LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
The federated scheduling of systems of conditional sporadic DAG tasks

A federated approach to the multiprocessor scheduling of systems of independent recurrent tasks is considered, in which each task is either restricted to execute preemptively upon a single processor, or may execute upon multiple processors but gets exclusive access to all these processors. Efficient polynomial-time algorithms are derived here for the federated schedulability analysis and run-time scheduling of recurrent task systems that are represented by the conditional sporadic DAG tasks model. The performance of these algorithms is characterized via a speedup factor metric, which quantifies the combined cost of both restricting oneself to the federated scheduling paradigm, and of requiring the scheduling algorithms to run in polynomial time.
Indigenous Health and Socioeconomic Status in India

BACKGROUND
Systematic evidence on the patterns of health deprivation among indigenous peoples remains scant in developing countries. We investigate the inequalities in mortality and substance use between indigenous and non-indigenous, and within indigenous, groups in India, with an aim to establishing the relative contribution of socioeconomic status in generating health inequalities.


METHODS AND FINDINGS
Cross-sectional population-based data were obtained from the 1998-1999 Indian National Family Health Survey. Mortality, smoking, chewing tobacco use, and alcohol use were four separate binary outcomes in our analysis. Indigenous status in the context of India was operationalized through the Indian government category of scheduled tribes, or Adivasis, which refers to people living in tribal communities characterized by distinctive social, cultural, historical, and geographical circumstances.Indigenous groups experience excess mortality compared to non-indigenous groups, even after adjusting for economic standard of living (odds ratio 1.22; 95% confidence interval 1.13-1.30). They are also more likely to smoke and (especially) drink alcohol, but the prevalence of chewing tobacco is not substantially different between indigenous and non-indigenous groups. There are substantial health variations within indigenous groups, such that indigenous peoples in the bottom quintile of the indigenous-peoples-specific standard of living index have an odds ratio for mortality of 1.61 (95% confidence interval 1.33-1.95) compared to indigenous peoples in the top fifth of the wealth distribution. Smoking, drinking alcohol, and chewing tobacco also show graded associations with socioeconomic status within indigenous groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Socioeconomic status differentials substantially account for the health inequalities between indigenous and non-indigenous groups in India. However, a strong socioeconomic gradient in health is also evident within indigenous populations, reiterating the overall importance of socioeconomic status for reducing population-level health disparities, regardless of indigeneity.
Recovering Shading from Color Images

Existing shape-from-shading algorithms assume constant reflectance across the shaded surface. Multi-colored surfaces are excluded because both shading and reflectance affect the measured image intensity. Given a standard RGB color image, we describe a method of eliminating the reflectance effects in order to calculate a shading field that depends only on the relative positions of the illuminant and surface. Of course, shading recovery is closely tied to lightness recovery and our method follows from the work of Land [10, 9], Horn [7] and Blake [1]. In the luminance image, R+G+B, shading and reflectance are confounded. Reflectance changes are located and removed from the luminance image by thresholding the gradient of its logarithm at locations of abrupt chromaticity change. Thresholding can lead to gradient fields which are not conservative (do not have zero curl everywhere and are not integrable) and therefore do not represent realizable shading fields. By applying a new curl-correction technique at the thresholded locations, the thresholding is improved and the gradient fields are forced to be conservative. The resulting Poisson equation is solved directly by the Fourier transform method. Experiments with real images are presented.
Device and circuit-level performance of carbon nanotube field-effect transistor with benchmarking against a nano-MOSFET

The performance of a semiconducting carbon nanotube (CNT) is assessed and tabulated for parameters against those of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). Both CNT and MOSFET models considered agree well with the trends in the available experimental data. The results obtained show that nanotubes can significantly reduce the drain-induced barrier lowering effect and subthreshold swing in silicon channel replacement while sustaining smaller channel area at higher current density. Performance metrics of both devices such as current drive strength, current on-off ratio (Ion/Ioff), energy-delay product, and power-delay product for logic gates, namely NAND and NOR, are presented. Design rules used for carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs) are compatible with the 45-nm MOSFET technology. The parasitics associated with interconnects are also incorporated in the model. Interconnects can affect the propagation delay in a CNTFET. Smaller length interconnects result in higher cutoff frequency.
Optical characterization of fullerene films on flat and patterned semiconductor substrates

