Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proxy prefix caching for multimedia streams

High latency and loss rates in the Internet make it difficult to stream audio and video without introducing a large playback delay. To address these problems, we propose a prefix caching technique whereby a proxy stores the initial frames of popular clips. Upon receiving a request for the stream, the proxy initiates transmission to the client and simultaneously requests the remaining frames from the server. In addition to hiding the delay, throughput, and loss effects of a weaker service model between the server and the proxy, this novel yet simple prefix caching technique aids the proxy in performing workahead smoothing into the client playback buffer. By transmitting large frames in advance of each burst, workahead smoothing substantially reduces the peak and variability of the network resource requirements along the path from the proxy to the client. We describe how to construct a smooth transmission schedule, based on the size of the prefix, smoothing, and playback buffers, without increasing client playback delay. Experiments with MPEG traces show how a few megabytes of buffer space at the proxy can substantially reduce the bandwidth requirements of variable-bit-rate video. Drawing on these results, we present guidelines for allocating buffer space for each stream, and how to effectively share buffer and bandwidth resources among multiple clients and streams.
Osteoinduction of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells by Bioactive Composite Scaffolds without Supplemental Osteogenic Growth Factors

The development of a new family of implantable bioinspired materials is a focal point of bone tissue engineering. Implant surfaces that better mimic the natural bone extracellular matrix, a naturally nano-composite tissue, can stimulate stem cell differentiation towards osteogenic lineages in the absence of specific chemical treatments. Herein we describe a bioactive composite nanofibrous scaffold, composed of poly-caprolactone (PCL) and nano-sized hydroxyapatite (HA) or beta-tricalcium phosphate (TCP), which was able to support the growth of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and guide their osteogenic differentiation at the same time. Morphological and physical/chemical investigations were carried out by scanning, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, mechanical and wettability analysis. Upon culturing hMSCs on composite nanofibers, we found that the incorporation of either HA or TCP into the PCL nanofibers did not affect cell viability, meanwhile the presence of the mineral phase increases the activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), an early marker of bone formation, and mRNA expression levels of osteoblast-related genes, such as the Runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx-2) and bone sialoprotein (BSP), in total absence of osteogenic supplements. These results suggest that both the nanofibrous structure and the chemical composition of the scaffolds play a role in regulating the osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs.
In properly selected patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, antithyroglobulin antibodies decline after thyroidectomy and their sole presence should not be an indication for radioiodine ablation

ABSTRACT Objective Our objective was to evaluate the trend of antithyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) during follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) treated without RAI, as well as their role in the risk of recurrence. Subjects and methods This was a prospective, descriptive study. A total of 152 consecutive patients with DTC treated in a single institution undergoing total thyroidectomy without RAI and followed for a median of 2.3 years (0.5-10.3) were divided in two groups: TgAb(-) (n = 111) and TgAb(+) (n = 41). Patients were classified according to AJCC 7th and 8th editions, as well as to their risk of recurrence and response to treatment categories. Results Both groups, TgAb(-) and TgAb(+), were similar regarding patient and tumor characteristics. At the end of follow-up, 90 (59.2%), 57 (37.5%), 3 (2%) and 2 (1.3%) patients achieved excellent, indeterminate, biochemically incomplete and structurally incomplete response, respectively. The risk of structural recurrence was similar in both groups (TgAb[-] 0.9% vs. TgAb[+] 2.4%, p = 0.46). In the TgAb(+) group, TgAb became negative in 10 (24.4%), decreased ≥ 50% without negativization in 25 (60.9%), decreased < 50% in 4 (9.8%) and remained stable or increased in 2 (4.9%) cases. The only incomplete structural response had increasing TgAb during follow-up. Conclusions In properly selected patients with DTC, TgAb concentration immediately after total thyroidectomy should not mandate RAI ablation, and their trend during follow-up may impact the risk of recurrence.
DateLens: A fisheye calendar interface for PDAs

Calendar applications for small handheld devices are growing in popularity. This led us to develop DateLens, a novel calendar interface for PDAs designed to support complex tasks. It uses a fisheye representation coupled with compact overviews to give the big picture in a small space. The interface also gives users control over the visible time period, as well as supporting integrated search to discover patterns and outliers. Designed with device scalability in mind, DateLens currently runs on desktop computers as well as PDAs. Two user studies were conducted to examine the viability of DateLens as a replacement for traditional calendar visualizations. In the first study, non-PDA users performed complex tasks significantly faster with DateLens than with the Microsoft Pocket PC 2002TM calendar (using a PDA emulator). In addition, they rated DateLens as being easier to use than the default calendar application for a majority of the tasks. In the second study, the participants were expert Pocket PC users and the software was run on their own devices. Again, DateLens performed significantly faster for the complex tasks, and there were satisfaction differences favoring each calendar for different kinds of tasks. From these studies, it is clear that DateLens is superior for more complex tasks such as those associated with longer time periods. For daily event tracking, users familiar with the default Pocket PC calendar strongly preferred its daily view and behaviors.
A simple theory of capillary–gravity wave turbulence

