Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Causality-Driven Performance Monitoring and Scaling Automation for Managed Solutions

A key feature of Cloud computing is its agility and flexibility to support the scalability needs of business solutions. Currently, the agility is only limited to the scalability of the compute, memory and storage. To improve an application's agility, we need to monitor & measure solution level metrics and associate the performance of the metrics to the business agility needs of the solution by making real-time scalability or change decisions. In this paper, we illustrate a scaling decision mechanism utilizing the monitoring data from infrastructure, middleware, and business level metrics. We use these performance metrics as input to a causality analysis model to make architecture changes or scalability decisions. Mathematically, we define the causality as a graph to link the changes in the measured metric values to the action of the solution change. The causality analysis follows scalability principles as best practices. They are a) the principle of performance scalability b) principle of contribution margin for scalability, and c) principle of the least cost of SLA compliance. We define these scalability principles as the rules to ensure that the business stakeholder of the solution can maintain or improve their business quality or profit margins as the computing capability scales up or down. To implement those principles, we need to establish the linkages of the business metrics to the decision of changes. To make such linkage, we first utilize causality analysis to identify feasible scaling actions, and then associate those actions with the system, application, and business performance metrics. With the help of causality analysis, we implement a performance monitoring and scaling automation framework for managed solutions using an Open Source Monitoring system.
Optimization of Reliability of Network of Given Connectivity using Genetic Algorithm

Reliability is one of the important measures of how well the system meets its design objective, and mathematically is the probability that a system will perform satisfactorily for at least a given period of time. When the system is described by a connected network of N components (nodes) and their L connection (links), the reliability of the system becomes a difficult network design problem which solutions are of great practical interest in science and engineering. This paper discusses the numerical method of finding the most reliable network for a given N and L using genetic algorithm. For a given topology of the network, the reliability is numerically computed using adjacency matrix. For a search in the space of all possible topologies of the connected network with N nodes and L links, genetic operators such as mutation and crossover are applied to the adjacency matrix through a string representation. In the context of graphs, the mutation of strings in genetic algorithm corresponds to the rewiring of graphs, while crossover corresponds to the interchange of the sub-graphs. For small networks where the most reliable network can be found by exhaustive search, genetic algorithm is very efficient. For larger networks, our results not only demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithm, but also suggest that the most reliable network will have high symmetry.
Blockwise Amplify-and-Forward Relaying Strategies for Multipoint-to-Multipoint MIMO Networks

In this letter, we consider a multipoint-to-multipoint transmission system which employs a single relay in wireless networks where all source, destination and relay nodes are equipped with multiple antennas. For amplify-and-forward relay systems, we propose new linear processing strategies for maximizing the sum rate performance by applying a blockwise relaying method combined with convex optimization techniques. To reduce a computational complexity, we first consider a zero-forcing based relay only optimization scheme, which generate a closed-form solution in a non-iterative fashion. In order to further improve the sum rate at low signal-to-noise ratio regimes, we additionally design an enhanced relay filter by exploiting the blockwise relaying method based on a minimum mean-square error criterion. Simulation results show that the proposed relay design strategies outperform the existing conventional schemes in terms of the sum rate.
Rheological Investigations in Understanding Shear‐Enhanced Crystallization of Isotactic Poly(propylene)/Multi‐Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites

A novel experimental technique to follow the crystallization processes of poly(propylene)/ MWCNT composites that experience a steady shear deformation using dynamic melt rheometry is described. The effects of heterogeneous nucleation, temperature, and preshear on the crystallization behaviors were determined. A quantitative evaluation of crystallization kinetics difference between quiescent and preshear conditions could be achieved. By combining rheology with POM, we demonstrate that two different crystallization processes account for the shear-enhanced crystallization at low and high temperatures, respectively.
An aspect-oriented framework for orthogonal persistence

The life cycle of software applications in general is very short and with extreme volatile requirements. Within these conditions programmers need development tools and techniques with an extreme level of productivity. We consider the code reuse as the most prominent approach to solve that problem. Our proposal uses the advantages provided by the Aspect-Oriented Programming in order to build a reusable framework capable to turn both programmer and application oblivious as far as data persistence is concerned, thus avoiding the need to write any line of code about that concern. Besides the benefits to productivity, the software quality increases. This paper describes the actual state of the art, identifying the main challenge to build a complete and reusable framework for Orthogonal Persistence in concurrent environments with support for transactions. The present work also includes a successfully developed prototype of that framework, capable of freeing the programmer of implementing any read or write data operations. This prototype is supported by an object oriented database and, in the future, will also use a relational database and have support for transactions.
Electro-thermo-elastic formulation for the analysis of smart structures

