Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A survey on graphic processing unit computing for large‐scale data mining

General purpose computation using Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) is a well‐established research area focusing on high‐performance computing solutions for massively parallelizable and time‐consuming problems. Classical methodologies in machine learning and data mining cannot handle processing of massive and high‐speed volumes of information in the context of the big data era. GPUs have successfully improved the scalability of data mining algorithms to address significantly larger dataset sizes in many application areas. The popularization of distributed computing frameworks for big data mining opens up new opportunities for transformative solutions combining GPUs and distributed frameworks. This survey analyzes current trends in the use of GPU computing for large‐scale data mining, discusses GPU architecture advantages for handling volume and velocity of data, identifies limitation factors hampering the scalability of the problems, and discusses open issues and future directions. WIREs Data Mining Knowl Discov 2018, 8:e1232. doi: 10.1002/widm.1232
Improved SOVA and APP decoding algorithms for serial concatenated codes

We propose a simple remedy for the exaggerated extrinsic information produced by the soft-output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA). We argue that what leads to these optimistic extrinsic values is the inherent strong correlation between the intrinsic information (input to the SOVA) and extrinsic information (output of the SOVA). The proposed remedy involves employing two attenuators, one applied to the immediate output of the SOVA and another applied to the extrinsic information before it is passed to the other decoder (assuming iterative decoding). We examine the modified SOVA (MSOVA) on additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and fading channels for serial concatenated codes (SCCs). We show that the MSOVA provides substantial performance improvements over both channels. For example, it provides improvements of about 0.8 to 1.0 dB at P/sub b/ = 10/sup -5/ in AWGN, and about 1.4 to 2.0 dB at P/sub b/ = 10/sup -5/ in fading channels, all relative to the SOVA. We extend the proposed modifications to the a posteriori probability (APP) algorithm with favorable results. We demonstrate that the modified APP (MAPP) provides performance improvements between 0.3 to 0.6 dB at P/sub b/ = 10/sup -5/ relative to the APP.
Excess fruit juice consumption by preschool-aged children is associated with short stature and obesity.

BACKGROUND In a referral population of young children, excessive fruit juice consumption has been reported to be a contributing factor in nonorganic failure to thrive. OBJECTIVE To evaluate, in a population-based sample of healthy children, fruit juice consumption and its effects on growth parameters during early childhood. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING General primary care health center in upstate New York. PARTICIPANTS One hundred sixteen 2-year-old children and one hundred seven 5-year-old children, who were scheduled for a nonacute visit, and their primary care taker/parent were recruited over a 2-year period. MEASUREMENTS For 168 children (ninety-four 2-year-old children and seventy-four 5-year-old children), mean dietary intake was calculated from 7 days of written dietary records, entered, and analyzed using the Minnesota Nutrition Data System. Height was measured using a Harpenden Stadiometer. Weight was measured using a standard balance beam scale. RESULTS The 2-year-old and 5-year-old children consumed, on average, 5.9 and 5.0 fl oz/day of fruit juice and 9.8 and 11.0 fl oz/day of milk, respectively. Nineteen children (11%) consumed > or = 12 fl oz/day of juice. Forty-two percent of children consuming > or = 12 fl oz/day of juice had short stature (height less than 20th sex-specific percentile for age) vs 14% of children drinking less than 12 fl oz/day of juice. Obesity was more common among children drinking > or = 12 fl oz/day of juice compared with those drinking less juice: 53% vs 32% had a body mass index > or = 75th age- and sex-specific percentile; 32% vs 9% had a body mass index > or = 90th age- and sex-specific percentile; and 32% vs 5% had a ponderal index > or = 90th age-specific percentile. After adjustment for maternal height, child age, child sex, and child age-sex interaction, children consuming > or = 12 fl oz/day of juice, compared with those drinking less than 12 fl oz/day of juice, were shorter (86.5 vs 89.3 cm and 106.5 vs 111.2 cm for the 2-year-old and 5-year-old children, respectively) and more overweight (body mass index = 17.2 vs 16.3 kg/m2 and ponderal index = 18.4 vs 16.8 kg/m3). CONCLUSIONS Consumption of > or = 12 fl oz/day of fruit juice by young children was associated with short stature and with obesity. Parents and care takers should limit young children's consumption of fruit juice to less than 12 fl oz/day.
An introduction to microbiome analysis for human biology applications