Employing a recently proposed ‘multi-wave interaction’ theory (Glazman 1992), inertial spectra of capillary-gravity waves are derived. This case is characterized by a rather high degree of nonlinearity and a complicated dispersion law. The absence of scale invariance makes this and some other problems of wave turbulence (e.g. nonlinear inertia-gravity waves) intractable by small-perturbation techniques, even in the weak-turbulence limit. The analytical solution obtained in the present work for an arbitrary degree of nonlinearity is shown to be in reasonable agreement with experimental data. The theory explains the dependence of the wave spectrum on wind input and describes the accelerated roll-off of the spectral density function in the narrow sub-range separating scale-invariant regimes of purely gravity and capillary waves, while the appropriate (long- and short-wave) limits yield power laws corresponding to the Zakharov-Filonenko and Phillips spectra.
Artistic screening

Artistic screening is a new image reproduction technique incorpo-ratingfreelycreatedartisticscreenelementsforgeneratinghalftones. (cid:13) Fixedpredefineddotcontoursassociatedwithgivenintensitylev-(cid:13)elsdeterminethescreendotshape'sgrowingbehavior.Screendot(cid:13) contoursassociatedwitheachintensitylevelareobtainedbyinter-(cid:13) polation between the fixed predefined dot contours. A user-defined(cid:13) mapping transforms screen elements from screen element definition(cid:13) space to screen element rendition space. This mapping can be tuned(cid:13) to produce various effects such as dilatations, contractions and non-linear deformations of the screen element grid. Discrete screen elements associated with all desired intensity levels are obtained by(cid:13) rasterizing the interpolated screen dot shapes in the screen element(cid:13) rendition space. Since both the image to be reproduced and the(cid:13) screen shapes can be designed independently, the design freedom(cid:13) offered to artists is very great. The interaction between the image to(cid:13) be reproduced and the screen shapes enables the creation of graphic(cid:13) designs of high artistic quality. Artistic screening is particularly(cid:13) well suited for the reproduction of images on large posters. When(cid:13) looked at from a short distance, the poster's screening layer may(cid:13) deliver its own message. Furthermore, thanks to artistic screen-(cid:13) ing, both full size and microscopic letters can be incorporated into(cid:13) the image reproduction process. In order to avoid counterfeiting,(cid:13) banknotes may comprise grayscale images with intensity levels(cid:13) produced by microletters of varying size and shape.
A transient assay system for the assessment of cell-autonomous gene function in dehydration-stressed barley

Drought is a serious, worldwide problem for crop production and also affects yields of barley and wheat, together with other stressors such as frost, viral diseases, or fungal pathogens. Although a number of candidate genes have been identified by transcriptome approaches in recent years, only very few have been tested in functional assays for a beneficial effect on drought tolerance. Here, a transient assay system in microprojectile-bombarded barley leaves is described that allows the functional testing of dehydration stress-related candidate genes by RNA interference (RNAi) or overexpression. Cellular stress or damage in dedydrated leaves is reported by a reduced accumulation of slowly maturing, native red-fluorescing protein DsRed that is known to be sensitive to denaturing conditions. After a dehydration-stress period of 4 d during which the relative fresh weight of leaves was kept at 60–66% of initial fresh weight, a reproducible reduction of normalized DsRed fluorescence was observed. In order to obtain proof of concept, a number of barley mRNAs homologous to drought response genes were selected and targeted by transient induced gene silencing (TIGS). TIGS of four tested genes resulted in a significantly stronger decrease of normalized DsRed fluorescence in dehydration-stressed leaves, whereas they had no effect in fully turgescent control leaves. These genes encode barley drought-responsive factor HvDRF1 (DREB2-like), dehydrin 6, late embryogenesis-abundant protein HVA1, and the vacuolar sodium/proton antiporter HvHNX1. The four targeted transcripts were also found to accumulate rapidly in dehydration-stressed barley leaf segments. The results suggest a value of the TIGS system for functional pre-screening of larger numbers of drought or dehydration stress-related candidate genes in barley.
A Study on Performance and Power Efficiency of Dense Non-Volatile Caches in Multi-Core Systems

