Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transaction Management Issues in Web Service-oriented Electronic Commerce Systems: Performance Evaluation

The use of service-oriented technologies has been used increasingly to speed up the application process and respond to changing business needs for many e-commerce systems. However, current e-commerce transaction services are poor at processing data access conflicts in a timely manner. The different timely data access for e-commerce applications should be considered with concurrency control mechanisms. In this paper, we study the concurrency control problem among interleaved web service transactions under differentiated real-time demands. We propose a new method called two-phase locking with fairness principles (2PL-FP), which resolves the concurrent data access for both real-time and non-real-time support operations. The design issue aims to meet the deadline requirements of real-time transactions and minimize the response time of non-real-time transactions in the web service and service-oriented computing environment. Simulation results show that our method can achieve a significant performance improvement compared to current approaches.
Expansion of immunoglobulin-secreting cells and defects in B cell tolerance in Rag-dependent immunodeficiency

The contribution of B cells to the pathology of Omenn syndrome and leaky severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) has not been previously investigated. We have studied a mut/mut mouse model of leaky SCID with a homozygous Rag1 S723C mutation that impairs, but does not abrogate, V(D)J recombination activity. In spite of a severe block at the pro–B cell stage and profound B cell lymphopenia, significant serum levels of immunoglobulin (Ig) G, IgM, IgA, and IgE and a high proportion of Ig-secreting cells were detected in mut/mut mice. Antibody responses to trinitrophenyl (TNP)-Ficoll and production of high-affinity antibodies to TNP–keyhole limpet hemocyanin were severely impaired, even after adoptive transfer of wild-type CD4+ T cells. Mut/mut mice produced high amounts of low-affinity self-reactive antibodies and showed significant lymphocytic infiltrates in peripheral tissues. Autoantibody production was associated with impaired receptor editing and increased serum B cell–activating factor (BAFF) concentrations. Autoantibodies and elevated BAFF levels were also identified in patients with Omenn syndrome and leaky SCID as a result of hypomorphic RAG mutations. These data indicate that the stochastic generation of an autoreactive B cell repertoire, which is associated with defects in central and peripheral checkpoints of B cell tolerance, is an important, previously unrecognized, aspect of immunodeficiencies associated with hypomorphic RAG mutations.
Improved Output Jitter Calculation for Compositional Performance Analysis of Distributed Systems

Compositional performance analysis iteratively alternates local scheduling analysis techniques and output event model propagation between system components to enable performance analysis of heterogeneous distributed systems. In spite of its high scalability and adaptability, the compositional approach may suffer from overestimated results compared with other system performance verification techniques. The main reason is an incomplete consideration of event sequence correlations. In this paper we present a new technique that improves the output jitter calculation by correlating jitter and response times and offers significantly tighter analysis bounds.
Topic-space based setup of a neural network for theme identification of highly imperfect transcriptions

This paper presents a method for speech analytics that integrates topic-space based representation into a feed-forward artificial neural network (FFANN), working as a document classifier. The proposed method consists in configuring the FFANN's topology and in initializing the weights according to a previously estimated topic-space. Setup based on thematic priors is expected to improve the efficiency of the FFANN's weight optimization process, while speeding-up the training process and improving the classification accuracy. This method is evaluated on a spoken dialogue categorization task which is composed of customer-agent dialogues from the call-centre of Paris Public Transportation Company. Results show the interest of the proposed setup method, with a gain of more than 4 points in terms of classification accuracy, compared to the baseline. Moreover, experiments highlight that performance is weakly dependent to FFANN's topology with the LDA-based configuration, in comparison to classical empirical setup.
The spatial distributions of spectral intensity and temperature in the cross section of an arc column between separating Pd contacts

