Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hybrid Parallelization Strategies for Large-Scale Machine Learning in SystemML

SystemML aims at declarative, large-scale machine learning (ML) on top of MapReduce, where high-level ML scripts with R-like syntax are compiled to programs of MR jobs. The declarative specification of ML algorithms enables---in contrast to existing large-scale machine learning libraries---automatic optimization. SystemML's primary focus is on data parallelism but many ML algorithms inherently exhibit opportunities for task parallelism as well. A major challenge is how to efficiently combine both types of parallelism for arbitrary ML scripts and workloads. In this paper, we present a systematic approach for combining task and data parallelism for large-scale machine learning on top of MapReduce. We employ a generic Parallel FOR construct (ParFOR) as known from high performance computing (HPC). Our core contributions are (1) complementary parallelization strategies for exploiting multi-core and cluster parallelism, as well as (2) a novel cost-based optimization framework for automatically creating optimal parallel execution plans. Experiments on a variety of use cases showed that this achieves both efficiency and scalability due to automatic adaptation to ad-hoc workloads and unknown data characteristics.
Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Activated Pak 1 in Fibroblasts

p21-activated kinases (Paks) are effectors of the small GTPases Cdc42 and Rac, and are thought to mediate some of the cytoskeletal and transcriptional activities of these proteins. To localize activated Pak1 in cells, we developed an antibody directed against a phosphopeptide that is contained within the activation loop of Pak1. This antibody specifically recognizes the activated form of Pak1. Immunofluorescence analysis of NIH-3T3 cells coexpressing activated Cdc42 or Rac1 plus wild-type Pak1 shows that activated Pak1 accumulates at sites of focal adhesion, throughout filopodia and within the body and edges of lamellipodia. Platelet-derived growth factor stimulation of NIH-3T3 cells shows a pattern of Pak1 activation similar to that observed with Rac1. During closure of a fibroblast monolayer wound, Pak1 is rapidly activated and localizes to the leading edge of motile cells, then gradually tapers off as the wound closes. The activation of Pak1 by wounding is blocked by inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and Src family kinases, but not by an inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor. These findings indicate that activated Pak1, and by extension, probably activated Cdc42 or Rac, accumulates at sites of cortical actin remodeling in motile fibroblasts.
Adaptive system on a chip (ASOC): a backbone for power-aware signal processing cores

For motion estimation (ME) and discrete cosine transform (DCT) of MPEG video encoding, content variation and perceptual tolerance in video signals can be exploited to gracefully trade quality for low power. As a result, power-aware hardware cores have been proposed for these video encoding subsystems. Adaptive system-on-a-chip, aSoC, supports power-aware cores by providing an on-chip communications framework designed to promote scalability and flexibility in system-on-a-chip designs. This paper describes aSoC's ability to dynamically control voltage and frequency scaling through a simple voltage and frequency selection scheme. A small demonstration system is tested and shows up to 90% reduction in core power when the aSoC voltage scaling features are enabled.
Delivery of colloidal particles and red blood cells to tissue through microvessel ruptures created by targeted microbubble destruction with ultrasound.

BACKGROUND We have previously shown that the application of ultrasound to thin-shelled microbubbles flowing through small microvessels (<7 microm in diameter) produces vessel wall ruptures in vivo. Because many intravascular drug- and gene-delivery vehicles are limited by the endothelial barrier, we hypothesized that this phenomenon could be used to deliver drug-bearing vehicles to tissue. METHODS AND RESULTS An exteriorized rat spinotrapezius muscle preparation was used. Intravascular fluorescent red blood cells and polymer microspheres (PM) (205 and 503 nm in diameter) were delivered to the interstitium of rat skeletal muscle through microvessel ruptures created by insonifying microbubbles in vivo. On intravital microscopy, mean dispersion areas per rupture for red blood cells, 503-nm PM, and 205-nm PM were 14.5x10(3) microm2, 24. 2x10(3) microm2, and 27.2x10(3) microm2, respectively. PM dispersion areas were significantly larger than the mean dispersion area for red blood cells (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Microvessel ruptures caused by insonification of microbubbles in vivo may provide a minimally invasive means for delivering colloidal particles and engineered red blood cells across the endothelial lining of a targeted tissue region.
Insights into the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver necrosis and fibrosis: Status report

