Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FlowBender: Flow-level Adaptive Routing for Improved Latency and Throughput in Datacenter Networks

Datacenter networks provide high path diversity for traffic between machines. Load balancing traffic across these paths is important for both, latency- and throughput-sensitive applications. The standard load balancing techniques used today obliviously hash a flow to a random path. When long flows collide on the same path, this might lead to long lasting congestion while other paths could be underutilized, degrading performance of other flows as well. Recent proposals to address this shortcoming incur significant implementation complexity at the host that would actually slow down short flows (MPTCP), depend on relatively slow centralized controllers for rerouting large congesting flows (Hedera), or require custom switch hardware, hindering near-term deployment (DeTail). We propose FlowBender, a novel technique that: (1) Load balances distributively at the granularity of flows instead of packets, avoiding excessive packet reordering. (2) Uses end-host-driven rehashing to trigger dynamic flow-to-path assignment. (3) Recovers from link failures within a Retransmit Timeout (RTO). (4) Amounts to less than 50 lines of critical kernel code and is readily deployable in commodity data centers today. (5) Is very robust and simple to tune. We evaluate FlowBender using both simulations and a real testbed implementation, and show that it improves average and tail latencies significantly compared to state of the art techniques without incurring the significant overhead and complexity of other load balancing schemes.
Reconstructing User’s Attention on the Web through Mouse Movements and Perception-Based Content Identification

Eye tracking is one of the most exploited techniques in literature for finding usability problems in web-based user interfaces (UIs). However, it is usually employed in a laboratory setting, considering that an eye-tracker is not commonly used in web browsing. In contrast, web application providers usually exploit remote techniques for large-scale user studies (e.g. A/B testing), tracking low-level interactions such as mouse clicks and movements. In this article, we discuss a method for predicting whether the user is looking at the content pointed by the cursor, exploiting the mouse movement data and a segmentation of the contents in a web page. We propose an automatic method for segmenting content groups inside a web page that, applying both image and code analysis techniques, identifies the user-perceived group of contents with a mean pixel-based error around the 20%. In addition, we show through a user study that such segmentation information enhances the precision and the accuracy in predicting the correlation between between the user’s gaze and the mouse position at the content level, without relaying on user-specific features.
Block synchronisation for joint channel and DC-offset estimation using data-dependent superimposed training

In this paper, we propose a new (single-step) block synchronisation algorithm for joint channel and DC-offset estimation for data-dependent superimposed training (DDST). While a (two-step) block synchronisation algorithm for DDST has previously been proposed in [5], due to interference from the information-bearing data it performed sub-optimally, resulting in channel estimates with unknown delays. These delay ambiguities (also present in the equaliser) were then estimated in [5] in a non-practical manner. In this paper we avoid the need for estimation of this delay ambiguity by exploiting the special structure of the channel outputpsilas cyclic mean vector. The result is a BER performance superior to the DDST synchronisation algorithm first published in [5].
Efficacy of duct tape vs placebo in the treatment of verruca vulgaris (warts) in primary school children.

OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of duct tape compared with placebo in the treatment of verruca vulgaris. DESIGN AND SETTING A randomized placebo-controlled trial in 3 primary schools in Maastricht, the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS One hundred three children aged 4 to 12 years with verruca vulgaris. INTERVENTIONS Duct tape applied to the wart or placebo, a corn pad (protection ring for clavi), applied around the wart for 1 night a week. Both treatments were applied for a period of 6 weeks. Patients were blinded to the hypothesis of the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENT Complete resolution of the treated wart. RESULTS After 6 weeks, the wart had disappeared in 16% of the children in the duct tape group compared with 6% in the placebo group (P = .12). The estimated effect of duct tape compared with placebo on diameter reduction of the treated wart was 1.0 mm (P = .02, 95% confidence interval, -1.7 to -0.1). After 6 weeks, in 7 children (21%) in the duct tape group, a surrounding wart had disappeared compared with 9 children (27%) in the placebo group (P = .79). Fifteen percent of the children in the duct tape group reported adverse effects such as erythema, eczema, and wounds compared with 0 in the placebo group (P = .14). CONCLUSION In a 6-week trial, duct tape had a modest but nonsignificant effect on wart resolution and diameter reduction when compared with placebo in a cohort of primary school children.
Evaluation of Cinnamomum osmophloeum Kanehira Extracts on Tyrosinase Suppressor, Wound Repair Promoter, and Antioxidant