The authors have measured the distributions of spectral intensities of PdI-447 nm and PdI-540 nm and the distribution of the temperature in the cross section of a Pd arc column near the cathode contact between separating Pd contacts in circuits of DC 50 V/3.3-5.0 A. As a result, the distributions of spectral intensities in the cross section of an arc column were not symmetrical from ignition to extinguishing of a breaking arc, and the cross sectional area of an arc column became large past the middle of a breaking arc. The total amounts of measured spectral intensities in case of long arc decreased slightly or remained constant in the case of short arc past the middle of a breaking arc. These intensities were greater in the case of a long arc than for a short arc. The peak value of the distributions of spectral intensities in the cross section of an arc column was strong at the beginning of the breaking arc and became weaker with development of the breaking arc. The peaks were stronger in the case of a long arc than in the case of a short arc. The radial distributions of temperature in the cross section of the arc column were constant. The temperature in the position of the peak value of spectral intensity in the cross section of the arc column rose at the beginning of a breaking arc and remained constant at about 6000 K. The arc duration was long when metal-vapor quantity was large and that metal-vapor density was high between contacts at the beginning of a breaking arc.
Enhanced contractility and decreased beta-adrenergic receptor kinase-1 in mice lacking endogenous norepinephrine and epinephrine.

BACKGROUND Elevated circulating norepinephrine (NE) has been implicated in causing the profound beta-adrenergic receptor (betaAR) downregulation and receptor uncoupling that are characteristic of end-stage human dilated cardiomyopathy, a process mediated in part by increased levels of beta-adrenergic receptor kinase (betaARK1). To explore whether chronic sustained NE stimulation is a primary stimulus that promotes deterioration in cardiac signaling, we characterized a gene-targeted mouse in which activation of the sympathetic nervous system cannot lead to an elevation in plasma NE and epinephrine. METHODS AND RESULTS Gene-targeted mice that lack dopamine beta-hydroxylase (dbh-/-), the enzyme needed to convert dopamine to NE, were created by homologous recombination. In vivo contractile response to the beta1AR agonist dobutamine, measured by a high-fidelity left ventricular micromanometer, was enhanced in mice lacking the dbh gene. In unloaded adult myocytes isolated from dbh-/- mice, basal contractility was significantly increased compared with control cells. Furthermore, the increase in betaAR responsiveness and enhanced cellular contractility were associated with a significant reduction in activity and protein level of betaARK1 and increased high-affinity agonist binding without changes in betaAR density or G-protein levels. CONCLUSIONS Mice that lack the ability to generate NE or epinephrine show increased contractility associated primarily with a decrease in the level of betaARK1 protein and kinase activity. This animal model will be valuable in testing whether NE is required for the pathogenesis of heart failure through mating strategies that cross the dbh-/- mouse into genetically engineered models of heart failure.
A fast compiler for NetKAT

High-level programming languages play a key role in a growing number of networking platforms, streamlining application development and enabling precise formal reasoning about network behavior. Unfortunately, current compilers only handle "local" programs that specify behavior in terms of hop-by-hop forwarding behavior, or modest extensions such as simple paths. To encode richer "global" behaviors, programmers must add extra state -- something that is tricky to get right and makes programs harder to write and maintain. Making matters worse, existing compilers can take tens of minutes to generate the forwarding state for the network, even on relatively small inputs. This forces programmers to waste time working around performance issues or even revert to using hardware-level APIs. This paper presents a new compiler for the NetKAT language that handles rich features including regular paths and virtual networks, and yet is several orders of magnitude faster than previous compilers. The compiler uses symbolic automata to calculate the extra state needed to implement "global" programs, and an intermediate representation based on binary decision diagrams to dramatically improve performance. We describe the design and implementation of three essential compiler stages: from virtual programs (which specify behavior in terms of virtual topologies) to global programs (which specify network-wide behavior in terms of physical topologies), from global programs to local programs (which specify behavior in terms of single-switch behavior), and from local programs to hardware-level forwarding tables. We present results from experiments on real-world benchmarks that quantify performance in terms of compilation time and forwarding table size.
URBAN DEM

