Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EXCITE-VM: Extending the virtual memory system to support snapshot isolation transactions

Multi-core programming remains a major software development and maintenance challenge because of data races, deadlock, non-deterministic failures and complex performance issues. In this paper, we describe EXCITE-VM, a system that provides snapshot isolation transactions on shared memory to facilitate programming and to improve the performance of parallel applications. With snapshots, an application thread is not exposed to the committed changes of other threads until it receives the updates by explicitly creating a new snapshot. Snapshot isolation enables low overhead lockless read operations and improves fault tolerance by isolating each thread from the transient, uncommitted writes of other threads. This paper describes how EXCITE-VM implements snapshot isolation transactions efficiently by manipulating virtual memory mappings and using a novel copy-on-read mechanism with a customized page cache. Compared to conventional software transactional memory systems, EXCITE-VM provides up to 2.2× performance improvement for the STAMP benchmark suite and up to 1000× speedup for a modified benchmark having long running read-only transactions. Furthermore, EXCITE-VM achieves a 2× performance improvement on a Memcached benchmark and the Yahoo Cloud Server Benchmarks. Finally, EXCITE-VM improves fault tolerance and offers features such as low-overhead concurrent audit and analysis.
A Complete Skull of an Early Cretaceous Sauropod and the Evolution of Advanced Titanosaurians

Advanced titanosaurian sauropods, such as nemegtosaurids and saltasaurids, were diverse and one of the most important groups of herbivores in the terrestrial biotas of the Late Cretaceous. However, little is known about their rise and diversification prior to the Late Cretaceous. Furthermore, the evolution of their highly-modified skull anatomy has been largely hindered by the scarcity of well-preserved cranial remains. A new sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil represents the earliest advanced titanosaurian known to date, demonstrating that the initial diversification of advanced titanosaurians was well under way at least 30 million years before their known radiation in the latest Cretaceous. The new taxon also preserves the most complete skull among titanosaurians, further revealing that their low and elongated diplodocid-like skull morphology appeared much earlier than previously thought.
Light-dark Adaptation of Channelrhodopsin C128T Mutant*

Background: Channelrhodopsins are light-gated ion channels of microalgae. Results: By FTIR spectroscopy, we identified three different dark and two photoswitchable light-adapted states of the ChR-C128T mutant. Conclusion: We propose a photocycle model that explains both spectroscopic and electrophysiological data. Significance: Color-dependent equilibria determine the stationary photocurrents in ChR applications (optogenetics). Channelrhodopsins are microbial type rhodopsins that operate as light-gated ion channels. Largely prolonged lifetimes of the conducting state of channelrhodopsin-2 may be achieved by mutations of crucial single amino acids, i.e. cysteine 128. Such mutants are of great scientific interest in the field of neurophysiology because they allow neurons to be switched on and off on demand (step function rhodopsins). Due to their slow photocycle, structural alterations of these proteins can be studied by vibrational spectroscopy in more detail than possible with wild type. Here, we present spectroscopic evidence that the photocycle of the C128T mutant involves three different dark-adapted states that are populated according to the wavelength and duration of the preceding illumination. Our results suggest an important role of multiphoton reactions and the previously described side reaction for dark state regeneration. Structural changes that cause formation and depletion of the assumed ion conducting state P520 are only small and follow larger changes that occur early and late in the photocycle, respectively. They require only minor structural rearrangements of amino acids near the retinal binding pocket and are triggered by all-trans/13-cis retinal isomerization, although additional isomerizations are also involved in the photocycle. We will discuss an extended photocycle model of this mutant on the basis of spectroscopic and electrophysiological data.
Design cognition : results from protocol and other empirical studies of design activity Book Chapter

The paper reviews protocol and other empirical studies of design activity, and summarises results relevant to understanding the nature of design cognition from an interdisciplinary, domain-independent overview. Results are presented in three major aspects of design cognition the formulation of problems, the generation of solutions, and the utilisation of design process strategies. Parallels and comparisons between results are drawn, and a number of issues identified. Many similarities of design cognition across domains of professional practice are found. It seems that the ‘intuitive’ behavior of experienced designers is often highly appropriate to design tasks, although appearing to be ‘unprincipled’ in theory.
Days to heading 7, a major quantitative locus determining photoperiod sensitivity and regional adaptation in rice

