Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Achieving sub-50 milliseconds recovery upon BGP peering link failures

Recent measurements show that BGP peering links can fail as frequently as intradomain links and usually for short periods of time. We propose a new fast-reroute technique where routers are prepared to react quickly to interdomain link failures. For each of its interdomain links, a router precomputes a protection tunnel, i.e., an IP tunnel to an alternate nexthop which can reach the same destinations as via the protected link.We propose a BGP-based auto-discovery technique that allows each router to learn the candidate protection tunnels for its links. Each router selects the best protection tunnels for its links and when it detects an interdomain link failure, it immediately encapsulates the packets to send them through the protection tunnel. Our solution is applicable for the links between large transit ISPs and also for the links between multi-homed stub networks and their providers. Furthermore, we show that transient forwarding loops (and thus the corresponding packet losses) can be avoided during the routing convergence that follows the deactivation of a protection tunnel in BGP/MPLS VPNs and in IP networks using encapsulation.
In vitro screening of neuroprotective activity of Indian medicinal plant Withania somnifera

Abstract Canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD) is an age-dependent neurodegenerative condition characterised by changes in decline in learning and memory patterns. The neurodegenerative features of CCD in ageing dogs and cats are similar to human ageing and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Discovering neuroprotective disease-modifying therapies against CCD and AD is a major challenge. Strong evidence supports the role of amyloid β peptide deposition and oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of CCD and AD. In both the human and canine brain, oxidative damage progressively increases with age. Dietary antioxidants from natural sources hold a great promise in halting the progression of CCD and AD. Withania somnifera (WS), an Ayurvedic tonic medicine, also known as ‘Indian ginseng’ or ashwagandha has a long history of use in memory-enhancing therapy but there is a dearth of studies on its neuroprotective effects. The objective of this study was to investigate whether WS extract can protect against Aβ peptide- and acrolein-induced toxicity. We demonstrated that treatment with WS extract significantly protected the human neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-SH against Aβ peptide and acrolein in various cell survival assays. Furthermore, treatment with WS extract significantly reduced the generation of reactive oxygen species in SK-N-SH cells. Finally, our results showed that WS extract is also a potent inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase activity. Thus, our initial findings indicate that WS extract may act as an antioxidant and cholinergic modulator and may have beneficial effects in CCD and AD therapy.
Understanding Attribute Variability in Multidimensional Projections

Multidimensional Projection techniques can help users to find patterns in multidimensional data. However, while the visualization literature is rich in techniques designed to improve the projection itself, only a handful of papers shed light into the attributes that contribute to cluster formation or the spread of projected data. In this paper, we present a web-based visualization tool that enriches multidimensional projection layout with statistical measures derived from inputted data. Given a set of regions to analyze, we used statistical measures, such as variance, to highlight relevant attributes that contribute to the points' similarities in each region. Experimental tests show that our technique can help identify important attributes and explain projected data.
An Exchange: Part I* : Does Money Matter? A Meta-Analysis of Studies of the Effects of Differential School Inputs on Student Outcomes

Research on educational production functions attempts to model the relation between resource inputs and school outcomes such as educational achievement. Over the last decade a series of influential reviews of this literature have suggested that there is no systematic relation between resource inputs and school outcomes when controlling for student characteristics such as socioeconomic status. The inference procedure used in these reviews, vote counting, is known to be problematic. This study is a reanalysis of data from these earlier reviews, using more sophisticated synthesis methods. It shows systematic positive relations between resource inputs and school outcomes. Moreover, analyses of the magnitude of these relations suggest that the median relation (regression coefficient) is large enough to be of practical importance.While this reanalysis suggests that previous data do not support the conclusions that Hanushek and others derived from it, limitations of their data set warrant caution in using it for policy formation.
Multimodal information joint learning for geotagged image search

With the explosion of social media on the Web, significant efforts have been dedicated to the research on social image retrieval and ranking. However, most existing social image ranking methods are disturbed by noisy tags which brings a strong need to find some complementary information for image ranking. Thanks to the rapid development of mobile devices, online social images increasingly attached with geographic locations. This presents new opportunities for social image ranking. In this paper, we propose a hypergraph-based framework which integrates image content, user-generated tags and geo-location information into image ranking problem. By representing each image as a vertex in the hypergraph, higher-order relationship among images can be reflected accurately. Furthermore, our framework simultaneously optimizes the ranking scores and hyperedge weights. Thus, the effects of different edges in the constructed hypergraph can be adaptively modulated. We evaluated our framework on a geotagged image dataset crawled from Flickr, the comparison results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.
WebBase and the Stanford InterLib Project

