Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Research on Load Balancing in Cloud Computing Based on Marketing Theory

Though a cloud environment can create the appearance of an endless supply of computing resources, the computing resources are still limited from perspective of cloud management. As the key supporting technologies of future internet, load balancing algorithms and job allocations are main research problems in areas of resource management of cloud computing. Most traditional works resolve the load balancing problem in grid, cluster and distributed environment with objective function that is to minimize the system response time. In this paper, we discuss load balancing from perspective of users, formulate this problem based on marketing theory, and propose a load balancing algorithm based on marketing theory and game theory. Comparing with other algorithms, the algorithm presented in this paper is feasible to this problem and sees both the fairness index of users and that of processors.
DRAFT-- DRAFT-- DRAFT-- DRAFT-- DRAFT-- Esodyp + : Prefetching in the Jackal Software DSM

Prefetching transfers a data item in advance from its storage location to its usage location so that communication is hidden and does not delay computation. We present a novel prefetching technique for object-based Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) systems and discuss its implementation. In contrast to page-based DSMs, an object-based DSM distributes data on the level of objects, rendering current prefetchers for page-based DSMs unsuitable due to more complex data streams. To predict future data accesses, our prefetcher uses a new predictor (Esodyp+) based on a modified Markov model that automatically adapts to program behavior. We compare our prefetching strategy with both a stride prefetcher and the prefetcher of the Delphi DSM system. For several benchmarks our prefetching strategy reduces the number of network messages by about 60 %. On 8 nodes, runtime is reduced by 15% on average. Hence, network-bound programs benefit from our solution. In contrast to the other predictors, Esodyp+ achieves a prediction accuracy above 80 % with only 8% of unused prefetches for the benchmarks.
Unexpected Inheritance: Multiple Integrations of Ancient Bornavirus and Ebolavirus/Marburgvirus Sequences in Vertebrate Genomes

Vertebrate genomes contain numerous copies of retroviral sequences, acquired over the course of evolution. Until recently they were thought to be the only type of RNA viruses to be so represented, because integration of a DNA copy of their genome is required for their replication. In this study, an extensive sequence comparison was conducted in which 5,666 viral genes from all known non-retroviral families with single-stranded RNA genomes were matched against the germline genomes of 48 vertebrate species, to determine if such viruses could also contribute to the vertebrate genetic heritage. In 19 of the tested vertebrate species, we discovered as many as 80 high-confidence examples of genomic DNA sequences that appear to be derived, as long ago as 40 million years, from ancestral members of 4 currently circulating virus families with single strand RNA genomes. Surprisingly, almost all of the sequences are related to only two families in the Order Mononegavirales: the Bornaviruses and the Filoviruses, which cause lethal neurological disease and hemorrhagic fevers, respectively. Based on signature landmarks some, and perhaps all, of the endogenous virus-like DNA sequences appear to be LINE element-facilitated integrations derived from viral mRNAs. The integrations represent genes that encode viral nucleocapsid, RNA-dependent-RNA-polymerase, matrix and, possibly, glycoproteins. Integrations are generally limited to one or very few copies of a related viral gene per species, suggesting that once the initial germline integration was obtained (or selected), later integrations failed or provided little advantage to the host. The conservation of relatively long open reading frames for several of the endogenous sequences, the virus-like protein regions represented, and a potential correlation between their presence and a species' resistance to the diseases caused by these pathogens, are consistent with the notion that their products provide some important biological advantage to the species. In addition, the viruses could also benefit, as some resistant species (e.g. bats) may serve as natural reservoirs for their persistence and transmission. Given the stringent limitations imposed in this informatics search, the examples described here should be considered a low estimate of the number of such integration events that have persisted over evolutionary time scales. Clearly, the sources of genetic information in vertebrate genomes are much more diverse than previously suspected.
The Determinants of Currency Crises: A Political-Economy Approach

Introduction PART I: SOME CLUES FROM HISTORY Introduction Ending Gold Convertibility in the 1930s Coalition Bickering in Turkey, 2000-01 Meltdown in Argentina, 1991-2002 Emerging Political Patterns PART II: POLITICAL-ECONOMY CRISIS MODELS Introduction A Basic Second-Generation Model The Credibility Problem of Currency Pegs Two Types of Commitment Devices Uncertainty and the Role of Elections A Fiscal Veto Player Currency Crises and Fiscal Policy Decisions The Scope for Intra-Governmental Confict A Stochastic Fiscal Target Lobbying and Exchange Rate Stability PART III: THE ROLE OF POLITICS IN CRISIS PREDICTION Introduction Literature Survey Data Set and Empirical Strategy Country Sample and Crisis Measure The Choice of Regressors Empirical Strategy Key Findings Descriptive Statistics Political-Economy Logit Models Robustness Checks Extensions The Link between Elections and Crises The Link between Left Governments and Crises Conclusion Appendices Deriving the Supply Function Survey of Econometric Studies Data Issues Endnotes Bibliography
In Vitro and In Vivo Models for Analysis of Resistance to Anticancer Molecular Therapies

