Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Virtualizing I/O Devices on VMware Workstation's Hosted Virtual Machine Monitor

Virtual machines were developed by IBM in the 1960’s to provide concurrent, interactive access to a mainframe computer. Each virtual machine is a replica of the underlying physical machine and users are given the illusion of running directly on the physical machine. Virtual machines also provide benefits like isolation and resource sharing, and the ability to run multiple flavors and configurations of operating systems. VMwareWorkstation brings such mainframe-class virtual machine technology to PC-based desktop and workstation computers. This paper focuses on VMware Workstation’s approach to virtualizing I/O devices. PCs have a staggering variety of hardware, and are usually pre-installed with an operating system. Instead of replacing the pre-installed OS, VMware Workstation uses it to host a user-level application (VMApp) component, as well as to schedule a privileged virtual machine monitor (VMM) component. The VMM directly provides high-performance CPU virtualization while the VMApp uses the host OS to virtualize I/O devices and shield the VMM from the variety of devices. A crucial question is whether virtualizing devices via such a hosted architecture can meet the performance required of high throughput, low latency devices. To this end, this paper studies the virtualization and performance of an Ethernet adapter on VMware Workstation. Results indicate that with optimizations, VMware Workstation’s hosted virtualization architecture can match native I/O throughput on standard PCs. Although a straightforward hosted implementation is CPU-limited due to virtualization overhead on a 733 MHz Pentium R III system on a 100 Mb/s Ethernet, a series of optimizations targeted at reducing CPU utilization allows the system to match native network throughput. Further optimizations are discussed both within and outside a hosted architecture.
Energy Conversion by Parallel Electric Fields During Guide Field Reconnection in Scaled Laboratory and Space Experiments

We present direct and scaled comparisons between laboratory and in situ space observations of magnetic reconnection with a guide field, comparing results from the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission and the Magnetic Reconnection eXperiment (MRX). While Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission observations obtain high‐resolution and fully kinetic data, MRX observations fully cover the 2‐D reconnection plane near the current sheet, removing uncertainties in situating the measurements compared to the reconnection region. Through scaling transformations, we show a quantitative agreement in magnetic field and current density profiles, which agree within a factor of 2 from each other. The introduction of the guide field causes the energy conversion J·E in the current sheet to be dominated by J||E|| in both cases. However, parallel electric fields reported by recent spacecraft crossings are significantly (5–10 times) larger than values obtained on MRX, highlighting an important issue for understanding energy conversion by reconnection.
Visual–spatial disembedding in Parkinson's disease

Visual–spatial disembedding requires a person to visually scan the stimulus and allocate spatial selective attention to the locations of relevant stimuli. Parkinson's disease (PD) is often associated with visual–spatial deficits, but the influence of PD on disembedding is not entirely known. The goal of this study is to learn whether participants with PD have defective visuospatial disembedding and whether this defect responds to dopaminergic treatment. We also wanted to examine the relationship of disembedding with other cognitive processes and the different parkinsonian clinical symptoms. Participants were PD patients and matched controls. PD participants were tested “on” and “off” medications on the Hidden Patterns Test (HPT) and tests of frontal-executive functions. PD patients had difficulties in visual–spatial disembedding that were not related to medication status, illness duration or severity, or symptom presentation, but were related to other tasks requiring visual scanning in response to alterations in spatial allocation of attention. Lack of improvement with dopaminergic treatment suggests deficits in other neurotransmitter–neuromodulatory systems or degenerative processes in the frontal-striatal networks, cortex, or basal ganglia.
ICT CAS at DUC 2007

This paper presents our multi-document summarization system ICTGSP-S at DUC 2007. We propose a new method for representing and summarizing documents by integrating subtopics partition with graph representation. The method starts from the assumption that capturing subtopic structure of document collection is essential for summarization. The evaluation results show the benefit of this approach.
Polarized targeting of L1‐CAM regulates axonal and dendritic bundling in vitro

