Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Trace-Driven Approach to Evaluate the Scalability of P2P-Based Video-on-Demand Service

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks have emerged as one of the most promising approaches to improve the scalability of Video-on-Demand (VoD) service over Internet. However, despite a number of architectures and streaming protocols have been proposed in past years, there is few work to study the practical performance of P2P-based VoD service especially in consideration of real user behavior which actually has significant impact on system scalability. Therefore, in this paper, we first characterize the user behavior by analyzing a large amount of real traces from a popular VoD system supported by the biggest television station in China, cctv.com. Then we ex-amine the practical scalability of P2P-based VoD service through extensive trace-driven simula-tion under a general system framework. The results show that P2P networks scale well in provid-ing VoD service under real user behavior by obtaining a considerable good cache hit ratio. Moreover, it is observed that adopting hard cache at client side help achieves better system scal-ability than that with soft cache. We also identify the impact of various aspects of user behavior upon system scalability through detailed simulation. We believe that our study will shine insight-ful light on the understanding of practical scalability of P2P-based VoD service and be helpful to future system design and optimization.
Impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on reionization

One of the possible methods to distinguish among various dark matter (DM) candidates is to study the effects of DM decays. We consider four different DM candidates [light dark matter (LDM), gravitinos, neutralinos and sterile neutrinos], for each of them deriving the decaying/annihilation rate, the influence on reionization, matter temperature and cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectra. We find that LDM particles (1–10 MeV) and sterile neutrinos (2–8 keV) can be sources of partial early reionization (z ~< 100). However, their integrated contribution to Thomson optical depth is small (~< 0.01) with respect to the 3-yr WMAP results (τe = 0.09 ± 0.03). Finally, they can significantly affect the behaviour of matter temperature. On the contrary, effects of heavy DM candidates (gravitinos and neutralinos) on reionization and heating are minimal. All the considered DM particles have completely negligible effects on the CMB spectra.
Educational Issues for Children and Young People in Families Living in Emergency Accommodation—An Irish Perspective

The article explores how homelessness may impact on the educational participation of children and young people in families living in emergency accommodation in Dublin. Many difficulties arise in terms of maintaining consistent schooling for children when they are part of a homeless family, including problems getting to and from school if living at a distance from their original schools, frequent changes in school and inadequate facilities and overcrowding in their temporary accommodation. Despite the many difficulties involved in maintaining children's regular school attendance, it is evident that school may represent the only stability for a child in an otherwise insecure and changing routine.
Pyrosequencing Analysis Reveals High Population Dynamics of the Soil Microcosm Degrading Octachlorodibenzofuran

A deeper understanding of the microbial community structure is very important in bioremediation for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). However, this has been insufficiently addressed in previous studies. To obtain more information, we pyrosequenced the V4/V5 regions of the 16S rRNA genes of bacterial communities transited from polluted soil to batch microcosms that rapidly degraded high concentrations of octachlorodibenzofuran (OCDF). The analysis results contained an average of 11,842 reads per sample, providing the first detailed description of bacterial communities associated with PCDD/Fs. The community composition markedly changed to be concomitant with the degradation of OCDF, indicating that a distinctive population structure developed rapidly in the microcosm. Although oxygen gas was provided weekly to the microcosm, the growth of potential degraders, Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus, and Clostridium, was observed, but in consistently low quantities. While anaerobic Sedimentibacter initially emerged as an abundant pioneer, several aerobic participants, such as the genera Brevundimonas, Pseudoxanthomonas, and Lysobacter, exhibited a large increase in their 16S rRNA gene copies within the timeframe, which showed a temporal population dynamic, and indicated their collaborative contributions to the degradation of OCDF under hypoxic conditions. These results have provided a deeper insight into the microbial community structure and population dynamics of the OCDF-degrading microcosm.
An empirical study on simplification of business process modeling languages

The adaptation, specially by means of a simplification process, of modeling languages is a common practice due to the overwhelming complexity of most standard languages (like UML or BPMN), not needed for typical usage scenarios while at the same time companies don't want to go to the extremes of defining a brand new domain specific language. Unfortunately, there is a lack of examples of such simplification experiences that can be used as a reference for future projects. In this paper we report on a field study aimed at the simplification of a business process modeling language (namely, BPMN) for making it suitable to end users. Our simplification process relies on a set of steps that encompass the selection of the language elements to simplify, generation of a set of language variants for them, measurement of effectiveness of the variants through user modeling sessions and extraction of quantitative and qualitative data for guiding the selection of the best language refinement. We describe the experimental setting, the output of the various steps of the analysis, and the results we obtained from users. Finally, we conclude with an outlook towards the generalization of the approach and consolidation of a language simplification method.
Discovering Free-Riders Before Trading: A Simple Approach

