Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and performance of a Web server accelerator

We describe the design, implementation and performance of a Web server accelerator which runs on an embedded operating system and improves Web server performance by caching data. The accelerator resides in front of one or more Web servers. Our accelerator can serve up to 5000 pages/second from its cache on a 200 MHz PowerPC 604. This throughput is an order of magnitude higher than that which would be achieved by a high-performance Web server running on similar hardware under a conventional operating system such as Unix or NT. The superior performance of our system results in part from its highly optimized communications stack. In order to maximize hit rates and maintain updated caches, our accelerator provides an API which allows application programs to explicitly add, delete, and update cached data. The API allows our accelerator to cache dynamic as well as static data, analyze the SPECweb96 benchmark, and show that the accelerator can provide high hit ratios and excellent performance for workloads similar to this benchmark.
Inspiratory flow rate and dead space in dogs.

It is generally accepted that a stationary concentration front is established in the tracheobronchial tree during the inspiratory phase of single- and multiple-breath washouts. The anatomic position of this front, which is determined by the balance between diffusive flux toward the airway opening and convective flux toward the periphery, is frequently used to predict the effects of molecular diffusivity and inspiratory flow rate on dead space. Although there is substantial experimental evidence supporting the predictive effect of molecular diffusivity, there is little evidence regarding the effect of convective flow. This study confirmed the predictions for the effects of molecular diffusivity but contradicted those for the effects of inspiratory flow. We measured dead space by multiple- and single-breath inert gas washout techniques and also measured physiological dead space in dogs for inspiratory flow rates of 10-71 ml.kg-1.s-1. None of the three measures of dead space increased over the entire range of flow rate, as predicted by contemporary gas transport models. A possible explanation for these findings is that axial dispersion coefficients in the anatomic region where stationary fronts are believed to develop (respiratory bronchioles and alveolar ducts) significantly increase with convective flow rate rather than remain equal to molecular diffusivity.
Lexical, Prosodic, and Syntactic Cues for Dialog Acts

The structure of a discourse is reﬂected in many aspects of its linguistic realization, including its lexical, prosodic, syntactic, and semantic nature. Multi-party dialog contains a particular kind of discourse structure, the dialog act (DA). Like other types of structure, the dialog act sequence of a conversation is also reﬂected in its lexical, prosodic, and syntactic realization. This paper presents a preliminary investigation into the realization of a particular class of dialog acts which play an essential structuring role in dialog, the backchannels or acknowledge-ments tokens . We discuss the lexical, prosodic, and syntactic realization of these and subsumed or re-lated dialog acts like continuers , assessments , yes-answers , agreements , and incipient-speakership . We show that lexical knowledge plays a role in distinguishing these dialog acts, despite the wide-spread ambiguity of words such as yeah , and that prosodic knowledge plays a role in DA identiﬁcation for certain DA types, while lexical cues may be sufﬁcient for the remainder. Finally, our investigation of the syntax of assessments suggests that at least some dialog acts have a very constrained syntactic realization, a per-dialog act ‘microsyntax’.
Validation of atmospheric precipitable water in three reanalysis products using ground-based GPS measurements [presentation]

