Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reclaiming the Brain: Useful OpenFlow Functions in the Data Plane

Software-defined networks (SDNs) have the potential to radically simplify the network management by providing a programmatic interface to a logically centralized controller. However, outsourcing the management to the software controller comes at a price, and good tradeoffs have to be found between the benefits of a fine-grained control and its costs. In this paper, we show that OpenFlow, the predominant SDN protocol, allows to implement powerful functions "in the south", i.e., in the data plane. Our approach, called SmartSouth, can be used to reduce interactions with the control plane as well as to make the network more robust. Moreover, while rendering the data plane "smarter", SmartSouth only relies on the standard OpenFlow match-action paradigm; thus, the data plane functions remain formally verifiable---a key benefit of SDN. To demonstrate the potential of SmartSouth, we discuss four basic applications: (1) topology snapshot, (2) anycast, (3) blackhole- and (4) critical node detection.
Determination of Anand parameters for SnAgCuCe solder

A unified viscoplastic constitutive model, Anand equations, was used to represent the inelastic deformation behavior for Sn3.8Ag0. 7Cu/Sn3.8Ag0. 7 Cu0.03Ce solders in surface mount technology. The Anand parameters of the constitutive equations for the SnAgCu and SnAgCuCe solders were determined from separated constitutive relations and experimental results. Non-linear least-squares fitting was selected to determine the model constants. Comparisons were then made with experimental measurements of the stress–inelastic strain curves: excellent agreement was found. The model accurately predicted the overall trend of steady-state stress–strain behavior of SnAgCu and SnAgCuCe solders for the temperature ranges from −55 to 125 °C and for the strain rate range from 1% s−1 to 0.01% s−1. It is concluded that the Anand model can be applied to represent the inelastic deformation behavior of solders at high homologous temperatures and can be recommended for finite element simulation of the stress–strain response of lead-free soldered joints. Based on the Anand model, the investigations of thermo-mechanical behavior of SnAgCu and SnAgCuCe soldered joints in fine pitch quad flat package by the finite element code have been done under thermal cyclic loading, and it is found that the reliability of the SnAgCuCe soldered joints is better than that of the SnAgCu soldered joints.
Cat and mouse: content delivery tradeoffs in web access

Web pages include extraneous material that may be viewed as undesirable by a user. Increasingly many Web sites also require users to register to access either all or portions of the site. Such tension between content owners and users has resulted in a "cat and mouse" game between content provided and how users access it.We carried out a measurement-based study to understand the nature of extraneous content and its impact on performance as perceived by users. We characterize how this content is distributed and the effectiveness of blocking mechanisms to stop it as well as countermeasures taken by content owners to negate such mechanisms. We also examine sites that require some form of registration to control access and the attempts made to circumvent it.Results from our study show that extraneous content exists on a majority of popular pages and that a 25-30% reduction in downloaded objects and bytes with corresponding latency reduction can be attained by blocking such content. The top ten advertisement delivering companies delivered 40% of all URLs matched as ads in our study. Both the server name and the remainder of the URL are important in matching a URL as an ad. A majority of popular sites require some form of registration and for such sites users can obtain an account from a shared public database. We discuss future measures and countermeasures on the part of each side.
Interior Methods for Nonlinear Optimization

Interior methods are an omnipresent, conspicuous feature of the constrained optimization landscape today, but it was not always so. Primarily in the form of barrier methods, interior-point techniques were popular during the 1960s for solving nonlinearly constrained problems. However, their use for linear programming was not even contemplated because of the total dominance of the simplex method. Vague but continuing anxiety about barrier methods eventually led to their abandonment in favor of newly emerging, apparently more efficient alternatives such as augmented Lagrangian and sequential quadratic programming methods. By the early 1980s, barrier methods were almost without exception regarded as a closed chapter in the history of optimization. This picture changed dramatically with Karmarkar's widely publicized announcement in 1984 of a fast polynomial-time interior method for linear programming; in 1985, a formal connection was established between his method and classical barrier methods. Since then, interior methods have advanced so far, so fast, that their influence has transformed both the theory and practice of constrained optimization. This article provides a condensed, selective look at classical material and recent research about interior methods for nonlinearly constrained optimization.
Probabilistically Constrained Linear Programs and Risk-Adjusted Controller Design

The focal point of this paper is the probabilistically constrained linear program (PCLP) and how it can be applied to control system design under risk constraints. The PCLP is the counterpart of the classical linear program, where it is assumed that there is random uncertainty in the constraints and, therefore, the deterministic constraints are replaced by probabilistic ones. It is shown that for a wide class of probability density functions, called log-concave symmetric densities, the PCLP is a convex program. An equivalent formulation of the PCLP is also presented which provides insight into numerical implementation. This concept is applied to control system design. It is shown how the results in this paper can be applied to the design of controllers for discrete-time systems to obtain a closed loop system with a well-defined risk of violating the so-called property of superstability. Furthermore, we address the problem of risk-adjusted pole placement.
Interprocedural exception analysis for Java

