Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Addressing failures in exascale computing

We present here a report produced by a workshop on ‘Addressing failures in exascale computing’ held in Park City, Utah, 4–11 August 2012. The charter of this workshop was to establish a common taxonomy about resilience across all the levels in a computing system, discuss existing knowledge on resilience across the various hardware and software layers of an exascale system, and build on those results, examining potential solutions from both a hardware and software perspective and focusing on a combined approach. The workshop brought together participants with expertise in applications, system software, and hardware; they came from industry, government, and academia, and their interests ranged from theory to implementation. The combination allowed broad and comprehensive discussions and led to this document, which summarizes and builds on those discussions.
Comparison of Global Computing with Grid Computing

In recent years, global and grid computing emerge as two powerful technology trends. In this paper, we compare these two approaches of distributed computing. First, we present a definition for global computing that accentuates the key point in this trend. This key point distinguishes global computing from other trends and covers many such systems. Second, we contrast two approaches in general characteristics. Then, by comparing them in technical issues, we show that the key point in our definition of global computing is the main source of many technical differences between these methods. Finally, we present our opinion about the probable future of global and grid computing
Integration of Remote Sensing and GIS for Tree Damage Estimation from Natural Disasters

The goal of this study was to use LiDAR data to assess damage to trees from a December, 2007 ice storm affecting the city of Norman, Oklahoma (USA). Preand post-storm LiDAR data was collected for the city and it was processed and analyzed in a GIS platform. Results indicate that for single standing trees, LiDAR data can accurately assess and quantify damage with an accuracy of 90%. However, it is yet to be examined how the accuracy would change if the proposed methodology was applied to grouped trees or with trees with overlapping branches. The proposed method suggests that in the future, LiDAR data would allow foresters and researchers to assess tree damage from not only ice storms, but also other natural disasters.
On the Control of Open Quantum Systems in the Weak Coupling Limit

When dealing with the control of quantum systems in interaction with an external environment, one of the most commonly used models is the Lindblad-Kossakowski equation for the density matrix. Its derivation relies on various approximations, which are usually justified in terms of weak interaction between the system and its surroundings and special properties of the bath interacting with the system. This equation contains dissipative corrections, accounting for the interaction with the environment, whose expression strongly depends on the adopted Markov approximation. In the case of coherently controlled Lindblad-Kossakowski equation, it is usually assumed that this correction is independent of the control Hamiltonian. However, this procedure is not consistent with the rigorous derivation of the Markov approximation in the standard case, the so-called weak coupling limit, in which the dissipative contribution depends on the coherent part of the dynamics. In this paper we discuss the rigorous derivation of the Lindblad-Kossakowski equation in the weak coupling limit regime, following the original derivation of Davies [8], in the case where the control is present, and explicitly displaying the dependence of the model on the control. We then consider the special case of a 2-level system in a bosonic bath, and show explicitly how the model depends on the parameters in the Hamiltonian which contains the control. We also discuss the impact of this more rigorous modeling procedure in the current research on methods to find controls that decouple the system from the environment. We indicate directions and problems for further research.
Reconciliation of categorical opinions from multiple sources

Reconciling opinions from multiple sources on questions of interest to determine the correct answers is an important problem encountered in collaborative information systems such as Q & A forums and prediction markets. Our current work focuses on a widely applicable variant of the above problem where the opinions and answers are categorical-valued with the set of values possibly varying across questions. Most of the existing techniques are tailored only for binary opinions and cannot be effectively adapted for questions with categorical opinions. To address this, we propose a generic Bayesian framework for opinion reconciliation that can readily incorporate latent and observed attributes of sources and subjects. For the scenario of interest, we derive three specific model instantiations of the general approach (CTM, CTM-OSF, CTM-LSG), which respectively capture the latent source behavior, variations of source behavior across subject groups, and inter-source correlations. Empirical results on real-world datasets point to the relative superiority of the proposed models over existing baselines.
Modeling and simulating complexity for discrete graphic Markov models: an experimental study

In this paper the problem studied is how the complexity of the model structure affects the performance of an algorithm constructed to simulate random samples from the model structure S of a discrete graphic Markov model. A definition of the complexity of the structure S of a discrete Markov model is given proportional to the sum of the number of edges of the maximal cliques, minus the number of edges that are in the intersections of the maximal cliques. The constructed algorithm is a hybrid consisting of a modified IPF and a Gibbs-Sampler. The model structure of the family is encoded as a list of strings, each string correspond to a maximal clique GM of the graph of the model. This graph represents the conditional independence restrictions defining the structure of the model. As results, the departure model fits each sample generated by the modified IPF algorithm the performance of the Gibbs-Sampler algorithm depends on the complexity of the model: the percent of Gibbs-Sampler samples not significant different from the corresponding probability distributions of departure decreases with the growing complexity of the models and is the least with dense models, this means that the performance of the Gibbs-Sampler depends on the complexity of the models.
The RAVEN: Design and Validation of a Telesurgery System

