Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamics of two antiparallel TCP connections on an asymmetric link

Data Pendulum [1] designates the packet backlog switch from one side of a bottleneck link to the other in presence of two antiparallel TCP connections. This paper completes the explanation of the Data Pendulum dynamics by elucidating on which side the backlog grows, while identifying the relevant parameters in the process. We also explain why and when the data backlog may switch sides without any packet loss. We propose a model for the dynamics of antiparallel TCP connections that effectively explains the throughput observed in real conditions. Moreover, the model is applicable to a more realistic case in which buffers are dimensioned in packets rather than bytes, the case that previous models could not capture.
Course of Body Weight From Hospitalization to Exit From Cardiac Rehabilitation

INTRODUCTION: Overweight is highly prevalent among cardiac rehabilitation (CR) participants. The purpose of this study was to assess the course of body weight change after an acute coronary event, from hospitalization through completion of CR. METHODS: Body weight was measured inhospital at the time of admission for the index cardiac event (hospitalization), at CR entry, and at exit from CR. RESULTS: The study population consisted of 181 patients who entered into outpatient CR and completed up to 36 sessions. The average age, weight, and body mass index at baseline were 65.2 ± 10.9 years, 85.2 ± 16.2 kg, and 29.6 ± 4.4, respectively. Body weight decreased from hospitalization to CR entry (2.5 ± 3.0 kg) and from CR entry to CR exit (2.4 ± 4.3 kg) (P < .86). The mean total weight loss from hospitalization to CR exit was 4.8 ± 4.8 kg. Forty-nine overweight individuals attended 4 behavioral weight loss sessions during CR. Compared with participants who did not, behavioral weight loss classes attendees lost more weight from hospital admission to CR exit (8.1 ± 4.4 vs 3.6 ± 4.4 kg) and during CR (5.6 ± 4.1 vs 1.2 ± 3.8 kg) (both, P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac patients lose significant weight between hospitalization and CR entry. Nearly half of the total weight loss that patients experienced from hospitalization to CR exit occurred prior to CR entry. Overall, overweight individuals lose nearly 5 kg or 6% of their weight. Our results suggest that a behavioral weight loss intervention delivered through CR helps sustain weight loss observed during the early convalescence period prior to CR entry and promotes weight loss during CR.
Identification of an RNA element for specific coordination of A‐to‐I RNA editing on HTR2C pre‐mRNA

Adenosine‐to‐Inosine (A‐to‐I) RNA editing is an intracellular mechanism in which inosine is specifically substituted against adenosine by the action of adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs). Serotonin 2C receptor (HTR2C) is encoded through combinatorial A‐to‐I RNA editing at recoding sites (A – E site) on its pre‐mRNA. Although the efficiency of RNA editing at particular sites is known to be critical for modulating the serotonin signaling, the mechanistic details of site‐specific editing on HTR2C pre‐mRNA are not fully understood. Toward complete understanding of this mechanism, we discovered an RNA element, which coordinates site‐specific RNA editing on HTR2C pre‐mRNA by an in vitro editing assay and secondary structural analysis of mutant HTR2C RNA fragments. Our results showed that HTR2C pre‐mRNA forms a characteristic structure, which was restricted by the internal loop and Watson–Crick base‐pair interaction on site E, for intrinsic editing. We suggest that the internal loop would contribute toward adjusting the relative distance and/or geometry between the editing sites and the scaffold for ADAR.
Managing information in law firms: changes and challenges