Summary form only given. We have been developing base technologies that are required to overcome some of the most critical barriers to effective digital libraries. One of these barriers is the heterogeneity of information and services. Another impediment is the lack of powerful filtering mechanisms that let users find truly valuable information. Third, the continuous access to information is restricted by the unavailability of library interfaces and tools that effectively operate on portable devices. A fourth barrier is the lack of a solid economic infrastructure that encourages providers to make information available, and gives users privacy guarantees. A fifth barrier is the loss of digital information, due to obsolescence of equipment or software. The Stanford InterLib Technologies Project is developing mechanisms for surmounting these barriers. For example, we have developed a simple interoperability protocol, SDLIP, and have shown how it can be used to access collections at many libraries. We are developing filtering mechanisms that can find information based on its value, as opposed to simply its textual similarity to some query terms. We have build a PowerBrowser that makes it possible for users to access digital information in a convenient way from mobile, hand-held devices. We have also developed an archival repository that makes it possible for autonomous organizations to cooperate in preserving digital documents. The Stanford WebBase is a system which stores a significant portion of the Web in a central repository.
Ischemic lesion volumes in acute stroke by diffusion‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging correlate with clinical outcome

Diffusion‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging detects ischemic injury within minutes after onset, and has been used to demonstrate drug efficacy in animal models of stroke. In 50 patients diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke ( < 24‐hour duration) within the middle cerebral artery territory, lesion volume was measured by diffusion‐weighted imaging. Thirty‐four patients also had volumes measured by T2‐weighted imaging chronically (median time, 7.5 weeks; mean, 15.9 weeks). Clinical severity was measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale Score and the Barthel index. Acute lesion volumes correlated with the acute stroke scale score (r = 0.56), the chronic stroke scale score (r = 0.63), and chronic lesion volumes (r = 0.84). Chronic volumes correlated with the chronic stroke scale score (r = 0.86) and the Barthel index (r = −0.60). When only cortically based lesions were considered, the correlations relating acute lesion volume measured by diffusion‐weighted imaging (r = 0.61) and chronic lesion volume measured by T2‐weighted imaging (r = 0.90) to the chronic stroke scale score were higher. These results provide evidence that lesion volumes determined by diffusion‐weighted imaging acutely may be predictive of clinical severity and outcome, and may support a role for diffusion‐weighted imaging in the assessment of acute stroke therapies in clinical trials.
Haplotype Variation and Linkage Disequilibrium in 313 Human Genes

Variation within genes has important implications for all biological traits. We identified 3899 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were present within 313 genes from 82 unrelated individuals of diverse ancestry, and we organized the SNPs into 4304 different haplotypes. Each gene had several variable SNPs and haplotypes that were present in all populations, as well as a number that were population-specific. Pairs of SNPs exhibited variability in the degree of linkage disequilibrium that was a function of their location within a gene, distance from each other, population distribution, and population frequency. Haplotypes generally had more information content (heterozygosity) than did individual SNPs. Our analysis of the pattern of variation strongly supports the recent expansion of the human population.
Pattern generation using coupled oscillators for robotic and biorobotic adaptive periodic movement

In this study, a coupled pattern generator is used to achieve rhythmic gait movements by a planar five-link musculoskeletal biped model. In particular, five coupled oscillators are designed which provide the biped with the desired joint angles while a controller tracks the specified trajectories. The system is adaptive in that a high-level parameter controller can adjust the parameters of the pattern generator to change the frequency of the desired joint trajectories. Simulations show the biped walking while changing frequency of the gait as its joint angles track the pattern generator.
Manycore GPU processing of repeated range queries over streams of moving objects observations

The ability to timely process significant amounts of continuously updated spatial data is mandatory for an increasing number of applications. Parallelism enables such applications to face this data‐intensive challenge and allows the devised systems to feature low latency and high scalability. In this paper, we focus on a specific data‐intensive problem concerning the repeated processing of huge amounts of range queries over massive sets of moving objects, where the spatial extent of queries and objects is continuously modified over time. To tackle this problem and significantly accelerate query processing, we devise a hybrid CPU/GPU pipeline that compresses data output and saves query processing work. The devised system relies on an ad‐hoc spatial index leading to a problem decomposition that results in a set of independent data‐parallel tasks. The index is based on a point‐region quadtree space decomposition and allows to tackle effectively a broad range of spatial object distributions, even those very skewed. Also, to deal with the architectural peculiarities and limitations of the GPUs, we adopt non‐trivial GPU data structures that avoid the need of locked memory accesses while favouring coalesced memory accesses, thus enhancing the overall memory throughput. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that exploits GPUs to efficiently solve repeated range queries over massive sets of continuously moving objects, possibly characterized by highly skewed spatial distributions. In comparison with state‐of‐the‐art CPU‐based implementations, our method highlights significant speedups in the order of 10 − 20×, depending on the dataset. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A 28 GHz compact vertically-polarized dipole for 5G smartphone edge

