Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Swift/RAID: A Distributed RAID System

The Swift I/O architecture is designed to provide high data rates in support of multimedia type applications in general purpose distributed environments through the use of distributed striping. Striping techniques place sections of a single logical data space onto multiple physical devices. The original Swift prototype was designed to validate the architecture, but did not provide fault tolerance. We have implemented a new prototype of the Swift architecture that provides fault tolerance in the distributed environment in the same manner as RAID levels 4 and 5. RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) techniques have recently been widely used to increase both performance and fault tolerance of disk storage systems. The new Swift/RAID implementation manages all communication using a distributed transfer plan executor which isolates all communication code from the rest of Swift. The transfer plan executor is implemented as a distributed finite state machine which decodes and executes a set of reliable data transfer operations. This approach enabled us to easily investigate alternative architectures and communications protocols. Providing fault tolerance comes at a cost, since computing and administering parity data impacts Swift/RAID data rates. For a five node system, in one typical performance benchmark, Swift/RAID level 5 obtained 87% of the original Swift read throughput and 53% of the write throughput. Swift/RAID level 4 obtained 92% of the original Swift read throughput and 34% of the write throughput.
Changes in Serum Concentrations of Maternal Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances over the Course of Pregnancy and Predictors of Exposure in a Multiethnic Cohort of Cincinnati, Ohio Pregnant Women during 2003–2006

Data on predictors of gestational exposure to poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the United States are limited. To fill in this gap, in a multiethnic cohort of Ohio pregnant women recruited in 2003–2006, we measured perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), and six additional PFASs in maternal serum at ∼16 weeks gestation (N = 182) and delivery (N = 78), and in umbilical cord serum (N = 202). We used linear regression to examine associations between maternal serum PFASs concentrations and demographic, perinatal, and lifestyle factors. PFASs concentrations in maternal sera and in their infants’ cord sera were highly correlated (Spearman rank correlation coefficients = 0.73–0.95). In 71 maternal-infant dyads, unadjusted geometric mean (GM) concentrations (95% confidence interval) (in μg/L) in maternal serum at delivery of PFOS [8.50 (7.01–9.58)] and PFOA [3.43 (3.01–3.90)] were significantly lower than at 16 weeks gestation [11.57 (9.90–13.53], 4.91 (4.32–5.59), respectively], but higher than in infants’ cord serum [3.32 (2.84–3.89), 2.85 (2.51–3.24), respectively] (P < 0.001). Women who were parous, with a history of previous breastfeeding, black, or in the lowest income category had significantly lower PFOS and PFOA GM concentrations than other women. These data suggest transplacental transfer of PFASs during pregnancy and nursing for the first time in a U.S. birth cohort.
The effects of consistency of performance on A-level examiners' judgements of standards

One source of evidence used for the setting of minimum marks required to obtain grades in General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations is the qualitative, expert judgement of examiners. The effect of consistency of candidates performance across questions within an examination paper upon examiners judgements of gradeworthiness was investigated, for A level examinations in two subjects. After controlling for mark and individual examiner differences, significant effects of consistency were found. The pattern of results differed in the two subjects. In biology, inconsistent performance produced lower judgements of grade-worthiness than consistent or average performance. In sociology, very consistent performance was preferred over average consistency. The results of this study showed that a feature of the examination performance that was not part of the marking scheme affected grading decisions. It is concluded that examiners judgements of standards should be supported by other sources of evidence, s.
Collaborative localization of robotic wheeled walkers using interlaced Extended Kalman Filters

This paper deals with the problem of localizing a group of robots. Each robot is equipped with an autonomous self-localization system based on both high-rate odometers and a front camera detecting sporadically simple visual landmarks placed on the floor at known positions and with a known attitude within a given 2D reference frame. In addition, the robots can share their own states to improve localization accuracy. In this paper, after reviewing the general problem of collaborative localization, two potential strategies based on a distributed Interlaced Extended Kalman Filter (IEKF) are compared. In the first one, localization is refined through high-rate mutual measurements of Euclidean distance between pairs of robots. The distance values are obtained using an omni-directional wireless ranging system of limited accuracy. In the second one, an on-board Kinect-like front RGB-D vision system is assumed to measure the agent's relative position with respect to other robots in view at a lower rate, but with higher accuracy. To the best of authors' knowledge, this performance comparison is new, since most of previous studies on collaborative localization are overoptimistic as implicitly assume that mutual agent measurements are not intermittent and are available at all sampling times.
Young Deaf Children's Fingerspelling in Learning to Read and Write: An Ethnographic Study in a Signing Setting