Abstract Comprehensive optical characterization of C 60 films on semiconductor substrates has been performed by means of ellipsometry, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The films have been prepared by the sublimation of C 60 in vacuum. The morphology of these films and the C 60 –substrate interaction were investigated by atomic force microscopy. Both flat and patterned wafers of Si, Ge, and InP have been used as substrates. It was found formerly that the strong interaction occurs between C 60 molecules and Si surface, and the C 60 films on patterned InP surface grow with grains arrayed in [0 1 1] and [1 0 1] perpendicular directions. Initial optical characterization was performed by means of ellipsometry to determine thickness and optical constants of the films. Raman spectra have been measured at room temperature under argon laser excitation. It was shown to be very useful for structural characterization and estimation of stress. Observed increase of Raman signal from patterned samples and its possible connection with surface enhanced Raman scattering effect are under discussion. Raman spectra and low temperature photoluminescence provide information on dimer formation and polymerization.
School readiness of children with language impairment: predicting literacy skills from pre-literacy and social-behavioural dimensions.

BACKGROUND
School readiness generally captures the notion that children do best when they arrive at formal schooling with a certain threshold of skill that will help them thrive in the classroom's academic and social milieu.


AIMS
To examine the dimensionality of the construct of school readiness among children with language impairment (LI), as well as the extent to which these dimensions relate to children's end-of-kindergarten literacy skills.


METHODS & PROCEDURES
Participants were 136 preschool-aged children with LI. Children were assessed on measures of pre-literacy, social, and behavioural skills in preschool and reading and spelling in kindergarten.


OUTCOMES & RESULTS
Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that school readiness for this sample of children with LI is best characterized as two dimensions: pre-literacy and socio-emotional. Of the two dimensions, pre-literacy readiness was predictive of children's future performance in reading and spelling.


CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS
The results further our theoretical understanding of the dimensions of school readiness, as well as our knowledge of how these skills are related among children with LI. Identifying domain-specific readiness skills that are predictive of kindergarten success can help to identify means of early assessment and targets for speech-language intervention.
Context-Aware Wrapping: Synchronized Data Extraction

The deep Web presents a pressing need for integrating large numbers of dynamically evolving data sources. To be more automatic yet accurate in building an integration system, we observe two problems: First, across sequential tasks in integration, how can a wrapper (as an extraction task) consider the peer sources to facilitate the subsequent matching task? Second, across parallel sources, how can a wrapper leverage the peer wrappers or domain rules to enhance extraction accuracy? These issues, while seemingly unrelated, both boil down to the lack of “context awareness”: Current automatic wrapper induction approaches generate a wrapper for one source at a time, in isolation, and thus inherently lack the awareness of the peer sources or domain knowledge in the context of integration. We propose the concept of context-aware wrappers that are amenable to matching and that can leverage peer wrappers or prior domain knowledge. Such context awareness inspires a synchronization framework to construct wrappers consistently and collaboratively across their mutual context. We draw the insight from turbo codes and develop the turbo syncer to interconnect extraction with matching, which together achieve context awareness in wrapping. Our experiments show that the turbo syncer can, on the one hand, enhance extraction consistency and thus increase matching accuracy (from 17-83% to 78-94% in F-measure) and, on the other hand, incorporate peer wrappers and domain knowledge seamlessly to reduce extraction errors (from 09-60% to 01-11%).
Quasar Enterprise - Anwendungslandschaften serviceorientiert gestalten

