Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Osmotic Adjustment and Solute Constituents in Leaves and Roots of Water-stressed Cherry (Prunus) Trees

Tissue osmotic potential and solute constituents were evaluated in leaves and roots of well-watered and water-stressed Prunus avium L. × pseudocerasus Lindl. 'Colt' and Prunus cerasus L. 'Meteor'. Osmotic potential at full turgor decreased in response to water stress for leaves and roots of both cultivars. For 'Colt', a cultivar with an indeterminate growth habit, decreased by 0.56 MPa and 0.38 MPa for terminal expanding leaves and older expanded leaves, respectively. For 'Meteor', a cultivar with a determinate growth habit, decreased by ≈0.47 MPa in both terminal and older leaves. Root was alike for both cultivars and showed a similar decrease of 0.20 MPa in response to water stress. Roots had considerably higher than did leaves in both cultivars, irrespective of irrigation treatment. Soluble carbohydrates and potassium (K + ) were the major solute constituents in both cultivars. Of the soluble carbohydrates, sorbitol was found in the greatest concentration and accounted for the bulk of water stress-induced solute accumulation in both cultivars. Regardless of the irrigation treatment, mature leaves of 'Meteor' consistently had lower (typically 0.4 MPa) than 'Colt'. This variation in between Prunus cultivars suggests the potential for selection of cultivars with low and possibly superior drought resistance.
Estimates of the Transmissibility of the 1968 (Hong Kong) Influenza Pandemic: Evidence of Increased Transmissibility Between Successive Waves

The transmissibility of the strain of influenza virus which caused the 1968 influenza pandemic is poorly understood. Increases in outbreak size between the first and second waves suggest that it may even have increased between successive waves. The authors estimated basic and effective reproduction numbers for both waves of the 1968 influenza pandemic. Epidemic curves and overall attack rates for the 1968 pandemic, based on clinical and serologic data, were retrieved from published literature. The basic and effective reproduction numbers were estimated from 46 and 17 data sets for the first and second waves, respectively, based on the growth rate and/or final size of the epidemic. Estimates of the basic reproduction number (R0) were in the range of 1.06–2.06 for the first wave and, assuming cross-protection, 1.21–3.58 in the second. Within each wave, there was little geographic variation in transmissibility. In the 10 settings for which data were available for both waves, R0 was estimated to be higher during the second wave than during the first. This might partly explain the larger outbreaks in the second wave as compared with the first. This potential for change in viral behavior may have consequences for future pandemic mitigation strategies.
The Effect of Walking on Postprandial Glycemic Excursion in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes and Healthy People

OBJECTIVE Physical activity (PA), even at low intensity, promotes health and improves hyperglycemia. However, the effect of low-intensity PA captured with accelerometery on glucose variability in healthy individuals and patients with type 1 diabetes has not been examined. Quantifying the effects of PA on glycemic variability would improve artificial endocrine pancreas (AEP) algorithms. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We studied 12 healthy control subjects (five males, 37.7 ± 13.7 years of age) and 12 patients with type 1 diabetes (five males, 37.4 ± 14.2 years of age) for 88 h. Participants performed PA approximating a threefold increase over their basal metabolic rate. PA was captured using a PA-monitoring system, and interstitial fluid glucose concentrations were captured with continuous glucose monitors. In random order, one meal per day was followed by inactivity, and the other meals were followed by walking. Glucose and PA data for a total of 216 meals were analyzed from 30 min prior to meal ingestion to 270 min postmeal. RESULTS In healthy subjects, the incremental glucose area under the curve was 4.5 mmol/L/270 min for meals followed by walking, whereas it was 9.6 mmol/L/270 min (P = 0.022) for meals followed by inactivity. The corresponding glucose excursions for those with type 1 diabetes were 7.5 mmol/L/270 min and 18.4 mmol/L/270 min, respectively (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Walking significantly impacts postprandial glucose excursions in healthy populations and in those with type 1 diabetes. AEP algorithms incorporating PA may enhance tight glycemic control end points.
Circulating anti-Tax cytotoxic T lymphocytes from human T-cell leukemia virus type I-infected people, with and without tropical spastic paraparesis, recognize multiple epitopes simultaneously

CD8+ T cells were freshly isolated from a human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I)-infected patient with tropical spastic paraparesis. These cells, which were specific for HTLV-I Tax, simultaneously recognized a minimum of five, and possibly as many as seven, distinct peptide epitopes within the protein. A further Tax epitope was recognized after a short period of culture without exogenous peptide stimulation. All but one of these epitopes were clustered in the N-terminal third of Tax, and one of the epitopes was clearly immunodominant on two separate occasions of testing. Recognition of the immunodominant epitope was restricted by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) B15, and recognition of all the others was by HLA A2. Similar patterns of cytotoxic T lymphocyte recognition of the HLA A2-restricted Tax peptides in two healthy HTLV-I-seropositive individuals, each of whom carried the HLA A2 allele, were observed.
Triggering CD40 on endothelial cells contributes to tumor growth

