Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A SURVEY OF DESKTOP GRID SYSTEM SCHEDULING

Grid Computing forms virtual, collaborative organizations that share applications and data in an open heterogeneous server environment in order to work on common problems. Desktop Grid is a named collection of machines in a shared network where resource providers have heterogeneous properties such as CPU, network, memory complicated by various capabilities, failures, lack of trust based on desktop computers on the internet. In Desktop Grid Computing environment resource providers can participate in computations for free and can leave them in middle of the execution where some malicious resource providers may corrupt the computational results. Therefore, it is necessary to develop scheduling mechanisms that adapts this dynamic computational environment. This paper presents a survey of scheduling for desktop grid systems. KeywordsGrid Computing, Desktop Grid, Volunteers, Scheduling, Grid Scheduler
Multi-task learning control system by compound function with application in goal and obstacle consideration

Multi-tasking in actions help humans produce actions that satisfy the need of multiple purposes. Even though humans may apply multi-tasking when producing actions, a control device mainly produces a control action that can only satisfies a single task. In this research, a method of Learning Control that utilizes compound function in developing and applying multiple control knowledge (state-action rule) of tasks is proposed. Decision management for considering either tasks is conducted by compound function with which multiple control knowledge of tasks are combined into one compound control knowledge (compound state-action rule) for serving these tasks, while maintaining the development of the individual control knowledge of tasks during a control operation. The proposed method was evaluated in experiments using a robot for tasks of attaining a goal and avoiding obstacles simultaneously. Based on the results, the effectiveness was confirmed through the experiments for the tasks of avoiding obstacle and attaining goal.
Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Classifiers

Abstract Neuromorphic engineering combines the architectural and computational principles of systems neuroscience with semiconductor electronics, with the aim of building efficient and compact devices that mimic the synaptic and neural machinery of the brain. The energy consumptions promised by neuromorphic engineering are extremely low, comparable to those of the nervous system. Until now, however, the neuromorphic approach has been restricted to relatively simple circuits and specialized functions, thereby obfuscating a direct comparison of their energy consumption to that used by conventional von Neumann digital machines solving real-world tasks. Here we show that a recent technology developed by IBM can be leveraged to realize neuromorphic circuits that operate as classifiers of complex real-world stimuli. Specifically, we provide a set of general prescriptions to enable the practical implementation of neural architectures that compete with state-of-the-art classifiers. We also show that the energy consumption of these architectures, realized on the IBM chip, is typically two or more orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional digital machines implementing classifiers with comparable performance. Moreover, the spike-based dynamics display a trade-off between integration time and accuracy, which naturally translates into algorithms that can be flexibly deployed for either fast and approximate classifications, or more accurate classifications at the mere expense of longer running times and higher energy costs. This work finally proves that the neuromorphic approach can be efficiently used in real-world applications and has significant advantages over conventional digital devices when energy consumption is considered.
An Exploratory Study on Managerial Security Concerns in Technology Start-ups

Studies have shown that smaller businesses are less likely to have extensive security in place because of the false sense of safety being small. What is more worrying is that small businesses are being attacked more frequently in today’s environment. Since protective measures often require significant managerial vigilance, an appropriate level of awareness and concern among managers may be a prerequisite for adequate security protection. Given its importance, there is a need to understand the factors that influence managers’ security concerns. Using the Model for Managerial Perceptions of Security Risk as a framework, we explore the factors that influence security concerns of small businesses. Ten technology start-ups in Singapore participated in this study. Findings provide an in-depth understanding of the factors – Organizational Environment, IS Environment and Individual Characteristics. Two new factors that significantly influence managers’ concern are identified – Trust between Managers and Employee, and Alignment to Business Needs. With a better understanding of these factors, more effective security management can be designed to heighten security consciousness of managers in start-ups. Findings also provide an impetus for researchers to conduct future studies in this domain.
Blunt splenic injury: are early adverse events related to trauma, nonoperative management, or surgery?

PURPOSE We aimed to compare clinical outcomes and early adverse events of operative management (OM), nonoperative management (NOM), and NOM with splenic artery embolization (SAE) in blunt splenic injury (BSI) and identify the prognostic factors. METHODS Medical records of 136 consecutive patients with BSI admitted to a trauma center from 2005 to 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were separated into three groups: OM, NOM, and SAE. We focused on associated injuries and early adverse events. Multivariate analysis was performed on 23 prognostic factors to find predictors. RESULTS The total survival rate was 97.1%, with four deaths all occurred in the OM group. The spleen salvage rate was 91% in NOM and SAE. At least one adverse event was observed in 32.8%, 62%, and 96% of patients in NOM, SAE, and OM groups, respectively (P < 0.001). We found significantly more deaths, infectious complications, pleural drainage, acute renal failures, and pancreatitis in OM and more pseudocysts in SAE. Six prognostic factors were statistically significant for one or more adverse events: simplified acute physiology score 2 ≥25 for almost all adverse events, age ≥50 years for acute respiratory syndrome, limb fracture for secondary bleeding, thoracic injury for pleural drainage, and at least one associated injury for pseudocyst. Adverse events were not related to the type of BSI management. CONCLUSION Patients with BSI present worse outcome and more adverse events in OM, but this is related to the severity of injury. The main predictor of adverse events remains the severity of injury.
International Climate Finance and its Influence on Fairness and Policy

