Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MC2: Map Concurrency Characterization for MapReduce on the Cloud

MapReduce is now a pervasive analytics engine on the cloud. Hadoop is an open source implementation of MapReduce and is currently enjoying wide popularity. Hadoop offers a high-dimensional space of configuration parameters, which makes it difficult for practitioners to set for efficient and cost-effective execution. In this work we observe that MapReduce application performance is highly influenced by map concurrency. Map concurrency is defined in terms of two configurable parameters, the number of available map slots and the number of map tasks running over the slots. We show that some inherent MapReduce characteristics enable well-informed prediction of map concurrency. We propose Map Concurrency Characterization (MC2), a standalone utility program that can predict the best map concurrency for any given MapReduce application. By leveraging the generated predicted information, MC2 can judiciously guide Map phase configuration and, consequently, improve Hadoop performance. Unlike many of relevant schemes, MC2 does not employ simulation, dynamic instrumentation, and/or static analysis of unmodified job code to predict map concurrency. In contrast, MC2 utilizes a simple, yet effective mathematical model, which exploits the MapReduce characteristics that impact map concurrency. We implemented MC2 and conducted comprehensive experiments on a private cloud and on Amazon MC2 using Hadoop 0.20. 2. Our results show that MC2 can correctly predict the best map concurrencies for the tested benchmarks and provide up to 2.2X speedup in runtime.
Separate neural mechanisms mediate sufentanil-induced pupillary responses in the cat.

The pharmacologic characteristics of a highly selective mu receptor agonist, sufentanil, were studied on the cat's pupillary responses (size, light reflex and fluctuations) measured with an infrared video pupillometer. The pupillary effects of sufentanil were also compared with those of morphine and clonidine, known mydriatics in the cat. Sufentanil (0.3-10 micrograms/kg i.v.) dose-dependently increased pupillary size and decreased light reflex and fluctuations. Naltrexone (10 micrograms/kg i.v.) pretreatment shifted the dose-response curve to the right by a factor of 26 for pupillary size, 9.5 for light reflex and 7.2 for fluctuations (nonvalid bioassay). Equivalent mydriatic doses of sufentanil (1 micrograms/kg), morphine (0.5 mg/kg) and clonidine (10 micrograms/kg) produced divergent effects on the light reflex and fluctuations. At these doses, morphine was more effective than sufentanil in inhibiting fluctuations. Clonidine was a more potent inhibitor of fluctuations but significantly enhanced the light reflex. Sufentanil (compared with morphine in a previous study) was 298 times more potent than morphine as a mydriatic, 100 times more potent in inhibiting the light reflex, and only slightly more potent in inhibiting fluctuations. These results indicate that separate neural mechanisms control the three pupillary components and that mu opioid receptors are more involved in mediating opiate-induced mydriasis than in inhibiting the light reflex and fluctuations in the cat.
Double-blind randomized clinical trial of the effects of ezetimibe on postprandial hyperlipidaemia and hyperglycaemia.

AIM Ezetimibe selectively blocks intestinal cholesterol absorption by inhibiting Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 (NPC1L1) and reducing LDL cholesterol (LDL-C). In animals, ezetimibe reversed diet-induced obesity, liver steatosis, and insulin resistance. In humans, its potential effects on liver steatosis and insulin resistance have been suggested. We investigated the effects of ezetimibe on postprandial hyperlipidaemia and hyperglycaemia in obese subjects with dyslipidaemia in a double-blind randomized crossover trial. METHODS Twenty obese men with hypertriglyceridaemia were assigned randomly to an ezetimibe- or a placebo-precedence-treated group. Subjects in the ezetimibe group were treated with ezetimibe (10 mg/day) for the first 4 weeks, followed by a 4-week interval and then treated with placebo for another 4 weeks. The placebo group received these treatments in reverse order. Subjects were requested to fast for at least 12 hours and then received a standard meal. Blood samples were collected at 0, 30, 60, 120, 240, 360 and 480 minutes after the meal on Days 0, 28, 56 and 84 and were used to measure the lipid and glucose metabolism markers. RESULTS Ezetimibe significantly decreased the postprandial serum triglyceride excursion (p=0.01) and fasting serum LDL-C, remnant-like particles(RLP) and ApoB48 levels (p<0.05). Postprandial glucose excursion, serum insulin levels, serum glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and active glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) were not significantly affected by ezetimibe treatment. CONCLUSION Ezetimibe restored the postprandial dysregulation of lipid but did not affect glucose metabolism in a double-blind randomized crossover trial.
The heroin epidemic of the 1980 s and 1990 s and its effect on crime trends