The Permanent Scatterers (PS) technique is a powerful operational tool that exploits long series of SAR data for monitoring ground deformations with millimetre accuracy on a high spatial density grid of point-wise targets. The technique has been applied successfully to a number of applications from subsidence and volcano monitoring to slow-landslide detection. Aim of this work is to analyse the location capability of the PS technique, applied to the generation of urban elevation maps. The problem of the univocal identification of the PS position (discarding side lobes) is addressed and an easy and efficient solution is proposed. The results obtained in the Milan site (from ERS and Envisat data coherently combined) allow to appreciate the very high quality of an urban DEM retrieved with the PS technique. The ground level of the city is identified with sub-meter precision, and upper-level targets, where present, reveal the buildings profile. The estimated city street level (ranging ±3m in 16x18km) is then compared with those obtained with the same technique using a descending parallel track and an ascending track.
Development and field assessment of a quantitative PCR for the detection and enumeration of the noxious bloom‐former Anabaena planktonica

Anabaena planktonica is a harmful, bloom‐forming freshwater cyanobacterium, which has arrived recently in New Zealand. In the short time since its incursion (<10 yr), A. planktonica has spread rapidly throughout lakes in the North Island. To date, the identification and enumeration of A. planktonica has been undertaken using light microscopy. There is an urgent demand for a highly sensitive and specific quantitative detection method that can be combined with a high sample processing capability in order to increase sampling frequency. In this study, we sequenced 36 cyanobacterial 16S rRNA genes (partial), complete intergenic transcribed spacers (ITS), and 23S rRNA genes (partial) of fresh‐water cyanobacteria found in New Zealand. The sequences were used to develop an A. planktonica specific TaqMan QPCR assay targeting the long ITS1‐L and the 5′ terminus of the 23S rRNA gene. The QPCR method was linear (R2 = 0.999) over seven orders of magnitude with a lower end sensitivity of approximately five A. planktonica cells in the presence of exogenous DNA. The quantitative PCR (QPCR) method was used to assess the spatial distribution and seasonal population dynamics of A. planktonica from the Lower Karori Reservoir (Wellington, New Zealand) over a five‐month period. The QPCR results were compared directly to microscopic cell counts and found to correlate significantly (95% confidence level) under both bloom and non‐bloom conditions. The current QPCR assay will be an invaluable tool for routine monitoring programs and in research investigating environmental factors that regulate the population dynamics and the blooming of A. planktonica.
Instant Response of Live HeLa Cells to Static Magnetic Field and Its Magnetic Adaptation

We report Static Magnetic Field (SMF) induced altered sub-cellular streaming, which retains even after withdrawal of the field. The observation is statistically validated by differential fluorescence recovery after photo-bleaching (FRAP) studies in presence and absence of SMF, recovery rate being higher in presence of SMF. This instant magneto-sensing by live cells can be explained by inherent diamagnetic susceptibility of cells and alternatively by spin recombination, e.g., by the radical pair mechanism. These arguments are however insufficient to explain the retention of the SMF effect even after field withdrawal. Typically, a relaxation time scale at least of the order of minutes is observed. This long duration of the SMF effect can be explained postulating a field induced coherence that is followed by decoherence after the field withdrawal. A related observation is the emergence of enhanced magnetic susceptibility of cells after magnetic pre-incubation. This implies onset of a new spin equilibrium state as a result of prolonged SMF incubation. Lastly, translation of such altered spin states to a cellular signal that leads to an altered sub-cellular streaming, probable intracellular machineries for this translation being discussed in the text.
An Amplitude Adaptive Notch Filter for Grid Signal Processing