Besides costs and benefits, fairness aspects tend to influence negotiating partiesAƒÂ¢A‚â‚¬A‚â„¢ willingness to join an international agreement on climate change mitigation. Fairness is largely considered to improve the prospects of success of international negotiations and hence measures raising fairness perception might AƒÂ¢A‚â‚¬A‚â€œ in turn AƒÂ¢A‚â‚¬A‚â€œ help to bring about effective cooperative international climate change mitigation. We consider the influences present international support of climate policy in developing countries exerts on fairness perception and how this again might affect international negotiations. In doing so, we distinguish between fairness perception which is based on historical experiences and perception which is based on conjectures about opponentsAƒÂ¢A‚â‚¬A‚â„¢ intentions. By identifying beneficial components of current support schemes, lessons can be learnt for designing new schemes like the Green Climate Fund.
Glucuronidation of icaritin by human liver microsomes, human intestine microsomes and expressed UDP-glucuronosyltransferase enzymes: identification of UGT1A3, 1A9 and 2B7 as the main contributing enzymes

Abstract 1. Icaritin is a natural flavonoid with anti-osteoporosis activity. This study aimed to characterize icaritin glucuronidation by pooled human liver microsomes (HLM) and pooled human intestine microsomes (HIM), and to determine the contribution of individual UDP-glucuronosyltrans-ferase (UGT) enzyme to icaritin glucuronidation. 2. Glucuronidation rates were determined by incubating icaritin with uridine diphosphate glucuronic acid (UDPGA)-supplemented microsomes. Kinetic parameters were derived by appropriate model fitting. Relative activity factors and activity correlation analysis were performed to identify main UGT isoforms. 3. UGT1A3, 1A7, 1A8, 1A9 and 2B7 were mainly responsible for catalyzing the formation of two glucuronides (G1 and G2). Icaritin 3-O-glucuronidation (G1) was significantly correlated with Chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) glucuronidation (r = 0.787, p = 0.002), propofol glucuronidation (r = 0.661, p = 0.019) and Zidovudine (AZT) glucuronidation (r = 0.805, p = 0.002). Similarly, icaritin 7-O-glucuronidation (G2) was also correlated with CDCA glucuronidation (r = 0.640, p = 0.025), propofol glucuronidation (r = 0.592, p = 0.043) and AZT glucuronidation (r = 0.661, p = 0.019). In addition, UGT1A3, 1A9 and 2B7 contributed 37.5, 33.8 and 21.3% for G1 in pooled HLM, respectively. Also, UGT1A3, 1A9 and 2B7 contributed 34.3, 20.0 and 8.6% for G2 in pooled HLM, respectively. 4. Icaritin was subjected to significant glucuronidation, wherein UGT1A3, 1A7, 1A8, 1A9 and 2B7 were main contributing enzymes.
Face Image Super-Resolution Using Two-dimensional Locality Preserving Projection

Super-resolution is an important method to reconstruct high-resolution images from low-resolution images. In this paper, a manifold learning algorithm based on two-dimensional locality preserving projection (2D-LPP) is proposed for face image super-resolution. The 2D-LPP detects the intrinsic manifold structure of high space and preserves the structure in low space by projection. The projection approach in the 2D-LPP resolves the out-of-sample problem in embedding-based manifold learning methods, and improves the speed in reducing the dimension of a new sample data. Moreover, the 2D-LPP preserves more accurate manifold structure by directly operating on 2D images rather than flattened 1D vector as PCA and LPP does. Extensive experiments are conducted on the AR and FERET databases. Experimental results show that the proposed method performs better than PCA based super-resolution in both PSNR and time efficiency.
Mechanisms for similarity matching in disparity measurement