The collaborative effort between fundamental science, engineering and medicine provides physicians with improved tools and techniques for delivering effective health care. Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques have revolutionized the way a number of surgical procedures are performed. Recent advances in surgical robotics are once again revolutionizing MIS interventions and open surgery. In an earlier research endeavor, 30 surgeons performed 7 different MIS tasks using the Blue Dragon system to collect measurements of position, force, and torque on a porcine model. This data served as the foundation for a kinematic optimization of a spherical surgical robotic manipulator. Following the optimization, a seven-degree-of-freedom cable-actuated surgical manipulator was designed and integrated, providing all degrees of freedom present in manual MIS as well as wrist joints located at the surgical end-effector. The RAVEN surgical robot system has the ability to teleoperate utilizing a single bi-directional UDP socket via a remote master device. Preliminary telesurgery experiments were conducted using the RAVEN. The experiments illustrated the system’s ability to operate in extreme conditions using a variety of network settings.
Micromanaging hepatitis C virus.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV), a positive-stranded RNA flavivirus, persistently infects approximately 170 million persons worldwide and can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The approval of two HCV protease inhibitors, telaprevir and boceprevir, by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2011 dramatically improved therapy. These drugs are used in combination with pegylated interferon alfa and ribavirin.1 Although protease inhibitors have greatly enhanced the sustained viral response rate, these inhibitors are active against only the dominant viral genotype found in North America and Europe (genotype 1), and about a third of patients with genotype 1 infection do not have sustained .
Overcoming Registration Uncertainty in Image Super-Resolution: Maximize or Marginalize?

In multiple-image super-resolution, a high-resolution image is estimated from a number of lower-resolution images. This usually involves computing the parameters of a generative imaging model (such as geometric and photometric registration, and blur) and obtaining a MAP estimate by minimizing a cost function including an appropriate prior. Two alternative approaches are examined. First, both registrations and the super-resolution image are found simultaneously using a joint MAP optimization. Second, we perform Bayesian integration over the unknown image registration parameters, deriving a cost function whose only variables of interest are the pixel values of the super-resolution image. We also introduce a scheme to learn the parameters of the image prior as part of the super-resolution algorithm. We show examples on a number of real sequences including multiple stills, digital video, and DVDs of movies.
Mechanisms of Action of Fractionated 532 nm and 1064 nm Picosecond Laser for Skin Rejuvenation

Full face ablative resurfacing and fractional ablative resurfacing techniques are treatments of choice for facial rejuvenation of aged and photoaged skin. Both techniques were shown to be highly effective for dyschromia, fine lines and wrinkles [1-3]. Although better results are obtained with full resurfacing procedures, it comes with more downtime and more serious risks, when compared to fractional resurfacing techniques[3]. Because of the higher risk, fractional resurfacing techniques have essentially replaced full resurfacing techniques today for facial rejuvenation. Albeit, fractional resurfacing is not without risk, and scarring and infections, although rare, have been reported [4].
Defending P2Ps from Overlay Flooding-based DDoS

A flooding-based search mechanism is often used in unstructured P2P systems. Although a flooding-based search mechanism is simple and easy to implement, it is vulnerable to overlay distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Most previous security techniques protect networks from network-layer DDoS attacks, but cannot be applied to overlay DDoS attacks. Overlay flooding-based DDoS attacks can be more damaging in that a small number of messages are inherently propagated to consume a large amount of bandwidth and computation resources. We propose a distributed and scalable method, DD-POLICE, to detect malicious nodes in order to defend P2P systems from overlay flooding-based DDoS attacks. We show the effectiveness of DD-POLICE by comprehensive simulation studies. We believe that deploying DD-POLICE will make P2P systems more scalable and robust.
Energy Reduction with Run-Time Partial Reconfiguration

In this paper we investigate whether partial reconfiguration can be used to reduce FPGA energy consumption. The core idea is that within a hardware design there are a number of independent circuits, and some can be idle for long periods of time. Idle circuits still consume power though, especially through clock oscillation and static leakage. Using partial reconfiguration we can replace these circuits during their idle time with others that consume much less power. Since the reconfiguration process itself introduces energy overhead, it is unclear whether this approach actually leads to an overall energy saving or to a loss. This study identifies the precise conditions under which partial reconfiguration reduces the total energy consumption, and proposes solutions that minimize the configuration energy overhead. Partial reconfiguration is compared against clock gating to evaluate its effectiveness. We apply these techniques to an existing embedded microprocessor design, and show how FPGAs can be used to accelerate application performance while also reducing overall energy consumption.
BOUNDS FOR ENTROPY AND DIVERGENCE FOR DISTRIBUTIONS OVER A TWO-ELEMENT SET

