Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy optimizations for data center network: Formulation and its solution

Data center consumes increasing amount of power nowadays, together with expanding number of data centers and upgrading data center scale, its power consumption becomes a knotty issue. While main efforts of this research focus on server and storage power reduction, network devices as part of the key components of data centers, also contribute to the overall power consumption as data centers expand. In this paper, we address this problem with two perspectives. First, in a macro level, we attempt to reduce redundant energy usage incurred by network redundancies for load balancing. Second, in the micro level, we design algorithm to limit port rate in order to reduce unnecessary power consumption. Given the guidelines we obtained from problem formulation, we propose a solution based on greedy approach with integration of network traffic and minimization of switch link rate. We also present results from a simulation-based performance evaluation which shows that expected power saving is achieved with tolerable delay.
Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Quantum Dot Stabilized Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoprobe for Fluorescence, Magnetic Resonance, and Computed Tomography Triple‐Modal In Vivo Bioimaging

Multimodal imaging, which combines complementary information of two or more imaging modalities, offers huge advantages. In this paper, the synthesis, characterization, and application of superparamagnetic nitrogen‐doped carbon‐iron oxide hybrid quantum dots (C‐Fe3O4 QDs) is reported for triple‐modal bioimaging through fluorescence/magnetic resonance/computed tomography (FL/MR/CT). Especially, C‐Fe3O4 QDs are synthesized by using poly (γ‐glutamic acid) as a precursor and stabilizer via a green and facile one‐pot hydrothermal approach. The as‐prepared C‐Fe3O4 QDs exhibit excellent water dispersibility, wavelength‐tunable FL property with high quantum yield of about 21.6%, good photostability, strong superparamagnetic property as well as favorable biocompatibility. Meanwhile, these C‐Fe3O4 QDs also show a transverse relaxivity value (r 2) of 154.10 mm −1 s−1 for T2‐weighted MR imaging mode and an observable X‐ray attenuation effect for CT imaging mode. Moreover, the in vivo bioimaging of tumor‐bearing nude mice by combining FL, MR, and CT images further demonstrates that the as‐prepared C‐Fe3O4 QDs can be readily and efficiently used in FL/MR/CT triple‐modal tumor imaging. Hence, the new and facile one‐pot synthesis strategy for preparing multifunctional C‐Fe3O4 QDs nanoprobes provides a convenient way for achieving an effective and versatile agent for tumorous bioimaging/or diagnostics.
Wi-Fi Offloading Model for Increasing Per-User throughput using MAPR Protocol in Heterogeneous Networks

: Now-a-days, internet services have become typical through which people can able to adore anytime and anywhere internet (broadband) wireless communication services. With the growth of smart phones, laptops and tablets, network traffic has exponentially increased. Offloading the network traffic through various other devices such as Wi-Fi access points have been conceived to be frequent remedy for this problem. Therefore, in this paper, we examine the Wi-Fi Access Points (Wi-Fi AP) deployment in a metropolitan network area for better offloading of Wi-Fi network traffic and proposed a protocol named Multi Access Point Routing (MAPR). MAPR increases the per user throughput and network coverage as well. In network simulation, we introduce offloading ratio, per user throughput, network coverage that our proposed algorithm can attain with multiple access points (APs). The simulation results show that our proposed MAPR protocol provides better performance when compared to other Existing protocol in terms of increased per user throughput and coverage.
Biotechnological potential for degradation of isoprene: a review

Abstract Isoprene, the ubiquitous, highly emitted non-methane volatile hydrocarbon, affects atmospheric chemistry and human health, and this makes its removal from the contaminated environment imperative. Physicochemical degradation of isoprene is inefficient and generates secondary pollutants. Therefore, biodegradation can be considered as the safer approach for its efficient abatement. This review summarizes efforts in this regard that led to tracking the diverse groups of isoprene degrading bacteria such as Methanotrophs, Xanthobacter, Nocardia, Alcaligenes, Rhodococcus, Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteriodetes, Pseudomonas, and Alcanivorax. Biodegradation of isoprene by such bacteria in batch and continuous modes has been elaborated. The products, pathways and the key enzymes associated with isoprene biodegradation have also been presented.
Distance learning for maternal and child health nurses and midwives in Mongolia: a qualitative evaluation