Cinnamomum osmophloeum Kanehira belongs to the Lauraceae family of Taiwan's endemic plants. In this study, C. osmophloeum Kanehira extract has shown inhibition of tyrosinase activity on B16-F10 cellular system first. Whether extracts inhibited mushroom tyrosinase activity was tested, and a considerable inhibition of mushroom tyrosinase activity by in vitro assays was presented. Animal experiments of C. osmophloeum Kanehira were carried out by observing animal wound repair, and the extracts had greater wound healing power than the vehicle control group (petroleum jelly with 8% DMSO, w/v). In addition, the antioxidant capacity of C. osmophloeum Kanehira extracts in vitro was evaluated. We measured C. osmophloeum Kanehira extract's free radical scavenging capability, metal chelating, and reduction power, such as biochemical activity analysis. The results showed that a high concentration of C. osmophloeum Kanehira extract had a significant scavenging capability of free radical, a minor effect of chelating ability, and moderate reducing power. Further exploration of the possible physiological mechanisms and the ingredient components of skincare product for skin-whitening, wound repair, or antioxidative agents are to be done.
Affective responses to exercise : understanding changes in perceptual and cognitive processes

The severe health implications associated with physical inactivity highlight the need for research aiming to elucidate mechanisms underlying individuals’ experience of exercise. Affective responses to exercise have been identified as a central factor shaping exercise behaviour (Ekkekakis, 2003; Kwan & Bryan, 2010; Williams, et al., 2008). Research identifies that external and internal factors influence affective evaluations of exercise. One external factor influencing the evaluation of affective responses is the environmental stimuli comprising the exercise setting (Antoniewicz & Brand, 2014; DaSilva, et al., 2011). Therefore, study one examined the influence of environmental cues on affective and cognitive responses to exercise in an ecologically valid setting. Results revealed significant interactions between environmental cues and affect, and motivation; this suggests that intra-individual processes may influence exercise behaviour. The thesis subsequently investigated internal processes that influence affective evaluations of exercise; in particular, processes underlying the recall of affective experience (Kahneman, et al., 1993). Study two examined individuals’ recall of exercise related affect over a period of two weeks using a randomised control crossover design. Results indicated that exercise related affect fluctuated over the two-week period with a significant drop at 24 hours post low-to-moderate and high intensity exercise trials. Additionally, recalled affect better predicted anticipatory feelings than affect recorded during exercise. The study also found partial support for the peak and end rule particularly for the high intensity exercise. Extending study two’s findings, study three explored the recall of exercise related affect and anticipatory feelings using an experimental design with a self-paced exercise protocol. The study revealed significant changes across postexercise recall with follow-up measures at 8 and 24 hours indicating a substantial decline in affect. Overall findings revealed that contextual factors promote positive affect when aligned with one’s goals; however discordant contextual cues and goals can thwart positive affective responses. Further, recall of affective experiences of exercise dynamically change over time and recalled affect can predict anticipatory feelings of exercise. Lastly, all studies’ findings emphasise on the imperative role of idiographic analysis in research on affective responses to exercise.
An ELMO2-RhoG-ILK network modulates microtubule dynamics

Complexes that contain ELMO2, RhoG, and integrin-linked kinase are required to maintain microtubule stability. Mechanistically, these complexes are involved in activation of Rac1, which in turn interferes with the destabilizing activity of stathmin. In addition, these complexes also mediate activation of GSK-3β, which promotes CRMP2-mediated microtubule stabilization.
Data extraction and cleansing of semi-structured Chinese texts

The rapid growth of data mining generates an ever-increasing demand for automatic information extraction from Chinese texts. However, existing approaches in this domain focus on well-structured Chinese texts and therefore have difficulties in dealing with semi-structured Chinese texts which do not conform to strict syntactic structures. We propose in this paper an approach to semi-automatic data extraction and cleansing for these texts. Preliminary experimental results show that, with modest manual intervention, it can effectively extract information from raw semi-structured Chinese texts collected from e-business applications.
Prevalence of Anaemia and Associated Factors among Children below Five Years of Age in Cape Verde, West Africa

ABSTRACT This study estimated the prevalence of anaemia and associated factors in a probability sample of 993 children aged 6-59 months in Cape Verde, West Africa. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated from a hierarchical model for multiple analysis to assess the association between anaemia and explanatory variables. The prevalence of anaemia was 51.8% (95% CI 47.7-55.8). Children who resided within poor household conditions (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.06-3.71) were below 24 months of age (OR 3.23; 95% CI 2.03-5.15) and recently experienced diarrhoea (OR 1.58; 95% CI 0.99-2.50) were at high risk of anaemia. Anaemia should be considered a serious public-health concern in Cape Verde, mainly for children below 24 months. Further, special consideration should be given to children who have experienced recent diarrhoea and belong to families residing in poor household conditions.
Spaced Repetition Promotes Efficient and Effective Learning

