Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emergence of Life

Indeed, even if we know that many individual components are necessary for life to exist, we do not yet know what makes life emerge. One goal of this journal Life is to juxtapose articles with multidisciplinary approaches and perhaps to answer in the near future this question of the emergence of life. Different subjects and themes will be developed, starting of course with the multiple definitions of life and continuing with others such as: life diversity and universality; characteristics of living systems; thermodynamics with energy and entropy; kinetics and catalysis; water in its different physical states; circulation of sap and blood and its origin; the first blood pump and first heart; the first exchange of nutrients between cells, sap and blood; essential molecules of living systems; chirality; molecular asymmetry and its origin; formation of enantiomer excess and amplification; microscopic observations on a micrometer and sub-micrometer scales, at molecular and atomic levels; the first molecules at the origin of genetic information, viroids, circular RNA; regions of space or the area inside membranes and cells capable of initiating and maintaining life; phenomena at the origin of the emergence of life; molecules studied in the traditional field of chemistry and in the recent field of nanoscience governed by new laws; interaction between the individual molecules and components of living systems; interaction between living systems and the environment; transfer of information through generations; continuation of life from one generation to the next; prebiotic chemistry and prebiotic signatures on Earth, on Mars, on other planets; biosignatures of the first forms of life; fossils and pseudofossils dating 3.5 Ga ago and more recent ones; experimental fossilization; pluricellular eukaryotes dating 2.1 Ga ago; sudden increase in oxygen in the atmosphere around 2.0 to 2.5 Ga ago and its relation to geology; shell symmetry; aging with transformation of molecules, of their symmetry, their interactions, their exchanges. [. ].
Speeding Up Short Data Transfers: Theory, Architectural Support, and Simulation Results

Today''s Internet traffic is dominated by short Web data transfers. Such a workload is well known to interact poorly with the TCP protocol. TCP uses the slow start procedure to probe the network for bandwidth both at connection start up and upon restart after an idle period. This usually requires several roundtrips and is inefficient when the duration of a transfer is short. In this paper, we propose a new technique, which we call TCP/SPAND, to speed up short data transfers. In TCP/SPAND, network performance information is shared among many co-located hosts to estimate each connection''s fair share of the network resources. Based on such estimation and the transfer size, the TCP sender determines the optimal initial congestion window size. Instead of doing slow start, it uses a pacing scheme to smoothly send out the packets in its initial congestion window. We use extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of the resulting system. Our results show that TCP/SPAND significantly reduces latency for short transfers even in presence of multiple heavily congested bottlenecks. Meanwhile, the performance benefit does not come at the expense of degrading the performance of connections using the standard TCP. That is, TCP/SPAND is TCP friendly.
Characterize and Optimize Dense Linear Solver on Multi-core CPUs

The dense linear solver is an essential subroutine in high-performance computing. Typical parallel implementations either adopt the fork-join or task parallel programming models. Blocked algorithms built upon the fork-join paradigm focus on optimizing cache locality, leaving significant synchronization overhead. Following the data-driven execution model, tile-based algorithms formed on the task parallel paradigm effectively relieve the pain and exhibit superior load balancing. Nevertheless, they introduce redundant memory access expenses, plaguing the CPU execution. In this paper, we first characterize and quantify the impact of the performance bottlenecks in-depth and then propose a series of optimizations. Specifically, we reduce the idle time of threads by merging LU factorization with the subsequent lower triangular solver to improve parallelism. Moreover, we eliminate tile-based matrix format transformation and diminish duplicated data packing operations to lower memory access overhead. Performance evaluation is conducted on two modern multi-core systems, Intel Xeon Gold(R) 6252N and HiSilicon Kunpeng 920. The evaluation results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed solver over state-of-the-art open-source implementations, achieving performance gains of up to 11.5% and 12.2% on the respective platforms.
Exogenous and Endogenous Antecedents of Online Shopping in a Multichannel Environment: Evidence from a Catalog Retailer in the German-Speaking World