Coupled electro-thermo-elastic equations applicable for the analysis of smart structures with piezoelectric patches/layers have been derived from the fundamental principles of mass, linear momentum, angular momentum, energy and charge conservation. The relevant constitutive equations have been obtained by using the second law of thermodynamics. The interaction of the electric field and polarization introduces distributed non-linear body force in the piezo material, and in addition renders the stress tensor non-symmetric due to distributed couple. Using the linear equations, and applying a layer-by-layer finite element model, the induced electric potential and mechanical deformations in the piezo and non-piezo core material have been obtained for various cases of actuation and sensing of a smart beam under external mechanical, electrical and thermal loadings. The mathematical formulation and the solution technique have been validated by comparing the results of the present study with those available in the literature. It is also shown that piezo patches can be effectively used for shape control.
Fabrication of Vertically Aligned Ferroelectric Polyvinylidene Fluoride Mesoscale Rod Arrays

We have fabricated vertically aligned ferroelectric PVDF mesoscale rod arrays comprising b and c phases using a 200 nm diameter anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) as the porous template. We could synthesize the ferroelectric phase in mesoscale rod forms by combining the well-established recipe for crystallizing the b phase using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at low temperature and template-guided infiltration processing for the rods using AAO. We measured the dimensions of the PVDF rods by scanning elec- tron microscopy and identified the polymorph phases by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The length of the rods varied from 3.82 lm to 1.09 lm and the diameter from 232 nm to 287 nm when the volume ratio between DMSO and ace- tone changed from 5 : 5 to 10 : 0. We obtained well-defined piezoresponse hysteresis loops for all rods with remnant piezoresponse ranging from 2.12 pm/V to 5.04 pm/V and coercive voltage ranging from 2.29 V to 2.71 V using piezoresponse force microscopy. Our results serve as a processing platform for flexible electronic devices that need high capacitance and piezoelectric functionalities such as flexible memory devices or body energy harvesting devices for intelligent systems. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 000: 000-000, 2013
A sparsity based preprocessing for noise robust speech recognition

We show a method to sparsify the speech input that improves the robustness of an automatic speech recognizer. The proposed scheme is added to the system as a preprocessing module prior to the acoustic feature extraction. The preprocessing module passes the input speech signal through a linear predictive (LP) analysis filter and enforces sparsity in the LP residue domain. The sparsified prediction residue finally is filtered to generate the speech signal for computing a sequence of conventional feature vectors used in automatic speech recognition (ASR). Using standard feature vectors, our experiments show that sparsification in LP residue domain improves robustness in ASR performance.
Composition, size distribution, optical properties and radiative effects of re-suspended local mineral dust of Rome area by individual-particle microanalysis and radiative transfer modelling

The manuscript shows interesting results of measurements in an area little explored. Composition analysis was well done, combining different complementary methodologies. However, the authors made strong hypothesis without enough justiﬁcation and thus the main conclusions are not as strong. Beside, manuscript english writing needs improving in some points. Although the paper has potential interest for the ACP audience, I ﬁnd it in need of major changes. The authors would like to thank the Anonymous Referee #2 for helpful suggestions and remarks, which have been followed in most cases, in the revised Manuscript, and discussed in the following text. refer also to the supplement pdf ﬁle attached to these comments. Calibration of SEM XEDS not another paper. Reliability is only accessed by comparison with EDXRF, which the calibration was not shown/discussed well. If they used NIST standard for calibration, or a different dust source, scanning electron microscopy / X-ray energy-dispersive microanalysis (SEM XEDS) of individual mineral particles, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of bulk dust samples, number and volume size distribution (SD) building from microanalysis data of mineral particles and ﬁtting to Log-normal curve, and radiative transfer modelling (RTM) to retrieve optical properties and radiative effects. ” sampling, to simulate ﬁeld sampling at dust source, scanning electron microscopy / X-ray energy-dispersive microanalysis (SEM XEDS) of individual mineral particles, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of bulk dust samples, number and volume size distribution (SD) building from microanalysis data of mineral particles and ﬁtting to Log-normal curve, and radiative transfer modelling (RTM) to retrieve optical properties and radiative effects.
Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of Orbital Invasive Aspergillosis

