Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A fresh recipe for designers: HCI approach to explore the nexus between design techniques and formal methods in software development

Emerging companies involved in design and implementation of innovative products demand multidisciplinary teams to be competitive in the market. This need mainly exposes designers to extend their knowledge not only in User Interface elements of the design process but also in software methodologies to cover the lack of resources and expertise in start-ups. It raises the question of how designers can line up HCI techniques with best practices in software development while preserving usability and easy-to-use principles. To explore this gap, this paper proposes an approach which combines existing technology and methods by studying the nexus between HCI prototyping and software engineering. The approach is applied into a case study in the design of a virtual shop harmonizing the use of storyboards and the spiral. A comprehensive analysis is performed by using a Technology acceptance model (TAM) regarding with two variables: usability and easy-to-use. The present finding underlines the positive integration of HCI techniques and formal methods without compromising user satisfaction with a potential benefit for small companies in a formation stage.
A prospective study of a macroergonomics process over five years demonstrates significant prevention of workers’ compensation cl

This prospective study shows the effect of a macroergonomics process on a large government organization of 4500 employees who primarily work at a computer workstation and are relatively “healthy” but often report symptoms to the neck, upper extremities (UE) and/or back. The Worksite International Ergonomics Process® (WIEP) was implemented over a 5 year period from 2009-2013 to address rising repetitive motion injury rates and involves approximately 1550 employees directly. The results show that an early symptom reporting process minimizes workers’ compensation claim filing, reduces costs and keeps employees safer, healthier and productive in the work place.
Knock-On Effects of Environmental Influences during Embryonic Development of Ectothermic Vertebrates

Environmental factors influencing parents or offspring during embryogenesis can have knock-on effects at later life stages of the offspring. These effects may prepare the progeny for conditions that they may encounter as larvae, juveniles, and/or adults. Here, we give examples on how knock-on effects of temperature and predator cues can affect phenotypes of fish, amphibians, and reptiles. Such effects are best described in reptiles, but are generally widespread among ectotherms. Most of the species are oviparous with egg incubation outside the mother’s body. The eggs can be exposed to highly different and variable environmental conditions, and developmental plasticity may help offspring cope with influences they may encounter at a later stage, e.g., whether the habitat will be warmer or colder and/or safer or riskier than what they a priori are adapted for. Knock-on effects can be considered a subset of phenotypically plastic responses. They can be instantaneous or delayed, have a physiological foundation, and can be manifested as temperature-dependent sex determination and changes in morphological, physiological, life-history, and behavioral characters. They are often, but not exclusively, assumed evolutionarily favorable, particularly beneficial for invasive species and during periods of rapidly changing environments. However, although several studies suggest that plasticity in some cases increases survival and reproductive success, the fitness gain is still virtually untested. It is assumed that epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, could ultimately be important components of molecular mechanisms that allow early perceived cues to be expressed at a later stage in life. Although some empirical cases support this, evidence is still mostly circumstantial. Future research should investigate mechanisms and fitness effects of early environmental stimuli. These effects are important for the ecology of species and should be taken into account in experiments on ecological effects of environmental variables. This is of particular interest today because of climate change and increasing anthropogenic habitat alterations.
Estratégias de marketing na área de sementes

The marketing in the seeds is a promising tool for increasing the utilization of certified seed. The objective of the present study was to analyze seed marketing as a tool to promote the use of certified seed. It is noteworthy that non‑payment of royalties by buying clandestine seeds undercapitalizes seed industry and reduces investment in new technologies and cultivars by public and private sectors, thereby decreasing the likelihood of success of farmers for the use of outdated technology. In general, the use of marketing in the seeds is an important tool used by seed companies in order to outperform the competition and meet market demands and consequently promote increased utilization of certified seeds by farmers.
Comparative Studies and Research on Energy Optimization of Non-Residential Buildings

Abstract Statistics confirm that in the EU, buildings consume approx. 40% of final energy, which accounts for 36% of total European greenhouse gas production after energy consumption. Energy efficiency measures are urgently needed to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Decreasing fossil fuel consumption would have a major impact on declining energy demand per unit of gross domestic product. In 2014, European leaders adopted the ambitious Climate and Energy Framework 2030, in which the three key targets were raised: a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a 27% reduction in RES and a 27% increase in energy efficiency. Then, in November 2016, the European Commission (EC) proposed the Clean Energy for All Europeans package, designed to support and accelerates the transition to a carbon-free energy system. This paper comprises a case study of the current situation of these matters in Romania and focuses on steps and methodology of what actions are reliable and available to be put into practice on this matter.
ReptileJam 2021: Designing Enrichment for Reptiles in Captivity: This is a proposal for a ZooJam workshop around the theme of designing tech-enabled enrichment opportunities for zoo-housed and domestic reptiles.

