Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global Dead-Block Management for Task-Parallel Programs

Task-parallel programs inefficiently utilize the cache hierarchy due to the presence of dead blocks in caches. Dead blocks may occupy cache space in multiple cache levels for a long time without providing any utility until they are finally evicted. Existing dead-block prediction schemes take decisions locally for each cache level and do not efficiently manage the entire cache hierarchy. This article introduces runtime-orchestrated global dead-block management, in which static and dynamic information about tasks available to the runtime system is used to effectively detect and manage dead blocks across the cache hierarchy. In the proposed global management schemes, static information (e.g., when tasks start/finish, and what data regions tasks produce/consume) is combined with dynamic information to detect when/where blocks become dead. When memory regions are deemed dead at some cache level(s), all the associated cache blocks are evicted from the corresponding level(s). We extend the cache controllers at both private and shared cache levels to use the aforementioned information to evict dead blocks. The article does an extensive evaluation of both inclusive and non-inclusive cache hierarchies and shows that the proposed global schemes outperform existing local dead-block management schemes.
The Influence of Exercise on Perceived Pain and Disability in Patients With Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is an increasingly prevalent condition that has major health and economic implications. While there are many options for the treatment of LSS, exercise is widely considered a first-line intervention as it is associated with reduced complications and cost as compared to more invasive options. Currently, it is not clear if exercise is an effective approach to managing pain and perceived disability in patients with symptomatic LSS. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the published literature that has investigated exercise as a primary intervention for LSS. A search was conducted in electronic databases including PubMed, PEDro, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL, and AMED using the key words lumbar spinal stenosis, exercise, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and conservative treatment. Inclusion criteria consisted of published randomized controlled trials written in English that included exercise as the primary treatment in at least one of the groups, and had reported measures of pain and disability clearly stated. The search identified 310 studies of which 5 met all the inclusion parameters. Exercise appears to be an efficacious intervention for pain, disability, analgesic intake, depression, anger, and mood disturbance among patients with LSS. Further research is needed to determine which type of exercise is the most effective in managing symptoms associated with lumbar spinal stenosis.
Safety and efficacy of vismodegib in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukaemia: results of a phase Ib trial

lymphoma kinase positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma with extranodal involvement: an analysis of 1306 cases from the US National Cancer Database. British Journal of Haematology, 181, 196–204. Su, C. , Nguyen, K.A. , Bai, H.X. , Cao, Y. , Tao, Y. , Karakousis, G. , Zhang, P.J., Zhang, G. & Xiao, R. (2017) Disease site as a determinant of survival outcome in patients with primary cutaneous peripheral T-cell lymphoma, unspecified: an analysis of 4057 cases from the US National Cancer Database. Leukemia & Lymphoma, 59, 2105–2112. Wilson, L.D. , Hinds, G.A. & Yu, J.B. (2012) Age, race, sex, stage, and incidence of cutaneous lymphoma. Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia, 12, 291–296.
Association between Air Quality and Sedentary Time in 3270 Chinese Adults: Application of a Novel Technology for Posture Determination

This study investigated the association between ambient air quality and sedentary time in Chinese adults. The participants were 3270 Chinese users (2021 men and 1249 women) of wrist-worn activity trackers. The data of participants’ daily activities were collected from July 2015 to October 2015. A novel algorithm based on raw accelerometer data was employed to determine sedentary time. Personal data, including sex, age, weight and height, were self-reported by the participants. Data of air quality, ambient temperature and weather were collected from the data released by the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre and the China Central Meteorological Observatory and matched in accordance with the Global Positioning System and time information. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association between air quality and sedentary time and adjusted for gender, age, region, body mass index, weather, temperature, weekday/weekend and monitored wake time per day. Better air quality index levels and lower concentrations of fine particulate matter were significantly associated with approximately 20 and 45 min reduction in sedentary time, respectively. Poor air quality appears to be an independent factor associated with prolonged sedentary time in Chinese adults.
Bridging the Data Gap From in vitro Toxicity Testing to Chemical Safety Assessment Through Computational Modeling