This paper presents a novel cache design based on Multi-Level Cell Spin-Transfer Torque RAM (MLC STT-RAM). Our design exploits the asymmetric nature of the MLC STT-RAM to build cache lines featuring heterogeneous performances, that is, half of the cache lines are read-friendly,while the other half are write-friendly--this asymmetry in read/write latencies are then used by a migration policy in order to overcome the high latency of the baseline MLC cache. Furthermore, in order to enhance the device lifetime, we propose to dynamically deactivate ways of a set in underutilized sets to convert MLC to Single-Level Cell (SLC)mode.Our experiments show that our design gives an average improvement of 12% in system performance and 26% in last-level cache(L3) access energy for various workloads.
Dampening Positive Affect and Neural Reward Responding in Healthy Children: Implications for Affective Inflexibility

Blunted reward processing is evident in and may contribute to the onset of major depressive disorder. However, it is unclear what mechanisms contribute to the development of blunted reward-response prior to depression onset. The current study examined how individual differences in the tendency to dampen positive affect, an affect regulation strategy that decreases positive affect, are associated with reward responding and related brain activation in 39 healthy children (ages 7–10; 51% female; 79% White). To do this, we examined neural responses to winning a reward (candy) within the context of a previous loss, win, or neutral outcome. Whole-brain regression analyses revealed that self-reported tendencies to engage in dampening were associated with blunted striatum and thalamic activation during a winning outcome when following a previous loss outcome, as compared to when following a neutral outcome. This finding was above and beyond the influence of current depressive symptoms. However, tendencies to dampen positive affect were not associated with neural activity during the second of 2 consecutive win outcomes, and thus did not support the notion that dampening is associated with an inability to maintain reward responding. In youth, tendencies to dampen positive affect may be associated with less ability to flexibly upregulate neural reward responding following a loss, possibly leading to the development of affective inflexibility and increased vulnerability to depression. Dampening positive affect may be one mechanism that contributes to aberrant neural reward responding via affective inflexibility and may be a target for prevention in youth.
KOJAC: Implementing KQML with Jini to Support Agent-Based Communication in Emarkets

The Java programming language and technologies have been used extensively in the construction of web-based components and applications specifically in the context of electronic markets (emarkets) development. Java-based components can fulfill a variety of atomic roles in an emarket scenario from graphical user interfaces to complex database functions. However, in distributed settings, a great deal of monolithic code must be wrapped into the core functionality offered by Java components to allow for communication or message passing. Java introduces the Jini specification and associated functions to handle this distributed collaboration. Unfortunately, even Jini adds unnecessary overhead to the core functionality of these atomic components. Consequently, agents can be deployed in conjunction with these Java technologies to assist in communication as well as other nonfunctional concerns. The Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML) is a protocol that has been used in implementing agent communication. This paper suggests the use of agents to broker communication between atomic components. KOJAC (KQML over Jini for Agent Communication) is an approach to agent-based communication implemented with Jini services, specifically JavaSpace. KOJAC defines methods using Jini services that conform to the KQML protocol and incorporate an object-oriented ontology.
Treatment of developmental dislocation of hip: does changing the hip abduction angle in the hip spica affect the rate of avascular necrosis of the femoral head?

Avascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head is a serious complication in the management of developmental dislocation of the hip. Increasing the abduction angle increases its stability but compromises the vascularity of the femoral head. From our database of 240 children treated for developmental dislocation of hip by the two senior authors between 1998 and 2008, we defined two groups of children who underwent closed or medial open reduction of the hip after a failed Pavlik treatment or if patients presented late. In group 1, the reduced hip was immobilized in around 90° flexion, 60° abduction, and 0–10° internal rotation. In group 2 the hip was immobilized in around 45° of hip abduction with flexion and internal rotation as before. The first and second authors independently analysed these two groups blinded to the hip abduction angle. Our hypothesis was that a reduction in the hip abduction angle would reduce the incidence of AVN in the second group without compromising the stability. All eligible children were included, and there were 42 children in group 1 and 44 children in group 2. An almost equal number of children underwent closed and medial open reduction in both the groups. The age at reduction was a mode of 6 months (range 6–13 months) and 7 months (range 7–12 months), respectively. The abduction angle in the first group had a mode of 60° (range 52–70°) and the second group had a mode of 45° (range 38–50°). Radiographic evidence of AVN as described by Salter and colleagues was seen in eight children (19%) in the first group and seven children (16%) in the second group (P=0.78). Redislocation occurred in one child in the second group and none in the first group. In summary, the results show a nonsignificant reduction in the incidence of AVN when the hip abduction angle was reduced with no significant increased risk of redislocation.
Compressive sensing for high resolution profiles with enhanced Doppler performance

In this paper we demonstrate how Compressive Sensing (CS) can be used in pulse-Doppler radars to improve the Doppler performance while preserving range resolution. We investigate here two types of stepped frequency waveforms, the coherent frequency bursts and successive frequency ramps, which can be used for high resolution range profiling. Compared to more conventional chirps, the advantage of these waveforms would be a reduction in the receiver instantaneous bandwidth. If the Doppler performance of these waveforms can be improved, they could be used for detection and classification of respectively fast and slow moving targets. We demonstrate that applying CS in range by reducing the number of transmitted frequencies results in an increase in either Doppler resolution or Doppler unambiguous domain. Furthermore, the Doppler improvement is proportional to the range compression factor.
Cluster Analysis of Vocationally Undecided Students: A Replication and Validation.

