Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rethinking Database System Architecture: Towards a Self-Tuning RISC-Style Database System

Database technology is one of the cornerstones for the new millennium’s IT landscape. However, database systems as a unit of code packaging and deployment are at a crossroad: commercial systems have been adding features for a long time and have now reached complexity that makes them a difficult choice, in terms of their "gain/pain ratio", as a central platform for value-added information services such as ERP or e-commerce. It is critical that database systems be easy to manage, predictable in their performance characteristics, and ultimately self-tuning. For this elusive goal, RISC-style simplification of server functionality and interfaces is absolutely crucial. We suggest a radical architectural departure in which database technology is packaged into much smaller RISC-style data managers with lean, specialized APIs, and with built-in self-assessment and auto-tuning capabilities 1. The Need for a New Departure Database technology has an extremely successful track record as a backbone of information technology (IT) throughout the last three decades. High-level declarative query languages like SQL and atomic transactions are key assets in the cost-effective development and maintenance of information systems. Furthermore, database technology continues to play a major role in the trends of our modern cyberspace society with applications ranging from webbased applications/services, and digital libraries to information mining on business as well as scientific data. Thus, database technology has impressively proven its benefits and seems to remain crucially relevant in the new millennium as well. Success is a lousy teacher (to paraphrase Bill Gates), and therefore we should not conclude that the database system, as the unit of engineering, deploying, and operating packaged database technology, is in good shape. A closer look at some important application areas and major trends in the software industry strongly indicates that database systems have an overly low “gain/pain ratio”. First, with the dramatic drop of hardware and software prices, the expenses due to human administration and tuning staff dominate the cost of ownership for a database system. The complexity and cost of these feed-and-care tasks is likely to prohibit database systems from further playing their traditionally prominent role in the future IT infrastructure. Next, database technology is more likely to be adopted in unbundled and dispersed form within higher-level application services. Both of the above problems stem from packaging all database technology into a single unit of development, maintenance, deployment, and operation. We argue that this architecture is no longer appropriate for the new age of cyberspace applications. The alternative approach that we envision and advocate in this paper is to provide RISC-style, functionally restricted, specialized data managers that have a narrow interface as well as a smaller footprint and are more amenable to automatic tuning.
Automated Hedcut Illustration Using Isophotes

In this work, we present an automated system for creating hedcut illustrations, portraits rendered using small image feature aligned dots (stipples). We utilize edge detection and shading cues from the input photograph to direct stipple placement within the image. Both image edges and isophotes are extracted as a means of describing the image feature and shading information. Edge features and isophotes are then assigned different priorities, with isophotes being assigned the highest priority to enhance the depth perception within the hedcut portrait. Priority assignment dictates the stipple alignment and spacing. Finally, stipple size is based on the number of points and intensity and the gradient magnitude of the input image.
What can a mathematician do in neuroscience

Mozg ssakow jest jednym z najbardziej zlozonych obiektow we wszechswiecie. Jest odpowiedzialny za sterowanie wszystkimi aspektami zachowan zwierzecia i czlowieka. Obecnie usprawiedliwione wydaje sie stwierdzenie, ze nasza wiedza na temat pracy mozgu i jego funkcjach jest dosc ograniczona. Neurobiologia obliczeniowa jest dyscyplina naukowa, ktora probuje zrozumiec i opisac mozg w kategoriach modelowania matematycznego. W tej pracy zawarto przyjazny dla czytelnika przeglad zagadnien, ktory ma na celu wprowadzenie w ten stosunkowo nowy dla matematykow i fizykow obszar badawczy, pokazujac przyklady najnowszych trendow w tej dziedzinie. Artykul omawia takze krotko przyszle perspektywy dla budowy zintegrowanej teorii funkcji mozgu.
FAK–Src signalling is important to renal collecting duct morphogenesis: discovery using a hierarchical screening technique

Summary This report describes a hierarchical screening technique for identification of pathways that control the morphogenesis of the renal collecting duct system. The multi-step screen involves a first round using a 2-dimensional, cell-line-based scrape-healing assay, then a second round using a 3-dimensional tubulogenesis assay; both of these rounds use new cell lines described in this report. The final stage is ex vivo organ culture. We demonstrate the utility of the screen by using it to identify the FAK–Src-pathway signalling as being important for collecting duct development, specifically for the cell proliferation on which this development depends.
Remote Plasma Device for Surface Modification at Atmospheric Pressure