INTRODUCTION Global atmospheric reanalysis products have played an important role in current climate assessment, diagnostic studies of climate features, seasonal prediction, and climate predictability. Therefore, the validations of the reanalysis products are crucial for improving their accuracy and enhancing their applications. However, it is hard to find independent data with high quality and accuracy for the validations because most of datasets are assimilated by the reanalyses. Main outstanding issue in reanalysis as raised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, Trenberth et al. 2007) is the inhomogeneity of input data (both in-situ and satellite). Although various bias corrections have been applied to the input data, they remain imperfect. The current reanalysis still has difficulty in simulating the hydrological cycle (e.g., Trenberth and Guillemot 1998). For instance, all three current reanalysis products (NCEP/NCAR, ERA-40 and JRA-25) overestimate global mean precipitation by more than 10% (Fig. 7 in Onogi et al. 2007). Previous studies also found that the reanalyses are deficient in reproducing the variability and trends of atmospheric precipitable water (PW), especially over the tropical oceans (e.g., Allan et al. 2004; Sudradjat et al. 2005; Trenberth et al. 2005). The conventional surface and radiosonde, and satellite observations are all assimilated into the reanalyses. Therefore, other independent PW data are needed. A global, 2-hourly PW dataset has been created from ground-based GPS measurements (Wang et al. 2007). This dataset has various scientific applications, including monitoring the quality of radiosonde humidity data and studying PW diurnal variations (Wang et al. 2007; Wang and Zhang 2008a and 2008b). The advantages of GPS-derived PW include the availability under all weather conditions, high accuracy (< 3 mm), high temporal resolution (5 min to 2-hourly) and, more importantly, its long-term stability. All of these make the GPS PW dataset appealing for validating the reanalysis PW data. In additional, none of the reanalysis products uses the GPS-PW data, which makes it an independent dataset for validations. This study evaluates the PW data from three reanalysis products (NCEP/NCAR, ERA-40 and JRA-25) by comparing with the 2-hourly GPS PW dataset from diurnal to decadal time scales.
Discriminant Independent Component Analysis

A conventional linear model based on Negentropy maximization extracts statistically independent latent variables which may not be optimal to give a discriminant model with good classification performance. In this paper, a single-stage linear semisupervised extraction of discriminative independent features is proposed. Discriminant independent component analysis (dICA) presents a framework of linearly projecting multivariate data to a lower dimension where the features are maximally discriminant with minimal redundancy. The optimization problem is formulated as the maximization of linear summation of Negentropy and weighted functional measure of classification. Motivated by independence among extracted features, Fisher linear discriminant is used as the functional measure of classification. Experimental results show improved classification performance when dICA features are used for recognition tasks in comparison to unsupervised (principal component analysis and ICA) and supervised feature extraction techniques like linear discriminant analysis (LDA), conditional ICA, and those based on information theoretic learning approaches. dICA features also give reduced data reconstruction error in comparison to LDA and ICA method based on Negentropy maximization.
Womens' perceptions regarding obstetric complications and care in a poor fishing community in Karachi.

OBJECTIVE To assess the knowledge of women about obstetric complications and care. METHODS The study was conducted in a remote coastal community in Karachi in 1999, where the Department of Community Health Sciences of Aga Khan University is operating its primary health care project since 1996. The information was collected using a structured questionnaire, interviewing a representative sample of 329 married-women of reproductive age, selected systematically from the community. RESULTS The mean age of the respondents was 29 years. On average they were married for 11 years and had four living children. Almost half of them had no antenatal care in their last pregnancy and 75% delivered at home. The findings indicate a poor knowledge of common and serious pregnancy related complications based on their perception related to danger signs. Five percent of the women perceived absent/decreased fetal movement as a danger sign of pregnancy. Other reported danger signs included premature uterine contraction by 3%, premature rupture of membranes by 3%, convulsions by 13%, obstructed labor by 23% and bleeding by 39%. Moreover, the women's perception regarding obstetric care suggests that unsafe practices prevail: 86% of women thought that a case of ante-partum hemorrhage should be examined internally and 50% thought that no precaution is required to sterilize the instrument for cutting the cord. CONCLUSION There is a clear need to create awareness regarding obstetric complications through a targeted community based health educational intervention aiming to promote early recognition of the obstetric emergency at the household level and also to create a demand of safe obstetric practices.
Current-voltage relations of single nodes of Ranvier as examined by voltage-clamp technique.