Chemical toxicity testing is moving steadily toward a human cell and organoid-based in vitro approach for reasons including scientific relevancy, efficiency, cost, and ethical rightfulness. Inferring human health risk from chemical exposure based on in vitro testing data is a challenging task, facing various data gaps along the way. This review identifies these gaps and makes a case for the in silico approach of computational dose-response and extrapolation modeling to address many of the challenges. Mathematical models that can mechanistically describe chemical toxicokinetics (TK) and toxicodynamics (TD), for both in vitro and in vivo conditions, are the founding pieces in this regard. Identifying toxicity pathways and in vitro point of departure (PoD) associated with adverse health outcomes requires an understanding of the molecular key events in the interacting transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome. Such an understanding will in turn help determine the sets of sensitive biomarkers to be measured in vitro and the scope of toxicity pathways to be modeled in silico. In vitro data reporting both pathway perturbation and chemical biokinetics in the culture medium serve to calibrate the toxicity pathway and virtual tissue models, which can then help predict PoDs in response to chemical dosimetry experienced by cells in vivo. Two types of in vitro to in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) are needed. (1) For toxic effects involving systemic regulations, such as endocrine disruption, organism-level adverse outcome pathway (AOP) models are needed to extrapolate in vitro toxicity pathway perturbation to in vivo PoD. (2) Physiologically-based toxicokinetic (PBTK) modeling is needed to extrapolate in vitro PoD dose metrics into external doses for expected exposure scenarios. Linked PBTK and TD models can explore the parameter space to recapitulate human population variability in response to chemical insults. While challenges remain for applying these modeling tools to support in vitro toxicity testing, they open the door toward population-stratified and personalized risk assessment.
Application of an Improved Multipoint Optimal Minimum Entropy Deconvolution Adjusted for Gearbox Composite Fault Diagnosis

The fault feature extraction of gearbox is difficult to achieve under complex working conditions, and this paper presents a hybrid fault diagnosis method for gearbox based on the combining product function (CPF) and multipoint optimal minimum entropy deconvolution adjusted (MOMEDA) methods. First, ensemble local mean decomposition (ELMD) is utilized to reduce the noise in original signal, and get a series of product functions (PFs), through the correlation coefficient method to remove false components and residual components. Then, multi-point kurtosis of the definition is achieved by calculating the multi-point kurtosis spectrum of each layer PF, and the fault feature period is extracted and the PFs without periodic impact are removed. After that, in order to maintain the integrity of the original signal, the PFs with the same period are recombined by the combined product function method. Finally, the different cycle interval is configured, reduce the noise through MOMEDA on the combined signal, to further extract the fault feature. The method is applied to the feature extraction of gear box composite fault to verify the feasibility of this method.
Mental health capacity building in refugee primary health care settings in Sub-Saharan Africa: impact, challenges and gaps

Background. In 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees started a process of mental health capacity building in refugee primary health care settings in seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, ultimately aiming to decrease the treatment gap of mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) conditions in these operations. In 2015 and 2016, a specialized non-governmental organization, the War Trauma Foundation, trained 619 staff with the mental health gap action programme (mhGAP) Humanitarian Intervention Guide (HIG), a tool designed to guide clinical decision making in humanitarian settings. Methods. This paper describes the results of a process evaluation of a real-life implementation project by an external consultant, one and a half years after starting the programme. Results. The mhGAP-HIG capacity building efforts had various effects contributing to the integration of mental health in refugee primary health care. Facility-and community-based staff reported strengthened capacities to deliver mental health and psychosocial support interventions as well as changes in their attitude towards people suffering from MNS conditions. Service delivery and collaboration amongst different intervention levels improved. The scarcity of specialized staff in these settings was a major barrier, hindering the setting-up of supervision mechanisms. Conclusion. Mental health training of non-specialized staff in complex humanitarian settings is feasible and can lead to increased competency of providers. However, capacity building is a ‘process’ and not an ‘event’ and mhGAP trainings are only one element in a spectrum of activities aimed at integrating mental health into general health care. Regular supervision and continuing on-the-job training are in fact critical to ensure sustainability.
Tres rupturas decoloniales para repensar la formación profesional en Pedagogía Infantil

• Resumen (descriptivo): Las rupturas acá dispuestas hacen parte de las construcciones epistémicas previas para dar lectura y desarrollo al propósito central de la investigación, orientado a caracterizar discursos y prácticas de docentes y estudiantes del programa de Licenciatura en Pedagogía Infantil de Uniminuto UVD frente a la atención educativa a personas con “dis”Capacidad. Se trata de un estudio cualitativo, abordado desde el paradigma histórico hermenéutico, de tipo descriptivo y alcance interpretativo, que toma muestras representativas de docentes y estudiantes de la licenciatura y los hace partícipes, con quienes se dialoga tomando como punto de partida las construcciones discursivas emergentes tras lecturas y relecturas decoloniales, frente a las formas tradicionales en las que se ha entendido la formación profesional desde la pedagogía infantil en clave de las diversas capacidades humanas en la “dis”Capacidad. Palabras clave: educación inclusiva, formación profesional, infancia, estudiantes con discapacidad (Tesauro de la Educación Unesco-OIE). Palabras clave autores: colonialidad de la norma, ruptura decolonial.
A Brief, Integrated, Telephone-Based Intervention for Veterans Who Smoke and Have Chronic Pain: A Feasibility Study