BACKGROUND Continuing education is vital for the development of the competencies of nurses and midwives. We analysed the effectiveness of a distance education programme for maternal and child health nurses and midwives in Mongolia, assessing its strengths and limitations and ways in which it could be improved. The aim of this research is to provide an analysis of the successes and failures of the programme, in order to improve future versions of this and similar programmes in Mongolia and elsewhere. METHODS We carried out a qualitative descriptive study in Mongolia in August 2015. This consisted of three semi-structured interviews and two focus groups in the Second National Hospital, Ulaanbaatar, and three semi-structured interviews and one focus group in Dornogovi Provincial Maternal Hospital, Sainshand, Dornogovi Province. In total, there were 22 participants in our research. Data from the interviews and focus groups were thematically coded and analysed using NVivo version 10. FINDINGS The distance education programme is well received by participants. They suggest that it has improved their clinical practice and education in a number of areas, and are anxious for the programme to continue. A number of alterations would be necessary to improve both the quality of the programme and the ability of participants to foster change on the basis of what they have learnt. This provides challenges for both the programme organizers and the providers of maternal and child health services in Mongolia. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND/OR HEALTH POLICY The success of the distance education programme suggests that collaborations of this type are a cost-effective method of disseminating best practice in policy and practice to improve the quality of care provided to mothers and children in low-resource settings. CONCLUSIONS A distance education programme is vital to link maternal care providers in Mongolia to new trends in care. Mongolia's relative isolation means that this programme is particularly valuable there. However, the programme could work equally well in other developing country settings.
Multiscale Fully Convolutional Network for Foreground Object Detection in Infrared Videos

Accurate and fast infrared (IR) foreground object detection is one of the most significant issues to be solved due to its important meaning for IR target recognition, IR precise guidance, IR video surveillance, and so on. A common approach for such tasks is “background subtraction,” which aims to detect foreground object through background modeling. Thus far, many background subtraction methods have been proposed and have achieved good performance. However, due to the special characteristics of IR images, a few algorithms are suitable for IR foreground object detection. Recently, features learned from convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have demonstrated great success in many vision tasks, such as classification and recognition. In this letter, we propose a novel multiscale fully convolutional network architecture for IR foreground object detection. Given a CNN model pretrained on a large-scale image data set, our method takes output features from different layers of the network. With features from multiple scales, our feature representation contains both category-level semantics and fine-grain details. The experimental results on IR image sequences show that the proposed method achieves the state-of-the-art performance while operating in real time.
The effects of both length and tube-diameter on the conductance of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Based on the tight-binding model, we develop a transfer-matrix method to study the electronic conductance of single-walled carbon nanotubes. It is found that there exists a narrow conductance gap in metallic zigzag nanotubes corresponding to the curvature-induced energy gap. In addition, the conductance near the Fermi level depends on both the diameter and the length of the carbon nanotube. Moreover, ballistic, diffused or classical transport may be found in carbon nanotubes with variation of energy.
Solution synthesis of GeS and GeSe nanosheets for high-sensitivity photodetectors

We report the synthesis of 2D nanosheets of GeS and GeSe by facile solution based approaches. The synthesized nanosheets are single-crystalline in nature with lateral dimensions in micrometers. Band structures calculated from DFT calculations predicted a direct bandgap value of 1.67 and 1.37 eV for GeS and GeSe, respectively. The experimental bandgap values (GeS, Eg = 1.6 eV and GeSe, Eg = 1.2 eV) determined from optical measurements are slightly smaller than the predicted ones. Photoresponse measurements of GeS and GeSe nanosheets revealed that the nanosheets are extremely photoresponsive toward the incident light and exhibit a high photoresponsivity of up to 173 and 870 A W−1 under a 405 nm laser diode, respectively. These values are several orders of magnitude higher than those of previous reports for graphene and many other metal chalcogenide nanosheet photodetectors. In addition, the photodetectors show a fast photoresponse time and a specific detectivity on the order of 1013 Jones. These results show that both the GeS and GeSe nanosheets are promising narrow bandgap semiconductors for high performance photodetectors.
A Study on Heat Transfer Characteristics of PCBs with a Carbon CCL