Proper axonal and dendritic bundling is essential for the establishment of neuronal connections and the synchronization of synaptic inputs, respectively. Cell adhesion molecules of the L1‐CAM (L1‐cell adhesion molecule) family regulate axon guidance and fasciculation, neuron migration, dendrite morphology, and synaptic plasticity. It remains unclear how these molecules play so many different roles. Here we show that polarized axon–dendrite targeting of an avian L1‐CAM protein, NgCAM (neuron‐glia cell adhesion molecule), can regulate the switch of bundling of the two major compartments of rat hippocampal neurons. Using a new in‐vitro model for studying neurite–neurite interactions, we found that expressed axonal NgCAM induced robust axonal bundling via the trans‐homophilic interaction of immunoglobulin domains. Interestingly, dendritic bundling was induced by the dendritic targeting of NgCAM, caused by either deleting its fibronectin repeats or blocking activities of protein kinases. Consistent with the NgCAM results, expression of mouse L1‐CAM also induced axonal bundling and blocking kinase activities disrupted its axonal targeting. Furthermore, the trans‐homophilic interaction stabilized the bundle formation, probably through recruiting NgCAM proteins to contact sites and promoting guided axon outgrowth. Taken together, our results suggest that precise localization of L1‐CAM is important for establishing proper cell–cell contacts in neural circuits.
Data jockey, a Tool for Meta-Data Enhanced Digital DJing and Active listening

Data Jockey is a free and open-source digital DJ software system that allows users to mix several audio works based on content features, such as average brightness and average harmonicity, while syncing the works to a common clock. This software allows users to search through an audio database using audio content descriptors as search criteria. These features help users explore their ever-expanding digital audio collections in new ways. Providing users with access to content descriptors will provoke interesting juxtapositions of different works and the evolution of content features over mixes. Access to these descriptors will help users find new meaning in these audio works and their combination.
Influence of adsorption time, rocking, and soluble proteins on the plaque assay of monodispersed poliovirus

Factors that could affect adsorption of monodispersed poliovirus to cell culture monolayers were evaluated. These included varying the virus adsorption period under static and nonstatic (rocked) conditions and altering the rocking rate. The effects of several soluble proteins on plaque formation, enumeration, and size were also evaluated. Rocking involved the mechanical spread of viruses over cell culture monolayers for 1 to 4 h. Rocked cultures exhibited significantly higher (P less than 0.05) plaque counts than corresponding static cultures. Optimal plaque counts were obtained after a 2-h adsorption period with rocking; increasing the period to 4 h did not significantly increase PFU. Optimal counts were not obtained until greater than or equal to 4 h with static adsorption. Plaque counts were not affected by increasing the rocking rate above one oscillation per minute, but a slower rocking rate resulted in a significant decrease in plaques. Adsorption of poliovirus in the presence of 3% solutions of beef and meat extracts, acid-precipitated oyster protein, two brands of skim milk, and 3 and 10% fetal bovine serum was compared with adsorption in protein-free controls. Significant reductions (P less than 0.05) in plaque counts occurred with one brand of skim milk, whereas 3% beef extract yielded highly significant reductions (P less than 0.01) in plaque counts and appreciable decreases in plaque sizes. Salinities of protein-containing virus inocula were high for beef and meat extracts but somewhat below physiological levels for the remaining inocula. Beef extract-associated reductions in PFU were eliminated after the extracts were dialyzed. Plaque reductions were associated with dialyzable components of the beef extract but not with the inoculum salinity.
Enumerating 3D-Sudoku Solutions over Cubic Prefractal Objects

