Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Heterogeneity-Aware Resource Provisioning in the Cloud

Data centers consume tremendous amounts of energy in terms of power distribution and cooling. Dynamic capacity provisioning is a promising approach for reducing energy consumption by dynamically adjusting the number of active machines to match resource demands. However, despite extensive studies of the problem, existing solutions have not fully considered the heterogeneity of both workload and machine hardware found in production environments. In particular, production data centers often comprise heterogeneous machines with different capacities and energy consumption characteristics. Meanwhile, the production cloud workloads typically consist of diverse applications with different priorities, performance and resource requirements. Failure to consider the heterogeneity of both machines and workloads will lead to both sub-optimal energy-savings and long scheduling delays, due to incompatibility between workload requirements and the resources offered by the provisioned machines. To address this limitation, we present Harmony, a Heterogeneity-Aware dynamic capacity provisioning scheme for cloud data centers. Specifically, we first use the K-means clustering algorithm to divide workload into distinct task classes with similar characteristics in terms of resource and performance requirements. Then we present a technique that dynamically adjusting the number of machines to minimize total energy consumption and scheduling delay. Simulations using traces from a Google's compute cluster demonstrate Harmony can reduce energy by 28 percent compared to heterogeneity-oblivious solutions.
Do You See What I Mean? Corticospinal Excitability During Observation of Culture-Specific Gestures

People all over the world use their hands to communicate expressively. Autonomous gestures, also known as emblems, are highly social in nature, and convey conventionalized meaning without accompanying speech. To study the neural bases of cross-cultural social communication, we used single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to measure corticospinal excitability (CSE) during observation of culture-specific emblems. Foreign Nicaraguan and familiar American emblems as well as meaningless control gestures were performed by both a Euro-American and a Nicaraguan actor. Euro-American participants demonstrated higher CSE during observation of the American compared to the Nicaraguan actor. This motor resonance phenomenon may reflect ethnic and cultural ingroup familiarity effects. However, participants also demonstrated a nearly significant (p = 0.053) actor by emblem interaction whereby both Nicaraguan and American emblems performed by the American actor elicited similar CSE, whereas Nicaraguan emblems performed by the Nicaraguan actor yielded higher CSE than American emblems. The latter result cannot be interpreted simply as an effect of ethnic ingroup familiarity. Thus, a likely explanation of these findings is that motor resonance is modulated by interacting biological and cultural factors.
Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection Is Associated with the Development of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Nationwide Population-Based Study in Taiwan

Objective The association between chronic hepatitis virus infection and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains debatable. This nationwide population-based cohort study assessed the risk of RA among patients with a chronic infection of hepatitis B and/or C virus. Materials and Methods We used data extracted from the claims of 1,000,000 randomly sampled individuals covered under the Taiwan National Health Insurance program. Among the 49,892 persons identified in 2000–2010 with chronic hepatitis virus infection, 35,652 had chronic HBV infection alone, 10,253 had chronic HCV infection alone, and 3,987 had chronic HBV/HCV dual infections. The comparison cohort comprised 199,568 persons matched on sex, age and calendar year without chronic hepatitis virus infection. All study participants were free of RA at baseline and traced through 2011 with new RA cases identified. Results After adjusting for covariates, chronic HCV infection alone was significantly associated with an increased risk for RA (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.03, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.27–3.22). The increased risk for RA among participants with chronic HCV infection remained significant after restricting the analysis to those who were prescribed disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. The corresponding HR for the overall sample was 1.89 (95% CI = 1.15–3.11). However, HBV carriers did not appear to be at a significantly higher risk for RA. Conclusion Our data imply that chronic HCV infection is associated with RA development.
Retinal arteriolar diameters and incident hypertension in initially normotensive individuals: a masked hypertension effect?