Introduction. Data, information and knowledge together constitute a vital business asset for every organization that enables every business activity, every business process and every business decision. The global legal industry is facing unprecedented change, which inevitably creates challenges for individual law firms. These global changes affect law firms' business as well as information environments. Method. Qualitative interview-based empirical research was conducted with partners and practice managers in law firms in Australia, South Africa and the United States of America, to investigate the changes in the legal industry, the challenges subsequently faced by law firms, and how these challenges are being addressed. Analysis. The interview transcripts were thematically analysed, supported by the NVivo10 qualitative analysis software. Results. The legal sector, one of the most data, information and knowledge intensive industries, is currently undergoing unprecedented change resulting in numerous challenges for law firms that are creating increased pressure to be more effective and efficient. Conclusion. The findings show that significant improvement to law firms' business performance can be driven by overcoming barriers to information asset management such as lack of executive awareness, justification, business governance, leadership and management, as well as ineffective tools. This paper recommends the steps that law firms can take to overcome these barriers.
Effect of Annealing in Ar/H2 Environment on Chemical Vapor Deposition-Grown Graphene Transferred With Poly (Methyl Methacrylate)

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is widely used for transferring chemical vapor deposition grown graphene. The residue of PMMA after the transfer degrades the electronic properties of the graphene, and the complete removal of PMMA has been a challenging issue. Annealing in Ar/H2 gas flow has been commonly adopted to remove the PMMA residue. We studied the effect of annealing on graphene in the wide temperature range of 350-800 °C using Ar/H2 forming gas, systematically. The conductivity was increased at moderate temperatures, but decreased at excessive temperatures higher than 650 °C. On the other hand, the PMMA residue was not removed effectively in all temperature ranges, judging from Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. By analyzing Raman spectroscopic data, chemisorption of PMMA residue on graphene was confirmed.
Acquisition of Germ Plasm Accelerates Vertebrate Evolution

Tangling Evolutionary Trees Evolutionary rates tend to vary among taxa and may result in phylogenetic trees that do not reflect the true relationships among taxa, depending on the sequences input into the analysis. Examining vertebrate trees, Evans et al. (p. 200) demonstrate that differences in evolutionary rates, leading to phylogenetic distortions, are correlated with the mechanisms underlying germ cell formation. Evolutionary rate is faster in cases where germ cells are established by maternal molecules (“preformed”) relative to those that are induced during embryogenesis (“epigenesis”) in slowly evolving and, presumably, ancestral lineages. For example, frogs evolve more rapidly than salamanders, and teleosts more rapidly than ascipenseriform fishes. Thus, epigenesis constrains the ability of gene regulatory networks to change, with the repeated and convergent evolution of preformation eliminating this constraint. Evolutionary rates are phylogenetically correlated with how germ cells are specified. Primordial germ cell (PGC) specification occurs either by induction from pluripotent cells (epigenesis) or by a cell-autonomous mechanism mediated by germ plasm (preformation). Among vertebrates, epigenesis is basal, whereas germ plasm has evolved convergently across lineages and is associated with greater speciation. We compared protein-coding sequences of vertebrate species that employ preformation with their sister taxa that use epigenesis and demonstrate that genes evolve more rapidly in species containing germ plasm. Furthermore, differences in rates of evolution appear to cause phylogenetic incongruence in protein-coding sequence comparisons between vertebrate taxa. Our results support the hypothesis that germ plasm liberates constraints on somatic development and that enhanced evolvability drives the evolution of germ plasm.
Age and gender classification using modulation cepstrum

This paper proposes using modulation cepstrum coefficients instead of cepstral coefficients for extracting metadata information such as age and gender. These coefficients are extracted by applying discrete cosine transform to a time-sequence of cepstral coefficients. Lower order coefficients of this transformation represent smooth cepstral trajectories over time. Results presented in this paper show that cepstral trajectories corresponding to lower (3-14 Hz) modulation frequencies provide best discrimination. The proposed system achieves 50.2% overall accuracy for this 7-class task while accuracy of human labelers on a subset of evaluation material used in this work is 54.7%.
Polymicrobial Interactions: Impact on Pathogenesis and Human Disease