Free-riding is one of the most serious problems encountered in Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems like Bit Torrent. Incentive mechanisms, including those based on reputation have been proposed to deal with this problem, but are still not effective in preventing free-riders from completing a download. This is because they discover the free-riders’ behavior during or after the process of trading, giving free-riders the opportunity to download from others. In this paper, we propose PreDiscover, a novel approach to prevent free-riding behavior in Bit Torrent. In PreDiscover, regular peers and free-riders can be recognized before trading. So free-riders have little opportunity to download blocks from others. Our simulation results indicate that this new mechanism is very effective in discouraging free-riders and foster fairness.
Genesis of booster curves in Electric Power Assistance Steering systems

The typical architecture of an Electric Power Assistance Steering (EPAS) system includes a static map to provide the correct amplification to the driver's exerted torque. In literature, it is generally known as booster curve. This paper concerns the study of the amplification criteria, that are commonly used to these booster curves. The basic concepts of the Electric Power Steering (EPS) systems with a realistic model for the friction contact, that acts on the wheels are discussed. A relation between the assistance and the driver's torque is provided, under the hypothesis of a position-oriented control of the movement and the Stevens' power law. Finally, the simulation results proposed at the end of this paper validate the shape of the booster curves and are in accord with the initial hypothesis.
“I Did Not Do It My Way”

The links between culture, social networks, and adolescent romantic relationships are not well understood. This article integrates cultural sociology and network perspectives to explain how cultural features of adolescent peer groups influence adolescent romantic relationship inauthenticity—the extent of incongruence between one’s thoughts/feelings and actions within romantic contexts. Using National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data, I apply sequence analysis and linear regression models to test whether adolescents experience greater romantic relationship inauthenticity when the ordering of events within ideal romantic relationship scripts (e.g., holding hands, saying “I love you,” having sexual intercourse) diverges from ideal romantic relationship scripts of fellow peer-group members. Results indicate romantic relationship inauthenticity increases as one’s ideal script diverges from fellow peer-group members’ scripts. Importantly, heterogeneity in relationship scripts at the peer-group level was not associated with relationship inauthenticity. This study highlights the roles cultural reinforcement and social network processes play in the link between culture and action.
Perceived Susceptibility to HIV among Women

Older women's risk of acquiring HIV should not be discounted, because researchers have noted that older women may be at an increased risk of contracting HIV due to their heterosexual sexual practices and/or substance use behaviors. HIV prevention efforts must be directed at older adults who engage in high-risk sexual and drug behaviors, particularly those who may not perceive themselves to be at risk for HIV infection. This study is based on 183 women, mostly African American, divided into two age cohorts (ages 18 to 29, and ages 40 and older). The authors investigate factors associated with HIV risk perception in several domains, including individual, psychosocial, and sociodemographic characteristics as well as sexual and drug use behaviors. Multivariate analyses revealed differences in factors associated with younger and older women's HIV risk perceptions. Our findings indicate a need for HIV risk prevention programs to take age into consideration when developing intervention messages and strategies.
Gendered Power and Privilege: Taking Lenski One Step Further

In Power and Privilege, Gerhard Lenski's theory of the evolution of systems of inequality, he showed some recognition of gender inequality but, as universally accepted in sociology at the time, “social” stratification was conceptualized implicitly as inequality between male household heads. To move from this to explaining gender inequality requires consideration of constructs in addition to those developed by Lenski, but in terms of his typology of societies based on technology and size of economic surplus, the level of gender stratification tracks that of “social” stratification and the basic variables he delineates remain centrally important.
A Usability Study on the Net Trust Anti-Fraud Toolbar

