Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Undirected ST-connectivity in log-space

We present a deterministic, log-space algorithm that solves st-connectivity in undirected graphs. The previous bound on the space complexity of undirected st-connectivity was log4/3 obtained by Armoni, Ta-Shma, Wigderson and Zhou [9]. As undirected st-connectivity is complete for the class of problems solvable by symmetric, non-deterministic, log-space computations (the class SL), this algorithm implies that SL = L (where L is the class of problems solvable by deterministic log-space computations). Independent of our work (and using different techniques), Trifonov [45] has presented an O(log n log log n)-space, deterministic algorithm for undirected st-connectivity.Our algorithm also implies a way to construct in log-space a fixed sequence of directions that guides a deterministic walk through all of the vertices of any connected graph. Specifically, we give log-space constructible universal-traversal sequences for graphs with restricted labelling and log-space constructible universal-exploration sequences for general graphs.
Information Politics and Information Culture: A Case Study

This article introduces the concepts of information politics and information culture and presents a case study that explores these concepts. The literature from the areas of IS theory and organization theory that provides a backdrop to these concepts is discussed. A case of an organization that has characteristics of both small business and voluntary organization is presented as initial validation of the concepts of information politics and information culture. The case draws on a longitudinal interpretivist study and tracks a trajectory of organizational design, information politics, information culture, management and organizational performance over 25 months. The primary finding is that the organization studied exhibited two distinct information politics and information cultures, each related to different development phases—the era of clan and the era of teams. The article also discusses particular aspects of information politics and information culture and how these relate to organizational performance. Derived are implications for further research on information politics and information culture as well as for a broader parent framework called Information View of Organization.
Efficient search in unstructured peer-to-peer networks

The huge popularity of recent peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems has been mainly driven by the scalability of their architectures and the flexibility of their search facilities. Such systems are usually designed as unstructured P2P networks, because they impose few constraints on topology and data placement and support highly versatile search mechanisms. A major limitation of unstructured P2P networks lies, however, in the inefficiency of their search algorithms, which are usually based on simple flooding schemes. In this paper, we propose novel mechanisms for improving search efficiency in unstructured P2P networks. Unlike other approaches, we do not rely on specialized search algorithms; instead, the peers perform local dynamic topology adaptations, based on the query traffic patterns, in order to spontaneously create communities of peers that share similar interests. The basic premise of such semantic communities is that file requests have a high probability of being fulfilled within the community they originate from, therefore increasing the search efficiency. We propose further extensions to balance the load among the peers and reduce the query traffic. Extensive simulations under realistic operating conditions substantiate that our techniques significantly improve the search efficiency and reduce the network load.
Secular Evolution of Galaxies

In current $\Lambda$CDM galaxy formation scenarios, at least three physical phenomena could contribute to the mass assembly: monolithic collapse, hierarchical mergers and more quiescent external gas accretion, with secular evolution. The three processes are described, and their successes and problems are reviewed. It is shown that monolithic collapse is likely to be quite restricted to sub-components of galaxies, while the two main scenarii, hierarchical merging and secular evolution, might have comparable roles, depending on environment. Evidences are reviewed for the important role of gas accretion, followed by secular evolution. In particular the existence of thin and cold disks, the occurence of bars and spiral structure, the frequency of lopsided instabilities, and the history of star formation, all point towards large amounts of cold gas accretion. Some examples of N-body simulations are reviewed in support of secular evolution.
Technical efficiency in the Malaysian electric and electronic manufacturing industry: A stochastic frontier analysis approach