SUMMARY Microorganisms coexist in a complex milieu of bacteria, fungi, archaea, and viruses on or within the human body, often as multifaceted polymicrobial biofilm communities at mucosal sites and on abiotic surfaces. Only recently have we begun to appreciate the complicated biofilm phenotype during infection; moreover, even less is known about the interactions that occur between microorganisms during polymicrobial growth and their implications in human disease. Therefore, this review focuses on polymicrobial biofilm-mediated infections and examines the contribution of bacterial-bacterial, bacterial-fungal, and bacterial-viral interactions during human infection and potential strategies for protection against such diseases.
rpoB Gene Sequence-Based Identification of Staphylococcus Species

ABSTRACT The complete sequence of rpoB, the gene encoding the beta subunit of RNA polymerase was determined for Staphylococcus saccharolyticus, Staphylococcus lugdunensis, S taphylococcus caprae, and Staphylococcus intermedius and partial sequences were obtained for an additional 27 Staphylococcus species. The complete rpoB sequences varied in length from 3,452 to 3,845 bp and had a 36.8 to 39.2% GC content. The partial sequences had 71.6 to 93.6% interspecies homology and exhibited a 0.08 to 0.8% intraspecific divergence. With a few exceptions, the phylogenetic relationships inferred from the partial rpoB sequences were in agreement with those previously derived from DNA-DNA hybridization studies and analyses of 16S ribosomal DNA gene sequences and partial HSP60 gene sequences. The staphylococcal rpoB sequence database we established enabled us to develop a molecular method for identifying Staphylococcus isolates by PCR followed by direct sequencing of the 751-bp amplicon. In blind tests, this method correctly identified 10 Staphylococcus isolates, and no positive results were obtained with 10 non-Staphylococcus gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial isolates. We propose partial sequencing of the rpoB gene as a new tool for the accurate identification of Staphylococcus isolates.
A Sense of place: Examining music-based tourism and its implications in destination venue placement

Music, and the ability to make it, understand it and interpret it, is one of the characteristics that make us uniquely human. However, when it comes to seeing the performance of live music, there are other variables that come into play when determining where to see a concert. The potential connection between people, music, and a “sense of place” are explored in this examination of music-based tourism. Based on information from journals and related news media, and using parallels to the sports tourism industry, the paper found a distinct connection between humans and music in the context of human development, religion, politics and sporting events, as well as the sense of place created by significant occurrences and music festivals (AC Entertainment, 2011; Cairney, 2010; McCleay, 1997; Wallin, 1991)The literature also suggested that the draw of music-based tourism in cities as well as genre-related variables and venue specific information contributed to decision-making of individuals (Gnuschke & Wallace, 2004; King, 2004; Puterbaugh, 2009). The paper concludes with a proposed research survey to be administered to concert-goers to confirm the information included in the literature
Bovine salmonellosis

Control of bovine salmonellosis 410 Control measures during an outbreak of disease in either calves or adult cattle 410 Preventive measures relating to adult cattle and self-contained herds 411 Other preventive measures related to the purchase of calves 412 Public health aspects 413 Meat and meat products 413 Sick or casualty animals 413 Pre-slaughter treatment, transit and lairage 413 Salmonella in slaughter animals 414 Condemned meat and inedible offal 415 Liquid and solid slaughterhouse waste 415 Salmonella in milk and other dairy products 415 Raw (unpasteurized milk) 415 Humans as a source of contamination 417 Salmonellae in heat-treated, milk dried milk and milk products 417 General remarks 418
Sweeping based Controllable Surface Blending

In this paper, we propose a novel sweeping surface based blending method. A generator defined by the solution of a vector-valued fourth order ordinary differential equation is swept along the two trimlines, which meets the boundary tangent constraints of the primary surfaces at the trimlines. The blending surface generated therefore satisfies both the positional and tangential continuity constraints at the interfaces between the primary surfaces and the blending surface. Since the vector-valued shape control parameters are embedded in the blending surface, its shape can be effectively controlled and manipulated by adjusting these vector-valued shape control parameters. Several surface blending examples are given to demonstrate the applications of the proposed method.
SIAMESE-RELATED1 Is Regulated Posttranslationally and Participates in Repression of Leaf Growth under Moderate Drought1[OPEN]