2 The heroin epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s and its effect on crime trends-then and now Contents Summary 3 Chapter 1: Introduction and methodology 6 Chapter 2: An overview of crime trends and explanations of the crime drop 10 Chapter 3: A historical overview of the spread of heroin in England and Wales 24 Chapter 4: The relationship between opiate/crack use and crime 31 Chapter 5: The relationship between opiate/crack use and crime locally, 36 nationally and internationally Chapter 6: Quantifying the impact of changing levels of opiate/crack use on 49 acquisitive crime trends Conclusion 57 References 60 The heroin epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s and its effect on crime trends-then and now Summary  A variety of factors have been cited to explain the rise and fall in crime that has occurred in many nations since 1980. But as yet, no definitive explanation has been produced. In the UK context, a rise and fall in illicit drug use has not been especially prominent in this debate, perhaps due to a lack of robust data for the whole period.  This paper gathers available evidence and conducts new analysis to try to assess the effect that heroin and crack-cocaine 1 use may have had on acquisitive crime (i.e. theft-type offences) in England and Wales since 1980. It also suggests implications for future crime trends.  Numerous sources of evidence agree that the number of heroin users increased markedly through the 1980s and early 1990s and that many also used crack as their drug-using career developed. This 'epidemic' spread from area to area but the national peak probably occurred between 1993 and 2000. Crime peaked between 1993 and 1995.  Current data, particularly from treatment providers, show that heroin/crack use has declined for at least a decade and that – as with offending – the decline has been most marked amongst younger people. This means those who began using these drugs during the epidemic still dominate the heroin/crack-using population today.  Studies agree that, in aggregate, heroin/crack users commit a large number of offences; large enough, this paper shows, to be an important driver of overall crime trends.  Studies disagree about whether it is illicit drug use that causes the criminality. This is because a sizable proportion of heroin/crack users do not resort to theft. And many were offending before taking these drugs. However, evidence suggests that, for …
Learning to blame: localizing novice type errors with data-driven diagnosis

Localizing type errors is challenging in languages with global type inference, as the type checker must make assumptions about what the programmer intended to do. We introduce Nate, a data-driven approach to error localization based on supervised learning. Nate analyzes a large corpus of training data -- pairs of ill-typed programs and their "fixed" versions -- to automatically learn a model of where the error is most likely to be found. Given a new ill-typed program, Nate executes the model to generate a list of potential blame assignments ranked by likelihood. We evaluate Nate by comparing its precision to the state of the art on a set of over 5,000 ill-typed OCaml programs drawn from two instances of an introductory programming course. We show that when the top-ranked blame assignment is considered, Nate's data-driven model is able to correctly predict the exact sub-expression that should be changed 72% of the time, 28 points higher than OCaml and 16 points higher than the state-of-the-art SHErrLoc tool. Furthermore, Nate's accuracy surpasses 85% when we consider the top two locations and reaches 91% if we consider the top three.
Numerical Model of Heat Transfer in the Rabbit Eye Exposed to 60-GHz Millimeter Wave Radiation

A numerical model of the anterior chamber of the rabbit eye is presented. The model takes into account both the fluid dynamics of the aqueous humor and the realistic boundary conditions at the interface of the cornea with the environment. The model is used to determine the temperature distribution and velocity field under 60-GHz millimeter wave radiation. The maximum predicted temperature (45.8°C for an incident power density of 475 mW/cm2) is in good agreement with experimental results. Moreover, the model shows that there is a value for the incident power density (about 100 mW/cm2) for which the direction of aqueous humor flow due to buoyancy is inverted, because of the inversion of the temperature gradient in the anterior chamber of the eye. This phenomenon has already been reported from experimental observations and can be numerically studied, if aqueous humor fluid dynamics are taken into account in the heat-transfer model.
Left Ventricular Performance During By‐Pass or Distension of the Right Ventricle

A dog heart preparation was used to investigate the direct or mechanical effects of a right ventricular by-pass and of right ventricular distension on the performance of the left ventricle. Several other factors known to affect left ventricular performance were eliminated. The data obtained indicate impairment of left ventricular function either by right ventricular by-pass or by right ventricular distension. It is suggested that this impairment may be due to a direct effect of the volume of blood contained in the right ventricle and of right ventricular function on the common muscle bundles that encircle both ventricles.
Male Weasels Decrease Activity and Energy Expenditure in Response to High Ambient Temperatures

The heat dissipation limit (HDL) hypothesis suggests that the capacity of endotherms to dissipate body heat may impose constraints on their energy expenditure. Specifically, this hypothesis predicts that endotherms should avoid the detrimental consequences of hyperthermia by lowering their energy expenditure and reducing their activity in response to high ambient temperatures (Ta). We used an extensive data set on the daily energy expenditure (DEE, n = 27) and the daily activity time (AT, n = 48) of male weasels (Mustela nivalis) during the spring and summer breeding season to test these predictions. We found that Ta was related in a “hump-shaped” (i.e. convex) manner to AT, DEE, resting metabolic rate (RMR) and metabolic scope (the ratio of DEE to RMR). These results support the HDL hypothesis because in response to warm Tas male weasels reduced their AT, DEE, and RMR. Although the activity and energy expenditure of large endotherms are most likely to be constrained in response to warm Tas because they are less able to dissipate heat, our results suggest that small endotherms may also experience constraints consistent with the HDL hypothesis.
Emotional Dimensions of Music and Painting and their Interaction