This letter presents an amplitude adaptive notch filtering (AANF) as a tool for grid signal processing and synchronization of distributed generation systems that provide improvement solutions for both grid-connected and stand-alone mode of microgrids. The proposed technique is simple and offers a high degree of immunity and insensitivity to power disturbances, especially when the signal amplitude varies. Since the powerful technique can reduce impact of the amplitude variation of signal, it has a wider range of application and can take the place of the traditional ANF in the microgrids. This technique can also be used in the detection of symmetrical components, harmonics, active power, and reactive power. Theoretical analysis is presented and the performance of the method is evaluated by simulation.
Optimize Multidimensional Arrays Queries with Heterogeneous Replica Method

Multidimensional arrays are commonly used in scientific and engineering applications. The disk layout for the multidimensional arrays will obviously affect the performance of data querying. Homogeneous Replica method are widely used to maintain the data reliability in most of the distributed storage systems and used to improve the data locality in some parallel processing systems. In this paper, we propose a novel method, that is heterogeneous replicas, to makes better use of the replica method to optimize the performance of multidimensional arrays querying. The experimental results shows that heterogeneous replicas method can significantly reduce the overhead of disk I/O for most of the queries. With three heterogeneous replicas, the performance of random generated range queries for multidimensional datasets can be improved for 30% on the average.
New Paradigms in the Pathogenesis of Otitis Media in Children

Acute otitis media (AOM) is a multifactorial disease with a significant socioeconomic impact. The pathogenesis of AOM is attributed to a variety of well-established internal and extrinsic factors. Recent evidence strongly points to bacterial biofilm formation as an important contributor to this disease entity. The nasopharynx is a likely reservoir for infection with subsequent seeding of pathogens to the middle ear via planktonic shedding. Various modalities have been used to directly detect biofilm formation in the middle ear mucosa of children with AOM. Further insights into this disease may lead to new strategies for prevention and treatment.
Speech, Phonological Awareness and Literacy in New Zealand Children with Down Syndrome

Children with Down syndrome (DS) are reported to experience difficulty with spoken and written language which can persist through the lifespan. However, little is known about the spoken and written language profiles of children with DS in the New Zealand social and education environment, and a thorough investigation of these profiles has yet to be conducted. The few controlled interventions to remediate language deficits in children with DS that are reported in the literature typically focus on remediation of a single language domain, with the effectiveness of interventions which integrate spoken and written language goals yet to be explored for this population. The experiments reported in this thesis aim to address these areas of need. The following questions are asked 1) What are the phonological awareness, speech, language and literacy skills of New Zealand children with DS? 2) What are the home and school literacy environments of New Zealand children with DS and how do they support written language development? and 3) What are the immediate and longer term effects of an integrated phonological awareness intervention on enhancing aspects of spoken and written language development in young children with DS? These questions will be addressed through the following chapters. The first experiment (presented in Chapter 2) was conducted in two parts. Part 1 consisted of the screening of the early developing phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and decoding skills of 77 primary school children with DS and revealed considerable variability between participants on all measures. Although some children were able to demonstrate mastery of the phoneme identity and letter knowledge skills, floor effects were also apparent. Data were analysed by age group (5 8 years and 9 14 years) which revealed increased performance with maturation, with older children
Experience-dependent plasticity of layer 2/3 circuits in developing somatosensory neocortex

Experience-dependent plasticity is the adaptability of brain circuits as a result of changes in neural activity, a phenomenon that has been proposed as the neural basis for important brain function in health and disease. The underlying mechanisms of experience-dependent plasticity can take different forms, depending on the organisms and brain areas under investigation. A better understanding of these mechanisms will help to interpret normal brain function as well as to guide therapies for neurological diseases. Mouse vibrissa system offers great experimental advantages to studying experience-dependent plasticity and the underlying molecular mechanisms at different levels. Using sensory experience paradigms of unbalanced whisker activity, we find that sensory experience induces rapid synaptic strengthening at excitatory synapses converged onto single layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons, although the plasticity at these synapses displays remarkable input specificity. Furthermore, we discover that recently potentiated layer 4-2/3 excitatory synapses are labile and subject to activity-dependent weakening in vitro. Calcium-permeable AMPARs (CP-AMPARs) that are sometimes associated with synaptic strengthening are not essential for activity-induced synaptic weakening. Finally, we demonstrate that ongoing sensory experience triggers distinct phases of synaptic plasticity, which are tightly correlated with changes in NMDAR properties and function. Taken together, the results from this thesis show distinct manifestations and mechanisms of how sensory experience modulates synaptic properties and neuronal function that may provide insights into information processing and coding in the neocortex.
N-methyl-D-aspartate excitotoxicity: relationships among plasma membrane potential, Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchange, mitochondrial Ca(2+) overload, and cytoplasmic concentrations of Ca(2+), H(+), and K(+).