Current JDK Java compiler relies too much on programmer’s specification for checking against uncaught exceptions of the input program. It is not elaborate enough to remove programmer’s unnecessary handlers (when programmer’s specifications are too many) nor suggest to programmers for specialized handlings (when programmer’s specifications are too general). We propose a static analysis of Java programs that estimates their exception flows independently of the programmer’s specifications. This analysis is designed and implemented based on set-constraint framework. Its cost-effectiveness is suggested by sparsely analyzing the program at method-level (hence reducing the number of unknowns in the flow equations). We have shown that our exception analysis can effectively detect uncaught exceptions for realistic Java programs.
Evaluating Health Workers' Potential Resistance to New Interventions: A Role for Discrete Choice Experiments

Background The currently recommended approach for preventing malaria in pregnancy (MiP), intermittent preventive treatment with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP-IPT), has been questioned due to the spread of resistance to SP. Whilst trials are underway to test the efficacy of future alternative approaches, it is important to start exploring the feasibility of their implementation. Methods and Findings This study uses a discrete choice experiment (DCE) method to assess the potential resistance of health workers to changing strategies for control of MiP. In Ashanti region in Ghana, 133 antenatal clinic health workers were presented with 16 choice sets of two alternative policy options, each consisting of a bundle of six attributes representing certain clinical guidelines for controlling MiP (type of approach and drug used), possible associated maternal and neo-natal outcomes, workload and financial incentives. The data were analysed using a random effects logit model. Overall, staff showed a preference for a curative approach with pregnant women tested for malaria parasites and treated only if positive, compared to a preventive approach (OR 1.6; p = 0.001). Increasing the incidence of low birth weight or severe anaemia by 1% would reduce the odds of preferring an approach by 18% and 10% respectively. Midwives were more resistant to potential changes to current guidelines than lower-level cadres. Conclusions In Ashanti Region, resistance to change by antenatal clinic workers from a policy of SP-IPT to IST would generally be low, and it would disappear amongst midwives if health outcomes for the mother and baby were improved by the new strategy. DCEs are a promising approach to identifying factors that will increase the likelihood of effective implementation of new interventions immediately after their efficacy has been proven.
A thermo-mechanically coupled cyclic plasticity model at large deformations considering inelastic heat generation

In the process of inelastic deformation, cyclic accumulation of heat flux transferred from plastic work under cyclic loading results in an increased work temperature. The heat softening effects of material properties and external heat source will produce more plastic work. The fraction between plastic work and heat generation per unit volume can be introduced as a coupled source for thermal-mechanical analysis. Such coupling might be important in a simulation in which extensive inelastic deformation is accumulated fairly rapidly under cyclic loading and the mechanical properties are temperature dependent. To investigate the couple effect among temperature, stress and deformation under cyclic loading, a coupled thermo-mechanically cyclic plasticity model combined nonlinear isotropic hardening and kinematic hardening was established firstly in thermodynamics frame at large deformations. And then, the proposed model was implemented into finite element code ABAQUS by combining the user subroutine UMAT and UMATHT. Finally, some numerical results show the proposed model can capture thermal-induced necking in tensile loading, and the isotropic and kinematic hardening and thermal softening under cyclic loadings.
Quantitative Estimation Technique for Wear Amounts by Real Time Measurement of Wear Debris in Lubricating Oil

A diagnostic technique that can estimate quantitatively wear amounts under lubricated condition was tentatively designed using the on-line particle concentration and counting technique. In this proposed device, the standing surface acoustic wave (SSAW) was used to concentrate the wear debris in the lubricating oil in a micro-channel, the debris were then delivered to an appropriately sized detector and scanned one by one. The size and number of wear debris in the circulating oil could be therefore measured and counted on-line. The volume of each wear particles was calculated by accumulating each volume in real time. The wear debris amounts obtained by this quantitative estimation technique were fairly similar to the measured values of mass loss of the specimens. This proposed device was conveniently embedded in the lubricating system. This study was expected to open new avenues for the real time fault diagnosis and life prognosis of machine.
The Limits of Evaluating Sustainability