D ing et al. [1] get our applause for a study that was long awaited to shed light on the association between retinal microvascular alterations and subsequent development of hypertension, gathering and integrating data harvested from large prospective population-based studies. In this study, the predictive value of baseline retinal arteriolar narrowing for future development of hypertension is established. Although the design of the study does not permit causality speculations, the remodeling of small arteries that may precede or antecede sustained hypertension offers a pathophysiological substrate for the study findings. We would like to propose yet another possible explanation. Most included studies used the average of two blood pressure (BP) measurements to identify initially normotensive individuals, with one study using only one single recording. Assessment of BP in this way might lead to the misclassification of masked hypertensive patients as normotensive individuals. Masked hypertensive patients represent a significant portion of the normotensive population ranging from 11 to 27% [2], who may exhibit overt retinal microvascular alterations similar to those with sustained hypertension, as we have previously shown using 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) [3]. Indeed, masked hypertension represents a treacherous condition because it often evades the clinician’s attention, although it confers equal risk to sustained hypertension in terms of target organ damage [4]. Therefore, it would be of great interest to repeat the analysis including data from 24-h ABPM, when available among those 10 000 participants, to clarify whether some of the initially presumed normotensive individuals with decreased retinal arteriolar diameters who later developed hypertension were actually masked hypertensive patients with profound microvascular organ damage. Following the present study, the predictive role of retinal arteriolar and, to a lesser extent, venular abnormalities in future development of hypertension cannot be disputed. Whereas venular diameters might play a role as well, given their interdependence with vasoconstrictive, oxidative and inflammatory substances that are altered in hypertension, hypertension prediction should be credited mainly to the arteries. An inherent limitation of retinal arteriolar-tovenular ratio (AVR) is the inability to separately quantify arteriolar and venular alterations [5]. However, it remains an attractive, unit-free, easily understandable, and widely
Stiffness adjustment of a Series Elastic Actuator in an ankle-foot prosthesis for walking and running: The trade-off between energy and peak power optimization

During walking and running, passive foot prostheses can only do positive work by releasing elastic energy stored in compliant structures. This limited ability to generate positive work can be improved in devices which actively support the push-off. Here, we estimate the peak power and energy requirements of a simulated serial elastic actuator (SEA) for walking and running and compare it with a direct drive setup. The simulations indicate that a serial spring can highly reduce peak power and the energy. Results suggest that optimizing SEA stiffness to obtain minimal peak power is the more general approach as it needs similar energy requirements as observed in optimizing for minimal energy. In contrast, optimization for minimal energy results in clearly higher peak power requirements. For both gaits, the predicted optimal spring stiffness suitable for minimizing peak power increases with speed. For optimizing energy, the stiffness decreases with walking speed and remains nearly constant across speeds in running. A constant stiffness for both gaits is possible. It should be chosen based on the optimized peak power solution for the highest desired speed, where the peak power requirements are most critical.
A system for large econometric models—management, estimation, and simulation

A software system to build econometric models that have nonlinear relations requiring simultaneous solution is described. The system is presented in the context of a Canadian government research project that constructed a model of almost 1,600 equations. The system, which is designed to exploit the modular nature of the modelling process, contains programs that assist in the tasks of data management, estimation, solution, analysis, and reporting. Programs are provided to facilitate documentation of the model and error checking at the critical decision points of the model building process. Inputs of researchers generally are in the language familiar to economists and other social scientists, and little training has been required to integrate new researchers into the Canadian project. All parts of the system, which is fully documented, are operational. Some programs are operational on several systems.
Construction and Practice the Wikipedia System on Educational Administration Management in Colleges and Universities

In order to adapt to the education management status that the numbers of changes in the management system and documents increased significantly, based on the purpose of innovation and entrepreneurship education, this paper puts forward the new requirements of educational administration in universities and using collaboration, sharing, participation advocated by Wikipedia. Through practicing two phases system projects in “Teacher’s Manual of Management academic, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai campus(BNUZ)”, finally reduced the number of educational administration documents to 62% and rules to 59.92%. The result shows that Wikipedia is suitable for knowledge management, integration and evolution under the people collaboration.
Algorithms for advance bandwidth reservation in media production networks

Media production generally requires many geographically distributed actors (e.g., production houses, broadcasters, advertisers) to exchange huge amounts of raw video and audio data. Traditional distribution techniques, such as dedicated point-to-point optical links, are highly inefficient in terms of installation time and cost. To improve efficiency, shared media production networks that connect all involved actors over a large geographical area, are currently being deployed. The traffic in such networks is often predictable, as the timing and bandwidth requirements of data transfers are generally known hours or even days in advance. As such, the use of advance bandwidth reservation (AR) can greatly increase resource utilization and cost efficiency. In this paper, we propose an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the bandwidth scheduling problem, which takes into account the specific characteristics of media production networks, is presented. Two novel optimization algorithms based on this model are thoroughly evaluated and compared by means of in-depth simulation results.
Response to Comment on “Molecular and neural basis of contagious itch behavior in mice”

Liljencrantz et al. report the failure of observing contagious itch behavior using mice injected with histamine as the demonstrators. Analysis of their results shows that the histamine model is limited by inadequate frequency and duration of scratching bouts required for contagious itch test. To streamline the contagious itch test, the screen paradigm is highly recommended.
Atypical Visuospatial Processing in Autism: Insights from Functional Connectivity Analysis