This study measured the level of technical efficiency (TE) that exerted a significant impact on the Malaysian electric and electronic manufacturing industry, which consists of 13 sub-industries, from 2010 to 2015. Unbalanced panel data from 1880 firms was obtained from the Department of Statistics Malaysia. We used stochastic frontier (SFA) analysis with the transcendental logarithmic approach to estimate the empirical analysis parametric. The maximum likelihood estimated regression of the SFA parameters revealed a high total average TE of 0.944%. Both the manufacturing sub-industries for communications equipment (MSIC 263) and irradiation, electromedical, and electrotherapeutic equipment (MSIC 266) demonstrated the highest average TE value and consistency (0.989%). The consumer electronics manufacturing sub-industry (MSIC 264) yielded a notably lower TE level (0.846%). Changes in TE for all industries were monitored via standard deviation analysis. The low standard deviation (SD) for MSIC 263, 271, and 275 indicated continuous progress and demands for these industries, while the higher SD for MSIC 264, 266, 272, and 273 pointed out major changes that happened within the period. The findings demonstrated that studies on the TE levels indicate that the E&E manufacturing industry has highly expended and continuous efforts to update technologies and human capital innovations. Therefore, the practical implication is to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 9 for sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation by 2030.
Sharing Networked Resources with Brokered Leases

This paper presents the design and implementation of Shirako, a system for on-demand leasing of shared networked resources. Shirako is a prototype of a service-oriented architecture for resource providers and consumers to negotiate access to resources over time, arbitrated by brokers. It is based on a general lease abstraction: a lease represents a contract for some quantity of a typed resource over an interval of time. Resource types have attributes that define their performance behavior and degree of isolation. Shirako decouples fundamental leasing mechanisms from resource allocation policies and the details of managing a specific resource or service. It offers an extensible interface for custom resource management policies and new resource types. We show how Shirako enables applications to lease groups of resources across multiple autonomous sites, adapt to the dynamics of resource competition and changing load, and guide configuration and deployment. Experiments with the prototype quantify the costs and scalability of the leasing mechanisms, and the impact of lease terms on fidelity and adaptation.
Assessment of three algorithms for the operational estimation of [CHL] from MODIS data in the Western Mediterranean Sea

Abstract Three algorithms based on MODIS imagery were evaluated for the estimation of Chlorophyll-a concentration ([CHL]) in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The first algorithm (OC3M) is usually applied at global scale, while the second (MedOC3), has been used in the Mediterranean basin. The third algorithm (SAM_LT), specifically developed for the Ligurian and North Tyrrhenian Seas, is here described and applied, in its updated version. The three algorithms were assessed through comparison with 240 sea [CHL] samples collected during the 2002–2011 decade. The results obtained show that OC3M is the most accurate algorithm when used for the entire Western Mediterranean, but is outperformed by SAM_LT in the area where this was originally developed. The impact of different MODIS quality flags on the three algorithms has been finally evaluated, providing guidelines for their operational application in the study area.
Extramitochondrial domain rich in carbonic anhydrase activity improves myocardial energetics

CO2 is produced abundantly by cardiac mitochondria. Thus an efficient means for its venting is required to support metabolism. Carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes, expressed at various sites in ventricular myocytes, may affect mitochondrial CO2 clearance by catalyzing CO2 hydration (to H+ and HCO3−), thereby changing the gradient for CO2 venting. Using fluorescent dyes to measure changes in pH arising from the intracellular hydration of extracellularly supplied CO2, overall CA activity in the cytoplasm of isolated ventricular myocytes was found to be modest (2.7-fold above spontaneous kinetics). Experiments on ventricular mitochondria demonstrated negligible intramitochondrial CA activity. CA activity was also investigated in intact hearts by 13C magnetic resonance spectroscopy from the rate of H13CO3− production from 13CO2 released specifically from mitochondria by pyruvate dehydrogenase-mediated metabolism of hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate. CA activity measured upon [1-13C]pyruvate infusion was fourfold higher than the cytoplasm-averaged value. A fluorescent CA ligand colocalized with a mitochondrial marker, indicating that mitochondria are near a CA-rich domain. Based on immunoreactivity, this domain comprises the nominally cytoplasmic CA isoform CAII and sarcoplasmic reticulum-associated CAXIV. Inhibition of extramitochondrial CA activity acidified the matrix (as determined by fluorescence measurements in permeabilized myocytes and isolated mitochondria), impaired cardiac energetics (indexed by the phosphocreatine-to-ATP ratio measured by 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy of perfused hearts), and reduced contractility (as measured from the pressure developed in perfused hearts). These data provide evidence for a functional domain of high CA activity around mitochondria to support CO2 venting, particularly during elevated and fluctuating respiratory activity. Aberrant distribution of CA activity therefore may reduce the heart’s energetic efficiency.
Implications of DNA Methylation in Parkinson’s Disease