Inflammatory cells can either promote or inhibit tumor growth. Here we studied whether CD40, a key molecule for adaptive immune response, has any role in mammary carcinogenesis of BALB/NeuT transgenic tumor-prone mice. We transferred the HER2/neu oncogene into CD40-null background to obtain the CD40-KO/NeuT strain. CD40-KO/NeuT mice showed delayed tumor onset and reduced tumor multiplicity. BM (BM) transplantation experiments excluded a role of BM-derived cells in the reduced tumorigenicity associated with CD40 deficiency. Rather, CD40 expressed by endothelial cells (ECs) takes part to the angiogenic process. Accordingly, large vessels, well organized around the tumor lobular structures, characterize BALB/NeuT tumors, whereas tiny numerous vessels with scarce extracellular matrix are dispersed in the parenchyma of poorly organized CD40-KO/NeuT tumors. Activated platelets, which may interact with and activate ECs, are a possible source of CD40L. Their localization within tumor vessels prompted the idea of treating BALB/NeuT and CD40-KO/NeuT mice chronically with the anti-platelet drug clopidogrel, known to inhibit platelet CD40L expression. Treatment of BALB/NeuT mice reduced tumor growth to a level similar to CD40-deficient mice, whereas CD40-KO/NeuT mice treated or not showed the same attenuated tumor outgrowth, indicating that activated platelets are the likely source of CD40L in this model. Collectively, these data point to a participation of CD40/CD40L in the angiogenic processes associated with mammary carcinogenesis of BALB/NeuT mice.
Application-specific customization of soft processor microarchitecture

A key advantage of soft processors (processors built on an FPGA programmable fabric) over hard processors is that they can be customized to suit an application program's specific software. This notion has been exploited in the past principally through the use of application-specific instructions. While commercial soft processors are now widely deployed, they are available in only a few microarchitectural variations. In this work we explore the advantage of tuning the processor's microarchitecture to specific software applications, and show that there are significant advantages in doing so.Using an infrastructure for automatically generating soft processors that span the area/speed design space (while remaining competitive with Altera's Nios II variations), we explore the impact of tuning several aspects of microarchitecture including: (i) hardware vs software multiplication support; (ii) shifter implementation; and (iii) pipeline depth, organization, and forwarding. We find that the processor design that is fastest overall (on average across our embedded benchmark applications) is often also the fastest design for an individual application. However, in terms of area efficiency (i.e., performance-per-area), we demonstrate that a tuned microarchitecture can offer up to 30% improvement for three of the benchmarks and on average 11.4% improvement over the fastest-on-average design. We also show that our benchmark applications use only 50% of the available instructions on average, and that a processor customized to support only that subset of the ISA for a specific application can on average offer 25% savings in both area and energy. Finally, when both techniques for customization are combined we obtain an average improvement in performance-per-area of 25%.
The Impact of Dependence on Queueing Systems

The effect of dependence is mostly ignored in queueing systems due to the difficulty in its analysis; the existing studies about dependent queueing systems have restrictive assumptions, such as considering only the M/M/1 queue with order of dependence lag-1 in interarrival and service times. In this paper, we conduct a simulation study to observe the impact of dependence in a single server queue, by using different probability distributions and higher orders of dependence. For generating multivariate input for our simulation, we use Vector-Auto-Regressive-to-Anything (VARTA) method that has never been used in queueing systems. We invesitage nonmonotonic behavior of the performance of a single server queue with autocorrelated service times, which is a known observation in the literature but it hasn’t been explained by using VARTA as a novel approach to generate multivariate input. ∗email: icivelek@andrew.cmu. edu †email: billerb@andrew.cmu. edu ‡email: awolf@andrew.cmu. edu
Behavioral simulations in MapReduce

In many scientific domains, researchers are turning to large-scale behavioral simulations to better understand real-world phenomena. While there has been a great deal of work on simulation tools from the high-performance computing community, behavioral simulations remain challenging to program and automatically scale in parallel environments. In this paper we present BRACE (Big Red Agent-based Computation Engine), which extends the MapReduce framework to process these simulations efficiently across a cluster. We can leverage spatial locality to treat behavioral simulations as iterated spatial joins and greatly reduce the communication between nodes. In our experiments we achieve nearly linear scale-up on several realistic simulations. Though processing behavioral simulations in parallel as iterated spatial joins can be very efficient, it can be much simpler for the domain scientists to program the behavior of a single agent. Furthermore, many simulations include a considerable amount of complex computation and message passing between agents, which makes it important to optimize the performance of a single node and the communication across nodes. To address both of these challenges, BRACE includes a high-level language called BRASIL (the Big Red Agent SImulation Language). BRASIL has object-oriented features for programming simulations, but can be compiled to a dataflow representation for automatic parallelization and optimization. We show that by using various optimization techniques, we can achieve both scalability and single-node performance similar to that of a hand-coded simulation.
A Ramsey-type theorem for metric spaces and its applications for metrical task systems and related problems