Multichannel retailing can offer a wide range of synergies for retailers when their distribution channels accommodate consumersâ€™ preferences and buying behaviors. Among the large number of retail types, mail-order companies are well-suited to benefit from electronic commerce. Not only can they use their infrastructure and experience with direct selling, but they also seek to use the Internet to attract new target groups in order to increase their typically small, narrow customer bases. Currently, we do not know enough about the antecedents of channel choices, especially in the mail-order sector. This article addresses this issue and draws special attention to exogenous (i.e., independent of the retailer) factors that influence online shopping behavior. These variables include perceived convenience and perceived security of online shopping in general and consumersâ€™ attitudes toward the catalog as the existing distribution channel. One endogenous factorâ€”attitude toward the online shopâ€”is assumed to influence buying behavior at the online shop. In order to examine relationships between the catalog and the online shop, 2,363 consumers who were familiar with both distribution channels of a mail-order company were surveyed online. The structural equation model developed reveals that attitudes toward the printed catalog most strongly influence attitudes toward the online shop. Further, the analysis showed that antecedents of buying behavior at the online shop are moderated by gender. Shopping behaviors of men are influenced by their attitudes toward the catalog, while shopping behaviors of women are determined by their attitudes toward the online shop.
Digital Cinema

While the process of distributing and exhibiting a film has changed little over the past century, Digital Cinema, the process of using digitally stored data instead of strips of acetate, has arrived. With technology continuing to develop it is expected that d-cinema will overtake the quality of conventional cinema has within the next two years. This paper considers how the film industry might effect the transition from film to digital product.
Towards the professionalisation of editing in South Africa

In South Africa, the professional status of editors remains largely undefined. In certain industries, such as the publishing industry, editing is regarded as a professional activity, requiring well-defined, high-level skills linked to particular qualifications and experience. In other sectors, editing is regarded as an activity that can be done by anyone with an aptitude for languages. At present, editors in South Africa do not need to obtain any form of professional accreditation in order to practice legally. The South African Translators' Institute (SATI) does offer the option of accreditation in editing, but this is in no way enforceable. This article addresses issues surrounding the professionalisation of editing in South Africa. In particular, it reports on an attitudinal survey done among editors, which aimed to gauge editors' perceptions and feelings about matters relating to skills, training, professionalisation and accreditation. The article also considers the professionalisation and accreditation processes for editors in Australia and Canada, and makes some suggestions for possible approaches to the professionalisation of the editing industry in South Africa.
Investigating Instruction for Improving Revision of Argumentative Essays

Students are expected to come into the current college classroom already possessing certain skills including the ability to write at the appropriate academic level regardless of discipline and the ability to create well-structured arguments. Research indicates, however, that most students entering college are underprepared in both areas. One strategy that may help students write at a more academic level is teaching students to focus on spending their time on revision. In the current study, we examine two potential sources of difficulty in the revision of argumentative essays: a poorly developed argument schema and a poorly developed global revision task schema. We created and tested the effectiveness of two written tutorials designed to provide college students information to saturate their knowledge base as well as provide them with procedural tasks to complete. We found that without instruction, students focused their revisions on making local wording changes that did not qualitatively improve their essays. An argument tutorial helped students make higher level global changes, include more argument content, and improve the structure of the essay. A global revision tutorial also helped students make more substantive structural changes. Thus, both tutorials helped students improve their revisions, and the tutorials were completed independently by the students successfully.
Real interference alignment for vector channels

We present a real interference alignment technique for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) networks. This technique is based on a theorem due to Dirichlet and Khintchine for simultaneous Diophantine approximation and uses the outputs of all the antennas at the receiver simultaneously for decoding, instead of using them in an antenna-by-antenna basis. This allows us to forgo asymptotic real interference alignment for several multi-user scenarios such as the two-user MIMO interference channel with confidential messages and the two-user MIMO multiple access wiretap channel.
Cross-cultural adaptation of the quality of life assessment scale on Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVE To present the internal validation of the quality of life (QOL) evaluation scale for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their caregivers/family members, proposed by Logsdon et al. METHOD The scale was adapted through translation, back translation and equivalence evaluation. The Portuguese version was administered to a sample of 40 patients with mild to moderate AD according to NINCDS ADRDA and DSM-III-R criteria, and also to their respective caregivers/family members. RESULTS The reliability of the instrument was excellent, both in the intra and the inter-examiner test-retest. The correlation coefficients for the intra-examiner assessment were 0.87/0.95/0.95 (p < 0.001)) for the patient, family and caregiver versions, respectively. The correlation coefficients for the inter-examiner assessment were 0.76/0.96/0.93 (p < 0.001) for the patients, family and caregiver versions, respectively. The reliability was excellent for both the patient and the relatives' versions in relation to the patient's QOL (alpha = 0.81 and 0.85, respectively), and also in relation to the caregiver's QOL (alpha = 0.84). CONCLUSION The adapted version of the instrument proved to be straightforward and brief, presenting excellent stability and reliability. The Portuguese version can be obtained by contacting the first author.
Accessing Higher Education: The Influence of Cultural and Social Capital on University Choice

