Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A First Look at Public-Cloud Inter-Datacenter Network Performance

Abstract-Public-cloud providers do not disclose quantitative information about the performance of their inter- datacenter networks in spite of their importance and of the growing interest they are attracting. In this paper we propose an analysis of the inter-datacenter network of the two leading providers-Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure- only leveraging active monitoring approaches and thus not relying on information restricted to providers. Our results show that Azure inter- datacenter infrastructure performs better than Amazon's in terms of throughput (+52%, on average). On the other hand, the performance of the two providers is comparable in terms of latency, with the exception of isolated cases. Counterintuitively, lower performance may be even related to higher costs for the customer. Network management policies that may severely impact both the performance perceived by the customers and the results of the measurement activities have been observed and characterized. Finally, a comparison with previous works shows that TCP throughput has not improved recently.
ProtoEXIST: advanced prototype CZT coded aperture telescopes for EXIST

ProtoEXIST1 is a pathfinder for the EXIST-HET, a coded aperture hard X-ray telescope with a 4.5 m2 CZT detector plane a 90x70 degree field of view to be flown as the primary instrument on the EXIST mission and is intended to monitor the full sky every 3 h in an effort to locate GRBs and other high energy transients. ProtoEXIST1 consists of a 256 cm2 tiled CZT detector plane containing 4096 pixels composed of an 8x8 array of individual 1.95 cm x 1.95 cm x 0.5 cm CZT detector modules each with a 8 x 8 pixilated anode configured as a coded aperture telescope with a fully coded 10° x 10° field of view employing passive side shielding and an active CsI anti-coincidence rear shield, recently completed its maiden flight out of Ft. Sumner, NM on the 9th of October 2009. During the duration of its 6 hour flight on-board calibration of the detector plane was carried out utilizing a single tagged 198.8 nCi Am-241 source along with the simultaneous measurement of the background spectrum and an observation of Cygnus X-1. Here we recount the events of the flight and report on the detector performance in a near space environment. We also briefly discuss ProtoEXIST2: the next stage of detector development which employs the NuSTAR ASIC enabling finer (32×32) anode pixilation. When completed ProtoEXIST2 will consist of a 256 cm2 tiled array and be flown simultaneously with the ProtoEXIST1 telescope.
Attachment, Occupation, and Identity: Considerations in Infancy

This paper discusses the relationship of attachment, attachment behavior, occupation, and co-occupation in early childhood development. It explores the inextricable relationship among these concepts and the agency of the infant in affecting the infant-mother dyadic relationship. The reciprocity of intersubjectivity and its component parts of attunement, joined attention, and joined intention in the infant-mother dyad are discussed in light of the concept of co-occupation. Internal working models, which are the product of attachment, are discussed as a correlate to personal identity which, in turn, is thought of as being shaped by occupation. The importance of a secure attachment and, conversely, the problems with insecure attachment are considered. Relevance to occupational science and future directions for exploration and research are reviewed.
Possible Involvement of Serum and Synovial Fluid Resistin in Knee Osteoarthritis: Cartilage Damage, Clinical, and Radiological Links

Resistin is an adipocytokine associated with inflammation and insulin resistance. Recent studies have shown that resistin plays an important role in the pathogenesis and progression in osteoarthritis (OA) patients. The current study was aimed at investigating the relationship between resistin in serum and synovial fluid (SF) and disease severity in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
Estrogen receptor alpha single nucleotide polymorphism as predictor of diabetes type 2 risk in hypogonadal men