A high cytoplasmic Na(+) concentration may contribute to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-induced excitotoxicity by promoting Ca(2+) influx via reverse operation of the Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchanger (NaCaX), but may simultaneously decrease the electrochemical Ca(2+) driving force by depolarizing the plasma membrane (PM). Digital fluorescence microscopy was used to compare the effects of Na(+) versus ions that do not support the NaCaX operation, i.e., N-methyl-D-glucamine(+) or Li(+), on: PM potential; cytoplasmic concentrations of Ca(2+), H(+), and K(+); mitochondrial Ca(2+) storage; and viability of primary cultures of cerebellar granule cells exposed to NMDA receptor agonists. In the presence of Na(+) or Li(+), NMDA depolarized the PM and decreased cytoplasmic pH (pH(C)); in the presence of Li(+), Ca(2+) influx was reduced, mitochondrial Ca(2+) overload did not occur, and the cytoplasm became more acidified than in the presence of Na(+). In the presence of N-methyl-D-glucamine(+), NMDA instantly hyperpolarized the PM, but further changes in PM potential and pH(C) were Ca-dependent. In the absence of Ca(2+), hyperpolarization persisted, pH(C) was decreasing very slowly, K(+) was retained in the cytoplasm, and cerebellar granule cells survived the challenge; in the presence of Ca(2+), pH(C) dropped rapidly, the K(+) concentration gradient across the PM began to collapse as the PM began to depolarize, and Ca(2+) influx and excitotoxicity greatly increased. These results indicate that the dominant, very likely excitotoxic, component of NMDA-induced Ca(2+) influx is mediated by reverse NaCaX and that direct Ca(2+) influx via NMDA channels is curtailed by Na-dependent PM depolarization.
Dual Sensory Impairment and Cognitive Decline: The Results From the Shelter Study.

OBJECTIVES To examine whether nursing home residents with concurrent vision and hearing impairment, dual sensory impairment (DSI), have a greater cognitive decline over time than do those without sensory impairment and whether social engagement modifies this association. METHODS Based on the Services and Health for Elderly in Long TERm Care study, 1,989 nursing home residents who were assessed using the interRAI LTCF at 6-month intervals over 1 year were included. Multivariate linear regression models with time-variant exposure variables of sensory impairment and social engagement using generalized estimating equations were performed to predict cognitive function measured by the Cognitive Performance Scale (range 0-6). RESULTS Residents with DSI had a greater cognitive decline [changes in Cognitive Performance Scale over 1 year = 1.12 (95% confidence interval = 0.81:1.42)] compared to those with either vision or hearing impairment [0.67 (0.53:0.64)] and those without sensory impairment [0.56 (0.48:0.64)]. A lower level of social engagement was also associated with a greater cognitive decline. The combined exposure variable of sensory impairment and social engagement revealed the greatest cognitive decline for socially disengaged residents with DSI [1.87 (1.24:2.51)] and the potential effect modification of social engagement on the association between DSI and cognitive decline; DSI was not associated with a greater cognitive decline among socially engaged residents, while it was associated among socially disengaged residents DISCUSSION Cognitive function declines faster in nursing home residents with DSI only when residents were not socially engaged. Therefore, residents with DSI might cognitively benefit from interventions to improve involvement in social life at nursing homes.