The use of the Tsukamoto-French rat model of alcoholic liver disease facilitated pathological, physiological, biochemical and cell biological experiments that examined the validity of some of the existing hypotheses for pathogenesis of alcoholic liver necrosis and fibrosis. Results obtained to date strongly support the contribution of centrilobular hypoxia as a pathogenetic mechanism of alcoholic liver necrosis. The enhanced hepatic lipid peroxidation was not evident at the early stage of ethanol-induced liver necrosis but could be demonstrated at the late stage when the liver damage progressed to liver fibrosis. This suggests that the lipid peroxidation may not be an important mechanism of alcoholic liver necrosis but may be an initiation factor for liver fibrogenesis as recently proposed by others (88). The high-fat diet appears to have promoting effects on both induction of alcoholic liver necrosis and stimulation of liver fibrogenesis. The former may be related to the induction of MEOS by the high-fat diet and consequent centrilobular hypoxia caused by inadequately compensated hepatic overuse of oxygen. The latter can be mediated through sensitization of Ito cells by a high-fat diet. We propose that Kupffer cell-derived TGF beta is, at least in part, responsible for some of phenotypical changes of Ito cells associated with their activation. Our model provides maximal experimental control and induces the discrete stages of alcoholic liver injury that can be reproduced with its pathological evolution telescoped into a short time. Because of these features, replication of the experimental conditions in different laboratories is possible so that results can be validly compared through precise standardization of the experimental protocols. This model requires some training in implantation and maintenance of the gastric catheter. However, the training can be easily attained by anyone who has experience in animal surgery. Another requirement is the initial fund to acquire infusion devices and metabolism cages. Once this equipment is purchased, however, the maintenance cost is low. Even if the initial expenses are included, the cost per animal is relatively inexpensive when compared with the cost involved in the use of larger animals such as baboons or pigs. Since administration of diet and ethanol (or isocaloric glucose solution) is precisely controlled by infusion pumps, this system makes unnecessary the measurement of diet consumption that has to be done daily for each animal with other methods. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Blind identification and source separation in 2/spl times/3 under-determined mixtures

Under-determined mixtures are characterized by the fact that they have more inputs than outputs, or, with the antenna array processing terminology, more sources than sensors. The problem addressed is that of identifying and inverting the mixture, which obviously does not admit a linear inverse. Identification is carried out with the help of tensor canonical decompositions. On the other hand, the discrete distribution of the sources is utilized for performing the source extraction, the under-determined mixture being either known or unknown. The results presented in this paper are limited to two-dimensional (2-D) mixtures of three sources.
Estimating changes in source mechanisms from coda wave interferometry

Perturbations in the source mechanism lead to variation in the coda and hence errors in separation estimates determined by coda wave interferometry. The assumption of identical source properties is a limitation of the estimates of source separation from coda wave interferometry. We show how a perturbation in the source mechanism between two identically located double couple sources can be estimated from the correlation of their coda waves measured at a single station. The mechanism perturbation, 〈r〉 is a simple function of the perturbation in dip, ∆δ strike, ∆φs and rake, ∆λ of the double couple. It is not possible to ascertain ∆δ, ∆φs or ∆λ independently from the cross correlation. We validate the theory using synthetic waveforms generated from a 3D finite difference solver for the elastic wave equation.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Evokes Pyramidal Neuron Axon Initial Segment Plasticity and Diffuse Presynaptic Inhibitory Terminal Loss

The axon initial segment (AIS) is the site of action potential (AP) initiation, thus a crucial regulator of neuronal activity. In excitatory pyramidal neurons, the high density of voltage-gated sodium channels (NaV1.6) at the distal AIS regulates AP initiation. A surrogate AIS marker, ankyrin-G (ankG) is a structural protein regulating neuronal functional via clustering voltage-gated ion channels. In neuronal circuits, changes in presynaptic input can alter postsynaptic output via AIS structural-functional plasticity. Recently, we showed experimental mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) evokes neocortical circuit disruption via diffuse axonal injury (DAI) of excitatory and inhibitory neuronal systems. A key finding was that mTBI-induced neocortical electrophysiological changes involved non-DAI/ intact excitatory pyramidal neurons consistent with AIS-specific alterations. In the current study we employed Thy1-yellow fluorescent protein (YFP)-H mice to test if mTBI induces AIS structural and/or functional plasticity within intact pyramidal neurons 2 days after mTBI. We used confocal microscopy to assess intact YFP+ pyramidal neurons in layer 5 of primary somatosensory barrel field (S1BF), whose axons were continuous from the soma of origin to the subcortical white matter (SCWM). YFP+ axonal traces were superimposed on ankG and NaV1.6 immunofluorescent profiles to determine AIS position and length. We found that while mTBI had no effect on ankG start position, the length significantly decreased from the distal end, consistent with the site of AP initiation at the AIS. However, NaV1.6 structure did not change after mTBI, suggesting uncoupling from ankG. Parallel quantitative analysis of presynaptic inhibitory terminals along the postsynaptic perisomatic domain of these same intact YFP+ excitatory pyramidal neurons revealed a significant decrease in GABAergic bouton density. Also within this non-DAI population, patch-clamp recordings of intact YFP+ pyramidal neurons showed AP acceleration decreased 2 days post-mTBI, consistent with AIS functional plasticity. Simulations of realistic pyramidal neuron computational models using experimentally determined AIS lengths showed a subtle decrease is NaV1.6 density is sufficient to attenuate AP acceleration. Collectively, these findings highlight the complexity of mTBI-induced neocortical circuit disruption, involving changes in extrinsic/presynaptic inhibitory perisomatic input interfaced with intrinsic/postsynaptic intact excitatory neuron AIS output.
Intelligent and Effective Heart Disease Prediction System using Weighted Associative Classifiers