Abstract Estradiol (E2) is, apart from its role as a reproductive hormone, also important for cardiac function and bone maturation in both genders. It has also been shown to play a role in insulin production, energy expenditure and in inducing lipolysis. The aim of the study was to investigate if low circulating testosterone or E2 levels in combination with variants in the estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) and estrogen receptor beta (ESR2) genes were of importance for the risk of type-2 diabetes. The single nucleotide polymorphisms rs2207396 and rs1256049, in ESR1 and ESR2, respectively, were analysed by allele specific PCR in 172 elderly men from the population-based Tromsø study. The results were adjusted for age. In individuals with low total (≤11 nmol/L) or free testosterone (≤0.18 nmol/L) being carriers of the variant A-allele in ESR1 was associated with 7.3 and 15.9 times, respectively, increased odds ratio of being diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 2 (p = 0.025 and p = 0.018, respectively). Lower concentrations of E2 did not seem to increase the risk of being diagnosed with diabetes. In conclusion, in hypogonadal men, the rs2207396 variant in ESR1 predicts the risk of type 2 diabetes.
A new catalogue of observations of the eight major satellites of Saturn (1874-2007)

Context : The lastest catalogue of observations includes about 51 000 observations (over 3500 nights) of Saturn's satellites from 1874 to 1989. Since 1989, many observations have been published, often in different formats, based on the publication. Aims : Our new catalogue of observations of the eight major satellites of Saturn includes the observations of the previous catalogues, newly published data and also old observations left out of the previous catalogue. The observations are tabulated in a consistent format. Methods : We give, for each observation, the corrections applied for reduction such as refraction, aberration or phase effects. Furthermore, when it was possible, the instrument and catalogue are also indicated. Results : The new catalogue presents more than 130 000 observations (over 6000 nights) of the eight major satellites of Saturn from 1874 to 2007.
The association of interleukin-18 promoter polymorphisms and serum levels with duodenal ulcer, and their correlations with bacterial CagA and VacA virulence factors

Abstract Background: We analyzed the impact of interleukin (IL)-18 promoter polymorphisms on IL-18 serum levels in Helicobacter pylori-infected duodenal ulcer (DU) patients and healthy asymptomatic (AS) carriers. We also aimed to determine the association of the H. pylori virulence factors CagA and VacA antibodies with serum concentrations of IL-18 in order to elucidate any correlation between them. Methods: Three groups of patients were enrolled: DU patients (67 individuals), AS carriers (48 individuals), and H. pylori-negative subjects (26 individuals). Serum concentrations of IL-18 were determined by ELISA. Patient sera were tested by Western blot method to determine the presence of serum antibodies to bacterial CagA and VacA. Genotyping of IL-18 promoter polymorphisms at positions − 137G/C and − 607C/A were performed by allele-specific primer PCR protocol. Results: Our study revealed that serum IL-18 levels are positively influenced by CagA-positive H. pylori strains, so that maximum levels of IL-18 were detected in DU patients with the CagA+ phenotype, regardless of the presence of the anti-VacA antibody. Regarding IL-18 promoter polymorphisms, the AA genotype and A allele at position − 607C/A were found to be significantly lower in DU patients than in AS carriers and H. pylori-negative subjects (p = 0.032 and 0.043, respectively). Conclusions: The IL-18 − 607C variant was associated with higher levels of serum IL-18 and an increased risk of DU. Moreover, our findings indicated that serum concentrations of IL-18 were influenced by CagA factor, irrespective of the VacA status, suggesting that high levels of IL-18 in CagA-positive subjects predisposes to susceptibility to DU.
Coping with Job Loss: How Individuals, Organizations, and Communities Respond to Layoffs.

This is an examination of the emotional and psychological effects of job loss along with practical strategies for coping. All kinds of layoffs, from plant closings, work slow downs, corporate downsizings, and mergers and acquisitions are discussed, illustrated with case studies of Pittsburgh steel workers and Florida Space Coast engineers. The authors document the turmoil that often follows layoffs and the ways that many laid-off workers have succeeded in putting their lives back together. They also evaluate available support services, including extended benefits, outplacement, and retraining programmes.
ATR-SLT System for SENSEVAL-2 Japanese Translation Task

We propose a translation selection system based on the vector space model. When each translation candidate of a word is given as a pair of expressions containing the word and its translation, selecting the translation of the word can be considered equivalent to selecting the expression having the most similar context among candidate expressions. The proposed method expresses the context information in "context vectors" constructed from content words co-occurring with the target word. Context vectors represent detailed information composed of lexical attributes (word forms, semantic codes, etc.) and syntactic relations (syntactic dependency, etc.) of the co-occurring words. We tested the proposed method with the Senseval-2 Japanese translation task. Precision/recall was 45.8% to the gold standard in the experiment with the evaluation set.
Importance of Lyt-2+ T-cells in the resistance of melphalan-cured MOPC-315 tumor bearers to a challenge with MOPC-315 tumor cells.