Significance Flowering time is one of the best studied ecologically important traits under natural or human selection for adaptation of plants to specific local environments. Photoperiodic sensitivity is a major agronomic trait that tailors vegetative and reproductive growth to local climates and is thus particularly important for crop yield and quality. This study not only identifies a major quantitative trait locus underlying photoperiod sensitivity in rice (Days to heading 7, DTH7) but also demonstrates that various haplotype combinations of DTH7 with Grain number, plant height, and heading date 7 (Ghd7) and DTH8 correlate well with the flowering time and grain yield of rice varieties under diverse cultivating conditions. Our results build a foundation for breeding of high-yield rice varieties with desired photosensitivity and optimum adaptation to the target environments. Success of modern agriculture relies heavily on breeding of crops with maximal regional adaptability and yield potentials. A major limiting factor for crop cultivation is their flowering time, which is strongly regulated by day length (photoperiod) and temperature. Here we report identification and characterization of Days to heading 7 (DTH7), a major genetic locus underlying photoperiod sensitivity and grain yield in rice. Map-based cloning reveals that DTH7 encodes a pseudo-response regulator protein and its expression is regulated by photoperiod. We show that in long days DTH7 acts downstream of the photoreceptor phytochrome B to repress the expression of Ehd1, an up-regulator of the “florigen” genes (Hd3a and RFT1), leading to delayed flowering. Further, we find that haplotype combinations of DTH7 with Grain number, plant height, and heading date 7 (Ghd7) and DTH8 correlate well with the heading date and grain yield of rice under different photoperiod conditions. Our data provide not only a macroscopic view of the genetic control of photoperiod sensitivity in rice but also a foundation for breeding of rice cultivars better adapted to the target environments using rational design.
Survey of Distributed Decision Tree Induction Techniques

The decision tree-based classification is a popular approach for pattern recognition and data mining. Most decision tree induction methods assume training data being present at one central location. Given the growth in distributed databases at geographically dispersed locations, the methods for decision tree induction in distributed settings are gaining importance. This paper describes one such method that generates compact trees using multifeature splits in place of single feature split decision trees generated by most existing methods for distributed data. Our method is based on Fisher’s linear discriminant function, and is capable of dealing with multiple classes in the data. For homogeneously distributed data, the decision trees produced by our method are identical to decision trees generated using the Fisher’s linear discriminant function with centrally stored data. For heterogeneously distributed data, a certain approximation is involved with a small change in performance with respect to the tree generated with centrally stored data. Experimental results for several well known data sets are presented and compared with decision trees generated using the Fisher’s linear discriminant function with centrally stored data.
Vulnerability of Mesostriatal Dopaminergic Neurons in Parkinson's Disease

The term vulnerability was first associated with the midbrain dopaminergic neurons 85 years ago, before they were identified as monoaminergic neurons, when Foix and Nicolesco (1925) reported the loss of neuromelanin containing neurons in the midbrain of patients with post-encephalitic Parkinson's disease (PD). A few years later, Hassler (1938) showed that degeneration is more intense in the ventral tier of the substantia nigra compacta than in its dorsal tier and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), outlining the concept of differential vulnerability of midbrain dopaminergic (DA-) neurons. Nowadays, we know that other neuronal groups degenerate in PD, but the massive loss of nigral DA-cells is its pathological hallmark, having a pivotal position in the pathophysiology of the disease as it is responsible for the motor symptoms. Data from humans as well as cellular and animal models indicate that DA-cell degeneration is a complex process, probably precipitated by the convergence of different risk factors, mediated by oxidative stress, and involving pathogenic factors arising within the DA-neuron (intrinsic factors), and from its environment and distant interconnected brain regions (extrinsic factors). In light of current data, intrinsic factors seem to be preferentially involved in the first steps of the degenerative process, and extrinsic factors in its progression. A controversial issue is the relative weight of the impairment of common cell functions, such as energy metabolism and proteostasis, and specific dopaminergic functions, such as pacemaking activity and DA handling, in the pathogenesis of DA-cell degeneration. Here we will review the current knowledge about the relevance of these factors at the beginning and during the progression of PD, and in the differential vulnerability of midbrain DA-cells.
Digital Cross-Organizational Collaboration: A Metatriangulation Review

This paper presents a metatriangulation review on the topic of digital cross-organizational collaboration, defined as the integration of people, information systems, and processes across different organizations to accomplish a particular task by using digital means as an enabler. Using paradigm lenses adapted from Markus and Robey (1988), we examine 80 research papers published in six information systems journals between 2000 and 2007. The results of our analysis suggest that the theoretical view points (technological imperative, organizational imperative, and emergent perspective) substantially affect the unit of analysis and the selection of an underlying theory. Finally by reviewing conflicting results and inconsistent conclusions, we propose a framework which points to several research gaps and reveals possible research opportunities.
Off-line and on-line guaranteed start-up delay for media-on-demand with stream merging