This workshop is focused on the design of novel kinds of environmental enrichment for zoo-housed reptiles, using technology to support the development of interactive systems and devices for capturing data. Participants will work virtually in small groups to ideate, reflect on and develop concepts, using a ZooJam approach, which is similar to a game jam. Briefs for participants may include lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodilians.
End-to-End Brain-Driven Speech Enhancement in Multi-Talker Conditions

Single-channel speech enhancement algorithms have seen great improvements over the past few years. Despite these improvements, they still lack the efficiency of the auditory system in extracting attended auditory information in the presence of competing speakers. Recently, it has been shown that the attended auditory information can be decoded from the brain activity of the listener. In this paper, we propose two novel end-to-end deep learning methods referred to as the Brain Enhanced Speech Denoiser (BESD) and the U-shaped Brain Enhanced Speech Denoiser (U-BESD) respectively, that take advantage of this fact to denoise a multi-talker speech mixture without considering further background noises or reverberations. We use a Feature-wise Linear Modulation (FiLM) between the brain activity and the sound mixture, to better extract the features of the attended speaker to perform speech enhancement. We show, using electroencephalography (EEG) signals recorded from the listener, that both BESD and U-BESD successfully extract the attended speaker without any prior information about this speaker. Moreover, U-BESD also outperforms a current state-of-the-art approach that also uses brain activity to perform enhancement. The proposed neural network-based methods would thus make great candidates for realistic applications where no prior information about the attended speaker is available, such as hearing aids, cellphones, or noise cancelling headphones.
A 20µs turn-on time, 24kHz resolution, 1.5-100MHz digitally programmable temperature-compensated clock generator with 7.5ppm/°C inaccuracy

The demand for portable electronic devices with a small form factor and extended battery life is ever increasing. Timing circuits impose several critical impediments in meeting this demand. For example, low-power microcontroller units use multiple crystal oscillators (XOs) and several on-chip fractional-N phase-locked loops (PLLs) to generate the desired clocks, which significantly increase board space, power consumption. XOs and PLLs cannot be turned ON and OFF rapidly, so they also severely limit the ability to employ system-level power-reduction strategies such as power cycling. On-chip closed-loop frequency-locked loop (FLL) based oscillators are promising candidates to address some of these drawbacks [1]. While they can achieve excellent frequency accuracy, they occupy a large area, consume significant power, and cannot be turned ON/OFF rapidly due to their very low bandwidth and can only provide an output at one fixed frequency. Given these drawbacks, this paper presents a fast start-up, temperature-stable digital FLL-based oscillator and low jitter open-loop fractional dividers that can provide highly programmable clock outputs. Fabricated in a 65nm CMOS process, the prototype can generate clock outputs from about 1.5MHz to 100MHz with a frequency inaccuracy and resolution of 7.5ppm/°C and 24kHz, respectively.
The Rise of SoC FPAA Devices

This discussion reviews the current capabilities of large-scale Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA) and considers the future potential of these SoC FPAA devices, including techniques to enable ubiquitous use of FPAA devices similar to FPGA devices. Today's FPAA devices include integrated analog and digital fabric as well as specialized processors and infrastructure, becoming a platform of mixed-signal development as well as analog-enabled computing. Investigating the scaling of FPAA devices shows the potential fine-grain capabilities through analyzing the tradeoff between granularity and flexibility as well as the opportunities through CMOS scaling.
Hardware/software Co-design for Neuromorphic Systems

Transistor technology for electronic computer systems is now at the single digit nanometer scale. This enormous advance through sustained efforts over more than sixty years has resulted in computers that are extremely efficient in terms of the energy per unit of computation. This progress in hardware was arguably driven by the demand for computation, as software systems and digital technology became integrated with more and more of our lives. Despite this progress in device technology, general-purpose microprocessors-the heart of a modern computer-can still be viewed as a “von Neumann” computer with control, storage, arithmetic, and input/output devices. As the demand for computation grows unabated while the scaling of transistor technology slows down, alternate approaches to further reducing the energy per unit of computation are required.
Virtualization in Mobile Cloud Computing for Augmented Reality Challenges