This paper presents a compact 28 GHz vertically-polarized SIW-fed dipole for future 5G smartphones. The dipole is implemented using vias in standard PCB process to fit at the edge of the smartphone providing fan-beam in the elevation plane for wide coverage. Additional parasitic vias are employed in front of the dipole to serve as directors for enhanced gain achieving 7 dBi peak gain. Also a via fence is added surrounding the dipole to suppress back radiation. The fabricated prototype achieves 2.7 GHz matching bandwidth, 96% radiation efficiency, 16 dB front-to-back radiation ratio and 96° fan-beam coverage in the elevation plane.
Semantic Differential as One of the Research Tools Suitable for Establishing the Attitudes of Pupils to Old Age and Seniors.

The paper presents the results of the pre-research conducted under the project entitled “Seniors in the Eyes of Children”. The main objective of the project was to create and test a research tool in order to establish what the attitudes of pupils to old age and seniors were. Semantic differential was chosen for these purposes. Semantic differential serves to map attitudes, penetrates the deeper layers of thinking, and tries to understand the individual meanings of words and the feelings of respondents. The paper primarily deals with the semantic differential method, the preparation and implementation of the pre-research, the process of creation of the research tool, and the individual steps in the collection and evaluation of data.
Analysis of the variable endpoints generated by one-ended transposition of Tn21

One-ended transposition of Tn21 generates recombinants usually containing a whole copy of the donor replicon plus a short duplication of it (S. Mötsch, R. Schmitt, P. Avila, F. de la Crue, E. Ward, and J. Grinsted, Nucleic Acids Res. 13:3335-3342, 1985). This work shows that recombinants containing less than a whole copy of the donor replicon (hereafter called short recombinants) could also be detected when plasmid donors which contained two selectable genetic markers were used. Short recombinants were produced at the same frequency from TnpR+ donor molecules as from TnpR- donor molecules in a RecA- background. Therefore, they were not resolution products of larger recombinants. This result invalidates a previous hypothesis to explain one-ended transposition, that is, that one-ended transposition arises from the use of secondary ends by the transposition apparatus. On the other hand, it suggests that one-ended transposition of Tn21 occurs via a simple insertion mechanism.
Working memory and verbal fluency in simultaneous interpreters

We investigated working memory and verbal fluency in simultaneous interpreters, expecting to find enhanced working memory and semantic processing in interpreters relative to others fluent in a second language. The interpreters (n = 15) outperformed the control group (n = 35) on semantic fluency and most measures of working memory; their advantage over teachers of a foreign language (n = 15) approached, but did not reach, statistical significance. Our findings suggest that, while proficiency in a foreign language may enhance fluency and working memory skills, simultaneous interpreters have semantic processing and working memory capacities greater than those expected from mere proficiency in a foreign language.
Human phenylethanolamine N‐methyltransferase pharmacogenomics: gene re‐sequencing and functional genomics

Phenylethanolamine N‐methyltransferase (PNMT, EC2.1.1.28) catalyzes the N‐methylation of norepinephrine to form epinephrine. As a step toward understanding the possible contribution of inheritance to individual variation in PNMT‐catalyzed epinephrine formation, we ‘re‐sequenced’ the entire human PNMT gene, including the three exons, the introns and approximately 1 kb of the 5′‐flanking region (5′‐FR), using DNA samples from 60 African‐American (AA) and 60 Caucasian‐American (CA) subjects. Within the 3.5 kb re‐sequenced, 18 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were observed, including four non‐synonymous coding SNPs (cSNPs) that resulted in the following alterations in encoded amino acid sequence: Asn9Ser, Thr98Ala, Arg112Cys and Ala175Thr. When constructs for the non‐synonymous cSNPs were transiently expressed in COS‐1 cells, the Ala98 allozyme displayed significantly lower levels of both activity and immunoreactive protein (p < 0.002) than did the wild‐type (WT) enzyme due, at least in part, to accelerated protein degradation by a proteasome‐mediated process. Luciferase reporter gene constructs were also created for the six common PNMT 5′‐FR haplotypes observed. Significant differences were observed among haplotypes in their ability to drive transcription. These observations raise the possibility of inherited variation in the ability to form epinephrine from norepinephrine as a result of variant PNMT polymorphisms and haplotypes.
Perceptions of insurance coverage for screening mammography among women in need of screening