We address the problem of designing efficient solutions for media-on-demand in systems that use stream merging. In a stream merging system, the receiving bandwidth of clients is larger than the playback bandwidth and clients can buffer parts of the transmission to be played back later. Intelligent use of these resources allows bandwidth usage to be reduced exponentially over traditional unicast delivery of popular media. We design an off-line algorithm that, in O(n) time, computes an optimal off-line stream merging solution for the case when the time horizon n is known ahead of time. In addition, we describe an on-line delay guaranteed solution that operates without knowledge of the time horizon size, and show that it performs asymptotically close to the optimal off-line algorithm. The on-line algorithm is simpler to implement than previously proposed on-line stream merging algorithms, and empirically performs well when the intensity of client arrivals is high.
M5 model tree and gene expression programming for the prediction of metrological parameters

Metrological parameter prediction is an important task carried out by metrological researchers and water resource analyst for the estimation of water demand, water resource planning, management and operation. Accurate predictions of these parameters are still an open problem. M5 model tree and gene expression programming are two popular machine learning techniques which are considered as white-box model. In this paper, we have applied two machine learning techniques, such as M5 model tree and gene expression programming, for the prediction of various metrological parameters at a weather station. Among these two techniques, one is better over other for the prediction of a set of parameters.
Has Agricultural Trade Liberalization Improved Welfare in the Least-Developed Countries? Yes

The author evaluates the progress in agricultural liberalization -and the welfare effects for least-developed and net food-importing countries- as a result of agricultural price shocks resulting from the Uruguay Round. She findsthat: (1) The changes in welfare are significantly affected by the structure of trade and distortions in the domestic economy. (2) Although many economies are hurt by increases in world prices, losses in terms of trade are small relative to total GDP. Only in a few countries does the estimated welfare change constitute more than 1 percent of GDP. (3) In several countries, the distortion effects are significantly larger than the terms-of-trade effects. In some cases, the distortion effects work in opposition to the terms-of-trade effects and are large enough to reverse the sign of the net welfare change. In short, removing policy distortions could convert the small loss in terms of trade to potential gains. But many least-developed, net food-importing countries did not use the Round to support domestic efforts at trade reform. As most studies show, most gains from multilateral liberalization come from the countries'own liberalization efforts, so countries that failed to liberalize their trade policy lost the opportunity for gains.
Public Health Matters

Zoning, the most prevalent land use planning tool in the United States, has substantial implications for equity and public health. Zoning determines where various categories of land use may go, thereby influencing the location of re- sulting environmental and health im- pacts. Industrially zoned areas permit noxious land uses and typically carry higher environmental burdens than other areas. Many public health concerns are loca- tion specific and location dependent. It be- hooves us to consider the role of zoning as the primary planning tool that governs what goes where. Most major US cities; many sub- urban, exurban, and even rural areas of the United States; and many other countries use zoning as their primary means of land use planning. 1(p163) Zoning is used to designate certain areas as "appropriate" for certain uses (separated into broad categories such as res- idential, commercial, institutional, and in- dustrial), as well as to determine "appropriate" densities, building bulk, lot coverage, and a host of other factors. Zoning can also be em- ployed to restrict or prohibit certain land uses in certain areas. Zoning therefore determines the allow- able uses to which land may be put. The uses to which land may be put, in turn, influence what environmental and human health im- pacts may result from the activities allowed to take place on the land. The determination of zoning, then, can have substantial ramifi- cations for public health matters. In fact, the idea of zoning and much of the seminal pub- lic health legislation came of age at approxi- mately the same time in many American and European cities. 2 The modern disciplines of public health and urban planning developed from the same roots in the late 19th century, with similar ob- jectives, strategies, and standards. Although the fields of planning and public health di- verged during the intervening century, in both theoretical focus and practical applications, it may now be timely to consider the shared roots and experiences of the 2 fields and re- turn to a state of collaborative effort and awareness of each other's work. Planners need to take into account the potential public health impacts of their planning actions, and public health professionals can benefit from under- standing the implications and importance of land use planning decisions in public health issues.
A case for exploiting subarray-level parallelism (SALP) in DRAM