Atypical visuospatial processing is commonly described in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs); however the specific neurobiological underpinnings of this phenomenon are poorly understood. Given the extensive evidence suggesting ASDs are characterized by abnormal neural connectivity, this study aimed to investigate network connectivity during visuospatial processing in ASD. Twenty‐two males with ASD without intellectual disability and 22 individually matched controls performed a mental rotation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in which two rotated stimuli were judged to be same (“Same Trials”) or mirror‐imaged (“Mirror Trials”). Behavioral results revealed a relative advantage of mental rotation in the ASD group—controls were slower responding to the more difficult Mirror Trials than Same Trials whereas the ASD group completed Mirror Trials and Same‐trials at similar speeds. In the ASD group, brain activity was reduced in frontal, temporal, occipital, striatal, and cerebellar regions and, consistent with previous literature, functional connectivity between a number of brain regions was reduced. However, some connections appeared to be conserved and were recruited in a qualitatively different way by the two groups. As task difficulty increased (on Mirror Trials), controls tended to increase connections between certain brain regions, whereas the ASD group appeared to suppress connections between these regions. There was an interesting exception to this pattern in the visual cortex, a finding that may suggest an advantage in early visual perceptual processing in ASD. Overall, this study has identified a relative advantage in mental rotation in ASD that is associated with aberrant neural connectivity and that may stem from enhanced visual perceptual processing. Autism Res 2012, 5: 314–330. © 2012 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
mTOR inhibition and erythropoiesis: microcytosis or anaemia?

BACKGROUND Anaemia and microcytosis are common post kidney transplantation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential role of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibition in the development of anaemia and microcytosis in healthy animals and in human erythroid cultures in vitro. METHODS Rats with normal kidney function were treated with sirolimus (n = 7) or vehicle (n = 8) for 15 weeks. Hemograms were determined thereafter. In the sirolimus withdrawal part of the study, rats received sirolimus (SRL) for 67 days (n = 4) 1 mg/kg three times per week or for 30 days (n = 4) and were observed until Day 120. Hemograms were performed regularly. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy controls (HC; n = 8), kidney transplant patients with sirolimus treatment with (SRL + MC; n = 8) or without microcytosis (SRL - MC; n = 8) were isolated and cultured in the absence or presence of SRL (5 ng/mL). RESULTS SRL-treated animals had a reduced mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and elevated erythrocyte count compared with control animals after 15 weeks of treatment. This effect was evident as early as 4 weeks (MCV: 61.5 ± 1.8 versus 57 ± 1.7 fL; P = 0.0156; Red blood count 7.4 ± 0.3 × 10(9)/L versus 8.6 ± 0.5 × 10(9)/L; P = 0.0156) and was reversible 90 days after SRL withdrawal. SRL in the culture medium of erythroid cultures led to fewer colonies in cultures from HC as well as from kidney transplant patients (without SRL: 34.2 ± 11.4 versus with SRL: 27.5 ± 9.9 BFU-E-derived colonies P = 0.03), regardless if the cultures were derived from recipients with normocytic or with microcytic erythrocytes. The presence of tacrolimus in the culture medium had no influence on the number and size of colonies. CONCLUSION mTOR inhibition induces microcytosis and polyglobulia, but not anaemia in healthy rats. This might be caused by growth inhibition of erythroid precursor cells.
Regions on Adenylyl Cyclase VII Required for Selective Regulation by the G13 Pathway

Regulation of multiple adenylyl cyclases (AC) provides unique inputs to mediate the synthesis of cAMP, a ubiquitous second messenger that controls many aspects of cellular function. On stimulation by Gs, the activities of ACs can be further selectively modulated by other pathways to ensure precise control of intracellular cAMP responses to specific stimuli. Recently, we reported that one of the AC isoforms, AC7, is uniquely regulated by the G13 pathway. To understand more fully the molecular mechanism of this regulation, we compared the regulation of AC7 with that of AC2 in bone marrow–derived macrophages devoid of AC7. Although both enzymes could fully restore regulation of cAMP by Gβγ, activation of the G13 pathway preferentially synergized with AC7. Exchange of domains between the two isoforms indicates that the C1b domain and the N-terminus of the C1a domain are important for directing selective regulation of AC7 by the G13 pathway. A mutagenesis screen identified more specific regions of AC7 that differentially mediate its regulation by distinct pathways.
High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, Size, Particle Number, and Residual Vascular Risk After Potent Statin Therapy

