Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Load Balancing for Internet Distributed Services Using Limited Redirection Rates

The Internet has become the universal support for computer applications. This increases the need for solutions that provide dependability and QoS for web applications. The replication of web servers on geographically distributed data centers allows the service provider to tolerate disastrous failures and to improve the response times perceived by clients. A key issue for good performance of worldwide distributed web services is the efficiency of the load balancing mechanism used to distribute client requests among the replicated servers. Load balancing can reduce the need for over-provision of resources, and help tolerate abrupt load peaks and/or partial failures through load conditioning. In this paper, we propose a new load balancing solution that reduces service response times by redirecting requests to the closest remote servers without overloading them. We also describe a middle ware that implements this protocol and present the results of a set of simulations that show its usefulness.
Deep Learning: Generalization Requires Deep Compositional Feature Space Design

Generalization error defines the discriminability and the representation power of a deep model. In this work, we claim that feature space design using deep compositional function plays a significant role in generalization along with explicit and implicit regularizations. Our claims are being established with several image classification experiments. We show that the information loss due to convolution and max pooling can be marginalized with the compositional design, improving generalization performance. Also, we will show that learning rate decay acts as an implicit regularizer in deep model training.
(Re)Conceiving ‘Creative Drama’: an exploration and expansion of American metaphorical paradigms

Abstract This article considers two ontological metaphors underlying the American paradigm of creative drama' and examines them intertextually within the larger context of the child drama field. Historically, the American child drama field has associated more with education than with theatre studies, thus drawing more theory from pedagogical practices and from developmental psychology than from the theatre arts and/or performance studies. American child drama practitioners, as a whole, also have been more concerned with the practice and methodology of drama rather than the theorising of it. The historical definition of ‘creative drama’ developed by Americans, then, depends on two metaphorical constructions: (1) ‘creative drama’ is different from theatre and (2) the conflation of ‘creative drama’ with the construct of childhood development. Building upon the deconstruction of the nature of ‘creative drama’, the second part of this article is a practical application of performance (as defined by Richard Sch.
Molecular analysis of the F plasmid traVR region: traV encodes a lipoprotein

The nucleotide sequences of the conjugative F plasmid transfer region genes, traV and traR, have been determined. The deduced amino acid sequence of TraV indicated that it may be a lipoprotein; this was confirmed by examining the effect of globomycin on traV-encoded polypeptides synthesized in minicells. An open reading frame that may represent a previously undetected transfer gene, now designated trbG, was identified immediately upstream of traV. The deduced product of traR was found to share amino acid similarity with proteins from the bacteriophages 186 and P2 and with the dosage-dependent dnaK suppressor DksA.
Wheeze in preschool children and its relation with doctor diagnosed asthma.

OBJECTIVE--To describe the characteristics of wheeze and its relation with doctor diagnosed asthma in children aged 5 years and under. DESIGN--Questionnaire survey of population based random sample of children registered on Leicestershire Health Authority's child health index for immunisation; questionnaire completed by parents. SUBJECTS--1650 white children born in 1985 to 1989 who were surveyed in 1990. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Age distribution, severity, precipitants, seasonal characteristics, and diurnal variation of wheeze, family history of asthma/atopy, and their association(s) with doctor diagnosed asthma. RESULTS--There were 1422 replies (86.2%). Two hundred and twenty two (15.6%) were reported to have wheezed and of these 121 (8.6%) had formally been diagnosed as having asthma. More than 80% of the former had recurrences of wheeze and 40% (72) had three or more episodes in the preceding 12 months. Age, number of episodes per year, the severity of shortness of breath with attacks, and precipitants other than colds were the major factors determining the probability that a wheezy child will be diagnosed as having asthma. The data also suggest that despite the strong association of symptom based criteria with the label asthma, asthma was not diagnosed by these same severity criteria in one quarter of cases. CONCLUSIONS--Clinical and physiological follow up studies of children identified as asthmatic by the above criteria during the preschool years should validate or refute the predictive value of these measures of wheeze severity.
RNA interference screening in Drosophila primary cells for genes involved in muscle assembly and maintenance

To facilitate the genetic analysis of muscle assembly and maintenance, we have developed a method for efficient RNA interference (RNAi) in Drosophila primary cells using double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). First, using molecular markers, we confirm and extend the observation that myogenesis in primary cultures derived from Drosophila embryonic cells follows the same developmental course as that seen in vivo. Second, we apply this approach to analyze 28 Drosophila homologs of human muscle disease genes and find that 19 of them, when disrupted, lead to abnormal muscle phenotypes in primary culture. Third, from an RNAi screen of 1140 genes chosen at random, we identify 49 involved in late muscle differentiation. We validate our approach with the in vivo analyses of three genes. We find that Fermitin 1 and Fermitin 2, which are involved in integrin-containing adhesion structures, act in a partially redundant manner to maintain muscle integrity. In addition, we characterize CG2165, which encodes a plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase, and show that it plays an important role in maintaining muscle integrity. Finally, we discuss how Drosophila primary cells can be manipulated to develop cell-based assays to model human diseases for RNAi and small-molecule screens.
Long-Term Progression of Coronary Artery Calcification Is Independent of Classical Risk Factors, C-Reactive Protein, and Parathyroid Hormone in Renal Transplant Patients

