Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SnappyData: A Hybrid Transactional Analytical Store Built On Spark

In recent years, our customers have expressed frustration in the traditional approach of using a combination of disparate products to handle their streaming, transactional and analytical needs. The common practice of stitching heterogeneous environments in custom ways has caused enormous production woes by increasing development complexity and total cost of ownership. With SnappyData, an open source platform, we propose a unified engine for real-time operational analytics, delivering stream analytics, OLTP and OLAP in a single integrated solution. We realize this platform through a seamless integration of Apache Spark (as a big data computational engine) with GemFire (as an in-memory transactional store with scale-out SQL semantics). In this demonstration, after presenting a few use case scenarios, we exhibit SnappyData as our our in-memory solution for delivering truly interactive analytics (i.e., a couple of seconds), when faced with large data volumes or high velocity streams. We show that SnappyData can exploit state-of-the-art approximate query processing techniques and a variety of data synopses. Finally, we allow the audience to define various high-level accuracy contracts (HAC), to communicate their accuracy requirements with SnappyData in an intuitive fashion.
Carbon Catabolite Repression Regulates the Production of the Unique Volatile Sodorifen of Serratia plymuthica 4Rx13

Microorganisms are capable of synthesizing a plethora of secondary metabolites including the long-overlooked volatile organic compounds. Little knowledge has been accumulated regarding the regulation of the biosynthesis of such mVOCs. The emission of the unique compound sodorifen of Serratia plymuthica isolates was significantly reduced in minimal medium with glucose, while succinate elevated sodorifen release. The hypothesis of carbon catabolite repression (CCR) acting as a major control entity on the synthesis of mVOCs was proven by genetic evidence. Central components of the typical CCR of Gram-negative bacteria such as the adenylate cyclase (CYA), the cAMP binding receptor protein (CRP), and the catabolite responsive element (CRE) were removed by insertional mutagenesis. CYA, CRP, CRE1 mutants revealed a lower sodorifen release. Moreover, the emission potential of other S. plymuthica isolates was also evaluated.
Methane production potential and emission at different water levels in the restored reed wetland of Hangzhou Bay

Changes in the hydrological conditions of coastal wetlands may potentially affect the role of wetlands in the methane (CH4) cycle. In this study, the CH4 production potential and emissions from restored coastal reed wetlands at different water levels were examined in eastern China at a field scale in two phenological seasons. Results showed that the total CH4 flux from reeds at various water levels were positive, indicating that they were “sources” of CH4. During the peak growing season, CH4 flux from reeds was greater than that during the spring thaw. CH4 flux from reeds in inundated conditions was greater than that in non-inundated conditions. The CH4 production potential during the peak growing season was far greater than that during the spring thaw. However, the effect of water level on wetland CH4 production potential differed among seasons. The correlations among CH4 production potential, soil properties and CH4 flux change at different water level. These results demonstrate that water level was related to CH4 production and CH4 flux. The growing season also plays a role in CH4 fluxes. Controlling the hydrological environment in restored wetlands has important implications for the maintenance of their function as carbon sinks.
An Evaluation of Visual Search Support in Maps

Visual search can be time-consuming, especially if the scene contains a large number of possibly relevant objects. An instance of this problem is present when using geographic or schematic maps with many different elements representing cities, streets, sights, and the like. Unless the map is well-known to the reader, the full map or at least large parts of it must be scanned to find the elements of interest. In this paper, we present a controlled eye-tracking study (30 participants) to compare four variants of map annotation with labels: within-image annotations, grid reference annotation, directional annotation, and miniature annotation. Within-image annotation places labels directly within the map without any further search support. Grid reference annotation corresponds to the traditional approach known from atlases. Directional annotation utilizes a label in combination with an arrow pointing in the direction of the label within the map. Miniature annotation shows a miniature grid to guide the reader to the area of the map in which the label is located. The study results show that within-image annotation is outperformed by all other annotation approaches. Best task completion times are achieved with miniature annotation. The analysis of eye-movement data reveals that participants applied significantly different visual task solution strategies for the different visual annotations.
Cognitive and behavioral correlates of caudate subregion shape variation in fragile X syndrome