Der Beitrag stellt mit Quasar Enterprise einen durchgängigen, serviceorientierten Ansatz zur Gestaltung großer Anwendungslandschaften vor. Er verwendet ein Architektur-Framework zur Strukturierung der methodischen Schritte und führt ein Domänenmodell zur Präzisierung der Begrifflichkeiten und Entwicklungsartefakte ein. Die dargestellten methodischen Bausteine und Richtlinien beruhen auf langjährigen Erfahrungen in der industriellen Softwareentwicklung. 1 Motivation und Hintergrund sd&m beschäftigt sich seit seiner Gründung vor 25 Jahren mit dem Bau von individuellen Anwendungssystemen. Als konsolidierte Grundlage der Arbeit in diesem Bereich wurde Quasar (Quality Software Architecture) entwickelt – die sd&m StandardArchitektur für betriebliche Informationssysteme [Si04]. Quasar dient sd&m als Referenz für seine Disziplin des Baus einzelner Anwendungen. Seit einigen Jahren beschäftigt sich sd&m im Auftrag seiner Kunden mehr und mehr mit Fragestellungen auf der Ebene ganzer Anwendungslandschaften. Das Spektrum reicht von IT-Beratung zur Unternehmensarchitektur, über die Systemintegration querschnittlicher technischer, aber auch dedizierter fachlicher COTS-Produkte bis hin zum Bau einzelner großer Anwendungssysteme auf eine Art und Weise, dass eine perfekte Passung in eine moderne Anwendungslandschaft gegeben ist. Zur Abdeckung dieses breiten Spektrums an Aufgaben wurde eine neue Disziplin zur Gestaltung von Anwendungslandschaften benötigt. sd&m entwickelte hierzu eine neue Referenz – Quasar Enterprise – ein Quasar auf Unternehmensebene.
Semantic integration during metaphor comprehension in Asperger syndrome

Previous research indicates severe disabilities in processing figurative language in people diagnosed on the autism spectrum disorders. However, this aspect of language comprehension in Asperger syndrome (AS) specifically has rarely been the subject of formal study. The present study aimed to examine the possibility that in addition to their pragmatic deficits, the difficulties in the comprehension of metaphors in AS may be explained by deficient linguistic information processing. Specifically, we aimed to examine whether a deficient semantic integration process underlies the difficulties in metaphor comprehension frequently experienced by persons with AS. The semantic integration process of sixteen AS participants and sixteen matched controls was examined using event related potentials (ERPs). N400 amplitude served as an index for degree of effort invested in the semantic integration process of two-word expressions denoting literal, conventional metaphoric, and novel metaphoric meaning, as well as unrelated word pairs. Large N400 amplitudes for both novel and conventional metaphors demonstrated the greater difficulties in metaphor comprehension in the AS participants as compared to controls. Findings suggest that differences in linguistic information processing cause difficulties in metaphor comprehension in AS.
Time to treatment and the impact of a physician on prehospital management of acute ST elevation myocardial infarction: insights from the ASSENT-3 PLUS trial.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the impact of variation in prehospital care across distinct health care environments in ASSENT (assessment of the safety and efficacy of a new thrombolytic) -3 PLUS, a large (n = 1639) contemporary multicentred international trial of prehospital fibrinolysis. Specifically, the objectives were to assess predictors of time to treatment, whether components of time to treatment vary across countries, and the impact of physician presence before hospitalisation on time to treatment, adherence to protocol, and clinical events.


METHODS
Patient characteristics associated with early treatment (< or = 2 hours), comparison of international variation in time to treatment, and components of delay were assessed. Trial specific patient data were linked with site specific survey responses.


RESULTS
Younger age, slower heart rate, lower systolic blood pressure, and prior percutaneous coronary intervention were associated with early treatment. Country of origin accounted for the largest proportion of variation in time. Intercountry heterogeneity was shown in components of elapsed time to treatment. Physicians in the prehospital setting enrolled 63.8% of patients. The presence of a physician was associated with greater adherence to protocol mandated treatments and procedures but with delay in time to treatment (120 v 108 minutes, p < 0.001).