Aims: Compared to the general population, mortality is significantly increased in renal transplant recipients. In the general population, coronary artery calcification (CAC) and its evolution over time are associated with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, and the study of this biomarker could provide useful information for describing the long-term progression of coronary heart disease in renal transplant recipients. Methods: We followed up a cohort of 113 renal transplant patients by performing three multi-detector computed tomography studies over 83.6 ± 6.8 months. Data analysis was performed by logistic regression analysis and by mixed linear modelling. Results: Progression was observed in 34.5% of patients. Baseline CAC and time-to-transplantation were the sole variables that predicted CAC evolution over time. Neither classical nor nontraditional risk factors, biomarkers of renal function (GFR) and kidney damage (albuminuria) or biomarkers of bone mineral disorder (BMD), such as serum phosphorus, calcium, and PTH, were associated with the long-term progression of coronary calcification. Serum triglycerides predicted CAC progression only in logistic regression analysis, while in addition to baseline CAC, time to transplantation was the sole variable predicting CAC progression when the data were analyzed by mixed linear modelling. These data suggested that, in addition to the background calcification burden, other unmeasured factors play major roles in promoting the evolution of coronary calcification in the transplant population. Conclusion: CAC progression continued over the long-term follow-up of renal transplant patients. This phenomenon was unaccounted for by classical and nontraditional risk factors, as well as by biomarkers of renal dysfunction and renal damage.
Instantaneous Frequencies of Continuous Blood Pressure a Comparison of the Power Spectrum, the Continuous Wavelet Transform and the Hilbert-Huang Transform

Continuous biological signals, like blood pressure recordings, exhibit nonlinear and nonstationary properties which must be considered during their analysis. Heart rate variability analyses have identified several frequency components and their autonomic origin. There is need for more knowledge on the time-changing properties of these frequencies. The power spectrum, continuous wavelet transform and Hilbert–Huang transform are applied on a continuous blood pressure signal to investigate how the different methods compare to each other. The Hilbert–Huang transform shows high ability to analyze such data, and can, by identifying instantaneous frequency shifts, provide new insights into the nature of these kinds of data.
A secure and high payload digital audio watermarking using features from iris image

This paper presents a high payload watermarking method for audio signals to accommodate biometric based watermarks generated from iris images. The watermark generated from biometric features has a large size and hence the proposed method is capable of accommodating this high payload under perceptual transparency constraints. In this paper, watermark generated from the biometric features can be efficiently embedded in an audio signal under fixed perceptual constraints with good robustness against signal processing attacks using a QR based decomposition method. An algorithm using the QR decomposition in third level detailed coefficients of wavelet decomposition is used to achieve this objective. Experimental results indicate that the extracted biometric watermark can be identified easily even under signal processing attacks such as low pass filtering and Gaussian noise. An optimum balance to embed high payload biometric watermark data is achieved in this paper under various signal processing attacks while maintaining the perceptual transparency of audio signal.
Two high-dimensional cartesian bases for quantum key distribution

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) provides a secure way of generating shared cryptographic keys between a sender (Alice) and a receiver (Bob). The original BB84 protocol uses a two-dimensional polarization basis, limiting the information content of a single photon to 1 bit. Using the transverse position of single photons as one basis and the Fourier space as a second basis, one can construct a pair of mutually unbiased higher-dimensional bases. This improves not only the security of the protocol, but also the key generation rate. We present experimental results with a Spatial-Light-Modulator-based encoding scheme employing two nearly orthogonal alphabets with on the order of 103 symbols each and an information content of about 10 bit.
Steady‐state robustness of qualitative gene regulation networks

In this paper, we define a robustness measure for gene regulation networks, which allows to quantify how well a given model structure can reproduce a desired steady‐state pattern in the absence of detailed knowledge about the kinetic mechanisms and parameters. To develop this measure, a modeling framework is introduced, which is able to represent the qualitative knowledge typically available for gene regulation networks. With this framework, the robustness measure as well as tools for its efficient computation are developed. The benefit of our method is twofold: On the one hand, it allows to compare the robustness properties of different model structures and thus may help modelers to decide which model is biologically more plausible. On the other hand, the most fragile interconnections within a network can be detected. To demonstrate its use, the new method is applied to various models of a gene regulation network, which is responsible for the maintenance of the mid‐hindbrain boundary. We find that for this example system, weaker connected networks are more robust. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Rhamnogalacturonate Lyase RhiE Is Secreted by the Out System in Erwinia chrysanthemi