Designing technology with sustainability in mind is becoming more and more important, especially considering future scenarios of limited resources where the world's current lifestyle of wasteful consumption needs to change. But how can researchers believably argue that their solutions are indeed sustainable? How can consumers and technology users reliably acquire, understand, and apply information about environmental sustainability? Those questions are difficult to answer, especially in research domains where the impact on sustainability is not immediately measurable, such as sustainable HCI. The evaluation of sustainability is an ongoing problem that is often glossed over, but we believe the community needs to intensify its efforts to articulate its evaluation methods to other disciplines and external stakeholders. Even if those disciplines and stakeholders understand the importance of designing for sustainability, we need convincing arguments -- such as validation through thorough evaluations -- to showcase why a specific design solution works in the real world. In this paper, we analyze this problem by highlighting examples of sustainable HCI research in which evaluation of sustainability failed. We also look at previous research that sought to address this issue and discuss how their solutions can be generalized -- and when they might fail. While we do not have the final answer, our intention is to start a discussion as to why sustainable HCI research is oftentimes not doing enough to justify the validity of its solutions. We close our paper by suggesting a few examples of what we believe to be potential ways to address those issues and take action to improve the evaluation of sustainability.
The Dynamic Pull-In Instability and Snap-Through Behavior of Initially Curved Microbeams

In this study, dynamic pull-in instability and snap-through buckling of initially curved microbeams are investigated. The microbeams are actuated by suddenly applied electrostatic force. A finite element model is developed to discretize the governing equations, and Newmark time discretization is employed to solve the discretized equations. The static pull-in behavior is investigated to validate the model. The results of the finite element model are compared with finite difference solutions and their convergence is examined. In addition, the influence of different parameters on dynamic pull-in instability and snap-through buckling is explored.
Effect of chronic intracerebroventricluar administration of lipopolysaccharide on connexin43 protein expression in rat hippocampus.

BACKGROUND Hippocampal damages, which are accompanied by inflammation, are among the main causes of epilepsy acquisition. We previously reported that chronic intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) modulates epileptogenesis in rats. There is a network of gap junction channels in the hippocampus that contribute to epileptogenesis. Gap junction channels are formed by oligomeric protein subunits called connexins (Cx). Astrocytic Cx43 and neuronal Cx36 are expressed in the hippocampus. In order to find out the possible role of gap junctions in seizure-modulating effect of LPS and neuroinflammation, we studied the effect of central administration of LPS on expression of Cx36 and Cx43 in rat hippocampus. METHODS LPS, 2.5 mug/rat/day, was injected i.c. v. to male Wistar rats for 14 days. mRNA and protein abundance of Cx36, Cx43 and IL1-β were measured in rat hippocampus by real time-PCR, Western blot and ELISA techniques, at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the treatment period. RESULTS IL1-β protein level was significantly increased 6 h after first injection of LPS. Cx36 and Cx43 mRNA expression did not alter during chronic administration of LPS. A selective decrease in Cx43 protein expression was observed after 7 injections of LPS. CONCLUSION It is suggested that Cx43 containing gap junctions in the hippocampus is down-regulated in response to chronic injection of LPS. This event can inhibit propagation of toxic and noxious molecules to neighboring cells and modulate hippocampal excitability and epileptogenesis.
Time and Space Coherent Occlusion Culling for Tileable Extended 3D Worlds

In order to interactively render large virtual worlds, the amount of 3D geometry passed to the graphics hardware must be kept to a minimum. Typical solutions to this problem include the use of potentially visible sets and occlusion culling, however, these solutions do not scale well, in time nor in memory, with the size of a virtual world. We propose a fast and inexpensive variant of occlusion culling tailored to a simple tiling scheme that improves scalability while maintaining very high performance. Tile visibilities are evaluated with hardware-accelerated occlusion queries, and in-tile rendering is rapidly computed using BVH instantiation and any visibility method, we use the CHC++ occlusion culling method for its good general performance. Tiles are instantiated only when tested locally for visibility, thus avoiding the need for a preconstructed global structure for the complete world. Our approach can render large-scale, diversified virtual worlds with complex geometry, such as cities or forests, all at high performance and with a modest memory footprint.
A critical examination of the paradox of strength and ductility in ultrafine-grained metals

The paradox of strength and ductility is now well established and denotes the difficulty of simultaneously achieving both high strength and high ductility. This paradox was critically examined using a cast Al–7%Si alloy processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) for up to 10 turns at a temperature of either 298 or 445 K. This processing reduces the grain size to a minimum of ∼0.4 µm and also decreases the average size of the Si particles. The results show that samples processed to high numbers of HPT turns exhibit both high strength and high ductility when tested at relatively low strain rates and the strain rate sensitivity under these conditions is ∼0.14 which suggests that flow occurs by some limited grain boundary sliding and crystallographic slip. The results are also displayed on the traditional diagram for strength and ductility and they demonstrate the potential for achieving high strength and high ductility by increasing the number of turns in HPT.
Laser Capture Microdissected Mucosa versus Whole Tissue Specimens for Assessment of Radiation-Induced Dynamic Molecular and Pathway Changes in the Small Intestine

