Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scheduling for Weighted Flow Time and Energy with Rejection Penalty

This paper revisits the online problem of flow-time scheduling on a single processor when jobs can be rejected at some penalty [Bansal et al. 2003]. The user cost of a job is defined as the weighted flow time of the job plus the penalty if it is rejected before completion. For jobs with arbitrary weights and arbitrary penalties, [Bansal et al. 2003] gave an online algorithm that is O((log W + log C)^2)-competitive for minimizing the total user cost when using a slightly faster processor, where W and C are the max-min ratios of job weights and job penalties, respectively. In this paper we improve this result with a new algorithm that can achieve a constant competitive ratio independent of $W$ and C when using a slightly faster processor. Note that the above results assume a processor running at a fixed speed. This paper shows more interesting results on extending the above study to the dynamic speed scaling model, where the processor can vary the speed dynamically and the rate of energy consumption is a cubic or any increasing function of speed. A scheduling algorithm has to control job admission and determine the order and speed of job execution. This paper studies the tradeoff between the above-mentioned user cost and energy, and it shows two O(1)-competitive algorithms and a lower bound result on minimizing the user cost plus energy. These algorithms can also be regarded as a generalization of the recent work on minimizing flow time plus energy when all jobs must be completed (see the survey paper [Albers 2010]).
A test problem for visual investigation of high-dimensional multi-objective search

An inherent problem in multiobjective optimization is that the visual observation of solution vectors with four or more objectives is infeasible, which brings major difficulties for algorithmic design, examination, and development. This paper presents a test problem, called the Rectangle problem, to aid the visual investigation of high-dimensional multiobjective search. Key features of the Rectangle problem are that the Pareto optimal solutions 1) lie in a rectangle in the two-variable decision space and 2) are similar (in the sense of Euclidean geometry) to their images in the four-dimensional objective space. In this case, it is easy to examine the behavior of objective vectors in terms of both convergence and diversity, by observing their proximity to the optimal rectangle and their distribution in the rectangle, respectively, in the decision space. Fifteen algorithms are investigated. Underperformance of Pareto-based algorithms as well as most state-of-the-art many-objective algorithms indicates that the proposed problem not only is a good tool to help visually understand the behavior of multiobjective search in a high-dimensional objective space but also can be used as a challenging benchmark function to test algorithms' ability in balancing the convergence and diversity of solutions.
Syntheses of Enantiopure Aliphatic Secondary Alcohols and Acetates by Bioresolution with Lipase B from Candida antarctica

The lipase B from Candida antarctica (Novozym 435®, CALB) efficiently catalyzed the kinetic resolution of some aliphatic secondary alcohols: (±)-4-methylpentan-2-ol (1), (±)-5-methylhexan-2-ol (3), (±)-octan-2-ol (4), (±)-heptan-3-ol (5) and (±)-oct-1-en-3-ol (6). The lipase showed excellent enantioselectivities in the transesterifications of racemic aliphatic secondary alcohols producing the enantiopure alcohols (>99% ee) and acetates (>99% ee) with good yields. Kinetic resolution of rac-alcohols was successfully achieved with CALB lipase using simple conditions, vinyl acetate as acylating agent, and hexane as non-polar solvent.
Kinetic Analyses of Desulfurization of Dibenzothiophene by Rhodococcus erythropolis in Continuous Cultures

Rhodococcus erythropolis N1-36, a desulfurization strain, was grown in continuous culture at 10 different dilution rates with 50 (mu)M dibenzothiophene sulfone (DBTO(inf2)) as the growth-limiting nutrient. The steady-state biomass, concentrations of substrate (DBTO(inf2)) and product (monohydroxybiphenyl), saturation constant (0.39 (mu)M DBTO(inf2)), and cell yield coefficient (9 mg of biomass(middot)(mu)M(sup-1) DBTO(inf2)) were measured. Continuous cultures at five temperatures allowed calculation of activation energy (0.84 kcal(middot)mol(sup-1) [ca. 3.5 kJ(middot)mol(sup-1)]) near the optimal temperature (30(deg)C) for growth. A washout technique was used to calculate the maximum specific growth rate (0.235 h(sup-1)), a value equivalent to a minimum generation time of 2.95 h.
An ultra-low-power digitally programmable gain amplifier for biological applications