Early neural mechanisms for the measurement of binocular disparity appear to operate in a manner consistent with cross-correlation-like processes. Consequently, cross-correlation, or cross-correlation-like procedures have been used in a range of models of disparity measurement. Using such procedures as the basis for disparity measurement creates a preference for correspondence solutions that maximize the similarity between local left and right eye image regions. Here, we examine how observers’ perception of depth in an ambiguous stereogram is affected by manipulations of luminance and orientation-based image similarity. Results show a strong effect of coarse-scale luminance similarity manipulations, but a relatively weak effect of finer-scale manipulations of orientation similarity. This is in contrast to the measurements of depth obtained from a standard cross-correlation model. This model shows strong effects of orientation similarity manipulations and weaker effects of luminance similarity. In order to account for these discrepancies, the standard cross-correlation approach may be modified to include an initial spatial frequency filtering stage. The performance of this adjusted model most closely matches human psychophysical data when spatial frequency filtering favors coarser scales. This is consistent with the operation of disparity measurement processes where spatial frequency and disparity tuning are correlated, or where disparity measurement operates in a coarse-to-fine manner.
Psychosocial Indexes and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Community Sample

Background: Psychosocial characteristics might contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of cardiovascular disease as it is increasingly recognised that biomedical risk factors do not fully explain its dynamics. This study aimed to describe psychometric indexes in a Portuguese community sample relating them to known cardiovascular disease risk factors. Methods: Anthropometric, blood pressure, serum measurements and information on demographic, social, medical and behavioural characteristics were obtained for 215 women and 156 men. Self-administered questionnaires were used for the psychometric evaluation (Bortner scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Hopkins Symptom Distress Checklist 90-Revised, Psychological General Well-Being and the Nottingham Health Profile, NHP). Results: There were significant differences according to gender regarding almost every psychometric dimension assessed. After adjusting for the presence of different biomedical risk factors, significant decreasing mean behaviour pattern scores were found with increasing age. Mean depression scores were significantly higher in women and in individuals with lower educational level. As to general psychological well-being, the highest scores were obtained for men and individuals with higher educational level. For the assessed dimensions of quality of life, as well as indexes of psychopathology, men scored better than women. No significant differences in mean scores of behaviour pattern, depression, psychological general well-being and dimensions of NHP were found according to the presence of an increasing number of cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusions: The study shows that the clustering of multiple biomedical risk factors does not result in additive deleterious psychological effects and that psychometric indexes are mainly dependent on gender and education, common confounders in most studies evaluating cardiovascular risk factors.
Research of high-strength cement compositions modified by complex organic-silica additives

Досліджено сумісність роботи кремнеземистої добавки та полікарбоксилатних суперпластифікаторів, підібрані оптимальні склади комплексної органо-мінеральної добавки. Встановлено вплив цієї добавки на процеси гідратації та структуроутворення, а також на фізико-механічні властивості цементного каменю. Показано можливість заміни відомих силікатних добавок на більш дешеві та доступні природні або техногенні речовини.
High-order sparse linear predictors for audio processing

Linear prediction has generally failed to make a breakthrough in audio processing, as it has done in speech processing. This is mostly due to its poor modeling performance, since an audio signal is usually an ensemble of different sources. Nevertheless, linear prediction comes with a whole set of interesting features that make the idea of using it in audio processing not far fetched, e.g., the strong ability of modeling the spectral peaks that play a dominant role in perception. In this paper, we provide some preliminary conjectures and experiments on the use of high-order sparse linear predictors in audio processing. These predictors, successfully implemented in modeling the short-term and long-term redundancies present in speech signals, will be used to model tonal audio signals, both monophonic and polyphonic. We will show how the sparse predictors are able to model efficiently the different components of the spectrum of an audio signal, i.e., its tonal behavior and the spectral envelope characteristic.
Parental Smoking in Childhood and Brachial Artery Flow-Mediated Dilatation in Young Adults: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study and the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study

Objective—Passive smoking has been associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity. The present study aimed to examine the long-term effects of childhood exposure to tobacco smoke on endothelium-dependent vasodilation in adults. Methods and Results—The analyses were based on 2171 participants in the population-based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns (N=2067) and Childhood Determinants of Adult Health (N=104) studies who had measures of conventional risk factors (lipids, blood pressure, adiposity, socioeconomic status) and self-reported parental smoking status when aged 3 to 18 years at baseline. They were re-examined 19 to 27 years later when aged 28 to 45 years. Brachial artery flow-mediated dilatation was measured at follow-up with ultrasound. In analyses adjusting for age, sex, and childhood risk factors, flow-mediated dilatation was reduced among participants who had parents that smoked in youth compared to those whose parents did not smoke (Young Finns: 9.2±0.1% (mean±SEM) versus 8.6±0.1%, P=0.001; Childhood Determinants of Adult Health: 7.4±0.6% versus 4.9±0.9%, P=0.04). These effects remained after adjustment for adult risk factors including own smoking status (Young Finns, P=0.003; Childhood Determinants of Adult Health, P=0.03). Conclusion—Parental smoking in youth is associated with reduced flow-mediated dilatation in young adulthood measured over 20 years later. These findings suggest that passive exposure to cigarette smoke among children might cause irreversible impairment in endothelium-dependent vasodilation.
Microfluidic remote loading for rapid single-step liposomal drug preparation.

