VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Exploiting Data Characteristics in The Design of Accelerators for Deep Learning
Keywords: Accelerators
ASIC
Bit-Serial
Deep Learning
Reduced Precision
Sparsity

The recent “Cambrian explosion” of Deep Learning (DL) algorithms in concert with the end of Moore’s Law and Dennard Scaling has spurred interest in the design of custom hardware accelerators for DL algorithms. While DL has progressed quickly thanks in part to the abundance of efficient parallel computation provided by General Purpose Graphics Processing Units, newer DL algorithms demand even higher levels of compute density and efficiency. Furthermore, applications of DL in the mobile and embedded domains demand the energy efficiency of special purpose hardware. DL algorithms are dominated by large matrix-vector product computations, making them ideal targets for wide Single Instruction Multiple Data architectures. For the most part, efficiently mapping the structure of these computations to hardware is straightforward. Building on such designs, this thesis examines the data characteristics of these computations and proposes hardware modifications to exploit them for performance and energy efficiency. Specifically, this thesis examines the sparsity and precision requirements of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, which comprise multiple layers of matrix-vector product computations. We propose a profiling method to find per layer reduced precision configurations while maintaining high classification accuracy. Following this, we propose three accelerator designs that build on top of the state-of-the-art DaDianNao accelerator. 1) Proteus exploits the reduced precision profiles by adding a light weight memory compression layer, saving energy in memory access and communication, and enabling larger networks in a fixed memory budget. 2) Cnvlutin exploits the presence of zero, and near zero, values in the inter-layer data by applying sparse compression to the data stream while maintain efficient utilization of the wide memory and compute structure of the SIMD accelerator. 3) Stripes exploits the reduced precision profiles for performance by processing data bit-serially, compensating for serial latency by exploiting the abundant parallelism in the convolution operation. All three designs exploit approximation, in terms of reduced precision and computation skipping to improve energy efficiency and/or performance while maintaining high classification accuracy. By approximating more aggressively, these designs can also dynamically trade-off accuracy for further improvements in performance and energy.
Regional Complementarity and Place-making in the Northern Region of the Tapajós National Forest Reservation, Lower Amazon, Brazil
Keywords: Amazonian archaeology
GIS
Landscape archaeology
Lower Tapajós
Regional complementarity
Santarém archaeological culture

From the tenth to the eighteenth centuries in the late pre-colonial period, Indigenous communities associated with the Santarém ceramic style lived in settlements of various sizes in the present day cities of Santarém and Belterra in the western region of the state of Pará, Brazil. This region is characterized by a rich and varied archaeological landscape consisting of inland ponds, anthropogenic forests, trail networks, and Amazonian Dark Earths (a very fertile and stable anthropogenic soil). In this dissertation, I combine historical ecology perspectives with theories of landscape, place and space in order to improve understanding of previous occupations and environmental transformations in the Santarém-Belterra region. More specifically, I present the results of an archaeological survey conducted in 2014 in the northern region of the Tapajós National Forest Reservation, 66 km south of the junction of the Tapajós and Amazon rivers. Altogether, I mapped thirteen archaeological sites, recorded the location of four Amazon Dark Earth deposits and two findspots. The majority of the ceramics recovered from my survey belong to the Santarém archaeological culture, however, ceramics associated with the Konduri and Pocó style, the Incised and Punctate tradition, and the Formative period were also recovered during the survey. In addition, my survey identified pre-contact Amazon Dark Earth soils and an extensive trail network that connected the plateau to the riverine environments of the reserve. The application of ArcGIS spatial analyst toolbox modelled how the settlements in peripheral areas were integrated and connected in terms of pathways and river networks with the Porto site, the heartland of the Santarém tradition at the junction of the Amazon and Tapajós rivers. My study indicates that the social and economic organization of the inhabitants in the northern region of the Flona-Tapajós was based on strategic resource and ecological complementary that integrated diverse environments. Permanent, year-round communities settled in different landscape likely maintained communication, sponsored joint ritual events, and engaged in the exchange of resources. In the end, the dissertation demonstrates that the Amazon was systematically reshaped by the social production of space.
A Representational Account of Memory and Perception Across the Lifespan
Keywords: Aging
Medial Temporal Lobes
Memory
Objects
Scenes