This paper presents an ultra-low-power digitally programmable gain amplifier for biological signal processing applications. To achieve low-power consumption, the MOS transistor operating in weak inversion region is used. The circuit is constituted by a class-AB current amplifier which can handle wide input signal. The gain of digitally programmable gain amplifier can be maintained by using digital signal levels. The proposed circuit is simulated using 0.5 μm CMOS process from MOSIS. The proposed circuit consumes 44.3 nW from ±1.2 V power supply. The programmable gain varies linearity from 0 to 16 dB through a 3-bit digital signal while achieves the total harmonic distortion -36.7 dB.
Taxonomy of Internet Music Services Evaluating current internet music services

paper, a taxonomy of internet music services is presented by combining an extensive literature study with an inductive evaluation of current music services on the internet a taxonomy is derived. The taxonomy has an important contribution to both development of internet music services as well as research in the domain of internet music. Keywordsmusic, taxonomy, online music retailers, personalized internet radio, music community
EEGR: Energy-Efficient Geographic Routing inWireless Sensor Networks

This paper introduces a novel geographic routing protocol called Energy-Efficient Geographic Routing (EEGR) for wireless sensor networks. In EEGR, both geographic information and transceiver power characteristics are employed to make forwarding decisions, thereby enabling an energy-aware localized routing strategy. We prove that EEGR is loop-free and derive the bounds on hop count for sensor- to-sink packet delivery. In particular, we analyze the energy dissipation under EEGR and present the approximated expected energy consumption for sensor-to-sink data delivery when nodes are uniformly deployed. Simulation results demonstrate that EEGR can provide near-optimal energy- efficient routing only based on local information.
Automated segmentation of brain MR images by combining Contourlet Transform and K-means Clustering techniques

Segmentation is usually conceived as a compulsory phase for the analysis and classification to the field of medical imaging. The aim of the paper is to find a means for the segmentation of brain from MR images by technique of combining Contourlet Transform and K-Means Clustering in an automatic way. De-noising is always an exigent problem in magnetic resonance imaging and significant for clinical diagnosis and computerized analysis such as tissue classification and segmentation. In this paper Contourlet transform has been used for noise removal and enhancement for the image superiority. The proposed technique is exclusively based upon the information enclosed within the image. There is no need for human interventions and extra information about the system. This technique has been tested on different types of MR images, and conclusion had been concluded.
Modified PCNN Filtering for Fingerprint Enhancement

Enhancement is an important step in fingerprint system. This paper presents one fingerprint enhancement algorithm, which is based on a modified pulse coupled neural network (PCNN). It preprocesses fingerprint to obtain image and orientation masks, and then it iteratively enhances the image by PCNN filtering by the constraints of these two masks. Experiments on FVC2004 databases show that this algorithm is able to enhance fingerprint effectively, and it could also significantly improve the recognition performance of a fingerprint system.
Investigation of Alternative Power Distribution and Optimal Configuration through the Implementation of Clustering Algorithms-Based Microgrids for a Case Study

 Abstract— This paper presents a novel approach to optimizing rural electrical power transmission network. The primary objective of this project is to determine an optimal (more economical) network configuration for a case study where large portions of network assets are approaching the end of their life cycle. Therefore, this is the most opportune time to redesign, and implement economically beneficial distribution alternatives such as microgrids and standalone power systems and, to evaluate the economic benefits of a combination of distribution alternatives. The latter alongside multiple microgrids have often been overlooked by past studies. Using Minimum Spanning Trees (MSTs) and clustering algorithms, the ideal location of microgridsand combination of distribution alternatives can be investigated. The results obtained from this study suggest that implementing microgrids and standalone power systems, drastically reduce the total cost of the network when compared to anoverhead transmission MST network. Furthermore, a combination of an overhead network with microgrids and standalone power systems resulted in the most economical network
Design of a Recommendation Filtering System in Mobile Commerce