Breast carcinoma remains a significant health problem in the U.S., especially among underserved populations. Although screening mammography is recommended for early detection, in 2002, approximately 25% of women age > 40 years had not had a mammogram within the past 2 years. The current study examined perceptions of insurance coverage and cost as barriers to screening mammography within an underserved, predominantly low‐income population of women in need of a mammogram.
An efficient 3D beamformer implementation for real-time 4D ultrasound systems deploying planar array probes

The paper describes the components of a real-time 4D ultrasound system, including the transmission functionality, the efficient 3D beamforming implementation, and its mapping to a multi-computer platform. The 3D beamforming algorithm consists of a more efficient implementation with respect to the traditional approach and is based on the decomposition of the 3D beamforming process for a regular two-dimensional array into two steps of simpler 2D beamforming (Stergiopoulos, S. and Dhanantwari, A.C., 2002; Tawfik, A. et al., 1997; Dhanantwari et al., 2003; Stergiopoulos; 2000). The proposed decomposition of the 3D beamforming allows for the parallelization of the required processing. System results are presented, where the acquisitions have been performed on a standard ultrasound phantom, and the reconstructed volumes are shown. The present work is part of the European Commission project ADUMS (IST-2001-34088) aimed at developing a fully digital 4D ultrasound system for medical imaging applications.
Towards Automatic Real-Time Estimation of Observed Learner’s Attention Using Psychophysiological and Affective Signals: The Touch-Typing Study Case

This paper presents an experimental study on the real-time estimation of observed learners’ attention given the task of touch-typing. The aim is to examine whether the observed attention estimates gathered from human raters can be computationally modeled in real time, based on the learner’s psychophysiological and affective signals. A key observation from this paper is that the observed attention varies continuously and throughout the task. The findings show that a relatively high sampling interval is required for the modeling of observed learners’ attention, which is impossible to achieve with traditional assessment methods (e.g., between-session self-reports). The results show that multiple linear regression models were relatively successful at discriminating low and high levels of the observed attention. In the best case, the within-learner model performed with the goodness-of-fit adjusted <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R^{2}_{{ adj}} = 0.888$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and RMSE = 0.103 (range of the attention scores 1–5). However, the multiple linear model underperformed in the estimation of the observed attention between learners, indicating that the differences among the learners are often significant and cannot be overcome by a general linear model of attention. The between-learner model achieved an adjusted <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R^{2}_{{ adj}} = 0.227$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and RMSE = 0.708), explaining only 22.7% of the variability. The influence of individual psychophysiological and affective signals (eye gaze, pupil dilation, and valence and arousal) on the estimation of the observed attention was also examined. The results show that both affective dimensions (valence and arousal), as well as the EyePos2D offset (the distance of an eye from the average position in the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$xy$ </tex-math></inline-formula> plane parallel to the screen), and the EyePos-Z (the distance of an eye from the screen) significantly and most frequently influence the performance of the within-learner model.
HPTLC method for the simultaneous estimation of Tizanidine and Rofecoxib in tablets

A new simple, accurate and precise HPTLC method has been developed for the simultaneous estimation of tizanidine and rofecoxib in tablet formulation. In this method, standard and sample solutions of tizanidine and rofecoxib were applied on precoated silica gel G 60 F254 TLC plate, and developed using n- butyl acetate: formic acid: chloroform (6:4:2 v/v/v), as mobile phase. The drugs on plate were scanned at 315 nm. The dynamic linearity range was 2-10 mg/spot for tizanidine and 16-80 mg/spot for rofecoxib. The method was validated for precision, accuracy, and reproducibility.
Characterization of the replication and stability regions of Agrobacterium tumefaciens plasmid pTAR

A 5.4-kilobase region containing the origin of replication and stability maintenance of the 44-kilobase Agrobacterium tumefaciens plasmid pTAR has been mapped and characterized. Within this region is a 1.3-kilobase segment that is capable of directing autonomous replication. The remaining segment contains the stability locus for maintenance of pTAR during nonselective growth. Approximately 35% of pTAR shares sequence homology with pAg119, a 44-kilobase cryptic plasmid in grapevine strain 1D1119. However, no homology was detected between pTAR DNA and several Ti plasmids or several other small cryptic plasmids in many A. tumefaciens strains. A recombinant plasmid containing the origin of replication and stability maintenance region of pTAR was compatible with pTiC58, pTi15955, and pTi119 and incompatible with pAg119. A new compatibility group, Inc Ag-1, is discussed.