Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Interaction Between Load Balancing and Speed Scaling

Speed scaling has been widely adopted in computer and communication systems, in particular, to reduce energy consumption. An important question is how speed scaling interacts with other resource allocation mechanisms such as scheduling and routing. In this paper, we study the interaction of speed scaling with load balancing. We characterize the equilibrium resulting from the load balancing and speed scaling interaction, and introduce two optimal load-balancing designs, in terms of traditional performance metric and cost-aware (in particular, energy-aware) performance metric, respectively. Especially, we characterize the load-balancing-speed-scaling equilibrium with respect to the optimal load-balancing schemes in processor-sharing systems. Our results show that the degree of inefficiency at the equilibrium is mostly bounded by the heterogeneity of the system, but independent of the number of servers. These results provide insights in understanding the interaction of load balancing with speed scaling and guiding new designs.
Human body burdens of chemicals used in plastic manufacture

In the last decades, the availability of sophisticated analytical chemistry techniques has facilitated measuring trace levels of multiple environmental chemicals in human biological matrices (i.e. biomonitoring) with a high degree of accuracy and precision. As biomonitoring data have become readily available, interest in their interpretation has increased. We present an overview on the use of biomonitoring in exposure and risk assessment using phthalates and bisphenol A as examples of chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic goods. We present and review the most relevant research on biomarkers of exposure for phthalates and bisphenol A, including novel and most comprehensive biomonitoring data from Germany and the United States. We discuss several factors relevant for interpreting and understanding biomonitoring data, including selection of both biomarkers of exposure and human matrices, and toxicokinetic information.
Mentalization in adult attachment narratives: Reflective functioning, mental states, and affect elaboration compared.

Relationships between three measures of mentalization (reflective function, mental states, and verbal elaboration of affect), attachment status, and the severity of axis I and axis II pathology were examined. Seventy-three adults, both ex-psychiatric patients and nonclinical volunteers were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Comparisons between the three measures indicate that they share some aspect of a core mentalization process and that each illuminates a specific component. Reflective function was the only predictor of attachment status. The number of axis I diagnoses is partly explained by attachment insecurity, but the capacity to generate high-level defensive mental states as well as increments in verbal affect elaboration further contribute to the model. Finally, increments in affect elaboration, as well as augmentations in high-level defensive activity and reflective function are all associated with decreases in the number of axis II diagnoses, over and above the contribution of attachment status and axis I pathology.
Tensor Recovery via Multi-linear Augmented Lagrange Multiplier Method

The problem of recovering data in multi-way arrays (i.e., tensors) arises in many fields such as image processing and computer vision, etc. In this paper, we present a novel method based on multi-linear n-rank and l_0 norm optimization for recovering a low-n-rank tensor with an unknown fraction of its elements being arbitrarily corrupted. In the new method, the n-rank and l_0 norm of the each mode of the given tensor are combined by weighted parameters as the objective function. In order to avoid relaxing the observed tensor into penalty terms, which may cause less accuracy problem, the minimization problem along each mode is accomplished by applying the augmented Lagrange multiplier method. The proposed approach is evaluated both on simulated data and real world data. Experimental results show that our proposed method tends to deliver higher-quality solutions with faster convergence rate compared with previous methods.
Leader-following consensus of multi-agent systems over finite fields

The leader-following consensus problem of multi-agent systems over finite fields Fp is considered in this paper. Dynamics of each agent is governed by a general linear equation over Fp, and a distributed control protocol is assigned to each follower. Necessary and sufficient conditions on system matrices and graph weights are provided for the followers to track the leader.
Is the discrepancy criterion for defining developmental disorders valid?

BACKGROUND Most developmental disorders are defined by an achievement discrepancy in which achievement on one or more specific abilities is substantially less than a person's measured intelligence. We evaluated the validity of this discrepancy criterion by assessing parameters that determine variability across abilities and by assessing relationships between achievement discrepancies and behavioral disturbances. METHODS Measures of intelligence, language, motor coordination, empathic ability, and attentional control were administered to a representative sample of 390 children aged 3 to 12 years. Parent ratings of child behavior were obtained. RESULTS Results indicate that achievement discrepancies are a function of the correlation between ability measures, the shape of the ability distributions, and position on an index ability dimension. Discrepancies in achievement were not related to behavioral disturbance, but underachievement relative to age peers was invariably related to behavioral disturbance. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that developmental disorders need to be redefined in ways that are consistent with how Mental Retardation is now defined, by (a) underachievements, (b) of defined magnitude, (c) using standardized measures, (d) with known relations to normal development, and (e) concurrent deficits on standardized measures of impaired function.
B cell abnormality and autoimmune disorders