THE RELATIONSHIP between the potential difference across an excitable membrane and the current that flows through the membrane has been investigated on the squid giant axon by the use of the so-called voltage-clamp technique (7, 17). This technique involves the sudden elevation of the membrane potential and, by an automatic control of the membrane current, the maintenance for a certain period of time of this new potential level. The analysis of the experimental data obtained by this voltage-clamp technique led Hodgkin and Huxley (6) to many interesting conclusions regarding the mechanism of action potential production. The present investigation was undertaken with a view to securing new information about the electrophysiological properties of the excitable membrane at the node of Ranvier of the toad nerve fiber using the voltageclamp technique. Since the capacity of the nodal membrane does not seem to play any significant role in the process of action potential production (13, p. 649), the significance of voltage-clamping in the nodal membrane is somewhat diRerent from that in the squid giant axon. Nevertheless, since membrane potential and the membrane current are the two main variables that serve to describe the state of the membrane, it is worth while to investigate the time course of the membrane current when the membrane potential is held constant at various new levels. In the present investigation the voltage-clamp technique was applied to the normal nodal membrane, and the nodal membrane during the refractory period, under low sodium and under partial narcosis.
Association Between C-Reactive Protein Genotype, Circulating Levels, and Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity

Circulating C-reactive protein (CRP) level is associated with cardiovascular disease. Whether this relationship is causal has been subject of debate, especially as a potential therapeutic target. Previous studies have demonstrated an association between circulating CRP levels and arterial pulse wave velocity, an accepted measure of arterial stiffness. We investigated the association between circulating CRP levels, CRP genotype, and aortic pulse wave velocity by examining data on 790 healthy male participants of the Caerphilly study. Circulating CRP levels were associated with aortic pulse wave velocity after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors and other potential confounders (P=0.001). Three single nucleotide polymorphisms in the CRP gene (rs1130864, rs1800947, and rs1205) were associated with differences in circulating CRP levels (ratio of geometric means: 1.12, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.21, P=0.005; 0.76, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.87, P<0.001; 0.88, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.95, P=0.001, respectively). However, there was no relationship between any of the genotypes and aortic pulse wave velocity (regression coefficient for C:G/G:G versus C:C genotypes for single nucleotide polymorphism rs1800947 β=0.005; 95% CI, −0.57 to 0.58; P=0.99). These results suggest that although circulating CRP levels are associated with aortic pulse wave velocity, CRP does not have a causal role in the development of arterial stiffness. CRP may simply act as a marker of vascular damage (ie, reverse causality), or the association reflects residual confounding. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings, particularly in view of the central role CRP has played in cardiovascular disease so far.
Occupancy Prediction Algorithms for Thermostat Control Systems Using Mobile Devices

Several techniques have been proposed for the automatic control of just-in-time heating and cooling systems in indoor spaces that accommodate both the occupants' comfort and energy savings. Current techniques, however, do not provide an adequate solution for efficient thermostat control, because they require costly infrastructures to detect occupancy or because they inaccurately predict the occupancy due to irregular patterns. In this paper, we propose an automatic thermostat control system based on the mobility prediction of users, using contextual information obtained by mobile phones. We also present an arrival time prediction scheme that combines both historical pattern and route classification. The experimental results indicate that the proposed system can successfully predict at least 70% of the transit cases within 10 minutes' error and can decrease energy consumption by 26%.
Search in a Small World

