diff --git a/main_with_runtime.py b/main_with_runtime.py
index 9744817..39b8c50 100644
--- a/main_with_runtime.py
+++ b/main_with_runtime.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 from optim import adamw
 from optim import nadamw
 
-parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='PyTorch ImageNet Training')
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='AsyncPP Language Model Training')
 parser.add_argument('--data_dir', '-dd', type=str, default='~/data',
                     help='path to dataset')
 parser.add_argument('--dataset_name', '-d', type=str,
@@ -257,7 +257,8 @@ def main():
         'stage_to_depth_map': None
     }
     if args.config_path is not None:
-        json_config_file = json.load(open(args.config_path, 'r'))
+        with open(args.config_path, 'r') as f:
+            json_config_file = json.load(f)
         configuration_maps['module_to_stage_map'] = json_config_file.get("module_to_stage_map", None)
         configuration_maps['stage_to_rank_map'] = json_config_file.get("stage_to_rank_map", None)
         configuration_maps['stage_to_rank_map'] = {
@@ -318,7 +319,7 @@ def main():
         checkpoint_file_path = "%s.%d.pth.tar" % (args.resume, r.stage)
         assert os.path.isfile(checkpoint_file_path)
         print("=> loading checkpoint '{}'".format(checkpoint_file_path))
-        checkpoint = torch.load(checkpoint_file_path)
+        checkpoint = torch.load(checkpoint_file_path, weights_only=False)
         args.start_epoch = checkpoint['epoch']
         best_loss = checkpoint['best_loss']
         r.load_state_dict(checkpoint['state_dict'])
diff --git a/optim/__init__.py b/optim/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/optim/optimizer.py b/optim/optimizer.py
index 8db279e..ca564aa 100644
--- a/optim/optimizer.py
+++ b/optim/optimizer.py
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def append_to_queue(self, data):
     def get_from_queue(self, index):
         if self.save_dir is not None:
             fname = self.queue[index]
-            d = torch.load(fname)
+            d = torch.load(fname, weights_only=False)
             return d["state_dicts"], d["version"]
         else:
             return self.queue[index]
diff --git a/run.bash b/run.bash
index e54e1d7..d87df30 100644
--- a/run.bash
+++ b/run.bash
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ done
 wait
 
 # gpipe
-basecmdstr="python sync_main.py $model $batch -d $d $dd --master_addr localhost --distributed_backend nccl 
+basecmdstr="python sync_main.py $model $batch -d $d --master_addr localhost --distributed_backend nccl
 $lr $epochs $minibatches $cg $logtb --recompute --lr_policy cosine --optimizer adamw"
 
 # gpipe
diff --git a/runtime/__init__.py b/runtime/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/runtime/threadsafe_queue.py b/runtime/threadsafe_queue.py
index fae3c10..7c32775 100644
--- a/runtime/threadsafe_queue.py
+++ b/runtime/threadsafe_queue.py
@@ -2,13 +2,14 @@
 # Licensed under the MIT license.
 
 import threading
+from collections import deque
 
 """
 Implementation of a thread-safe queue with one producer and one consumer.
 """
 class Queue:
     def __init__(self):
-        self.queue = []
+        self.queue = deque()
         self.cv = threading.Condition()
 
     def add(self, tensor):
@@ -21,6 +22,6 @@ def remove(self):
         self.cv.acquire()
         while len(self.queue) == 0:
             self.cv.wait()
-        tensor = self.queue.pop(0)
+        tensor = self.queue.popleft()
         self.cv.release()
         return tensor
diff --git a/sync_main.py b/sync_main.py
index 708d0f8..bb2cfe5 100644
--- a/sync_main.py
+++ b/sync_main.py
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
 from data_utils import ShakespeareDataset, WikiTextDataset, OpenWebTextDataset, BookCorpusDataset, DataUtil
 from transformers import AutoTokenizer
 
-parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='PyTorch ImageNet Training')
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='AsyncPP Sync Baseline Training')
 parser.add_argument('--data_dir', '-dd', type=str, default='~/data',
                     help='path to dataset')
 parser.add_argument('--dataset_name', '-d', type=str,
@@ -300,7 +300,8 @@ def main():
         'stage_to_depth_map': None
     }
     if args.config_path is not None:
-        json_config_file = json.load(open(args.config_path, 'r'))
+        with open(args.config_path, 'r') as f:
+            json_config_file = json.load(f)
         configuration_maps['module_to_stage_map'] = json_config_file.get("module_to_stage_map", None)
         configuration_maps['stage_to_rank_map'] = json_config_file.get("stage_to_rank_map", None)
         configuration_maps['stage_to_rank_map'] = {
@@ -369,7 +370,7 @@ def main():
         checkpoint_file_path = "%s.%d.pth.tar" % (args.resume, args.stage)
         assert os.path.isfile(checkpoint_file_path)
         print("=> loading checkpoint '{}'".format(checkpoint_file_path))
-        checkpoint = torch.load(checkpoint_file_path)
+        checkpoint = torch.load(checkpoint_file_path, weights_only=False)
         args.start_epoch = checkpoint['epoch']
         best_loss = checkpoint['best_loss']
         pp_stage.submod.load_state_dict(checkpoint['state_dict'])