This mobile commerce has become a research hotspot in recent years for its commercial value and technical maturity. While more and more service providers participating in mobile commerce promote its popularity, problem called "spam recommendation" decreases users' satisfaction. Therefore, efficient mechanisms should be adopted to improve quality of recommendation. In this paper, a recommendation filtering system is addressed to reduce arbitrary recommendations. The general idea is to record users' operations (called "implicit feedbacks") on recommendation with the form of short message to obtain users' interests and to update user profiles continuously. At the same time when receiving new recommendation, the system computes the similarity between user profile and recommendation message, and then judges whether the message is a spam.
Pairwise Approximate K-SVD

Pairwise, or separable, dictionaries are suited for the sparse representation of 2D signals in their original form, without vectorization. They are equivalent with enforcing a Kronecker structure on a standard dictionary for 1D signals. We present a dictionary learning algorithm, in the coordinate descent style of Approximate K-SVD, for such dictionaries. The algorithm has the benefit of extremely low complexity, clearly lower than that of existing algorithms. Experimental evidence shows that the performance of the proposed algorithm is comparable to that of standard (unstructured) AK-SVD with the same number of atoms.
A Novel Heterogeneous Algorithm for Multiplying Scale-Free Sparse Matrices

Multiplying two sparse matrices, denoted spmm, is a fundamental operation in linear algebra with several applications. Hence, efficient and scalable implementation of spmm has been a topic of immense research. Recent efforts are aimed at implementations on GPUs, multicore architectures, FPGAs, and such emerging computational platforms. Owing to the highly irregular nature of spmm, it is observed that GPUs and CPUs can offer comparable performance. In this paper, we study CPU+GPU heterogeneous algorithms for spmm where the matrices exhibit a scale-free nature. Focusing on such matrices, we propose an algorithm that multiplies two sparse matrices exhibiting scale-free nature on a CPU+GPU heterogeneous platform. Our experiments on a wide variety of real-world matrices from standard datasets show an average of 25% improvement over the best possible algorithm on a CPU+GPU heterogeneous platform. We show that our approach is both architecture-aware, and workload-aware.
Multilayered space-time block codes for OFDM systems

In this paper, we propose a combination of the vertical layered Space-Time architecture (V-BLAST) and the Space-Time Block Codes (STBC) producing VBLAST-STBC, which shows a performance advantage over V-BLAST in frat fading channels. We also propose VBLAST-STBC with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) producing VBLAST-STBCOFDM, which shows a pevformance advantage over VBLAST-OFDM in frequency selective fading channels. These two schemes provide reliable as well as very high data rate communications over Rayleigh fading channels. The simulations show the advantages of the proposed schemes over the original V-BLAST and VBLAST-OFDM schemes.
Evaluating Cultural Competence in the Clinical Practicum

Aim. The main purpose is to introduce a tool for evaluating the extent of culturally specific care provided for a diverse clientele, the frequency of cultural assessments, and the development of culturally sensitive and professionally appropriate attitudes, values, and beliefs. Background. Legal, ethical, and accreditation mandates demand theoretically based, valid, comprehensive tools to assess aspects of culturally specific care; yet no relevant ones existed. Method. The Cultural Competence Clinical Evaluation Tool (CCCET) was administered at the end of a second semester medical‐surgical nursing course (n = 161). Results. The Content Validity Index (CVI) was 0.91. The reliability coefficients provided evidence for internal consistency. Conclusion. Student and teacher ratings were relatively close, suggesting that respondents took the task of CCCET completion seriously and honestly, that cultural competence was a visible theme throughout the course, and that students and instructors worked closely together in the clinical practicum setting to achieve learning objectives (including cultural competence).
The Role of Product Identity in End of Life Decision Making

3-enol ethers of 11 beta -hydroxy- DELTA 4-pregnene-3-ones are prepared by reacting triethylorthoacetate with an 11 beta -hydroxy- DELTA 4-pregnene-3-one in a solvent which is at least 40% by weight or more ethanol and 60% by weight or less of a compatible oxygenated hydrocarbon liquid in the presence of an acid catalyst. This reaction forms a basis of a process for forming 6-halo-derivatives, particularly 6-chloro- DELTA 1,4,6-pregnatrien -11 beta ,17 alpha ,21-triol-3,20-dione.
GPU Based Modified HYPR Technique: A Promising Method for Low Dose Imaging