--The healthcare environment is still ‘information rich’ But ‘knowledge poor’. There is a wealth of data available within the health care systems. However, there is a lack of effective analysis tools to discover hidden relationships in data. The aim of this work is to design a GUI based Interface to enter the patient record and predict whether the patient is having Heart disease or not using Weighted Association rule based Classifier. The prediction is performed from mining the patient’s historical data or data repository. In Weighted Associative Classifier (WAC), different weights are assigned to different attributes according to their predicting capability. It has already been proved that the Associative Classifiers are performing well than traditional classifiers approaches such as decision tree and rule induction. Further from experimental results it has been found that WAC is providing improved accuracy as compare to other already existing Associative Classifiers. Hence the system is using WAC as a Data mining technique to generate rule base. The system has been implemented in java Platform and trained using benchmark data from UCI machine learning repository. The system is expandable for the new dataset.
Shared memory multistage clustering structure, an efficient structure for massively parallel processing systems

A novel structure is proposed for massive parallel processing systems. This structure is expandable in a vertical and horizontal manner and covers many of the previous computer designs. Queuing theory and the Jackson queuing network are applied for constructing an analytical model for the proposed structure. This model gives a closed-form solution for the system performance metrics, such as processor waiting time, system processing power, and so on. Two novel points in development of these analytical models are: application of open queuing network rules for analyzing a closed queuing network, and calculation of the input rate of each service center as a function of the input rate for the previous center. The model can be used for evaluating the MPP system or optimizing its specification on design space.
Interaction between Calcium Ions and Bacillus thuringiensis Toxin Activity against Sf9 Cells (Spodoptera frugiperda, Lepidoptera)

The effects of calcium ions and modulators of calcium movement on Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal protein toxicity were investigated with Sf9 cells (Spodoptera frugiperda, fall armyworm) by a new B. thuringiensis toxicity assay based on measurement of fluorescence of ethidium homodimer, a high-affinity DNA stain. CryIC toxicity was substantially stimulated by extracellular calcium in a dose-dependent way (in the millimolar range), while toxicity enhancement could not be replicated when calcium was replaced by barium. This incremental toxicity was reduced by cobalt and lanthanum ions, two inorganic-calcium transport inhibitors. Methoxyverapamil, a voltage-dependent calcium channel blocker, and nifedipine, an inhibitor of dihydropyridine-sensitive L-type calcium channels, had no effect on CryIC toxin activity, but BAY K 8644, an L-type calcium channel activator, increased CryIC activity at high concentrations of extracellular calcium. While A23187, a calcium ionophore, and TMB-8, an inhibitor of intracellular-calcium mobilization, did not change CryIC-induced mortality, thapsigargin, an inhibitor of calcium uptake in intracellular stores, and more particularly trifluoperazine, which inhibits calcium-calmodulin-dependent processes, increased CryIC-mediated toxicity. The incremental effect of extracellular calcium on CryIC-induced toxicity was consistent with an increased concentration of intracellular calcium.
Programmable Cytogenetic Submicrolitre Lab-on-A-Chip for Molecular Diagnostic Applications

This project focuses on the development of an acoustic driven, freely programmable multifunctional biochemical lab-on-a-chip. By combining different platform elements, like microdissection-, nanofluidicand detection-modules, the lab-on-a-chip can be adapted to questionand patient-specific cytogenetic and forensic applications. In contrast to many common lab-on-a-chip approaches presently available, the fluidic handling is done on a planar surface of the lab-on-a-chip. Minute amounts of biochemical fluids are confined in ‘virtual’ reaction chambers and ‘virtual’ test tubes in the form of free droplets. The droplets, fluidic tracks and reaction sites are defined at the chip surface by a monolayer chemical modification of the chip surface. Surface acoustic waves are employed to agitate and actuate these little ‘virtual’ test tubes along predetermined trajectories. Well-defined investigations, controlled in the submicrolitre regime, can be conducted quickly and gently on the lab-on-a-chip.
Tagging Communication Problems in Spoken Dialogue Systems: On-line or Off-line?

