Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance Evaluation of Parallel Programming in Virtual Machine Environment

As multi-core processors become increasingly mainstream, architects have likewise become more interested in how best to make use of the computing capacity of the CPU, for instance, through multiple simultaneous threads or processes of execution with OpenMP or MPI. At the same time, the increasingly mature and prevailing virtualization technique in server consolidation and HPC promotes the emergence of a large number of virtual SMP servers. Therefore, whether the parallel program can run in the virtual machine environment efficiently or not is a topic of concern. In this paper, we investigate the performance of three typical parallel programming paradigms, including OpenMP, MPI, and Hybrid of OpenMP and MPI in the popular, open-source, Xen virtualization system. The results show that the performance of the traditional parallel program in Xen VMs is close to it in native, non-virtualized environment, if there is little communication or synchronization between threads or processes. In most cases, without excessive IO access, we can get an ideal speedup in a SMP VM or virtual cluster, which is close to linearity when the total virtual CPUs (vCPUs) number is not larger than the number of Physical CPUs (pCPUs). And the pure MPI implementation shows the best scalability and stability in virtual machine environment compared with the other two paradigms.
Induced Brain Plasticity after a Facilitation Programme for Autobiographical Memory in Multiple Sclerosis: A Preliminary Study

This preliminary study tackles the assessment and treatment of autobiographical memory (AbM) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RR-MS) patients. Our aim was to investigate cerebral activation changes, following clinical improvement of AbM due to a cognitive training based on mental visual imagery (MVI). We assessed AbM using the Autobiographical Interview (AI) in eight patients and 15 controls. The latter subjects established normative data. The eight patients showed selective defective performance on the AI. Four patients were trained cognitively and underwent pre- and post-AI and fMRI. The remaining four patients took a second AI, at the same interval, but with no intervention in between. Results showed a significant improvement of AbM performance after the facilitation programme that could not be explained by learning effects since the AI scores remained stable between the two assessments in the second group of patients. As expected, AbM improvement was accompanied by an increased cerebral activity in posterior cerebral regions in post-facilitation fMRI examination. We interpret this activation changes in terms of reflecting the emphasis made on the role of MVI in memory retrieval through the facilitation programme. These preliminary significant clinical and neuroimaging changes suggest the beneficial effects of this technique to alleviate AbM retrieval deficit in MS patients.
Advertising and societies : global issues

Now in its second edition, Advertising and Societies: Global Issues provides an international perspective on the practice of advertising while examining some of the ethical and social ramifications of advertising in global societies. The book illustrates how issues such as the representation of women and minorities in ads, advertising and children, and advertising in the digital era have relevance to a wider global community. This new edition has been updated to reflect the dramatic changes impacting the field of advertising that have taken place since publication of the first edition. The growing importance of emerging markets is discussed, and new photos are included. The book provides students and scholars with a comprehensive review of the literature on advertising and society and uses practical examples from international media to document how global advertising and global consumer culture operate, making it an indispensable research tool and invaluable for classroom use.
Factors That Affect Energy Efficiency and Indirect Response of Selection for Efficiency on Related Traits

© 2012 Manafiazar et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Factors That Affect Energy Efficiency and Indirect Response of Selection for Efficiency on Related Traits
Skills audit of refugees

This research, which involved the largest ever skills audit of refugees undertaken in the UK, aimed to explore the skills and qualifications of refugees in the UK. The research was conducted by the Immigration Research and Statistics Service of the Home Office. This skills audit has shown that the asylum applicants who were granted leave to remain in the UK during winter 2002/03 were from a variety of backgrounds with a variety of skills and qualifications. Overall, the occupational groups and economic activity rates of the respondents to this survey were similar to those of the UK population, however these, together with language skills and qualifications held, vary a great deal between the different countries of origin of the respondents. The findings clearly illustrate the diversity within the refugee community and show marked differences between nationalities in levels of language skill, qualifications and experiences of employment. Furthermore, amongst some nationalities at least, there seem to be significant differences in the skills and employment profiles of men and women. The skills audit demonstrates that many refugees have valuable skills and experience which can benefit the UK. Increased awareness of this could help to change public perceptions, foster community cohesion and aid integration. It is hoped that the report will also be a useful tool for practitioners and policy-makers in the statutory, further education and voluntary sectors who are involved with helping refugees into sustainable jobs and assisting their integration.
Can fluctuations in the consumption-wealth ratio help to predict exchange rates?

