Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ASCAR: Automating contention management for high-performance storage systems

High-performance parallel storage systems, such as those used by supercomputers and data centers, can suffer from performance degradation when a large number of clients are contending for limited resources, like bandwidth. These contentions lower the efficiency of the system and cause unwanted speed variances. We present the Automatic Storage Contention Alleviation and Reduction system (ASCAR), a storage traffic management system for improving the bandwidth utilization and fairness of resource allocation. ASCAR regulates I/O traffic from the clients using a rule based algorithm that controls the congestion window and rate limit. The rule-based client controllers are fast responding to burst I/O because no runtime coordination between clients or with a central coordinator is needed; they are also autonomous so the system has no scale-out bottleneck. Finding optimal rules can be a challenging task that requires expertise and numerous experiments. ASCAR includes a SHAred-nothing Rule Producer (SHARP) that produces rules in an unsupervised manner by systematically exploring the solution space of possible rule designs and evaluating the target workload under the candidate rule sets. Evaluation shows that our ASCAR prototype can improve the throughput of all tested workloads - some by as much as 35%. ASCAR improves the throughput of a NASA NPB BTIO checkpoint workload by 33.5% and reduces its speed variance by 55.4% at the same time. The optimization time and controller overhead are unrelated to the scale of the system; thus, it has the potential to support future large-scale systems that can have millions of clients and thousands of servers. As a pure client-side solution, ASCAR needs no change to either the hardware or server software.
Teaching Citizen Science Skills Online: Implications for Invasive Species Training Programs

Citizen science programs are emerging as an efficient way to increase data collection and help monitor invasive species. Effective invasive species monitoring requires rigid data quality assurances if expensive control efforts are to be guided by volunteer data. To achieve data quality, effective online training is needed to improve field skills and reach large numbers of remote sentinel volunteers critical to early detection and rapid response. The authors evaluated the effectiveness of online static and multimedia tutorials to teach citizen science volunteers (n = 54) how to identify invasive plants; establish monitoring plots; measure percent cover; and use Global Positioning System (GPS) units. Participants trained using static and multimedia tutorials provided less (p < .001) correct species identifications (63% and 67%) than did professionals (83%) across all species, but they did not differ (p = .125) between each other. However, their ability to identify conspicuous species was comparable to that of professionals. The variability in percent plant cover estimates between static (±10%) and multimedia (±13%) participants did not differ (p = .86 and .08, respectively) from those of professionals (±9%). Trained volunteers struggled with plot setup and GPS skills. Overall, the online approach used did not influence conferred field skills and abilities. Traditional or multimedia online training augmented with more rigorous, repeated, and hands-on, in-person training in specialized skills required for more difficult tasks will likely improve volunteer abilities, data quality, and overall program effectiveness.
IER5 is involved in DNA Double-Strand Breaks Repair in Association with PAPR1 in Hela Cells

The immediate early response gene 5 (IER5) is a radiation response gene induced in a dose-independent manner, and has been suggested to be a molecular biomarker for biodosimetry purposes upon radiation exposure. Here, we investigated the function of IER5 in DNA damage response and repair. We found that interference on IER5 expression significantly decreased the efficiency of repair of DNA double-strand breaks induced by ionizing radiations in Hela cells. We found that IER5 participates in the non-homologous end-joining pathway of DNA breaks repair. Additionally, we identified a number of potential IER5-interacting proteins through mass spectrometry-based protein assays. The interaction of IER5 protein with poly(ADP-Ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) and Ku70 was further confirmed by immunoprecipitation assays. We also found that Olaparib, a PARP1 inhibitor, affected the stability of IER5. These results indicate that targeting of IER5 may be a novel DNA damage response-related strategy to use during cervical cancer radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
ENVIRONMENTAL RISK TO THE SELF: FACTOR ANALYSIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF SUBSCALES FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL APPRAISAL INVENTORY (EAI) WITH AN IRISH SAMPLE

This paper expands the work on perception of risk to the Self from hazards in the environment by developing psychological aspects of ecological risk perception, which have received little attention to date. Responses from 159 university students to a 26-item scale of environmental hazard perception, an adaptation of Schmidt and Gifford's (1989) Environmental Appraisal Inventory (EAI), were factor analysed and a 20-item scale with three subscales was developed. The subscales represented techno-human, natural, and everyday-life hazards, and these are the first subscales to be developed on the EAI. Psychometric properties of the scales are discussed and cultural differences in hazard identification are addressed.
Affine Model Based Motion Compensation Prediction for Zoom

