Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elastic-RAID: A New Architecture for Improved Availability of Parity-Based RAIDs by Elastic Mirroring

In this paper, we propose Elastic-RAID, a new RAID architecture to achieve high performance and high reliability for large-scale distributed and parallel storage systems. The key idea behind Elastic-RAID is to smartly utilize the free space existing in parity-based disk arrays to store additional mirroring data. This additional mirroring data redundancy, when strategically and judiciously activated and exploited in a RAID system, enables improved system I/O performance, fault tolerance and recovery. Depending on the amount of free space available and whether the emphasis is on performance or reliability, the elasticity in Elastic-RAID is manifested in how each design objective is achieved. For the performance objective, Elastic-RAID improves small-write performance by writing original and mirroring data synchronously and leaving the costly parity update in the background at a later idle/lightly-loaded time. For the reliability objective, at least two concurrent disk failures can be tolerated when Elastic-RAID is employed in a RAID5 system that has 50 percent or more free space. Higher reliability is provided for important data when free space is less than 50 percent. To achieve the design goal of elasticity, we introduce a novel data layout and addressing scheme. Our extensive trace-driven evaluations on an Elastic-RAID prototype in the typical configurations of RAID5 show that Elastic-RAID boosts the small-write performance in the normal operational state by at least 40 percent, improves the user I/O performance in the reconstruction state by at least 30 percent and shortens the recovery time by at least 40 percent.
In Silico Evidence for the Horizontal Transfer of gsiB, a σΒ-Regulated Gene in Gram-Positive Bacteria, to Lactic Acid Bacteria

ABSTRACT gsiB, coding for glucose starvation-inducible protein B, is a characteristic member of the σΒ stress regulon of Bacillus subtilis and several other Gram-positive bacteria. Here we provide in silico evidence for the horizontal transfer of gsiB in lactic acid bacteria that are devoid of the σΒ factor.
The effect of mouth breathing on chewing efficiency.

OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of mouth breathing on chewing efficiency by evaluating masticatory variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten adult nasal breathers with normal occlusion and no temporomandibular dysfunction were selected. Subjects were instructed to bite the chewing gum on the habitual side. While breathing through the mouth and nose, the glucide elution from the chewing gum, number of chewing strokes, duration of chewing, and electromyography (EMG) activity of the masseter muscle were evaluated as variables of masticatory efficiency. RESULTS The durations required for the chewing of 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, and 250 strokes were significantly (P < .05) longer while breathing through the mouth. There was no significant difference in the glucide elution rate (%) for each chewing stroke between nose and mouth breathings. The glucide elution rates for 1- and 3-minute chewing were significantly (P < .05) lower while breathing through the mouth. However, there was no significant difference in the glucide elution rate for 5-minute chewing between nose and mouth breathings. While chewing for 1, 3, and 5 minutes, the chewing stroke and EMG activity of the masseter muscle were significantly (P < .05) lower during mouth breathing. CONCLUSIONS It takes a longer amount of time to complete chewing to obtain higher masticatory efficiency when breathing through the mouth. Therefore, mouth breathing will decrease the masticatory efficiency if the duration of chewing is restricted in everyday life.
Comparing Binaural Pre-processing Strategies I

In a collaborative research project, several monaural and binaural noise reduction algorithms have been comprehensively evaluated. In this article, eight selected noise reduction algorithms were assessed using instrumental measures, with a focus on the instrumental evaluation of speech intelligibility. Four distinct, reverberant scenarios were created to reflect everyday listening situations: a stationary speech-shaped noise, a multitalker babble noise, a single interfering talker, and a realistic cafeteria noise. Three instrumental measures were employed to assess predicted speech intelligibility and predicted sound quality: the intelligibility-weighted signal-to-noise ratio, the short-time objective intelligibility measure, and the perceptual evaluation of speech quality. The results show substantial improvements in predicted speech intelligibility as well as sound quality for the proposed algorithms. The evaluated coherence-based noise reduction algorithm was able to provide improvements in predicted audio signal quality. For the tested single-channel noise reduction algorithm, improvements in intelligibility-weighted signal-to-noise ratio were observed in all but the nonstationary cafeteria ambient noise scenario. Binaural minimum variance distortionless response beamforming algorithms performed particularly well in all noise scenarios.
Eating strategies used by persons with head and neck cancer during and after radiotherapy