It is accepted that standard macroeconomic variables are not capable of predicting ex ante the majority of short term changes in exchange rates. Lettau and Ludvigson (2001) find that fluctuations in the common long-term trend in consumption, asset wealth, and labour income (hereby, consumption-wealth ratio) is a strong predictor of the excess returns. This study examines the role of the consumption-wealth ratio in predicting the change in the nominal exchange rate for seven industrialized economies. Evidence is found that fluctuations in the consumption wealth ratio help to predict in-sample all currencies. Out-of-sample, the results suggest that the consumption wealth ratio may play a significant role forecasting the Canadian dollar.
The shortest path to happiness: recommending beautiful, quiet, and happy routes in the city

When providing directions to a place, web and mobile mapping services are all able to suggest the shortest route. The goal of this work is to automatically suggest routes that are not only short but also emotionally pleasant. To quantify the extent to which urban locations are pleasant, we use data from a crowd-sourcing platform that shows two street scenes in London (out of hundreds), and a user votes on which one looks more beautiful, quiet, and happy. We consider votes from more than 3.3K individuals and translate them into quantitative measures of location perceptions. We arrange those locations into a graph upon which we learn pleasant routes. Based on a quantitative validation, we find that, compared to the shortest routes, the recommended ones add just a few extra walking minutes and are indeed perceived to be more beautiful, quiet, and happy. To test the generality of our approach, we consider Flickr metadata of more than 3.7M pictures in London and 1.3M in Boston, compute proxies for the crowdsourced beauty dimension (the one for which we have collected the most votes), and evaluate those proxies with 30 participants in London and 54 in Boston. These participants have not only rated our recommendations but have also carefully motivated their choices, providing insights for future work.
Diagnosis of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Bihar India: Comparison of the rK39 Rapid Diagnostic Test on Whole Blood Versus Serum

Background Antibody-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) against rK39 are available to aid in the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Although these rK39 RDTs have been developed, validated and approved for use with serum, they are universally performed using whole blood. It was therefore necessary to determine whether this RDT is as sensitive on whole blood as on serum. Method and Principal Findings In this study we compared the rK39 RDT on serum and blood samples from 624 individuals with symptoms of VL attending the outpatient clinic at the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India. A total of 251 cases (40%) were both serum and blood-positive and 26 cases (4%) were identified as blood-negative and serum-positive. These 26 individuals in general had low titer antibodies against rK39 as determined by ELISA and follow-up on most of these individuals revealed none had persistent VL symptoms. The Cohen kappa index comparing blood and serum was 0.88 indicating excellent concordance. Conclusion Although the concordance was excellent, it is possible to miss rK39 positive individuals when using blood and the titer of anti-rK39 antibodies is low. We recommend that when an individual from an endemic area has obvious clinical symptoms of VL and the whole blood rK39 RDT is negative, that the test should be redone 2–3 weeks later if the symptoms persist.
Uncovering indicators of effective school management in South Africa using the National School Effectiveness Study

For many poor South African children, who are predominantly located in the historically disadvantaged part of the school system, the ongoing low quality of education acts as a poverty trap by precluding them from achieving the level of educational outcomes necessary to be competitive in the labour market. An important question is the extent to which this low quality of education is attributable to poverty itself as opposed to other features of teaching and management that characterise these schools. The literature explaining schooling outcomes in South Africa has reached a consensus that additional educational resources are no guarantee of improved outcomes. While socio-economic status remains the most powerful determinant of educational outcomes, studies have typically struggled to isolate other school and teacher characteristics that consistently predict outcomes, leaving much of the variation in achievement unexplained. Several authors have pointed to an ineffable mix of management efficiency and teacher quality that must surely underlie this unexplained component. The National School Effectiveness Study (NSES) is the first large-scale panel study of educational achievement in South African primary schools. It examines contextually appropriate features of school management and teacher practice more thoroughly than other large sample surveys previously administered in South Africa. Using the NSES data, this paper identifies specific aspects of school organisation and teacher practice, such as the effective coverage of curriculum and completed exercises, which are associated with literacy and numeracy achievement and with the amount of learning that occurs within a year of schooling. Some suggestions are also made regarding the appropriate way to interpret these results for the purpose of policy-making.
Multiple copies of BCR-ABL fusion gene on two isodicentric Philadelphia chromosomes in an imatinib mesylate-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia patient