Three results dealing with probability distributions (p, q) over a two-element set are presented. The two first give bounds for the entropy function H(p, q) and are referred to as the logarithmic and the power-type bounds, respectively. The last result is a refinement of well known Pinsker-type inequalities for information divergence. The refinement readily extends to general distributions, but the key case to consider involves distributions on a two-element set. The discussion points to some elementary, yet non-trivial problems concerning seemingly simple concrete functions.
Performance Evaluating of Single and Parallel Data Processing in the Cloud

In this paper we have discussed the challenges and opportunities for efficient parallel data processing in cloud environments and presented Nephele, the first data processing framework to exploit the dynamic resource provisioning offered by today’s I as clouds. We have described Nephele’s basic architecture and presented a performance comparison to the well-established data processing framework Hadoop. The performance evaluation gives a first impression on how the ability to assign specific virtual machine types to specific tasks of a processing job, as well as the possibility to automatically allocate/deal locate virtual machines in the course of a job execution, can help to improve the overall resource utilization and, consequently, reduce the processing cost. With a framework like Nephele at hand, there are a variety of open research issues, which we plan to address for future work. In particular, we are interested in improving Nephele’s ability to adapt to resource overload or underutilization during the job execution automatically. Our current profiling approach builds a valuable basis for this, however, at the moment the system still requires a reasonable amount of user annotations. In general, we think our Work represents an important contribution to the growing field of Cloud computing.
Use of a Phage Display Library to Identify Oligopeptides Binding to the Lumenal Surface of Polarized Endothelium by Ex Vivo Perfusion of Human Umbilical Veins

Human endothelial-specific targeting peptides were identified by biopanning within freshly-obtained human umbilical cords. Umbilical veins were cleaned in situ and M13 phage display libraries were passed through the cords. Tightly bound phage were recovered following isolation of endothelial cells by collagenase digestion and homogenisation, allowing production of enriched phage libraries for subsequent rounds of panning. After five rounds of biopanning, five promising sequences were selected and the binding of the corresponding phage clones was compared in perfused umbilical veins. Each of these peptides showed substantial binding, although the clone encoding the heptapeptide KPSGLTY showed the greatest, some 89-times greater than insertless phage. Binding of this phage clone was examined to cells in vitro, where it demonstrated at least five-times greater binding to isolated human umbilical vein endothelial cells than to 911, SKOV3, B16F10 and Cos7 cells. These initial peptides may prove useful targeting agents for endothelial-selective delivery, and this powerful approach should be readily applicable to biopanning in a broad range of human vessels ex vivo.
Intratracheal administration of liposomal clodronate accelerates alveolar macrophage reconstitution following fetal liver transplantation

To facilitate study of alveolar macrophages in vivo, we developed a method to rapidly and efficiently replace resident alveolar macrophages with macrophages of a different (donor) genotype. Chimeric mice were generated by lethal irradiation followed by fetal liver transplantation (FLT) using green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic reporter mice as donors. Kinetics of peripheral blood monocyte (PBM) and alveolar macrophage reconstitution was determined 4 and 10 weeks post‐FLT by quantifying the percentage of GFP+ cells. To enhance the recruitment of donor monocytes into the lung after FLT, mice were treated with intratracheal administration of liposomal clodronate to deplete host alveolar macrophages at 6 weeks post‐FLT. PBM reconstitution occurred by 4 weeks after FLT (85.7±1.6% of CD11b+/Gr‐1+ monocytes were GFP+), and minimal alveolar macrophage repopulation was observed (9.5% GFP+). By 10 weeks following FLT, 48% of alveolar macrophages were GFP+ by immunostaining of macrophages on lung tissue sections, and 55.1 ± 1.6% of lung lavage macrophages were GFP+ by fluorescein‐activated cell sorter analysis. Clodronate treatment resulted in a significant increase in GFP+ alveolar macrophages 10 weeks after FLT. By immunostaining, 90% of macrophages were GFP+ on lung tissue sections and 87.5 ± 1.1% GFP+ in lung lavage (compared with GFP‐transgenic controls). The ability of newly recruited alveolar macrophages to clear Pseudomonas aeruginosa and activate nuclear factor‐κB in response to Eschericia coli lipopolysaccharide demonstrated normal macrophage function. Optimizing this methodology provides an important tool for the study of specific genes and their contribution to alveolar macrophage function in vivo.
INVESTIGATION OF THE MECHANISM OF FAILURE BEHAVIOUR OF WOOD BASED MATERIALS USING ACOUSTIC EMISSION ANALYSIS AND IMAGE PROCESSING