Objective High rates of co-occurring smoking and chronic pain are observed in the veteran population. Individuals who smoke and have chronic pain report lower self-efficacy to quit and are less successful in their attempts. Design In this pilot study, we assess the feasibility of a telephone-delivered intervention designed to integrate evidence-based smoking cessation and pain management components in a way that allows patients to understand the interplay between the two while attempting to have them build off each other and develop coping skills to address both concerns. Patients Study participants (N = 7) were veterans who received primary care in the VA Healthcare System and reported current smoking and a worst pain intensity score of 4 or greater. Intervention A five-session telephone intervention was delivered over eight weeks. Participants completed a survey at baseline and 10-week follow-up. Outcome Measures Feasibility was assessed by examining engagement with the intervention. Results Four out of seven participants completed all five sessions. Two out of seven veterans reported quitting smoking, and five out of seven reported clinically meaningful improvements in pain intensity and functional interference. Conclusions Insights gained from this study were used to modify an intervention being examined in a randomized controlled trial to test its effectiveness on both smoking and pain outcomes.
FoodSampler: engaging people to contextualise food behaviour: Mixed methods for monitoring choices and triggers of eating habits

Overweight and obesity affect the entire population. On a day-to-day basis, this problem relates to what people eat, why people eat what they eat and their day-to-day food choices. Towards e-health solutions that support self-management of (health) food related practices, a better understanding of eating habits is needed. Validated food measurement instruments are challenged to generate such holistic knowledge. Primarily due to their limited scope (mostly descriptive) and their long and time consuming demands. The FoodSampler research project aims to explore food informatics strategies to engage people in generating contextual knowledge of their food behaviour. It targets an increasing vulnerable group in prevention of overweight and obesity: older adults with a low Socio-Economical Status (SES). The approach combines Mixed Method Research (MMR), Research through Design (RtD) and Living Labs research. In this way a user-centric innovative process is implemented, involving end-users and experts in cycles of exploring, prototyping and testing mixed food informatics strategies. By means of contextual research in-the-wild, co-design sessions, and in-situ interventions the project seeks for direct benefits to involve the targeted group as collaborators of the design process. In FoodSampler end-users and experts will co-generate knowledge on best practices for mixed food informatics and the values of the generated knowledge to explain food behaviour.
Digital Disruption

The extent of digital disruption was not really perceived by many financial intermediaries just a few years ago. It is clear in 2017 that the digital disruption will change the financial industry far more widely than the regulatory avalanches did since the financial crisis: The business model in the near future is the digital business model. This raises many questions: Who will be the owner of digital business models and how do labour markets change in the short and long run? Two key elements in the transformation are data (big data) and connectivity. We consider how the financial industry is affected in this transformation.
Assessing and Addressing Algorithmic Bias - But Before We Get There

Algorithmic and data bias are gaining attention as a pressing issue in popular press - and rightly so. However, beyond these calls to action, standard processes and tools for practitioners do not readily exist to assess and address unfair algorithmic and data biases. The literature is relatively scattered and the needed interdisciplinary approach means that very different communities are working on the topic. We here provide a number of challenges encountered in assessing and addressing algorithmic and data bias in practice. We describe an early approach that attempts to translate the literature into processes for (production) teams wanting to assess both intended data and algorithm characteristics and unintended, unfair biases.
Addressing Sample Inefficiency and Reward Bias in Inverse Reinforcement Learning

The Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning (GAIL) framework from Ho & Ermon (2016) is known for being surprisingly sample efficient in terms of demonstrations provided by an expert policy. However, the algorithm requires a significantly larger number of policy interactions with the environment in order to imitate the expert. In this work we address this problem by proposing a sample efficient algorithm for inverse reinforcement learning that incorporates both offpolicy reinforcement learning and adversarial imitation learning. We also show that GAIL has a number of biases associated with the choice of reward function, which can unintentionally encode prior knowledge of some tasks, and prevent learning in others. We address these shortcomings by analyzing the issue and correcting invalid assumptions used when defining the learned reward function. We demonstrate that our algorithm achieves state-of-the-art performance for an inverse reinforcement learning framework on a variety of standard benchmark tasks, and from demonstrations provided from both learned agents and human experts.
Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (−786T>C) polymorphism and migraine susceptibility