The efficacy of classical and molecular therapies in cancer is hampered by the occurrence of primary (intrinsic) and secondary (acquired) refractoriness of tumours to selected therapeutic regimens. Nevertheless, the increased knowledge of the genetic, molecular and metabolic mechanisms underlying cancer results in the generation of a correspondingly increasing number of druggable targets and molecular drugs. Thus, a current challenge in molecular oncology and medicinal chemistry is to cope with the increased need for modelling, both in cellular and animal systems, the genetic assets associated to cancer resistance to drugs. In this review, we summarize the current strategies for generation and analysis of in vitro and in vivo models, which may reveal useful to extract information on the molecular basis of intrinsic and acquired resistance to anticancer molecular agents.
Inequality Trends in Some Developed OECD Countries

This paper argues that income inequality has increased in several, but not all, developed countries over the last twenty years. The increase in some countries supports the conclusion that the deregulation of markets, resulting in the concentration of economic power, is the fundamental cause as well as the gross manifestation of inequality of both income and wealth.
Contextual awareness, messaging and communication in nomadic audio environments

Nomadic Radio provides an audio-only wearable interface to unify remote information services such as email, voice mail, hourly news broadcasts, and personal calendar events. These messages are automatically downloaded to a wearable device throughout the day and users can browse them using speech recognition and tactile input. To provide an unobtrusive interface for nomadic users, the audio/text information is presented using a combination of ambient and auditory cues, synthetic speech and spatialized audio. A notification model developed in Nomadic Radio dynamically selects the relevant presentation level for incoming messages based on message priority, user activity and the level of conversation in the environment. Temporal actions of the user such as activating or ignoring messages while listening, reinforce or decay the presentation level over time and change the underlying notification model. Scaleable notification allows incoming messages to be dynamically presented as subtle ambient sounds, distinct VoiceCues, spoken summaries or spatialized audio streams foregrounded for the listener. This thesis addresses techniques for peripheral awareness, spatial listening and contextual notification to manage the user’s focus of attention on a wearable audio computing platform. Thesis Supervisor: Christopher M. Schmandt Title: Principal Research Scientist, MIT Media Laboratory
The Impact of Deoxynivalenol on Pigeon Health: Occurrence in Feed, Toxicokinetics and Interaction with Salmonellosis

Seed-based pigeon diets could be expected to result in exposure of pigeons to mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON). Ingestion of low to moderate contamination levels of DON may impair intestinal health, immune function and/or pathogen fitness, resulting in altered host-pathogen interactions and thus different outcome of infections. Here we demonstrate that DON was one of the most frequently detected mycotoxins in seed-based racing pigeons feed, contaminating 5 out of 10 samples (range 177–1,466 μg/kg). Subsequently, a toxicokinetic analysis revealed a low absolute oral bioavailability (F) of DON in pigeons (30.4%), which is comparable to other avian species. Furthermore, semi-quantitative analysis using high-resolution mass spectrometry revealed that DON-3α-sulphate is the major metabolite of DON in pigeons after intravenous as well as oral administration. Following ingestion of DON contaminated feed, the intestinal epithelial cells are exposed to significant DON concentrations which eventually may affect intestinal translocation and colonization of bacteria. Feeding pigeons a DON contaminated diet resulted in an increased percentage of pigeons shedding Salmonella compared to birds fed control diet, 87 ± 17% versus 74 ± 13%, respectively. However, no impact of DON was observed on the Salmonella induced disease signs, organ lesions, faecal and organ Salmonella counts. The presented risk assessment indicates that pigeons are frequently exposed to mycotoxins such as DON, which can affect the outcome of a Salmonella infection. The increasing number of pigeons shedding Salmonella suggests that DON can promote the spread of the bacterium within pigeon populations.
A Developmental Investigation of Processing Costs in Implicature Production