In a graph with a "small world" topology, nodes are highly clustered yet the path length between them is small. Such a topology can make search problems very difficult since local decisions quickly propagate globally. We show that graphs associated with many different search problems have a small world topology, and that the cost of solving such search problems can have a heavy-tailed distribution. The strategy of randomization and restarts appears to eliminate these heavy tails. A novel restart schedule in which the cutoff bound is increased geometrically appears particularly effective.
Optimum BMI Cut Points to Screen Asian Americans for Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Asian Americans manifest type 2 diabetes at low BMI levels but may not undergo diagnostic testing for diabetes if the currently recommended BMI screening cut point of ≥25 kg/m2 is followed. We aimed to ascertain an appropriate lower BMI cut point among Asian-American adults without a prior diabetes diagnosis. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We consolidated data from 1,663 participants, ages ≥45 years, without a prior diabetes diagnosis, from population- and community-based studies, including the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America study, the North Kohala Study, the Seattle Japanese American Community Diabetes Study, and the University of California San Diego Filipino Health Study. Clinical measures included a 2-h 75-g oral glucose tolerance test, BMI, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c). RESULTS Mean age was 59.7 years, mean BMI was 25.4 kg/m2, 58% were women, and type 2 diabetes prevalence (American Diabetes Association 2010 criteria) was 16.9%. At BMI ≥25 kg/m2, sensitivity (63.7%), specificity (52.8%), and Youden index (0.16) values were low; limiting screening to BMI ≥25 kg/m2 would miss 36% of Asian Americans with type 2 diabetes. For screening purposes, higher sensitivity is desirable to minimize missing cases, especially if the diagnostic test is relatively simple and inexpensive. At BMI ≥23 kg/m2, sensitivity (84.7%) was high in the total sample and by sex and Asian-American subgroup and would miss only ∼15% of Asian Americans with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS The BMI cut point for identifying Asian Americans who should be screened for undiagnosed type 2 diabetes should be <25 kg/m2, and ≥23 kg/m2 may be the most practical.
Environmental change and raw material selection strategies at Taoshan: a terminal Late Pleistocene to Holocene site in north‐eastern China

The Lesser Khingan Mountains of north‐eastern China are heavily forested, making archaeological site identification difficult owing to poor ground surface visibility. Nevertheless, several prehistoric archaeological site discoveries have been made in recent years and a limited number of excavations have been initiated. One of the most important sites to emerge is Taoshan, which has yielded stratified stone tool assemblages dating from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the mid‐Holocene. Pollen profiles indicate significant changes in vegetation, fluctuating from steppe conditions during the LGM to forested conditions in the Bølling–Allerød interstadial (B–A) and the mid‐Holocene. The stone tool assemblages from Taoshan were primarily produced from varieties of volcanic tuff, rhyolite, hornfels and agate. Geological prospecting and petrological analyses were performed to document procurement sources and changes in raw material exploitation strategies. During the LGM, the predominant raw material was vitric tuff, available from a source ca. 5–10 km from Taoshan. In the B–A and mid‐Holocene layers, emphasis was on the exploitation of raw materials in gravel bars, although stone tool reduction techniques and raw material preferences changed considerably during this time interval. Diachronic changes in raw materials and exploitation strategies correspond to changes in vegetation and human adaptations.
Age-related incidence of pineal calcification detected by computed tomography.

The age-related incidence of detectable pineal calcification in 725 patients (age range, newborn-20 yrs) suggests that there is a relationship between calcification and the hormonal role played by the pineal gland in the regulation of sexual development. Pineal calcification (demonstrated by computed tomography (CT) on 8-mm-thick sections) in patients less than 6 years old should be looked upon with suspicion, and follow-up CT should be considered to exclude the possible development of a pineal neoplasm.
Body composition estimation from selected slices: equations computed from a new semi-automatic thresholding method developed on whole-body CT scans

