Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Availability-based path selection

In data communication networks, connection availability, which is defined as the probability that the corresponding connection will be found in the operating state, is a key element of many Service Level Agreements (SLA). The path over which a connection is to be established should obey the agreed-upon availability, otherwise the service provider may face revenue loss as stipulated in the SLA. In this paper, we study the problem of establishing a connection over at most k (partially) link-disjoint paths for which the availability is no less than δ (0 <; δ ≤ 1). We consider networks with and without Shared-Risk Link Groups (SRLGs). We prove that this problem, in general, cannot be approximated in polynomial time, unless P=NP. We subsequently propose a polynomial-time heuristic algorithm and an exact Integer Nonlinear Programming (INLP) formulation for availability-based path selection. Finally, the proposed algorithms and two existing heuristic algorithms are compared in terms of acceptance ratio and running time.
Converting PCAPs into Weka mineable data

In today's world there is an unprecedented volume of information available to organizations of all sizes; the “information overload” problem is well documented. This problem is especially challenging in the world of network intrusion detection. In this realm, we must not only deal with sifting through vast amounts of data, but we must also do it in a timely manner even when at times we are not sure what exactly it is we are trying to find. In the grander scheme of our work we intend to demonstrate that several different data mining algorithms reporting to an overarching layer will yield more accurate results than anyone data mining application (or algorithm) acting on its own. The system will operate in the domain of offline network and computer forensic data mining, under the guidance of a hybrid intelligence/multi-agent, systems based, for interpretation and interpolation of the findings. Toward that end, in this paper we build upon earlier work, undertaking the steps required for generating and preparing suitably minable data. Specifically, we are concerned with extracting as much useful data as possible out of a PCAP (Packet capture) for importing into Weka. While a PCAP may have thousands of field/value pairs, Wireshark and tshark's csv (comma separated value) output module only renders a small percentage of these fields and their values by default. We introduce a tool of our own making which enumerates every field (with or without a value) in any PCAP and generates an ARFF (Attribute-Relation File Format - Weka default). This code represents a component of a larger application we are designing (future work) which will ingest a PCAP, semi-autonomously preprocess it and feed it into Weka for processing/mining using several different algorithms.
Frontal cerebral cortex blood flow, oxygen delivery and oxygenation during normoxic and hypoxic exercise in athletes

Non‐technical summary Exercise capacity is limited at high altitude where hypoxia (i.e. decreased amount of inspired oxygen resulting in decreased oxygen in the blood) is present, but it is unknown whether a reduction in the oxygen delivered to the brain constitutes the signal to the brain to prematurely terminate exercise. We show that during hypoxic exercise equivalent to exercise at ∼4000 m above sea‐level, the oxygen delivered to the brain during intense exercise is ∼60% less than that delivered to the brain at comparable exercise intensity at sea‐level. These results show that reduction in the oxygen delivered to the brain could constitute the signal to limit maximal exercise capacity in hypoxia, and help us understand better why exercise capacity is limited at high altitude. Moreover, a plausible mechanism of exercise limitation in patients who present decreased oxygen in the blood during exercise due to pulmonary and/or cardiac disease is revealed.
Mechanical design of powered prosthetic leg and walking pattern generation based on motion capture data

In this paper, we describe the design procedure of an above-knee powered prosthetic leg and an algorithm to generate appropriate gait patterns that are synchronized with the movement of the user. The developed prosthetic leg has powered knee and ankle joints for transfemoral amputees, and its weight and dimensions were determined on the basis of human body data. In particular, two degrees of freedom (roll and pitch axes) were adopted in the ankle joint to achieve dynamic balance control on uneven ground, and passive toe joints using a crank-rocker mechanism and torsional springs were attached at the foot to increase the walking stability. In addition, we developed a walking pattern simulator that is able to test the walking patterns of the powered prosthetic leg in the air. By attaching two inertial sensors on both thighs of the user and measuring both thigh motions, the per cent of gait cycle is suitably calculated from the proposed algorithm, and smooth gait motions are generated according to the gait cycle percent. Finally, walking patterns of the powered prosthetic leg were successfully generated by synchronizing to the human gait, and the generated gaits were analyzed by comparing them to the human gait.
An Investigation of the Debonding Mechanism between FRCM Composites and a Masonry Substrate

Fiber reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) composites have recently become a hot topic in Europe as an alternative to traditional fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites for several strengthening applications of existing masonry buildings. The terrific success of this new retrofitting system is mainly due to some advantages that it offers when compared to FRP, such as the possibility of application of the composite to wet surfaces and the vapor permeability featured by the inorganic matrix. In this work, the stress transfer between FRCM composites and a masonry substrate is investigated. FRCM strips comprised of ultra-high-strength steel fibers embedded in a cementitious grout are externally bonded to masonry blocks. Single-lap direct shear tests are performed. Parameters studied are bonded length and density of the steel fibers. Load responses are presented and failure modes are discussed. Change in the bond behavior and load carrying capacity with increasing bonded length is analyzed to determine the effective bond length.
Quantum analogue computing