Background The intestinal mucosa is the compartment that sustains the most severe injury in response to radiation and is therefore of primary interest. The use of whole gut extracts for analysis of gene expression may confound important changes in the mucosa. On the other hand, laser capture microdissection (LCM) is hampered by the unstable nature of RNA and by a more complicated collection process. This study assessed, in parallel samples from a validated radiation model, the indications for use of LCM for intestinal gene expression analysis. Methodology/Principal Findings RNA was extracted from mouse whole intestine and from mucosa by LCM at baseline and 4 h, 24 h, and 3.5 d after total body irradiation and subjected to microarray analysis. Among mucosal genes that were altered > = 2-fold, less than 7% were present in the whole gut at 4 and 24 h, and 25% at 3.5 d. As expected, pathway analysis of mucosal LCM samples showed that radiation activated the coagulation system, lymphocyte apoptosis, and tight junction signaling, and caused extensive up-regulation of cell cycle and DNA damage repair pathways. Using similar stringent criteria, regulation of these pathways, with exception of the p53 pathway, was undetectable in the whole gut. Radiation induced a dramatic increase of caspase14 and ectodysplasin A2 receptor (Eda2r), a TNFα receptor, in both types of samples. Conclusions/Significance LCM-isolated mucosal specimens should be used to study cellular injury, cell cycle control, and DNA damage repair pathways. The remarkable increase of caspase14 and Eda2r suggests a novel role for these genes in regulating intestinal radiation injury. Comparative gene expression data from complex tissues should be interpreted with caution.
Genome sequencing identifies a non‐coding variant in the MCDR1 locus as a cause of macular dystrophy

North Carolina macular dystrophy (NCMD) is an uncommon condition characterized by central macular abnormalities that are present at birth but rarely progress. It is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner, and many affected families link to a locus on 6q16.2 (MCDR1). There are 10 genes in this locus, and although these have been extensively interrogated for over 20years, the genetic cause underpinning NCMD was only recently discovered: Small and colleagues identified non-protein-coding variants affecting the regulation of the PRDM13 gene in 12 NCMD families. Here, we report clinical and genomic data for an additional family with NCMD, providing further evidence for the role of PRDM13 regulatory variants in NCMD. The proband is a 34-year-old female who reports having poor central vision from early life and was diagnosed with a retinal dystrophy at 4years of age. Examination at age of 34years revealed visual acuity of 0.54 logMAR in the right eye and 0.48 logMAR in the left eye. Fundoscopy and optical coherence tomography were consistent with a central macular caldera although there was a degree of interocular asymmetry (Fig. 1a). Autofluorescence imaging revealed hyperautofluorescent flecks surrounding the
Engineering of the light elements in silicon for the photovoltaic application

Since many years, silicon is the primary semiconductor material in electronic andphotovoltaic industry. Intensively studied through decades, its properties are essentiallyknown, however new questions keep arising. We need to achieve deep insightinto the numerous possible defects and impurities properties as well as their impacton the performances of the Si based devices. This work covers a range of problemsrelated with point defects interaction of both types long range and short range bymeans of parameter free first principles calculations.The former refers to the impact of heavy doping on diffusivity of interstitialoxygen species. The obtained diffusion coefficients as a function of temperature arein a very good agreement with experimental results that demonstrates the validityof the applied methodology. We showed that the enhanced diffusivity in B-dopedsilicon occurs through a charge transfer mechanism from the p-type dopantThe latter accounts for the various point defect complexes and their thermodynamic,kinetic, and optical properties. Formation of these complexes can beinduced by electron irradiation of Czochralski silicon. This aspect is of extremeimportance for particular operational environment. Here, we performed a combinedexperimental-theoretical investigation to identify the impact of isovalent doping (C,Ge) and co-doping (C-Ge, C-Sn, C-Pb) on the production of different complexes(VOi, CiOi, CiCs, etc.), which are electrically and optically active.Finally, particular attention is addressed to the carbon-carbon defect pair and itsproperties. Recently, it was established that heavily carbon doped silicon elucidateslasing properties. Here we aimed to revisit the possible forms of the complex andtheir properties, in order to associate one of them with light emitting G-centre,observed in experiments.v
Anisotropic, non-uniform misfit strain in a thin film bonded on a plate substrate

Current methodologies used for the inference of thin film stresses through curvature measurements are strictly restricted to stress and curvature states which are assumed to remain uniform over the entire film/substrate system. These methodologies have recently been extended to non-uniform stress and curvature states for the thin film subject to non-uniform, isotropic misfit strains. In this paper we study the same thin film/substrate system but subject to non-uniform, anisotropic misfit strains. The film stresses and system curvatures are both obtained in terms of the non-uniform, anisotropic misfit strains. For arbitrarily non-uniform, anisotropic misfit strains, it is shown that a direct relation between film stresses and system curvatures cannot be established. However, such a relation exists for uniform or linear anisotropic misfit strains, or for the average film stresses and average system curvatures when the anisotropic misfit strains are arbitrarily non-uniform.