Microfluidic-directed formation of liposomes is combined with in-line sample purification and remote drug loading for single step, continuous-flow synthesis of nanoscale vesicles containing high concentrations of stably loaded drug compounds. Using an on-chip microdialysis element, the system enables rapid formation of large transmembrane pH and ion gradients, followed by immediate introduction of amphipathic drug for real-time remote loading into the liposomes. The microfluidic process enables in-line formation of drug-laden liposomes with drug : lipid molar ratios of up to 1.3, and a total on-chip residence time of approximately 3 min, representing a significant improvement over conventional bulk-scale methods which require hours to days for combined liposome synthesis and remote drug loading. The microfluidic platform may be further optimized to support real-time generation of purified liposomal drug formulations with high concentrations of drugs and minimal reagent waste for effective liposomal drug preparation at or near the point of care.
Bioactive surfaces for antibody-antigen complex detection by Atomic Force Microscopy

Recently there has been a great develop of new antibodies immobilization procedures, that keep antibodies to retain their orientation and functionality after the binding to a solid support. This allows the formation of immune-complexes useful for the detection of biomarkers from biological samples. We have developed a new method of functionalization for solid substrates that involves an initial surface activation, then a functionalization by means of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane-followed by another functionalization step with a layer of very small peptides, which have a high affinity to the Antibody Fc portion, acting as antibody linkers. These antibody binding peptides can immobilize the antibodies with a proper configuration that allows an unambiguous detection of antibody-antigen complexes by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM can act as a powerful label free detection technique, which allows to detect, in principle, single molecule interactions, with the only limitation to use substrate with low-roughness surfaces; in this case, the roughness can be interpreted as background noise in the AFM analysis. Moreover, our functionalization method can be used to obtain bioactive surfaces on a wide range of solid supports, making them capable to suitably immobilize the antibodies for the antigenic binding.
Nitrification at Low pH by Aggregated Chemolithotrophic Bacteria

A study was performed to gain insight into the mechanism of acid-tolerant, chemolithotrophic nitrification. Microorganisms that nitrified at pH 4 were enriched from two Dutch acid soils. Nitrate production in the enrichment cultures was indicated to be of a chemolithoautotrophic nature as it was (i) completely inhibited by acetylene at a concentration as low as 1 μmol/liter and (ii) strongly retarded under conditions of carbon dioxide limitation. Electron microscopy of the enrichment cultures showed the presence of bacteria that were morphologically similar to strains of known chemolithotrophic nitrifying genera. Many of the enriched bacteria, in particular those that were identified as ammonium oxidizers, were aggregated. Filtration experiments indicated that aggregated cells were able to nitrify at low pH, whereas single cells were not. It is hypothesized that cells inside the aggregates are protected against the toxicity of nitrous acid. Nitrification by aggregated chemolithoautotrophic bacteria may be the dominating process of nitrate formation in many acid soils as it does not appear to depend on the existence of microsites of high pH (acid-sensitive autotrophic nitrification) or on the availability of organic carbon (heterotrophic nitrification).
Contrast Microsphere Destruction by a Continuous Flow Ventricular Assist Device: An In Vitro Evaluation Using a Mock Circulation Loop

Objectives Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is fundamental in managing patients supported with ventricular assist devices (VAD). However imaging can be difficult in these patients. Contrast improves image quality but they are hydrodynamically fragile agents. The aim was to assess contrast concentration following passage through a VAD utilising a mock circulation loop (MCL). Methods Heartware continuous flow (CF) VAD was incorporated into a MCL. Definity® contrast was infused into the MCL with imaging before and after CF-VAD. 5 mm2 regions of interest were used to obtain signal intensity (decibels), as a surrogate of contrast concentration. Results Four pump speeds revealed significant reduction in contrast signal intensity after CF-VAD compared to before CF-VAD (all p < 0.0001). Combined pre- and postpump data at all speeds showed a 22.2% absolute reduction in contrast signal intensity across the CF-VAD (14.8 ± 0.8 dB prepump versus 11.6 ± 1.4 dB postpump; p < 0.0001). Mean signal intensity reduction at each speed showed an inverse relationship between speed and relative reduction in signal intensity. Conclusion Contrast microsphere transit through a CF-VAD within a MCL resulted in significant reduction in signal intensity, consistent with destruction within the pump. This was evident at all CF-VAD pump speeds but relative signal drop was inversely proportional to pump speed.