This descriptive study identified the patient's perspective on eating problems during and after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer and pinpointed strategies used by patients to improve food intake during treatment. Eleven subjects were interviewed during a follow-up clinic appointment within 6 months of completion of radiotherapy and were asked to describe treatment problems and eating strategies. Open-ended interviews were tape-recorded and analyzed for recurring themes. A review of the medical records of each subject distinguished parameters of nutritional status during treatment. Eating strategies were clustered into three categories: food choice and preparation, attitude adoption, and acceptance of assistance. Subjects responded to treatment problems with specific eating strategies, implying relationships among treatment side effects, symptom management, and eating strategies.
EM algorithm-based estimation of amplitude, carrier phase and noise variance in multiuser turbo receivers

The current paper addresses the issue of estimating the users received carrier phase offsets and received amplitudes as well as the noise variance in an asynchronous DS-CDMA environment with frequency nonselective propagation channels. The user propagation delays are assumed to be known or estimated beforehand. The proposed synchronizer is based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm and takes benefit from the soft information delivered by the receiver which is of turbo type. Besides, this paper explains which training symbols should be preferably chosen to initialize this synchronizer. It also compares two methods for combining the training-based estimate and the EM estimate. Performance of the resulting synchronizer is illustrated by simulation results.
Recurrent Neural Network for Approximate Earthquake Time and Location Prediction Using Multiple Seismicity Indicators

Abstract: A computational approach is presented for predicting the location and time of occurrence of future moderate‐to‐large earthquakes in an approximate sense based on neural network modeling and using a vector of eight seismicity indicators as input. Two different methods are explored. In the first method, a large seismic region is subdivided into several small subregions and the temporal historical earthquake record is divided into a number of small equal time periods. Seismicity indicators are computed for each subregion for each time period and their relationship to the magnitude of the largest earthquake occurring in that subregion during the following time‐period is studied using a recurrent neural network. In the second more direct approach, the temporal historical earthquake record is divided into a number of unequal time periods where each period is defined as the time between large earthquakes. Seismicity indicators are computed for each time‐period and their relationship to the latitude and longitude of the epicentral location, and time of occurrence of the following major earthquake is studied using a recurrent neural network.
Congenital abnormalities of cranial nerve development: overview, molecular mechanisms, and further evidence of heterogeneity and complexity of syndromes with congenital limitation of eye movements.

PURPOSE The clinical and molecular genetic classification of syndromes with congenital limitation of eye movements and evidence of cranial nerve dysgenesis continues to evolve. This monograph details clinical and molecular genetic data on a number of families and isolated patients with congenital fibrosis of the extraocular muscles (CFEOM) and related disorders, and presents an overview of the mechanisms of abnormal patterns of motor and sensory cranial nerve development in these rare syndromes. METHODS Clinical examination of one patient with CFEOM1, one family with clinical features of CFEOM2, one family with recessive CFEOM3, one family with horizontal gaze palsy and progressive scoliosis (HGPPS), and four patients with various combinations of congenital cranial nerve abnormalities. Genotyping of families with CFEOM and HGPPS for polymorphic markers in the regions of the three known CFEOM loci and in the HGPPS region, and mutation analysis of the ARIX and KIF21A genes in patients with CFEOM were performed according to standard published protocols. RESULTS The patient with CFEOM1 had the second most common mutation in KIF21A, a 2861 G>A mutation that resulted in an R954Q substitution. The family with CFEOM2 phenotype did not map to the CFEOM2 locus. The family with recessive CFEOM3 did not map to any of the known loci. The HGPPS family mapped to 11q23-q25. One patient had optic nerve hypoplasia and fifth nerve dysfunction. Two patients had the rare combination of Möbius syndrome and CFEOM. One patient had Möbius syndrome and fifth nerve dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS There is genetic heterogeneity in CFEOM2 and CFEOM3. Abnormalities in sensory nerves can also accompany abnormalities of motor nerves, further substantiating the effect of individual mutations on developing motor as well as sensory cranial nerve nuclei.
A Community Initiative to Increase Use of Seat Belts in Northern British Columbia: Impacts on Casualty Crashes

Objective: The study aimed to establish an association between seat belt ticketing by police, seat belt wearing rates, and decreases in casualty rates following the implementation of a community seat belt initiative in a northern region of British Columbia. Methods: Annual and monthly violation ticket rates and the percentage of casualties unbelted in collisions were computed for the North Central region and a comparison region, the Southern Interior. The trends in annual seat belt ticket rates, seat belt use among injured victims, and injury data from 2001 through 2007 were examined by descriptive/univariate methods and with intervention time series analysis. Use of a casualty rate measure controlled for changes in collision frequency over time. The primary outcome measure was injury claim incidents involving injuries other than to soft tissue. Injury claims involving only soft tissue were examined as a control series, because it was reasoned this subset of casualties would be less impacted by seat belt use. Results: Seat belt tickets per capita increased in the North Central (NC) region over the study period, exceeding levels in all other regions. The percentage of unbelted occupants in casualty crashes fell by about 3 percent per year in the NC region after the initiative was introduced compared to about 1 percent per year in the SI region. The time series models revealed a significant reduction in non soft tissue casualties per 100 collisions per month. No significant reduction in the soft tissue only injury criterion was detected. Conclusions: A strong community initiative backed by support at the provincial level can be successful in a largely rural and sparsely populated northern region despite the challenges faced in such regions.
Autonomic Replication of Management Data Evaluation of a Market-based Approach