We consider three-dimensional extensions of the Sudoku puzzle over prefractal objects. The prefractal objects we use are 2nd-level cubic approximations of two 3D fractals. Both objects are composed of 81 cubic pieces and they have 9× 9-grid appearances in three orthogonal directions. On each object, our problem is to assign a digit to each of the 81 pieces so that it has a Sudoku solution pattern in each of the three 9 × 9-grid appearances. In this paper, we present an algorithm for enumerating such assignments and show the results.
Genistein-induced fluid accumulation in ovariectomised rats' uteri is associated with increased cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator expression

OBJECTIVE: High genistein doses have been reported to induce fluid accumulation in the uteri of ovariectomised rats, although the mechanism underlying this effect remains unknown. Because genistein binds to the oestrogen receptor and the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator mediates uterine fluid secretion, we hypothesised that this genistein effect involves both the oestrogen receptor and cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator. METHODS: Ovariectomised adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with 25, 50, or 100 mg/kg/day genistein for three consecutive days with and without the ER antagonist ICI 182780. One day after the final drug injection, the animals were humanely sacrificed, and the uteri were removed for histology and cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator mRNA and protein expression analysis using real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, respectively. The cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator protein distribution was analysed visually by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The histological analysis revealed an increase in the circumference of the uterine lumen with increasing doses of genistein, which was suggestive of fluid accumulation. Moreover, genistein stimulated a dose-dependent increase in the expression of cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator protein and mRNA, and high-intensity cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator immunostaining was observed at the apical membrane of the luminal epithelium following 50 and 100 mg/kg/day genistein treatment. The genistein-induced increase in uterine luminal circumference and cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator expression was antagonised by treatment with ICI 182780. CONCLUSION: Genistein-induced luminal fluid accumulation in ovariectomised rats' uteri involves the oestrogen receptor and up-regulation of cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator expression, and these findings reveal the mechanism underlying the effect of this compound on changes in fluid volume in the uterus after menopause.
Non-repudiation in order, delivery and payment process for a sustainable online business

Online businesses in Malaysia suffer from the lack of non-repudiation in the ordering, delivery and payment process. Most businesses cannot sustain their growth because of this limitation. In this paper we propose a new model for the implementation of online business. The solutions can also be adapted to any country for the most part except for the delivery process that requires the use of a smartcard-based national identity card. The non-repudiation evidences that are generated from the system can be used by both the consumer and the merchant to resolve possible future disputes. The evidence is also admissible in the court of law since they are generated from the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that is recognized by the authority as legally binding.
Th1/Th17 polarization and acquisition of an arthritogenic phenotype in arthritis-susceptible BALB/c, but not in MHC-matched, arthritis-resistant DBA/2 mice

Proteoglycan (PG) aggrecan-induced arthritis (PGIA) is a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Although BALB/c and DBA/2 mice share the same MHC (H-2d) haplotype, the BALB/c strain is susceptible to PGIA, while DBA/2 mice are resistant. Therefore, these two inbred mouse strains provide an opportunity to study arthritis susceptibility factors excluding the effects of MHC-associated genetic components. The goal of this study was to monitor changes in the cellular composition and activation state following intra-peritoneal (i.p.) immunization to induce PGIA; additionally, we sought to identify new susceptibility factors by comparing PG-induced immune responses in BALB/c and DBA/2 mice. Upon i.p. PG injection, resident naive B1 cells are replaced by both T cells and conventional B cells in the peritoneum of BALB/c mice. These peritoneal T cells produce IFNγ and IL-17, cytokines shown to be important in RA and corresponding arthritis models. Moreover, peritoneal cells can adoptively transfer PGIA to SCID mice, demonstrating their arthritogenic properties. Our results indicate that repeatedly injected antigen leads to the recruitment and activation of immune cells in the peritoneum; these cells then trigger the effector phase of the disease. The migration and activation of Th1/Th17 cells in the peritoneal cavity in response to PG immunization, which did not occur in the arthritis-resistant DBA/2 strain, may be critical factors of arthritis susceptibility in BALB/c mice.
Climate Variability and Theft in Colombia