Concern that students in the United States are less proficient in mathematics, science, and reading than their peers in other countries has led some to question whether American students spend enough time in school. Instead of debating the amount of time that should be spent in school (and on schoolwork), this article addresses how the available instructional time might be optimally utilized via the scheduling of review or practice. Hundreds of studies in cognitive and educational psychology have demonstrated that spacing out repeated encounters with the material over time produces superior long-term learning, compared with repetitions that are massed together. Also, incorporating tests into spaced practice amplifies the benefits. Spaced review or practice enhances diverse forms of learning, including memory, problem solving, and generalization to new situations. Spaced practice is a feasible and cost-effective way to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of learning, and has tremendous potential to improve educational outcomes. The article also discusses barriers to adopting spaced practice, recent developments, and their possible implications.
An efficient privacy-preserving system for monitoring mobile users: making searchable encryption practical

Monitoring location updates from mobile users has important applications in several areas, ranging from public safety and national security to social networks and advertising. However, sensitive information can be derived from movement patterns, so protecting the privacy of mobile users is a major concern. Users may only be willing to disclose their locations when some condition is met, for instance in proximity of a disaster area, or when an event of interest occurs nearby. Currently, such functionality is achieved using searchable encryption. Such cryptographic primitives provide provable guarantees for privacy, and allow decryption only when the location satisfies some predicate. Nevertheless, they rely on expensive pairing-based cryptography (PBC), and direct application to the domain of location updates leads to impractical solutions. We propose secure and efficient techniques for private processing of location updates that complement the use of PBC and lead to significant gains in performance by reducing the amount of required pairing operations. We also implement two optimizations that further improve performance: materialization of results to expensive mathematical operations, and parallelization. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed techniques significantly improve performance compared to the baseline, and reduce the searchable encryption overhead to a level that is practical in a computing environment with reasonable resources, such as the cloud.
The Neuroprotective Effect of Rapamycin as a Modulator of the mTOR-NF-κB Axis during Retinal Inflammation

Purpose The determination of the molecular mechanism underlying retinal pathogenesis and visual dysfunction during innate inflammation, and the treatment effect of rapamycin thereon. Methods The endotoxin-induced uveitis and retinitis mouse model was established by injecting lipopolysaccharide. The mice were subsequently treated with rapamycin, a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor. The rhodopsin mRNA and protein expression level in the retina and the photoreceptor outer segment (OS) length in immunohistochemical stainings were measured, and visual function was recorded by electroretinography. Inflammatory cytokines, their related molecules, mTOR, and LC3 levels were measured by real-time PCR and/or immunoblotting. Leukocyte adhesion during inflammation was analyzed using concanavalin A lectin. Results The post-transcriptional reduction in the visual pigment of rod photoreceptor cells, rhodopsin, OS shortening, and rod photoreceptor cell dysfunction during inflammation were suppressed by rapamycin. Activation of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) and induction of inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and the activation of the downstream signaling protein, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), which reduces rhodopsin in the retina during inflammation, were attenuated by rapamycin. Increased leukocyte adhesion was also attenuated by rapamycin. Interestingly, although mTOR activation was observed after NF-κB activation, mTOR inhibition suppressed NF-κB activation at the early phase, indicating that the basal level of activated mTOR was sufficient to activate NF-κB in the retina. In addition, the inhibition of NF-κB suppressed mTOR activation, suggesting a positive feedback loop of mTOR and NF-κB during inflammation. The ratio of LC3II to LC3I, which reflects autophagy induction, was not changed by inflammation but was increased by rapamycin. Conclusions Our results propose the potential use of rapamycin as a neuroprotective therapy to suppress local activated mTOR levels, related inflammatory molecules, and the subsequent visual dysfunction during retinal inflammation.
In the Wake of Discovery: Student Perceptions, Integration, and Instructional Design

Abstract Academic libraries have increasingly adopted web-scale discovery tools in order to meet the expectations of students who want immediate results, efficient algorithms, and a single search box. As they have become the de facto search tool at many libraries, librarians and patrons alike have been forced to confront the way they think about research processes and in some cases, modulate ingrained habits. In this article, the authors explore student perceptions of efficacy, relevancy, and ease of use of a library discovery tool through a 2017 mixed-methods user experience study conducted at three City University of New York (CUNY) campuses. The results from this user study will be useful to other institutions that already have implemented discovery layers within their library and help inform website design, discovery layer design, and pedagogy. By combining student interviews with a task analysis, the authors were able to learn more about student search behaviors, how they respond to challenges, and what they expect from search tools. Identifying these barriers to student use of the Primo discovery tool has helped us articulate best practices for instruction and interface customization that may address these barriers and has illuminated implications for website integration.
Disparities in Follow-Up Care for Asian American Youth Assessed for Suicide Risk in Schools

