Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Jericho: Achieving scalability through optimal data placement on multicore systems

Achieving high I/O throughput on modern servers presents significant challenges. With increasing core counts, server memory architectures become less uniform, both in terms of latency as well as bandwidth. In particular, the bandwidth of the interconnect among NUMA nodes is limited compared to local memory bandwidth. Moreover, interconnect congestion and contention introduce additional latency on remote accesses. These challenges severely limit the maximum achievable storage throughput and IOPS rate. Therefore, data and thread placement are critical for data-intensive applications running on NUMA architectures. In this paper we present Jericho, a new I/O stack for the Linux kernel that improves affinity between application threads, kernel threads, and buffers in the storage I/O path. Jericho consists of a NUMA-aware filesystem and a DRAM cache organized in slices mapped to NUMA nodes. The Jericho filesystem implements our task placement policy by dynamically migrating application threads that issue I/Os based on the location of the corresponding I/O buffers. The Jericho DRAM I/O cache, a replacement for the Linux page-cache, splits buffer memory in slices, and uses per-slice kernel I/O threads for I/O request processing. Our evaluation shows that running the FIO microbenchmark on a modern 64-core server with an unmodified Linux kernel results in only 5% of the memory accesses being served by local memory. With Jericho, more than 95% of accesses become local, with a corresponding 2x performance improvement.
Real-time model predictive control for quadrotors

Abstract This paper presents a solution to on-board trajectory tracking control of quadrotors. The proposed approach combines the standard hierarchical control paradigm that separates the control into low-level motor control, mid-level attitude dynamics control, and a high-level trajectory tracking with a model predictive control strategy. We use dynamic reduction of the attitude dynamics and dynamic extension of the thrust control along with feedback linearisation to obtain a linear system of relative degree three that models force controlled position and trajectory tracking for the quadrotor. Model predictive control is then used on the feedback equivalent system and its control outputs are transformed back into the inputs for the original system. The proposed structure leads to a low complexity model predictive control algorithm that is implemented in real-time on an embedded hardware. Experimental results on different position and trajectory tracking control are presented to illustrate the application of the derived linear system and controllers.
Learning Efficient Compositions for QoS-Aware Service Provisioning

Reinforcement learning has emerged as a powerful tool to compose and adapt Web services in open and dynamic environments. However, the most common applications of reinforcement learning algorithms are relatively inefficient in their use of experience data, which may affect the stability of the learning process. In particular, they make just one learning update for each interaction experience. This paper proposes two novel algorithms that aim to achieve greater data efficiency by saving experience data and using it in aggregate to make updates to the learned policy. The first algorithm introduces an offline learning scheme for service composition where the online learning task is transformed into a series of supervised learning steps. The second algorithm presents a coordination mechanism in order to enable multiple agents to learn the service composition task cooperatively. The results of our experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms compared to their online learning counterparts.
The Impact of Depression and Apathy on Sensory Language

The debate that language strongly influences thought is equally met by those who suggest language does not influence thought. While historically, the ability to communicate with words was believed to be intimately tied to an ability to form thoughts, we would argue that thought and language are linked together through our sensory and motor systems and severely impacted by depression and apathy. We test this by conducting parts of speech analysis from the comparative longitudinal studies of two highly creative and prolific writers, where one is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and the other lives a long and healthy life. We calculate function and contents word ratios, measure lexical repetition, and the use of sensory-based words in textual language to test for depression and apathy in AD which is supported by Mann-Whitney U-Testing and Principal Component Analysis. Our results support the hypothesis that thought and language are impacted by depression and apathy and revealed in a person’s writing style 12 years before a formal diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease presents. We find higher lexical repetition in language 12 years prior to one author being diagnosed with AD while not apparent in the other. We identify low olfactory word use and also find that an increased use of sensory-based adjectives might be a sign of the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
Improvement of SCTP Performance in Vertical Handover

A heterogeneous wireless network integrating IEEE 802.11 WLAN and 3G/UMTS mobile phone system will be a common scenario in future mobile networking. The multi-homing feature of SCTP and the dynamic address configuration extension had made seamless vertical handover possible in heterogeneous mobile wireless networks. However, an ongoing SCTP association will experience the slow-start phase on the new path after a vertical handover, since the congestion window and slow-start threshold on the new path are reset to their initial values. For smoother handover, a new approach is developed and presented in this article. In the proposed scheme, we send out probing packets on the new path to estimate available bandwidth before actual handover. Obtained information can then use to preset the flow control parameters. By doing so, the slow-start phase can be effectively skipped. Simulation results reveal that the proposed scheme is a feasible and effective solution for the improvement of SCTP performance during vertical handover in heterogeneous mobile wireless networks.
The role of international non-governmental organizations in service delivery for orphans and abandoned children in China