ABSTRACT Supernatants of rhamnose-induced Erwinia chrysanthemi strain 3937 cultures contain a principal secreted protein named RhiE. A rhiE mutant has been found among a set of rhamnose-induced MudI1681 lacZ fusions. RhiE is a 62-kDa protein that has rhamnogalacturonate lyase activity on rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I). It does not require a divalent cation for its activity and has an optimal pH of 6.0. rhiE expression is strongly induced in the presence of rhamnose but is also regulated by PecT and Crp, two regulators of the transcription of pectinolytic enzyme genes. RhiE is secreted through the type II Out secretion pathway. RhiE has no disulfide bond. The absence of RhiE secretion in a dsb mutant indicated that disulfide bond formation is required for the biogenesis of the secretion apparatus. RhiE was searched for in several E. chrysanthemi strains by using antibodies, and it was found to be present in one-third of the strains tested. However, the reduced virulence of the rhiE mutant indicates that degradation of the RG-I region of pectin is important for full virulence of E. chrysanthemi.
Stichprobe der Integrierten Arbeitsmarktbiografien: Regionalfile 1975-2010 (SIAB-R 7510)

"This FDZ data report describes the 'Regionalfile' of the Sample of Integrated Labour Market Biographies 1975-2010 (SIAB-R 7510). This dataset represents the factual anonymous version of the Sample of Integrated Labour Market Biographies (SIAB) and may be delivered to scientific research institutions after concluding a use agreement with the IAB. " (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Auszahlungen
A spherical cap preserving parameterization for spherical distributions

We introduce a novel parameterization for spherical distributions that is based on a point located inside the sphere, which we call a pivot. The pivot serves as the center of a straight-line projection that maps solid angles onto the opposite side of the sphere. By transforming spherical distributions in this way, we derive novel parametric spherical distributions that can be evaluated and importance-sampled from the original distributions using simple, closed-form expressions. Moreover, we prove that if the original distribution can be sampled and/or integrated over a spherical cap, then so can the transformed distribution. We exploit the properties of our parameterization to derive efficient spherical lighting techniques for both real-time and offline rendering. Our techniques are robust, fast, easy to implement, and achieve quality that is superior to previous work.
Playing the game: how football directors make sense of dismissing the coach

Coach dismissals are frequently carried out in European club football, and the decision to dismiss a coach is generally depicted as a very simple organisational measure: A club is not able to fulfil what is expected of it, and as a consequence, the directors of this club decide to make a change. From such a perspective, however, the decision and the intended outcomes are reduced to a desire to improve sporting performance. Indeed, low sporting performance often functions as a key trigger when the decision to dismiss is being made, but exactly how dismissals make sense to the decision makers has not yet been examined in academic terms. Based on interviews with eight Danish football directors, this study explores how these directors make sense of dismissing coaches. This sensemaking can contribute to explaining the increasing frequency of coach dismissals in contemporary club football and provide insights into the management of and decision making in professional football.
Narrating Democratic Education

This action research uses grounded theory and constant comparative analysis of electronic portfolios to explore how prospective secondary social studies teachers connect theories and practices of democratic education to give meaning to the complexity of learning how to teach in more democratic ways. I use contrasting case studies to focus on the relative value of theoretical/experiential ways of knowing. I conclude that students need to move more fluidly between theoretical and experiential or narrative thinking to galvanize their wills to teach more democratically. Because teaching democratically implies that teachers have a democratic world view, documenting how one learns to become a teacher cannot be adequately accomplished with only lesson plans, unit plans, or K-12 student work. Instead, those who wish to construct identities as democratic educators need to articulate their struggles through theoretically positioned stories about day-to-day classroom interactions in which they acknowledge the central role of beliefs, values, and epistemic orientations.
Loss of Genetic Variation in Laboratory Colonies of Chilo suppressalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) Revealed by Mitochondrial and Microsatellite DNA Markers