The Net Trust toolbar embeds social context in Internet browsing by analyzing peer web-histories and opinions over user-selected social networks. The reputation metric bundles these socially relevant ratings with user-chosen external red/green lists to signal trust in browsing sessions. This usability study applies the think-aloud methodology to qualitatively assess how effectively Net Trust expresses ratings and how easily participants can customize their social networks and third-party ratings. The growth of phishing, a short-term scam that recruits victims via email to fraudulent web sites masquerading as legitimate institutions whereupon many visitors will disclose sensitive information (passwords, account IDs, etc.), is well documented by the Anti-Phishing Working Group [1], Symantec [12], and others. Net Trust attacks the more general problem of identifying untrustworthy web sites, however phishing’s short-term nature [9] prevents such fraudulent servers from gaining the reputation accorded to legitimate institutions. Since web browsers are the point of entry to spoofed web sites, anti-phishing toolbars which dynamically rate content have become prevalent [3, 4, 8, 10, 11]. Some toolbars detect phishing by analyzing real-time information such as links, images, SSL certificates and other document features, while others depend upon centralized databases of known fraudulent and legitimate web sites; all of these solutions suffer from high false-positive rates, high false-negative rates, or both [2]. In contrast, Net Trust detects fraud by distilling aggregate data from the browsing histories of self-chosen peers and external third-party ratings (e.g., the FDIC, BBB, etc.). For example, suppose a Net Trust user, Alice, conducts online banking at the domain mylocalbank.com. Her regular visits will improve the web site score. Some of Alice’s friends, who share geographic similarity, are online clients of the same local bank. Since Net Trust displays the mean of positive ratings, mylocalbank.com will be highly rated. If a phishing message should direct her to a fraudulent web
Pathway-Structured Predictive Model for Cancer Survival Prediction: A Two-Stage Approach

Heterogeneity in terms of tumor characteristics, prognosis, and survival among cancer patients has been a persistent problem for many decades. Currently, prognosis and outcome predictions are made based on clinical factors and/or by incorporating molecular profiling data. However, inaccurate prognosis and prediction may result by using only clinical or molecular information directly. One of the main shortcomings of past studies is the failure to incorporate prior biological information into the predictive model, given strong evidence of the pathway-based genetic nature of cancer, i.e., the potential for oncogenes to be grouped into pathways based on biological functions such as cell survival, proliferation, and metastatic dissemination. To address this problem, we propose a two-stage approach to incorporate pathway information into the prognostic modeling using large-scale gene expression data. In the first stage, we fit all predictors within each pathway using the penalized Cox model and Bayesian hierarchical Cox model. In the second stage, we combine the cross-validated prognostic scores of all pathways obtained in the first stage as new predictors to build an integrated prognostic model for prediction. We apply the proposed method to analyze two independent breast and ovarian cancer datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), predicting overall survival using large-scale gene expression profiling data. The results from both datasets show that the proposed approach not only improves survival prediction compared with the alternative analyses that ignore the pathway information, but also identifies significant biological pathways.
Real-time single-view video event recognition in controlled environments

This paper presents a real-time video event recognition system for controlled environments. It is able to recognize human activities and interactions with the objects of the environment by exploiting different cues like trajectory analysis, skin detection and people recognition of the foreground blobs of the scene. Time variations of these features are studied and combined using Bayesian inference to detect the events. Contextual information, including fixed objects' location, object types and event hierarchical definitions, is formally included in the system. A corpus of video sequences has been designed and recorded considering different complexity levels for object extraction. Experimental results show that our approach can recognize five kinds of events (two activities and three human-object interactions) with high precision operating at real-time.
Interlacing of Collagen Lamellae in the Midstroma of the Human Cornea

Purpose. To investigate by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) the interlacing of collagen lamellae in the midstroma of the human cornea after opening the interlamellar spaces. Material and Methods. For SEM, cells and noncollagenous extracellular matrix were removed with 10% sodium hydroxide. Specimens were dehydrated in a series of graded tertiary butanols, frozen at −24°C and dried in an exsiccator by sublimation of the frozen butanol. Dried corneas were cut vertically with a razor blade, and the interlamellar spaces were exposed by stretching the stroma along its anterior-posterior axis by pulling apart the inner (endothelial) and outer (epithelial) edges. Specimens were sputtered with gold and examined with a Cambridge Stereoscan 90 microscope. Results. The opened interlamellar spaces gave the stroma at the cutting edge the appearance of a polymorphic honeycomb. The stromal openings differed in size, from approximately 10 &mgr;m to over 150 &mgr;m length and up to 80 &mgr;m in height. Adjacent lamellae remained connected at several interconnecting regions, either through an exchange of short merging sublamella or single fibrils. Interlacing lamellae crossed through fissures between the branches of splitting lamellae. Others crossed clefts of neighboring lamellae, and other lamellae tunneled crosswise through a horizontally split lamellae hanging in the inferior branch as in a hammock. Large interweaving zones in which a mixture of several types of interlacing was localized close together could also be found. Conclusion. The current study indicates that interlacing is a distinct and important feature of the human cornea, and it gives new insights into the stromal morphology by demonstrating various types of interlacing that occur between collagen lamellae.
HISTONE DEACETYLASE6-Defective Mutants Show Increased Expression and Acetylation of ENHANCER OF TRIPTYCHON AND CAPRICE1 and GLABRA2 with Small But Significant Effects on Root Epidermis Cellular Pattern1