This article examines the role of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in social welfare provision in addressing the developmental and material needs of orphans in rural China. Data from qualitative interviews with INGO representatives and state officials were combined with documentary analysis to investigate the ways in which the state and civil society respond to orphans’ needs. It was found that while INGOs are actively contributing to the social provision of orphans, in part reflecting the pluralization of welfare, there is an urgent need for the Chinese government to play a more proactive role in safeguarding the care and protection of one of China’s most vulnerable population groups.
A Linear Time Algorithm for Finding a Maximal Planar Subgraph Based on Pc-trees

In Shih & Hsu, a planarity test was introduced utilizing a data structure called PC-trees, generalized from PQ-trees. They illustrated that a PC-tree is more natural IN representing planar graphs. Their algorithm starts by constructing a depth-first-search tree and adds all back edges to a vertex one by one. A major feature in the S&H algorithm is that, at each iteration, at most two terminal nodes need to be computed and the unique tree path between these two nodes provides essentially the boundary path of the newly formed biconnected component. In this paper we modify their PC-tree algorithm and introduce the deferred planarity test (DPT), which has the added benefit of finding a maximal planar subgraph (MPS) in linear time when the given graph is not planar. DPT is an incremental algorithm, which does not determine the terminal nodes and only computes a partial terminal path at each iteration. DPT continually deletes back edges that could create a violation to the formation of those partial terminal paths so that, at the end, the subgraph constructed is guaranteed to be planar. The key to the efficiency of the S&H and the DPT algorithms lies in their management of biconnected components in which the PC-tree plays a major role. The DPT algorithm has an even more concise description than that of the S&H algorithm. Previously, there have been reports that the MPS problem can be solved in linear time. However, there was no concrete data structure realizing them. 1. Introduction Given an undirected graph, the planarity test is to determine whether there exists a clockwise edge ordering around each vertex, such that the graph can be drawn in the plane without any crossing edges. Linear time planarity test was first established by Hopcroft and Tarjan [5] based on a " path addition approach. " A " vertex addition approach " , originally developed by Lempel, Even and Cederbaum [13], was later improved by Booth and Lueker [1] (hereafter, referred to as B&L) to run in linear time using a data structure called a " PQ-tree ". Both of these approaches are quite complex. Furthermore, both approaches use separate algorithms for recognition and embedding (Chiba et al. [4]). Several other approaches have also been developed for simplifying the planarity test (see for example [3,16,19,21]) and the embedding algorithm [14]. Shih and Hsu [18] (hereafter referred to as S&H) developed a very simple linear …
Changes of the EPSP Waveform Regulate the Temporal Window for Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity

Using spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) protocols that consist of pairing an EPSP and a postsynaptic backpropagating action potential (BAP), we investigated the contribution of the changes in EPSP waveform induced by the slow Ca2+-dependent K+-mediated afterhyperpolarization (sAHP) in the regulation of long-term potentiation (LTP). The “temporal window” between Schaffer collateral EPSPs and BAPs in CA1 pyramidal neurons required to induce LTP was narrowed by a reduction of the amplitude and decay time constant of the EPSP, which could be reversed with cyclothiazide. The EPSP changes were caused by the increased conductance induced by activation of the sAHP. Therefore, the EPSP waveform and its regulation by the sAHP are central in determining the duration of the temporal window for STDP, thus providing a possible dynamic regulatory mechanism for the encoding of cognitive processes.
Investigating the comprehension impairment in Wernicke's aphasia

11 Declaration . 13 Copyright statement . 14 Acknowledgments . 15 The Author . 17 List of abbreviations . 17 Chapter 1 . 19 Introduction . 19 1.1 Carl Wernicke & Wernicke’s aphasia . 20 1.2 Wernicke’s aphasia: The language profile . 2 1 1.3 Wernicke’s aphasia: The lesion profile . 22 1.4 Neural networks for language comprehension . 25 1.4. 1 Neural basis of speech perception . 26 1.4. 1.i The ascending auditory pathway . 26 1.4. 1.ii The auditory cortices. 26 1.4. 1.iii Speech processing in the auditory cortice s . 27 1.4. 1.iv Wider cognitive networks direct speech per ception . 29 1.4. 1.v Role of the dorsal network in speech compre hension . 31 1.4. 1 vi The neuropsychology of speech perception . 31 1.4. 2 Neural basis of semantic memory . 36 1.4. 2.i Semantic representations . 36 1.4. 2.ii Semantic control network . 3 8 1.4. 2.iii The neuropsychology of semantic processin g . 42 1.5 Predictions for Wernicke’s aphasia and data cha pter (3-6) summary . 46 1.5. 1 Phonological versus semantic impairment . 46 1.5. 1.i Chapter 3 summary: Testing phonological and semantic skills in WA . 47 1.5. 1.ii Chapter 4: Phonological discrimination is associated with auditory comprehension . 48 1.5. 2 Underlying auditory deficits . 49 1.5. 2i Chapter 5: Fundamental auditory processing i n WA . 49 1.5. 3 Semantic networks in Wernicke’s aphasia . 50
Nodular Worm Infections in Wild Non-human Primates and Humans Living in the Sebitoli Area (Kibale National Park, Uganda): Do High Spatial Proximity Favor Zoonotic Transmission?