The paper describes our work on tagging communication problems in humancomputer shared-goal spoken dialogues. The coding scheme is not otherwise restricted to a particular task or domain. The tag-set is rooted in a set of co-operativity guidelines. Tagging is done off-line at design time. The purpose is to discover problems early in the dialogue development process in order to prevent them from occurring in later versions of the dialogue. We describe the coding scheme and its application and discuss the issue of on-line versus off-line tagging of communication problems.
An Empirical Comparison of Neural Architectures for Reinforcement Learning in Partially Observable Environments

This paper explores the performance of fitted neural Q iteration for reinforcement learning in several partially observable environments, using three recurrent neural network architectures: Long Short-Term Memory, Gated Recurrent Unit and MUT1, a recurrent neural architecture evolved from a pool of several thousands candidate architectures. A variant of fitted Q iteration, based on Advantage values instead of Q values, is also explored. The results show that GRU performs significantly better than LSTM and MUT1 for most of the problems considered, requiring less training episodes and less CPU time before learning a very good policy. Advantage learning also tends to produce better results.
Fault Classification and Automated Test Case Generation by Using Mutation Testing

: Software testing is that the necessary section of software development method. But, this section may be simply missed by package developers due to their restricted time to complete the project. Since, package developers end their software nearer to the delivery time; they don’t get enough time to check their program by making effective test cases. One of the major difficulties in package checking is that the generation of test cases that satisfy the given adequacy criterion what is more, creating manual check cases may be a tedious work for package developers within the nil rush hours. A replacement approach that generates check cases will facilitate the package developers to form test cases from package speciation’s in early stage of package development (before coding) and furthermore as from program execution traces from once package development done (after coding). Heuristic techniques may be applied for making quality check cases. Mutation testing may be a technique for testing package units that has great potential for raising the standard of testing, and to assure the high dependableness of package. during this paper, a mutation testing based check cases generation technique has been planned to generate check cases from program execution trace, in order that the check cases may be generated once cryptography performed. The paper details concerning the mutation checking implementation to get test cases.
Analysis of trauma symptomology, trauma-informed care, and student-teacher relationships in a residential treatment center for female adolescents.

ANALYSIS OF TRAUMA SYMPTOMOLOGY, TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE, AND STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS IN A RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT CENTER FOR FEMALE ADOLESCENTS Amy Backert Gonshak November 19, 2010 Although there is a vast body of literature to support multiple positive outcomes related to positive student-teacher relationships, no prior study has investigated studentteacher relationships within the context of a residential treatment center for abused and neglected adolescents, students who theoretically could benefit from this relationship the most. The first goal of this study was to investigate the effects of student trauma symptomology, teacher beliefs about trauma-informed care, and teachers' emotionally supportive behavior in the classroom on student-teacher relationship qUality. Results revealed that teacher beliefs about trauma-informed care and student trauma symptomology, particularly as it is related to 'Other-Control,' are statistically significant predictor variables of student-teacher relationship quality (F7,45 = 3.002, p = .011, R2 = .318, /). R2 = . 212). Additionally, teachers in on-campus schools within residential treatment centers are rarely trained to work with the traumatized students in their classrooms. Therefore, the second goal of this study was to examine the effects of a trauma-informed training intervention for teachers called Risking Connection. Changes in teachers' knowledge
The use of the algebraic programming in teaching general relativity

The article presents some aspects on the use of computer in teaching general relativity for undergraduate students with some experience in computer manipulation. The article presents some simple algebraic programming (in REDUCE+EXCALC package) procedures for obtaining and the study of some exact solutions of the Einstein equations in order to convince a dedicated student in general relativity about the utility of a computer algebra system.
Intrusion Detection Using Text Processing Techniques with a Binary-Weighted Cosine Metric

This paper introduces a new similarity mea- sure, termed Binary Weighted Cosine (BWC) metric, for anomaly-based intrusion detection schemes that rely on using sequences of system calls. The new similarity measure con- siders both the number of shared system calls between two processes as well as frequencies of those calls. The k nearest neighbor (kNN) classifier is used to categorize a process as either normal or abnormal. The proposed BWC metric en- hances the capabilities of simple kNN classifier significantly - especially in the context of intrusion detection. The exper- imental results obtained from 1998 DARPA Data, are very promising and show that the proposed scheme results in a high detection rate and low false positive rate.
The What, How And Where Of Nature Conservation And Agriculture: The Co-Ordination Of Ecological-Economic, Behavioral And Spatial Aspects

An approach is presented to address three questions: (a) what is considered as valued nature at the farm level, (b) how can nature management be integrated in farming practice, i.e. operational and behavioral acceptability, and (c) where should nature management be implemented, i.e. the optimal spatial arrangement.