The paper gives a nearly logarithmic lower bound on the randomized competitive ratio for a Metrical Task Systems model (A. Borodin et al., 1992). This implies a similar lower bound for the extensively studied K-server problem. Our proof is based on proving a Ramsey-type theorem for metric spaces. In particular, we prove that in every metric space there exists a large subspace which is approximately a "hierarchically well-separated tree" (HST) (Y. Bartal, 1996). This theorem may be of independent interest.
Development of a Refractory High Entropy Superalloy

Microstructure, phase composition and mechanical properties of a refractory high entropy superalloy, AlMo0.5NbTa0.5TiZr, are reported in this work. The alloy consists of a nano-scale mixture of two phases produced by the decomposition from a high temperature body-centered cubic (BCC) phase. The first phase is present in the form of cuboidal-shaped nano-precipitates aligned in rows along -type directions, has a disordered BCC crystal structure with the lattice parameter a1 = 326.9 ± 0.5 pm and is rich in Mo, Nb and Ta. The second phase is present in the form of channels between the cuboidal nano-precipitates, has an ordered B2 crystal structure with the lattice parameter a2 = 330.4 ± 0.5 pm and is rich in Al, Ti and Zr. Both phases are coherent and have the same crystallographic orientation within the former grains. The formation of this modulated nano-phase structure is discussed in the framework of nucleation-and-growth and spinodal decomposition mechanisms. The yield strength of this refractory high entropy superalloy is superior to the yield strength of Ni-based superalloys in the temperature range of 20 °C to 1200 °C.
Occupational and educational differentials in mortality in French elderly people

Mortality follow-up of two census samples allowed an estimate of socio-economic differentials in mortality for old men, using occupational classes and levels of education reported by individuals when they were active. The study shows persisting mortality differentials after 60 years of age. Over the 1960-65 and 1990-95 periods mortality differentials remained constant between non-manual upper classes and manual workers, while differentials have increased between the upper classes and the least skilled manual workers. Educational status has an impact on the mortality risks, independently from occupational status; the magnitude of its impact slightly changed over time. Level of education partly explains occupational differentials in mortality. The study shows that a differentiated increase in the average level of education can impact on trends in occupational differentials in mortality.
Bitcoin‐Based Decentralized Carbon Emissions Trading Infrastructure Model

This paper presents a system‐of‐systems architecture model for a Decentralized Carbon Emissions Trading Infrastructure (D‐CETI) with focus on privacy and system security goals. The structure and behavior are implemented as a solution to the problem of trading carbon emissions anonymously among the trading agents. Privacy and security of the trading agents and their carbon credits are the main requirements behind the architecture of D‐CETI. The decentralized structure of multiple systems and distributed behavior are the two main features of D‐CETI that distinguish it from the traditional carbon trading schemes and protocols. D‐CETI is based on Bitcoin, a peer‐to‐peer digital currency with no central authority, and Open Transactions, a system that simplifies the use of cryptography in financial transactions. The architecture of D‐CETI is evaluated and compared with the architecture of five other carbon emissions trading platforms.
Modèles de prédiction de l'amortissement des structures composites multicouches : approches numérique et expérimentale, optimisation

Les travaux presentes ont consiste dans un premier temps a recenser les principaux modeles rencontres dans la litterature et pour certains d'entre eux a les developper en vue de calculer l'amortissement dans les poutres ou les plaques composites multicouches en flexion et en torsion. Leur integration dans un code de calcul par elements finis a permis de realiser un certain nombre de calculs et de situer ainsi les performances relatives (en terme de precision et de cout) des differents modeles. Les resultats sont presentes pour certains types de structures : des bicouches, tricouches, de section variable, poutres et plaques multicouches. L'influence du cisaillement transverse, l'angle d'orthotropie, le couplage entre flexion et traction/compression, les cas ou le comportement est tres different entre les differentes couches et le cas de sequence non-symetrique sont etudie dans ce travail. Une chaine de mesure a ete concue avec l'objectif double de mesurer les proprietes dynamiques de chaque couche constituant la structure et de mesurer le coefficient d'amortissement de la structure multicouche globale. Les proprietes dynamiques mesurees des couches sont introduites comme donnees d'entree dans les differents modeles de calcul. Les resultats numeriques sur la structure complete sont alors compares avec les valeurs globales mesurees. Un programme d'optimisation de l'amortissement dans les structures composites multicouches a finalement ete realise. Construit a partir de la methode des algorithmes genetiques, il permet de determiner des epaisseurs de couches conduisant a une structure ou l'amortissement est maximum, tout en respectant des contraintes sur l'epaisseur totale et la raideur dynamique du multicouche.
Mode of communication and classroom placement impact on speech intelligibility.