Research examining the gut microbiota is currently exploding, and results are providing new perspectives on human biology. Factors such as host diet and physiology influence the composition and function of the gut microbiota, which in turn affects human nutrition, health, and behavior via interactions with metabolism, the immune system, and the brain. These findings represent an exciting new twist on familiar topics, and as a result, gut microbiome research is likely to provide insight into unresolved biological mechanisms driving human health. However, much remains to be learned about the broader ecological and evolutionary contexts within which gut microbes and humans are affecting each other. Here, I outline the procedures for generating data describing the gut microbiota with the goal of facilitating the wider integration of microbiome analyses into studies of human biology. I describe the steps involved in sample collection, DNA extraction, PCR amplification, high‐throughput sequencing, and bioinformatics. While this review serves only as an introduction to these topics, it provides sufficient resources for researchers interested in launching new microbiome initiatives. As knowledge of these methods spreads, microbiome analysis should become a standard tool in the arsenal of human biology research.
A Comparison of an Actuarial and a Linear Model for Predicting Organizational Behavior

Using an actuarial and a linear model for pre dicting organizational behavior, employee sub groups were identified through a hierarchical and convergent clustering of assessment variable profiles in a validation sample (N = 2,899) and cross-val idated by assigning a holdout sample (N = 2,899) to the original subgroups on the basis of a min imum distance qualifier. Subgroup membership in both samples was significantly associated with cur rent employment status and job performance. A linear discriminant function analysis of employment status and a linear regression analysis of job per formance also yielded significant results. A com parison of the two models in terms of predictive ac curacy indicated that the two models were essential ly equivalent. However, it was concluded that the actuarial model was superior to the linear model, since a descriptive and behavioral taxonomy based on stable, homogeneous employee subgroups could be developed.
Density Dependence, Frequency Dependence, and Alternative Nesting Strategies in Goldeneyes

We develop a simple model to explore the conditions under which intraspecific brood parasitism would be evolutionarily stable in a cavity-nesting bird, the Barrow's goldeneye. Our results show that parasitism can be maintained by negative frequency-dependent selection, which is consistent with recent speculations. However, when we include the effects of density dependence, we find a density threshold below which frequency-dependent effects on fitness are negligible but above which frequency dependence plays a prominent role. Patterns consistent with either a mixed evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) or a conditional ESS can therefore be obtained simply by varying population density. These results may provide an explanation for contradictory patterns found in a previous field study of brood parasitism in goldeneyes. More generally, our results indicate that conclusions about the adaptive basis of alternative reproductive behaviors can be influenced strongly by population demography. Evolutionarily stable strategy theory holds that mixed and conditional ESSs are mutually exclusive, yet we suggest that attempts to test between these alternatives in field studies may meet with limited success if population density varies.
Experiencias de calibración entre los artes de arrastre baka 44/60 y GOV 36/47 utilizados por los B/O cornide de Saavedra y Thalassa

Se analizan los resultados de la calibracion entre el arte considerado estandar en el area del CIEM (GOV 36/47, grad ouverture verticale) y el empleado como muestreador en la serie historica de campanas de arrastre demersal del Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia en la plataforma norte de la peninsula Iberica (baka 44/60). Las experiencias estuvieron basadas en 19 lances paralelos de 30 minutos de duracion con los buques oceanograficos Cornide de Saavedra (baka) y Thalassa (GOV) en aguas del golfo de Vizcaya. Para evaluar los rendimientos de cada sistema se han obtenido las capturas medias por lance de las principales especies y sus estadisticos de dispersion. Se analizan las implicaciones del empleo de la transformacion logaritmica de los valores en la obtencion de los factores de conversion, necesarios para la estimacion de las capturas de un arte en funcion del otro. Tambien se estudia el poder selectivo que sobre la estructura demografica de las poblaciones podrian ejercer ambos artes. Por ultimo, se discuten las consecuencias del empleo GOV en las campanas de arrastre demersal en la plataforma norte de la peninsula Iberica.
Three-stage Amplifier Adopting Dual-miller with Nulling-resistor and Dual-feedforward Techniques