Abstract Usually it is accepted that human manifestations such as music or painting share a common artistic trait. However, very little is known about the genetic, behavioral, developmental and neurobiological basis of such a musical-pictorial “universal”. In an attempt to approach commonalities and differences between the psychology of music and pictorial art in Experiment 1 we investigated the emotional dimensions valence and arousal in a large sample (N =156, M age = 21,44 years, SD = 3,89 years, range = 16–35 years) using a representative selection of musical and pictorial artistic stimuli. We found a stronger variability of valence and arousal with paintings and stronger effects of music on valence. In Experiment 2 (N =202, M age = 21,35 years, SD = 3,57 years, range = 16–35 years) we present first quantitative data on the interaction between the two artistic categories of stimuli on a behavioral level, again observing effects of pictorial art and music on valence and arousal. Furthermore in Experiment 2 we replicated a more pronounced effect of music on the valence of pictures, particularly on positive valence the results of the ANOVA showed an increase in group A2: F(1, 120) = 6.23, p < . 05, in group C2: F(1, 120) = 89.03, p < . 001, and a surprisingly emotionally negative influence of pleasant paintings on the positive valence of music, group A1: F(1, 127) = 19.69, p < . 001. Despite the unresolved problem of non-representativeness of the stimuli and the sample selected these results may suggest superior emotional “power” of music over painting.
Relationship between pedographic analysis and the Manchester scale in hallux valgus.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the Manchester scale and foot pressure distribution in patients with hallux valgus deformity. METHODS The study included 152 feet of 87 patients with hallux valgus and a control group of 391 feet of 241 individuals without hallux valgus deformity. The severity of hallux valgus was determined using the Manchester scale grading system. Plantar loading patterns in 10 foot areas were determined for all participants. RESULTS According to the Manchester scale, 72% of the participants had no, 12.9% mild, 10.7% moderate and 4.4% severe deformity. The Manchester scale grade was highly correlated with both hallux valgus angle and first intermetatarsal angle (p=0.00). Significant differences between the four grades were present for mean pressure under the hallux and the first and second metatarsal heads only (p=0.00). The load distribution under these areas was higher as the hallux valgus progressed from mild to more severe. In all groups, the highest pressure was observed under the second metatarsal head. CONCLUSION The Manchester scale was strongly associated with both the hallux valgus angle and the first intermetatarsal angle. The progression from mild to moderate and severe deformation is associated with peak pressure raise at the hallux, first and second metatarsal heads. The Manchester scale appears to be a useful tool to provide information for the degree of deformity and the pressure under painful foot areas.
Comparative Proteomic Profiling of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Cell Lines

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal cancers and is associated with limited diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Currently, gemcitabine is the only effective drug and represents the preferred first-line treatment for chemotherapy. However, a high level of intrinsic or acquired resistance of pancreatic cancer to gemcitabine can contribute to the failure of gemcitabine treatment. To investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms for gemcitabine resistance in pancreatic cancer, we performed label-free quantification of protein expression in intrinsic gemcitabine-resistant and - sensitive human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines using our improved proteomic strategy, combined with filter-aided sample preparation, single-shot liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, enhanced spectral counting, and a statistical method based on a power law global error model. We identified 1931 proteins and quantified 787 differentially expressed proteins in the BxPC3, PANC-1, and HPDE cell lines. Bioinformatics analysis identified 15 epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers and 13 EMT-related proteins that were closely associated with drug resistance were differentially expressed. Interestingly, 8 of these proteins were involved in glutathione and cysteine/methionine metabolism. These results suggest that proteins related to the EMT and glutathione metabolism play important roles in the development of intrinsic gemcitabine resistance by pancreatic cancer cell lines.
Metal Dyshomeostasis and Their Pathological Role in Prion and Prion-Like Diseases: The Basis for a Nutritional Approach

