughput.
Model Reference Adaptive Fault Tolerant Control of a Quadrotor UAV

This paper presents some experimental results on actuator fault-tolerant control (FTC) for a quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system. The strategy is based on Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) where three di erent MRAC techniques are implemented and compared with a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) baseline controller, namely the MIT rule MRAC, the Conventional MRAC (C-MRAC) and the Modi ed MRAC (MMRAC). The main advantage of the MRAC strategy is that it does not require an explicit information about the fault location and/or amplitude and thus, a fault detection and diagnosis module is not needed to detect, isolate and identify the occurred faults. The performance of this MRAC-based FTC is tested in the presence of three types of actuator faults: loss of e ectiveness in the total thrust, loss of e ectiveness in one of the rotors and partial damage of one propeller.
The Asymmetrical Effects of Divided Attention on Encoding and Retrieval Processes: A Different View Based on an Interference with the Episodic Register

In this study, we evaluate the conceptualization of encoding and retrieval processes established in previous studies that used a divided attention (DA) paradigm. These studies indicated that there were considerable detrimental effects of DA at encoding on later memory performance, but only minimal effects, if any, on divided attention at retrieval. We suggest that this asymmetry in the effects of DA on memory can be due, at least partially, to a confound between the memory phase (encoding and retrieval) and the memory requirements of the task (memory “for” encoded information versus memory “at” test). To control for this confound, we tested memory for encoded information and for retrieved information by introducing a second test that assessed memory for the retrieved information from the first test. We report the results of four experiments that use measures of memory performance, retrieval latency, and performance on the concurrent task, all of which consistently show that DA at retrieval strongly disrupts later memory for the retrieved episode, similarly to the effects of DA at encoding. We suggest that these symmetrical disruptive effects of DA at encoding and retrieval on later retrieval reflect a disruption of an episodic buffer (EB) or episodic register component (ER), rather than a failure of encoding or retrieval operations per se.
A performance enforcing mechanism for energy- and failure-aware cloud systems

Scheduling of multiple virtual machines onto fewer servers improves resource utilization and can reduce operational costs due to power consumption. However, virtualization technologies do not offer performance isolation, causing applications' slowdown. In this work, we propose a performance enforcing mechanism, composed of a slowdown estimator, and a scheduling algorithm. The slowdown estimator determines, based in noisy slowdown data samples obtained from state-of-the-art slowdown meters, if tasks will complete within their deadlines, invoking the scheduling algorithm if needed. When invoked, the scheduling algorithm builds performance-, power-, and failure-aware virtual clusters to successfully execute the tasks. We conduct simulations injecting synthetic jobs which characteristics follow the last version of the Google Cloud tracelogs. The results indicate that our strategy can be efficiently integrated with state-of-the-art slowdown meters to fulfil contracted SLAs in real-world environments, while reducing operational costs in about 21%.
IDD-MC - A Model Checker for Bounded Stochastic Petri nets

IDD-MC is a symbolic analysis tool for bounded stochastic Petri nets with extended arcs. Its engine is based on Interval Decision Diagrams and facilitate the validation of standard Petri net properties, model checking the Computation Tree Logic (CTL) and the Stochastic Continuous Logic (CSL). In this paper we give an informal overview of the currently implemented analysis techniques and report on the most recent extension: the evaluation of rewards. We present some experimental results which show the eﬃciency of our implementation
"It has to be a group work!": co-design with children

Design researchers are increasingly interested in techniques that support creative teams in various design processes. The methods developed for sharing knowledge and generating solutions are mostly focusing on adults. Creative collaboration with and among children have a specific set of challenges to be considered. In this paper, we describe two design experiments that were conducted with children aged 7 to 9, to explore the applications of co-design methods with children. In those experiments, we observed that children are capable of utilizing make tools but have challenges in group dynamics and reflecting everyday experiences into design ideas.
Overexpression of a Neuronal Type Adenylyl Cyclase (Type 8) in Sinoatrial Node Markedly Impacts Heart Rate and Rhythm

Heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV), predictors of over-all organism health, are widely believed to be driven by autonomic input to the sinoatrial node (SAN), with sympathetic input increasing HR and reducing HRV. However, variability in spontaneous beating intervals in isolated SAN tissue and single SAN cells, devoid of autonomic neural input, suggests that clocks intrinsic to SAN cells may also contribute to HR and HRV in vivo. We assessed contributions of both intrinsic and autonomic neuronal input mechanisms of SAN cell function on HR and HRV via in vivo, telemetric EKG recordings. This was done in both wild type (WT) mice, and those in which adenylyl cyclase type 8 (ADCY8), a main driver of intrinsic cAMP-PKA-Ca2+ mediated pacemaker function, was overexpressed exclusively in the heart (TGAC8). We hypothesized that TGAC8 mice would: (1) manifest a more coherent pattern of HRV in vivo, i.e., a reduced HRV driven by mechanisms intrinsic to SAN cells, and less so to modulation by autonomic input and (2) utilize unique adaptations to limit sympathetic input to a heart with high levels of intrinsic cAMP-Ca2+ signaling. Increased adenylyl cyclase (AC) activity in TGAC8 SAN tissue was accompanied by a marked increase in HR and a concurrent marked reduction in HRV, both in the absence or presence of dual autonomic blockade. The marked increase in intrinsic HR and coherence of HRV in TGAC8 mice occurred in the context of: (1) reduced HR and HRV responses to β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) stimulation; (2) increased transcription of genes and expression of proteins [β-Arrestin, G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 5 (GRK5) and Clathrin Adaptor Protein (Dab2)] that desensitize β-AR signaling within SAN tissue, (3) reduced transcripts or protein levels of enzymes [dopamine beta-hydorxylase (DBH) and phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PNMT)] required for catecholamine production in intrinsic cardiac adrenergic cells, and (4) substantially reduced plasma catecholamine levels. Thus, mechanisms driven by cAMP-PKA-Ca2+ signaling intrinsic to SAN cells underlie the marked coherence of TGAC8 mice HRV. Adaptations to limit additional activation of AC signaling, via decreased neuronal sympathetic input, are utilized to ensure the hearts survival and prevent Ca2+ overload.
An Adaptive Noise Cancelling Method Based on EMD for Acoustic in Battlefield

An adaptive noise cancelling method based on EMD (Empirical Mode Decomposition) for acoustic in battlefield is proposed, which can subtract noise from acoustic in battlefield and enhance the identification rate of acoustic target. Selecting four microphones for synchronous signal sampling, signals can be decomposed with EMD into a finite and often small number of IMF (Intrinsic Mode Function). The sum of several IMF components is taken as reference input of adaptive noise cancelling based on the characteristics of EMD. Lots of experiments show that EMD provides an effective way for selecting reference input. For acoustic in battlefield, taking the sum of three IMF components as reference input of adaptive noise cancelling can effectively subtract noises from primary input containing both signal and noise in battlefield. Further experiments show that acoustic in battlefield after adaptive noise cancelling with the method proposed in this paper is more stationary, and can be used for acoustic target classification and identification.
Modeling treatment of ischemic heart disease with partially observable Markov decision processes

Diagnosis of a disease and its treatment are not separate, one-shot activities. Instead they are very often dependent and interleaved over time, mostly due to uncertainty about the underlying disease, uncertainty associated with the response of a patient to the treatment and varying cost of different diagnostic (investigative) and treatment procedures. The framework of Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) developed and used in operations research, control theory and artificial intelligence communities is particularly suitable for modeling such a complex decision process. In the paper, we show how the POMDP framework could be used to model and solve the problem of the management of patients with ischemic heart disease, and point out modeling advantages of the framework over standard decision formalisms.
EOMM: An Engagement Optimized Matchmaking Framework

Matchmaking connects multiple players to participate in online player-versus-player games. Current matchmaking systems depend on a single core strategy: create fair games at all times. These systems pair similarly skilled players on the assumption that a fair game is best player experience. We will demonstrate, however, that this intuitive assumption sometimes fails and that matchmaking based on fairness is not optimal for engagement. In this paper, we propose an Engagement Optimized Matchmaking (EOMM) framework that maximizes overall player engagement. We prove that equal-skill based matchmaking is a special case of EOMM on a highly simplified assumption that rarely holds in reality. Our simulation on real data from a popular game made by Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) supports our theoretical results, showing significant improvement in enhancing player engagement compared to existing matchmaking methods.
WHY THE INTEREST IN REFORM ? DISCUSSION

I very much enjoyed reading the paper by Jane Little and Giovanni Olivei. It is good analytical work, and their exhaustive commentaries on the various views on the subject are pointed and noteworthy. They approach the question in the title of this conference from four directions, namely, the exchange rate regime, the treatment of capital flows, international lender of last resort facilities, and policy coordination. This is appropriate, because these four aspects encompass the most important elements that now compel us, in the aftermath of recent crises, to seriously reconsider any previous consensus about the international monetary system. However, their conclusion that economists and policymakers still have a good deal of work to do before they can come up with the right prescription and a practicable work program is on the pessimistic side. That verdict leaves me feeling somewhat helpless. Crisis-ridden countries and regions urgently need a composite package of specific measures now, in order to cope with their problems in these four key areas. Many of the problems are of a universal nature, but some of them are country-specific or region-specific. The important need is to devise specific measures that are compatible with the orientations of different countries and regions within the globalized economy. Rethinking the international monetary system has become a focus of global interest mainly as a result of the synchronized crises of 1998, which stemmed from the instability brought about by the East Asian Crisis of 1997. I would like to review briefly some relevant features of the four topics mentioned above in the context of the East Asian crisis, and to