We briefly review what a quantum computer is, what it promises to do for us and why it is so hard to build one. Among the first applications anticipated to bear fruit is the quantum simulation of quantum systems. While most quantum computation is an extension of classical digital computation, quantum simulation differs fundamentally in how the data are encoded in the quantum computer. To perform a quantum simulation, the Hilbert space of the system to be simulated is mapped directly onto the Hilbert space of the (logical) qubits in the quantum computer. This type of direct correspondence is how data are encoded in a classical analogue computer. There is no binary encoding, and increasing precision becomes exponentially costly: an extra bit of precision doubles the size of the computer. This has important consequences for both the precision and error-correction requirements of quantum simulation, and significant open questions remain about its practicality. It also means that the quantum version of analogue computers, continuous-variable quantum computers, becomes an equally efficient architecture for quantum simulation. Lessons from past use of classical analogue computers can help us to build better quantum simulators in future.
New balloon‐thermography catheter for in vivo temperature measurements in human coronary atherosclerotic plaques: A novel approach for thermography?

Although ex vivo studies showed marked thermal heterogeneity in atheromatic plaques, in in vivo human studies trivial temperature variations are recorded due to the cooling effect of blood flow. We investigated a new balloon‐thermogaphy catheter for temperature measurements during coronary flow interruption. A thermistor probe is positioned at the distal segment of the catheter. At the opposite site of the thermistor, a balloon is placed. By inflation of the balloon, coronary flow is interrupted. Ten patients with effort angina were studied. Coronary flow velocity was continuously recorded. Temperature was recorded at the proximal vessel wall and at the lesion before, during, and after complete interruption of blood flow by inflation of the balloon. ΔTp was assigned as the difference between the background temperature and the maximal temperature during and after balloon inflation. ΔTl was assigned as the difference between the atherosclerotic plaque and the proximal vessel wall. The procedure was not complicated. ΔTp during and after balloon inflation was 0.01 ± 0.01°C and −0.003 ± −0.01°C (P < 0.001), respectively. ΔTl was 0.07 ± 0.04°C at baseline, 0.17 ± 0.06°C (59.3% ± 11.8% increase) during, and 0.07 ± 0.05°C after flow interruption (P < 0.001). ΔTl was greater than ΔTp during and after impairment of flow (P < 0.001). In vivo atherosclerotic plaque temperature recording seems to be feasible with this new balloon‐thermography catheter. This device may introduce a new approach for the detection of thermal heterogeneity in plaques by addressing the issue of cooling effect of blood flow. Cathet Cardiovasc Intervent 2003;58:344‐350. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Locality & utility co-optimization for practical capacity management of shared last level caches

Shared last-level caches (SLLCs) on chip-multiprocessors play an important role in bridging the performance gap between processing cores and main memory. Although there are already many proposals targeted at overcoming the weaknesses of the least-recently-used (LRU) replacement policy by optimizing either locality or utility for heterogeneous workloads, very few of them are suitable for practical SLLC designs due to their large overhead of log associativity bits per cache line for re-reference interval prediction. The two recently proposed practical replacement policies, TA-DRRIP and SHiP, have significantly reduced the overhead by relying on just 2 bits per line for prediction, but they are oriented towards managing locality only, missing the opportunity provided by utility optimization. This paper is motivated by our two key experimental observations: (i) the not-recently-used (NRU) replacement policy that entails only one bit per line for prediction can satisfactorily approximate the LRU performance; (ii) since locality and utility optimization opportunities are concurrently present in heterogeneous workloads, the co-optimization of both would be indispensable to higher performance but is missing in existing practical SLLC schemes. Therefore, we propose a novel practical SLLC design, called COOP, which needs just one bit per line for re-reference interval prediction, and leverages lightweight per-core locality & utility monitors that profile sample SLLC sets to guide the co-optimization. COOP offers significant throughput improvement over LRU by 7.67% on a quad-core CMP with a 4MB SLLC for 200 random workloads, outperforming both of the recent practical replacement policies at the in-between cost of 17.74KB storage overhead (TA-DRRIP: 4.53% performance improvement with 16KB storage cost; SHiP: 6.00% performance improvement with 25.75KB storage overhead).
Reinforcement Learning via AIXI Approximation