85, Chunhwa-ro, Bubuk-myeonm Miryang-si, Gyeongnam-do, Korea(Received October 23, 2015: Corrected December 8, 2015: Accepted December 24, 2015)초록: 본 논문에서는 PCB용 카본 CCL의 열전달 특성을 실험과 수치해석을 통해 연구하였는데 카본 CCL의 특성연구를 위해 기존 FR-4 코어와 Heavy copper 코어를 적용한 PCB를 비교하였다. 열전달특성 분석을 위해 코어는 한 개와 두 개가 적용된 HDI PCB 샘플이 제작되었고, 카본코어는 Pan grade와 pitch grade의 2종이 적용되었으며, 코어 두께에 의한 열전달 특성도 평가되었다. 연구결과에 의하면 카본 코어의 열전달 특성은 heavy copper 코어보다는 낮으나 FR-4 코어보다는 우수하였다. 또한, 카본 코어와 heavy copper 코어는 두께가 증가할수록 열전달 특성이 높아졌으나 FR-4코어는 두께가 증가할수록 열전달 특성이 낮아졌다. heavy copper 코어 적용시 드릴마모도 증가, 무게 증가, 전기절연성확보를 위한 절연재의 추가로 원가상승을 고려할 때 카본 코어가 PCB의 열전달 특성 향상을 위한 대안이 될 것으로 판단된다. Abstract: In this paper, the heat transfer characteristics of PCB (Printed Circuit Board) with cabon CCL (Copper CladedLayer) were studied through experiments and numerical analysis to compare of PCBs with conventional the FR-4 coreand heavy copper cores. For study, samples are producted with HDI (High Density Interconnection) PCB of mobile phonewith variations of thickness of core materials and grades of carbon material to evaluate heat transfer characteristicsrespectively. From this research results, heat transfer characteristics of the carbon core was rather low than heavy copper,but better than FR-4 core. In addition, even though the carbon and heavy copper core contributed on the heat transfercharacteristics as their thickness increases, FR-4 cores disturbed heat transfer characteristics as it’s thickness increases.Therefore, carbon core is recommendable to improve the heat transfer characteristics of the PCB because heavy coppercore has much disadvantages such as increasing of wear of drill, the weight of PCB, and manufacturing cost by additionalinsulation materials for electrical insulation. Keywords: Carbon CCL, Heat transfer, PCBs, Experiments, FEM
Association between Iron Status and Lipid Peroxidation in Obese and Non-Obese Women

Background: Obesity is associated with increased lipid peroxidation. It has also been suggested that risk of lipid peroxidation increases with increasing body iron stores. The aim of this study was to examine the association of body iron status with the concentration of plasma malondialdehyde (P-MDA) as a marker of lipid peroxidation in obese and non-obese women. Methods: In a case control study we investigated iron status by plasma ferritin, iron and total iron binding capacity (TIBC) measurements and lipid peroxidation by plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) levels measurements in 25 obese women and 25 non-obese women matched for age. Results: Plasma ferritin levels were significantly higher in obese groups compared with control groups (P< 0.001). Plasma TIBC levels were not different in both groups and plasma iron levels were significantly higher in obese groups (P< 0.05). In obese groups, plasma MDA levels were significantly higher when compared with control groups (P< 0.001). There were positive correlation between body mass index and plasma MDA levels (r= 0.75, P< 0.0001). Plasma MDA levels were positively correlated with plasma iron levels (r= 0.26, P= 0.001) and plasma ferritin levels (r= 0.39, P< 0.0001) but not with TIBC levels. Conclusion: These findings suggest that obese menstruating women are at low risk of depleting iron stores and hence, increasing body iron elevates the CHD risk by promoting the lipid peroxidation. Therefore, iron fortification programs might be undesirable for such subjects.
Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4) of Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells Participates in Transmembrane Signaling in Response to Photoreceptor Outer Segments

Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells mediate the recognition and clearance of effete photoreceptor outer segments (POS), a process central to the maintenance of normal vision. Given the emerging importance of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in transmembrane signaling in response to invading pathogens as well as endogenous substances, we hypothesized that TLRs are associated with RPE cell management of POS. TLR4 clusters on human RPE cells in response to human, but not bovine, POS. However, TLR4 clustering could be inhibited by saturating concentrations of an inhibitory anti-TLR4 mAb. Furthermore, human POS binding to human RPE cells elicited transmembrane metabolic and calcium signals within RPE cells, which could be blocked by saturating doses of an inhibitory anti-TLR4 mAb. However, the heterologous combination of bovine POS and human RPE did not trigger these signals. The pattern recognition receptor CD36 collected at the POS–RPE cell interface for both homologous and heterologous samples, but human TLR4 only collected at the human POS–human RPE cell interface. Kinetic experiments of human POS binding to human RPE cells revealed that CD36 arrives at the POS–RPE interface followed by TLR4 accumulation within 2 min. Metabolic and calcium signals immediately follow. Similarly, the production of reactive oxygen metabolites (ROMs) was observed for the homologous human system, but not the heterologous bovine POS–human RPE cell system. As (a) the bovine POS/human RPE combination did not elicit TLR4 accumulation, RPE signaling, or ROM release, (b) TLR4 arrives at the POS–RPE cell interface just before signaling, (c) TLR4 blockade with an inhibitory anti-TLR4 mAb inhibited TLR4 clustering, signaling, and ROM release in the human POS–human RPE system, and (d) TLR4 demonstrates similar clustering and signaling responses to POS in confluent RPE monolayers, we suggest that TLR4 of RPE cells participates in transmembrane signaling events that contribute to the management of human POS.
The Use of Regional or Neuraxial Anesthesia for Below-Knee Amputations May Reduce the Need for Perioperative Blood Transfusions

Background and Objectives Amputations of the lower extremity remain a common procedure in a high-risk population. Perioperative morbidity and mortality reach as high as 14.1% in below-knee amputations. We aimed to determine whether regional, or neuraxial, anesthesia, when compared with general anesthesia (GA), would be associated with reduced perioperative morbidity and mortality. Methods We queried the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data set. The study population was divided into 2 groups: patients undergoing regional anesthesia (RA) and those undergoing GA. The primary end point for our study was 30-day mortality. The secondary end points were return to the operating room, surgical site infections, pulmonary complications, acute kidney injury, urinary tract infection, cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, perioperative transfusions, thromboembolisms, sepsis, composite measure of postoperative complications, and days from operation to discharge. Results Twelve thousand seven hundred twenty-three patients were identified. Older patients, white patients, patients with a higher body mass index, patients without dyspnea, patients with independent functional status, smokers, patients with sepsis, and patients with bleeding disorders were associated with receiving GA. Hispanic patients, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and patients with congestive heart failure were associated with receiving RA. Our study did not reveal a 30-day mortality difference between RA and GA. Regional anesthesia was associated with a significantly decreased need for perioperative blood transfusions (11.8% vs 16.5%, P < 0.001) and a decrease in the composite measure of postoperative complications (25.7% vs 29.1%, P < 0.04). Conclusions Regional anesthesia does not offer a mortality advantage over GA, but RA may reduce the need for perioperative blood transfusions.
Energy Efficiency Optimization With Interference Alignment in Multi-Cell MIMO Interfering Broadcast Channels