Background Nodular Oesophagostomum genus nematodes are a major public health concern in some African regions because they can be lethal to humans. Their relatively high prevalence in people has been described in Uganda recently. While non-human primates also harbor Oesophagostomum spp. , the epidemiology of this oesophagostomosis and the role of these animals as reservoirs of the infection in Eastern Africa are not yet well documented. Methodology/Principal Findings The present study aimed to investigate Oesophagostomum infection in terms of parasite species diversity, prevalence and load in three non-human primates (Pan troglodytes, Papio anubis, Colobus guereza) and humans living in close proximity in a forested area of Sebitoli, Kibale National Park (KNP), Uganda. The molecular phylogenetic analyses provided the first evidence that humans living in the Sebitoli area harbored O. stephanostomum, a common species in free-ranging chimpanzees. Chimpanzees were also infected by O. bifurcum, a common species described in human populations throughout Africa. The recently described Oesophagostomum sp. found in colobine monkeys and humans and which was absent from baboons in the neighboring site of Kanyawara in KNP (10 km from Sebitoli), was only found in baboons. Microscopic analyses revealed that the infection prevalence and parasite load in chimpanzees were significantly lower in Kanyawara than in Sebitoli, an area more impacted by human activities at its borders. Conclusions/Significance Three different Oesophagostomum species circulate in humans and non-human primates in the Sebitoli area and our results confirm the presence of a new genotype of Oesophagostomum recently described in Uganda. The high spatiotemporal overlap between humans and chimpanzees in the studied area coupled with the high infection prevalence among chimpanzees represent factors that could increase the risk of transmission for O. stephanostomum between the two primate species. Finally, the importance of local-scale research for zoonosis risk management is important because environmental disturbance and species contact can differ, leading to different parasitological profiles between sites that are close together within the same forest patches.
Cognitive Modeling for Clinical Medicine

This paper describes some functionalities and features of the Maryland Virtual Patient (MVP) environment. MVP models the process of disease progression, diagnosis and treatment in virtual patients who are endowed with a “body,” a simulation of their physiological and pathological processes, and a “mind,” a set of capabilities of perception, reasoning and action that allow the virtual patient to exhibit independent behavior, participate in a natural language dialog, remember events, hold beliefs about other agents and about specific object and event instances, make decisions and learn.
Extracting Phoneme Pronunciation Information from Corpora

We present a procedure that determines a set of phonemes possibly intended by a speaker from a recognized or uttered phone. This information will be used to allow a speech recognizer to take pronunciation into account or to consider input from a noisy source during lexical access. We investigate the hypothesis that different pronunciations of a phone occur within groups of sounds physically produced the same way, and use the Minimum Message Length principle to consider the effect of a phoneme's context on its pronunciation.
BUILDING A WIDE COVERAGE DYNAMIC GRAMMAR

Incrementality is relevant for language modeling, speech recognition, and language generation, but requires a shift of the mainstream perspective to be addressed in most current models of syntactic processing, which underlies all NLP tasks. In this paper we devise a dynamic version of Tree Adjoining Grammar (DVTAG) that encodes a strong notion of incrementality directly into the operations of the formal system. After discussing the basic features of DVTAG, we address the issue of building of a wide coverage grammar and present novel data for English and Italian.
Double whammy? Are the most at risk the least aware? A study of environmental justice and awareness of flood risk in England and Wales

This paper explores the environmental inequalities of living in the flood plains of England and Wales and the differences in flood awareness of those ‘at risk’. Large area differences are seen in both flood risk likelihood and also in flood awareness. Furthermore these differences are often class dependent. In all areas except the Midlands, the working classes are more likely to be resident in the flood plains and the greatest inequality is seen in the NE and in the Anglian region. It was found that flood awareness in some areas, especially the NE, was much lower than average and furthermore, these low perceptions of risk were disproportionately displayed by the most deprived. Wales was another region which shows low awareness but is high flood risk. But in Wales, it is the middle classes who exhibit the least awareness.
Quantum transport of Dirac fermions in graphene field effect transistors

