Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Service Level Agreement Assurance between Cloud Services Providers and Cloud Customers

Cloud services providers deliver cloud services to cloud customers on pay-per-use model while the quality of the provided services are defined using service level agreements also known as SLAs. Unfortunately, there is no standard mechanism which exists to verify and assure that delivered services satisfy the signed SLA agreement in an automatic way. There is no guarantee in terms of quality. Those applications have many performance metrics. In this doctoral thesis, we propose a framework for SLA assurance, which can be used by both cloud providers and cloud users. Inside the proposed framework, we will define the performance metrics for the different applications. We will assess the applications performance in different testing environment to assure good services quality as mentioned in SLA. The proposed framework will be evaluated through simulations and using testbed experiments. After testing the applications performance by measuring the performance metrics, we will review the time correlations between those metrics.
Inhibitory Synapses on Pacemaker Neurons in the Heart Ganglion of a Stomatopod, Squilla oratoria

The pacemaker neurons of the Squilla heart ganglion are innervated from the CNS through three pairs of extrinsic nerves. One of them, the α-nerve, is inhibitory to the heart beat. The effect of α-nerve stimulation on the pacemaker potential was examined with intracellular electrodes. Without extrinsic nerve stimulation the membrane potential of the pacemaker cell fluctuated spontaneously. On application of a tetanic train of stimuli to the α-nerve the membrane potential was shifted and fixed to a steady level, which with K2SO4-filled electrodes was near the peak of hyperpolarization after a spontaneous burst, but was less negative with KCl-filled electrodes. The shift of the membrane potential was due to the summated IPSP's. By changing the level of the membrane potential with injection of the polarizing current the IPSP could be reversed in sign, and the size of the IPSP was linearly correlated with the membrane potential level. During inhibition the membrane conductance increased. The increase depended on divalent cation concentrations in the outside medium. In Ca-rich saline the IPSP was greatly enhanced. In Mg-rich saline it was suppressed. The amplitude of antidromic spikes was reduced during inhibition especially when the spike frequency was high.
Is Your Supply Chain Business Operation a Good Fit for Online Reverse Auctions?

This industry note explores the benefits of online reverse auctions for both buyers and suppliers in contrast to the negative implications for procurement process. Information was gathered from numerous sources to create a comprehensive analysis of benefits and shortcomings of online reverse auctions. The argument presented shows a strong temptation for buyers to participate in online reverse auctions: price reductions. However, buyers should approach online reverse auctions with caution as total cost savings can be misleading and participation may result in damaged relationships with suppliers. Buyers’ determination to use online reverse auctions relies on product specifications, supplier relationships, the current supply and demand environment, indirect costs, and several other factors that will vary for each product and for each buyer. Therefore, an all-encompassing decision model cannot be presented to accommodate each scenario. However, a generic framework is proposed for managers determining if participation in online reverse auctions is appropriate for their business. In practice, additional company specific information can be applied to the decision making model. It may be noted, the research reported in professional literature on online reverse auctions does not offer a process for managers to follow when evaluating whether to implement online reverse auctions. This note includes a generic decision framework specifically for buyers as well as an abbreviated decision model for suppliers.
CAUSALITY AND COINTEGRATION BETWEEN CONSUMPTION AND GDP IN 25 OECD COUNTRIES: LIMITATIONS OF THE COINTEGRATION APPROACH

A critical review of cointegration is presented in this paper, emphasizing some limitations of this approach to testing causal relations in Econometrics. We present an application of cointegration tests to the relation between Private Consumption and Gross Domestic Product in 25 OECD countries, during the period 1960-97, and the results confirm those limitations and the convenience of giving more emphasis to other alternative approaches like mixed dynamic models and specification tests. JEL Classification: C5, E21, F0, O57
Current Microbial Isolates from Wound Swabs, Their Culture and Sensitivity Pattern at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, Nigeria

Background: Wound infections continue to be problematic in clinical practice where empiric treatment of infections is routine. Objectives: A retrospective cross-sectional study to determine the current causative organisms of wound infections and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns in the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH), Okolobiri, Bayelsa State of Nigeria. Methods: Records of wound swabs collected from 101 patients with high suspicion of wound infection were analysed. Smears from the wound swabs were inoculated on appropriate media and cultured. Bacterial colonies were Gram stained and microscopically examined. Biochemical tests were done to identify pathogen species. The Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method was used for antibiotic testing. Results: Prevalence of wound infection was 86.13% (CI: 79.41–92.85). Most bacteria were Gram negative bacilli with Pseudomonas aeruginosa being the most prevalent pathogen isolated. The bacterial isolates exhibited a high degree of resistance to the antibiotics tested (42.8% to 100% resistance). All isolates were resistant to cloxacillin. Age group and sex did not exert any effect on prevalence, aetiological agent or antimicrobial resistance pattern. Conclusion: We suggest a multidisciplinary approach to wound management, routine microbiological surveillance of wounds, rational drug use and the institution of strong infection control policies.
Tobacco Addiction and Smoking Status in Heroin Addicts under Methadone vs. Buprenorphine Therapy

