Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ClusterOn: Building Highly Configurable and Reusable Clustered Data Services Using Simple Data Nodes

The growing variety of data storage and retrieval needs is driving the design and development of an increasing number of distributed storage applications such as key-value stores, distributed file systems, object stores, and databases. We observe that, to a large extent, such applications would implement their own way of handling features of data replication, failover, consistency, cluster topology, leadership election, etc. We found that 45- 82% of the code in six popular distributed storage applications can be classified as implementations of such common features. While such implementations allow for deeper optimizations tailored for a specific application, writing new applications to satisfy the ever-changing requirements of new types of data or I/O patterns is challenging, as it is notoriously hard to get all the features right in a distributed setting. In this paper, we argue that for most modern storage applications, the common feature implementation (i.e., the distributed part) can be automated and offloaded, so developers can focus on the core application functions. We are designing a framework, ClusterOn, which aims to take care of the messy plumbing of distributed storage applications. The envisioned goal is that a developer simply "drops" a non-distributed application into ClusterOn, which will convert it into a scalable and highly configurable distributed application.
Design and implementation of a hybrid energy supply system for railway vehicles

An energy supply system based on a hybrid energy storage unit combined of batteries and ultracapacitors for a railway vehicle is studied. In order to optimize the energy supply system architecture and to manage the energy distribution the power electronic converters connecting ultracapacitors, batteries and the DC-link are investigated together with control strategies comprising a multiobjective continuous and a discrete optimization. The prospective goal of applying latter optimization techniques via a so-called operator controller module is a self-optimizing energy supply system. Simulated and measured results are presented, revealing that the separation of the dynamic load from batteries yield improvements in lifecycle, availability and long term costs, while the novel control facilitates prospectively large energy savings and obeying set constraints.
Elders' and Family Caregivers' Experience of Place at an Assisted Living Center

This study was designed to explore elders' and their family caregivers' collective experience of place within an assisted living center. Using an ethnographic approach, data were collected through participant observation, interviews, and focus groups. This study found key features of the assisted living center that most influenced residents' and family caregivers' phenomenological experience of place. These features included the characteristics, experiences, and meanings that participants attributed to the assisted living center's structure, physical nature, sociocultural nature, and temporal-occupational nature. In this place, occupational forms stood out as important, naturally occurring features of place that, over time, helped characterize the place's temporal-occupational nature. Occupational performance pointed to people's experience of that place.
What's the Matter with Social Class?

Social class is a major determining factor of accomplishment in most educational, employment, and social arenas and still one of the best predictors of who will achieve success, prosperity, and social status. Yet, despite its continued significance, social class is rarely as well considered as the related analytic vectors of gender and race, particularly within U.S. adult education. So why do scholars so significantly acknowledge class less than its counterparts and why is it so underrepresented in adult educational theory? This article explores the development of social class and its relationship to several different arenas of adult education practice. It highlights the links between adult education, the material and social conditions of daily and working lives, and the economic and political systems that underpin them. The article also reaffirms the salience of class in shaping the lives we lead and the educational approaches we develop.
Real-time classification and sensor fusion with a spiking deep belief network

Deep Belief Networks (DBNs) have recently shown impressive performance on a broad range of classification problems. Their generative properties allow better understanding of the performance, and provide a simpler solution for sensor fusion tasks. However, because of their inherent need for feedback and parallel update of large numbers of units, DBNs are expensive to implement on serial computers. This paper proposes a method based on the Siegert approximation for Integrate-and-Fire neurons to map an offline-trained DBN onto an efficient event-driven spiking neural network suitable for hardware implementation. The method is demonstrated in simulation and by a real-time implementation of a 3-layer network with 2694 neurons used for visual classification of MNIST handwritten digits with input from a 128 × 128 Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) silicon retina, and sensory-fusion using additional input from a 64-channel AER-EAR silicon cochlea. The system is implemented through the open-source software in the jAER project and runs in real-time on a laptop computer. It is demonstrated that the system can recognize digits in the presence of distractions, noise, scaling, translation and rotation, and that the degradation of recognition performance by using an event-based approach is less than 1%. Recognition is achieved in an average of 5.8 ms after the onset of the presentation of a digit. By cue integration from both silicon retina and cochlea outputs we show that the system can be biased to select the correct digit from otherwise ambiguous input.
Care at home for people with dementia: as in a total institution?