It has been 200 years since Parkinson’s disease (PD) was first described, yet many aspects of its etiopathogenesis remain unclear. PD is a progressive and complex neurodegenerative disorder caused by genetic and environmental factors including aging, nutrition, pesticides and exposure to heavy metals. DNA methylation may be altered in response to some of these factors; therefore, it is proposed that epigenetic mechanisms, particularly DNA methylation, can have a fundamental role in gene–environment interactions that are related with PD. Epigenetic changes in PD-associated genes are now widely studied in different populations, to discover the mechanisms that contribute to disease development and identify novel biomarkers for early diagnosis and future pharmacological treatment. While initial studies sought to find associations between promoter DNA methylation and the regulation of associated genes in PD brain tissue, more recent studies have described concordant DNA methylation patterns between blood and brain tissue DNA. These data justify the use of peripheral blood samples instead of brain tissue for epigenetic studies. Here, we summarize the current data about DNA methylation changes in PD and discuss the potential of DNA methylation as a potential biomarker for PD. Additionally, we discuss environmental and nutritional factors that have been implicated in DNA methylation. Although the search for significant DNA methylation changes and gene expression analyses of PD-associated genes have yielded inconsistent and contradictory results, epigenetic modifications remain under investigation for their potential to reveal the link between environmental risk factors and the development of PD.
Neurotransmitter CART as a New Therapeutic Candidate for Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases. To date, there is no effective treatment that halts its progression. Increasing evidence indicates that mitochondria play an important role in the development of PD. Hence mitochondria-targeted approaches or agents may have therapeutic promise for treatment of the disease. Neuropeptide CART (cocaine-amphetamine-regulated transcript), a hypothalamus and midbrain enriched neurotransmitter with an antioxidant property, can be found in mitochondria, which is the main source of reactive oxygen species. Systemic administration of CART has been found to ameliorate dopaminergic neuronal loss and improve motor functions in a mouse model of PD. In this article, we summarize recent progress in studies investigating the relationship between CART, dopamine, and the pathophysiology of PD, with a focus on mitochondria-related topics.
Targeted Radionuclide Therapy

Targeted radiotherapy is an evolving and promising modality of cancer treatment. The killing of cancer cells is achieved with the use of biological vectors and appropriate radionuclides. Among the many advantages of this approach are its selectiveness in delivering the radiation to the target, relatively less severe and infrequent side effects, and the possibility of assessing the uptake by the tumor prior to the therapy. Several different radiopharmaceuticals are currently being used by various administration routes and targeting mechanisms. This article aims to briefly review the current status of targeted radiotherapy as well as to outline the advantages and disadvantages of radionuclides used for this purpose.
Exploring Self-Care and Preferred Supports for Adult Parents in Recovery from Substance Use Disorders: Qualitative Findings from a Feasibility Study