This paper introduces a principled approach for the design of a scalable general reinforcement learning agent. This approach is based on a direct approximation of AIXI, a Bayesian optimality notion for general reinforcement learning agents. Previously, it has been unclear whether the theory of AIXI could motivate the design of practical algorithms. We answer this hitherto open question in the affirmative, by providing the first computationally feasible approximation to the AIXI agent. To develop our approximation, we introduce a Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm along with an agent-specific extension of the Context Tree Weighting algorithm. Empirically, we present a set of encouraging results on a number of stochastic, unknown, and partially observable domains.
Neurotransmitter signaling pathways required for normal development in Xenopus laevis embryos: a pharmacological survey screen

Neurotransmitters are not only involved in brain function but are also important signaling molecules for many diverse cell types. Neurotransmitters are widely conserved, from evolutionarily ancient organisms lacking nervous systems through man. Here, results are reported from a loss‐ and gain‐of‐function survey, using pharmacological modulators of several neurotransmitter pathways to examine possible roles for these pathways in normal embryogenesis. Applying reagents targeting the glutamatergic, adrenergic and dopaminergic pathways to embryos of Xenopus laevis from gastrulation to organogenesis stages, we observed and quantified numerous malformations, including craniofacial defects, hyperpigmentation, muscle mispatterning and miscoiling of the gut. These data implicate several key neurotransmitters in new embryonic patterning roles, reveal novel earlier stages for processes involved in eye development, suggest new targets for subsequent molecular‐genetic investigation, and highlight the necessity for in‐depth toxicology studies of psychoactive compounds to which human embryos might be exposed during pregnancy.
Orca: GC and type system co-design for actor languages

ORCA is a concurrent and parallel garbage collector for actor programs, which does not require any STW steps, or synchronization mechanisms, and that has been designed to support zero-copy message passing and sharing of mutable data. ORCA is part of a runtime for actor-based languages, which was co-designed with the Pony programming language, and in particular, with its data race free type system. By co-designing an actor language with its runtime, it was possible to exploit certain language properties in order to optimize performance of garbage collection. Namely, ORCA relies on the guarantees of absence of race conditions in order to avoid read/write barriers, and it leverages the actor message passing, for synchronization among actors. In this paper we briefly describe Pony and its type system. We use pseudo-code in order to introduce how ORCA allocates and deallocates objects, how it shares mutable data without requiring barriers upon data mutation, and how can immutability be used to further optimize garbage collection. Moreover, we discuss the advantages of co-designing an actor language with its runtime, and we demonstrate that ORCA can be implemented in a performant and scalable way through a set of micro-benchmarks, including a comparison with other well-known collectors.
Recent Progress in High‐Efficiency Blue‐Light‐Emitting Materials for Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) are increasingly used in displays replacing traditional flat panel displays; e.g., liquid crystal displays. Especially, the paradigm shifts in displays from rigid to flexible types accelerated the market change from liquid crystal displays to OLEDs. However, some critical issues must be resolved for expansion of OLED use, of which blue device performance is one of the most important. Therefore, recent OLED material development has focused on the design, synthesis and application of high‐efficiency and long‐life blue emitters. Well‐known blue fluorescent emitters have been modified to improve their efficiency and lifetime, and blue phosphorescent emitters are being investigated to overcome the lifetime issue. Recently, thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters have received attention due to the potential of high‐efficiency and long‐living emitters. Therefore, it is timely to review the recent progress and future prospects of high‐efficiency blue emitters. In this feature article, we summarize recent developments in blue fluorescent, phosphorescent and thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters, and suggest key issues for each emitter and future development strategies.
Interaction with synphilin‐1 promotes inclusion formation of α‐synuclein: mechanistic insights and pathological implication

α‐Synuclein (α‐Syn) is the major component of Lewy bodies (LBs) deposited in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease. Synphilin‐1 (Sphl) is a novel α‐Syn‐interacting protein also present in the LBs. However, the roles of α‐Syn‐Sphl interaction in LB formation and in the related pathogenesis are still unclear. We have studied the interaction between α‐Syn and Sph1 by biochemical and structural approaches and found that the central coiled‐coil domain of Sph1 specifically interacts with the N‐terminal stretch of α‐Syn. When overexpressed in HEK 293T cells, Sphl forms inclusions together with α‐Syn, but the Sphl‐positive inclusions cannot recruit the N‐terminally truncated α‐Syn. The central portion of Sph1 can also recruit α‐Syn and induce inclusion formation through its coiled‐coil domain. These observations demonstrate that the α‐Syn‐Sphl interaction significantly promotes the formation of cytoplasmic α‐Syn inclusions, which may have implications for LB formation in neural cells. We have also elucidated solution structure of the coiled‐coil domain of Sphl and its interaction with the N‐terminal peptide of α‐Syn. The specific interaction between α‐Syn and Sphl provides mechanistic insights into the inclusion‐body formation in cells and pathological implication in Parkinson's disease. —Xie, Y. ‐Y. , Zhou, C. ‐J., Zhou, Z. ‐R. , Hong, J., Che, M. ‐X. , Fu, Q. ‐S. , Song, A. ‐X. , Lin, D. ‐H. , and Hu, H. ‐Y. Interaction with synphi‐lin‐l promotes inclusion formation of α‐synuclein: mechanistic insights and pathological implication. FASEB J. 24, 196–205 (2010). www.fasebj. org
Simulation Design and Performance Analysis for VoIP in Cognitive Radio Networks