This article examines three kinds of social relationship likely to be present when people with dementia are cared for at home by relatives or friends: custodial care, an intimate relationship, and home-life. Using Goffman's three defining aspects of custodial care – routinisation, surveillance and mortification of the self – the paper examines whether these characterised the care of people with dementia at home and, if so, whether they conflicted with the intimate relationship and with home-life. The study involved sustained observations and interviews with 20 people with dementia and their carers in and around London, and qualitative analysis of the data. It was found that all three aspects of custodial care were present although not fully realised, and that they led to difficulties, many of which were associated with the concurrent pursuit of an intimate relationship and home-life. In all cases, daily life was routinised partly to help accomplish care tasks but was found monotonous, while surveillance was usual but restrictive, and prevented both the carers and those with dementia from doing things that they wished to do. Those with dementia were distressed by the denial of their former identities, such as car-driver or home-maker, and by being treated like children. Both the carers and the people with dementia had various ways of balancing custodial care, their intimate relationships and home-life, such as combining routines with other activities, evading surveillance or carrying it out by indirect means, and there were many attempts to maintain some semblance of former identities.
Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori resistant strains in the southern part of Switzerland.

Discovered in the last decade, Heliobacter pylori is now known to play a role in the onset of chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer and also to be strongly associated with gastric cancer and MucosaAssociated Lymphoid Tissue (MALT) lymphoma [1,2]. These findings have revolutionized the therapeutical approach to gastric pathology. Moreover, the wide spread of dyspeptic symptoms has contributed to the development of a variety of noninvasive diagnostic assays, such as the urea breath test, serologic and whole blood tests, most of which are available to the primary care physicians for the rapid diagnosis of H. pylori infection. As a consequence, antibiotic eradication therapy has been widely applied, often without endoscopic examination which is essential for the identification of the cause of the gastric pathophysiological disturbances. At present, the most commonly used treatment is the triple therapy: a proton pump inhibitor and two antibiotics (metronidazole plus clarithromycin, or amoxycillin plus clarithromycin, or metronidazole plus amoxycillin) [3]. Because of the abuse of this therapeutic scheme, a consistent increase in metronidazole and clarithromycin resistance among H. pylori strains has been monitored [4,5]. Recently the first case of an amoxycillin-resistant H. pylori strain has also been reported [6]. The appearance of resistant strains is one of the major causes of treatment failure [7]. Thus, monitoring the prevalence of resistant strains and establishing the local susceptibility level to the commonly used drugs is at least as important as the development of new antimicrobial agents. For this reason and because of the high incidence of gastric cancer in our region [8,9] (the southern part of Switzerland together with the northern part of Italy) we collected 142 H. pylori strains from different patients living in the Cantone Ticino (southern part of Switzerland) in 1996 and 1997. These strains were tested for susceptibility to metronidazole, clarithromycin and amoxycillin. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 142 H. pylori strains were determined using the E-test method (AB Biodisk, Solna, Sweden) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The MIC breakpoint values for H. pylori resistance were chosen according to the available data published in the literature: 8 mg/L for both metronidazole and clarithromycin, and 2 mg/L
Dynamic Changes of Pectin Epitopes in Cell Walls during the Development of the Procambium–Cambium Continuum in Poplar

The change of pectin epitopes during procambium–cambium continuum development was investigated by immunolocalization in poplar. The monoclonal antibody JIM5 labels homogalacturonan (HGA) with a low degree of esterification, and the monoclonal antibody JIM7 labels HGA with a high degree of methyl-esterification. Arabinan, rather than galactan, and HGA with low degree of esterification were located in the cell walls of procambial, while HGA with a low degree of esterification was located in the tangential walls, and galactan was located in both the tangential and radial walls of procambial, yet nearly no arabinan was located in the tangential walls of the cambial cells. The changes in pectin distribution took place when periclinal divisions appeared within a procambial trace. The distribution difference of pectin epitopes was also present in procambium–cambium derivatives. The arabinan existed in all cell walls of primary xylem, but was absent from the tangential walls of secondary xylem cells. The galactan existed only in mature primary phloem. Furthermore, 19 pectin methylesterases (PMEs) genes were identified by RNA sequencing, six genes presented highly differentially and were supposed to be involved in the cell wall esterification process. The results provide direct evidence of the dynamic changes of pectin epitopes during the development of the procambium–cambium continuum in poplar.
Twilight of the elites: America after meritocracy

