VWSIM : a circuit simulator

VWSIM is a circuit simulator for rapid, single-flux, quantum (RSFQ) circuits. The simulator is designed to model and simulate primitive-circuit devices such as capacitors, inductors, Josephson junctions, and can be extended to simulate other circuit families, such as CMOS. Written in the ACL2 logic, VWSIM provides formal mathematical guarantees about each of the circuit models it simulates. The ACL2-based definition of the VWSIM simulator offers a path for specifying and verifying RSFQ circuit models.Computer Science

Fairness in Mobile Phone–Based Mental Health Assessment Algorithms: Exploratory Study

BackgroundApproximately 1 in 5 American adults experience mental illness every year. Thus, mobile phone–based mental health prediction apps that use phone data and artificial intelligence techniques for mental health assessment have become increasingly important and are being rapidly developed. At the same time, multiple artificial intelligence–related technologies (eg, face recognition and search results) have recently been reported to be biased regarding age, gender, and race. This study moves this discussion to a new domain: phone-based mental health assessment algorithms. It is important to ensure that such algorithms do not contribute to gender disparities through biased predictions across gender groups. ObjectiveThis research aimed to analyze the susceptibility of multiple commonly used machine learning approaches for gender bias in mobile mental health assessment and explore the use of an algorithmic disparate impact remover (DIR) approach to reduce bias levels while maintaining high accuracy. MethodsFirst, we performed preprocessing and model training using the data set (N=55) obtained from a previous study. Accuracy levels and differences in accuracy across genders were computed using 5 different machine learning models. We selected the random forest model, which yielded the highest accuracy, for a more detailed audit and computed multiple metrics that are commonly used for fairness in the machine learning literature. Finally, we applied the DIR approach to reduce bias in the mental health assessment algorithm. ResultsThe highest observed accuracy for the mental health assessment was 78.57%. Although this accuracy level raises optimism, the audit based on gender revealed that the performance of the algorithm was statistically significantly different between the male and female groups (eg, difference in accuracy across genders was 15.85%; P<.001). Similar trends were obtained for other fairness metrics. This disparity in performance was found to reduce significantly after the application of the DIR approach by adapting the data used for modeling (eg, the difference in accuracy across genders was 1.66%, and the reduction is statistically significant with P<.001). ConclusionsThis study grounds the need for algorithmic auditing in phone-based mental health assessment algorithms and the use of gender as a protected attribute to study fairness in such settings. Such audits and remedial steps are the building blocks for the widespread adoption of fair and accurate mental health assessment algorithms in the future

State Access for RSFQ Test and Analysis

We present means to initialize, to propagate, and to examine states in an RSFQ circuit that are useful for design as well as for functional test and analysis. Our RSFQ test strategy distinguishes states by the information they carry from computation to computation, and saves costs by ignoring information-free states. To start, stop, and stall operations that are asynchronous, we developed a new variety of RSFQ stateholder, called MrGO after its CMOS counterpart. We include two simulated examples, a clocked pipelined adder for which we test functionality, and an asynchronous ring FIFO for which we analyze throughput

Cation-π interaction: to stack or to spread

The interaction between different cations and certain aromatic dimers (benzene, naphthalene, anthracene) and heteroaromatic dimers (pyridine, pyrazine, sym-triazine and sym-tetrazine) has been investigated employing the MP2 level of theory with the 6-31G<SUP>&#8727;&#8727;</SUP> and 6-311++G<SUP>&#8727;&#8727;</SUP> basis sets. The trend in the stabilization energy for aromatic dimers is found to be: (anthracene)<SUB>2</SUB>-cation>(naphthalene)<SUB>2</SUB>-cation>(benzene)<SUB>2</SUB>-cation. In all three cases, the cation remains sandwiched between the rings. In the case of the heteroaromatic systems, on the other hand, the cation prefers to interact with the nitrogen atom of the ring. These results can be rationalized by molecular electrostatic potential maps for the systems under consideration. In addition, these results are in conformity with the available cation aromatic database

The Multifaceted Reactivity of <i>o</i>-Fluoranil

In addition to Diels–Alder and hetero-Diels–Alder reactions, tetrafluoro-<i>o</i>-benzoquinone (<i>o</i>-fluoranil) undergoes nucleophilic additions, addition–eliminations, dioxole formation, and charge-transfer complexation, reacting at every site on the molecular skeleton. It also effects dehydrogenations and other oxidations. The quinone can function as a (CF)₄ synthon

Real-Time Assessment of Black Carbon Pollution in Indian Households Due to Traditional and Improved Biomass Cookstoves

Use of improved (biomass) cookstoves (ICs) has been widely proposed as a Black Carbon (BC) mitigation measure with significant climate and health benefits. ICs encompass a range of technologies, including natural draft (ND) stoves, which feature structural modifications to enhance air flow, and forced draft (FD) stoves, which additionally employ an external fan to force air into the combustion chamber. We present here, under Project Surya, the first real-time in situ Black Carbon (BC) concentration measurements from five commercial ICs and a traditional (mud) cookstove for comparison. These experiments reveal four significant findings about the tested stoves. First, FD stoves emerge as the superior IC technology, reducing plume zone BC concentration by a factor of 4 (compared to 1.5 for ND). Indoor cooking-time BC concentrations, which varied from 50 to 1000 μg m^–3 for the traditional mud cookstove, were reduced to 5–100 μg m^–3 by the top-performing FD stove. Second, BC reductions from IC models in the same technology category vary significantly: for example, some ND models occasionally emit more BC than a traditional cookstove. Within the ND class, only microgasification stoves were effective in reducing BC. Third, BC concentration varies significantly for repeated cooking cycles with same stove (standard deviation up to 50% of mean concentration) even in a standardized setup, highlighting inherent uncertainties in cookstove performance. Fourth, use of mixed fuel (reflective of local practices) increases plume zone BC concentration (compared to hardwood) by a factor of 2 to 3 across ICs

Acute liver injury induced by weight-loss herbal supplements

We report three cases of patients with acute liver injury induced by weight-loss herbal supplements. One patient took Hydroxycut while the other two took Herbalife supplements. Liver biopsies for all patients demonstrated findings consistent with drug-induced acute liver injury. To our knowledge, we are the first institute to report acute liver injury from both of these two types of weight-loss herbal supplements together as a case series. The series emphasizes the importance of taking a cautious approach when consuming herbal supplements for the purpose of weight loss