Abstract This paper1 presents a study of children's use of fingerspelling. It is part of a larger longitudinal ethnographic study of deaf2 children, who were 3–6 years old when the study started. They are early signers using Swedish Sign Language in communication with teachers and peers. The aim of this paper is to examine the different functions which fingerspelling has as a part of literacy learning in the early years and later at school. Six main themes are identified when the children first explore and learn to fingerspell: (i) exploring handshapes, letters, inventing fingerspelling, and later exploring its use and learning to fingerspell in literacy practices; (ii) exploring the direction of writing and fingerspelling; (iii) practising and memorizing words; (iv) decoding words; (v) recalling from memory; and (vi) fingerspelling as a tool for exploring the relationships; between letters, words, signs, mouth movements, and voice. These aspects of children's fingerspelling and their possible implications are addressed, as are some findings regarding how teachers respond to the children's attempts at fingerspelling.
‘The return of Crazy Mother’: The cultural politics of carnival in 1930s Dijon

The political elite in inter-war France sought innovative ways to reconcile modernization agendas with existing regional cultural traditions. Regional folkloric traditions and ludic festivals provided refuge from maligned national narratives. Burgundians, notably, drew upon carnival practices and motifs to solicit broad participation in a state-sanctioned project of regional modernization. Although organized by ostensibly opposed political, social, commercial, and cultural interests, Dijon's Mère-Folle carnival and subsequent carnaval parades accomplished the same goals. These included creating a new spirit of civic pride and unity, providing a time and space for overlapping and converging transformations to coexist, and stabilizing cultural practices deemed traditional.
On the Recovery Limit of Sparse Signals Using Orthogonal Matching Pursuit

Orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is a greedy search algorithm popularly being used for the recovery of compressive sensed sparse signals. In this correspondence, we show that if the isometry constant δ<i>K</i>+1 of the sensing matrix Φ satisfies δ<i>K</i>+1 <; 1/(1/√<i>K</i>+1) then the OMP algorithm can perfectly recover <i>K</i>-sparse signals from the compressed measurements <b>y</b>=Φ<b>x</b>. Our bound offers a substantial improvement over the recent result of Davenport and Wakin and also closes gap between the recovery bound and fundamental limit over which the perfect recovery of the OMP cannot be guaranteed.
Gastrointestinal Bleeding After Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Retrospective Review of 808 Cases

Background:This study examined the incidence and risk factors for gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Methods:The available medical records of patients with ICH admitted from June 2008 to December 2009 for any episode of GI bleeding, possible precipitating factors and administration of ulcer prophylaxis were reviewed. Results:The prevalence of GI bleeding was 26.7%, including 3 cases of severe GI bleeding (0.35%). Patients with GI bleeding had significantly longer hospital stay and higher in-hospital mortality compared with patients without GI bleeding. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that age, Glasgow Coma Scale scores, sepsis and ICH volume were independent predictors of GI bleeding. About 63.4% of patients with ICH received stress ulcer prophylaxis. Conclusions:GI bleeding occurred frequently after ICH, but severe events were rare. Age, Glasgow Coma Scale score, sepsis and ICH volume were independent predictors of GI bleeding occurring after ICH.
Health utilities in gynecological oncology and mastology in Germany.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Cost increases in the healthcare system are leading to a need to distribute financial resources in accordance with the value of each service performed. Health-economic decision-making models can support these decisions. Due to the previous unavailability of health utilities in Germany (scored states of health as a basis for calculating quality-adjusted life-years, QALYs) for women undergoing treatment, international data are often used for such models. However, these may widely deviate from the values for a woman actually living in Germany. It is, therefore, necessary to collect and analyze health utilities in Germany. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a questionnaire survey, health utilities were collected, along with data for a healthy control group, for 580 female patients receiving treatment in the fields of mastology and gynecological oncology using a German version of the EuroQol questionnaire (EQ-5D) and a visual analogue scale (VAS). Data were also collected for the patients' medical history, tumor disease, and treatment. RESULTS Significant differences with regard to quality of life were measured in relation to the individual tumor entities and in comparison to the controls. Apart from the healthy control group, patients with breast or cervical carcinoma had the best quality of life. In patients with recurrent and metastatic disease, those with breast carcinoma experienced the greatest impairment of their quality of life. According to current treatment, the most important impairment of life quality occurred in patients under radiotherapy and after surgical treatment. There are significant differences from the health utilities recorded for other countries - for example, the state of health declines much more markedly in patients with metastatic disease among American women with breast carcinoma than among German women, in whom recurrent disease and a first diagnosis of metastasis were comparable. Overall, the VAS was able to distinguish more adequately than the EQ-5D questionnaire between the different situations and impairments resulting from diagnosis and therapy. CONCLUSION Health utilities are now, for the first time, available for further health-economics analyses in the field of gynecological oncology and mastology for women living in Germany. Important differences in these utilities from those of other countries are evident.
Does home treatment affect delirium? A randomised controlled trial of rehabilitation of elderly and care at home or usual treatment (The REACH-OUT trial).