Modern DRAMs have multiple banks to serve multiple memory requests in parallel. However, when two requests go to the same bank, they have to be served serially, exacerbating the high latency of off-chip memory. Adding more banks to the system to mitigate this problem incurs high system cost. Our goal in this work is to achieve the benefits of increasing the number of banks with a low cost approach. To this end, we propose three new mechanisms that overlap the latencies of different requests that go to the same bank. The key observation exploited by our mechanisms is that a modern DRAM bank is implemented as a collection of subarrays that operate largely independently while sharing few global peripheral structures. Our proposed mechanisms (SALP-1, SALP-2, and MASA) mitigate the negative impact of bank serialization by overlapping different components of the bank access latencies of multiple requests that go to different subarrays within the same bank. SALP-1 requires no changes to the existing DRAM structure and only needs reinterpretation of some DRAM timing parameters. SALP-2 and MASA require only modest changes (<;0.15% area overhead) to the DRAM peripheral structures, which are much less design constrained than the DRAM core. Evaluations show that all our schemes significantly improve performance for both single-core systems and multi-core systems. Our schemes also interact positively with application-aware memory request scheduling in multi-core systems.
[Effect of puerarin on the expression of NMDA receptor in the hippocampus CA1 region after focal cerebral ischemia in rats].

OBJECTIVE To study the antagonistic action of Puerarin against the excitatory amino acid toxicity, and to further explore its brain protection mechanisms. METHODS Focal cerebral ischemia model was set up with middle cerebral artery occlusion by intraluminal block in this study. After cerebral ischemia, Puerarin was administered at different time point. The volume of cerebral ischemia was assessed by TTC stain. NR1 positive neurons in hippocampus CA1 region was determined by immunohistochemistry SABC method. RESULTS The cerebral ischemia volumes were smaller in 2 h and 12 h model treatment groups (P < 0.05) than those in model control groups, but no significant differences were observed in 24 h model treatment group. Compared with sham-operation group, the NR1-positive cells in hippocampal CA1 region were increased obviously (P < 0.05) in both model control and model treatment groups. Compared with model control groups, the NR1-positive cells in hippocampal CA1 were decreased obviously (P < 0.05) in 2 h and 12 h treatment groups. CONCLUSION The treatment of Puerarin within 12 h after ischemia can cut down the expression of NMDA receptor. This indicates that the puerarin treatment in earlier period after ischemia can indirectly rivalry toxic effect of excitatory amino acids, relieve neural injury.
The Venous Anatomy of the Anterior Abdominal Wall: An Anatomical and Clinical Study

Background: Despite improving outcomes, venous problems in the harvest of deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) flaps remain the more common vascular complications. However, it is apparent that the venous anatomy of the anterior abdominal wall has not been described to the same extent as the arterial anatomy. Previous anatomical studies have focused on cadaveric anatomy or excisional specimens. The current study uses in vivo computed tomographic angiography to evaluate this anatomy, in combination with a cadaveric radiographic study. Methods: Both cadaveric and in vivo studies were undertaken using eight whole fresh cadaveric specimens (16 sides) and 100 patients undergoing DIEP flap breast reconstruction (200 sides). The cadaveric component used direct catheter venography and the in vivo studies were undertaken using preoperative computed tomographic angiography, mapping in vivo venous flow. Results: The location, caliber, course, and distribution of the superficial and deep inferior epigastric veins were recorded. The dominance of each system and their direction of drainage were described. Mechanisms for poor venous drainage were postulated, including perforator size, midline crossover of the superficial inferior epigastric vein, and the superficial and deep inferior epigastric vein communications. The incidence of each of these anatomical factors was evaluated. Conclusion: The cause of venous compromise is multifactorial, with the current study showing that preoperative computed tomographic angiography may predict venous problems during flap harvest, by demonstrating perforator diameter, midline crossover, and deep-superficial venous communications.
LONG-TERM INFLUENCE OF AGGRESSIVE CARBONIC ACID UPON THE BEARING CAPACITY OF GROUND ANCHORS

In order to estimate the influence of carbonic acid on the long term behaviour of ground anchors, tests were carried out using cement paste cylinders of similar dimensions. The cement pastes had water contents of 0.4, 0.45 and 0.5 and were stored for up to 600 days in running water with a carbonic acid content of 44, 66 or 96 mg/l. Tests carried out includecd a) visual inspecton, b) determination of mass change, c) measurement of penetration depth of water containing carbonic acid at the surface and d) EDAX investigations. The results show that corrosion of a ground anchor due to carbonic acid may lead under certain circumstances to a decrease of the bearing capacity of the anchor. For the covering abstract see IRRD 898458.