Much developmental work has been devoted to scalar implicatures. These are implicitly communicated propositions linked to relatively weak terms (consider how Some pragmatically implies Not all) that are more likely to be carried out by adults than by children. Children tend to retain the linguistically encoded meaning of these terms (wherein Some is compatible with All). In three experiments, we gauge children's performance with scalars while investigating four factors that can have an effect on implicature production: (i) the role of (the presence or absence of) distractor items; (ii) the nature of the task (verbal judgments versus action-based judgments); (iii) the choice of scalar expression (the French quantifier quelques versus certains); and (iv) the type of scale that contextualizes the weak utterance (the affirmative All versus the negative None). Experiment 1 replicated earlier findings showing that 9-year-olds are more likely than adults to consider as true statements such as Some turtles are in the boxes (uttered when all turtles are in the boxes) while employing the quantifier certains in a truth evaluation task containing multiple distractor items. The task in Experiment 2 increased implicature production across all ages (4-, 5-, and 7-year-olds as well as adults) but maintained the developmental effect while using quelques in an action-based task containing no distractor items. Experiment 3 showed that 9-year-olds are more likely to produce implicatures with quelques than they are with certains in the action task while adults are not affected by the choice of term. Overall, these results identify seemingly harmless task features that can prevent even older children (9-year-olds) from carrying out implicatures (e.g., through the inclusion of distractors) while also showing how implicature production among even young children (4- to 5-year-olds) can be facilitated by task features (e.g., the use of an action task) and without the introduction of special training.
ENVIRONMENTALLY ADAPTIVE SONAR

Active sonar operations in shallow waters are important both for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) with synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) or sidescan sonar, and for hull-mounted forwardlooking sonar. One of the challenges in shallow water operations is that the direct bottom return is often contaminated by other signal returns, either from scattering off both surface and bottom, or by direct surface backscattering. The contributions of different multipaths depend on the sensor depth, the vertical beam patterns and the environment. In this paper we present a method for adapting the sonar parameters to the environment in order to minimize the multipath contamination. The method is developed for AUV-mounted interferometric sidescan sonar systems, supporting depth estimation using two vertically displaced receiver arrays. The relative time delay of the direct signal and the multipath signals will differ between the two arrays. This allows for a measure on the degree of multipath contamination as a bi-product of the depth estimation. We use these measurements to calibrate a simulator which predicts the strength of both the direct signal return and each multipath return in the measured environment. The simulator is then rerun with different sonar settings in a search for minimum multipath contamination. The method is demonstrated on data recorded with the HISAS 1030 sonar on a HUGIN 1000 AUV developed by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and Kongsberg Maritime. The best sensor depth and steering of the 16-element vertical transmitter array is suggested. This allows for in situ adaptation to the environment, and also provides validation of the suggested settings.
Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Segmentation on FD-OCT Scans of Normal Subjects and Glaucoma Patients

Automated measurements of the retinal nerve fiber layer thickness on circular OCT B-Scans provide physicians additional parameters for glaucoma diagnosis. We propose a novel retinal nerve fiber layer segmentation algorithm for frequency domain data that can be applied on scans from both normal healthy subjects, as well as glaucoma patients, using the same set of parameters. In addition, the algorithm remains almost unaffected by image quality. The main part of the segmentation process is based on the minimization of an energy function consisting of gradient and local smoothing terms. A quantitative evaluation comparing the automated segmentation results to manually corrected segmentations from three reviewers is performed. A total of 72 scans from glaucoma patients and 132 scans from normal subjects, all from different persons, composed the database for the evaluation of the segmentation algorithm. A mean absolute error per A-Scan of 2.9 µm was achieved on glaucomatous eyes, and 3.6 µm on healthy eyes. The mean absolute segmentation error over all A-Scans lies below 10 µm on 95.1% of the images. Thus our approach provides a reliable tool for extracting diagnostic relevant parameters from OCT B-Scans for glaucoma diagnosis.
Empowerment of Citizens in a Multicultural Society

This article is based on the project: Empowerment of Citizens in aMulticultural Society. We wanted to explore theatre as intercultural communication related to the challenges faced by our diverse society. Drama students and immigrants worked together based on Augusto Boal`s “Theatre of the Oppressed”. They participated as actors in “Forum Theatre” where they staged their own experiences with oppression. Through the medium of “Solidarity Forum Theatre Performance” (SFT) the spectators were invited to discuss and find solutions to oppression in a multicultural society. The spectators took on the main role in Forum Theatre as spect-actors, and through acting they explored different strategies to challenge oppression. The key question is: What potential do phases six and seven in Solidarity Forum Theatre have to empower immigrants and drama students as citizens in a multicultural society?
Therapeutic potential of Lactobacillus ingluviei ADK10, a newly established probiotic organism against acetaminophen induced uremic rats