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of orbital invasive aspergillosis, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Methods: Review of the medical records of Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, from 1995 to 2007 revealed 15 patients with orbital invasive aspergillosis. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate the clinical characteristics, radiologic findings, associated underlying diseases, and prognosis. Risk factors for mortality were analyzed. Results: A total of 15 cases of orbital invasive aspergillosis were included in this study. The mean age for all patients was 61.9 years. The most common underlying disease was diabetes mellitus and all patients had paranasal sinus infections. The most common ocular symptoms were visual disturbance, periorbital swelling, and periorbital pain. The mortality rate associated with invasive aspergillosis was 40%. According to univariate analysis, variables significantly associated with invasive aspergillosis-related mortality included fever and incorrect initial diagnosis. Conclusions: Fever and incorrect initial diagnosis were found to be associated with high mortality rates in patients with orbital invasive aspergillosis. Further study is necessary to determine optimal strategies for early diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Evaluation of metaheuristics for robust graph coloring problem

In this paper a new formulation of the robust graph coloring problem (RGCP) is proposed. In opposition to classical GCP defined for the given graph G(V,E) not only elements of E but also E can be subject of color conflicts in edge vertices. Conflicts in E are assigned penalties 0<;P(e)<;1. In addition to satisfying constraints related to the number of colors and/or a threshold of the acceptable sum of penalties for color conflicts in graph complementary edges (rigidity level), a new bound called the relative robustness threshold (RRT) is proposed. Then two metaheuristics - SA, TS and their parallel analogues PSA and PTS - for that version of RGCP are presented and experimentally compared. For comparison we use DIMACS graph coloring instances in which a selected percentage of graph edges E is randomly moved to E. Since graph densities and chromatic numbers of DIMACS GCP instances are known in advance, the RGCP instances generated on their basis are more suitable for testing algorithms than totally random instances used so far. The results of the conducted experiments are presented and discussed.
Effect of a High-Intensity Exercise Program on Physical Function and Mental Health in Nursing Home Residents with Dementia: An Assessor Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Dementia is among the leading causes of functional loss and disability in older adults. Research has demonstrated that nursing home patients without dementia can improve their function in activities of daily living, strength, balance and mental well being by physical exercise. The evidence on effect of physical exercise among nursing home patients with dementia is scarce and ambiguous. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a high intensity functional exercise program on the performance of balance in nursing home residents with dementia. The secondary objective was to examine the effect of this exercise on muscle strength, mobility, activities of daily living, quality of life and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Design and Methods This single blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted among 170 persons with dementia living in nursing homes. Mean age was 86.7 years (SD = 7.4) and 74% were women. The participants were randomly allocated to an intervention (n = 87) or a control group (n = 83). The intervention consisted of intensive strengthening and balance exercises in small groups twice a week for 12 weeks. The control condition was leisure activities. Results The intervention group improved the score on Bergs Balance Scale by 2.9 points, which was significantly more than the control group who improved by 1.2 points (p = 0.02). Having exercised 12 times or more was significantly associated with improved strength after intervention (p<0.05). The level of apathy was lower in the exercise group after the intervention, compared to the control group (p = 0.048). Conclusion The results from our study indicate that a high intensity functional exercise program improved balance and muscle strength as well as reduced apathy in nursing home patients with dementia. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02262104
Calcium Antagonist PY 108-068: Demonstration of Its Efficacy in Various Types of Experimental Brain Ischemia

The protective properties of PY 108-068 against ischemic disturbances in the brain were investigated in vitro and in vivo. The calcium antagonistic effects were demonstrated on isolated, calcium- loaded arterial rings of feline cerebral arteries. Determination of brain tissue oxygenation with pO2microelectrodes showed that PY 108-068 improved oxygen supply in the cortex of cats subjected to epicere- bral arterial occlusion. In a model of cerebral vasospusm induced by autologous blood supervision, PY 108- 068 reversed the spastic state of cortical microvessels. In a chronic stroke model (microsphere embolization in rats) PY 108-068 led to a significant reduction in mortality and in the severity of neurological symptoms, whereby the peroral efficacy of the drug could be demonstrated. The efficacy of PY 108-068 in a variety of ischemic insults makes this drug a promising aid in the treatment of cerebrovascular accidents. Stroke Vol 15, No 4. 1984
Approximating vertex cover using edge-based representations