BACKGROUND delirium is a frequent adverse consequence of hospitalisation for older patients, but there has been little research into its prevention. A recent study of Hospital in the Home (admission substitution) noted less delirium in the home-treated group. SETTING a tertiary referral teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia. METHODS we randomised 104 consecutive patients referred for geriatric rehabilitation to be treated in one of two ways, either in Hospital in the Home (early discharge) or in hospital, in a rehabilitation ward. We compared the occurrence of delirium measured by the confusion assessment method. Secondary outcome measures were length of stay, hospital bed days, cost of acute care and rehabilitation, functional independence measure (FIM), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and geriatric depression score (GDS) assessed on discharge and at 1- and 6-month follow-up and patient satisfaction. RESULTS the home group had lower odds of developing delirium during rehabilitation [odds ratio (OR) = 0.17; 95% confidence interval 0.03-0.65], shorter duration of rehabilitation (15.97 versus 23.09 days; P = 0.0164) and used less hospital bed days (20.31 versus 40.09, P < or = 0.0001). The cost was lower for the acute plus rehabilitation phases (7,680 pounds versus 10,598 pounds; P = 0.0109) and the rehabilitation phase alone (2,523 pounds versus 6,100 pounds; P < or = 0.0001). There was no difference in FIM, MMSE or GDS scores. the home group was more satisfied (P = 0.0057). CONCLUSIONS home rehabilitation for frail elderly after acute hospitalisation is a viable option for selected patients and is associated with a lower risk of delirium, greater patient satisfaction, lower cost and more efficient hospital bed use.
Episodic theory of the dynamics of spatial attention.

Previous measurements of visual attention in simple reaction time, choice reaction time and complex discrimination experiments in which attention was purported to move continuously across space are reanalyzed. These data and data from attention gating experiments are quantitatively predicted by an episodic (quantal) theory of spatial attention that proposed instead: (1) visual attention can be resolved into a sequence of discrete attentional acts (episodes), (2) each attentional episode is defined by its spatial faciliation function f(x,y), (3) the smooth transition at time t0 between episodes is described by a temporal transition function G(t-t0), and f and G are space-time separable. In new experiments, which use a concurrent motor reaction time task to control for nonattentional factors, the duration of attention transition is shown to be independent of the distance traversed and of the presence of interposed visual obstacles.
Aversive Racism and Resistance to Affirmative Action: Perception of Justice Are Not Necessarily Color Blind

This study utilized a factorial survey design to assess attitudes toward affirmative action as a function of targeted group (Black, handicapped, or elderly persons), framing of the policy (with or without social justification), and institutional context (business, college, or social organization). Resistance to affirmative action was aroused more by policies specifying Blacks as the targeted group and by policies presented without justification. Supportive of the aversive racism framework, the level of resistance to the policies presented without justification for Blacks as the target group was higher than for all other targeted groups with or without justification. Implications for these findings for strategies to reduce negative attitudes toward affirmative action are discussed.
Choroidal Thickness Changes During the Menstrual Cycle

Abstract Purpose: To evaluate the effects of the menstrual cycle on the choroidal thickness of healthy women of reproductive age using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Materials and methods: A total of 23 right eyes of 23 women with regular natural menstrual cycles of 28–30 d and ages 22–30 years were included in this prospective study. The choroidal thicknesses of the women were measured using high-resolution spectral-domain optical coherence tomography line scans with the activated enhanced depth imaging mode in the early follicular, ovulatory and mid-luteal phases of the menstrual cycle (3rd, 14th and 21st days) using a follow-up scanning protocol of the Spectralis optical coherence tomograph by setting the early follicular phase scan as the reference image. Choroidal thickness measurements were taken at the fovea and at two points that were 1500 µm nasal and temporal to the fovea. The mean arterial pressure, spherical equivalent, intraocular pressure, central corneal thickness and retinal and retinal nerve fiber layer thicknesses were also measured. All measurements were taken within the same menstrual cycle. Results: The mean ± standard deviation (standard error of the mean) of subfoveal choroidal thicknesses in the early follicular, ovulatory and mid-luteal phases were 383.87 ± 84.38 (17.59), 373.74 ± 82.40 (17.18) and 359.09 ± 79.65 (16.61) µm, respectively. The relative reductions in choroidal thickness between early follicular and ovulatory phases and early follicular and mid-luteal phases were 2.64% and 6.47%, respectively. The subfoveal choroidal thickness was decreased significantly in the mid-luteal phase when compared with both the early follicular (p < 0.001) and ovulatory phases (p = 0.003). However, the measures of subfoveal choroidal thickness in the early follicular phase were non-conclusively greater (p = 0.071) than in the ovulatory phase. Additionally, the mean arterial pressure, spherical equivalent, intraocular pressure, central corneal thickness and retinal and retinal nerve fiber layer thicknesses did not significantly differ during the menstrual cycle (p > 0.05 for all). Conclusions: The choroidal thickness decreased significantly in the mid-luteal phase of the menstrual cycle in young, healthy women. These findings emphasize the importance of the menstrual phase in the interpretation of choroidal thickness measurements in women of reproductive age.
New spectrophotometric methods for the determination of racecadotril in bulk drug and capsules