The CDK inhibitory protein SMR1 is regulated by protein turnover under favorable conditions and is induced by ethylene to fine-tune cell cycle arrest under drought. The plant cell cycle is tightly regulated by factors that integrate endogenous cues and environmental signals to adapt plant growth to changing conditions. Under drought, cell division in young leaves is blocked by an active mechanism, reducing the evaporative surface and conserving energy resources. The molecular function of cyclin-dependent kinase-inhibitory proteins (CKIs) in regulating the cell cycle has already been well studied, but little is known about their involvement in cell cycle regulation under adverse growth conditions. In this study, we show that the transcript of the CKI gene SIAMESE-RELATED1 (SMR1) is quickly induced under moderate drought in young Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) leaves. Functional characterization further revealed that SMR1 inhibits cell division and affects meristem activity, thereby restricting the growth of leaves and roots. Moreover, we demonstrate that SMR1 is a short-lived protein that is degraded by the 26S proteasome after being ubiquitinated by a Cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligase. Consequently, overexpression of a more stable variant of the SMR1 protein leads to a much stronger phenotype than overexpression of the native SMR1. Under moderate drought, both the SMR1 transcript and SMR1 protein accumulate. Despite this induction, smr1 mutants do not show overall tolerance to drought stress but do show less growth inhibition of young leaves under drought. Surprisingly, the growth-repressive hormone ethylene promotes SMR1 induction, but the classical drought hormone abscisic acid does not.
Frequency response of a liquid interface segment actuated using AC EWOD

This work deals with the study of a liquid interface segment as a micromechanical resonator. For free droplet oscillations, reducing the size of the oscillating droplet increases its natural frequency of oscillation. Reducing the size of the droplet for practical applications is, however, limited by issues like evaporation and deposition accuracy. Thus, we investigated local actuation by oscillating a small segment of a liquid interface using AC electrowetting with patterned inplane electrodes. Scaling the “interface length” of an oscillating liquid interface should maximize the resonant frequency. However, we observed overdamped interface oscillations for frequencies 10Hz-1 KHz due to losses and damping mechanisms at small scale dimensions. We also observed contact line patterns pertaining to higher modes upon actuation with higher voltage. This study helps to understand the dynamics of oscillating liquid interface which governs speed and efficiency of liquid switches, liquid lens, lab-on-chip devices and several other applications.
Parallel Computer Architecture: A Hardware/Software Approach

The most exciting development in parallel computer architecture is the convergence of traditionally disparate approaches on a common machine structure. This book explains the forces behind this convergence of shared-memory, message-passing, data parallel, and data-driven computing architectures. It then examines the design issues that are critical to all parallel architecture across the full range of modern design, covering data access, communication performance, coordination of cooperative work, and correct implementation of useful semantics. It not only describes the hardware and software techniques for addressing each of these issues but also explores how these techniques interact in the same system. Examining architecture from an application-driven perspective, it provides comprehensive discussions of parallel programming for high performance and of workload-driven evaluation, based on understanding hardware-software interactions. * synthesizes a decade of research and development for practicing engineers, graduate students, and researchers in parallel computer architecture, system software, and applications development * presents in-depth application case studies from computer graphics, computational science and engineering, and data mining to demonstrate sound quantitative evaluation of design trade-offs * describes the process of programming for performance, including both the architecture-independent and architecture-dependent aspects, with examples and case-studies * illustrates bus-based and network-based parallel systems with case studies of more than a dozen important commercial designs Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Parallel Programs 3 Programming for Performance 4 Workload-Driven Evaluation 5 Shared Memory Multiprocessors 6 Snoop-based Multiprocessor Design 7 Scalable Multiprocessors 8 Directory-based Cache Coherence 9 Hardware-Software Tradeoffs 10 Interconnection Network Design 11 Latency Tolerance 12 Future Directions APPENDIX A Parallel Benchmark Suites
Muscle oxygenation and EMG activity during isometric exercise in children

Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the time-course of and the relationships between muscle oxygenation, blood volume and myoelectrical manifestations during isometric exercise in children. Twelve healthy children aged 12.5 ± 1.2 years (mean ± s) performed an isometric knee extension at 50% of their maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) until exhaustion to assess endurance time (limit time, T lim). Changes in muscle oxygenation and blood volume were assessed by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The root mean square (RMS) amplitude and the mean power frequency (MPF) from electromyogram (EMG) signals were obtained, as NIRS parameters, from the vastus lateralis. Mean T lim was 117 ± 34 s. The muscle oxygenation and blood volume curves decreased immediately at the beginning of exercise. Maximal deoxygenation occurred at 50% T lim, and fell by 76.9% from the resting value. Similarly, minimal blood volume was observed at 50% T lim; it reached a plateau that lasted until the end of exercise. The kinetics of the MPF and RMS curves were inversely related to time. At the last set of exercises (after 75% T lim), a steeper RMS curve and an abrupt decrease in the MPF curve were observed. Significant correlations (r) between muscle oxygenation, blood volume, root mean square amplitude and mean power frequency were observed, which ranged from 0.72 to 0.99. These findings suggest that the fatigue resulting from sustained isometric exercise is related to a decrease in oxygenation and blood volume.
Cognitive Adaptation to Stressful Events During Pregnancy And Postpartum: Development and Testing of the CASE Instrument

The purpose of this article is to describe the development and testing during pregnancy and postpartum of a new instrument, the Cognitive Adaptation to Stressful Events Scale (CASE). The conceptual framework for the CASE is based on Taylor's theory of cognitive adaptation to threatening events using the dimensions of meaning, mastery, and self-esteem. A convenience sample of 202 primigravida women completed the CASE at six assessment points: 10 to 12, 20 to 22, and 30 to 32 weeks of pregnancy and 1 to 2, 8, and 14 weeks postpartum. Regression analysis conducted with CASE scores at each of the assessment points in relation to psychological symptom distress as measured with the SCL-90R Global Severity Index (GSI) indicated a strong relationship during each time period. Although replication with multiethnic, high-risk pregnancy and clinically depressed groups is needed, the CASE is a promising tool for examining the cognitive adaptation process occurring during pregnancy and postpartum.
An imaging systen based on a single MEMS scanner and photodetector

Design and implementation of an imaging system based on a single Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) electrothermal scanner and a single photodetector is described in this paper. The 2-axis electrothermal driven MEMS scanner is used to scan the demagnified object across the photodetector. A pinhole is placed in front of the photodetector for spatially filtering the light, and defines the pixel size of the image. An image is constructed by assembling readings from the photodetector corresponding to scan position of the MEMS scanner. As this imaging setup only employs one detector, the aim of this research is to greatly reduce the cost of traditional configuration where large photodetector array is used, especially for long wavelength applications, such as infrared and terahertz. The preliminary optical setup has been realized and some image results have been obtained.
Proposal of a system for visualizing temporal changes in impressions from tweets

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a Web application system for visualizing Twitter users based on temporal changes in the impressions received from the tweets posted by the users on Twitter. Design/methodology/approach – The system collects a specified user’s tweets posted during a specified period using Twitter API, rates each tweet based on three distinct impressions using an impression mining system, and then generates pie and line charts to visualize results of the previous processing using Google Chart API. Findings – Because there are more news articles featuring somber topics than those featuring cheerful topics, the impression mining system, which uses impression lexicons created from a newspaper database, is considered to be more effective for analyzing negative tweets. Research limitations/implications – The system uses Twitter API to collect tweets from Twitter. This suggests that the system cannot collect tweets of the users who maintain private timelines. According to our ques.