Individuals with fragile X syndrome (FXS) exhibit frontal lobe‐associated cognitive and behavioral deficits, including impaired general cognitive abilities, perseverative behaviors, and social difficulties. Neural signals related to these functions are communicated through frontostriatal circuits, which connect with distinct regions of the caudate nucleus (CN). Enlargement of the CN is the most robust and reproduced neuroanatomical abnormality in FXS, but very little is known on how this affects behavioral/cognitive outcomes in this condition. Here, we investigated topography within focal regions of the CN associated with prefrontal circuitry and its link with aberrant behavior and intellect in FXS. Imaging data were acquired from 48 individuals with FXS, 28 IQ‐matched controls without FXS (IQ‐CTL), and 36 typically developing controls (TD‐CTL). Of the total participant count, cognitive and behavioral assessment data were obtained from 44 individuals with FXS and 27 participants in the IQ‐CTL group. CN volume and topography were compared between groups. Correlations were performed between CN topography and cognitive as well as behavioral measures within FXS and IQ‐CTL groups. As expected, the FXS group had larger CN compared with both IQ‐CTL and TD‐CTL groups. Correlations between focal CN topography and frontal lobe‐associated cognitive and behavioral deficits in the FXS group supported the hypothesis that CN enlargement is related to abnormal orbitofrontal‐caudate and dorsolateral‐caudate circuitry in FXS. These findings deepen our understanding of neuroanatomical mechanisms underlying cognitive‐behavioral problems in FXS and hold promise for informing future behavioral and psychopharmacological interventions targeting specific neural pathways. Hum Brain Mapp 35:2861–2868, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Critical Success Factors in SOA Implementation: An Exploratory Study

In recent years, the movement to establish a concept of service science has consolidated itself as a new academic discipline (NESSI, 2007; IBM Academic Initiative, 2007; Spohrer, Maglio, Bailey, & Gruhl, 2007). Service science is taking a growing interest in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), a framework which promises to develop a flexible and a robust IT-based service capable of responding efficiently to business demands. However, the development of SOA remains at a nascent stage and many early adopting firms find it difficult to establish effective strategies for adopting the framework, especially since they cannot be sure of its successful implementation. The current paper takes the form of an exploratory study based on a review of 34 SOA literatures and 22 interviews and claims to identify twenty factors in successful SOA adoption; the paper subsequently defines a concrete implementation policy for each factor. Comparative analysis, drawing on interviews with vendors and users, demonstrates both similarities and differences in the perspectives presented by a range of research literatures, proceeding to suggest complementary methods of SOA adoption that take account of both vendors' and users' needs. Thus far, research on SOA implementation has not offered a detailed account of the critical success factors (CSFs) conducive to successful SOA adoption. This work thus fills a gap in more closely reflecting the reality of putting SOA into practice.
On the allelochemical potency of the marine dinoflagellate Alexandrium ostenfeldii against heterotrophic and autotrophic protists

Three strains of the marine dinoflagellate Alexandrium ostenfeldii of different geographic origin were tested for their short-term deleterious effects on a diversity of marine protists. All A. ostenfeldii strains were capable of eliciting an apparent allelochemical response, but the various protistan target species were differentially affected. Protists that were negatively affected by exposure to cells of A. ostenfeldii and associated extracellular metabolites comprised both autotrophs (Rhodomonas sp., Dunaliella salina, Thalassiosira weissflogii) and heterotrophs (Oxyrrhis marina, Amphidinium crassum, Rimostrombidium caudatum). Observed effects included immobilisation (e.g. of O. marina), morphological changes (e.g. in D. salina) and/or aberrant behaviour (e.g. of R. caudatum), mainly as preliminary stages of cell lysis. Immobilization and lytic effects against O. marina were strongly dependent on A. ostenfeldii cell concentrations. Effects also differed substantially among strains and different batch cultures of the same strain. Values of EC50, defined as the A. ostenfeldii cell concentration causing lysis of 50% of O. marina cells, ranged from 0.3 to 1.9 � 10 3 mL 21 , depending on the A. ostenfeldii strain. The autotrophic dinoflagellate Scrippsiella trochoidea reacted to exposure to A. ostenfeldii cells by formation of temporary (ecdysal) cysts, whereas, in contrast, the flagellates Emiliania huxleyi and Prymnesium parvum and the ciliate Strombidium sp. were relatively refractory or even unaffected. As long as cells did not lyse, the fluorescence yield of target autotrophs, estimated by pulse-amplitude modulation fluorometry, did not significantly change during the first 3 h of incubation, suggesting that allelochemicals produced by A. ostenfeldii caused no shortterm negative effects on the photosynthetic apparatus. Overall, the allelochemical responses of target species showed no obvious relationship to cell quota or extracellular concentrations of either toxic macrocyclic imines (spirolides) or tetrahydropurine neurotoxins (saxitoxin and analogues) produced by various strains of A. ostenfeldii. Instead, the potency of A. ostenfeldii, eliciting immobilization and lytic species-specific responses in potential predators and competitors, is consistent with the existence of an allelochemical mechanism unrelated to the bioactivity of known phycotoxins of the genus Alexandrium.
Vancomycin-resistant enterococcal bacteremia: comparison of clinical features and outcome between Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have emerged as important nosocomial pathogens. This study was conducted to clarify the clinical features and outcome of patients with vancomycin-resistant enterococcal bacteremia. METHODS Patients with vancomycin-resistant enterococcal bacteremia treated at a medical center in northern Taiwan between November 1998 and July 2006 were reviewed. Clinical and bacteriological characteristics of Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis were compared. RESULTS Twelve patients (6 males and 6 females) were included for analyses. The mean age was 69.3 years (range, 40 to 86 years), and 8 cases (66.7%) were older than 65 years. All patients had underlying disease. Two patients received total hip replacement before development of VRE bacteremia. Twelve patients had prior exposure to broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy. Ten patients had prior intensive care unit stay and prior mechanical ventilation before VRE bacteremia. All of the patients (n = 12) had an intravascular catheter in place. Bacteremia was caused by E. faecalis in 4 patients and by E. faecium in eight. The portals of entry included urinary tract (8.3%), skin, soft tissue and bone (41.7%) and unknown sources (50.0%). E. faecium showed a higher rate of resistance to ampicillin and teicoplanin than E. faecalis (87.5% vs 0.0%, p=0.01). The 60-day mortality rate was higher in patients with E. faecium bacteremia than E. faecalis bacteremia (62.5% vs 0.0%), although statistical significance was not obtained (p=0.08). CONCLUSIONS VRE bacteremia may have an impact on the mortality and morbidity of hospitalized patients. Patients with bacteremia caused by vancomycin-resistant E. faecium had a grave prognosis, especially immunosuppressed patients. The prudent use of antibiotics and strict enforcement of infection control may prevent further emergence and spread of VRE.
Towards using hybrid word and fragment units for vocabulary independent LVCSR systems