Various abnormalities have been described in B cells from patients with systemic autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus-prone mice. Many of the abnormalities do not appear to be connected with the pathogenesis of the disease. However, various animal models developing lupus-like disease including both spontaneous mutants such as (NZB × NZW)F1 and MRL/lpr and mice generated by transgenic or knockout technology such as Bim-deficient and CD40L-transgenic mice show defect in apoptosis of mature B cells induced by ligation of the B cell antigen receptor (BCR). BCR-mediated apoptosis appears to be involved in deletion of self-reactive B cells. Thus, defect in BCR-mediated apoptosis is a widely observed B cell abnormality in lupus-prone mice and may play a role in the pathogenesis of systemic autoimmune diseases by abrogating deletion of self-reactive B cells.
Adapting a downlink array from uplink measurements

In a frequency division duplex system, a transmitter adaptive antenna array can potentially improve the performance of a wireless downlink, but because the uplink and downlink channels have different wavelengths, and, therefore, different responses, direct downlink adaptation based on channel estimates of the uplink is generally not feasible. Instead, there has been some interest in adaptations that require only the second-order statistics of the uplink and downlink to be similar. These algorithms derive adaptive weights from the covariance of the received signal to apply to a downlink transmitter array. We make two contributions to this area. First, we introduce an array configuration employing M+1 elements with log-periodic spacing that comprises two overlapping subarrays, each with M elements, that are scaled versions of each other, with the scale factor equal to the ratio of the uplink wavelength to the downlink wavelength. This array has identical beampatterns at the two wavelengths, thus helping to fulfill the requirement that the uplink and downlink second-order statistics be the same. Second, we demonstrate that obtaining a good estimate of the uplink covariance matrix is not essential for the successful operation of the adaptive scheme. Even when the mobile is at rest and the uplink information comprises only a single snapshot from the receiver array, an adaptive scheme can improve the SNR.
Abdominal MRI at 3.0 T: the basics revisited.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of our article is to describe the underlying physics concepts of abdominal MRI at 3.0 T and their impact on signal-to-noise ratio, susceptibility artifacts, chemical shift artifacts, and dielectric effects. CONCLUSION Abdominal MR sequence protocols optimized for 1.5-T scanners should not be transferred to 3.0 T without substantial modification. In addition, specific patient groups--for example, large patients with ascites--are not well suited to undergo an abdominal MRI study at 3.0 T.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the human motor cortex influences the neuronal activity of subthalamic nucleus

The critical role of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in the control of movement and parkinsonian symptoms is well established. Research in animals suggests that the cerebral cortex plays an important role in regulating the activity of the STN but this control is not known in humans. The most extensive cortical innervation of the STN originates from motor areas. Here, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) during intraoperative single‐unit recordings from STN, in six patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) undergoing implantation of deep brain stimulators, to determine whether TMS of the motor cortex (MC) modulates the activity of STN and to investigate in vivo the functional organization of the corticosubthalamic circuit in the human brain. Single‐pulse TMS of the MC induced an excitation in 74.9% of neurons investigated. This activation was followed by a long‐lasting inhibition of the STN neuronal activity that did not correlate with PD severity. Responsive neurons to TMS of the hand area of motor cortex were located mainly in the lateral and dorsal region of the subthalamus while unresponsive cells had a prevalently medial distribution. This is the first report of TMS‐induced modulation of STN neuronal activity in humans. These findings open up new avenues for in vivo studies of corticosubthalamic interactions in human brain and PD.
Collaborative Plant Breeding for Organic Agricultural Systems in Developed Countries

Because organic systems present complex environmental stress, plant breeders may either target very focused regions for different varieties, or create heterogeneous populations which can then evolve specific adaptation through on-farm cultivation and selection. This often leads to participatory plant breeding (PPB) strategies which take advantage of the specific knowledge of farmers. Participatory selection requires increased commitment and engagement on the part of the farmers and researchers. Projects may begin as researcher initiatives with farmer participation or farmer initiatives with researcher participation and over time evolve into true collaborations. These projects are difficult to plan in advance because by nature they change to respond to the priorities and interests of the collaborators. Projects need to provide relevant information and analysis in a time-frame that is meaningful for farmers, while remaining scientifically rigorous and innovative. This paper presents two specific studies: the first was a researcher-designed experiment that assessed the potential adaptation of landraces to organic systems through on-farm cultivation and farmer selection. The second is a farmer-led plant breeding project to select bread wheat for organic systems in France. Over the course of these two projects, many discussions among farmers, researchers and farmers associations led to the development of methods that fit the objectives of those involved. This type of project is no longer researcher-led or farmer-led but instead an equal collaboration. Results from the two research projects and the strategy developed for an ongoing collaborative plant breeding project are discussed.
The linkage between the household and workplace of Dominican women in the U.S.