Zoom motion is classified into two categories, i.e., global zoom motion and local zoom motion. A simple affine motion model with four parameters is utilized to describe zoom motion efficiently based on the analyses of camera imaging principles. Based on the motion model, a basic candidate motion vector (BCMV) of a block could be derived when model parameters are confirmed. Then a set of candidate motion vectors (CMVs) could be obtained by modifying the BCMV. Thereafter, template matching is used to choose the optimal CMV (OCMV). Finally, the block is coded with the optimal CMV as an independent mode, and a rate distortion (RD) criterion is used to determine whether to use the mode or not. Experimental results demonstrate that by implementing the proposed method into Key Technology Area test platform version 2.6r1 (KTA2.6r1), a maximum -21.99% and average -8.72% bit rate savings can be achieved for videos involving zoom motion, while maintaining the same quality (evaluated by PSNR) of reconstructed videos when IPPPP coding structure is used. When Hierarchical B coding structure is employed, the maximum and average bit rate savings are - 10.48% and - 5.575% when the qualities of reconstructed videos remain unchanged. Besides, for videos involving camera rotation, translation, etc., an average -2.04% bit rate savings could also be achieved; while for videos containing common motions, an average -1.19% bit rate saving could be achieved at the same quality of reconstructed videos.
Leveraging Localisation Techniques for In-Network Duplicate Event Data Detection and Filtering

Event detection has become a ubiquitous application in the domain of wireless sensor networks. In any distributed event detection system, duplicate event data that can increase the likelihood of network congestion is a primary concern, and in-network data aggregation is a popular approach to alleviate this problem; similarly, duplicate data can be discarded. We propose a novel approach that utilises localisation techniques to quickly identify and discard duplicates among event reports. Using just the locations of nodes reporting events, the proposed classifier is able to make a decision on which event reports are to be discarded as duplicates. We show that our approach has the potential to greatly reduce packet load in a network and thus save energy and increase sensor life.
Multicategory Support Vector Machines , Theory , and Application to the Classification of Microarray Data and Satellite Radiance Data

2002 Ph.D. in Statistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison Dissertation: Multicategory Support Vector Machines, Theory, and Application to the Classification of Microarray Data and Satellite Radiance Data Advisor: Grace Wahba, Ph.D. (Co-advisor: Yi Lin, Ph.D.) 1996 M.Sc. in Statistics, Seoul National University, Korea Thesis: Image Data Analysis by Markov Random Field Models Advisor: Jong Woo Jeon, Ph.D. 1994 B.Sc. in Computer Science and Statistics, Seoul National University, Korea
Low-Rank Covariance-Assisted Downlink Training and Channel Estimation for FDD Massive MIMO Systems

We consider the problem of downlink training and channel estimation in frequency division duplex (FDD) massive MIMO systems, where the base station (BS) equipped with a large number of antennas serves a number of single-antenna users simultaneously. To obtain the channel state information (CSI) at the BS in FDD systems, the downlink channel has to be estimated by users via downlink training and then fed back to the BS. For FDD large-scale MIMO systems, the overhead for downlink training and CSI uplink feedback could be prohibitively high, which presents a significant challenge. In this paper, we study the behavior of the minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) estimator when the channel covariance matrix has a low rank or an approximate low-rank structure. Our theoretical analysis reveals that the amount of training overhead can be substantially reduced by exploiting the low-rank property of the channel covariance matrix. In particular, we show that the MMSE estimator is able to achieve exact channel recovery in the asymptotic low-noise regime, provided that the number of pilot symbols in time is no less than the rank of the channel covariance matrix. We also present an optimal pilot design for the single-user case, and an asymptotic optimal pilot design for the multi-user scenario. Last, we develop a simple model-based scheme to estimate the channel covariance matrix, based on which the MMSE estimator can be employed to estimate the channel. The proposed scheme does not need any additional training overhead. Simulation results are provided to verify our theoretical results and illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed estimated covariance-assisted MMSE estimator.
Critical lysine residues within the overlooked N-terminal domain of human APE1 regulate its biological functions

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1), an essential protein in mammals, is involved in base excision DNA repair (BER) and in regulation of gene expression, acting as a redox co-activator of several transcription factors. Recent findings highlight a novel role for APE1 in RNA metabolism, which is modulated by nucleophosmin (NPM1). The results reported in this article show that five lysine residues (K24, K25, K27, K31 and K32), located in the APE1 N-terminal unstructured domain, are involved in the interaction of APE1 with both RNA and NPM1, thus supporting a competitive binding mechanism. Data from kinetic experiments demonstrate that the APE1 N-terminal domain also serves as a device for fine regulation of protein catalytic activity on abasic DNA. Interestingly, some of these critical lysine residues undergo acetylation in vivo. These results suggest that protein–protein interactions and/or post-translational modifications involving APE1 N-terminal domain may play important in vivo roles, in better coordinating and fine-tuning protein BER activity and function on RNA metabolism.
A Life-Space Approach to Functional Assessment of Mobility in the Elderly

