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Word embedding is a technique for representing words as vectors in a way that captures their semantic and syntactic relationships. The processing time of one of the most popular word embedding technique Word2vec is very large due to the huge data size. We evaluate the performance of a power-efficient FPGA-based accelerator designed using OpenCL. We achieved up to 18.7 times speed-up compared to single-core CPU implementation with the same accuracy. The proposed accelerator consumes less than 83 W of power and it is the most power-efficient one compared to many top-end CPU and GPU-based accelerators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) improves prognosis in patients with heart failure (HF) however the role of ABO blood groups and Rhesus factor are poorly understood. We hypothesise that blood groups may influence clinical and survival outcomes in HF patients undergoing CRT. A total of 499 patients with HF who fulfilled the criteria for CRT implantation were included. Primary outcome of all-cause mortality and/or heart transplant/left ventricular assist device was assessed over a median follow-up of 4.6 years (IQR 2.3–7.5). Online repositories were searched to provide biological context to the identified associations. Patients were divided into blood (O, A, B, and AB) and Rhesus factor (Rh-positive and Rh-negative) groups. Mean patient age was 66.4 ± 12.8 years with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 29 ± 11%. There were no baseline differences in age, gender, and cardioprotective medication. In a Cox proportional hazard multivariate model, only Rh-negative blood group was associated with a significant survival benefit (HR 0.68 [0.47–0.98], p = 0.040). No association was observed for the ABO blood group (HR 0.97 [0.76–1.23], p = 0.778). No significant interaction was observed with prevention, disease aetiology, and presence of defibrillator. Rhesus-related genes were associated with erythrocyte and platelet function, and cholesterol and glycated haemoglobin levels. Four drugs under development targeting RHD were identified (Rozrolimupab, Roledumab, Atorolimumab, and Morolimumab). Rhesus blood type was associated with better survival in HF patients with CRT. Further research into Rhesus-associated pathways and related drugs, namely whether there is a cardiac signal, is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shear strength mainly affects the compressive strength of wood and the performance of the wood joint connections. Most studies of failure modes of wood have only focused on bending and tensile properties. Hence, this study focuses on assessing the shear failure modes in pine (Pinus caribaea) softwood and teak (Tectona grandis) hardwood timber species with two joint types: butt and tongue and groove. Most specimens had fractures with fiber failures and wood grain failures on shear test. According to the shear strength values, butt joints are suitable for softwood and tongue-and-groove joints are more suitable for hardwood. Glue line failures only occur in hardwood species. With regard to butt joint, hardwood timber is difficult to bond than softwood timber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulated quantum annealing (SQA) is a probabilistic approximation method to find a solution for a combinatorial optimization problem using a digital computer. It is possible to simulate large-scale optimization problems on a CPU due to its high external memory capacity. However, the processing time increases exponentially with the number of variables, and parallel implementation is difficult due to the serial nature of the quantum Monte Carlo algorithm used in SQA. In this paper, we propose a method to accelerate SQA on a multicore CPU, based on temporal and spatial parallel processing with high data localization. According to the experimental results using 16-core CPU, we achieved from 8 to 16 times speedup compared to single-core CPU implementations. The proposed method can be used to solve combinatorial optimization problems that have more than 64,000 variables, which was not possible using previous GPU- and FPGA-based accelerators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finger joints are recognized as one of the woodworking techniques which could be used in minimizing timber wastes effectively. Investigation of the finger jointed wood is important for using small timber planks for minimizing the wood waste. Seven wood species mainly used for furniture manufacturing in Sri Lanka, namely Red Grandis, Jack, Kumbuk, Mahogany, Caribbean Pine, Satin and Teak, were employed to evaluate the flexural strength of finger jointed woods. Finger jointed specimens (vertical and horizontal) were made using 13-mm and 19-mm length finger joint cutters. BS 373:1957 (1999) and ASTM D143-21 were used for testing the specimens. Common wood joint failures and flexural properties of seven timber species were identified. According to the results, common failure analysis of the clear specimens included slight demolation at the mid-point, splintering and cross grains. Whereas in finger jointed specimens, splintering and cross grains features were not observed. Slight bending at the mid-point, fracture within the finger joint and glue line failures were identified in finger jointed specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum annealing simulation attracts much attention recently for solving combinatorial optimization problems. FPGA acceleration is a promising way to reduce the huge processing time in quantum annealing simulations. However, the performance of FPGA accelerators is often restricted by the small external memory bandwidth. To solve this problem, we propose a data-transfer-bottleneck-less FPGA-based accelerator for quantum annealing simulation. The proposed architecture is implemented on an FPGA and achieved up to 179 times speed-up compared to single-core CPU implementation. The proposed accelerator is two times faster compared to previous FPGA accelerators, and process up to 262,144 spins, which is not possible in any existing FPGA accelerators due to limited external memory capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finger joint is an established technique to connect small timber pieces in axial direction, creating timber with theoretical infinite length. This study was undertaken to determine the major failure modes and compression strength properties of finger joints in seven Sri Lankan timber species. Two finger lengths (13 mm and 19 mm) were used for experimental analysis on failure modes and compressive tests. Major failure modes of the finger-jointed specimens subjected to compression parallel to grain test are crushing, splitting, shearing and end rolling. Crushing, splitting, and wrinkling are shown in the specimens of compression perpendicular to grain. Significant relationships were observed between density and compression tests of clear and finger-jointed specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finger joint technique is used to eliminate defects in sawn wood planks, since such defects reduce the strength of the planks. This study was, therefore, conducted to find the finger joint configuration that is best suited for seven species of wood, namely Grandis (Eucalyptus grandis) Jack (Artocarpus heterophyllus), Kumbuk (Terminalia arjuna), Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), Pine (Pinus caribaea), Satin (Chloroxylon swietenia) and Teak (Tectona grandis), which are mostly used in Sri Lanka in the manufacture of furniture. The tests were carried out on vertically and horizontally finger-jointed timber samples (with 13 mm and 19 mm finger lengths) made of two sections bonded with an adhesive containing polyvinyl acetate. The variation of the flexural strength of the samples with the orientation and finger length of the samples was studied and the modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) of the samples were also measured. BS 373 (1957) was the standard used for the flexural tests. A universal testing machine (UTM 100 PC) was used for the mechanical tests. Duncan's multiple range test was used at a significant level of 0.05 to separate the means of the MOR's and MOE's measured. The highest MOR and MOE were observed in horizontally oriented wood samples with 19-mm-long fingers. Finger joint manufacturers in Sri Lanka will find the findings of this study useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral cancer due to betel quid chewing habit is very common in South Asian countries. We attempted to detect the presence of a novel gene in epithelial cells stimulated with arecoline, a main component of betel quid. Human gingival epithelial progenitors were cultured and treated with a 3-day alternating regimen with/without 50 μg/ml arecoline for 1 month. DNA microarray and methylation arrays were analyzed to identify the candidate genes. Immunohistochemical staining was performed in the tissue samples. Genome-wide analyses, quantitative reverse transcription PCR and quantitative methylation-specific PCR revealed DUSP4 as the most significant and promising gene. The methylation levels of DUSP4 were significantly higher in the betel quid-related oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) than those in the non-related OSCC and controls (Mann–Whitney U test, p < 0.05). The number of DUSP4 immunopositive cells in betel quid-related OSCC was significantly higher than those from the non-chewing patients and the controls (p < 0.05). Hypermethylation of DUSP4 may be considered as a specific event in betel quid-related oral cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Quantum annealing (QA) is a method to find the global optimum for a combinatorial optimization problem by using quantum fluctuations. QA can be simulated on a computer using quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation of the Ising model, while sacrificing a huge processing time. It has been shown that the processing time of QMC simulation on a CPU scales similarly to that of QA on the D-wave 2X quantum annealer, although the latter is over 10 8 times faster than the former. However, large problems should be partitioned into sub-problems and solved separately, and this reduces the processing speed of the quantum annealer. Since the access to a quantum annealer is also limited, acceleration of QA simulations using conventional computers is regarded as a very important topic. If we can reduce the huge computational time, it is possible to use QA simulations to solve combinatorial optimization problems. We propose an FPGA accelerator for QA simulations designed using "open computing language." We achieved up to 12.6 times speed-up for single FPGA implementation and 23.8 times speed-up for two-FPGA implementation compared to a CPU. We also achieved over 9-times large energy efficiency compared to a CPU-based system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of Review: The roles of the components of betel quid in oral carcinogenesis remain unclear. The purpose of the present review is to highlight the effect of each component of betel quid and to discuss the synergistic effects of other carcinogens along with betel quid in the development of oral cancer in habitual betel quid chewers. Recent Findings: Betel quid may synergistically participate in carcinogenesis by disrupting the compositions of oral microbiota, accompanied by endotoxins secretion and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Microbiome dysbiosis mediated by synergistic effects of betel quid chewing, smoking, and alcohol drinking is possibly linked to oral carcinogenesis, which is firstly discussed in this report. Summary: Betel quid and other carcinogenic components, mainly contribute to downregulate the antioxidant proteins and lead to the induction of ROS. The elimination of ROS may prove most effective chemoprevention for betel quid-mediated oral carcinogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Betel-quid chewing, which is closely related to the high incidence of oral cancer, is prevalent in Sri Lanka. p63 has a remarkable structural similarity to p53, suggesting an aberrant expression in oral cancer. Using anti-p63 antibody and immunohistochemistry, the present study investigated the expression pattern of p63 in oral epithelial lesions, including different types of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), different grades of epithelial dysplasia, and submucosal fibrosis associated with betel-quid chewing. Nuclear immunoreactivity for p63 was detected in all the cases, including normal oral epithelium and epithelial lesions. In normal oral epithelium, nuclear positivity for p63 was observed in some of the basal cell layers and focally in the parabasal layer. Nuclear positivity increased in the epithelial lesions. The percentage of positive nuclei in the epithelial lesions was significantly higher than in normal epithelium ( P < 0.01) and was also significantly higher in oral submucosal fibrosis than in epithelial dysplasia ( P < 0.05). The results indicate that the overexpression of p63 in oral precancerous lesions and SCC in betel-quid chewers in Sri Lanka may be a useful marker for oral precancerous lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost a third of patients fulfilling current guidelines criteria have suboptimal responses following cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Circulating biomarkers may help identify these patients. We aimed to assess the predictive role of full blood count (FBC) parameters in prognosis of heart failure (HF) patients undergoing CRT device implantation. We enrolled 612 consecutive CRT patients and FBC was measured within 24 hours prior to implantation. The follow-up period was a median of 1652 days (IQR: 837–2612). The study endpoints were i) composite of all-cause mortality or transplant, and ii) reverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling. On multivariate analysis [hazard ratio (HR), 95% confidence interval (CI)] only red cell count (RCC) (p = 0.004), red cell distribution width (RDW) (p < 0.001), percentage of lymphocytes (p = 0.03) and platelet count (p < 0.001) predicted all-cause mortality. Interestingly, RDW (p = 0.004) and platelet count (p = 0.008) were independent predictors of reverse LV remodeling. This is the first powered single-centre study to demonstrate that RDW and platelet count are independent predictors of long-term all-cause mortality and/or heart transplant in CRT patients. Further studies, on the role of these parameters in enhancing patient selection for CRT implantation should be conducted to confirm our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]