Medical imaging has grown tremendously over the decades. The computed tomography CT and Magnetic resonance imaging MRI are considered to be most widely used imaging modalities. MRI is less harmful, but one cannot underestimate the harmful side effects of CT. A recent study reveals the fact of increasing risk of cancer as a side effect for patients undergoing repeated CT scans. Hence the design of the low dose imaging protocol is about the immense importance in the current scenario. In this paper, the authors present modified highly constrained back projection M-HYPR as a most promising technique to address low dose imaging. Highly constrained back projection HYPR being iterative in nature is computational savvy, and is one of the main reasons for being neglected by CT developers. The weight matrix module, being root cause for huge computation time is modified in this work. Considerable speed up factor is recorded, as compared original HYPR O-HYPR on a single thread CPU implementation. The quality of the reconstructed image in each platform has been analyzed. Recorded results upholds M-HYPR algorithm, and appreciates usage of graphical processing units GPU in medical imaging applications.
Responses of soil microbial community structure to stand densities of Chinese fir plantations

ABSTRACT Plant-microorganism interactions have an important effect on plant growth and yield. However, how stand densities of Chinese fir plantations to drive change in the microbial structure remains unclear. This study used gas chromatography (GC) to determine the biomass of Phospholipid Fatty Acids (PLFA) of soil microorganisms in the topsoil (0–20 cm) of Chinese fir plantations of five initial densities (D1: 1667 stems/hm2, D2: 3333 stems/hm2, D3: 5000 stems/hm2, D4: 6667 stems/hm2, and D5: 10,000 stems/hm2); stand densities at sampling were D1: 1578 stems/hm2, D2: 2294 stems/hm2, D3: 2617 stems/hm2, D4: 2789 stems/hm2, and D5: 2461 stems/hm2. We found that the microbial biomass was significantly affected by both the initial density and the subsequent density of Chinese fir plantation. Overall, the low-density plantation was more conducive to increasing the microbial structure diversity. The ratio of fungal biomass to bacterial biomass was higher at the low density (D1 and D2) compared to the high density (D3, D4, and D5), while the ratio of the biomass of Gram-positive bacteria to the biomass of Gram-negative bacteria was opposite, which suggest that high-density Chinese fir plantations are exposed to greater environmental stresses than low-density Chinese fir plantations. We showed that the biomass of PLFA is significantly affected by soil capillary porosity, maximum water-holding capacity, pH, alkali available N, and available P. Together, we provide a theoretical basis for the management of Chinese fir plantations and a broader perspective for better understanding and estimating the influences of stand densities on plantations in the regional and world scales.
PADI-web: Platform for Automated Extraction of Animal Disease Information from the Web

The Platform for Automated Extraction of Animal Disease Information from the Web (PADI-web) is a text mining tool for automatic detection, categorization, and extraction of disease outbreak information from Web news articles. PADI-web currently monitors the Web for five exotic animal infectious diseases and eight syndromes in five animal hosts. In the first six months of its operability (January-June 2016), PADI-web detected 73% of the outbreaks of african swine fever, which occurred worldwide and were immediately notified to the World Organisation for Animal Health; 20% of foot-and-mouth disease; 13% of bluetongue, and 62% of highly pathogenic avian influenza, respectively. The event extraction component of PADI-web obtained F-measure scores of 80% for locations, 85% for dates, 95% for diseases, 95% for hosts, and 85% for case numbers. PADI-web allows complementary disease surveillance in the domain of animal health.
Sombrero: Integrating self-organizing neural networks in the search for dna binding motifs

– Identification of the short DNA sequence motifs that serve as binding domains for transcription factors continues to be a challenging problem in computational biology. Currently popular methods of motif discovery are based on unsupervised techniques from the statistical learning theory literature. We present here a working prototype of a neural networks based system that aims to tackle the DNA regulatory motif identification problem. The system consists of three modules, the core module being a SOM-based motif-finder named SOMBRERO. The motif-finder is integrated in the prototype with a SOM-based pre-processing method that initialises SOMBRERO with relevant biological knowledge, as well as a self-organizing tree method that helps the user to interpret SOMBRERO’s results. The system is demonstrated here using various datasets.
Incidence of diabetes mellitus and neoplasia in Japanese short-statured children treated with growth hormone in the Genetics and Neuroendocrinology of Short Stature International Study (GeNeSIS)