Asian American (AA) students in academically high-performing schools are thought to represent a high-risk but underidentified group for mental health need and potential suicide risk. Previous data indicate that internalizing mental health needs among AA students are more likely to go unmet compared with other racial/ethnic groups. This is the first study to examine disparities in rates of follow-up mental health services (MHS) for AA students assessed for suicide risk in schools. We examined rates of parental consent for MHS and ultimate linkage to care following risk assessments for students in an ethnically diverse, high-performing school district. Findings indicated that AA students were underrepresented among suicide risk assessments compared with their district enrollment. Although female students were more often referred for suicide risk assessments, AA boys appeared at heightened risk compared with boys from other racial/ethnic groups at the elementary and middle school levels. In terms of rates of MHS receipt, 43.4% of AA students and 57.1% of Latino students received new or ongoing MHS following risk assessment. Multinomial logistic regressions revealed racial/ethnic disparities in parental consent and linkage to care, such that AA students were at significantly higher risk of having parents decline MHS (relative risk ratio = .26, p < .001) and having no initiation of MHS following risk assessment (relative risk ratio = .55, p < .01) compared with Latino students. Potential barriers to parental consent and aftercare for AA families are discussed, highlighting the need for implementation strategies to reduce racial/ethnic disparities for youth at risk of suicide.
Hydrochemical Processes and Isotopic Study of Geothermal Springs within Soutpansberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Geothermal springs and boreholes within the Soutpansberg Group were sampled and analysed for their major ion chemistry and stable isotope compositions in order to ascertain the possible sources and geochemical processes of the waters. The temperature of the geothermal springs ranges from 41 °C to 49 °C (thermal/hot waters) and 53 °C to 69 °C (scalding/hyperthermal waters). The major water types are Na-Cl and Na-HCO3, which are typical of marine and deep groundwaters influenced by ion-exchange processes. The hydrochemical parameters suggest that thermal gradient, carbonate weathering, mineral dissolution, ion exchange, and evaporation are the main geochemical processes controlling the geothermal springs. The δ18O and δ2H values vary from −5.82‰ to −4.82‰ for δ18O and −33.5‰ to −24.6‰ for δ2H for all the geothermal spring water. The isotopic ranges of the groundwater are relatively smaller and more depleted than those of rainwater (δ2H = −9.8‰ and δ18O = −2.7‰). The δ2H and δ18O signatures reveal a significant infiltration before evaporation. The δ2H and δ18O values further confirm that the waters are of meteoric origin, which implies that modern rainfall is the fundamental component of recharge derived from the infiltration of local precipitation with significant contribution of another type of water in the deeper part of the aquifer. These results provide further insight into this basement aquifer, which is a vital resource for the region.
Exploring the Moderating Effects of Family Functioning and Child Grit on the Relation between ADHD Endophenotypes and ADHD Symptoms

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . iv LIST OF TABLES . ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION . 1 ADHD as a Dimensional Construct . 1 Endophenotypes . 2 ADHD and Endophenotypes. 3 Response Inhibition . 5 Reaction Time (RT) Variability . 7 Working Memory. 8 Family Functioning and ADHD. 9 Respondents for Family Functioning . 11 Grit and ADHD . 12 Current Study and Hypotheses. 14 Rationale . 14 Hypotheses . 16 CHAPTER II – METHOD. 18 Participants . 18 vi Rating Scale Measures . 19 Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale . 19 The General Functioning Subscale of the McMaster Family Assessment Device . 21 Short Grit Scale . 24 Demographic and Diagnostic Form . 25 Neuropsychological Measures to Assess ADHD Endophenotypes . 26 The Go/No-Go Task . 26 The Digit Span Task . 27 Child IQ Measure . 28 Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, Second Edition . 28 Procedure . 29 Recruitment . 29 Data Collection . 30 CHAPTER III RESULTS . 32 Coding of Variables . 32 Preliminary Analyses . 32 Hypothesis Testing: Correlation Analyses. 34 Hypothesis 1. 35 Hypothesis 2. 35 Hypothesis 3. 36 vii Hypothesis Testing: Moderated Multiple Regression Analyses . 36 Hypothesis 4. 36 Response Disinhibition as the Predictor . 37 RT Variability as the Predictor . 38 Working Memory (DSF) as the Predictor . 39 Working Memory (DSB) as the Predictor . 40 Hypothesis 5. 40 Response Disinhibition as the Predictor . 41 RT Variability as the Predictor . 42 Working Memory (DSF) as the Predictor . 43 Working Memory (DSB) as the Predictor . 44 Hypothesis 6. 45 Hypothesis 7. 46 Response Disinhibition as the Predictor . 47 RT Variability as the Predictor . 48 Working Memory (DSF) as the Predictor . 48 Working Memory (DSB) as the Predictor . 48 CHAPTER IV – DISCUSSION. 50 Summary of Findings and Link to the Literature. 50 Study Limitations and Future Directions . 55 viii Conclusions and Clinical Implications . 57 APPENDIX A – TABLES . 59 APPENDIX B – FIGURES . 81 APPENDIX C – IRB Approval Letters . 89 REFERENCES . 91