OBJECTIVE To examine the impact of classroom placement and mode of communication on speech intelligibility scores in children aged 8 to 9 years using multichannel cochlear implants. DESIGN Classroom placement (special education, partial mainstream, and full mainstream) and mode of communication (total communication and auditory-oral) reported via parental rating scales before and 4 times after implantation were the independent variables. Speech intelligibility scores obtained at 8 to 9 years of age were the dependent variables. PARTICIPANTS The study included 131 congenitally deafened children between the ages of 8 and 9 years who received a multichannel cochlear implant before the age of 5 years. RESULTS Higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age were significantly associated with enrollment in auditory-oral programs rather than enrollment in total communication programs, regardless of when the mode of communication was used (before or after implantation). Speech intelligibility at 8 to 9 years of age was not significantly influenced by classroom placement before implantation, regardless of mode of communication. After implantation, however, there were significant associations between classroom placement and speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age. Higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age were associated with classroom exposure to normal-hearing peers in full or partial mainstream placements than in self-contained, special education placements. CONCLUSIONS Higher speech intelligibility scores in 8- to 9-year-old congenitally deafened cochlear implant recipients were associated with educational settings that emphasize oral communication development. Educational environments that incorporate exposure to normal-hearing peers were also associated with higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age.
Effectiveness and safety of levosulpiride in the treatment of dysmotility-like functional dyspepsia

The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness and safety of levosulpiride in patients with dysmotility-like functional dyspepsia including nonerosive reflux esophagitis in conditions of daily practice. The study was conducted as a prospective, open-label, multicenter design in 342 patients with dysmotility-like functional dyspepsia (n=279) and nonerosive reflux disease (n=63), who received levosulpiride 25 mg 3 times daily orally for 4 weeks. Individual symptoms (pain/discomfort, fullness, bloating, early satiety, pyrosis, regurgitation, and nausea/vomiting) and a global symptom score were assessed at 15, 30, and 60 days after starting treatment. Adverse events also were recorded. There were 151 men and 191 women (mean age 38.8 years) who referred dyspeptic symptoms for a mean of 10.2 (10.7) months. A total of 66.4% patients were treated with 75 mg/day levosulpiride and 33.6% with 50 mg/day. At the 15-day visit, a decrease greater than 50% in the global symptom score was observed. The frequency and intensity of individual symptoms showed a statistically significant decrease (p<0.001) at all visits compared with baseline. At the 30-day visit, all symptoms had almost disappeared, a trend that was maintained until the last visit. Treatment with levosulpiride was well tolerated and only 40 adverse events were recorded (galactorrhea 26.7%, somnolence 17.8%, fatigue 11.1%, headache 11.5%) and no patient had to abandon the study due to side effects. In conclusion, levosulpiride is an effective and safe drug in the treatment of dysmotility-like functional dyspepsia and non-erosive reflux disease.
Whole-body task planning for a humanoid robot: a way to integrate collision avoidance

This paper deals with motion planning for a humanoid robot under task constraints. It presents a novel random method, inspired by the RRT-connect algorithm, that uses a local task solver to generate statically stable collision-free configurations. It is able to plan motions for a large variety of tasks. In an experimental section, we compare in details this random strategy with a local collision avoidance method found in the literature.
Are concurrency coverage metrics effective for testing: a comprehensive empirical investigation

Testing multithreaded programs is inherently challenging, as programs can exhibit numerous thread interactions. To help engineers test these programs cost‐effectively, researchers have proposed concurrency coverage metrics. These metrics are intended to be used as predictors for testing effectiveness and provide targets for test generation. The effectiveness of these metrics, however, remains largely unexamined. In this work, we explore the impact of concurrency coverage metrics on testing effectiveness and examine the relationship between coverage, fault detection, and test suite size. We study eight existing concurrency coverage metrics and six new metrics formed by combining complementary metrics. Our results indicate that the metrics are moderate to strong predictors of testing effectiveness and effective at providing test generation targets. Nevertheless, metric effectiveness varies across programs, and even combinations of complementary metrics do not consistently provide effective testing. These results highlight the need for additional work on concurrency coverage metrics. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Can one detect a non-smooth null infinity?

It is shown that the precession of a gyroscope can be used to elucidate the nature of the smoothness of the null infinity of an asymptotically flat spacetime (describing an isolated body). A model is proposed for which the effects of precession in the non-smooth null infinity case are of the order r-2ln r. In contrast, in the smooth version the effects are of the order r-3. This difference should provide an effective criterion to decide on the nature of the smoothness of null infinity.