Two simple and sensitive spectrophotometric methods (A and B) for the determination of racecadotril in bulk drugs and pharmaceutical formulations are described. In method A, methanol was used as solvent and shows absorption maximum at 231 nm. In method B, the solvent used was acetonitrile:water in the ratio of 1:3 and shows absorption maximum at 232 nm. The Beer's law range for method A is 25-100 mg/ml and 20-80 mg/ml for method B. When capsules dosage forms were analyzed, the results obtained by the proposed methods are in good agreement with the labeled amounts and the results were validated statistically.
Improving Byzantine Protocols with Secure Computational Components

Byzantine-tolerant protocols are currently being used as building blocks in the construction of secure applications, therefore their performance has a practical impact. Work in message-passing distributed protocols typically considers a set of nodes interconnected by a network. This paper investigates the benefits for the performance of Byzantine-tolerant protocols of including a secure component in the nodes. We have been exploring this kind of hybrid fault models by calling these subsystems wormholes. The present paper follows this line but considers local wormholes, while in previous work wormholes were distributed, i.e., they included their own communication channel. The paper presents the architecture of systems with local wormholes and several flavors of consensus based on this model. The paper also presents the first work with asynchronous wormholes, using randomization to circumvent FLP, while also providing the first formalization of wormholes-based protocols using I/O automata. The benefits of the approach are discussed.
Limitations of Virtue Ethics in the Social Professions

The re-emergence of virtue ethics (henceforth VE) as both an academic theory and as an approach to applied ethics has contributed to the re-invigoration of ethical debate. It has encouraged reflective consideration of the nature of professionals' commitments to various values that constitute their personal and professional character, both collectively and individually. This paper argues that whilst there may be some value in the re-orientation of applied ethics towards questions of character, it has its limitations, including a tendency to be reduced rather too easily to self-serving ends that ultimately favour dominant social groups. It should therefore be treated with caution by social professionals.
EFFECTS OF ALTERNATIVE TRAINING METHODS ON SELF-EFFICACY AND PERFORMANCE IN COMPUTER SOFTWARE TRAINING

Comparaison des differentes methodes d'entrainement a l'efficacite personnelle et a la maitrise d'un programme logiciel informatise, dnas le cadre d'une experience reelle impliquant 108 dirigeants d'universite. Implications sur les modes des interventions preferables pour obtenir les meilleurs resultats (imitation, tutorat, etc.)
Landscape structure and food supply affect eagle owl (Bubo bubo) density and breeding performance: A case of intra-population heterogeneity

During the 20th century, Mediterranean landscapes underwent extensive changes. In particular, decreasing grazing pressure combined with abandonment of agricultural uplands favoured the development of Mediterranean forests with a corresponding reduction of open habitats and landscape diversity. In some parts of the Mediterranean basin, including our study area, the reduction of open landscapes took place at the same time as a rapid decline in rabbits as a result of myxomatosis. This study assesses the impact of past changes in landscape and rabbit density on the density and the breeding performance of the eagle owl Bubo bubo, one of the largest predators of Mediterranean ecosystems. Eagle owl density, nest site structure and composition at the landscape level, diet and fecundity of 35 eagle owl nesting territories was analysed for 27 years. The study area is characterized by two distinct areas, the border of the massif and the interior, in which past changes acted differently. Eagle owls in the interior were simultaneously affected by the loss of rabbits, a shift to smaller prey, and by open areas reverting to forest. All of these factors reduced the foraging efficiency of the owls. When myxomatosis decimated the rabbit population, owls in the border area switched to other mammals, birds and fish, whereas in the interior, alternative prey were less abundant. The main impacts of reduced prey availability and landscape diversity on interior pairs were: (1) lower density of breeding pairs; (2) lower diversity in landscape structure and closer habitats; (3) lower richness and diversity in the diet; (4) later egg-laying dates; (5) lower productivity.