In the literature only lower bounds are available on the approximation ratio of randomised search heuristics for vertex cover in the single-objective problem setting. These analyses are based on the natural vertex-based representation. Inspired by a well-known problem-specific approximation algorithm, we present an analysis of randomised search heuristics using edge-based representations. For the canonical objective function we prove that the performance can still be arbitrarily bad for the (1+1) EA and also RLS, even when using large search neighbourhoods. Adding slightly more information to the objective function turns RLS and the (1+1) EA into efficient 2-approximation algorithms requiring O(m log m) steps where m is the number of edges. Although equivalent in the worst case, such an upper bound on the runtime is at least a linear factor better than that of the multi-objective case for sparse graphs and for graphs with large optimal vertex covers. Furthermore RLS algorithms, that after an improvement do not flip tested bits before trying previously untested ones, guarantee 2-approximations in O(m) steps.
Cooperative strategy based on adaptive Q-learning for robot soccer systems

The objective of this paper is to develop a self-learning cooperative strategy for robot soccer systems. The strategy enables robots to cooperate and coordinate with each other to achieve the objectives of offense and defense. Through the mechanism of learning, the robots can learn from experiences in either successes or failures, and utilize these experiences to improve the performance gradually. The cooperative strategy is built using a hierarchical architecture. The first layer of the structure is responsible for assigning each role, that is, how many defenders and sidekicks should be played according to the positional states. The second layer is for the role assignment related to the decision from the previous layer. We develop two algorithms for assignment of the roles, the attacker, the defenders, and the sidekicks. The last layer is the behavior layer in which robots execute their behavior commands and tasks based on their roles. The attacker is responsible for chasing the ball and attacking. The sidekicks are responsible for finding good positions, and the defenders are responsible for defending competitor scoring. The robots' roles are not fixed. They can dynamically exchange their roles with each other. In the aspect of learning, we develop an adaptive Q-learning method which is modified form the traditional Q-learning. A simple ant experiment shows that Q-learning is more effective than the traditional techniques, and it is also successfully applied to the learning of the cooperative strategy.
Call quality monitoring for VoIP

A method of monitoring the speech quality of a Voice-over-IP call is described in this paper. This method is attractive because it employs the ITU-T standard P.862 for Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality which is well-known for its accuracy. In addition, with the proposed method, call quality is monitored without interfering with the call while it is in progress. The results corresponding to an implementation of this method shows call quality can be measured with excellent accuracy under typical network delays.
Influence of centriole number on mitotic spindle length and symmetry

The functional role of centrioles or basal bodies in mitotic spindle assembly and function is currently unclear. Although supernumerary centrioles have been associated with multipolar spindles in cancer cells, suggesting centriole number might dictate spindle polarity, bipolar spindles are able to assemble in the complete absence of centrioles, suggesting a level of centriole‐independence in the spindle assembly pathway. In this report we perturb centriole number using mutations in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and measure the response of the mitotic spindle to these perturbations in centriole number. Although altered centriole number increased the frequency of monopolar and multipolar spindles, the majority of spindles remained bipolar regardless of the centriole number. But even when spindles were bipolar, abnormal centriole numbers led to asymmetries in tubulin distribution, half‐spindle length and spindle pole focus. Half spindle length correlated directly with number of centrioles at a pole, such that an imbalance in centriole number between the two poles of a bipolar spindle correlated with increased asymmetry between half spindle lengths. These results are consistent with centrioles playing an active role in regulating mitotic spindle length. Mutants with centriole number alteration also show increased cytokinesis defects, but these do not correlate with centriole number in the dividing cell and may therefore reflect downstream consequences of defects in preceding cell divisions. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
High rate copper and energy recovery in microbial fuel cells

Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are a novel, promising technology for the recovery of metals. The prerequisite for upscaling from laboratory to industrial size is that high current and high power densities can be produced. In this study we report the recovery of copper from a copper sulfate stream (2 g L-1 Cu2+) using a laboratory scale BES at high rate. To achieve this, we used a novel cell configuration to reduce the internal voltage losses of the system. At the anode, electroactive microorganisms produce electrons at the surface of an electrode, which generates a stable cell voltage of 485 mV when combined with a cathode where copper is reduced. In this system, a maximum current density of 23 A m-2 in combination with a power density of 5.5 W m-2 was produced. XRD analysis confirmed 99% purity in copper of copper deposited onto cathode surface. Analysis of voltage losses showed that at the highest current, most voltage losses occurred at the cathode, and membrane, while anode losses had the lowest contribution to the total voltage loss. These results encourage further development of BESs for bioelectrochemical metal recovery.