The representational hierarchical model suggests that regions of the medial temporal lobes (MTL) differ in terms of the representational content they support (i.e., the perirhinal cortex represents objects, while the hippocampus represents scenes). The model posits that these representations are useful for all cognitive functions – be it memory or perception – and predicts that stimulus-specific processing deficits will emerge based on the neuroanatomical locus of dysfunction. Thus, the goal of the present dissertation was to examine (1) stimulus-specific processing deficits in older adults at-risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and in healthy older adults, and (2) whether manipulations that impact memory also impact perception in young adults. In Chapter 2, we hypothesized that cognitive status related to MCI would result in object-specific memory decline, based on past work demonstrating that MCI pathology originates in the perirhinal cortex. We assessed recognition of objects and scenes in older adults and correlated recognition performance to cognitive assessment scores. As predicted, we found that object recognition showed a stronger relationship to cognitive status than did scene recognition. In Chapter 3, we hypothesized that healthy older adults would show scene-specific associative memory deficits based on putative hippocampal dysfunction. We examined associative memory for object-and-scene pairs and found that older adults were not able to use scene contexts as effectively as young adults to recall associated objects. In Chapter 4, we examined whether context reinstatement would affect both object memory and object perception, as predicted by the representational hierarchical model. We found that when object memory was tested within the same scene as study, object recognition was boosted. Critically, we also found that subsequent object perception was improved, even in the absence of a scene. The results of these experiments support representational accounts of memory by demonstrating stimulus-specific decline resulting from putative neural dysfunction. Moreover, they add novel support to the idea that stimulus representations are impacted in similar ways across different cognitive domains. Thus, I show that examining cognition by appealing to representational content instead of cognitive taxonomy is a powerful way to elucidate a broad range of novel empirical phenomena.
The Digital Curation of Broadcasting Archives at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Curation Culture and Evaluative Practice
Keywords: broadcasting archives
culture
digital curation
evaluation
information practice
practice theory

Digital curation scholarship has become interested in how technical and computational processes and systems intersect with human and social factors in digital curation practices across curation domains. This dissertation contributes to this knowledge by examining the digital curation of broadcasting news archives, a considerable but underexplored curation domain. The study is based on participant observation and interview data collected at the news archive of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The data is analyzed using a practice theory approach that combines social, material, and cultural theoretical perspectives. Specifically, the dissertation examines how archivists at the CBC evaluate and enrich information in the context of their daily work, and it describes the institutional, organizational, and technological elements constitutive of this context. The analysis reveals how the CBC’s transformation from analogue to digital infrastructure has redefined the organizational roles and the boundaries of expertise at the news archive. It further reveals how the CBC’s institutional identity sets the goals of digital curation and how digital broadcasting systems are adapted to reflect preestablished procedural and symbolic traditions of work. Lastly, the dissertation examines the constitutive rules and heuristics of evaluation at the news archive and finds that evaluative practices are consequential during all stages of the curation lifecycle but are particularly salient at the stages of acquisition (when value is established), cataloguing (when value is enriched), and reuse (when value is negotiated to fit into a new context). Based on these findings two arguments are formulated. It is argued, first, that aside from being supported by socio-technical systems, digital curation practices are also supported by cultural systems. These cultural systems sustain collective action and situated cognition by providing vocabularies of motives and strategies for action. They are shaped by normative institutional frameworks, transmitted through material artifacts, and refracted through subjective interpretations. Second, it is argued that evaluative practices are an integral part of digital curation and a prerequisite for enhancing the value of data and digital materials. They are interwoven with social and cultural processes, used in adaptive ways, and difficult to formalize, as such they will vary across curation domains and practice contexts.
Quantitatively Assessing the Effects of Mutations on Signaling Pathway Function
Keywords: Evolution
Signaling
Synthetic Biology
Yeast

Cells receive diverse stimuli from their surroundings and process them into distinct physiological responses through signal transduction pathways. Mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways (MAPKs) are responsible for many cellular functions. The overarching goal of this thesis was to study the effects of mutations on MAPK signaling function in living cells using complementary systems biology and genetic engineering methods. First, I asked how mutations could rescue overexpression driven decrease in signaling. I identified several variants of the yeast MAPK, Fus3, including those containing premature stop codons (PSC) which are naturally readthrough, that rescued mating function in an overexpression background. The location of the mutated residue in the protein structure and its identity play a role in determining the impact of the PSC on pathway function. These results suggest that selection can compensate for protein overexpression by introducing PSCs at permitted positions. Next, I quantified the effects of mutations on yeast mating and HOG signaling. I used the information theory measure of mutual information to measure signaling and introduced change in mutual information as the measure of the effects of mutations on signaling. I showed that information transmission in HOG signaling is more robust to spontaneous mutations than in mating signaling. I controlled for some of the possible reasons for this difference, redundancy and mutational target size, and found that although HOG signaling mutational robustness is compromised, it is still more robust suggesting that other mechanisms play a role in maintaining this mutational robustness. Finally, I compared the effects of the mutations in a shared component on information transmission in the pathways and found that large effect mutations have large effects on information transmission in both signaling pathways and that some of these effects are opposite. Overall, in this thesis work, we found both non-intuitive and intuitive results and ways to quantify both. Applying the tools of systems biology and genetic engineering is a comprehensive and complementary approach to answering evolutionary questions.
The Narrative and Descriptive Influence of Latin Hagiography on Beowulf
Keywords: Beowulf
Hagiography
Literature
Medieval