Background Estimating volumes and masses of total body components is important for the study and treatment monitoring of nutrition and nutrition-related disorders, cancer, joint replacement, energy-expenditure and exercise physiology. While several equations have been offered for estimating total body components from MRI slices, no reliable and tested method exists for CT scans. For the first time, body composition data was derived from 41 high-resolution whole-body CT scans. From these data, we defined equations for estimating volumes and masses of total body AT and LT from corresponding tissue areas measured in selected CT scan slices. Methods We present a new semi-automatic approach to defining the density cutoff between adipose tissue (AT) and lean tissue (LT) in such material. An intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to validate the method. The equations for estimating the whole-body composition volume and mass from areas measured in selected slices were modeled with ordinary least squares (OLS) linear regressions and support vector machine regression (SVMR). Results and Discussion The best predictive equation for total body AT volume was based on the AT area of a single slice located between the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae (L4-L5) and produced lower prediction errors (|PE| = 1.86 liters, %PE = 8.77) than previous equations also based on CT scans. The LT area of the mid-thigh provided the lowest prediction errors (|PE| = 2.52 liters, %PE = 7.08) for estimating whole-body LT volume. We also present equations to predict total body AT and LT masses from a slice located at L4-L5 that resulted in reduced error compared with the previously published equations based on CT scans. The multislice SVMR predictor gave the theoretical upper limit for prediction precision of volumes and cross-validated the results.
VeriML: typed computation of logical terms inside a language with effects

Modern proof assistants such as Coq and Isabelle provide high degrees of expressiveness and assurance because they support formal reasoning in higher-order logic and supply explicit machine-checkable proof objects. Unfortunately, large scale proof development in these proof assistants is still an extremely difficult and time-consuming task. One major weakness of these proof assistants is the lack of a single language where users can develop complex tactics and decision procedures using a rich programming model and in a typeful manner. This limits the scalability of the proof development process, as users avoid developing domain-specific tactics and decision procedures. In this paper, we present VeriML - a novel language design that couples a type-safe effectful computational language with first-class support for manipulating logical terms such as propositions and proofs. The main idea behind our design is to integrate a rich logical framework - similar to the one supported by Coq - inside a computational language inspired by ML. The language design is such that the added features are orthogonal to the rest of the computational language, and also do not require significant additions to the logic language, so soundness is guaranteed. We have built a prototype implementation of VeriML including both its type-checker and an interpreter. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our design by showing a number of type-safe tactics and decision procedures written in VeriML.
BRAFV600 inhibition alters the microRNA cargo in the vesicular secretome of malignant melanoma cells

Significance The development of BRAF inhibitors is a notable clinical success, leading to rapid initial melanoma regression. However, response rates are tempered by a short duration of response in a majority of patients. This study has determined the effects of BRAF inhibition on mutant melanoma cells, as well as on the RNA contents in their vesicular secretome. Our data show the presence of miR-211–5p in all extracellular vesicular (EV) subsets upon treatment with BRAF inhibitors, which provides a fundamental starting point to understand the regulatory effects of molecules present in EVs, which may have implications for disease progression in patients receiving BRAF-targeted treatment. The BRAF inhibitors vemurafenib and dabrafenib can be used to treat patients with metastatic melanomas harboring BRAFV600 mutations. Initial antitumoral responses are often seen, but drug-resistant clones with reactivation of the MEK–ERK pathway soon appear. Recently, the secretome of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) has been ascribed important functions in cancers. To elucidate the possible functions of EVs in BRAF-mutant melanoma, we determined the RNA content of the EVs, including apoptotic bodies, microvesicles, and exosomes, released from such cancer cells after vemurafenib treatment. We found that vemurafenib significantly increased the total RNA and protein content of the released EVs and caused significant changes in the RNA profiles. RNA sequencing and quantitative PCR show that cells and EVs from vemurafenib-treated cell cultures and tumor tissues harvested from cell-derived and patient-derived xenografts harbor unique miRNAs, especially increased expression of miR-211–5p. Mechanistically, the expression of miR-211–5p as a result of BRAF inhibition was induced by increased expression of MITF that regulates the TRPM1 gene resulting in activation of the survival pathway. In addition, transfection of miR-211 in melanoma cells reduced the sensitivity to vemurafenib treatment, whereas miR-211–5p inhibition in a vemurafenib resistant cell line affected the proliferation negatively. Taken together, our results show that vemurafenib treatment induces miR-211–5p up-regulation in melanoma cells both in vitro and in vivo, as well as in subsets of EVs, suggesting that EVs may provide a tool to understand malignant melanoma progression.