ABSTRACT The Asiatic rice borer, Chilo suppressalis (Walker), is an important insect pest of rice in China. The genetic variation of a set of laboratory colonies of C. suppressalis was compared with their source populations in the wild (laboratory colonies BJCK, BJ1AB, and BJ1AC versus wild population BJW; laboratory colonies FZCK and FZ1CA versus wild population FZW) and was analyzed using eight microsatellite markers and two partial mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) regions (COI and COII). Results from both analyses revealed similar patterns. Microsatellite DNA analysis showed that the two wild populations (BJW and FZW) harbored more private alleles and had higher levels of gene diversity, and observed and expected heterozygosity, compared with the laboratory colonies. Mitochondrial DNA analysis revealed that the two wild populations (BJW and FZW) had higher numbers of haplotypes compared with the five laboratory colonies. The three Beijing laboratory-reared colonies (BJ1CK, BJ1AB, and BJ1AC) had one fixed haplotype (H04). Most of the pairwise FST values based on mtDNA were high and all pairwise FST comparisons based on microsatellite DNA were significant, which indicated that the significant differences between these colonies and populations. Genetic drift caused by several factors, such as founder effect, small effective population size, rearing protocols, and inbreeding, can contribute to the rapid loss of genetic variation and affect the distribution of alleles and haplotypes. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the sample size of source populations to prevent the loss of genetic variation and genetic differentiation between different colonies.
Locator: a self-adaptive framework for the recognition of relevant places

A high number of algorithms for the recognition of users' relevant places exist. However, none of them provide an optimal solution across all users and scenarios. We present a preliminary design of Locator -- a self-adaptive framework for recognizing users' relevant places. Locator learns for different contextual situations, combinations of algorithms and location sensor data that achieve the best performance in recognizing relevant places. We conducted a 5-weeks study and collected sensor and ground-truth data from 6 users. Our preliminary results indicate the shortcomings of relying on one algorithm and sensor for recognizing places and thus motivates the rational behind our approach.
Spatiotemporal Networks for Video Emotion Recognition

Our experiment adapts several popular deep learning methods as well as some traditional methods on the problem of video emotion recognition. In our experiment, we use the CNN-LSTM architecture for visual information extraction and classification and utilize traditional methods such as for audio feature classification. For multimodal fusion, we use the traditional Support Vector Machine. Our experiment yields a good result on the AFEW 6.0 Dataset.
Diffusion and localization in carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoribbons

We study transport length scales in carbon nanotubes and graphene ribbons under the influence of Anderson disorder. We present generalized analytical expressions for the density of states, the elastic mean free path and the localization length in arbitrarily structured quantum wires. These allow us to analyze the electrical response over the full energy range, including the regions around van Hove singularities, traditionally difficult to access by alternative approaches. Comparing with the results of numerical simulations, we demonstrate that both the diffusive and the localized regime are well represented by the analytical approximations over a wide range of the energy spectrum. The approach works well for both metallic and semiconducting nanotubes and nanoribbons but breaks down near the edge states of zigzag ribbons.
Chimera states in mechanical oscillator networks

The synchronization of coupled oscillators is a fascinating manifestation of self-organization that nature uses to orchestrate essential processes of life, such as the beating of the heart. Although it was long thought that synchrony and disorder were mutually exclusive steady states for a network of identical oscillators, numerous theoretical studies in recent years have revealed the intriguing possibility of “chimera states,” in which the symmetry of the oscillator population is broken into a synchronous part and an asynchronous part. However, a striking lack of empirical evidence raises the question of whether chimeras are indeed characteristic of natural systems. This calls for a palpable realization of chimera states without any fine-tuning, from which physical mechanisms underlying their emergence can be uncovered. Here, we devise a simple experiment with mechanical oscillators coupled in a hierarchical network to show that chimeras emerge naturally from a competition between two antagonistic synchronization patterns. We identify a wide spectrum of complex states, encompassing and extending the set of previously described chimeras. Our mathematical model shows that the self-organization observed in our experiments is controlled by elementary dynamical equations from mechanics that are ubiquitous in many natural and technological systems. The symmetry-breaking mechanism revealed by our experiments may thus be prevalent in systems exhibiting collective behavior, such as power grids, optomechanical crystals, or cells communicating via quorum sensing in microbial populations.
Les MOOC Conception, usages et modèles économiques

Cet ouvrage presente un panorama exhaustif de ce qu'est un MOOC et a quoi il peut servir dans le contexte de l'enseignement superieur. Cet ouvrage s'organise en 6 chapitres : 1. Qu'est ce qu'un MOOC ? 2. Comment realise-t-on un MOOC ? 3. Un MOOC pour qui et pour quels usages ? 4. Financement et developpement des MOOC 5. Perspectives et polemiques 6. Quel avenir pour les MOOC ? Pour mieux comprendre les termes utilises, un glossaire des termes est present en fin d'ouvrage.
Reproductive innovations: control of sow estrus and breeding.

The increasing successful use of artificial insemination is facilitated by a greater knowledge of the biology of the sow during her estrous period. The realization of the importance of establishing an adequate sperm reservoir in the oviduct at an appropriate time relative to ovulation has led to advances in the management of artificial insemination. In particular, knowledge of when a sow is likely to ovulate during a natural or induced estrous period, and mechanisms influencing sperm transport have been valuable. The future of artificial insemination will likely involve a single semen dose having a reduced sperm number. This will be made possible by knowledge of the effect of site of sperm deposition on sow fertility.