In the present study, Lactobacillus ingluviei ADK10 (Acc. No. JQ395039) from intestinal origin was tested for its probiotic characteristic as well as uremia ameliorating activity on acetaminophen induced uremic rats. The results revealed that L. ingluviei ADK10 was able to tolerate pH 3.0–9.0 and 0.5% bile salt along with good hydrophobicity (67%) and adherence index with Ht-29 cell line on 258/100 cells. It was susceptible to 20 antibiotics. The organism was able to degrade food ingredients, like starch and milk proteins. The strain showed significant growth inhibition of Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella dysentery, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae (average diameter of 10 mm). The therapeutic potentiality of this probiotic bacterium was tested against acetaminophen induced uremic rats. It was found that supplementation of L. ingluviei ADK10 for 14 days with food reduced severe increase of uremic profiles, such as blood urea (85%), creatinine (68%) and uric acid (41%) in comparison to the uremic rats. Moreover, during the feeding of rats with probiotic strain at a dose of 1×109 bacteria, reduction of enterobacteria in faeces was observed. Our studies indicated that L. ingluviei ADK10 could be used as a health-promoting probiotic along with antiuremic efficacy.
Method of enriching queries by contextual information to approve of information retrieval system in Arabic

In this paper, we propose a method is to improve the performance of information retrieval systems (IRS) by increasing the selectivity of relevant documents on the web. Indeed, a significant number of relevant documents on the web are not returned by an IRS (specifically a search engine), because of the richness of natural language Arabics. For this purpose the search engine does not reach high performance and does not meet the needs of users. To remedy this problem, we propose a method of enrichment of the query. This method relies on many steps. First, identification of significant terms (simple and composed) present in the query. Then, generation of a descriptive list and its assignment to each term that has been identified as significant in the query. A descriptive list is a set of linguistic knowledge of different types (morphological, syntactic and semantic). In this paper we are interested in the statistical treatment, based on the similarity method. This method exploits the weighting functions of Salton TF-IDF and TF-IEF on the list generated in the previous step. TF-IDF function identifies relevant documents, while the TF-IEF's role is to identify the relevant sentence. The terms of high weight (which are terms which may be correlated to the context of the response) are incorporated into the original query. The application of this method is based on a corpus of documents belonging to a closed domain.
Customer service for academic library users on the web

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of customer service in the academic library setting and ways in which its management can be best approached in the electronic environment.Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a two‐phase methodology. First is a content analysis of the literature on customer service in libraries, focusing on electronic services, to identify main issues and strategies being used to address customer issues. This is followed by a qualitative data‐gathering approach to explore user perspectives on the quality of electronic services, focusing on customer service.Findings – The findings reveal that the concerns of library customers in the web environment are similar to those in the traditional library environment. They are concerned about receiving online help for technical problems and also help to search and use information. Reference services are still highly in demand with an emphasis on the characteristics of the online librarian. Another major need is t.
Lack of association of alcohol dependence and habitual smoking with catechol-O-methyltransferase.

OBJECTIVE To test whether variation in the gene encoding the enzyme catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), which catalyzes the breakdown of dopamine and other catecholamine neurotransmitters, is associated with the risk for alcohol dependence and habitual smoking. METHODS Single nucleotide polymophisms (SNPs) were genotyped in a sample of 219 multiplex alcohol-dependent families of European American descent from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA). Family-based tests of association were performed to evaluate the evidence of association between the 18 SNPs distributed throughout COMT, including the functional Val158Met polymorphism, and the phenotypes of alcohol dependence, early onset alcohol dependence, habitual smoking, and comorbid alcohol dependence and habitual smoking. RESULTS No significant, consistent evidence of association was found with alcohol dependence, early onset alcohol dependence, habitual smoking or the comorbid phenotype. There was no evidence that the functional Val158Met polymorphism, previously reported to be associated with these phenotypes, was associated with any of them. CONCLUSION Despite the substantial size of this study, we did not find evidence to support an association between alcohol dependence or habitual smoking and variation in COMT.
Software Defined Networking for Systems and Network Administration Programs

Academic programs can be very successful when they include industry best practices, innovations and techniques in addition to theory and background. This approach has historically been a tenet of the networking and systems administration program at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Software-defined networking is an excellent example of a technology which combines theory and emerging practice. Software Defined Networking or SDN includes components that stretch across networking and systems administration curricula including servers or controllers, virtualization, OpenFlow enabled network elements, communication pathways, opportunities for automation, telemetry from the network, dynamic response to system demand and more.
Increasing autonomy within underwater intervention scenarios: The user interface approach

The present work represents working progress for designing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) within an ongoing research project named RAUVI (e.g. Reconfigurable AUV for Intervention Missions). This GUI should help the user to identify the target using images compiled by the I-AUV through a previous survey stage. After that, the user is able to specify the most suitable intervention task selected among a set of predefined ones. Thus, a very intuitive and user-friendly interface has been designed, enabling a non qualified user to succeed in the specification of an intervention mission. Furthermore, some implementation details and their performance about different facilities integrated within this GUI to assist the user in the required specification of underwater intervention missions will be addressed.