We have previously shown that mice bearing a large MOPC-315 tumor can be cured by a low dose of melphalan (L-phenylalanine mustard; L-PAM) if T-cell-dependent antitumor immunity also aids in tumor eradication (S. Ben-Efraim et al., Cancer Immunol. Immunother., 15: 101-107, 1983). Here we describe the phenotype of the T-cells that are responsible for the potent antitumor immunity exhibited by the L-PAM cured MOPC-315 tumor bearers. Initially, we identified the subset of T-cells responsible for the ability of spleen cells from L-PAM-cured MOPC-315 tumor bearers to neutralize tumor growth in the local adoptive transfer assay. The tumor-neutralizing activity of spleen cells from L-PAM-cured tumor bearers was drastically reduced when the spleen cells were depleted either in vitro or in vivo of Lyt-2+ cells. On the other hand, the tumor-neutralizing activity of spleen cells from L-PAM-cured MOPC-315 tumor bearers was not reduced, but actually enhanced, when the spleen cells were depleted either in vitro or in vivo of L3T4+ cells. The Lyt-2+ T-cells, and not the L3T4+ T-cells, were also found to be important for the ability of the intact L-PAM-cured MOPC-315 tumor bearers to reject a challenge with MOPC-315 tumor cells. Specifically, treatment of L-PAM-cured MOPC-315 tumor bearers with monoclonal anti-Lyt-2.2 antibody drastically reduced the ability of the mice to reject the tumor challenge. In contrast, treatment of the L-PAM-cured MOPC-315 tumor bearers with monoclonal anti-L3T4 antibody did not interfere with the ability of the mice to reject the tumor challenge, yet the same protocol of anti-L3T4 antibody treatment abolished the ability of splenic T-cells to provide help for the generation of a primary T-cell-dependent antibody response. The resistance of the L-PAM-cured MOPC-315 tumor bearers to challenge with MOPC-315 tumor cells was also dependent on the participation of carrageenan-sensitive effector cells, most likely macrophages, in tumor eradication. However, the immunity mediated by the T-cells, independent of carrageenan-sensitive effector cells, was extremely powerful and sufficient for the rejection of a tumor challenge with at least 300-fold, and possibly even 3000-fold, the minimal lethal dose of MOPC-315 tumor cells for 100% of normal mice. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Augmentation of response to chemotherapy by microRNA-506 through regulation of RAD51 in serous ovarian cancers.

BACKGROUND Chemoresistance is a major challenge in cancer treatment. miR-506 is a potent inhibitor of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is also associated with chemoresistance. We characterized the role of miR-506 in chemotherapy response in high-grade serous ovarian cancers. METHODS We used Kaplan-Meier and log-rank methods to analyze the relationship between miR-506 and progression-free and overall survival in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) (n = 468) and Bagnoli (n = 130) datasets, in vitro experiments to study whether miR-506 is associated with homologous recombination, and response to chemotherapy agents. We used an orthotopic ovarian cancer mouse model (n = 10 per group) to test the effect of miR-506 on cisplatin and PARP inhibitor sensitivity. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS MiR-506 was associated with better response to therapy and longer progression-free and overall survival in two independent epithelial ovarian cancer patient cohorts (PFS: high vs low miR-506 expression; Bagnoli: hazard ratio [HR] = 3.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.90 to 4.70, P < .0001; TCGA: HR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.00 to 2.25, P = 0.04). MiR-506 sensitized cells to DNA damage through directly targeting the double-strand DNA damage repair gene RAD51. Systemic delivery of miR-506 in 8-12 week old female athymic nude mice statistically significantly augmented the cisplatin and olaparib response (mean tumor weight ± SD, control miRNA plus cisplatin vs miR-506 plus cisplatin: 0.36±0.05g vs 0.07±0.02g, P < .001; control miRNA plus olaparib vs miR-506 plus olaparib: 0.32±0.13g vs 0.05±0.02g, P = .045, respectively), thus recapitulating the clinical observation. CONCLUSIONS MiR-506 is a robust clinical marker for chemotherapy response and survival in serous ovarian cancers and has important therapeutic value in sensitizing cancer cells to chemotherapy.
SPT-based power-efficient topology control for wireless ad hoc networks