Metal ions are key elements in organisms' life acting like cofactors of many enzymes but they can also be potentially dangerous for the cell participating in redox reactions that lead to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Any factor inducing or limiting a metal dyshomeostasis, ROS production and cell injury may contribute to the onset of neurodegenerative diseases or play a neuroprotective action. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also known as prion diseases, are a group of fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting the central nervous system (CNS) of human and other mammalian species. The causative agent of TSEs is believed to be the scrapie prion protein PrPSc, the β sheet-rich pathogenic isoform produced by the conformational conversion of the α-helix-rich physiological isoform PrPC. The peculiarity of PrPSc is its ability to self-propagate in exponential fashion in cells and its tendency to precipitate in insoluble and protease-resistance amyloid aggregates leading to neuronal cell death. The expression “prion-like diseases” refers to a group of neurodegenerative diseases that share some neuropathological features with prion diseases such as the involvement of proteins (α-synuclein, amyloid β, and tau) able to precipitate producing amyloid deposits following conformational change. High social impact diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's belong to prion-like diseases. Accumulating evidence suggests that the exposure to environmental metals is a risk factor for the development of prion and prion-like diseases and that metal ions can directly bind to prion and prion-like proteins affecting the amount of amyloid aggregates. The diet, source of metal ions but also of natural antioxidant and chelating agents such as polyphenols, is an aspect to take into account in addressing the issue of neurodegeneration. Epidemiological data suggest that the Mediterranean diet, based on the abundant consumption of fresh vegetables and on low intake of meat, could play a preventive or delaying role in prion and prion-like neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, metal role in the onset of prion and prion-like diseases is dealt with from a nutritional, cellular, and molecular point of view.
Allergy and risk of cancer. A prospective study using nhanesi followup data

The First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANESI), conducted in 1971–1975, included a cohort of 6913 adults for whom history of smoking, allergies, and other factors was obtained. These persons were traced (with 93% success) approximately 10 years later by the NHANESI Epidemiologic Followup Survey, and incidence of malignancy in the interim period was determined. Primary allergy variables were physician‐diagnosed asthma, hay fever, hives, food allergy, or other allergies. Excluded were persons with a prior history of cancer and cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer. After adjustment by logistic regression for age, sex, race, and smoking history, allergic history was found to increase the risk of subsequent malignancy (risk odds ratio = 1.40, 95% confidence interval = 1.10–1.77). The specific allergy type with the strongest cancer risk was hives. The cancer group with the strongest allergy association was lymphatic‐hematopoietic (leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma). The risk odds ratio of developing leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma for persons with hives history was 7.89 (95% CI = 3.13–19.89). These findings suggest that a history of allergy does not protect against subsequent cancer, and may be a risk factor. The possibility is raised that a history of hives may be a particular risk factor for lymphatic‐hematopoietic malignancies.
Primordial Hematopoietic Stem Cells Generate Microglia But Not Myelin-Forming Cells in a Neural Environment

Finding ways to enhance remyelination is a major challenge in treating demyelinating diseases. Recent studies have suggested that circulating bone marrow cells can home in brain and transdifferentiate into neural cells. To ask whether hematopoietic precursors can form myelinating cells, we investigated the neuropoietic potential of embryonic precursors sorted from the mouse aorta-gonads-mesonephros (AGM) region. This cell fraction is capable of long-term hematopoietic reconstitution and generates colonies containing multipotential precursors and lymphoid or erythro-myeloid progenies. When cultured in hematopoietic growth conditions, a fraction of CD45-positive AGM cells coexpress neural markers such as nestin, the polysialylated form of neural cell adhesion molecule, the βIII tubulin isoform, and glial fibrillary acidic protein. However, when hematopoietic precursors containing green fluorescent protein were cocultured with embryonic striatal precursors into neurospheres, they maintained their hematopoietic phenotype without undergoing differentiation into neurons, astrocytes, or oligodendrocytes. After intraventricular grafting, hematopoietic precursors integrated into the brain of wild-type or hypomyelinated newborn shiverer mice and gave rise to microglia but not neurons or glia. In contrast, when wild-type embryonic striatal neurospheres were grafted in shiverer, they formed numerous myelin internode patches. Even when neural and hematopoietic precursors were grafted together into shiverer mice, only neural precursors generated myelin-forming cells and synthesized myelin. Thus, embryonic neurospheres have myelin repair properties not shown by embryonic hematopoietic precursors. This suggests that the use of multipotential neural precursors to generate myelin-forming cells remains one of the most promising avenues toward remyelination therapies.
Characterization and analysis of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer composite laminates with embedded circular vasculature

A study of the influence of embedded circular hollow vascules on structural performance of a fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite laminate is presented. Incorporating such vascules will lead to multi-functional composites by bestowing functions such as self-healing and active thermal management. However, the presence of off-axis vascules leads to localized disruption to the fibre architecture, i.e. resin-rich pockets, which are regarded as internal defects and may cause stress concentrations within the structure. Engineering approaches for creating these simple vascule geometries in conventional FRP laminates are proposed and demonstrated. This study includes development of a manufacturing method for forming vascules, microscopic characterization of their effect on the laminate, finite element (FE) analysis of crack initiation and failure under load, and validation of the FE results via mechanical testing observed using high-speed photography. The failure behaviour predicted by FE modelling is in good agreement with experimental results. The reduction in compressive strength owing to the embedding of circular vascules ranges from 13 to 70 per cent, which correlates with vascule dimension.