Inferring Energy Bounds via Static Program Analysis and Evolutionary Modeling of Basic Blocks

The ever increasing number and complexity of energy-bound devices (such as the ones used in Internet of Things applications, smart phones, and mission critical systems) pose an important challenge on techniques to optimize their energy consumption and to verify that they will perform their function within the available energy budget. In this work we address this challenge from the software point of view and propose a novel parametric approach to estimating tight bounds on the energy consumed by program executions that are practical for their application to energy verification and optimization. Our approach divides a program into basic (branchless) blocks and estimates the maximal and minimal energy consumption for each block using an evolutionary algorithm. Then it combines the obtained values according to the program control flow, using static analysis, to infer functions that give both upper and lower bounds on the energy consumption of the whole program and its procedures as functions on input data sizes. We have tested our approach on (C-like) embedded programs running on the XMOS hardware platform. However, our method is general enough to be applied to other microprocessor architectures and programming languages. The bounds obtained by our prototype implementation can be tight while remaining on the safe side of budgets in practice, as shown by our experimental evaluation.Comment: Pre-proceedings paper presented at the 27th International Symposium on Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR 2017), Namur, Belgium, 10-12 October 2017 (arXiv:1708.07854). Improved version of the one presented at the HIP3ES 2016 workshop (v1): more experimental results (added benchmark to Table 1, added figure for new benchmark, added Table 3), improved Fig. 1, added Fig.

Efficient Set Sharing Using ZBDDs

Set sharing is an abstract domain in which each concrete object is represented by the set of local variables from which it might be reachable. It is a useful abstraction to detect parallelism opportunities, since it contains definite information about which variables do not share in memory, i.e., about when the memory regions reachable from those variables are disjoint. Set sharing is a more precise alternative to pair sharing, in which each domain element is a set of all pairs of local variables from which a common object may be reachable. However, the exponential complexity of some set sharing operations has limited its wider application. This work introduces an efficient implementation of the set sharing domain using Zero-suppressed Binary Decision Diagrams (ZBDDs). Because ZBDDs were designed to represent sets of combinations (i.e., sets of sets), they naturally represent elements of the set sharing domain. We show how to synthesize the operations needed in the set sharing transfer functions from basic ZBDD operations. For some of the operations, we devise custom ZBDD algorithms that perform better in practice. We also compare our implementation of the abstract domain with an efficient, compact, bit set-based alternative, and show that the ZBDD version scales better in terms of both memory usage and running time

On the variable inverse sum deg index

Several important topological indices studied in mathematical chemistry are expressed in the following way Puv∈E(G) F(du, dv), where F is a two variable function that satisfies the condition F(x, y) = F(y, x), uv denotes an edge of the graph G and du is the degree of the vertex u. Among them, the variable inverse sum deg index ISDa, with F(du, dv) = 1/(dua + dva), was found to have several applications. In this paper, we solve some problems posed by Vukičević [1], and we characterize graphs with maximum and minimum values of the ISDa index, for a < 0, in the following sets of graphs with n vertices: graphs with fixed minimum degree, connected graphs with fixed minimum degree, graphs with fixed maximum degree, and connected graphs with fixed maximum degree. Also, we performed a QSPR analysis to test the predictive power of this index for some physicochemical properties of polyaromatic hydrocarbon

Análisis y conclusiones de los talleres del IV Congreso Internacional «Educación y Entorno»

En este artículo, se presentan las propuestas surgidas durante el 4º Congreso «Educación y Entorno», celebrado en el mes de mayo de 2008 en La Seu d’Urgell, a partir de los talleres realizados con la participación de diferentes profesionales del ámbito educativo de las administraciones locales y autonómica, representantes de asociaciones de madres y padres y de diferentes entidades educativas en relación con el tempo libre. El debate realizado se vertebró alrededor del tema de la convivencia, y se desarrolló sobre cuatro ejes básicos: procesos de aprendizaje en los centros educativos, familias, tejido social y acción de gobierno. De las propuestas emitidas, se infieren ideas clave sobre las percepciones alrededor de la educación y de la convivencia que constituyeron la base de las conclusiones del congreso expuestas en un documento titulado Declaración de la Seu d’Urgell

Computer aided volumetric assessment of orbital structures in patients with Graves' orbitopathy: correlation with serum thyroid antiperoxidase antibodies and disease activity