This paper presents a localized shortest-path-tree (SPT) based algorithm to cope with the topology control problem in wireless ad hoc networks. Each mobile node determines its own transmission power based only on its local information. The proposed algorithm first constructs local SPTs from the initial graph, and then the total power consumption is further reduced by allowing each mobile node to search and excise the replaceable links individually. The constructed topology ensures network connectivity, and possesses several desirable energy-efficient features: 1) its power stretch factor is bounded and can be predetermined, 2) the power consumption is evenly distributed among the mobile nodes, and 3) its total power consumption is lower than that obtained from the best known algorithms. The performance improvements of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated through extensive simulations.
ICESat Full-Waveform Altimetry Compared to Airborne Laser Scanning Altimetry Over The Netherlands

Since 2003, the full-waveform laser altimetry system onboard NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) has acquired a worldwide elevation database. ICESat data are widely applied for change detection of ice sheet mass balance, forest structure estimation, and digital terrain model generation of remote areas. ICESat's measurements will be continued by a follow-up mission. To fully assess the application possibilities of the full-waveform products of these missions, this research analyzes the vertical accuracy of ICESat products over complex terrain with respect to land cover type. For remote areas, validation of individual laser shots is often beyond reach. For a country with extensive geo-infrastructure such as The Netherlands, excellent countrywide validation is possible. Therefore, the ICESat full-waveform product GLA01 and the land elevation product GLA14 are compared to data from the Dutch airborne laser altimetry archive Actual Height model of the Netherlands (AHN). For a total population of 3172 waveforms, differences between ICESat- and AHN-derived terrain heights are determined. The average differences are below 25 cm over bare land and urban areas. Over forests, differences are even smaller but with slightly larger standard deviations of about 60 cm. Moreover, a waveform-based feature height comparison resulted in feature height differences of 1.89 m over forest, 1.48 m over urban areas, and 29 cm over low vegetation. These results, in combination with the presented processing chain and individual waveform examples, show that state-of-the-art ICESat waveform processing is able to analyze waveforms at the individual shot level, particularly outside urban areas.
In Vitro Evaluation of Proniosomes as a Drug Carrier for Flurbiprofen

The purpose of the present investigation is to formulate and evaluate proniosomal transdermal carrier systems for flurbiprofen. Proniosomes were prepared using various non-ionic surfactants, namely span 20 (Sp 20), span 40 (Sp 40), span 60 (Sp 60) and span 80 (Sp 80) without and with cholesterol at percentages ranging from 0% to 50%. The effect of surfactant type and cholesterol content on drug release was investigated. Drug release was tested by diffusion through cellophane membrane and rabbit skin. Drug release from the prepared systems was compared to that from flurbiprofen suspensions in distilled water and HPMC (hydroxypropylmethylcellulose) gels. In case of Sp 20 and Sp 80, the added amount of cholesterol affected the preparation type to be either proniosomal alcoholic solutions or liquid crystalline gel systems. On the other hand, both Sp 40 and Sp 60 produced gel systems in presence or absence of cholesterol. Microscopic observations showed that either proniosomal solutions or gel formulations immediately converted to niosomal dispersions upon hydration. Due to the skin permeation barrier, rabbit skin showed lower drug diffusion rates compared to cellophane membrane. The proniosomal composition controlled drug diffusion rates to be either faster or slower than the prepared flurbiprofen suspensions in HPMC gels or distilled water, respectively. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the possibility of using proniosomal formulations for transdermal drug delivery.
ZVS operation of DAB converter based on triple-phase-shift modulation scheme with optimized inductor current