The search for sources of elements in Beowulf has provided significant insight into the poem’s literary context, thematic makeup, and historical setting. While much value has been derived from identifying Norse and Old English analogues, less attention has been paid to Latin texts. If we accept that the Beowulf-poet was literate, Latinate, and possibly monastic, the influence of Latin literature—particularly hagiography—emerges as a distinct probability. This dissertation suggests that the influence of hagiography manifests itself in similarities of narrative and description, and examines two common depictions found in both saints’ lives and Beowulf: sea journeys and the hostile wilderness. Through schematizing these scenes, it establishes a set of conventions underlying their depiction and compares them to their analogous scenes in Beowulf. The voyages of seafaring saints can typically be articulated into overarching narrative components comprising a call to action, a commission and blessing, a procession to the shore and boarding, a voyage aboard ship, an arrival sequence, disembarking, and an onshore meeting, each component featuring remarkably durable elements. Beowulf’s two sea journeys echo the structural components of these vitae closely, and their corresponding elements tend to reflect those alignments found in hagiography. Though less tied to narrative structure, sacred hermits’ wilderness homes typically depict a robust complement of primary elements: trees, water, mountainous stone, a route, hostile wildlife, fables about the region, negative descriptors, and fabricated space. Readers of Beowulf will be familiar with these elements as they appear throughout Hrothgar’s description of Grendel’s mere and its subsequent appearance in the text. From these observations, it appears that the Beowulf-poet was incorporating the narrative and descriptive tendencies conventional to Latin hagiography into the Old English poem in spite of divergent subject-matter. These findings serve to reinforce the value of examining the Latinate literary culture of Anglo-Saxon England and its influence on Beowulf. Some compelling analogues within specific vitae suggest that further inquiry into their individual influence on the poem will be rewarded. However, this dissertation most clearly demonstrates the continuing value of seeking sources for elements of Beowulf in the wider conventions of hagiography.
Precomposed and Extemporized: Rediscovering the Life and Improvisatory Work of Canadian Organist Victor Togni (1935 – 1965)
Keywords: Canada
Improvisation
Music
Organ
Pedagogy
Togni

The legacy of the Canadian organist Victor Togni (1935 – 1965) lies in his contributions to church and organ music as a performer, composer, pedagogue, and improviser. Considered by Jean-Jacques Grunenwald as his most gifted and brilliant student, lauded by Olivier Messiaen for his abilities as a composer, and praised by Healey Willan as being “the most accomplished and brilliant Catholic organist in Canada”, Victor Togni was a rising star of Canadian organ music. His early passing at the age of 30 in a car accident undoubtedly contributed to the dearth of published materials on his life and music. Though public awareness of Togni is limited, this dissertation brings to light substantial previously-unpublished materials, revealing a missing link in the cultural mosaic of Canadian music. It provides a biographical text on Victor Togni and assesses his role in the field of organ performance and improvisation in the mid-1900s. It addresses Togni’s role as an organist-improviser in North America, his philosophies on concert/liturgical improvisation, as well as the philosophical influence of his teachers, including Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, Jean Langlais, Marcel Dupré, and Olivier Messiaen, among others. Seventeen recordings of Togni improvising, of which fifteen are unpublished, are analyzed and contextualized. Togni’s efforts to advance the field of organ improvisation in Canada are considered, with particular importance given to Togni’s unpublished draft method book, The Liturgical Organ Improvisation. This dissertation also analyzes Togni’s well-known precomposed organ suite Five Liturgical Inventions with a view to asserting the presence of improvisatory formulas drawn from his draft improvisation method book. Furthermore, several of Togni’s extemporized works themselves are transcribed and also analyzed, showing a more complete picture of Togni’s improvisatory style. The centrality of Togni’s unpublished method book both in his precomposed and his extemporized works is shown, reemphasizing his efforts to advance the field of organ improvisation in Canada.
Teacher Insights: Self-efficacy and Professional Development Needs Related to Supporting Children with High-functioning Autism
Keywords: Asperger's Syndrome
Autism
Elementary school
Neoliberalism
Professional development
Teacher self-efficacy