Mobile cloud computing has suggested as a viable technology as a result of the fast growth of mobile applications and the emergence of the cloud computing idea. Mobile cloud computing incorporates cloud computing into the mobile environment and addresses challenges in mobile cloud computing applications like (processing capacity, battery storage capacity, privacy, and security). We discuss the enabling technologies and obstacles that we will face when we transition from mobile computing to mobile cloud computing to develop next-generation mobile cloud applications. This paper provides an overview of the processes and open concerns for mobility in mobile cloud computing for augmented reality service provisioning. This paper outlines the concept, system architecture, and taxonomy of virtualization technology, as well as research concerns related to virtualization security, and suggests future study fields. Furthermore, we highlight open challenges to provide light on the future of mobile cloud computing and future development.
Review, Survey, and Benchmark of Recent Digital LDO Voltage Regulators

This paper presents a review of the recent digital low-dropout voltage regulators (DLDOs). We have reviewed them in five aspects: control laws, triggering methods, power-FET circuit design, digital-analog hybridization, and single vs. distributed architectures. We then have surveyed and benchmarked more than 50 DLDOs published in the last decade. In addition, we have offered a new figure-of-merit (FoM) to address the shortcomings of the previously proposed FoMs. The benchmark provides insights on which techniques contribute to better dynamic load regulation performance. The survey and benchmark results are uploaded to a public repository.
An area-efficient 6T-SRAM based Compute-In-Memory architecture with reconfigurable SAR ADCs for energy-efficient deep neural networks in edge ML applications

Compute-In-Memory (CIM) is a promising approach to enable low power Machine Learning (ML) based applications on edge devices, since it significantly reduces data movement by embedding computations inside or near the memory, unlike traditional all-digital implementations. Conventional 6-transistor (6T) SRAM bit-cell based CIM approaches [1]–[3] suffer from bit-cell disturb issue due to accessing multiple cells in a column, limiting the dynamic voltage range allowed for analog dot-product (DP) computations. They are also highly prone to bit-cell discharge current (Icell) variation, degrading the overall accuracy of the neural network (NN) inference. Alternate approaches e.g. [4] requires a custom-designed 10T bitcell which consumes 2-3x larger cell area. To address these challenges, we present an area-efficient CIM approach (CIM-D6T) which uses compact 6T foundry bit-cells while achieving robustness to bit-cell Vt variations and eliminates any read disturb issues, improving the dynamic voltage range for DP. This is achieved by decoupling the 6T cell read from the analog DP computation. As shown in Fig. 1, a pair of extra metal capacitors (Cm) connected to the lines XAp, XAn are added over the SRAM column to store and process the analog voltages for the DP's. The 6T cells in a row are read locally and the read data values are used in the local LRW+MAVa circuit to discharge the analog voltage on the XAp/XAn capacitor to ground. These extra capacitors do not consume additional silicon area since they are implemented as metal comb capacitors over the existing SRAM array using higher metal layers. Fig. 1 shows the overall architecture of the proposed CIM half-array with 256x64 6T bit-cells, split into 16 sub-arrays each with 16 rows and 64 columns. Weights for different 3D filters in a given NN layer (output channel dimension) are mapped to a different sub-array. A group of 2 local columns with 16 rows in each form 1 mux-ed local column (LCOLmx) and hence, each sub-array has 32 parallel ports for input feature map (IFMP) values and the weights. Each LCOLmx along the vertical dimension share a single DAC, which converts a 6-b unsigned digital input (XIN[5:0]) to an analog voltage (0 to Vref). The same analog voltage (Va) is shared across all sub-arrays along a column.
A Developed Sensing Approach in Cooperative Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio is a solution to the spectral congestion problem by introducing opportunistic usage of the frequency bands that are not heavily occupied by licensed users. Spectrum sensing is important in cognitive radio to avoid collisions with licensed users and to improve the efficiency of licensed spectrum use, Primary transmitter's signal could not be detected because of the locations of devices(hidden primary user problem). It can be caused by many factors including severe multipath fading or shadowing observed by secondary users. Cooperative cognitive radio network allows different cognitive radio users(SU s) to share sensing information and increase the accuracy of primary user detection, but the complexity increased with increasing the number of CRs thus increasing number of sensing messages caused consume power, which it effected on Cognitive radio lifetime. This thesis addresses the problem of power consumption and enhance the sensing approach by using external node to do spectrum sensing process. The proposed system simulates healthcare data type of (ECG and Endoscopy) in cognitive radio network Environment. Moreover, the proposed system has been done using OMNET++ simulation tool. The proposed cooperative sensing system of Group Manager (GM) enhanced throughput as 1.066% for 6 nodes, 10.655% for 10 nodes, and 14.191 % for 20 nodes compared with the case of without GM. The power consumed decreased for better results as 66.489%. , 67.923 % and 88.514%. For the case of 6 Cognitive radio nodes(CR), 10 CR, and 20 CR respectively.
An Adaptive Droop Coefficient Based Voltage Control Approach for Wind Power Plants through Enhanced Reactive Power Support