The dual active bridge (DAB) topology has been widely used in the industrial field, especially when bidirectional power transfer is required. However, the efficiency improvement of DAB converters is facing challenges and it is worthwhile devoting much effort to it. This paper presents a novel model based on the triple phase shift (TPS) modulation scheme to improve the efficiency of the dual active bridge (DAB) converter. According to the documentary proposed analytic expressions of six different modes of DAB converters, the constraints of zero voltage switching (ZVS) is achieved to further improve the efficiency of DAB converters. It is theoretically verified that almost full ZVS operation range for all the switching devices and quasi-minimum RMS value of the inductor current can be achieved for two operating modes. Finally, the simulating results from MATLAB/Simulink and the experimental results based on a hardware prototype were presented. By comparing the efficiency of the proposed all-ZVS operation and SPS operation, it can be concluded that the experimental results confirm that the novel proposed all-ZVS strategy can decrease the switching loss and increase the efficiency of the DAB converter simultaneously, which verifies the theoretic analysis.
Benchmarking Usability and Performance of Multicore Languages

Developers face a wide choice of programming languages and libraries supporting multicore computing. Ever more diverse paradigms for expressing parallelism and synchronization become available while their influence on usability and performance remains largely unclear. This paper describes an experiment comparing four markedly different approaches to parallel programming: Chapel, Cilk, Go, and Threading Building Blocks (TBB). Each language is used to implement sequential and parallel versions of six benchmark programs. The implementations are then reviewed by notable experts in the language, thereby obtaining reference versions for each language and benchmark. The resulting pool of 96 implementations is used to compare the languages with respect to source code size, coding time, execution time, and speedup. The experiment uncovers strengths and weaknesses in all approaches, facilitating an informed selection of a language under a particular set of requirements. The expert review step furthermore highlights the importance of expert knowledge when using modern parallel programming approaches.
Using Naturally Salient Regions for SLAM with 3 D Laser Data ∗

We consider the task of processing 3D laser data for use in the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Problem. The motivation for using 3D data comes in part from the impracticality of relying on 2D laser scanners when the vehicle operates on undulating terrain and in part from a desire to produce 3D maps of arbitrary, a priori unknown environments. We use an information-theoretic derived measure of local saliency to partition the raw 3D data stream into spatially distinct point-clusters. These clusters are natural features in measurement space that capture the geometry of intrinsically interesting surface patches. In common with “scan-matching” methods in SE2, the SE3 relationship between consecutive vehicle poses is calculated using an iterative point-wise registration scheme operating on the reduced data set. The saliency driven decimation process not only substantially reduces the computational burden of registration but also provides the registration process with data that is geometrically diverse. This characteristic improves registration performance. We present initial results showing our methods working on both outdoor and indoor data.
Interference-Aware Wireless Network-on-Chip Architecture Using Directional Antennas

Wireless Network-on-Chip (WiNoC) has been recently introduced for addressing the scalability limitations of conventional multi-hop NoC architectures. Existing WiNoC architectures generally use millimeter-wave antennas without significant directional gains, along with token passing protocol to access the shared wireless medium. This limits the achievable performance benefits since only one wireless pair can communicate at a time. It is also not practical in the immediate future to arbitrarily scale up the number of non-overlapping channels by designing transceivers operating in disjoint frequency bands in the millimeter-wave spectrum commonly adopted for on-chip wireless interconnects. Consequently, we explore the use of directional antennas whereby multiple wireless interconnect pairs can communicate simultaneously. However, concurrent wireless communications can result in interference. This can be minimized in NoC by optimal placement of wireless interfaces (WIs) to maximize performance while minimizing interference. To address this, we propose an interference-aware WIs placement algorithm with routing strategy for WiNoC architecture by incorporating directional planar log-periodic antennas (PLPAs). This directional wireless network-on-chip (DWiNoC) architecture enables point-to-point links between transceivers and hence multiple wireless links can operate at the same time without interference.