Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Laparoscopic orchiopexy for intra-abdominal testes-a single institution review.

OBJECTIVE To report success, complication, and atrophy rates, as well as cost analysis and surgeon preference, for standard laparoscopic versus laparoscopic Fowler-Stephens (FS) approaches to intra-abdominal testes. PATIENTS AND METHODS The records of children who underwent laparoscopic orchiopexy for impalpable testes at our institution were reviewed. Two groups were assessed: Group 1, who underwent a standard laparoscopic orchiopexy; and Group 2, who underwent either a single-stage or two-stage FS orchiopexy. Success was defined as an intrascrotal testis without atrophy. Cost analysis was performed by obtaining operating room charges for the procedures. Surgeon preference was evaluated by calculating the number of each type of orchiopexy performed. RESULTS From 1998 to 2005, 61 laparoscopic orchiopexies were performed on 46 patients. In Group 1, 31 orchiopexies were performed on 22 patients. In Group 2, 30 orchiopexies were performed in 26 patients. Eight orchiopexies were performed on 7 patients in a single stage, whereas 22 orchiopexies in 19 patients were performed in two stages. Two patients underwent both unilateral FS and laparoscopic orchiopexy. Success rates for Groups 1 and 2 were 96.7% and 83.3%, respectively. There were three complications in Group 1 (9.7%) and nine complications in Group 2 (30%). Atrophy rates for the two groups were 6.5% (2/31) and 16.7% (4/24), respectively. The average operating room cost for a standard laparoscopic approach was $3686, $3604 for the first stage and $3909 for the second stage of a two-stage FS approach, and $3785 for a single-stage FS approach. CONCLUSIONS Data from this series suggest that completing a laparoscopic orchiopexy in a single operation without ligating the testicular vessels has comparable, if not better, success rates to those of FS procedures, while reducing cost and potentially reducing complications. Outcomes between single- and two-stage FS approaches are similar, but the former can be accomplished at half the cost.
A varactorless technique for tuning LC oscillators based on loop gain adjustment

A novel technique for tuning LC oscillators is introduced in this paper. The proposed technique provides a much wider tuning range than conventional methods. It has the advantage of not relying on the value of any resistive/reactive element to achieve tunability, hence tuning ranges are no longer limited by component values realizable by technology. The technique can be extended to other applications requiring programmability of some system poles. A current-tuned LC oscillator is implemented in 0.13-mum technology to verify the technique introduced herein. The oscillator operates at 2.8 GHz, has a tuning range of 71% extendable to 98%, and a maximum power dissipation of 6 mW.
A Changing-Chart Symplectic Algorithm for Rigid Bodies and Other Hamiltonian Systems on Manifolds

We revive the elementary idea of constructing symplectic integrators for Hamiltonian flows on manifolds by covering the manifold with the charts of an atlas, implementing the algorithm in each chart (thus using coordinates) and switching among the charts whenever a coordinate singularity is approached. We show that this program can be implemented successfully by using a splitting algorithm if the Hamiltonian is the sum H1+H2 of two (or more) integrable Hamiltonians. Profiting from integrability, we compute exactly the flows of H1 and H2 in each chart and thus compute the splitting algorithm on the manifold by means of its representative in any chart. This produces a symplectic algorithm on the manifold which possesses an interpolating Hamiltonian, and hence it has excellent properties of conservation of energy. We exemplify the method for a point constrained to the sphere and for a symmetric rigid body under the influence of positional potential forces.
TOM: Topology oriented maintenance in sparse Wireless Sensor Networks