To maximize the reactive power support from a wind power plant (WPP) and maintain the power factor (PF) at the point of interconnection (POI) within acceptable limits, an adaptive droop coefficient-based WPP controller is proposed in this paper. The controller consists of a central WPP controller and a local wind turbine generator (WTG) controller. An integrated power factor controller enables the central WPP controller to regulate the power factor at the POI under normal operation. An updated droop coefficient model considering the depth of voltage deviations and the range of reactive power capability enables the controller to push the WTG more towards its maximum reactive power limit. For accurate estimation of the maximum reactive power capability, a comprehensive model considering a wide range of limiting factors has been used. To ensure faster and robust operation, both the central WPP controller and local WTG controller are operated in the voltage control mode. Additional reactive power is exported from the grid side converter (GSC) through a developed GSC controller. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is validated through case studies in MATLAB/Simulink environment.
In vitro generation of human embryonic stem cell-derived heart organoids possessing physiological ion currents

Recently, methods for in vitro organogenesis have been broadly developed due to their strong potential for human applications in medicine. In the present study, we optimized the culturing method of human heart organoids (hHOs) from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in the presence of the highly concentrated laminin-entactin and fibroblast growth factor 4. The resulting hHOs showed distinctive cardiac morphology with atrium- and ventricle-like chambers composed of cardiac cells as well as expressed the integral proteins of gap junctions and ion channels. In fact, isolated cardiomyocytes from these hHOs exhibited Na and Ca currents by patch clamp analysis. These results indicated that the present method will provide a powerful tool for cardiac safety assessment of newly developed drugs as an in vitro human ESC-derived test system. One-Sentence Summary FGF4 and ECM contribute to the generation of human HOs with heart compartments and electrophysiological properties.
Speed and Correctness Guarantees for Programmable Enthalpy-Neutral DNA Reactions

Molecular control circuits embedded within chemical systems to direct molecular events have transformative applications in synthetic biology, medicine, and other fields. However, it is challenging to understand the collective behavior of components due to the combinatorial complexity of possible interactions. Some of the largest engineered molecular systems to date have been constructed using DNA strand displacement reactions, in which signals can be propagated without a net change in base pairs (enthalpy neutral). This flexible and programmable component has been used for constructing molecular logic circuits, smart structures and devices, for systems with complex autonomously generated dynamics, and for diagnostics. Limiting their utility, however, strand displacement systems are susceptible to the spurious release of output in the absence of the proper combination of inputs (leak), as well as reversible unproductive binding (toehold occlusion) and spurious displacement that slow down desired kinetics. We systematize the properties of the simplest enthalpy-neutral strand displacement cascades (logically linear topology), and develop a taxonomy for the desired and undesired properties affecting speed and correctness, and trade-offs between them based on a few fundamental parameters. We also show that enthalpy-neutral linear cascades can be engineered with stronger thermodynamic guarantees to leak than non-enthalpy-neutral designs. We confirm our theoretical analysis with laboratory experiments comparing the properties of different design parameters. Our method of tackling the combinatorial complexity using mathematical proofs can guide the engineering of robust and efficient molecular algorithms.
From recency to central tendency biases in working memory: a unifying network model

The central tendency bias, or contraction bias, is a phenomenon where the judgment of the magnitude of items held in working memory appears to be biased towards the average of past observations. It is assumed to be an optimal strategy by the brain, and commonly thought of as an expression of the brain’s ability to learn the statistical structure of sensory input. On the other hand, recency biases such as serial dependence are also commonly observed, and are thought to reflect the content of working memory. Recent results from an auditory delayed comparison task in rats, suggest that both biases may be more related than previously thought: when the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) was silenced, both short-term and contraction biases were reduced. By proposing a model of the circuit that may be involved in generating the behavior, we show that a volatile working memory content susceptible to shifting to the past sensory experience – producing short-term sensory history biases – naturally leads to contraction bias. The errors, occurring at the level of individual trials, are sampled from the full distribution of the stimuli, and are not due to a gradual shift of the memory towards the sensory distribution’s mean. Our results are consistent with a broad set of behavioral findings and provide predictions of performance across different stimulus distributions and timings, delay intervals, as well as neuronal dynamics in putative working memory areas. Finally, we validate our model by performing a set of human psychophysics experiments of an auditory parametric working memory task.