ABSTRACT Very little is known about the self-care behaviors (SCB) that adult parents employ and the preferred supports they utilize to maintain their recovery from substance use disorders (SUD) while also parenting their children. This study used a qualitative descriptive approach to explore perceptions of self-care and parenting to inform future self-care interventions for parents in early recovery. Nineteen mothers and fathers of at least one child between the ages of 6–18 were interviewed by telephone about parental self-care practices while in recovery from SUD, recovery management, and preferred supports in the community. Participants described the experience of parenting as challenging, with variations in the level of support and resources. Self-care included meaningful connection with recovery support and children, taking care of physical health, maintaining spirituality, healthy eating, exercise, journaling, continuing education, staying busy, sponsorship, establishing boundaries, self-monitoring, abstinence, and dealing with destructive emotions. Participants reported SCB as being a critical component of their ongoing recovery and their parenting practices, though differences in SCB by gender and for minorities require further exploration. Parental gains were perceived as benefits of SCB that minimized the negative impact of prior parental drug use on their children.
Survival and Implantation of Escherichia coli in the Intestinal Tract

Preliminary experiments established that a 0.5-ml inoculum that is introduced directly into the stomach of mice was cleared rapidly into the small intestine. Bicarbonate buffer, but not skim milk, protected such an inoculum from stomach acid until at least 90% of it had entered the small intestine. Passage and survival of various Escherichia coli strains through the mouse gut were tested by introducing a buffered bacterial inoculum directly into the stomach, together with the following two intestinal tracers: Cr51Cl3 and spores of a thermophilic Bacillus sp. Quantitative recovery of excreted bacteria was accomplished by collecting the feces overnight in a refrigerated cage pan. The data show that wild-type E. coli strains and E. coli K-12 are excreted rapidly (98 to 100% within 18 h) in the feces without overall multiplication or death. E. coli ϰ1776 and DP50supF, i.e., strains certified for recombinant DNA experiments underwent rapid death in vivo, such that their excretion in the feces was reduced to approximately 1.1 and 4.7% of the inoculum, respectively. The acidity of the stomach had little bactericidal effect on the E. coli K-12 strain tested, but significantly reduced the survival of more acidsensitive bacteria (Vibrio cholerae) under these conditions. Long-term implantation of E. coli strains into continuous-flow cultures of mouse cecal flora or into conventional mice was difficult to accomplish. In contrast, when the E. coli strain was first inoculated into sterile continuous-flow cultures or into germfree mice, which were subsequently associated with conventional mouse cecal flora, the E. coli strains persisted in a large proportion of the animals at levels resembling E. coli populations in conventional mice. Metabolic adaptation contributed only partially to the success of an E. coli inoculum that was introduced first. A mathematical model is described which explains this phenomenon on the basis of competition for adhesion sites in which an advantage accrues to the bacterium which occupies those sites first. The mathematical model predicts that two or more bacterial strains that compete in the gut for the same limiting nutrient can coexist, if the metabolically less efficient strains have specific adhesion sites available. The specific rate constant of E. coli growth in monoassociated gnotobiotic mice was 2.0 h−1, whereas the excretion rate in conventional animals was −0.23 h−1. Consequently, limitation of growth must be regarded as the primary mechanism controlling bacterial populations in the large intestine. The beginnings of a general hypothesis of the ecology of the large intestine are proposed, in which the effects of the competitive metabolic interactions described earlier are modified by the effects of bacterial association with the intestinal wall.
Visible Light Photoinitiator for 3D-Printing of Tough Methacrylate Resins

Lithography-based additive manufacturing was introduced in the 1980s, and is still the method of choice for printing accurate plastic parts with high surface quality. Recent progress in this field has made tough photopolymer resins and cheap LED light engines available. This study presents the influence of photoinitiator selection and post-processing on the thermomechanical properties of various tough photopolymers. The influence of three photoinitiators (Ivocerin, BAPO, and TPO-L) on the double-bond conversion and mechanical properties was investigated by mid infrared spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical analysis and tensile tests. It was found that 1.18 wt % TPO-L would provide the best overall results in terms of double-bond conversion and mechanical properties. A correlation between double-bond conversion, yield strength, and glass transition temperature was found. Elongation at break remained high after post-curing at about 80–100%, and was not influenced by higher photoinitiator concentration. Finally, functional parts with 41 MPa tensile strength, 82% elongation at break, and 112 °C glass transition temperature were printed on a 405 nm DLP (digital light processing) printer.
On the decidability of FDNC programs