This qualitative research explored the knowledge, self-efficacy, and comfort of general education teachers supporting learners with high-functioning autism (HFA) in the mainstream classroom and their thoughts on related teacher professional development experiences and needs. 5 primary teachers from 5 different Ontario school boards participated in in-person, semi-structured interviews. 3 main findings emerged out of the data: (1) familiarity with students with HFA had a positive impact on teachers and students, which related to increased teacher self-efficacy and understanding of learners with HFA, changes to practice, and benefits to peers and other staff, with participants who had taught the greatest numbers of students with HFA reporting higher confidence ratings and demonstrating more knowledge of HFA; (2) systemic barriers impacted teachers’ ability to support all students, such as inadequate teacher preparation, inaccessibility of services, interventions, and physical and personnel resources; and (3) teachers envisioned their ideal professional development (PD) to support teacher learning, which included what they wanted to learn about HFA, factors increasing or decreasing the likelihood of their participation, as well as preferred characteristics and formats of PD, with all teachers underscoring the importance of opportunities to collaborate and problematize relevant classroom concerns with colleagues. Implications for teacher education programs and ongoing professional development for teachers, as well as potential directions for future research, are presented.
Online Physical Design And Materialization in Scalable Data Management
Keywords: Database
Materialization
Physical design
System

The technique of materializing intermediate results and reusing these results to answer future queries is applied widely in data management because it can greatly improve the performance of real-life workloads. Although it has proven to be a crucial performance factor, the physical design of data is usually considered independent of materialization. One problem of tackling physical design and materialization independently is that it neglects the correlation between these two techniques and may produce suboptimal solutions. The access patterns of real-life workloads typically evolve frequently, and the evolving access patterns bring the challenge of automatically adapting the physical design to the workload. An effective approach to solve this problem is an online physical design, which does not assume prior knowledge of the workload but adapts the design based on the history of the workload. In this thesis, we discuss a general problem of combining physical design and materialization to improve workload performance. We prove our solution to the general problem is broadly applicable to instances of this problem by systematically investigating: (1) partition and re-partition materialized views to honor the access patterns of non-update workloads; and (2) allocate data dynamically between streaming engines and analytical engines in a federated system for hybrid workloads consisting of data ingestion, transactions, and analysis. We then extend our research by showing a preliminary study on how to apply our solution to a third instance of this problem: tune data co-location and materialization for non-update workloads. Our techniques work in an online fashion and thus are capable of adapting the design automatically to evolving workloads. We demonstrate that our techniques of integrating physical design and materialization significantly outperform approaches that solve them independently and thus greatly improve the workload performance.
How Children Cognitively Process and Emotionally Respond to Victimizing Others: A Multimethod Developmental Approach
Keywords: attention
development
facial expressions
kindness
morality
transgressions

After violating ethical norms, such as stealing, why do some children feel positively-valenced, selfish emotions while others feel negatively-valenced, kind emotions? Psychologists have argued that, while victimizing others, how people cognitively process environmental cues related to conflicting selfish and other-oriented concerns influences how they emotionally respond. Yet, no studies have examined these assertions during childhood, when kind emotions develop most. In this dissertation, I tested these assertions using multiple methods and study designs with samples of 4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds. In Study 1, I used eye tracking and found that, across age groups, attentional tendencies (calculated as the percentage of time children visually attended to other-oriented minus self-serving cues) positively and negatively related to kind and selfish emotions, respectively. In Study 2, I incorporated facial expression recognition technology to examine how concurrent measures of attentional tendencies and sad facial expressions related to each other, as well as kind and selfish emotions. I found that attentional tendencies better predicted sad facial expressions than vice versa, but that only sad facial expressions were directly related to kind and selfish emotions. In Study 3, I experimentally tested three techniques for promoting children’s cognitive processing of other-oriented cues, with the goal of enhancing their kind emotions. In the other-focused and self-focused role-taking conditions, children were instructed to think about, respectively, how the victim would feel and how they would feel if they were the victim during each transgression. In the orienting condition, children were only drawn to attend to the victim’s face via an animation. The results revealed that children in the orienting condition reported the most kind emotions and significantly more than the other-focused, but not the self-focused, condition. Overall, this dissertation points to the impact of children’s cognitive processing on their emotional responding during ethical transgressions. In doing so, it offers new insights for theory and the practice of parents, teachers, and interventionists.