Abstract Mobility represents a critical component in the functional and disability assessment of older adults because it is related significantly to the maintenance of elder autonomy and independence. The authors' primary purposes are to raise the consciousness of geriatric social workers about the need to consider mobility as an important aspect of older persons' lives in the context of their environment, and to describe the application of a new strategy of mobility assessment that complements existing methods. First, an overview of the literature is provided that emphasizes the clinical relevance of mobility within the context of functional and disability assessment. Second, an application of the Life-Space Mobility Assessment (LSMA) with seniors is described as complementing the more traditional but less precise and sensitive methods of functional assessments typically used by social workers and other health care practitioners. Theoretical links to person-in-environment and ecology models are reviewed, and the implications for training, practice and research for social workers are discussed.
What would you do if …? Perceptions about anticipating and responding to language classroom incidents

Teachers’ responses to language classroom incidents depend on many factors, including the extent of their teaching experience. The question of how much influence teaching experience carries is important given that pre-service teachers have had limited opportunities to respond to day-to-day incidents that arise in classrooms. This paper reports on a two-stage research study in Singapore that first explored 22 pre-service teachers’ understandings of language classroom incidents and their possible responses. Subsequently, a survey was conducted to compare pre-service and in-service teachers’ perceptions about anticipating and responding to classroom incidents. The findings from a total of 77 respondents indicate that perceptions of the experienced and inexperienced teachers are similar in many ways, yet some notable differences emerged as well as a few interesting individual responses. This work has implications for initial teacher education programmes in terms of considering the value of providing pre-service teachers with opportunities to discuss and reflect on potential language classroom incidents.
Revised capital assets pricing model : an improved model for forecasting risk and return

This study's aim is to examine a new version of capital assets pricing model which is called Revised Capital Assets Pricing Model (R-CAPM) in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). According to Markowitz theory, systematic and unsystematic risk effect expected rate of return, in this paper by combining Capital Assets Pricing Model (CAPM) and leverages (financial, operational and economic), we found a new model which we will call it Revised CAPM (R-CAPM). We compared the R-CAPM with 3 models as follows: 1. Traditional CAPM which was established by Markowitz with the introduction of portfolio theory. 2. Downside Capital Asset Pricing Model (D-CAPM), suggested by Estrada (2002). 3. Liquidity Adjusted-Capital Asset Pricing Model (Adj-CAPM), offered by Acharya and Pedersen (2004). We investigated this new model and compared it with the 3 models (CAPM, D-CAPM and Adj-CAPM) through experimental testing, for 70 firms listed on the stock exchange of Tehran for the period 2000-2007. Results from the tests of the hypothesis show that, there is a meaningful difference between measures of the R-CAPM expected return and the CAPM, D-CAPM and AdjCAPM expected return. The best model which can be used for predicting expected return in Iran stock exchange is R-CAPM. Another hypothesis shows that there is not a meaningful relation between the three macro economic variables (interest, exchange rate and inflation rate) and a firm's sales.
Nature’s Experiments and Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences

This article explores the characteristics of research sites that scientists have called “natural experiments” to understand and develop usable distinctions for the social sciences between “Nature’s or Society’s experiments” and “natural experiments. ” In this analysis, natural experiments emerge as the retro-fitting by social scientists of events that have happened in the social world into the traditional forms of field or randomized trial experiments. By contrast, “Society’s experiments” figure as events in the world that happen in circumstances that are already sufficiently “controlled” to be open for direct analysis without reconstruction work.
Time-Series Analysis of Mortality Effects of Fine Particulate Matter Components in Detroit and Seattle

Background Recent toxicological and epidemiological studies have shown associations between particulate matter (PM) and adverse health effects, but which PM components are most influential is less well known. Objectives In this study, we used time-series analyses to determine the associations between daily fine PM [PM ≤ 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5)] concentrations and daily mortality in two U.S. cities—Seattle, Washington, and Detroit, Michigan. Methods We obtained daily PM2.5 filters for the years of 2002–2004 and analyzed trace elements using X-ray fluorescence and black carbon using light reflectance as a surrogate measure of elemental carbon. We used Poisson regression and distributed lag models to estimate excess deaths for all causes and for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases adjusting for time-varying covariates. We computed the excess risks for interquartile range increases of each pollutant at lags of 0 through 3 days for both warm and cold seasons. Results The cardiovascular and respiratory mortality series exhibited different source and seasonal patterns in each city. The PM2.5 components and gaseous pollutants associated with mortality in Detroit were most associated with warm season secondary aerosols and traffic markers. In Seattle, the component species most closely associated with mortality included those for cold season traffic and other combustion sources, such as residual oil and wood burning. Conclusions The effects of PM2.5 on daily mortality vary with source, season, and locale, consistent with the hypothesis that PM composition has an appreciable influence on the health effects attributable to PM.
Economic evaluation of manual therapy for musculoskeletal diseases: a protocol for a systematic review and narrative synthesis of evidence