Aims of the present investigation were: (i) to assess the prevalence of current smokers and relative smoking status among a large number of heroin addicts attending opioid-substitution therapy prevalence; (ii) to evaluate the relationship between the type (methadone, buprenorphine) and dosage of opioid substitution therapy and nicotine dependence. Three hundred and five (305) heroin addicts under opioid-substitution therapy were recruited at five Addiction Units. All participants completed a questionnaire assessing sociodemographic information, type and dose of opioid-substitution therapy, smoking history and status, Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), and the Zung Self-Rating Depression scale (SDS). 298 subjects, out of 305 (97.2%) were smokers, with an average of 20.5 cigarette/day and a median FTND of 6. Our data confirmed the high prevalence of smokers among heroin addicts, the highest described in the literature to date among heroin addicts under substitution therapies, without any significant difference between methadone vs. buprenorphine therapy groups. There was no correlation between dose of methadone or buprenorphine and average number of cigarettes/day. Patients in substance abuse treatment very frequently smoke cigarettes and often die of tobacco-related diseases. Substance abuse treatment programs too often ignore tobacco use. We hope that these findings will help to incorporate smoking cessation in substance abuse treatments.
Jenni Kulmala Modulation of Plasticity of the Soleus Area of the Motor Cortex Using Paired Associative Stimulation 229 STUDIES IN SPORT , PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH

Kumpulainen, Susanne Modulation of plasticity of the soleus area of the motor cortex using paired associative stimulation Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2015, 80 p. (Studies in Sport, Physical Education and Health ISSN 0356-1070; 229) ISBN 978-951-39-6405-4 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-6406-1 (PDF) Paired associative stimulation (PAS) repeatedly combines single somatosensory nerve stimuli with single transcranial magnetic stimuli to induce bidirectional changes in the excitability of the cortical projections to the target muscle. PAS and motor training have been shown to share common neural mechanisms, suggesting that PAS tests functionally relevant neuronal circuits. While PAS has been used extensively to target the hand area of the motor cortex, few studies have targeted the leg area of the motor cortex. The optimal interstimulus interval (ISI) to induce plasticity in the cortical projections to lower limbs is still not well established. Thus, the first purpose of this thesis was to define an optimal ISI to induce long-term potentiation-like plasticity in the cortical projections to the soleus muscle. Next, this PAS protocol was used as a tool to study the effect of training background on motor cortex plasticity. The functionality of the effects following PAS was evaluated in the third experiment, by quantifying fatigue resistance during a 15 s sustained maximal isometric contraction prior to and after the PAS intervention. The fourth purpose of the thesis was to place the principle of PAS in a more natural context by replacing electrical stimulation with a natural stretch reflex volley (PASreflex). The optimal ISI for the PAS intervention when targeting soleus muscle was the latency of somatosensory evoked potential plus 18 ms (P32 plus 18 ms), which resulted in an 88 ± 105% increase in amplitude of the soleus motor-evoked potential. With the optimal PAS protocol, skill trained athletes exhibited significantly greater motor cortex plasticity compared to endurance trained athletes. The reason for differential motor cortex plasticity is likely related to the different training-induced adaptations. On average, fatigue resistance did not change following PAS and consequently, the functionality of PAS was not evident. However, PAS-induced excitability changes correlated significantly with changes in fatigue resistance. The effect of PASreflex was different immediately after and 30 min following the cessation of the intervention, and thus there were most likely several different phenomena taking place in the motor cortex due to the nature of the stretch reflex. In conclusion, the findings of this thesis will help to understand the behavioral and neural signals that drive function and learning in the motor cortex.
Parallel Environment for DEVS and Cell-DEVS Models

Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) is a sound formalism to describe generic dynamic systems in a hierarchical and modular way. Cell-DEVS is a DEVS-based formalism intended to model compleX physical systems as cell spaces. This work presents new techniques for eXecuting DEVS and Cell-DEVS models in parallel and distributed environments based on the WARPED kernel, an implementation of the Time Warp protocol. The optimistic simulator PCD++, built as a new simulation engine for CD++, is a toolkit that implements the DEVS and Cell-DEVS formalisms. We redesign algorithms in CD++ to carry out optimistic simulations using a non-hierarchical approach that reduces the communication overhead. The message-passing organization is analyzed using a high-level abstraction referred to as wall clock time slice. We propose a two-level user-controlled state-saving mechanism to achieve efficient and fleXible state saving at runtime. Various optimization strategies are applied to PCD++ and their effects are analyzed quantitatively, including a risk-free message type-based state-saving strategy to reduce the number of states saved during the simulation significantly, and a one log file per node strategy to break the bottleneck caused by file I/O operations. It is shown that PCD++ markedly outperforms other alternatives and considerable speedups can be achieved in parallel and distributed simulations.
The Relationship of Topic Familiarity and Listening Comprehension

In listening, topic familiarity – knowledge on particular topics is considered important to decodeand comprehend the message correctly. This profound role makes listening undergoing influential changes from passive to active process. Due to this fact, great number of researchers and practitioners have carried out considerably number of studies related to listening, especially factor that contributes to listening which is topic familiarity. Hence, this study aimed at investigating the contribution of topic familiarity to students’ listening comprehension. Undergraduate students of ELT were the samples of this study and two tests namely topic familiarity and listening comprehension test were administered. The result revealed that there was correlation between topic familiarity and listening comprehension which signified the more familiar the students with the topic, the higher listening comprehension they would get. Besides, the contribution of topic familiarity to listening comprehension was 33.6 %.
REVENUE AND ORDER MANAGEMENT UNDER DEMAND UNCERTAINTY

We consider a firm that delivers its products across several customers or markets, each with unique revenue and uncertain demand size for a single selling season. Given that the firm experiences a long procurement lead time, the firm must decide, far in advance of the selling season not only the markets to be pursued but also the procurement quantity. In this dissertation, we present several operational scenarios in which the firm must decide which customer demands to satisfy, at what level to satisfy each customer demand, and how much to produce (or order) in total. Traditionally, a newsvendor approach to the single period problem assumes the use of an expected profit objective. However, maximizing expected profit would not be appropriate for firms that cannot afford successive losses or negligible profits over several consecutive selling seasons. Such a setting would most likely require minimizing the downside risk of accepting uncertain demands into the production plan. We consider the implications of such competing objectives. We also investigate the impact that various forms of demand can have on the flexibility of a firm in their customer/market selection process. a firm may face a small set of unconfirmed orders, and each order will often either come in at a predefined level, or it will not come in at all. We explore optimization solution methods for this all-or-nothing demand case with risk-averse objective utilizing conditional value at risk (CVaR) concept from portfolio management.
Piracy and P2P file-sharing networks : an economic analysis

We find that the producers of digital goods suffer not as much from piracy as the consumers benefit from it. The society as a whole benefits from piracy. A consumer’s surplus is the value of the consumption of a product minus the price, and the producer's surplus is the price minus costs (roughly speaking, profit). The total welfare is then the sum of all consumers’ and producer’s surplus (value minus costs). It may be welfare decreasing if authorities overemphasize the protection of intellectual property rights. Comparing year 2003 to 1999, according to our estimates, the American music industry suffered from a $1.6 billion forgone annual profit. Total annual welfare increased by $13.1 billion. In 2008, annual profit has dropped by another $1.4 billion, while annual welfare soared by another $12.4 billion. By 2020, annual welfare will have improved by a whopping $29.7 billion since 1999.
Thermal trends in emerging technologies

In the future, the peak temperature of a chip will be a primary design constraint. In order to meet this constraint, temperature must be considered in the earliest phases of the design process. Using a newly developed thermal analysis tool, HS3d, this work explores the thermal profile of devices as technology varies. We show that as technology scales, the hotspot locations can shift from the units with the most switching activity to those with the most low-threshold transistors. We further note that process variations in leakage dominated technologies can result in significant variations in the hotspot locations, indicating that feedback from thermal sensors will be very important. Finally, this work examines the thermal effects of multi-layer device stacking technologies, and finds that the vertical temperature difference between layers is much less significant than the horizontal differences due to power density, and as such, vertical placement optimizations will have much smaller impact on hotspot development than a uniform power distribution
The Effect of Parents' Occupation on Child Labor and School Attendance in Brazil