This study attempted to identify, multidimensionally, types of vocationally undecided students. Data on 11 variables from 276 undecided undergraduate students was the imput for a cluster analysis. Data from the cluster analysis suggest2d that the optimal partioning of the data was obtained with a 5-cluster solution. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) and a chi, square analysis using variables not included in the clustering process, provided evidence of the validity of found clusters. To assess the reliability of the clustering process, the total sample was split into two subsamples and a 5-cluster solution was imposed on each of the subsamples. The resulting clusters were compared to the clusters of the total sample and to the findings of a former, similar study. These comparisons provided support for the reliability of three of the five clusters. The emergence of these clusters suggests a multidimensional perspective of vocational decidedness with apparent implications for differential treatment.
Functional convergence of developmentally and adult‐generated granule cells in dentate gyrus circuits supporting hippocampus‐dependent memory

In the hippocampus, the production of dentate granule cells (DGCs) persists into adulthood. As adult‐generated neurons are thought to contribute to hippocampal memory processing, promoting adult neurogenesis therefore offers the potential for restoring mnemonic function in the aged or diseased brain. Within this regenerative context, one key issue is whether developmentally generated and adult‐generated DGCs represent functionally equivalent or distinct neuronal populations. To address this, we labeled separate cohorts of developmentally generated and adult‐generated DGCs and used immunohistochemical approaches to compare their integration into circuits supporting hippocampus‐dependent memory in intact mice. First, in the water maze task, rates of integration of adult‐generated DGCs were regulated by maturation, with maximal integration not occurring until DGCs were five or more weeks in age. Second, these rates of integration were equivalent for embryonically, postnatally, and adult‐generated DGCs. Third, these findings generalized to another hippocampus‐dependent task, contextual fear conditioning. Together, these experiments indicate that developmentally generated and adult‐generated DGCs are integrated into hippocampal memory networks at similar rates, and suggest a functional equivalence between DGCs generated at different developmental stages. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Performance Analysis of Volume-Based Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radio

In this work, the volume-based method for spectrum sensing is analyzed, which is able to provide the desirable properties of constant false-alarm rate, robustness against deviation from independent and identically distributed (IID) noise and being free of noise uncertainty. By computing the first and second moments for the signal-absence and signal-presence hypotheses together with using the Gamma distribution approximation, we derive accurate analytic formulae for the false-alarm and detection probabilities for IID noise situations. This enables us to develop theoretical decision threshold as well as receiver operating characteristic. Numerical results are presented to validate our theoretical findings.
DESIGN OF WIND FARM LAYOUT FOR MAXIMUM WIND ENERGY CAPTURE

The paper deals with the wind farm layout optimization problem (WFLOP). The objective of the wind farm layout optimization problem is to determine the optimal placement of wind turbines within the farm. In this approach, the expected power production is maximized, taking into account eventually different other supplementary technological and functional restrictions. Because the wake effects lead to significant losses of power produced by the wind turbines, minimizing them in order to maximize the expected power production is essential. In this paper a discrete representation of wind farm is used: farm area is decomposed into a set of cells, where each cell can contain only one wind turbine. Presently, this problem is usually solved using heuristic algorithms, trying to find good enough solutions in reasonable time. In this paper, some small cases are detailed investigated, using an exact solution method to solve this problem. Some new aspects regarding the multimodal character, the existence of multiple optimal solutions of objective function, and the exact gap between the lower and upper bounds of the objective function are outlined.
A Hybrid Protocol for Managing Replicated Data

Replication is the key to providing high availability, fault tolerance, and enhanced performance in a distributed computing system. Keeping the replicated data consistent and available during the presence of failures can however become rather di cult. This paper presents the design of a hybrid replica control protocol that attempts to maximise availability and minimise communication overhead, by combining the advantages of two common replica control protocols into one. The protocol was simulated using SimJava, a process-based discrete event simulation package. The results from the simulations showed that not only did the hybrid algorithm maintain a high level of availability, it did so while minimising communication overheads.