The physical number of sensor nodes constitutes a major cost factor for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) deployments. Hence, a natural goal is to minimize the number of sensor nodes to be deployed, while still maintaining the desired properties of the WSN. However, sparse networks even while connected, usually suffer from topology irregularities that negatively impact the network lifetime and responsiveness, i.e., sensor data delivery reliability and latency. In addition, sensor node failures easily complicate/enforce/aggravate these irregularities. Valuable efforts have been conducted to discover topology specific anomalies such as coverage holes or critical/bottleneck nodes. Unfortunately, these efforts suffer from at least one of the following drawbacks: (a) They are centralized and consequently inefficient in large-scale networks, (b) they are tailored to one class of anomalies, or (c) do not propose how to remedy the identified anomaly. In this paper, we focus on sparse WSN which usually show varied topology irregularities and propose an in-network and localized strategy that efficiently (i) discovers generic topology irregularities, and (ii) identifies locations for minimal number of new augmented sensor deployments to remedy topology irregularities and sustain the desired operational requirements. We show the effectiveness and efficiency of the solution through a set of extensive simulations.
Cost Effective Fabrication of a Solar PV Panel for LED Lighting

Solar cells are very fragile so they need a encapsulant and encasing for protection and well functioning. However, this makes the panel expensive. Utilizing locally available materials and following the new cost effective lamination process, some solar PV panels are fabricated. This process is used for developing some solar panels for examples 2 W, 5 W and 15 W. These panels are sufficient for LED lighting. All panels are experimented and tested indoor as well as outdoor. Profilab software is used to log outdoor I-V curve data and flux meter is used to measure indoor LED luminance. All the functionality of PV panel like optical properties, electrical insulation, mechanical strength, physical insulation, physical protection are checked. It can be concluded that this cost effective PV panel can be locally prepared with cheaper and simpler technique and suitable for LED lighting. Keywords— encapsulation, LED light, Photovoltaic (PV) panel, polymer, Simulator.
Regression Test Selection and Product Line System Testing

Context: Software product lines (SPL) are used in industry to achieve more efficient software development. To test a SPL is complex and costly and often becomes a bottleneck in the product line organization. Objective: This research aims to develop and evaluate strategies for improving system test selection in a SPL. Method: Initially industrial practices and research in both SPL testing and traditional regression test selection have been surveyed. Two systematic literature reviews, two industrial exploratory surveys and one industrial evaluation of a pragmatic test selection approach have been conducted. Results: There is a lack of industrial evaluations as well as of useful solutions, both regarding regression test selection and SPL testing. Test selection is an activity of varying scope and preconditions, strongly dependent on the context in which it is applied. Conclusions: Continued research will be done in close cooperation with industry with the goal to define a tool for visualizing system test coverage in a product line and the delta between a product and the covered part of the product line.
The Nature and Effects of Middle School Mathematics Teacher Learning Experiences

Background/Context Teachers’ mathematical knowledge has been the subject of recent federal policy, public programs, and scholarly attention. Numerous reports identify a need for improving this knowledge, and total federal spending on content-focused math and science professional development during the period 2002–2007 is estimated to be above $1.2 billion. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In this study, we investigated the patterns in and the effect of professional development in the area of middle school mathematics. We focus in particular on professional development thought to influence teachers’ mathematical knowledge, and use a measure of such knowledge to gauge potential growth in a sample of teachers included in a national survey. Research Design We surveyed a nationally representative sample of roughly 1000 teachers in both 2005 and 2006 and obtained responses from 461 middle school teachers at both time points. The survey measured their mathematical knowledge for teaching at both time points and also inquired about their professional learning opportunities during the intervening year. Data Collection and Analysis We used survey data both to describe the nature of teachers’ learning opportunities during 2005-2006 and to associate participation in these learning opportunities with teachers’ 2005 knowledge scores as well as other characteristics. We also linked these learning opportunities to observed growth in teacher knowledge. Findings/Results Results indicate that extensive effort and expenditures have not dramatically transformed teacher professional development practices as compared to past descriptions, in that learning opportunities reported by teachers are still typically short and fragmented. However, there are indications that teachers’ mathematical knowledge might have improved somewhat during this time period. Conclusions/Recommendations Results from this study suggest a very mixed picture of the middle school mathematics professional development system. Effects on teacher knowledge are modest, and critics might claim that money would be better spent in hiring or induction programs.
NADPH Oxidase in the Renal Medulla Causes Oxidative Stress and Contributes to Salt-Sensitive Hypertension in Dahl S Rats

Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) rats exhibit increased renal medullary oxidative stress and blood pressure salt-sensitivity compared with consomic, salt-resistant SS-13BN rats, despite highly similar genetic backgrounds. The present study examined potential sources of renal medullary superoxide in prehypertensive SS rats fed a 0.4% NaCl diet by assessing activity and protein levels of superoxide producing and scavenging enzymes. Superoxide production was nearly doubled in SS rats compared with SS-13BN rats as determined by urinary 8-isoprostane excretion and renal medullary oxy-ethidium microdialysate levels. Medullary superoxide production in tissue homogenates was greater in SS rats, and the NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenylene iodonium preferentially reduced SS levels to those found in SS-13BN rats. Dinitrophenol, a mitochondrial uncoupler, eliminated the remaining superoxide production in both strains, whereas inhibition of xanthine oxidase, NO synthase, and cycloxygenase had no effect. l-arginine, NO synthase, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase activities between SS and SS-13BN rats did not differ. Chronic blood pressure responses to a 4% NaCl diet were then determined in the presence or absence of the NADPH oxidase inhibitor apocynin (3.5 &mgr;g/kg per minute), chronically delivered directly into the renal medulla. Apocynin infusion reduced renal medullary interstitial superoxide from 1059±130 to 422±80 (oxyethidium fluorescence units) and mean arterial pressure from 175±4 to 157±6 mm Hg in SS rats, whereas no effects on either were observed in the SS-13BN. We conclude that excess renal medullary superoxide production in SS rats contributes to salt-induced hypertension, and NADPH oxidase is the major source of the excess superoxide.
Scientific computing meets big data technology: An astronomy use case

Scientific analyses commonly compose multiple single-process programs into a dataflow. An end-to-end dataflow of single-process programs is known as a many-task application. Typically, tools from the HPC software stack are used to parallelize these analyses. In this work, we investigate an alternate approach that uses Apache Spark - a modern big data platform - to parallelize many-task applications. We present Kira, a flexible and distributed astronomy image processing toolkit using Apache Spark. We then use the Kira toolkit to implement a Source Extractor application for astronomy images, called Kira SE. With Kira SE as the use case, we study the programming flexibility, dataflow richness, scheduling capacity and performance of Apache Spark running on the EC2 cloud. By exploiting data locality, Kira SE achieves a 3.7 χ speedup over an equivalent C program when analyzing a 1TB dataset using 512 cores on the Amazon EC2 cloud. Furthermore, we show that by leveraging software originally designed for big data infrastructure, Kira SE achieves competitive performance to the C implementation running on the NERSC Edison supercomputer. Our experience with Kira indicates that emerging Big Data platforms such as Apache Spark are a performant alternative for many-task scientific applications.
Occupational Labour Demand and the Sources of Non-Neutral Technical Change

This article introduces a two-step empirical approach for examining both the nature and sources of non-neutral technical change across multiple occupations. First, conventional labour-demand parameter estimates and unbiased tests for neutrality are obtained in the context of a flexible cost system. The resulting input-specific indices of technical change, unconstrained with respect to time path, facilitate subsequent evaluation of proposed sources. In our application to employment decisions of airline firms, we find labour-saving technical change that is non-neutral across occupations. We also document occupation-specific responses to aircraft technology adoption, route system developments and an unprecedented range of technical change elements.
Electrical braking with improved energy regeneration in induction machine drive