CONCLUSION
Country of enrollment accounted for the largest proportion of variation in time to treatment and intercountry heterogeneity modulated components of delay. The effectiveness and safety of prehospital fibrinolysis was not influenced by the presence of a physician. These data, acquired in diverse health care environments, provide new understanding into the components of prehospital treatment delay and the opportunities to further reduce time to fibrinolysis for patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction.
THE ARITHMETIC OF ELLIPTIC CURVES—AN UPDATE

We survey the progress that has been made on the arithmetic of elliptic curves in the past twenty-five years, with particular attention to the questions highlighted in Tate’s 1974 Inventiones paper.
Diagnosis of neglected tropical diseases among patients with persistent digestive disorders (diarrhoea and/or abdominal pain ≥14 days): Pierrea multi-country, prospective, non-experimental case–control study

BACKGROUND
Diarrhoea still accounts for considerable mortality and morbidity worldwide. The highest burden is concentrated in tropical areas where populations lack access to clean water, adequate sanitation and hygiene. In contrast to acute diarrhoea (<14 days), the spectrum of pathogens that may give rise to persistent diarrhoea (≥14 days) and persistent abdominal pain is poorly understood. It is conceivable that pathogens causing neglected tropical diseases play a major role, but few studies investigated this issue. Clinical management and diagnostic work-up of persistent digestive disorders in the tropics therefore remain inadequate. Hence, important aspects regarding the pathogenesis, epidemiology, clinical symptomatology and treatment options for patients presenting with persistent diarrhoea and persistent abdominal pain should be investigated in multi-centric clinical studies.


METHODS/DESIGN
This multi-country, prospective, non-experimental case-control study will assess persistent diarrhoea (≥14 days; in individuals aged ≥1 year) and persistent abdominal pain (≥14 days; in children/adolescents aged 1-18 years) in up to 2000 symptomatic patients and 2000 matched controls. Subjects from Côte d'Ivoire, Indonesia, Mali and Nepal will be clinically examined and interviewed using a detailed case report form. Additionally, each participant will provide a stool sample that will be examined using a suite of diagnostic methods (i.e., microscopic techniques, rapid diagnostic tests, stool culture and polymerase chain reaction) for the presence of bacterial and parasitic pathogens. Treatment will be offered to all infected participants and the clinical treatment response will be recorded. Data obtained will be utilised to develop patient-centred clinical algorithms that will be validated in primary health care centres in the four study countries in subsequent studies.


DISCUSSION
Our research will deepen the understanding of the importance of persistent diarrhoea and related digestive disorders in the tropics. A diversity of intestinal pathogens will be assessed for potential associations with persistent diarrhoea and persistent abdominal pain. Different diagnostic methods will be compared, clinical symptoms investigated and diagnosis-treatment algorithms developed for validation in selected primary health care centres. The findings from this study will improve differential diagnosis and evidence-based clinical management of digestive syndromes in the tropics.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov; identifier: NCT02105714 .
Effectiveness of sensor-augmented pump therapy in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in the STAR 3 study.

OBJECTIVE
Maintenance of appropriate A1C values and minimization of hyperglycemic excursions are difficult for many pediatric patients with type 1 diabetes. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensor-augmented pump (SAP) therapy is an alternative to multiple daily injection (MDI) therapy in this population.


RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Sensor-augmented pump therapy for A1C reduction (STAR 3) was a 1-yr trial that included 82 children (aged 7-12) and 74 adolescents (aged 13-18) with A1C values ranging from 7.4 to 9.5% who were randomized to either SAP or MDI therapy. Quarterly A1C values were obtained from all subjects. CGM studies were carried out at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months to quantify glycemic excursions [calculated as area under the glucose concentration-time curve (AUC)] and variability. In the SAP group, sensor compliance was recorded.


RESULTS
Baseline A1C values were similar in subjects randomized to the SAP (8.26 ± 0.55%) and MDI groups (8.30 ± 0.53%). All subsequent A1C values showed significant (p < 0.05) treatment group differences favoring SAP therapy. Compared with the MDI group, subjects in the SAP group were more likely to meet age-specific A1C targets and had lower AUC values for hyperglycemia with no increased risk of hypoglycemia. Glucose variability improved in the SAP group compared to the MDI group. Children wore CGM sensors more often and were more likely to reach age-specific A1C targets than adolescents.