Here, a novel atmospheric plasma device is presented, which applies the (remote) afterglow of micro-barrier discharges. The study evaluates its applicability to surface modification of temperature-sensitive particulates. As such, cylindrical samples have been placed in the remote treatment zone of the device, and the effects of treatment time and variable gas mixtures on the surface wettability are investigated. Furthermore, the influence of the excess voltage in He discharge with admixtures of O2, CO2 and N2 and the effect thereof on the water contact angle is described.
Was Postwar Suburbanization "White Flight"? Evidence from the Black Migration

Residential segregation by jurisdiction generates disparities in public services and education. The distinctive American pattern - in which blacks live in cities and whites in suburbs - was enhanced by a large black migration from the rural South. I show that whites responded to this black influx by leaving cities and rule out an indirect effect on housing prices as a sole cause. I instrument for changes in black population by using local economic conditions to predict black migration from southern states and assigning predicted flows to northern cities according to established settlement patterns. The best causal estimates imply that each black arrival led to 2.7 white departures.
Using Feature Selection For Object Segmentation and Tracking

Most image segmentation algorithms in the past are based on optimizing an objective function that aims to achieve the similarity between several low-level features to build a partition of the image into homogeneous regions. In the present paper, we propose to incorporate the relevance (selection) of the grouping features to enforce the segmentation toward the capturing of objects of interest. The relevance of the features is determined through a set of positive and negative examples of a specific object defined a priori by the user. The calculation of the relevance of the features is performed by maximizing an objective function defined on the mixture likelihoods of the positive and negative object examples sets. The incorporation of the features relevance in the object segmentation is formulated through an energy functional which is minimized by using level set active contours. We show the efficiency of the approach on several examples of object of interest segmentation and tracking where the features relevance was used.
Is information-centric multi-tree routing feasible?

We have argued that an information-centric network should natively support publish/subscribe event notification in addition to on-demand content delivery. We have also argued that both primitives could use the same forwarding information base and, furthermore, that both primitives can easily support addresses that are more expressive than simple hierarchical names. In this paper we present a concrete routing scheme that realizes this: "push" as well as "pull" communication; anycast as well as multicast; and descriptor-based (as opposed to name-based) addressing. The scheme is founded on multiple tree covers that can be arranged and composed hierarchically following the structure of network domains. On each tree, the scheme combines addresses so as to reduce forwarding state. We demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of the scheme through simulations on Internet-scale workloads in realistic network settings.
Service time analysis of a distributed medium access control scheme

Distributed medium access control (MAC) is essential for a wireless network without a central controller. In previous work of the authors, a distributed MAC scheme has been proposed to achieve guaranteed priority and enhanced fairness performance. For a wireless network, the service time distribution at the MAC sub-layer is important for performance analysis (e.g., in terms of packet delay, packet dropping rate, and admission region) at the network layer, because the network layer performance is largely dependent on the high-order time- domain statistics of the service provided by the MAC sub-layer. This paper presents a service time distribution analysis of the previously proposed distributed MAC scheme. Specifically, the respective distributions of the node service time and the system service time are derived. Simulation results verify the accuracy of this analysis.
Cytotoxicity of long and short crocidolite asbestos fibers in vitro and in vivo.

Fiber length and diameter are important factors in the pathogenicity of asbestos. We examined the relative toxicity of long and short crocidolite asbestos fibers in vitro and in vivo. Both long and short crocidolite asbestos fibers were toxic to elicited macrophages in vitro. Similar to native crocidolite asbestos, long and short fibers stimulated the release of reactive oxygen metabolites from elicited macrophages in vitro. We evaluated whether in vitro cytotoxicity was dependent on the production of reactive oxygen metabolites. In the presence of the reactive oxygen metabolite scavenging enzymes, superoxide dismutase or catalase, the toxicity of long and short crocidolite fibers to macrophages was prevented. Furthermore, macrophages were not killed when either long or short fibers were soaked in the iron chelator, deferoxamine. Native, long, and short crocidolite fibers also caused depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane potential prior to cell death. In vivo, a single i.p. injection of long crocidolite fibers stimulates an intense inflammatory reaction, release of reactive oxygen metabolites near sites of fiber deposition, and cell death. In contrast, these events were minimal after a single injection of short fibers due to the removal of fibers from the peritoneal cavity. After five daily injections of short fibers, however, fibers were present on the surface of the mesothelium and provoked an inflammatory response. Cell death was observed on the surface of the mesothelium. Reactive oxygen metabolites were also produced near accumulations of short fibers. Our results suggest that both long and short crocidolite asbestos fibers are toxic to macrophages in vitro via an oxidant and iron-dependent mechanism. In vivo, short fibers are cytotoxic when the clearance of these fibers is prevented.
The RIFLE and AKIN classifications for acute kidney injury: a critical and comprehensive review