Considerable interdependence exists between the household and work place in the lives of Dominican migrant women in the US, according to this study based on data gathered largely from fieldwork conducted in the US and Dominican Republic from 1980-83. It is observed that while women's participation in wage work contributes to an improvement in domestic and social relations, these household level changes do not, in turn, translate into greater awareness of the migrant women, or demands for improved working conditions. On the contrary, in many cases, work has helped reinforce their lower status in the labor force because it has allowed women to redefine their roles as wives and mothers in a more satisfying manner than was the case prior to their employment and residence in the US. Although the jobs held by Dominican garment workers would place them in the ranks of the working class, the majority of them tend to identify themselves as middle class. Paradoxically, the beliefs about immigration and work which are rooted in the family, and the immigration goals which are realized through more egalitarian relationships at home, militate against a working class identification and the resulting organized resistance in the work place.
Feature Engineering and Classifier Ensemble for KDD Cup 2010

KDD Cup 2010 is an educational data mining competition. Participants are asked to learn a model from students' past behavior and then predict their future performance. At National Taiwan University, we organized a course for this competition. Most student sub-teams expanded features by various binarization and discretization techniques. The resulting sparse feature sets were trained by logistic regression (using LIBLINEAR). One sub-team considered condensed features using simple statistical techniques and applied Random Forest (through Weka) for training. Initial development was conducted on an internal split of training data for training and validation. We identied some useful feature combinations to improve performance. For the nal submission, we combined results of student sub-teams by regularized linear regression. Our team is the rst prize winner of both tracks (all teams and student teams) of KDD Cup 2010.
Effect of aerobic exercise training on mtDNA deletion in soleus muscle of trained and untrained Wistar rats

Background: According to the theory of mitochondrial aging, oxidative stress plays a major role in aging and age related degenerative diseases. Since oxygen consumption and reactive oxygen species rate increase during aerobic exercise, we hypothesised that heavy aerobic training could lead to enhanced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletion in postmitotic tissues, leading in turn to premature aging and degenerative diseases. Methods: Sixty adult male 2 month old Wistar14848 rats were divided into six equal groups. Two groups were trained for 3 months by running on a treadmill (5 days/week, incline 6°; group 1: 40 m/min, 20 min/day; group 2: 20 m/min, 40 min/day), while two sedentary groups participated in aerobic exercise only at the end of the study (incline 6°; group 3: 40 m/min; group 4: 20 m/min). To control for physical and physiological parameters, two groups of untrained animals were killed at the beginning (group 6) and end (group 5) of the study. Expand long PCR was used to investigate mtDNA deletion in soleus muscle and a sequencing method was used to confirm the mtDNA deletion break point. Results: Our results did not show any mtDNA deletion in untrained rats or in those that underwent moderate training (group 2) We only found mtDNA deletion (4.6 kb) in the soleus muscle of heavily trained rats (group 1). Conclusions: These results demonstrate that one session of aerobic exercise does not cause mtDNA deletion in skeletal muscle. The difference in results between heavy and moderate aerobic training may be due to low work rate or up-regulation of inducible antioxidant systems in moderate training.
The Effect of Tofogliflozin Treatment on Postprandial Glucose and Lipid Metabolism in Japanese Men With Type 2 Diabetes: A Pilot Study

Background Postprandial hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia are highly related to the development of atherosclerosis. Sodium/glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have attracted attention as a new class of anti-diabetic agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. We investigated the effect of tofogliflozin on postprandial glucose and lipid metabolism in Japanese male patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods Ten Japanese men with type 2 diabetes (average age 66.3 years) were orally administered tofogliflozin (20 mg per day) for 8 weeks followed by a subsequent 8 weeks of washout of the agent. At 0, 8 and 16 weeks, postprandial metabolic parameters were measured at 0, 60 and 120 min after cookie ingestion. Results There were significant reductions in body weight and body mass index at 8 weeks. There was a reduction in HbA1c at 8 weeks, which returned to pretreatment levels at 16 weeks. Serum insulin levels did not change during the entire study period under either fasting or postprandial state. The area under the curve of plasma glucagon significantly increased at 8 weeks. There were no changes in lipid and lipoprotein levels either in fasting or postprandial state except for tendency toward reduction in postprandial triglycerides at 8 weeks and increase in HDL-C at 16 weeks. Conclusions Tofogliflozin treatment causes an improvement of postprandial glucose metabolism but not considerable postprandial lipid metabolism.
Antidepressant-Like Effects of Cordycepin in a Mice Model of Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress

Cordycepin (3′-deoxyadenosine), a major bioactive component isolated from Cordyceps militaris, has multiple pharmacological activities. This study is attempted to investigate whether cordycepin (COR) possesses beneficial effects on chronic unpredictable mild stress- (CUMS-) induced behavioral deficits (depression-like behaviors) and explore the possible mechanisms. ICR mice were subjected to chronic unpredictable mild stress for 42 consecutive days. Then, COR and fluoxetine (FLU, positive control drug) were administered for 21 consecutive days at the last three weeks of CUMS procedure. The classical behavioral tests, open field test (OFT), sucrose preference test (SPT), tail suspension test (TST), and forced swimming test (FST), were applied to evaluate the antidepressant effects of COR. Then the serotonin (5-HT) and noradrenaline (NE) concentrations in hippocampal were evaluated by HPLC; tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in hippocampal were evaluated, and the proteins of TNF-α, IL-6, NF-κBP65 5-HT2A receptor (5-HT2AR), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in hippocampal were evaluated by Western blot. Our results indicated that 6 weeks of CUMS exposure induced significant depression-like behavior, with low 5-HT and NE levels, high TNF-α and IL-6 in brain and high hippocampal TNF-α, IL-6, P-NF-κBP65, and 5-HT2AR levels, and low BDNF expression levels. Whereas, chronic COR (20, 40 mg/kg) treatments reversed the behavioral deficiency induced by CUMS exposure, treatment with COR normalized the change of TNF-α, IL-6, 5-HT, and NE levels, which demonstrated that COR could partially restore CUMS-induced 5-HT receptor impairments and inflammation. Besides, hippocampal BDNF expressions were also upregulated after COR treatments. In conclusion, COR remarkably improved depression-like behavior in CUMS mice and its antidepressant activity is mediated, at least in part, by the upregulating BDNF and downregulating 5-HT2AR levels and inflammation in hippocampus.
P 53 genetic polymorphisms , interactions with lifestyle factors and lung cancer risk : a case control study in a Chinese population

1 Department of Social and Preventive, School of Public Health and Health Professions, T he State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, NY, USA 2 Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of Calif ornia, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA 3 Shanxi Tumor Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China 4 Taiyuan City Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China 5 School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China 6 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, F uzhou, Fijian, China
Effect of risedronate on the risk of hip fracture in elderly women. Hip Intervention Program Study Group.

BACKGROUND Risedronate increases bone mineral density in elderly women, but whether it prevents hip fracture is not known. METHODS We studied 5445 women 70 to 79 years old who had osteoporosis (indicated by a T score for bone mineral density at the femoral neck that was more than 4 SD below the mean peak value in young adults [-4] or lower than -3 plus a nonskeletal risk factor for hip fracture, such as poor gait or a propensity to fall) and 3886 women at least 80 years old who had at least one nonskeletal risk factor for hip fracture or low bone mineral density at the femoral neck (T score, lower than -4 or lower than -3 plus a hip-axis length of 11.1 cm or greater). The women were randomly assigned to receive treatment with oral risedronate (2.5 or 5.0 mg daily) or placebo for three years. The primary end point was the occurrence of hip fracture. RESULTS Overall, the incidence of hip fracture among all the women assigned to risedronate was 2.8 percent, as compared with 3.9 percent among those assigned to placebo (relative risk, 0.7; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.6 to 0.9; P=0.02). In the group of women with osteoporosis (those 70 to 79 years old), the incidence of hip fracture among those assigned to risedronate was 1.9 percent, as compared with 3.2 percent among those assigned to placebo (relative risk, 0.6; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.4 to 0.9; P=0.009). In the group of women selected primarily on the basis of nonskeletal risk factors (those at least 80 years of age), the incidence of hip fracture was 4.2 percent among those assigned to risedronate and 5.1 percent among those assigned to placebo (P=0.35). CONCLUSIONS Risedronate significantly reduces the risk of hip fracture among elderly women with confirmed osteoporosis but not among elderly women selected primarily on the basis of risk factors other than low bone mineral density.
Active management and protection of distribution networks with distributed generation

The extent of distributed generation (DG) that can be connected to a distribution network is often limited by the permissible voltage limits. The DG not only raises voltage but also modifies network fault current and may cause problems on existing distribution network protection schemes. Voltage control by active management can increase the level of DG penetration but requires an assessment of the voltage at each point on the network. Active management of the distribution network (DN) must also be practicable for the generators and the network operator. The paper presents possible solutions to some of the problems of active management and protection of distribution networks with higher penetration of DG. The paper also addresses the issues of costs and benefits of active management and DG islanded operation.