Electric traction can be considered as one of the promising technologies towards significant improvements in performance & efficiency of vehicle, energy utilization and polluting emissions. The induction machine (IM) is usually selected as work horse of traction industry because of its most suitable torque-speed characteristics. In the present context the regenerative braking is considered to be a promising aspect so as to restore back the energy wasted during the braking process. An analysis of the IM torque-speed characteristics shows that it is possible to obtain higher braking torque with more power being fed back in the generating mode in contrast to the braking mode. Thus a new simplified methodology has been proposed to extract the power from the wheels into the battery by operating the IM in the generating mode even while the brakes are applied.
When Ecosystems Collide: Making Systems of Systems Work

The objective of this research is to identify issues that arise when software systems from different ecosystems are composed into a system of systems. Whether it is an explicit, managed ecosystem or the implicit ecosystem of collaborators, competitors, and users that surrounds any organization, the community of organizations has momentum in a particular direction. When a system of systems is composed using systems from each of several ecosystems the differences in communities can prevent satisfactory integration. We examine the case of a portion of the infrastructure needed to support automated driving. We use Maier's criteria that identify challenges for systems of systems as starting points for investigations into differences among ecosystems. We found points of commonality that tie together the ecosystems include use of common standards, membership by large organizations in multiple ecosystems, and influences of the outside business environment. We also found points of variation including whether the systems have compatible real-time expectations, terms of licenses, frequency of new releases, and architectural assumptions. Developers of a system of systems benefit from being aware of the similarities and differences among the ecosystems from which their systems originate because both the similarities and differences help developers anticipate the evolutionary trajectories of the individual systems.
Testing containment of conjunctive queries under functional and inclusion dependencies

We consider the problem of optimizing conjunctive queries in the presence of inclusion and functional dependencies. We show that the problem of containment (and hence those of equivalence and non-minimality) is in NP when either (a) there are no functional dependencies or (b) the set of dependencies is what we call key-based. These results assume that infinite databases are allowed. If only finite databases are allowed, new containments may arise, as we illustrate by an example. We also prove a "compactness" theorem that shows that no such examples can exist for case (b).
Predictors of Student Performance with Emphasis on Gender and Ethnic Determinants.

Une etude a ete entreprise aupres des 1042 etudiants qui ont suivi, au moins durant un trimestre, les cours de l'Ecole Superieure des Bibliotheques et des Sciences de l'Information (GSLIS) de l'UCLa (Universite de Californie, Los Angeles) entre 1972 et 1987: 28 variables etaient codees pour 120 non-diplomes et un echantillon indicatif de 240 diplomes. Les caracteristiques retenues etaient notamment: le sexe, l'origine ethnique, l'âge, l'institution de 1er cycle dont ils venaient et leur specialisation. Les resultats obtenus se revelent tout a fait semblables a ceux trouves precedemment dans des ecoles du meme type tant pour la composition de la population etudiante que des previsions possibles sur leurs performances. Les minorites ethniques, les etrangers et les hommes constituent la majorite de ceux qui echouent. Les resultats sont discutes en terme d'oppportunites de carriere et d'engagement dans la profession
Similarity of position frequency matrices for transcription factor binding sites

MOTIVATION Transcription-factor binding sites (TFBS) in promoter sequences of higher eukaryotes are commonly modeled using position frequency matrices (PFM). The ability to compare PFMs representing binding sites is especially important for de novo sequence motif discovery, where it is desirable to compare putative matrices to one another and to known matrices. RESULTS We describe a PFM similarity quantification method based on product multinomial distributions, demonstrate its ability to identify PFM similarity and show that it has a better false positive to false negative ratio compared to existing methods. We grouped TFBS frequency matrices from two libraries into matrix families and identified the matrices that are common and unique to these libraries. We identified similarities and differences between the skeletal-muscle-specific and non-muscle-specific frequency matrices for the binding sites of Mef-2, Myf, Sp-1, SRF and TEF of Wasserman and Fickett. We further identified known frequency matrices and matrix families that were strongly similar to the matrices given by Wasserman and Fickett. We provide methodology and tools to compare and query libraries of frequency matrices for TFBSs. AVAILABILITY Software is available to use over the Web at http://rulai.cshl. edu/MatCompare SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Database and clustering statistics, matrix families and representatives are available at http://rulai.cshl. edu/MatCompare/Supplementary.
The Highly Conserved Bacterial RNase YbeY Is Essential in Vibrio cholerae, Playing a Critical Role in Virulence, Stress Regulation, and RNA Processing