HDA6 affects the cellular patterning of Arabidopsis root epidermis by altering the histone acetylation status of two promoters. Cellular patterning in the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) root epidermis is dependent on positional information, the transmission of which involves histone acetylation. Here, we report that HISTONE DEACETYLASE6 (HDA6) has significant effects on this cellular patterning. Mutation of HDA6 led to ectopic hair cells in the nonhair positions of root epidermis in Arabidopsis, based on an analysis of paraffin sections stained with Toluidine Blue. While HDA6 was present throughout the root tip, epidermis-specific complementation with HDA6 could rescue the hda6 phenotype. Both transcript levels and expression patterns of ENHANCER OF TRIPTYCHON AND CAPRICE1 (ETC1) and GLABRA2 (GL2) in the root tip were affected in hda6. Consistent with these changes in expression, HDA6 directly bound to the promoter regions of ETC1 and GL2, and acetylation of histone H3 on these promoter regions and acetylation of histone H4 on the ETC1 promoter region was increased in the hda6 mutant. Taken together, these results indicate that HDA6 affects the cellular patterning of Arabidopsis root epidermis through altering the histone acetylation status of ETC1 and GL2 promoters and thereby affects the expression of these two components of the core transcription factor network determining epidermal cell fates. Our findings thus provide new insights into the role of histone acetylation in root epidermis cell patterning.
Supportive Communication Among Nurses: Effects on Commitment, Burnout, and Retention

This article presents the results of a research project designed to determine the impact of specific types of supportive communication on burnout, organizational commitment, and retention for practicing nurses. Hypotheses regarding the influence of informational, emotional, and instrumental social support were tested with survey data gathered from a large group of employed nurses. Results indicate targeted effects of instrumental and informational support, but broader effects for emotional support in organizational outcomes. Although significant relations were found for supportive communication and personal control, results indicate that other rationales explaining the link between social support and burnout may be warranted. The implications for theory and research are discussed.
UCSG: A Wide Coverage Shallow Parsing System

In this paper, we propose an architecture, called UCSG Shallow Parsing Architecture, for building wide coverage shallow parsers by using a judicious combination of linguistic and statistical techniques without need for large amount of parsed training corpus to start with. We only need a large POS tagged corpus. A parsed corpus can be developed using the architecture with minimal manual effort, and such a corpus can be used for evaluation as also for performance improvement. The UCSG architecture is designed to be extended into a full parsing system but the current work is limited to chunking and obtaining appropriate chunk sequences for a given sentence. In the UCSG architecture, a Finite State Grammar is designed to accept all possible chunks, referred to as word groups here. A separate statistical component, encoded in HMMs (Hidden Markov Model), has been used to rate and rank the word groups so produced. Note that we are not pruning, we are only rating and ranking the word groups already obtained. Then we use a Best First Search strategy to produce parse outputs in best first order, without compromising on the ability to produce all possible parses in principle. We propose a bootstrapping strategy for improving HMM parameters and hence the performance of the parser as a whole. A wide coverage shallow parser has been implemented for English starting from the British National Corpus, a nearly 100 Million word POS tagged corpus. Note that the corpus is not a parsed corpus. Also, there are tagging errors, multiple tags assigned in many cases, and some words have not been tagged. A dictionary of 138,000 words with frequency counts for each word in each tag has been built. Extensive experiments have been carried out to evaluate the performance of the various modules. We work with large data sets and performance obtained is encouraging. A manually checked parsed corpus of 4000 sentences has also been developed and used to improve the parsing performance further. The entire system has been implemented in Perl under Linux.
Marginality Theory and the African American Student.

This article reports on a study of African American students at a state university in a midwestern city. Specifically, a qualitative research design was used to explore the subjective college experiences of these students to determine if marginality can offer a more holistic understanding of the larger substantive phenomenon. The study found that it is the construction of meaning attached to marginality, not the state of being marginal, that has significance for understanding the students' experiences