This paper investigates how child labor and schooling are responsive to opportunities to work, in particular to opportunities provided by children’s own parents. The paper demonstrates that after controlling for household, parental, regional, and child characteristics, children whose parents are self-employed or employers are more likely to work than children of employees, irrespective of the sector of parent activity. Furthermore, the paper also confirms a recent finding that children from areas with high average adult employment rates are more likely to work than children from areas with low average adult employment rates. Finally, since twice as many children of the selfemployed and employers both work and go to school as those of employees, the paper suggests that child labor does not necessarily represent a trade off with schooling as it depends on the occupation of the parents.
An Ecient Method for Large Margin Parameter Optimization in Structured Prediction Problems

We consider structured prediction problems with a parametrized linear prediction function, and the associated parameter optimization problems in large margin type of discriminative training. We propose a dual optimization approach which uses the restricted simplicial decomposition method to optimize a reparametrized dual problem. Our reparametrization reduces the dimension of the space of the dual function to one that is linear in the number of parameters and training examples, and hence independent of the dimensionality of the prediction outputs. This in conjunction with simplicial decomposition makes our approach ecient. We discuss the connections of our approach with related earlier works, and we show its advantages.
Learning State Space Trajectories in Recurrent Neural Networks

Many neural network learning procedures compute gradients of the errors on the output layer of units after they have settled to their final values. We describe a procedure for finding E/wij, where E is an error functional of the temporal trajectory of the states of a continuous recurrent network and wij are the weights of that network. Computing these quantities allows one to perform gradient descent in the weights to minimize E. Simulations in which networks are taught to move through limit cycles are shown. This type of recurrent network seems particularly suited for temporally continuous domains, such as signal processing, control, and speech.
Role of the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 in inflammation and sepsis

The transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is a thermoreceptor that responds to noxious temperatures, as well as to chemical agonists, such as vanilloids and protons. In addition, its channel activity is notably potentiated by proinflammatory mediators released upon tissue damage. The TRPV1 contribution to sensory neuron sensitization by proalgesic agents has signaled this receptor as a prime target for analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug intervention. However, TRPV1 antagonists have notably failed in clinical and preclinical studies because of their unwanted side effects. Recent reports have unveiled previously unrecognized anti-inflammatory and protective functions of TRPV1 in several diseases. For instance, this channel has been suggested to play an anti-inflammatory role in sepsis. Therefore, the use of potent TRPV1 antagonists as a general strategy to treat inflammation must be cautiously considered, given the deleterious effects that may arise from inhibiting the population of channels that have a protective function. The use of TRPV1 antagonists may be limited to treating those pathologies where enhanced receptor activity contributes to the inflamed state. Alternatively, therapeutic paradigms, such as reduction of inflammatory-mediated increase of receptor expression in the cell surface, may be a better strategy to prevent abrogation of the TRPV1 subpopulation involved in anti-inflammatory and protective processes.
Time-dependent models of the structure and stability of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

Angular momentum transport within young massive protoplanetary discs may be dominated by self-gravity at radii where the disk is too weakly ionized to allow the development of the magneto-rotational instability. We use time-dependent one-dimensional disc models, based on a local cooling time calculation of the efficiency of transport, to study the radial structure and stability (against fragmentation) of protoplanetary discs in which self-gravity is the sole transport mechanism. We find that self-gravitating discs rapidly attain a quasi-steady state in which the surface density in the inner disc is high and the strength of turbulence very low (α � 10 3 or less inside 5 au). Temperatures high enough to form crystalline silicates may extend out to several au at early times within these discs. None of our discs spontaneously develop regions that would be unambiguously unstable to fragmentation into substellar objects, though the outer regions (beyond 20 au) of the most massive discs are close enough to the threshold that fragmentation cannot be ruled out. We discuss how the mass accretion rates through such discs may vary with disc mass and with mass of the central star, and note that a determination of the u
Self-organizing collaborative filtering in global-scale massive multi-user virtual environments

Due to the huge amount of available information in today's society, it becomes more and more difficult for the consumer to locate the most useful information for a specific topic. Recommender systems using collaborative filtering (CF) are a popular technique for reducing information overload and finding useful information on the Internet. However, in massive global-scale multi-user virtual environments different approaches are required from those used within the currently dominant centralized infrastructures or lately investigated P2P approaches. Within this paper we present a novel collaborative filtering algorithm used within the HyperVerse -- a P2P-based self-organizing middleware service for massively distributed virtual worlds -- to generate and manage recommendations for HyperVerse object favorites. Due to its global extent considering users and possible ratings, using a monolithic database-backed recommendation service or huge profile- or item-rating-matrices does not scale in our scenario. The decentralized approach presented within this paper creates per user ratings in an adaptive and transparent way by comparing public favorites of passer-by users with personal peer data, weighted by self-adjusting buddy lists.