YbeY, a highly conserved protein, is an RNase in E. coli and plays key roles in both processing of the critical 3′ end of 16 S rRNA and in 70 S ribosome quality control under stress. These central roles account for YbeY's inclusion in the postulated minimal bacterial genome. However, YbeY is not essential in E. coli although loss of ybeY severely sensitizes it to multiple physiological stresses. Here, we show that YbeY is an essential endoribonuclease in Vibrio cholerae and is crucial for virulence, stress regulation, RNA processing and ribosome quality control, and is part of a core set of RNases essential in most representative pathogens. To understand its function, we analyzed the rRNA and ribosome profiles of a V. cholerae strain partially depleted for YbeY and other RNase mutants associated with 16 S rRNA processing; our results demonstrate that YbeY is also crucial for 16 S rRNA 3′ end maturation in V. cholerae and that its depletion impedes subunit assembly into 70 S ribosomes. YbeY's importance to V. cholerae pathogenesis was demonstrated by the complete loss of mice colonization and biofilm formation, reduced cholera toxin production, and altered expression levels of virulence-associated small RNAs of a V. cholerae strain partially depleted for YbeY. Notably, the ybeY genes of several distantly related pathogens can fully complement an E. coli ΔybeY strain under various stress conditions, demonstrating the high conservation of YbeY's activity in stress regulation. Taken together, this work provides the first comprehensive exploration of YbeY's physiological role in a human pathogen, showing its conserved function across species in essential cellular processes.
Loop Fusion with Outer Loop Shifting for High-level Synthesis

: Loop fusion is often necessary before successful application of high-level synthesis (HLS). Although promising loop optimization tools based on the polyhedral model such as Pluto have been proposed, they sometimes cannot fuse loops into fully nested loops. This paper proposes an e ﬀ ective loop transformation called Outer Loop Shifting (OLS) that facilitates successful loop fusion. With HLS, we found that the OLS generates hardware with 25% less execution cycles on average than that only by Pluto for four benchmark programs.
On the limiting behavior of distributed optimization strategies

Motivated by recent developments in the context of adaptation over networks, this work establishes useful results about the limiting global behavior of diffusion and consensus strategies for the solution of distributed optimization problems. It is known that the choice of combination policies has a direct bearing on the convergence and performance of distributed solutions. This article reveals what aspects of the combination policies determine the nature of the Pareto-optimal solution and how close the distributed solution gets to it. The results suggest useful constructive procedures to control the convergence behavior of distributed strategies and to design effective combination procedures.
VILEEAR : Detection of Drive by Download attack on Malicious Web Pages

Internet is a platform which is mostly used to spread malicious software and viruses on the network. The drive by download (DBD) is most successful and popular attack invented by web site attacker till date. Drive by download attack enables the victims to click coded malicious links and the browser will be redirected to malicious web sites to exploit vulnerabilities, and also it installs software from internet that can be harmful for victim`s machine. Script code embedded in plug-in are commonly used by attacker to execute drive-by download attack which is capable to exploit victim`s system vulnerabilities. Thus it is most challenging and important to find solutions that will detect and mitigate DBD attack. To Detect Drive by download attack is biggest challenge since there is tremendous growth of number of pages hosted on the web. So it is tedious to find small portion of malware network from web and detect whether the web page is harmful or not. In this paper we have proposed an enhanced mechanism called VILEEAR to detect Drive-by download attack. This system will locate and thoroughly analyze the web pages in malware distribution network (MDN) to detect DBD attack. The system will work like a supervised learning process for finding malicious web page in an MDN and will keep on improving the process to detect DBD attack after each iteration.