Characterizing the fundamental energy efficiency (EE) performance of multiple-input-multiple-output interfering broadcast channels (MIMO-IFBC) is important for the design of green wireless system. In this paper, we propose a new network architecture proposition based on EE maximization for Multi-Cell MIMO-IFBC within the context of interference alignment (IA). Particularly, EE is maximized subject to maximum power and minimum throughput constraints. We propose two schemes to optimize EE for different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regions. For high-SNR operating regions, we employ a grouping-based IA scheme to jointly cancel intra- and inter-cell interferences and thus transform the MIMO-IFBC to a single-cell MIMO scenario. A gradient-based power adaptation scheme is proposed based on water-filling power adaptation and singular value decomposition to maximize EE for each cell. For moderate SNR cases, we propose an approach using dirty paper coding (DPC) with the principle of multiple access channel and broadcast channel duality to perform IA while maximizing EE in each cell. The algorithm in its dual form is solved using a subgradient method and a bisection searching scheme. Simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed schemes over several existing approaches. It also shows that interference-nulling-based IA approaches outperform hybrid DPC-IA approach in high-SNR region, and the opposite occurs in low-SNR region.
Metabolic Engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for Cadaverine Fermentation

Cadaverine, the expected raw material of polyamides, is produced by decarboxylation of L-lysine. If we could produce cadaverine from the cheapest sugar, and as a renewable resource, it would be an effective solution against global warming, but there has been no attempt to produce cadaverine from glucose by fermentation. We focused on Corynebacterium glutamicum, whose L-lysine fermentation ability is superior, and constructed a metabolically engineered C. glutamicum in which the L-homoserine dehydrogenase gene (hom) was replaced by the L-lysine decarboxylase gene (cadA) of Escherichia coli. In this recombinant strain, cadaverine was produced at a concentration of 2.6 g/l, equivalent to up to 9.1% (molecular yield) of the glucose transformed into cadaverine in neutralizing cultivation. This is the first report of cadaverine fermentation by C. glutamicum.
The impact of visual cues on haptic compliance discrimination using a pseudo-haptic robotic system

A psychophysical magnitude estimation experiment was set up to determine the extent of the contribution of visual feedback during haptic compliance discrimination. Subjects remotely palpated physical compliant samples using a novel pseudo-haptic feedback system which allowed for independent manipulation of visual and haptic feedback. Subjects were asked to rate the compliance of a test sample based on that of a reference sample. While visual feedback was modified by switching the physical test samples shown to participants during indentation, haptic compliance of the test samples was always identical to that of the reference sample. Any variations in haptic sensation was a result of pseudo-haptic illusions. Ratings were collated and fitted to Steven's power law as well as Weber's law. A 0.18 power exponent suggests that the system was successful in generating viscoelastic properties through variations in visual information only. A 19.6% visual change from the reference compliance was necessary in order to perceive a change in haptic compliance using the pseudo-haptic system. These findings could prove beneficial in research and educationalfacilities where advanced force feedback devices are limited or inaccessible, where the concept of pseudo-haptics could be used to simulate various mechanical properties of virtual tissue for training purposes without the needfor complicated or costly force feedback. )
EFFECT OF ACCELERATING COOLING ON MICROSTRUCTURE AND TOUGHNESS OF HAZ OF X70 PIPELINE STEEL

Based on the effect of accelerating cooling on the microstructure and properties of thermo-mechanical control process (TMCP) steel, we proposed to adopt this method for improvement of heat affect zone (HAZ) toughness of X70 pipeline steel. The results of simulated experiment and actual weldment indicate that at appropriate accelerating cooling rate the M-A constituent in HAZ is reduced obviously in amount and replaced by tough austenite films. Coarse bainitic sheaves were obtained when jetting water directly to the sample and the toughness is not improved. Accelerating cooling with appropriate cooling rate is a simple and efficient method to improve the HAZ toughness.
Silicon optical fibres – past, present, and future

Abstract This paper reviews the past, present and prospective future of silicon optical fibres. The incorporation of silicon with its rich optoelectronic functionality into existing glass fibre technologies presents a route to controlling and manipulating the transmitted light in an unprecedented manner – opening the door to new and wide-ranging applications. Currently, there are two main fabrication approaches to producing these fibres – one involving chemical deposition inside glass capillary templates and the other a more traditional drawing tower technique starting from a rod-in-tube preform – each of which offers different advantages in terms of the material, geometry and waveguiding properties. As 2016 represents the 10th anniversary of the first silicon optical fibre, it is timely to evaluate and speculate on the future of this technology – in all its forms.