Background— Chemically measured high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) may not be the best clinical measure of HDL. Little is known about alternative HDL measures such as HDL size or particle number (HDL-P) as determinants of residual risk after potent statin therapy. Methods and Results— In Justification for the Use of statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER), HDL size and HDL-P were measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and HDL-C and apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) were chemically assayed in 10 886 participants without cardiovascular disease (CVD) before and after random allocation to rosuvastatin 20 mg/d or placebo. Levels were examined with first CVD (n=234). HDL-P correlated better with apoA-I (Spearman r=0.69, P<0.0001) than with HDL-C (r=0.55, P<0.0001). Rosuvastatin lowered low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (49%) and raised HDL-C (6.1%), apoA-I (2.1%), HDL-P (3.8%), and HDL size (1.2%); all P<0.0001. Among placebo-allocated individuals, on-treatment HDL-C, apoA-I, and HDL-P had similar inverse associations with CVD (risk factor–adjusted hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval per 1 standard deviation: 0.79 [0.63–0.98], 0.75 [0.62–0.92], and 0.81 [0.67–0.97], respectively). Among rosuvastatin-allocated individuals, on-treatment HDL-P had a statistically significant and somewhat stronger association with CVD (0.73, 0.57–0.93, P=0.01) than HDL-C (0.82, 0.63–1.08, P=0.16) or apoA-I (0.86, 0.67–1.10, P=0.22). Among rosuvastatin-allocated individuals, on-treatment HDL-P remained significant (0.72, 0.53–0.97, P=0.03) after additionally adjusting for HDL-C. In risk factor–adjusted models, HDL size showed no significant association with CVD. Conclusions— In the setting of potent statin therapy, HDL particle number may be a better marker of residual risk than chemically measured HDL-C or apoA-I. This has potential implications for evaluating novel therapies targeting HDL. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00239681.
The Diagnostic Accuracy of Ultrasonography versus Endoscopy for Primary Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective To compare the accuracy of ultrasonography (US) with the current clinical standard of endoscopy for a diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods A total of 150 patients suspected of having NPC underwent US and endoscopy. A diagnosis was obtained from an endoscopic biopsy collected from each suspected tumor and was compared with a biopsy obtained from a normal nasopharynx. The diagnostic accuracy of US and endoscopy for NPC was evaluated using receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis performed by MedCalc Software. Results The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of US versus endoscopy for this cohort were 90.1%, 84.8%, and 87.3% for US, and 88.7%, 97.5%, and 93.3% for endoscopy, respectively. Both US and endoscopy exhibited good diagnostic accuracy for NPC with area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.929 and 0.938, respectively. However, this difference was not significant (Z = 0.36, P = 0.72). Conclusion US is a useful tool for the detection of tumors in endoscopically suspicious nasopharynx tissues, and also for the detection of subclinical tumors in endoscopically normal nasopharynx tissues.
Marinopyrrole Derivatives as Potential Antibiotic Agents against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (III)

The marine natural product, marinopyrrole A (1), was previously shown to have significant antibiotic activity against Gram-positive pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Although compound (1) exhibits a significant reduction in MRSA activity in the presence of human serum, we have identified key modifications that partially restore activity. We previously reported our discovery of a chloro-derivative of marinopyrrole A (1a) featuring a 2–4 fold improved minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against MRSA, significantly less susceptibility to serum inhibition and rapid and concentration-dependent killing of MRSA. Here, we report a novel fluoro-derivative of marinopyrrole A (1e) showing an improved profile of potency, less susceptibility to serum inhibition, as well as rapid and concentration-dependent killing of MRSA.
Hybrid Endovascular Repair in Aortic Arch Pathologies: A Retrospective Study

The aortic arch presents specific challenges to endovascular repair. Hybrid repair is increasingly evolving as an alternative option for selected patients, and promising initial results have been reported. The aim of this study was to introduce our experiences and evaluate mid-term results of supra aortic transpositions for extended endovascular repair of aortic arch pathologies. From December 2002 to January 2008, 25 patients with thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections involving the aortic arch were treated with hybrid endovascular treatment in our center. Of the 25 cases, 14 were atherosclerotic thoracic aortic aneurysms and 11 were thoracic aortic dissection. The hybrid repair method included total-arch transpositions (15 cases) or hemi-arch transpositions (10 cases), and endovascular procedures. All hybrid endovascular procedures were completed successfully. Three early residual type-I endoleaks and one type-II endoleak were observed. Stroke occurred in three patients (8%) during the in-hospital stage. The perioperative mortality rate was 4%; one patients died post-operatively from catheter related complications. The average follow-up period was 15 ± 5.8 months (range, 1–41 months). The overall crude survival rate at 15 months was 92% (23/25). During follow-up, new late endoleaks and stent-raft related complications were not observed. One case (4%) developed a unilateral lower limb deficit at 17 days and was readmitted to hospital. In conclusion, the results are encouraging for endovascular aortic arch repair in combination with supra-aortic transposition in high risk cases. Aortic endografting offers good mid-term results. Mid-term results of the hybrid approach in elderly patients with aortic arch pathologies are satisfying.