integration. In the process, intellectuals struggled to make sense of Britain’s international relations and to articulate a foreign policy that might meet the challenges it faced. Hall argues that this was ultimately ‘because neither internationalism nor whiggism . were appropriate in the new circumstances’, particularly because they tended ‘to prize historical knowledge over a grasp of contemporary issues, and emphasized the need to distance oneself from events and practitioners. Together, they conspired to make it difficult for British intellectuals properly to confront and respond to the dilemmas they and their country faced in the post-war years’ (183). Dilemmas of decline is a pleasure to read. It is an ambitious study, providing a compelling and persuasive analysis of great relevance, and offering an important contribution to the intellectual history of international relations, and indeed to the debate on British decline and Britain’s alleged inability to engage seriously with mainstream European trends. It is a pity thatDilemmas of decline does not cover the period from 1976 to the present, for the problems highlighted by the author have continued to baffle policymakers. There is room for a second volume, and Hall should be encouraged to write it.
The Impact of Immigrant Concentration in Spanish Schools: School, Class, and Composition Effects

The existence of a negative correlation between the concentration of immigrants in certain schools and the school attainment of its students is a well-documented empirical conclusion in the American and European sociology of education, yet sociologists of education are still debating why the migrant (and ethnic) composition of schools has such an impact on results above and beyond individual characteristics. Using a Spanish survey study (INECSE, Evaluacion de la Educacion Primaria 2003, Madrid, 2005), this article intends to confirm and measure the poorer results of students in schools where immigrants are more highly represented. It also seeks to identify potential explanations to account for variation in attainment due to the concentration of immigrant origin students in some schools. In the literature, the empirical analyses that seek to explain this empirical regularity are far less frequent, despite the fact that the list of its potential causes includes several mediating mechanisms. We deal with three main groups of causes that could be responsible for this regularity: (i) micro-interactions or peer group effects; (ii) compositional effects—the pupil population is not randomly distributed on the school map but according to important features that determine their future school attainment (such as socio-economic status); and (iii) school/classroom effects—given their contextual characteristics, the quantity and quality of their human and material resources, some schools offer a less stimulating learning environment.
Common and differential alterations of general emotion processing in obsessive-compulsive and social anxiety disorder

Background Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) are characterized by biased perception and processing of potentially threatening stimuli. A hyper-reactivity of the fear-circuit [e.g. amygdala, anterior cingulate (ACC)] has been consistently reported using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in SAD in comparison with healthy controls (HCs). Studies investigating the processing of specific emotional stimuli in OCD reported mainly orbitofrontal-striatal abnormalities. The goal of this study was to examine similar/common and differential neurobiological responses in OCD and SAD using unspecific emotional stimuli. Method Fifty-four subjects participated: two groups (each n = 18) of outpatients with a current diagnosis of OCD or SAD, and 18 HCs. All subjects underwent fMRI while anticipating and perceiving unspecific visual stimuli with prior announced emotional valence (e.g. positive). Results Compared to HCs, the combined patient group showed increased activation in amygdala, caudate and prefrontal/orbitofrontal cortex while anticipating unspecific emotional stimuli. Caudate was more active in the combined patient group during perception. A comparison between the OCD and the SAD samples revealed increased amygdala and decreased rostral ACC activation in OCD patients during perception, but no differences in the anticipation phase. Conclusions Overall, we could identify common fronto-subcortical hyper-reactivity in OCD and SAD while anticipating and perceiving unspecific emotional stimuli. While differential neurobiological responses between OCD and SAD when processing specific stimuli are evident from the literature, differences were less pronounced using unspecific stimuli. This could indicate a disturbance of emotion regulation common to both OCD and SAD.
Counterexamples of Strichartz Inequalities for Schrodinger Equations with Repulsive Potentials

MICHAEL GOLDBERG, LUIS VEGA, AND NICOLA VISCIGLIAAbstract. In each dimension n ≥ 2, we construct a class of nonnegativepotentials that are homogeneous of order −σ, chosen from the range 0 ≤ σ < 2,and for which the perturbed Schro¨dinger equation does not satisfy global intime Strichartz estimates.
The Code of Best Practice on Corporate Governance

Based on a conference speech, examines one of the recommendations of the Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance contained in the Cadbury Report. Discusses the four sections of the Code of Practice – The Board of Directors, Non‐executive Directors, Executive Directors and Reporting and Controls; also the issue of compliance with the Code.
African American Men’s Personal Sense of Mastery: The Consequences of the Adolescent Environment, Self-Concept, and Adult Achievement

Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the objective of this article is to examine which factors over the life course contribute to African American males’personal sense of mastery. Although adolescent poverty does not appear to hamper the adult mastery of African American men, results show that consequential adolescent variables are parental educational attainment, region of origin, self-esteem, and educational aspirations. The analysis also suggests that current adult achievement (e.g., educational attainment and earnings) is also a significant determinant of adult mastery in African American males. This finding indicates that, despite the absence of economic and interpersonal resources in adolescence, African American males may be able to compensate for such deprivation through individual achievement—which directly affects personal mastery.
Family, Ethnicity, and Immigrant Youths’ Educational Achievements

Data from the 1988 National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) are used to examine immigrant youths’ reading comprehension and mathematics’ standardized scores as well as their parents’ demographic characteristics and parent-child relations that could influence children’s educational achievements. The comparisons were among parents who had emigrated from Asian, Central and South American, or the less often included European countries and their first- and second-generation offspring. It appeared that Asian students did somewhat better than the other groups. However, regardless of ethnicity and also as hypothesized, parents’ aspirations for their children to obtain more education as well as the children’s own aspirations generally were positively related to their children’s doing well in school. Contrary to previous research, though, ethnic background did not consistently differentiate parental help with homework or parent-child conversations about school on the adolescents’ standardized scores.
n Kognitiewe gebruiksgebaseerde beskrywingsmodel vir die Afrikaanse grammatika

In this article, aspects of a cognitive usage-based descriptive framework for Afrikaans grammar are spelled out in detail, with the aim of setting the agenda for the description of Afrikaans morphological (and other) constructions. Constructs and terms from cognitive grammar that are necessary for the description of such constructions are explicated and illustrated, using examples from Afrikaans morphology. With regard to composition, it is shown that the question 'How is a certain construction formed? ' must be answered, with specific reference to correspondence, profile determinacy, conceptual and phonological autonomy and dependence, and constituency. It is argued that the essential question that must be answered pertaining to categorisation is the question: 'What does the categorisation network of the construction look like? '. For this purpose, the categorisation network of a certain construction must be postulated. Subsequently, it is illustrated that the question 'Can a construction schema or sub-sch.
Instruction based manipulation of memory confidence and perceived responsibility in a non-clinical sample and its effects on checking behaviour and memory task performance.

Individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), specifically checking compulsions (CC), report they check because they doubt their memory ability. Repeated checking, however, appears to perpetuate checking behaviour and further enhances uncertainty over memory ability. It is unclear if a memory deficit underlies CC or whether beliefs about one’s memory ability initially induce CC. Beliefs about one’s metamemory (specifically low memory confidence: LMC) and a high sense of responsibility (HR) over preventing harm have separately been associated with CC. However, the influence of LMC and HR together have not causally been linked to actual checking or memory performance as yet. Therefore the current study manipulated healthy participants’ {n= 61) memory confidence by providing either positive or negative false feedback on performance in a memory task involving presentation of verbal and visual items. Furthermore, high or low responsibility feedback was given to manipulate sense of responsibility. Performance (memory accuracy and response bias) and memory confidence for tasks on an actual recognition test were measured, in addition to checking behaviour (urge to check and actual checking). Results revealed that the manipulations did not affect urge to check but did affect memory confidence, specifically numerically enhancing actual checking of verbal stimuli in LMC groups. Memory accuracy was better for easier visual tasks but also response bias was more liberal for verbal items in LMC groups. The responsibility manipulation appeared to be ineffective. Thus metamemory beliefs may induce checking behaviour and affect memory task performance. Limitations of the study and the roles of task difficulty and response bias are discussed in relation to CC experimental investigations, but also regarding cognitivebehavioural formulations and treatments of OCD.
Supporting Personalization with Actively Promoting Sales of Service

Personalization is an important determinant of perceived service quality and of user satisfaction. The personalized service needs the service provider's initiative. Actively promoting sales of service (APSS) is a useful ability to support the service initiative. In this paper, the personalization is extended and integrated into distributed service system, in which the service information center can enhance the service provider's initiative. This paper explains the APSS, and brings up a framework of the APSS, which mainly includes describing the information of service and served object, mining out potential served objects, obtaining served object trust degrees and trends, ascertaining the promotion object, and deducing the mode of promotion message