The objective of this study is to estimate the causal impact of the most recent extreme weather event (EWE) in Colombia (‘La Nina’ between 2010-2011), labelled as the ‘winter wave’ by the local media, on persons, houses, business and car theft rates in municipalities subject to the treatment of this EWE. Using a novel annual municipal panel dataset (2007-2012, inclusive), and measuring the affected areas according to the number of houses damaged and destroyed, this study relies on a Difference-in-Difference (D-i-D) model to show that the concurrent year of the winter wave brought a decrease in theft rates, especially, theft from persons. This may be perhaps attributable to the emergence of pro-social behaviour in the municipalities most affected. We also find an increase in theft from houses possibly linked to a ‘survival mechanism’, rather than one that one that seeks reward like the type the BECKER (1968) model of crime and punishment. In addition, the D-i-D estimates also reveal that the presence of conflict, in general, discourages theft perhaps due to the establishment of coercive institutions by illegal armed groups.
Primary structure of the leukocyte function-associated molecule-1 alpha subunit: an integrin with an embedded domain defining a protein superfamily

The leukocyte function-associated molecule 1 (LFA-1, CD11a/CD18) is a membrane glycoprotein which functions in cell-cell adhesion by heterophilic interaction with intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM- 1). LFA-1 consists of an alpha subunit (Mr = 180,000) and a beta subunit (Mr = 95,000). We report the molecular biology and protein sequence of the alpha subunit. Overlapping cDNAs containing 5,139 nucleotides were isolated using an oligonucleotide specified by tryptic peptide sequence. The mRNA of 5.5 kb is expressed in lymphoid and myeloid cells but not in a bladder carcinoma cell line. The protein has a 1,063-amino acid extracellular domain, a 29-amino acid transmembrane region, and a 53-amino acid cytoplasmic tail. The extracellular domain contains seven repeats. Repeats V-VII are in tandem and contain putative divalent cation binding sites. LFA-1 has significant homology to the members of the integrin superfamily, having 36% identity with the Mac-1 and p150,95 alpha subunits and 28% identity with other integrin alpha subunits. An insertion of approximately 200 amino acids is present in the NH2-terminal region of LFA-1. This "inserted/interactive" or I domain is also present in the p150,95 and Mac-1 alpha subunits but is absent from other integrin alpha subunits sequenced to date. The I domain has striking homology to three repeats in human von Willebrand factor, two repeats in chicken cartilage matrix protein, and a region of complement factor B. These structural features indicate a bipartite evolution from the integrin family and from an I domain family. These features may also correspond to relevant functional domains.
Fast Global Alignment Kernels

We propose novel approaches to cast the widely-used family of Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) distances and similarities as positive definite kernels for time series. To this effect, we provide new theoretical insights on the family of Global Alignment kernels introduced by Cuturi et al. (2007) and propose alternative kernels which are both positive definite and faster to compute. We provide experimental evidence that these alternatives are both faster and more efficient in classification tasks than other kernels based on the DTW formalism.
High-Fidelity Aerodynamic Shape Optimization for Natural Laminar Flow

High-fidelity aerodynamic shape optimization frameworks capable of efficiently incorporating and exploiting laminar-turbulent transition enable the design of aircraft with significantly reduced drag. This work presents recent progress toward that end. First, a two-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) flow solver is extended to incorporate an iterative laminar-turbulent transition prediction methodology. The natural transition locations due to Tollmien-Schlichting instabilities are predicted using the compressible form of the Arnal-Habiballah-Delcourt criterion or alternatively, the simplified e envelope method of Drela and Giles. The boundary-layer properties are obtained directly from the Navier-Stokes flow solution and the transition to turbulent flow is modeled using an intermittency function. The RANS solver is subsequently employed in a gradient-based sequential quadratic programming shape optimization framework. The laminar-turbulent transition criteria are tightly coupled into the objective and gradient evaluations. The gradients are obtained using a parallelized finite-difference approximation. The proposed optimization framework is applied to the lift-constrained drag minimization of airfoils at various flight conditions, leading to natural laminar flow designs.
Morph Moulder: Teaching Software for HPSG and Description Logics