Abstract. The primary goal of the Genetics and Neuroendocrinology of Short Stature International Study (GeNeSIS) was to assess the safety and effectiveness of Humatrope®, a GH preparation, in the treatment of pediatric patients with short stature. We report our findings in the GH-treated Japanese pediatric population focusing on the incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and occurrence of neoplasms. A total of 2,345 Japanese patients were assessed for safety. During a mean observation period of 3.2 yr, T2D occurred in 3 patients (0.13%) and slowly progressive insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (SPIDDM) related to underlying mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) in 1 patient (0.04%). Neoplasms were reported in 13 patients (0.56%), including 1 patient with brain tumor (germinoma) and 5 with craniopharyngiomas (4 recurrences); the remainder were benign, typically dermatological, neoplasms. The incidence of diabetes mellitus determined in the study did not differ from previous reports in GH-treated pediatric patients, and there was no apparent increase in the risk of new neoplastic lesions or malignant tumors.
Oxidative stress in red blood cells, platelets and polymorphonuclear leukocytes from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome

Low‐risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is characterized by cytopenia, mainly anemia, because of ineffective hematopoiesis. Some of the patients with ineffective erythropoiesis, with or without ring sideroblasts in their bone marrow, develop severe anemia requiring frequent blood transfusions and consequently develop iron overload. Excess free iron in cells catalyses the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that cause cell and tissue damage. Using flow cytometry techniques, we compared the oxidative status of red blood cells (RBC), platelets and neutrophils in 14 MDS patients with those of normal donors. The results show that ROS were higher while reduced glutathione (GSH) was lower in their RBC and platelets compared with normal cells. In neutrophils, no difference was found in ROS, while the GSH levels were lower. A correlation (r = 0.6) was found between serum ferritin levels of the patients and the ROS in their RBC and platelets. The oxidative stress was ameliorated by a short incubation with the iron‐chelators, the deferrioxamine and deferiprone or with antioxidants such as N‐acetylcysteine, suggesting that MDS patients might benefit from treatment with iron‐chelators and antioxidants.
Bacteriophage-induced acidic heteropolysaccharide lyases that convert the acidic heteropolysaccharides of Rhizobium trifolii into oligosaccharide units

Acidic heteropolysaccharide lyases from lysates of phages 4S and BY15 grown on Rhizobium trifolii 4S and R. trifolii 0403, respectively, were used to analyze the capsular and excreted extracellular acidic polysaccharides of R. trifolii 0403. The activities of the enzymes as measured by viscometry were enhanced by the addition of calcium. The oligosaccharide products obtained by depolymerase digestion of the polysaccharides isolated from cells grown on agar plates for 5 days were isolated by gel filtration and had a glycosyl composition of glucose, galactose, glucuronic acid, and alpha-linked 4-deoxy-L-threo-hex-4-enopyranosyluronic acid in an approximate molar ratio of 5:1:1:1. This latter component was identified by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and confirmed by UV spectroscopy, ozonolysis, and its reactivity with thiobarbituric acid. The oligosaccharide had glucose as the reducing terminus, 4-deoxy-L-threo-hex-4-enopyranosyluronic acid as the enzymatically generated nonreducing terminus, and galactose as the terminus of the branched chain. The noncarbohydrate components of the oligosaccharides were acetate, ketal-linked pyruvate, and ether-linked 3-hydroxybutyrate. The mode of action of the enzymes was by beta-elimination from a uronic acid residue with concomitant loss of the glycosyl component substituted at C-4. The 235-nm absorbing properties of the resulting terminal unsaturated sugar were used to study the kinetics of depolymerization of the capsular and excreted extracellular acidic polysaccharides, using the enzyme from phage BY15. The two substrates exhibited different kinetics of depolymerization, and the oligosaccharide products differed in the amount of noncarbohydrate substituents, indicating that the acidic capsular and excreted extracellular polysaccharides from 5-day-old cultures of R. trifolii 0403 were different.