This paper presents the advantages of augmenting a word-based system with sub-word units as a step towards building open vocabulary speech recognition systems. We show that a hybrid system which combines words and data-driven, variable length sub word units has a better phone accuracy than word only systems. In addition the hybrid system is better in detecting Out-Of-Vocabulary (OOV) terms and representing them phonetically. Results are presented on the RT-04 broadcast news and MIT Lecture data sets. An FSM-based approach to recover OOV words from the hybrid lattices is also presented. At an OOV rate of 2.5% on RT-04 we observed a 8% relative improvement in phone error rate (PER), 7.3% relative improvement in oracle PER and 7% relative improvement in WER after recovering the OOV terms. A significant reduction of 33% relative in PER is seen in the OOV regions.
Learning Evaluation Functions for Global Optimization and Boolean Satisfiability

This paper describes STAGE, a learning approach to automatically improving search performance on optimization problems. STAGE learns an evaluation function which predicts the outcome of a local search algorithm, such as hillclimbing or WALKSAT, as a function of state features along its search trajectories. The learned evaluation function is used to bias future search trajectories toward better optima. We present positive results on six large-scale optimization domains.
Effect of Independent Variables on Mechanical Properties and Maximization of Aspen—Polypropylene Composites

Study on the effect of concentration of maleated polypropylene (MAPP), dicumyl peroxide (DCP), nanoclay (NC), and aspen fiber loading on the mechanical properties of Aspen—PP composites has been undertaken with the objective to protect or increase the impact strength without losing or weakening the tensile strength. The central composite design of Statgraphic plus is used to determine the optimum concentration of additives and to maximize both the impact as well as tensile strength properties to be superior to that of pure PP. Finally, the material price of PP composites with an optimal composition of filler (aspen fiber and NC), coupling agent (MAPP), and initiator (DCP) is compared to that of pure PP and PP reinforced with glass fibers.
SEASON OF BIRTH AND SMOKING: FINDINGS FROM THE NORTHERN FINLAND 1966 BIRTH COHORT

A season of birth effect in addictive disorders has scarcely been studied. As smoking is known to be a highly addictive behavior, we examined whether there exists an association between season of birth and smoking habits among the general population in the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort (NFBC, n = 8,319). The birth month of each cohort member was categorized into one of the four seasons: spring (March–May), summer (June–August), autumn (September–November), or winter (December–February). Smoking habits of the cohort members were assessed by a postal questionnaire at the age of 31 yrs. Those who reported that they regularly smoked 11 or more cigarettes/day were regarded as heavy smokers. The association between season of birth and smoking was assessed with a logistic regression analysis: first, after controlling for early pregnancy-related and perinatal characteristics (Model 1) and second, after controlling for cohort members' hospital-treated psychiatric disorders, suicide attempts, adult educational level, and marital status (Model 2). Compared to males born in winter, the likelihood for heavy daily smoking was significantly increased, up to 1.3-fold, among males born in the autumn in both logistic regression models. However, among females the likelihood for heavy smoking was statistically significantly elevated among those born during any season other than winter. Season of birth may modify the development of dopaminergic or other neurotransmitter systems divergently among males and females. Altered expression of dopaminergic genes due to environmental climatic factors could explain the association between season of birth and heavy smoking. (Author correspondence: kaisa.riala@oulu.fi).
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

The Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ) is a measure of mid-aged women's emotional and physical health. Since its publication in 1992 the WHQ has been widely used in multinational clinical trials, in epidemiological studies as well as in the evaluation of non-medical treatments. In particular the WHQ has been included as a quality of life measure in trials of hormonal preparations for peri and post menopausal women and in studies using a variety of preventative interventions for midaged and older women. The questionnaire was developed in English and standardised on a sample of women aged 45–65 years. It is reliable, has good concurrent validity and is sensitive to detecting change, and is available in 27 languages. The range of subscales included in the WHQ enable a detailed assessment of dimensions of emotional and physical health, such as depression, anxiety, sleep problems, somatic symptoms, with optional subscales for menstrual problems and sexual difficulties. The WHQ is the first measure to be included in the MAPI Research Institute's database, the International Health-related Quality of Life Outcomes Database (IQOD). Drawing upon data from international studies this project aims to produce reference values for cross-culturally valid, reliable and responsive quality of life instruments. In addition to this work, a revised shorter version of the WHQ is currently being developed. Why assess Health-Related Quality of Life with the Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ)? The use of health related quality of life (QOL) measures has increased exponentially during the past 20 years. There is clearly a need for valid and reliable instruments that can be used in epidemiological and multinational studies. The WHQ [1] is one of the most frequently utilised measures in the assessment of QOL in mid-aged populations of women. The WHQ was originally designed to assess symptom perceptions during the menopause transition and for older postmenopausal women, in response to the lack of available instruments standardised for this age group. It is within this age range (45–65 years) that hormonally mediated changes, such as vasomotor symptoms and vaginal dryness, menstrual changes and age-related bodily changes, such as changes in sleep patterns sexual behaviour and physical health, are prevalent. These changes can confound results derived from traditional scales. By sampling a range of symptoms, the development of the WHQ enabled examination of the Published: 10 September 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003, 1:41 Received: 24 July 2003 Accepted: 10 September 2003 This article is available from: http://www.hqlo. com/content/1/1/41 © 2003 Hunter; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
Corticostriatal Field Potentials Are Modulated at Delta and Theta Frequencies during Interval-Timing Task in Rodents

Organizing movements in time is a critical and highly conserved feature of mammalian behavior. Temporal control of action requires corticostriatal networks. We investigate these networks in rodents using a two-interval timing task while recording LFPs in medial frontal cortex (MFC) or dorsomedial striatum. Consistent with prior work, we found cue-triggered delta (1–4 Hz) and theta activity (4–8 Hz) primarily in rodent MFC. We observed delta activity across temporal intervals in MFC and dorsomedial striatum. Rewarded responses were associated with increased delta activity in MFC. Activity in theta bands in MFC and delta bands in the striatum was linked with the timing of responses. These data suggest both delta and theta activity in frontostriatal networks are modulated during interval timing and that activity in these bands may be involved in the temporal control of action.
The relationship between experimentally validated intracellular human protein stability and the features of its solvent accessible surface

Protein degradation is critical for most cellular processes, and investigating the degradation signals in the sequence and structure is beneficial for analysing the protein stability. In this paper, we investigated in depth the intrinsic factors affecting the protein degradation based on the sequence and structure features. The results indicated that there are more hydrophobic residues on the surface of short-lived protein than the long-lived protein. The secondary structure such as coil tends to be on the surface of short-lived protein. There are more serine phosphorylation sites on the short-lived protein surface, and there is higher possibility for the short-lived proteins to start the degradation by signal of PEST motif than long-lived proteins. We also found that almost all of N terminal residues are exposed to be on the surface; therefore, the specific features of the solvent accessible surface residues are the key factors affecting intracellular protein stability.
Comments on “Directions Toward Effective Utilization of Tactile Skin: A Review”

Summary form only given. The present authors would like to point out that the discussion reported by Dahiya et al. about the optoelectronic transducers developed by De Maria et al. contains wrong technical data that led the authors to an erroneous claim. This comment is aimed at correcting this error and at rebutting their claim.
Sampling-based approximation algorithms for multi-stage stochastic optimization

Stochastic optimization problems provide a means to model uncertainty in the input data where the uncertainty is modeled by a probability distribution over the possible realizations of the actual data. We consider a broad class of these problems in which the realized input is revealed through a series of stages, and hence are called multi-stage stochastic programming problems. Our main result is to give the first fully polynomial approximation scheme for a broad class of multi-stage stochastic linear programming problems with any constant number of stages. The algorithm analyzed, known as the sample average approximation (SAA) method, is quite simple, and is the one most commonly used in practice. The algorithm accesses the input by means of a "black box" that can generate, given a series of outcomes for the initial stages, a sample of the input according to the conditional probability distribution (given those outcomes). We use this to obtain the first polynomial-time approximation algorithms for a variety of k-stage generalizations of basic combinatorial optimization problems.