In May 2004, a new classification, the RIFLE (Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss of kidney function, and End-stage kidney disease) classification, was proposed in order to define and stratify the severity of acute kidney injury (AKI). This system relies on changes in the serum creatinine (SCr) or glomerular filtration rates and/or urine output, and it has been largely demonstrated that the RIFLE criteria allows the identification of a significant proportion of AKI patients hospitalized in numerous settings, enables monitoring of AKI severity, and is a good predictor of patient outcome. Three years later (March 2007), the Acute Kidney Injury Network (AKIN) classification, a modified version of the RIFLE, was released in order to increase the sensitivity and specificity of AKI diagnosis. Until now, the benefit of these modifications for clinical practice has not been clearly demonstrated. Here we provide a critical and comprehensive discussion of the two classifications for AKI, focusing on the main differences, advantages and limitations.
Learning Lexicalized Reordering Models from Reordering Graphs

Lexicalized reordering models play a crucial role in phrase-based translation systems. They are usually learned from the word-aligned bilingual corpus by examining the reordering relations of adjacent phrases. Instead of just checking whether there is one phrase adjacent to a given phrase, we argue that it is important to take the number of adjacent phrases into account for better estimations of reordering models. We propose to use a structure named reordering graph, which represents all phrase segmentations of a sentence pair, to learn lexicalized reordering models efficiently. Experimental results on the NIST Chinese-English test sets show that our approach significantly outperforms the baseline method.
Development of a fidelity measure for research on the effectiveness of the Ayres Sensory Integration intervention.

OBJECTIVE We developed a reliable and valid fidelity measure for use in research on Ayres Sensory Integration (ASI) intervention. METHOD We designed a fidelity instrument to measure structural and process aspects of ASI intervention. Because scoring of process involves subjectivity, we conducted a series of reliability and validity studies on the process section. Raters were trained to score therapist strategies observed in video recordings of adult-child dyads. We examined content validity through expert ratings. RESULTS Reliability of the process section was strong for total fidelity score (ICC = .99, Cronbach's alpha = .99) and acceptable for most items. Total score significantly differentiated ASI from four alternative interventions. Expert ratings indicated strong agreement that items in the structural and process sections represent ASI intervention. CONCLUSION. The Ayres Sensory Integration Fidelity Measure has strong content validity. The process section is reliable and valid when scored by trained raters with expertise in ASI.
Effect of gamma irradiation on toxicity and immunogenicity of Androctonus australis hector venom.

An investigation was made of the radiosensitivity of the toxic and immunological properties of Androctonus australis hector venom. This venom was irradiated with two doses of gamma rays (1 and 2 kGy) from a 60Co source. The results showed that venom toxicity was abolished for the two radiation doses (1 and 2 kGy) with, respectively, 10 and 25 times its initial LD50 value. However, irradiated venoms were immunogenic, and the antibodies elicited by them were able to recognize the native venom by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Antisera raised against these toxoids (1 and 2 kGy) had a higher neutralizing capacity and immunoreactivity against all components of native venom than did the antiserum produced against the native venom. The antiserum of rabbits immunized with 2-kGy-irradiated venom was more efficient than 1-kGy-irradiated toxoid antiserum. Indeed, in vivo protection assays showed that the mice immunized with 2-kGy-irradiated venom resisted lethal doses (i.p.) of A. australis hector venom.
Improving voltage stability by optimal reactive power dispatch based on genetic algorithm and linear programming technique

Minimization of voltage deviations and power loss can be controlled by optimal reactive power dispatch for voltage stability of the system. This paper presents Genetic Algorithm approach for system parameters enhancement and optimal reactive power dispatch. The transformers tap changers, generator exciters, switchable VAR sources are used as control variables for improvement of system parameters. The proposed methodology is based on the minimization of voltage deviations at load buses. The suggested approach permits the optimization variables to be presented in their natural form in the genetic population. For effective processing of Genetic Algorithm (GA), scattered crossover, constraint dependent mutation and double vector population operator which can directly deal with the floating point numbers are considered. The developed GA is tested on a few simulated practical Indian 24 bus system. The performance of GA is compared with conventional Linear Programming (LP) method and results are presented for illustration purpose. The correctiveness of voltage stability is measured in terms of system parameters.
PI3P signaling regulates receptor sorting but not transport in the endosomal pathway