This paper describes work in progress whereby a dynamic data replication scheme, under market-based control is applied to a proposed autonomic distributed data layer for managing configuration management data. The scope of the proposed autonomic system is described and also some experimental work are presented. Analytic approximations of the performance achieved for management requests under various static data replication schemes are compared with event-based simulations of the same system under dynamic market-based replication control. The purpose of this comparison is to evaluate the performance and suitability of a market-based control approach for such autonomic replication systems
Stability derivatives for a flapping wing MAV in a hover condition using local averaging

Abstract-We present an analytically tractable method of obtaining the stability derivatives for a flapping wing MAV, in the vicinity of a hover condition, using local averaging techniques. The analytical stability derivatives are obtained for the longitudinal equations of motion, under the constraint of symmetrical flapping with respect to the longitudinal axis of the central body. The analysis results in an eigenvalue structure consisting of two stable subsidence modes and one unstable oscillatory mode. Analysis shows a modal structure consistent with the standard VTOL structure. The unstable oscillatory mode is close to the imaginary axis, consistent with the modal structure of hovering helicopters. Scaling properties are consistent with previous numerical results. The method does not require numerically intensive calculations or frequency response analysis to gain an approximation of the stability of a potential flapping wing MAV in the vicinity of a hover condition.
Multisite pain, pain frequency and pain severity are associated with depression in older adults: results from the ActiFE Ulm study.

BACKGROUND there is ample literature showing pain and depression are related. However, different dimensions of pain have been used in former studies. OBJECTIVE the objective of the study was to compare the strength of the association of different pain dimensions with depression in older adults. METHODS assessments including evaluation of pain (severity, frequency, chronicity, quality, pain medication, painful body sites) and depression (measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were performed in an observational study in community dwelling older adults (sample mean age 76, n = 1130) in Germany. The associations of different dimension of pain with depression were assessed using descriptive and multivariate methods. RESULTS the number of painful body areas was most significantly associated with self-reported late life depression (OR 1.20, CI 1.11-1.31). Pain severity and frequency (OR 1.12, CI 1.01-1.23 and OR 1.18, CI 1.01-1.37) were also associated with depression; quality and duration were not. Except for severity (OR 1.12, CI 1.02-1.24) associations of pain dimensions were strongly reduced when controlling for relevant confounders and gender was an effect modifier. CONCLUSIONS multisite pain, pain severity and frequency were the best predictors of late life depression. Clinicians should be especially aware of depressive disorders when older patients are complaining of pain in multiple areas across the body.
Adaptable Recovery Using Dynamic Quorum Assignments

This research investigates the problem of how to adapt the changing of quorum assignments for objects in a replicated database to the duration and extent of failures occurring in the underlying; communication network. The concept of a view based on a connected component of the network is used to coordinate changes to quorum assignments of differ- ent objects. A dynamic view formation protocol is proposed that permits objects to join a new view on demand. A new technique called inheritance enables a new view to acquire quorum assignments from an old view, so that only those objects that were ac- cessed during a failure need to change their quorum assignments back following repair of the failure. Ex- tension of an existing view may be used to incorpo- rate a recovering site into the network without form- ing a new view, thus localizing the effects of the fail- ure. We have made analytical performance estimates for some sample network configurations and failure situations to show the improvements of our method over previously proposed methods. Following repair of a failure, our method can begin processing transac- tions almost immediately, but with less extra average overhead than for previous methods. We describe a prototype implementation of our method that will be used for future experimentation.
Cognitive Representation of Risk Perceptions