Introduction Manual therapy is the non-surgical conservative management of musculoskeletal disorders using the practitioner's hands on the patient's body for diagnosing and treating disease. The aim of this study is to systematically review trial-based economic evaluations of manual therapy relative to other interventions used for the management of musculoskeletal diseases. Methods and analysis Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) on the economic evaluation of manual therapy for musculoskeletal diseases will be included in the review. The following databases will be searched from their inception: Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Econlit, Mantis, Index to Chiropractic Literature, Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), National Health Service Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (NHS DARE), National Health Service Health Technology Assessment Database (NHS HTA), National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED), CENTRAL, five Korean medical databases (Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS), Research Information Service System (RISS), DBPIA, Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal (KTKP) and KoreaMed) and three Chinese databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP and Wanfang). The evidence for the cost-effectiveness, cost-utility and cost-benefit of manual therapy for musculoskeletal diseases will be assessed as the primary outcome. Health-related quality of life and adverse effects will be assessed as secondary outcomes. We will critically appraise the included studies using the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the Drummond checklist. Results will be summarised using Slavin's qualitative best-evidence synthesis approach. Ethics and dissemination The results of the study will be disseminated via a peer-reviewed journal and/or conference presentations. Trial registration number PROSPERO CRD42015026757.
Parallel pathways for oxidation of 14‐membered polyketide macrolactones in Saccharopolyspora erythraea

The glycosyltransferases OleG1 and OleG2 and the cytochrome P450 oxidase OleP from the oleandomycin biosynthetic gene cluster of Streptomyces antibioticus have been expressed, either separately or from artificial gene cassettes, in strains of Saccharopolyspora erythraea blocked in erythromycin biosynthesis, to investigate their potential for the production of diverse novel macrolides from erythronolide precursors. OleP was found to oxidize 6‐deoxyerythronolide B, but not erythronolide B. However, OleP did oxidize derivatives of erythronolide B in which a neutral sugar is attached at C‐3. The oxidized products 3‐O‐mycarosyl‐8a‐hydroxyerythronolide B, 3‐O‐mycarosyl‐8,8a‐epoxyerythronolide B, 6‐deoxy‐8‐hydroxyerythronolide B and the olefin 6‐deoxy‐8,8a‐dehydroerythronolide B were all isolated and their structures determined. When oleP and the mycarosyltransferase eryBV were co‐expressed in a gene cassette, 3‐O‐mycarosyl‐6‐deoxy‐8,8a‐dihydroxyerythronolide B was directly obtained. When oleG2 was co‐expressed in a gene cassette together with oleP, 6‐deoxyerythronolide B was converted into a mixture of 3‐O‐rhamnosyl‐6‐deoxy‐8,8a‐dehydroerythronolide B and 3‐O‐rhamnosyl‐6‐deoxy‐8,8a‐dihydroxyerythronolide B, confirming previous reports that OleG2 can transfer rhamnose, and confirming that oxidation by OleP and attachment of the neutral sugar to the aglycone can occur in either order. Similarly, four different 3‐O‐mycarosylerythronolides were found to be substrates for the desosaminyltransferase OleG1. These results provide additional insight into the nature of the intermediates in OleP‐mediated oxidation, and suggest that oleandomycin biosynthesis might follow parallel pathways in which epoxidation either precedes or follows attachment of the neutral sugar.
Analysis of Linear Precoding Techniques for OFDMA Systems

This paper investigates the performance of linearly precoded OFDMA systems. Based on the pairwise error probability (PEP) analysis, a new design criterion, namely, the good shaping criterion, is introduced. Existing precoding techniques are discussed and an ad-hoc constellation shaping strategy is presented in order to satisfy the proposed criterion. Since maximum-likelihood (ML) detection has the ability to exploit the diversity achieved with the most effective spreading matrices, small size precoders are considered to keep the complexity reasonable. Simulation results have shown that linear precoding recovers most of the frequency diversity loss that is inherent to OFDMA. Moreover it is observed that simple constellation shaping strategies may be effective for small sizes of precoders.