CONCLUSIONS
SAP therapy allows both children and adolescents with marginally or inadequately controlled type 1 diabetes to reduce A1C values, hyperglycemic excursions, and glycemic variability in a rapid, sustainable, and safe manner.
56-Gb/s direct modulation in InGaAlAs BH-DFB lasers at 55°C

Direct modulation at 56 Gb/s of 1.3-μm InGaAlAs-MQW DFB laser, incorporating a ridge-shaped buried heterostructure (RS-BH), operating at 55°C, is experimentally demonstrated for the first time.
eWOM source credibility, perceived risk and food product customer's information adoption

This study examined the relations between source credibility of eWOM (electronic word of mouth), perceived risk and food products customer's information adoption mediated by argument quality and information usefulness. eWOM has been commonly used to refer the customers during decision-making process for food commodities. Based on this study, we used Elaboration Likelihood Model of information adoption presented by Sussman and Siegal (2003) to check the willingness to buy. Non-probability purposive samples of 300 active participants were taken through questionnaire from several regions of the Republic of China and analyzed the data through structural equation modeling (SEM) accordingly. We discussed that whether eWOM source credibility and perceived risk would impact the degree of information adoption through argument quality and information usefulness. It reveals that eWOM has positively influenced on perceived risk by source credibility to the extent of information adoption and, for this, customers use eWOM for the reduction of the potential hazards when decision making. Companies can make their marketing strategies according to their target towards loyal clients' needs through online foodproduct forums review sites. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Baseline potency in candidates for bilateral nerve-sparing radical retropubic prostatectomy.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the baseline erectile function (EF) of patients with clinically localized prostate cancer (pCa), who are candidates for a bilateral nerve-sparing radical retropubic prostatectomy (BNSRRP) to (a) objectively rate the preoperative self-reported subjective patient's EF and (b) investigate possible correlations between preoperative EF and demographic data and comorbidities.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two-hundred-thirty-four patients, who verbally self-reported they were preoperatively fully potent and strongly motivated to maintain postoperative EF, underwent a BNSRRP. A comprehensive medical and sexual history was obtained on hospital admission the day prior to surgery. Subjectively reported potency rate was compared with the scores of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF).


RESULTS
The EF domain of the IIEF showed a baseline normal EF in only 43% of the subjects. In contrast, 13% had a mild erectile dysfunction (ED), 8% had a mild to moderate ED, 8% complained of a moderate ED, and as many as 28% reported severe EF impairment. Interestingly, 38% of the patients with severe ED did not attempt any intercourse during the last 4 weeks prior to surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
A significant proportion of patients with clinically localized pCa and self-reported total potency already had suffered from ED preoperatively. Incorrect timing of questionnaires administration, the potential influence of preoperative patient's psychological distress, and the implication of the patient's partner's psychological and sexual health may be contributing factors to the contradictory finding. The preoperative use of validated questionnaire may help to identify patients who can actually expect to regain potency following a BNSRRP.
Conflict management based on belief function entropy in sensor fusion

Wireless sensor network plays an important role in intelligent navigation. It incorporates a group of sensors to overcome the limitation of single detection system. Dempster-Shafer evidence theory can combine the sensor data of the wireless sensor network by data fusion, which contributes to the improvement of accuracy and reliability of the detection system. However, due to different sources of sensors, there may be conflict among the sensor data under uncertain environment. Thus, this paper proposes a new method combining Deng entropy and evidence distance to address the issue. First, Deng entropy is adopted to measure the uncertain information. Then, evidence distance is applied to measure the conflict degree. The new method can cope with conflict effectually and improve the accuracy and reliability of the detection system. An example is illustrated to show the efficiency of the new method and the result is compared with that of the existing methods.