An impressive body of research in the psychometric tradition has demonstrated systematic biases in the way Americans perceive risks associated with technologies, substances, and activities. The consistency of the findings has raised the question of whether these biases are culturally specific or reflective of more fundamental human thought processes. Do people in different cultures perceive technological and other risks differently or similarly? An answer to the question is also important to the development of effective communication strategies and international policies for addressing global risks. Recent empirical research to address the question has used psychometric techniques to-assess the risk perceptions of samples in Hungary, Norway, and Hong Kong. The research presented here, building and improving on the previous cross-cultural work, is a comparison of risk perceptions between American and Japanese people. The results from the concurrently collected perception data indicate both striking similarities and differences in the ways Americans and Japanese perceive risks.
A Schwannoma of the Soft Palate in a Child: Histological and Immunohistochemical Features and Surgical Method

Introduction: Schwannoma, or neurilemmoma, is a benign neoplasm of Schwann cells that is extremely rare in the soft palate. Herein we present a case of a soft palate schwannoma presenting with an ulcerated surface and purplish colour in a 12 year-old girl. This report also introduces a successful surgical technique for coverage of the defect left by surgery.
Measurement of Energy Expenditure in Elite Athletes Using MEMS-Based Triaxial Accelerometers

Fitness development and performance assessment of elite athletes requires an understanding of many physiological factors, many of these are direct and indirect measures of athlete energy expenditure. Many methods are physiological factor assessments and require the athlete to be constrained by laboratory equipment or periodic interruption of activity to take measurements such as blood samples are required to be taken. This paper presents a method that is entirely ambulatory and noninvasive, using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers. The commonly used output of commercial accelerometer-based devices (known as "counts") cannot discriminate activity intensity for the activities of interest. This, in conjunction with variability in output from different systems and lack of commonality across manufacturers, limits the usefulness of commercial devices. This paper identifies anthropometric and kinematic sources of inter-athlete variability in accelerometer output, leading to an alternate energy expenditure estimator based mainly on step frequency modified by anthropometric measures. This energy expenditure estimator is more robust and not influenced by many sources of variability that affect the currently used estimator. In this system, low-power signal processing was implemented to extract both the energy estimator and other information of physiological and statistical interest
Improved approximation schemes for scheduling unrelated parallel machines

We consider the problem of scheduling n independent jobs on m unrelated parallel machines where each job has to be processed by exactly one machine, processing job j on machine i requires pij time units, and the objective is to minimize the makespan, i.e., the maximum job completion time. Focusing on the case when m is fixed, we present for both preemptive and nonpreemptive variants of the problem fully polynomial approximation schemes whose running times depend only linearly on n. We also study an extension of the problem where processing job j on machine i incurs a cost of cij , and thus there are two optimization criteria: makespan and cost. We show that, for any fixed m, there is a fully polynomial approximation scheme that, given values T and C,
Atomically thin two-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites

Flat perovskite crystals Bulk crystals and thick films of inorganic-organic perovskite materials such as CH3NH3PbI3 have shown promise as active material for solar cells. Dou et al. show that thin films—a single unit cell or a few unit cells thick—of a related composition, (C4H9NH3)2PbBr4, form squares with edges several micrometers long. These materials exhibit strong and tunable blue photoluminescence. Science, this issue p. 1518 Several inorganic-organic perovskite materials grown as atomically thin crystals exhibit strong photoluminescence. Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites, which have proved to be promising semiconductor materials for photovoltaic applications, have been made into atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) sheets. We report the solution-phase growth of single- and few-unit-cell-thick single-crystalline 2D hybrid perovskites of (C4H9NH3)2PbBr4 with well-defined square shape and large size. In contrast to other 2D materials, the hybrid perovskite sheets exhibit an unusual structural relaxation, and this structural change leads to a band gap shift as compared to the bulk crystal. The high-quality 2D crystals exhibit efficient photoluminescence, and color tuning could be achieved by changing sheet thickness as well as composition via the synthesis of related materials.
Review article: promotility drugs in the treatment of gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease

Prokinetic agents are drugs that increase contractile force and accelerate intraluminal transit. They are often used in treating disorders of gastrointestinal motility including gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The most widely studied agents include bethanechol, metoclopramide, domperidone and cisapride. These drugs act either by enhancing the effect of acetylcholine or by blocking the effect of an inhibitory neurotransmitter such as dopamine. With the exception of cisapride, the clinical efficacy of the various prokinetic agents in treating GERD has not been confirmed consistently. These agents have variable effects on oesophageal and gastric motor function and are fraught with side‐effects. They are effective in relieving mild reflux symptoms but do not predictably heal oesophagitis. On the other hand, cisapride is thus far the most effective prokinetic agent studied for the treatment of GERD. It relieves reflux symptoms and promotes healing of grade I–II oesophagitis, with few side‐effects or tachyphylaxis. Its most important role may be in the maintenance treatment of GERD either as a single agent or in combination therapy with an H2‐antagonist after oesophagitis healing.