A high-gain wide-bandwidth three-stage amplifier, which employs dual-miller compensation with nulling-resistor and dual-feedforward compensation (DMCNR-DFC), is designed and analyzed in this paper. By adopting the technique of DMCNR-DFC, the designed three-stage amplifier achieves well performance including gain-bandwidth product (GBW) and slew rate (SR). The improved DMCNR-DFC three-stage amplifier is designed and simulated in 0. 5μm BCD process. Simulation results show that DMCNR-DFC three-stage amplifier achieves a dc gain of about 121.1dB and GBW of about 6.1MHz with 52o phase margin using a 5-V power supply voltage.
Improvement of noise immunity of satellite DVB channel

This article presents the results of a study on the noise immunity of satellite DVB channels. Dependencies which determine the error probability at the decoder output are presented taking into consideration the parameters of the used RS, convolutional, BCH and LDPC codes and the error probability at the decoder input. Research of the influence of the packet length, constraint length and code rate on the BER characteristics of Reed-Solomon and convolutional decoder is conducted. The values of the parameters under research, at which the highest code effectiveness is achieved, are determined following an analysis of the results. Investigations have been carried out to determine the influence of the BCH packets length, the BCH code rate, the parameters of LDPC parity-check matrix and the number of iteration in the LDPC decoder on the radio channel noise immunity. BER characteristics of satellite DVB channels are presented upon using concatenated RS-convolutional and BCH-LDPC codes with optimised parameters and are compared to the standard ones for such systems.
Proteomics Analysis of Epithelial Cells Reprogrammed in Cell-free Extract*

The functional reprogramming of a differentiated cell to a pluripotent state presents potential beneficial applications in regenerative medicine. We report here the proteomic profile of 293T epithelial cells reprogrammed to a pluripotent state using undifferentiated embryonal carcinoma (NCCIT) cellular extracts. 293T cells were reversibly permeabilized with streptolysin O, incubated in an extract of NCCIT cells or a control extract of 293T cells for 1 h, resealed with CaCl2, and cultured. OCT4 and SOX2 gene expression were up-regulated in NCCIT extract-treated cells relative to control cells, whereas there was no alteration in DNMT3B gene expression. Thirty percent of NCCIT extract-treated cells were positive for SSEA-4, and karyotyping confirmed their 293T origin, excluding the possibility of contamination from NCCIT cells. Two-dimensional PAGE revealed ∼400 protein spots for each cell type studied. At least 10 protein spots in the proteome of NCCIT extract-treated cells had an expression profile similar to that of NCCIT and remained unaltered in control cells. Using tandem mass spectrometry, we identified these proteins, which include 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein precursor and tropomyosin α-3 chain. This investigation provides the first evidence that proteins are altered in a specific manner in NCCIT extract-treated cells. This is the first report on the proteomic characterization of the nuclear reprogramming process.
Data Dependency Graph Bracing