We present a quantum transport simulation of graphene field-effect transistors based on the self consistent solution of 2D-Poisson solver and Dirac equation within the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism. The device operation of double gate 2D-graphene field effect transistors is investigated. The study emphasizes the band-to-band and Klein tunneling processes of massless carriers and the resulting features of the electrostatic modulation of I-V characteristics. A transconductance as high as a few hundreds of μS/μm is observed, despite low on/off current ratios. The model is also extended to massive carriers, which allows us to show the on/off current ratio enhancement due to finite bandgap. The obtained results suggest the feasibility of 2D-graphene devices for analogue applications.
On Gács' quantum algorithmic entropy

We define an infinite dimensional modification of lower-semicomputability of density operators by G\'acs with an attempt to fix some problem in the paper. Our attempt is partly achieved by showing the existence of universal operator under some additional assumption. It is left as a future task to eliminate this assumption. We also see some properties and examples which stimulate further research. In particular, we show that universal operator has certain nontrivial form if it exists.
Desarrollo y validación de la Escala de Recursos Potenciales para la Resiliencia para Adolescentes

El objetivo de este estudio fue desarrollar una escala de recursos potenciales para la resiliencia para adolescentes y explorar algunas caracteristicas psicometricas como validez de contenido, validez de constructo y confiabilidad. Participaron 960 adolescentes de 13 a 18 anos de edad (M edad =15.04; DE =1.453), estudiantes de la Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Mexico. La validez de contenido se realizo empleando el metodo por jueces y obteniendo indices Kappa satisfactorios. La validez de constructo se evaluo con analisis factorial exploratorio (AFE) con rotacion varimax que arrojo ocho factores (varianza=42.15%): Pensamiento positivo, Afrontamiento activo, Afrontamiento de evitacion, Apoyo familiar, Apoyo social, Control interno, Espiritualidad, y Control externo. Un analisis factorial confirmatorio (AFC) por medio de metodo de maxima verosimilitud corroboro la solucion de ocho factores mostrando un ajuste aceptable. Las alfas de Cronbach por factor oscilan entre . 642 y . 746 (  total =.915) indicando adecuada consistencia interna. Los parametros del AFE y del AFC son aceptables e indican que se trata de un modelo complejo multidimensional que corresponde a un constructo complejo como el de la resiliencia. Aunque los datos indican que la escala puede ser util para evaluar recursos para la resiliencia en adolescentes, se recomienda probar el modelo en otras poblaciones.
Automatic classification of documents in cold-start scenarios

Document classification is key to ensuring quality of any digital library. However, classifying documents is a very time-consuming task. In addition, few or none of the documents in a newly created repository are classified. The non-classification of documents not only prevents users from finding information but also hinders the system's aptitude to recommend relevant items. Moreover, the lack of classified documents prevents any kind of machine learning algorithm to automatically annotate these items. In this work, we propose a novel approach to automatically classifying documents that differs from previous works in the sense that it exploits the wisdom of the crowds available on the Web. Our proposed strategy adapts an automatic tagging approach combined with a straightforward matching algorithm to classify documents in a given domain classification. To validate our findings, we compared our methods against the existing and performed a user evaluation with 61 participants to estimate the quality of the classifications. Results show that, in 72% of the cases, the automatic classification is relevant and well accepted by participants. In conclusion, automatic classification can facilitate access to relevant documents.
Two-Photon Microscopy Allows Imaging and Characterization of Cochlear Microvasculature In Vivo

Impairment of cochlear blood flow has been discussed as factor in the pathophysiology of various inner ear disorders. However, the microscopic study of cochlear microcirculation is limited due to small scale and anatomical constraints. Here, two-photon fluorescence microscopy is applied to visualize cochlear microvessels. Guinea pigs were injected with Fluorescein isothiocyanate- or Texas red-dextrane as plasma marker. Intravital microscopy was performed in four animals and explanted cochleae from four animals were studied. The vascular architecture of the cochlea was visualized up to a depth of 90.0 ± 22.7 μm. Imaging yielded a mean contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of 3.3 ± 1.7. Mean diameter in vivo was 16.5 ± 6.0 μm for arterioles and 8.0 ± 2.4 μm for capillaries. In explanted cochleae, the diameter of radiating arterioles and capillaries was measured with 12.2 ± 1.6 μm and 6.6 ± 1.0 μm, respectively. The difference between capillaries and arterioles was statistically significant in both experimental setups (P < 0.001 and P = 0.022, two-way ANOVA). Measured vessel diameters in vivo and ex vivo were in agreement with published data. We conclude that two-photon fluorescence microscopy allows the investigation of cochlear microvessels and is potentially a valuable tool for inner ear research.