The so-called Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome is present in more than 90% of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cases. Amplification or duplication of the BCR-ABL gene has been found to be one of the key factors leading to drug resistance to imatinib mesylate (IM). In the present study, we identified the presence of isodicentric Ph chromosomes [idic(Ph)] in an IM-resistant patient. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis on metaphase chromosomes confirmed the heterogeneity and amplification of the fused BCR-ABL gene. FISH analysis superimposed on G-banding confirmed the presence of idic(Ph) chromosomes. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) products revealed the presence of the BCR-ABL fusion transcript b3a2. The idic(Ph) chromosomes in CML were shown to be fused at the satellite regions of the short arms. The patient did not respond to IM chemotherapy and did not achieve remission. In this study, the impact of the idic(Ph) chromosomes on genomic instability, heterogeneity and amplification of the BCR-ABL gene in IM-resistant patients is discussed.
Author's Accepted Manuscript Social Phobia Symptoms across the Adult Lifespan

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Abstract Background:
Mathematical Aspects of Command Relations Marcus Kracht

In gb, the importance of phrase-structure rules has dwindled in favour of nearness conditions. Today, nearness conditions play a major role in defining the correct linguistic representations. They are expressed in terms of special binary relations on trees called command relations. Yet, while the formal theory of phrase-structure grammars is quite advanced, no formal investigation into the properties of command relations has been done. We will try to close this gap. In particular, we will study the intrinsic properties of command relations as relations on trees as well as the possibility to reduce nearness conditions expressed by command relations to phrase-structure rules.
Delayed neuronal death in the CA1 pyramidal cell layer of the gerbil hippocampus following transient ischemia is apoptosis

The CA1 pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus are selectively vulnerable to transient ischemic damage. In experimental animals, the CA1 pyramidal neurons undergo cell death several days after brief forebrain ischemia. It remains, however, unknown whether this delayed neuronal death is necrosis or apoptosis. To investigate the degenerating processes of the CA1 pyramidal neurons in gerbil hippocampus after brief ischemia, lysosomal and nuclear alterations in the cells were examined using immunocytochemistry, in situ nick-end labeling, and Southern blotting. By light and electron microscopy, immunoreactivity for cathepsins B, H, and L, representative lysosomal cysteine proteinases, increased in the CA1 pyramidal neurons 3 d after ischemic insult, which showed cell shrinkage. By morphometric analysis, the volume density of cathepsin B-positive lysosomes markedly increased 3 d after ischemic insult, while that of autophagic vacuole-like structures also increased at this stage, suggesting that cathepsin B- immunopositive lysosomes increasing in the neurons after ischemic insult are mostly autolysosomes. Nuclei of the CA1 neurons were nick- end labeled by biotinylated dUTP mediated by terminal deoxytransferase 3 and 4 d after ischemic insult, but not in the prior stages. Simultaneously, dense chromatin masses appeared in nuclei of the neurons. By Southern blotting, laddering of DNA occurred only in CA1 hippocampal tissues obtained 4 d after ischemic insult. Confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrated that the fragmented DNA in the CA1 pyramidal layer was phagocytosed by microglial cells. The results suggest that delayed death of the CA1 pyramidal neurons after brief ischemia is not necrotic but apoptotic.
Physiological and metabolic characteristics of elite tug of war athletes

Objective—To determine the aerobic power (V̇o2max), body composition, strength, muscular power, flexibility, and biochemical profile of an elite international squad of tug of war athletes. Methods—Sixteen male competitors (mean (SEM) age 34 (2) years) were evaluated in a laboratory. For comparative purposes, data were analysed relative to normative data for our centre and to a group of 20 rugby forwards from the Irish international squad. Results—The tug of war participants were lighter (83.6 (3.0) v 104.4 (1.8) kg, p<0.0001) and had less lean body mass (69.4 (2.1) v 86.2 (1.2) kg) than the rugby players and had lower than normal body fat (16.7 (0.9)%); all values are mean (SEM). Aerobic power measured during a treadmill test was 55.8 (1.6) ml/kg/min for the tug of war participants compared with 51.1 (1.4) ml/kg/min for the rugby forwards (p<0.03). A composite measure of strength derived from (sum of dominant and non-dominant grip strength and back strength)/lean body mass yielded a strength/mass ratio that was 32% greater (p<0.0001) for the tug of war group than the rugby group. Dynamic leg power was lower for the tug of war group than the rugby forwards (4659.8 (151.6) v 6198.2 (105) W respectively; p<0.0001). Leg flexibility was 25.4 (2.0) cm for the tug of war group. Back flexibility was 28.6 (1.4) cm which was lower (p<0.02) than the rugby forwards 34.2 (1.5) cm. Whereas blood chemistry and haematology were normal, packed cell volume, haemoglobin concentration, and erythrocyte volume were lower in the tug of war group than in the rugby players (p<0.05). All three haematological measures correlated with muscle mass (packed cell volume, r2 = 0.37, p<0.0001; haemoglobin concentration, r2 = 0.13, p<0.05; erythrocyte volume, r2 = 0.21, p<0.01). Conclusions—The data indicate that international level tug of war participants have excellent strength and above average endurance relative to body size, but have relatively low explosive leg power and back flexibility. The data provide reference standards for the sport and may be useful for monitoring and evaluating current and future participants.
Real Recursive Functions and Baire Classes