The Sunburst compiler refined at Utah State University employs a powerful mechanism for management of data anti-dependencies in data dependency graphs, <italic>DDG's</italic>: the <italic>DDG Bracer</italic>. The term <italic>bracing</italic><supscrpt>1</supscrpt> is used to mean the fastening of two or more parts together. There are two major goals in bracing: 1) semantic correctness, and 2) creation of an optimal DDG. Bracing provides necessary joining of code fragments, produced by a divide and conquer code generation algorithm, while yielding multiple code sequences. Since no anti-dependency arcs are present, the input <italic>DDG's</italic> are said to be in <italic>normal form</italic>. Because anti-dependency arcs occur only when a resource must be reused, a <italic>DDG</italic> in normal form represents infinite resources. The output <italic>DDG</italic> is a merging of the two input <italic>DDG's</italic> such that data dependency arcs between the two <italic>DDG's</italic> are inserted and data anti-dependency arcs are added to sequentialize the use of common resources. Vegdahl [Veg82] was one of the first to recognize the importance of live track manipulation. A <italic>live track</italic> is an ordered pair: the first component is the microoperation node ( MO) in which a resource is born, and the second component is the set of nodes in which the resource dies.
Medical Expenditures Among Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Groups in the United States: Findings From the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (2000–2008)

Objective:The objective of the study was to examine time trends and differences in medical expenditures between noncitizens, foreign-born, and US-born citizens. Methods:We used multi-year Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (2000–2008) data on noninstitutionalized adults in the United States (N=190,965). Source specific and total medical expenditures were analyzed using regression models, bootstrap prediction techniques, and linear and nonlinear decomposition methods to evaluate the relationship between immigration status and expenditures, controlling for confounding effects. Results:We found that the average health expenditures between 2000 and 2008 for noncitizens immigrants ($1836) were substantially lower compared with both foreign-born ($3737) and US-born citizens ($4478). Differences were maintained after controlling for confounding effects. Decomposition techniques showed that the main determinants of these differences were the availability of a usual source of health care, insurance, and ethnicity/race. Conclusions:Lower health care expenditures among immigrants result from disparate access to health care. The dissipation of demographic advantages among immigrants could prospectively produce higher pressures on the US health care system as immigrants age and levels of chronic conditions rise. Barring a shift in policy, the brunt of the effects could be borne by an already overextended public health care system.
Synaptic Glutamate Release Is Modulated by the Na+-Driven Cl−/HCO3− Exchanger Slc4a8

On the one hand, neuronal activity can cause changes in pH; on the other hand, changes in pH can modulate neuronal activity. Consequently, the pH of the brain is regulated at various levels. Here we show that steady-state pH and acid extrusion were diminished in cultured hippocampal neurons of mice with a targeted disruption of the Na+-driven Cl−/HCO3− exchanger Slc4a8. Because Slc4a8 was found to predominantly localize to presynaptic nerve endings, we hypothesize that Slc4a8 is a key regulator of presynaptic pH. Supporting this hypothesis, spontaneous glutamate release in the CA1 pyramidal layer was reduced but could be rescued by increasing the intracellular pH. The reduced excitability in vitro correlated with an increased seizure threshold in vivo. Together with the altered kinetics of stimulated synaptic vesicle release, these data suggest that Slc4a8 modulates glutamate release in a pH-dependent manner.
An autofocus method based on maximum image sharpness for Fast Factorized Back-projection

Fast Factorized Back-projection (FFBP) is a new way to fix the high computation problem in Back-projection (BP) but it still keeps high-resolution and strong adaptability in synthetic aperture radar (SAR). However, Applying conventional autofocus methods to both BP and FFBP requires a special consideration. In this letter, we present a new method to solve the phase error problem. We establish a evaluation function based on maximum image sharpness in FFBP. Then we utilize Coordinate Descent (CD) optimization to transform multi-variables into a single variable. To deal with the single variable problem we introduce a secant method. The proposed method keeps the rapid imaging performance of FFBP and well solves the problems caused by phase errors, and has faster convergence speed. Using the simulation data to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Magnesium Bisglycinate as safe form for mineral supplementation in human nutrition