Very few investigations exist on the fracture behaviour of wood based materials [1, 2,3,4,5,6]. Niemz and Hansel [1] examined cracking processes by means of acoustic emission, photogrammetry and scanning electron microscopy. A location of the acoustic signals was not possible with the methods then available. Within the scope of this work, the failure behaviour of different wood based materials was examined with the nowadaysimproved methods of acoustic emission analysis (acoustic emission source location) and the ascertainment of displacements via image correlation. The main goal was to analyse the possibilities in order to predict the location of the crack sites. This should generate inputs for the structural optimisation of the materials. Tensile strength, modulus of elasticity under tension and failure behaviour were ascertained for particleboards, OSB, plywood and MDF with two raw density grades by means of acoustic emission analysis. The strain distribution over the sample surface under load was determined with video image correlation. Fracture sites can be predicted relatively well using optical measurements of the deformation under load. A combined observation of narrow and broad surface sides of the specimens is advantageous. Prediction of the cracks is easier for inhomogeneous materials like OSB (fig. 1) and plywood than for the more homogeneous materials MDF and particle boards. With the acoustic emission analysis the location of cracks can also be determined to a comparable degree.
Structure-activity relationships of 3-substituted-5,5- -diphenylhydantoins as potential antiproliferative and antimicrobial agents

A series of twelve 3-substituted-5,5-diphenylhydantoins was synthe- sized, including some whose anticonvulsant activities have already been re- ported in the literature. Their antiproliferative activities against HCT-116 hu- man colon carcinoma cells were evaluated to determine structure-activity relationships. Almost all of the compounds exhibited statistically significant antiproliferative effects at a concentration of 100 μM, while the derivative bearing a benzyl group was active even at lower concentrations. Moreover, their in vitro antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Sta- phylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and clinical isolates of Escherichia coli, Pro- teus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylo- coccus aureus were evaluated. Only the 3-isopropyl and 3-benzyl derivatives showed weak antibacterial activities against the Gram-positive bacterium E. faecalis and the Gram-negative bacteria E. coli ATCC 25922 and E. coli.
Real-time animation of human characters with fuzzy controllers

The production of animation is a resource intensive process in game companies. Therefore, techniques to synthesize animations have been developed. However, these procedural techniques offer limited adaptability by animation artists. In order to solve this, a fuzzy neural network model of the animation is proposed, where the parameters can be tuned either by machine learning techniques that use motion capture data as training data or by the animation artist himself. This paper illustrates how this real time procedural animation system can be developed, taking the human gait on flat terrain and inclined surfaces as example. Currently, the parametric model is capable of synthesizing animations for various limb sizes and step sizes.
CKY-based Convolutional Attention for Neural Machine Translation

This paper proposes a new attention mechanism for neural machine translation (NMT) based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which is inspired by the CKY algorithm. The proposed attention represents every possible combination of source words (e.g., phrases and structures) through CNNs, which imitates the CKY table in the algorithm. NMT, incorporating the proposed attention, decodes a target sentence on the basis of the attention scores of the hidden states of CNNs. The proposed attention enables NMT to capture alignments from underlying structures of a source sentence without sentence parsing. The evaluations on the Asian Scientific Paper Excerpt Corpus (ASPEC) English-Japanese translation task show that the proposed attention gains 0.66 points in BLEU.
Shared decision‐making and patient control in radiation oncology: Implications for patient satisfaction

Shared decision‐making (SDM) has been linked to important health care quality outcomes. However, to the authors' knowledge, the value of SDM has not been thoroughly evaluated in the field of radiation oncology. The objective of the current study was to determine the association between SDM and patient satisfaction during radiotherapy (RT). The authors also explored patient desire for and perception of control during RT, and how these factors relate to patient satisfaction, anxiety, depression, and fatigue.
M ay 2 01 6 Effect of an invariant energy scale on the thermodynamics of photon gas

A particular framework for quantum gravity is the doubly special relativity (DSR) formalism that introduces a new observer independent scale (the Planck scale). We resort to the methods of statistical mechanics in this framework to determine how the deformed dispersion relation effects the thermodynamics of a photon gas. The ensuing modifications to the density of states, partition function, pressure, internal energy, entropy, free energy and specific heat are calculated. These results are compared with the outcome obtained in the Lorentz violating model of Camacho and Murcias (Gen.Relativ.Gravit.39: 1175-1183, 2007). The two types of models predict different results due to different spacetime structure near the Planck scale. The resulting modifications can be interpreted as a consequence of the deformed Lorentz symmetry present in the particular model we have considered.