Recursive functions over the reals [6] have been considered, first as a model of analog computation, and second to obtain analog characterizations of classical computational complexity classes [2]. However, one of the operators introduced in the seminal paper by Cris Moore (in 1996), the minimalization operator, creates some difficulties: (a) although differential recursion (the analog counterpart of classical recurrence) is, to some extent, directly implementable in the General Purpose Analog Computer of Claude Shannon, analog minimalization is far from physical realizability, and (b) analog minimalization was borrowed from classical recursion theory and does not fit well the analytic realm of analog computation. In this paper we use the most natural operator captured from Analysis - the operator of taking a limit - instead of the minimalization with respect to the equivalance of these operators given in [8]. In this context the natural question about coincidence between real recursive functions and Baire classes arises. To solve this problem the limit hierarchy of real recursive funcions is introduced. Relations between Baire classes, effective Baire classes and the limit hierachy are also studied.
The Psychology of Science: Review and Integration of a Nascent Discipline

Disciplines that study science are relatively well established in philosophy, history, and sociology. Psychology of science, by comparison, is a late bloomer but has recently shown signs of codification. The authors further this codification by integrating and reviewing the growing literature in the developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychology of science. Only by integrating the findings from each of these perspectives can the basic questions in the study of scientific behavior be answered: Who becomes a scientist and what role do biology, family, school, and gender play? Are productivity, scientific reasoning, and theory acceptance influenced by age? What thought processes and heuristics lead to successful discovery? What personality characteristics distinguish scientists from nonscientists and eminent from less eminent scientists? Finally, how do intergroup relations and social forces influence scientific behavior? A model that integrates the consensual empirical findings from the psychology of science is proposed.
Detection of enterovirus 68 in serum from pediatric patients with pneumonia and their clinical outcomes

Enterovirus 68 (EV68) infection occasionally manifests with fatal outcomes. However, detection of EV68 in serum and its clinical outcomes are yet to be determined. In this study, we retrospectively tested stored serum samples collected from pediatric pneumonia patients whose nasopharyngeal specimens were positive for EV68. Of total 28 nasopharyngeal sample‐positive patients, EV68 was detected in serum samples among 12 (43%) patients aged between 1 and 4 years. Our results suggest that EV68 can cause viremia by which the virus may exhibit systemic manifestations.
Sterigmatocystin-Induced DNA Damage Triggers G2 Arrest via an ATM/p53-Related Pathway in Human Gastric Epithelium GES-1 Cells In Vitro

Sterigmatocystin (ST), which is commonly detected in food and feed commodities, is a mutagenic and carcinogenic mycotoxin that has been recognized as a possible human carcinogen. Our previous study showed that ST can induce G2 phase arrest in GES-1 cells in vitro and that the MAPK and PI3K signaling pathways are involved in the ST-induced G2 arrest. It is now widely accepted that DNA damage plays a critical role in the regulation of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. In response to DNA damage, a complex signaling network is activated in eukaryotic cells to trigger cell cycle arrest and facilitate DNA repair. To further explore the molecular mechanism through which ST induces G2 arrest, the current study was designed to precisely dissect the role of DNA damage and the DNA damage sensor ataxia telangiectasia-mutated (ATM)/p53-dependent pathway in the ST-induced G2 arrest in GES-1 cells. Using the comet assay, we determined that ST induces DNA damage, as evidenced by the formation of DNA comet tails, in GES-1 cells. We also found that ST induces the activation of ATM and its downstream molecules, Chk2 and p53, in GES-1 cells. The ATM pharmacological inhibitor caffeine was found to effectively inhibit the activation of the ATM-dependent pathways and to rescue the ST-induced G2 arrest in GES-1 cells, which indicating its ATM-dependent characteristic. Moreover, the silencing of the p53 expression with siRNA effectively attenuated the ST-induced G2 arrest in GES-1 cells. We also found that ST induces apoptosis in GES-1 cells. Thus, our results show that the ST-induced DNA damage activates the ATM/53-dependent signaling pathway, which contributes to the induction of G2 arrest in GES-1 cells.