While evidence is accumulating that phosphoinositide signaling plays a crucial role in growth factor and hormone receptor down-regulation, this signaling pathway has also been proposed to regulate endosomal membrane transport and multivesicular endosome biogenesis. Here, we have followed the fate of the down-regulated EGF receptor (EGFR) and bulk transport (fluid phase) markers in the endosomal pathway in vivo and in vitro. We find that bulk transport from early to late endosomes is not affected after inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PI3P) signaling pathway, but that the EGFR then remains trapped in early endosomes. Similarly, we find that hepatocyte growth factor–regulated tyrosine kinase substrate (Hrs) is not directly involved in bulk solute transport, but is required for EGFR sorting. These observations thus show that transport and sorting can be uncoupled in the endosomal pathway. They also show that PI3P signaling does not regulate the core machinery of endosome biogenesis and transport, but controls the sorting of down-regulated receptor molecules in early endosomes via Hrs.
Progression to Dementia in Clinical Subtypes of Mild Cognitive Impairment

Objective: To examine the outcome among patients diagnosed with different types of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Patients: A follow-up examination (average follow-up period: 3.49 ± 2.2 years) was performed in 81 cognitively impaired, non-demented patients aged >55 years at baseline. Results: 8 of 32 patients with amnestic MCI (25%), 22 of 41 patients with multiple-domain MCI (54%), and 3 of 8 patients with single non-memory MCI (37.5%) progressed to dementia. The clinical type of MCI is significantly associated with the likelihood of conversion to dementia. Discussion: When the clinical syndrome of MCI evolves on a neurodegenerative basis, the multiple-domain type of MCI has a less favorable prognosis than the amnestic type and may represent a more advanced prodromal stage of dementia.
Environmental Tomography : Modeling the Environment with Mobile Phones ∗

The coupling of sensors with mobile phones, which are ubiquitously available and location aware, opens the door to the creation of applications for pervasive sensing and detailed spatial modeling of environmental phenomena. In order to ensure widespread participation of mobile users, these applications must have limited per-device resource requirements, must place no expectations on individual user behaviors, and must be sensitive to user privacy concerns. In this work, we introduce Environmental Tomography , a novel approach to environmental sensing and spatial data modeling that meets the challenges of the mobile network. Environmental Tomography consists of two phases, a data collection phase in which the network of mobile devices computes aggregate values of sensor readings along roads and sidewalks, and a reconstruction phase in which the aggregates are used to generate an estimate of the distribution of the sensed phenomenon. The data collection process is robust to the dynamics of the mobile network and protects the location privacy of the participating device users. The reconstruction phase can be posed as a convex optimization problem with an objective function that takes the physics of the underlying phenomenon into account to produce accurate estimates from the limited available data. We verify the validity of our approach through extensive simulations using physically accurate models of environmental phenomena.
Structural organisation of collagen in the corneas of primates and other mammals and the stromal changes associated with the disease keratoconus

X-ray diffraction was used to determine the ultrastructural arrangement of collagen in the normal human, monkey and bovine cornea. Using the same technique, the ultrastructural organisation of collagen in human keratoconus corneal buttons and in the corneas of mice with a murine specific keratopathy (SKC), in which the males develop a cone shaped cornea, was also examined. Collagen fibrils were found to be most closely packed in the prepupillary region of the normal human cornea, suggesting an optimisation of tissue strength and transparency in the main optical zone. In humans and marmoset monkeys, fibril size and interfibrillar spacing increased rapidly at the limbus to provide additional tensile strength at the point where the cornea meets the less curved sclera. A difference in the preferred orientation of collagen fibrils was observed between human and bovine corneas. Throughout the human corneal stroma, (and predominantly in the posterior stroma), collagen fibrils are preferentially aligned in the superior-inferior and nasal-temporal directions this alignment coincides with the insertion points of the rectus muscles. The proportion of aligned collagen mass (relative to the total collagen mass), which increases in all four quadrants of the peripheral human cornea, is highest in the superior-nasal and inferior-temporal regions, revealing a symmetry between the left and right cornea in terms of collagen mass distribution. Abnormalities in collagen orientation and mass distribution were seen in the majority of keratoconus corneal buttons examined. A relationship between the size and shape of the cone and the extent of the structural alterations was seen in some cases however a large variation existed between corneas. These results are consistent with a theoretical mechanism of keratoconus progression which involves enzyme action and inter-fibrillar and inter-lamellar slippage. Examination of the structural organisation of collagen in SKC mice corneas, revealed the strain to be an unsuitable model for studying human keratoconus.