Summary Magnesium bisglycinate is a unique and safe form of magnesium that is useful for human nutrition. Magnesium bisglycinate is a stable and highly bioavailable chelate mineral complex that is absorbed in a different way via the dipeptide channel in the intestine and the magnesium bisglycinate does not compete with the ionic metals vying for the same transport sites in the small intestine. The chelate character reduces the competition with other minerals such as calcium for example and protects the magnesium from binding and precipitating dietary phosphates, Phytates, tannins, and roughage. Magnesium bisglycinate also does not suppress the absorption of other ionic elements being also required for nutrition and digestive irritation and toxicity is greatly reduced. Therefore magnesium bisglycinate is a very good tolerated and effective source for magnesium in human nutrition.
Analysis of human reliability in computer-aided design

Human reliability is an essential quality of Computer Aided Design (CAD) in new product development (NPD). Based on the proposals of the German VDI 2221 guideline for CAD product development, a semiotic human-machine model is adapted to examine human reliability in new product development, especially regarding time constraints. For this goal, a CAD experiment (n=116) with three VDI-2221 compliant modeling, design and assembly tasks was carried out and empirically analyzed.
Plastid Genome-Based Phylogeny Pinpointed the Origin of the Green-Colored Plastid in the Dinoflagellate Lepidodinium chlorophorum

Unlike many other photosynthetic dinoflagellates, whose plastids contain a characteristic carotenoid peridinin, members of the genus Lepidodinium are the only known dinoflagellate species possessing green alga-derived plastids. However, the precise origin of Lepidodinium plastids has hitherto remained uncertain. In this study, we completely sequenced the plastid genome of Lepidodinium chlorophorum NIES-1868. Our phylogenetic analyses of 52 plastid-encoded proteins unite L. chlorophorum exclusively with a pedinophyte, Pedinomonas minor, indicating that the green-colored plastids in Lepidodinium spp. were derived from an endosymbiotic pedinophyte or a green alga closely related to pedinophytes. Our genome comparison incorporating the origin of the Lepidodinium plastids strongly suggests that the endosymbiont plastid genome acquired by the ancestral Lepidodinium species has lost genes encoding proteins involved in metabolism and biosynthesis, protein/metabolite transport, and plastid division during the endosymbiosis. We further discuss the commonalities and idiosyncrasies in genome evolution between the L. chlorophorum plastid and other plastids acquired through endosymbiosis of eukaryotic photoautotrophs.
Shape matters: the relationship between cell geometry and diversity in phytoplankton

Organisms’ size and shape profoundly influence their ecophysiological performance and evolutionary fitness, suggesting a link between morphology and diversity. We analyse global datasets of unicellular phytoplankton, major group of photosynthetic microbes with an astounding diversity of cell sizes and shapes, and explore the distribution of taxonomic diversity across different cell shapes and sizes. We find that cells of intermediate volume have the greatest shape variation, from oblate to extremely elongated forms, while small and large cells are mostly compact (e.g., spherical or cubic). Taxonomic diversity varies across cell elongation and cell volume, with both traits explaining up to 92% of its variance. It decays exponentially with cell elongation and displays a log-normal dependence on cell volume, peaking for compact, intermediate-volume cells. Our findings point to the presence of different selective pressures and constraints on the geometry of phytoplankton cells and, thus, improve our understanding of the evolutionary rules of life.
Cellular water analysis in T cells reveals a switch from metabolic water gain to water influx

Cell growth is driven by the acquisition and synthesis of dry biomass and water mass. This study examines the increase of water in T cells biomass during cell growth. We found that T cell growth is initiated by a phase of slow increase of cellular water, followed by a second phase of rapid increase in water content. To study the origin of the water gain, we developed a novel method, Cold Aqua Trap – Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (CAT-IRMS), which allows analysis of intracellular water isotope composition. Applying CAT-IRMS, we discovered that glycolysis-coupled metabolic water accounts on average for 11 femtoliter (fL) out of the 20 fL of water gained per cell during the slow phase. At the end of the rapid phase, before initiation of cell division, a water influx occurs, increasing the water level by three-fold. Thus, activated T cells switch from acquiring metabolic water to incorporating water from the extracellular medium. Our work provides a method to analyze cell water content and an insight into the way cells regulate their water mass.