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) polymorphism (−786T>C) and migraine susceptibility in a meta-analysis. Methods: A literature search was performed for case–control studies from inception to July 30, 2018 focusing on eNOS polymorphism (−786T>C) and risk of migraine. From 454 full-text articles, 6 were included in this study. Heterogeneity was assessed with the I2 index and quality assessment was performed using the Newcastle–Ottawa scale. Results: CC genotype was not related to higher susceptibility of migraine compared with TT+ TC genotypes with significant difference (fixed effects model; OR = 1.27; 95% CI = 0.90–1.80; P = .17; I2 = 18%). However, subgroup analysis showed CC variant increase the risk for migraine compared with TT+ TC genotypes in Caucasian populations (fixed effects model; OR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.03–2.56; P = .04; I2 = 18%), which could not be observed in non-Caucasian populations (fixed effects model; OR = 0.88; 95% CI = 0.51–1.53; P = .66; I2 = 0%). There was no significant difference for other genotypes and alleles between patients with migraine and healthy controls (all P > .05). Conclusion: This meta-analysis indicated that CC variant increases the risk for migraine compared with TT + TC genotypes in Caucasian populations.
Treinamento aeróbio de intensidade moderada mantém a viabilidade celular de ilhotas pancreáticas e previne a perda da resposta secretora de insulina à glicose em camundongos alimentados com dieta hipercalórica.

VERAS, K. M. A. Moderate aerobic training maintains pancreatic islet cellular viability and prevents glucose stimulated insulin secretion impairment in mice fed a hypercaloric diet. 2016. 99 p. Ph. D. thesis (Human Physiology). Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2016. This study investigated the aerobic training effects on GSIS and pancreatic islet cellular viability in C57BL/6 mice fed a high fat (60%) and sucrose (20%) diet (HFDS). The groups were: HFDS, control diet (C), HFDS + training (HFDSTR) and control trained (CTR). After 8 weeks the HFDS significantly increased body mass and adiposity, decreased glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, and impaired GSIS and cellular viability; these effects were attenuated in HFDSTR. There were less viable pancreatic islets cells and impaired GSIS in HFDS than in HFDSTR and C. The decreased GLUT 2 and CuZn-superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) protein expression in HFDS were increased in HFDSTR. Most pancreatic islet responses were similar between HFDSTR and C. Eight weeks aerobic training prevented deleterious effects of HFDS on insulin sensitivity, cellular viability and GSIS, and maintained endogenous antioxidant enzyme content, thus suggesting that aerobic training may be beneficial to prevent adverse metabolic effects associated with westernized diet consuming.
Protecting Privacy in Trajectories with a User-Centric Approach

The increased use of location-aware devices, such as smartphones, generates a large amount of trajectory data. These data can be useful in several domains, like marketing, path modeling, localization of an epidemic focus, and so on. Nevertheless, since trajectory information contains personal mobility data, improper use or publication of trajectory data can threaten users’ privacy. It may reveal sensitive details like habits of behavior, religious beliefs, and sexual preferences. Therefore, many users might be unwilling to share their trajectory data without a previous anonymization process. Currently, several proposals to address this problem can be found in the literature. These solutions focus on anonymizing data before its publication, i.e., when they are already stored in the server database. Nevertheless, we argue that this approach gives the user no control about the information she shares. For this reason, we propose anonymizing data in the users’ mobile devices, before they are sent to a third party. This article extends our previous work which was, to the best of our knowledge, the first one to anonymize data at the client side, allowing users to select the amount and accuracy of shared data. In this article, we describe an improved version of the protocol, and we include the implementation together with an analysis of the results obtained after the simulation with real trajectory data.
EORTC risk tables are more suitable for Chinese patients with nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer than AUA risk stratification

Background: Patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) need accurate estimations of the risk of recurrence and progression. Physicians can offer individualized therapy after identifying high-risk tumors. In our study, we compared the applicability of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) risk tables and American Urological Association (AUA) risk stratification in Chinese patients with NMIBC. Methods: We retrospectively studied 301 patients with NMIBC who underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) between October 2000 and July 2009 at Huashan Hospital of Fudan University and analyzed their parameters. The recurrence and progression rates at 1 and 5 years postoperatively were calculated along with 95% confidence intervals. We compared them with results obtained from the EORTC risk tables and AUA risk stratification. P values <. 05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The median patient age was 67 years (21–92 years) and the median follow-up duration was 46 months (2–151 months). We used EORTC risk tables to classify patients into 3 groups, depending on whether they suffered recurrence or progression after TURBT. Kaplan–Meier curves showed significant differences among the 3 recurrence-free survival (RFS) levels (P < .0001, log-rank test) and among the 3 progression-free survival (PFS) levels (P < .0001, log-rank test). AUA risk stratification showed the same results. Both classifications were suitable to predict recurrence and progression in Chinese patients. However, for high-risk patients in both series, Kaplan–Meier curves showed significant differences between RFS levels (P < .0001, log-rank test) and between PFS levels (P < .0001, log-rank test). EORTC risk tables were stricter and AUA was more sensitive in assigning patients to a high-risk group. Conclusion: EORTC risk tables are better than AUA risk stratification for predicting recurrence and progression in Chinese patients with NMIBC, especially among high-risk patients.