The graphical software Morph Moulder (MoMo) presented here was originally created for teaching the logical foundations of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) in an e-Learning environment. It has then been extended to a treatment of description logics (DL), which are at present the standard formalism for building ontologies. With MoMo, students can construct interpretations of sets of formulae and check whether their interpretations model these formulae (called theory in HPSG and axioms in DL). MoMo also supports reasoning such as the construction of well-formed interpretations in the feature logic of HPSG and the automatic extraction of subsumption hierarchies in DL. It has been used successfully in several courses on HPSG linguistics, on computational grammar implementation and on the logical foundations of constraint-based grammar frameworks.
The WHUTE System in NTCIR-9 RITE Task

This paper describes our system of recognizing textual entailment for RITE Chinese subtask at NTCIR-9. We build a textual entailment recognition framework and implement a system that employs string, syntactic, semantic and some specific features for the recognition. To improve the system’s performance, a two-stage recognition strategy is utilized, which first judge entailment or no entailment, and then contradiction or independence of the pairs in turn. Official results show that our system achieves a 73.71% performance in BC subtask, 60.93% in MC subtask and 48.76% in RITE4QA subtask.
HLTCOE Approaches to Knowledge Base Population at TAC 2009

The HLTCOE participated in the entity linking and slot filling tasks at TAC 2009. A machine learning-based approach to entity linking, operating over a wide range of feature types, yielded good performance on the entity linking task. Slot-filling based on sentence selection, application of weak patterns and exploitation of redundancy was ineffective in the slot filling task.
Coupled distinct element method computational fluid dynamics analyses for reservoir landslide modelling

The Vajont landslide involved a large mass of rock splashing at high speed into the reservoir which in turn generated a high impulse water that overtopped the dam and swept away the downstream village. In several cases of reservoir landslide, albeit the flood defence structures may remain intact, a catastrophe still occur due to the generation of a ‚tsunami‘ wave. Since the features of the tsunami wave strongly depend on the physics of the rock splashing and the subsequent rock – water interaction, a numerical tool accounting for such physics is required for predictions to be reliable. Here, the formulation of a coupled 3D Distinct Element Method (DEM) – Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code used to simulate the rock slide from onset to impact with the reservoir and the subsequent generation of the impulse wave, is presented. To run realistic simulations in an affordable runtime, coarse graining is employed. The main results of quasi 3D analyses in plane strain along two cross-sections representative of the eastern and western slope sectors are presented. The results show to be in broad agreement with the available recorded observations.
Social Capital and Individual Performance: A Study of Academic Collaboration

Studies on social networks highlight the importance of network structure or structural properties of a given network and its impact on performance outcome. One of the important properties of this network structure is referred as "social capital" which is the "network of contacts" and the associated values attached to these networks of contacts. In this study, our aim is to provide empirical evidence of the influence of social capital and performance within the context of academic collaboration. We suggest that the collaborative process involves social capital embedded within relationships and network structures among direct co-authors. Thus, we examine whether scholars' social capital is associated with their citation-based performance, using co-authorship and citation data. In order to test and validate our proposed hypotheses, we extract publication records from Scopus having "information science" in their title or keywords or abstracts during 2001 and 2010. To overcome the limitations of traditional social network metrics for measuring the influence of scholars' social capital within their co-authorship network, we extend the traditional social network metrics by proposing a new measure (Power-Diversity Index). We then use Spearman's correlation rank test to examine the association between scholars' social capital measures and their citation-based performance. Results suggest that research performance of authors is positively correlated with their social capital measures. This study highlights that the Power-diversity Index, which is introduced as a new hybrid centrality measure, serves as an indicator of power and influence of an individual's ability to control communication and information.