Il Milione: A Journey in the Computational Logic in Italy 55 SOMMARIO/ABSTRACT Questo articolo introduce una nuova dimostrazione della decidibilità del controllo di consistenza per i programmi FDNC sotto la semantica dei modelli stabili, basandosi su splitting sequences regolari. Con questa tecnica, riusciamo a rilassare leggermente la definizione di programmi FDNC e muoviamo un primo passo verso l'analisi delle relazioni tra programmi FDNC e la teoria dei programmi finitamente ricorsivi. We provide a new decidability proof for the consistency of FDNC programs under the stable model semantics, based on regular splitting sequences. With this technique, we can slightly relax the definition of FDNC programs and make a first step towards a precise understanding of the relationships between FDNC programs and finitely recursive programs.
Real-World Effectiveness of Mepolizumab in Patients with Allergic and Non-Allergic Asthma

Purpose Real-world data on mepolizumab in patients with severe asthma and allergic and non-allergic phenotypes are limited. This study investigated the effectiveness of mepolizumab treatment in patients with severe asthma with allergic and non-allergic phenotypes. Patients and Methods This retrospective cohort study (GSK ID: 214148) used administrative claims data from the Optum Research Database. Eligible patients were ≥6 years of age with asthma and had ≥2 mepolizumab claims post-index. Index date was the first mepolizumab claim/administration (January 2016–December 2018). Patients were divided into two cohorts: allergic and non-allergic asthma, based on diagnosis codes, medication use and lab test results. Outcomes included the rate of asthma-related exacerbations and oral corticosteroid (OCS) use during the 12 months before (baseline period) and 12 months after (follow-up period) mepolizumab initiation. Study ended in December 2019. Results Overall, 240 (44.6%) and 298 (55.4%) patients were included in the allergic and non-allergic asthma cohorts, respectively. Mean (standard deviation [SD]) counts of asthma-related exacerbations were significantly reduced from baseline to follow-up in both the allergic and non-allergic asthma cohorts (3.2 [2.5] to 2.1 [2.1], p < 0.001 and 2.5 [2.2] to 1.7 [1.9], p < 0.001, respectively). The mean number of OCS pharmacy claims was significantly decreased by 33.3% and 41.4% from baseline to follow-up in the allergic and non-allergic cohorts, respectively (p < 0.001); mean daily OCS dose significantly decreased by 30.6% and 45.4%, respectively (p < 0.001) as well as the mean number of OCS bursts, which decreased by 44.9% and 41.8%, respectively (p < 0.001). No significant differences were observed between cohorts in reductions in asthma exacerbations, counts of OCS pharmacy claims or OCS bursts (baseline to follow-up). Conclusion Mepolizumab significantly reduced asthma exacerbations and OCS use in patients with allergic and non-allergic asthma, suggesting that mepolizumab provides real-world benefit in severe asthma irrespective of whether a patient has an allergic phenotype.
On the Computational Complexity of Predicting Dynamical Evolution of Large Agent Ensembles

We study global behavior of large ensembles of simple reactive agents. We do so by applying computational complexity tools to the analysis of formal complex systems and their dynamics. Since we are interested in the global dynamics and emerging behavior of large agent ensembles, rather than in an individual agent’s deliberation, learning or other cognitive abilities, the discrete complex systems we study are based on the communicating finite state machine (CFSM) abstraction. In particular, we show that counting the number of possible evolutions of a particular class of CFSMs is computationally intractable, even when those CFSMs are very severely restricted both in terms of an individual agent’s behavior (that is, the local update rules), and the inter-agent interaction pattern (that is, the underlying communication network topology). We use this abstract framework to formally prove the well-known intuition about multi-agent systems (MAS) that a complex and, in general, unpredictable global behavior may arise from coupling of rather simple local behaviors and interactions.