Increasing popularity of VoIP systems has witnessed applications in emerging technologies like Cognitive Radio Networks (CRN). The stringent QoS requirements in VoIP coupled with complexities in CRN have initiated intensive research in the field of performance analysis and optimizations guided by simulation results. However, in the absence of any standard model of VoIP over CRN, accuracy and credibility of the simulation output are strongly dependent on proper design of the simulation model that must have a strong mathematical foundation. The objective of this paper is to build standard models for VoIP in CRN and successfully implement VoIP applications over CRN domain, which will serve as initial point for development with respect to all future simulation studies in VoIP over CRN category. Initially, models of VoIP in CRN are developed using OPNET Modeler 16.0. A following distributed architecture in single-channel and multi-channel scenarios and further in Visual C++ adhering to the principles of centralized architecture. The models are validated by comparison of simulation results obtained in both platforms. The underlying mathematical model behind the design is established and the critical factors pertaining to both VoIP and CRN domain are extensively analyzed.
Content-oriented XML retrieval with HyRex

HyREX1 is the hyper-media retrieval engine for XML [Abolhassani et al. 02]. Here we describe its implementation with respect to content-oriented XML retrieval within the INEX initiative for the evaluation of XML retrieval. HyREX implements the XIRQL query language which extends the XPath [Clark & DeRose 99] subset of XQuery [Chamberlin et al. 01] by functionality important in IR style applications. For instance, IR research has shown that document term weighting as well as query term weighting are crucial concepts for effective information retrieval. These weights are used to compute a retrieval status value for a document component to be retrieved, thus resulting in a ranked list of components for a given query. In Section 2 we show how ranking is implemented in HyREX, such that it serves the need of content-oriented XML retrieval. Section 3 details the algorithm used to produce such a ranking of document components. Given the logical structure inherent to XML documents, users of an XML retrieval engine want to be able to pose queries not only on content but also on the structure of the documents. As an extension of XPath, the XIRQL query language serves this purpose. Section 4 shows how this is used in order to process the INEX content-and-structure topics. In addition we give a brief overview on the concepts of data types and vague predicates which can lead to high precision searches, in combination with structural retrieval. Section 5 displays very preliminary results in terms of effectiveness for content-oriented search. A conclusion and an outlook on further research is given in Section 6.
Modeling human diseases: an education in interactions and interdisciplinary approaches

ABSTRACT Traditionally, most investigators in the biomedical arena exploit one model system in the course of their careers. Occasionally, an investigator will switch models. The selection of a suitable model system is a crucial step in research design. Factors to consider include the accuracy of the model as a reflection of the human disease under investigation, the numbers of animals needed and ease of husbandry, its physiology and developmental biology, and the ability to apply genetics and harness the model for drug discovery. In my lab, we have primarily used the zebrafish but combined it with other animal models and provided a framework for others to consider the application of developmental biology for therapeutic discovery. Our interdisciplinary approach has led to many insights into human diseases and to the advancement of candidate drugs to clinical trials. Here, I draw on my experiences to highlight the importance of combining multiple models, establishing infrastructure and genetic tools, forming collaborations, and interfacing with the medical community for successful translation of basic findings to the clinic. Summary: Animal models have greatly facilitated the process of drug discovery. Len Zon draws on his own experiences to highlight how a cross-model, interdisciplinary approach can bring basic findings to the clinic.
The Neural Association between Tendency to Forgive and Spontaneous Brain Activity in Healthy Young Adults

The tendency to forgive (TTF) refers to one’s global dispositional level of forgiveness across situations and relationships. Previous brain imaging studies examined activation patterns underlying forgiving process, yet the association between individual differences in the TTF and spontaneous brain activity at resting-state remains unknown. In this study, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the correlation between the TTF and spontaneous brain activity in a young adult sample. Participants were 178 young students (55 men) who completed the TTF scale and underwent a resting-state fMRI scan. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between the regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and TTF scores corrected for age and sex. Results showed that the ALFF value in the right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), precuneus and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) were negatively associated with TTF scores. These findings suggest that the spontaneous brain activity of brain regions like the dmPFC, precuneus and IPL which are implicated in mentalizing and empathic response are associated with individual differences in the TTF.