Over recent years, sociologists of education have paid increasing attention to the higher education sector. They have highlighted the ways in which, despite the significant expansion in the number of university places available in many countries across the world, access to and choices about higher education continue to be strongly influenced by social class. This article provides an overview of recent literature in this field and explores how scholars have tended to explain this influence by drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and cultural and social capital.
An intriguing correlation between the masses and periods of the transiting planets

We point out an intriguing relation between the masses of the transiting planets and their orbital periods. For the six currently known transiting planets, the data are consistent with a decreasing linear relation. The other known short-period planets, discovered through radial-velocity techniques, seem to agree with this relation. We briefly speculate about a tentative physical model to explain such a dependence.
Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease in a Rural Community: Are They Ready to Transition to Adulthood?

Objectives Most patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) survive to adulthood; however, young adults with SCD have high rates of morbidity and mortality and may struggle in the transition to a healthy adulthood. The purpose of this study was to determine the readiness of a rural SCD population for the transition to adulthood and adult medical care. Methods Adolescents and young adults who were current/former patients of a rural pediatric practice were surveyed. Assessments included difficulty dealing with daily care issues and perceived/encountered barriers to transition. Adolescents were asked if a doctor had discussed transition to adult care. Young adults also were asked about satisfaction with their transition experience and about the utility and composition of a transition program. Results Surveys were completed by 13 adolescents and 5 young adults. Adolescents reported difficulty leaving their pediatrician (62%) and knowing how SCD differs from other types of anemia (54%). They had concerns about finding an adult doctor (54%), arranging transportation (54%), preparing to use an adult hospital (46%), and handling financial issues (46%). Two-thirds had not discussed or did not know whether their doctor had discussed transitions. Young adults described difficulty leaving their pediatrician (100%), finding an adult doctor (80%), keeping a job (60%), knowing what to expect (40%), and knowing how to pay for medical care (40%). Two-thirds were not satisfied with their transition and all believed a transition program would be helpful. Services suggested for a transition program to provide included information about adult providers/adult healthcare services, ways to take control of one’s own care, and helping adult providers understand more about SCD. Conclusions Adolescents with SCD in a rural community identify potential barriers in the transition to adult health care. Several barriers mirror what young adults report encountering. A rural SCD transition clinic can provide individualized preparation to promote a successful transition to adulthood.
Influence of transformational leadership on organizational innovation and performance depending on the level of organizational learning in the pharmaceutical sector

Purpose – This empirical study aims to examine the influence of transformational leadership (TL) on organizational innovation (OI) and performance (OP) depending on the level of organizational learning in technological firms.Design/methodology/approach – The research examined a sample of 164 pharmaceutical firms. A global model is formulated and the hypotheses are tested using structural equations.Findings – First, the study shows a positive relation between TL and OI, between TL and OP and between OI and OP. Second, the study verifies that these relationships are more strongly reinforced in organizations with high‐organizational learning than in organizations with low levels of organizational learning. Third, the study supports the theoretical arguments made but not demonstrated empirically in the prior literature.Practical implications – Organizational learning takes places in a technological community of interaction in which knowledge is created and expands in a constant dynamic between the tacit and t.
Removing potential flat spots on error surface of multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks

As the derivative of the sigmoid activation function approaches zero, the back propagation algorithm involves flat spots on the error surface of multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks, which means the hidden neurons of MLP were saturated. Flat spots can slow down the gradient search and hamper convergence. In this paper, we propose a grading technique to gradually level off the potential flat spots to a sloping surface in a look-ahead mode; and thereby progressively renew the saturated hidden neurons. We introduce a criterion to measure the saturation level of MLP, and then we modify the error function by using a proposed piecewise error function that switches between two cases, regarding the level of MLP saturation. These two cases include the standard error function, when MLP is not saturated, and the modified error function, when MLP is saturated. We recorded considerable improvements, especially in convergence rate and generalization, on the tested benchmark problems.
OUTFLOWS AND BUBBLES IN TAURUS: STAR-FORMATION FEEDBACK SUFFICIENT TO MAINTAIN TURBULENCE

We have identified outflows and bubbles in the Taurus molecular cloud based on the ∼100 deg2 Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory 12CO(1-0) and 13CO(1-0) maps and the Spitzer young stellar object catalogs. In the main 44 deg2 area of Taurus, we found 55 outflows, of which 31 were previously unknown. We also found 37 bubbles in the entire 100 deg2 area of Taurus, none of which had been found previously. The total kinetic energy of the identified outflows is estimated to be ∼ 3.9 × 10 45 ? > erg, which is 1% of the cloud turbulent energy. The total kinetic energy of the detected bubbles is estimated to be ∼ 9.2 × 10 46 ? > erg, which is 29% of the turbulent energy of Taurus. The energy injection rate from the outflows is ∼ 1.3 × 10 33 erg s − 1 ? > , which is 0.4–2 times the dissipation rate of the cloud turbulence. The energy injection rate from bubbles is ∼ 6.4 × 10 33 ? > erg s−1, which is 2–10 times the turbulent dissipation rate of the cloud. The gravitational binding energy of the cloud is ∼ 1.5 × 10 48 ? > erg, that is, 385 and 16 times the energy of outflows and bubbles, respectively. We conclude that neither outflows nor bubbles can provide sufficient energy to balance the overall gravitational binding energy and the turbulent energy of Taurus. However, in the current epoch, stellar feedback is sufficient to maintain the observed turbulence in Taurus.
Dissociation of BOLD responses to reward prediction errors and reward receipt by a model comparison

The representation of reward anticipation and reward prediction errors is the basis for reward‐associated learning. The representation of whether or not a reward occurred (reward receipt) is important for decision making. Recent studies suggest that, while reward anticipation and reward prediction errors are encoded in the midbrain and the ventral striatum, reward receipts are encoded in the medial orbitofrontal cortex. In order to substantiate this functional specialization we analyzed data from an fMRI study in which 59 subjects completed two simple monetary reward paradigms. Because reward receipts and reward prediction errors were correlated, a statistical model comparison was applied separating the effects of the two. Reward prediction error fitted BOLD responses significantly better than reward receipt in the midbrain and the ventral striatum. Conversely, reward receipt fitted BOLD responses better in the orbitofrontal cortex. Activation related to reward anticipation was found in the orbitofrontal cortex. The results confirm a functional specialization of behaviorally important aspects of reward processing within the mesolimbic dopaminergic system.
Power-aware automatic constraint generation for FPGA based real-time video processing systems

The introduction of embedded DSP blocks and embedded memory has made FPGAs an attractive architecture for implementation of real-time video processing systems. The big bottle neck of the FPGA compared to other programmable architectures is the complex programming model. This paper presents an automatic generation of placement and routing constraints for FPGA implementation of real-time video processing systems as one step to automate the programming model. The constraint generator targets lower power consumption, better resource utilization and reduced development time. Results show that a 28% reduction in dynamic power can be achieved using the proposed approach over traditional logic to memory mapping.
The Challenge of Non-Technical Loss Detection using Artificial Intelligence: A Survey

Detection of non-technical losses (NTL) which include electricity theft, faulty meters or billing errors has attracted increasing attention from researchers in electrical engineering and computer science. NTLs cause significant harm to the economy, as in some countries they may range up to 40% of the total electricity distributed. The predominant research direction is employing artificial intelligence to predict whether a customer causes NTL. This paper first provides an overview of how NTLs are defined and their impact on economies, which include loss of revenue and profit of electricity providers and decrease of the stability and reliability of electrical power grids. It then surveys the state-of-the-art research efforts in a up-to-date and comprehensive review of algorithms, features and data sets used. It finally identifies the key scientific and engineering challenges in NTL detection and suggests how they could be addressed in the future.