Introduction: Graves' disease is an autoimmune disorder. Goiter and Graves' orbitopathy are frequently seen clinically. It would be helpful for the diagnosis, grading, prognosis, and treatment of this condition if it was possible to find serum biomarkers to establish a connection between the plasma levels of these compounds and orbital changes. Methods: A retrospective study was performed by revising the medical records of 44 patients with Graves' orbitopathy and 15 controls. The Osirix software (Pixmeo, Geneva, Switzerland) was used for manual orbital measurements. Plasma levels of Graves' orbitopathy substances were obtained in the analytical review of the patients. Results: A greater muscle volume was observed in patients with Graves' orbitopathy in relation to the control group (p < 0.001). The clinical activity score (CAS) was associated to total muscle mass (p = 0.013) and retrorbital fat (p = 0.048). Our results indicated a direct relationship between serum concentrations of anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies and inferior rectus thickening (p = 0.036); however, we did not observe a positive correlation between other muscle volumes and serum concentrations of various thyroid-related substances. Conclusions: This study is the first that uses Osirix measurement software to manually assess orbital features in patients with Graves' orbitopathy. These measurements were compared to the outcomes of tests performed in a laboratory. Among several serum biomarkers, anti-thyroid peroxidase appears to be a reliable biomarker that correlates positively with inferior rectus muscle thickness in patients with thyroid eye disease. This may help to improve the management of this diseaseOpen Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This work was financially supported by ISCIII (RETICS RD16/0008/0003) and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund—ERDF)S

Using Disjoint Reachability for Parallelization

Abstract. We present a disjoint reachability analysis for Java. Our analysis com-putes extended points-to graphs annotated with reachability states. Each heap node is annotated with a set of reachability states that abstract the reachability of objects represented by the node. The analysis also includes a global pruning step which analyzes a reachability graph to prune imprecise reachability states that cannot be removed with local reasoning alone. We have implemented the analysis and used it to parallelize 9 benchmarks. Our evaluation shows the anal-ysis results are sufficiently precise to parallelize our benchmarks and achieve an average speedup of 16.9×.

Eosinophilic Panniculitis and Insect Bite-Like Eruption in a Patient with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia: A Spectrum of the Same Entity

Background. Eosinophilic dermatosis of hematologic disorders is a reactive process that may cause a variety of clinical manifestations. Methods. We report a patient who had outbreaks of skin lesions since the onset of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Results. The cutaneous eruptions began as eosinophilic panniculitis and after changed to insect bite-like lesions. Conclusion. We think that eosinophilic panniculitis and insect bite-like lesions may be part of the spectrum of the same entity in patients with hematologic disorders

Phonological fluency norms for Spanish middle-aged and older adults provided by the SCAND initiative (P, M, & R)

Objective: Verbal fluency tests are quick and easy to administer neuropsychological measures and are regularly used in neuropsychological assessment. Additionally, phonological fluency is a widely used paradigm that is sensitive to cognitive impairment. This paper offers normative data of phonological verbal fluency (letters P, M, R) for Spanish middle- and older-aged adults, considering sociodemographic factors, and different measures such as the total number of words, errors (perseveration and intrusions), and 15 sec-segmented scores. Method: A total of 1165 cognitively unimpaired participants aged between 50 and 89 years old, participated in the study. Data for P were obtained for all participants. Letters M and R were also administered to a subsample of participants (852) aged 60 to 89 years. In addition, errors and words produced every 15 seconds were collected in the subsample. To verify the effect of sociodemographic variables, linear regression was used. Adjustments were calculated for variables that explained at least 5% of the variance (R2 ≥ .05). Results: Means and standard deviations by age, scaled scores, and percentiles for all tests across different measures are shown. No determination coefficients equal to or greater than .05 were found for sex or age. The need to establish adjustments for the educational level was only found in some of the measures. Conclusions: The current norms provide clinically useful data to evaluate Spanish-speaking natives from Spain aged from 50 to 89 years. Specific patterns of cognitive impairment can be analyzed using these normative data and may be important in neuropsychological assessmentObjective: Verbal fluency tests are quick and easy to administer neuropsychological measures and are regularly used in neuropsychological assessment. Additionally, phonological fluency is a widely used paradigm that is sensitive to cognitive impairment. This paper offers normative data of phonological verbal fluency (letters P, M, R) for Spanish middle- and older-aged adults, considering sociodemographic factors, and different measures such as the total number of words, errors (perseveration and intrusions), and 15 sec-segmented scores. Method: A total of 1165 cognitively unimpaired participants aged between 50 and 89 years old, participated in the study. Data for P were obtained for all participants. Letters M and R were also administered to a subsample of participants (852) aged 60 to 89 years. In addition, errors and words produced every 15 seconds were collected in the subsample. To verify the effect of sociodemographic variables, linear regression was used. Adjustments were calculated for variables that explained at least 5% of the variance (R2 ≥ .05). Results: Means and standard deviations by age, scaled scores, and percentiles for all tests across different measures are shown. No determination coefficients equal to or greater than .05 were found for sex or age. The need to establish adjustments for the educational level was only found in some of the measures. Conclusions: The current norms provide clinically useful data to evaluate Spanish-speaking natives from Spain aged from 50 to 89 years. Specific patterns of cognitive impairment can be analyzed using these normative data and may be important in neuropsychological assessmentS