Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Peer-to-peer overlay broker networks in an event-based middleware

Overlay broker networks are an important part of an event-based middleware. In this paper, we investigate the requirements of overlay broker networks and argue that using peer-to-peer techniques for their creation and the content-based routing of events has many advantages. We support our claims with an experimental evaluation of Hermes, an event-based middleware architecture that uses a peer-to-peer routing substrate, in comparison with a standard publish/subscribe system that has a simple, predefined overlay topology. The results reveal that Hermes has better routing efficiency and keeps less routing state at the event brokers.
Differences by Quadrant of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Healthy Eyes

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine the distribution of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness by quadrant in healthy eyes. Patients and MethodsForty subjects with healthy eyes were included in the study. A complete ophthalmic examination was performed, including determination of visual fields by automated perimetry. The subjects had no family history of retinal disease or glaucoma. Forty right eyes and 40 left eyes were measured. Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was measured using simultaneous stereophotographs with stereophotogrammetry at the disc margin. For the total disc and four quadrants, absolute retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and optic disc area was determined using a magnification correction formula. ResultsComparison of the quadrants showed that the retinal nerve fiber layer thicknesses of the superior, inferior, and nasal quadrants were significantly thicker than the temporal quadrant (P = 0.00006 for right and left eyes). No significant differences were observed between the superior, inferior, and nasal quadrants in the right eye. In the left eye, the superior retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was significantly greater than the inferior (P = 0.028) and nasal retinal nerve fiber layer thicknesses (P = 0.00006), while the inferior was not significantly different from the nasal. No significant difference in quadrant retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was noted between eyes. ConclusionsMeasurements of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in healthy eyes show the thinnest quadrant to be the temporal, with the other three quadrants having similar thicknesses. This pattern corresponds to the histologic measurements of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness.
An Evaluation of Simulated Precipitation Characteristics during OLYMPEX

The OLYMPEX field campaign, which took place around the Olympic Mountains of Washington State during winter 2015/16, provided data for evaluating the simulated microphysics and precipitation over and near that barrier. Using OLYMPEX observations, this paper assesses precipitation and associated microphysics in the WRF-ARW model over the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Model precipitation from the University of Washington real-time WRF forecast system during the OLYMPEX field program (November 2015–February 2016) and an extended period (2008–18) showed persistent underprediction of precipitation, reaching 100 mm yr−1 over the windward side of the coastal terrain. Increasing horizontal resolution does not substantially reduce this underprediction. Evaluating surface disdrometer observations during the 2015/16 OLYMPEX winter, it was found that the operational University of Washington WRF modeling system using Thompson microphysics poorly simulated the rain drop size distribution over a windward coastal valley. Although liquid water content was represented realistically, drop diameters were overpredicted, and, consequently, the rain drop distribution intercept parameter was underpredicted. During two heavy precipitation periods, WRF realistically simulated environmental conditions, including wind speed, thermodynamic structures, integrated moisture transport, and melting levels. Several microphysical parameterization schemes were tested in addition to the Thompson scheme, with each exhibiting similar biases for these two events. We show that the parameterization of aerosols over the coastal Northwest offered only minor improvement.
The Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genomes of the Facultatively Eusocial Orchid Bee Euglossa dilemma

Bees provide indispensable pollination services to both agricultural crops and wild plant populations, and several species of bees have become important models for the study of learning and memory, plant–insect interactions, and social behavior. Orchid bees (Apidae: Euglossini) are especially important to the fields of pollination ecology, evolution, and species conservation. Here we report the nuclear and mitochondrial genome sequences of the orchid bee Euglossa dilemma Bembé & Eltz. E. dilemma was selected because it is widely distributed, highly abundant, and it was recently naturalized in the southeastern United States. We provide a high-quality assembly of the 3.3 Gb genome, and an official gene set of 15,904 gene annotations. We find high conservation of gene synteny with the honey bee throughout 80 MY of divergence time. This genomic resource represents the first draft genome of the orchid bee genus Euglossa, and the first draft orchid bee mitochondrial genome, thus representing a valuable resource to the research community.
The Shadow Price of Irrigation Water in Major Groundwater‐Depleting Countries

In many semiarid regions with irrigation, the depletion rate of groundwater resources has increased substantially during the last decades. A possible reason for this is that the price that users pay for their water does not reflect its scarcity and value. An alternative way to assess the perceived value of water is calculating its shadow price, which is defined here as the marginal value produced, and relates to the efficiency gain from current reallocation. Here we determine the shadow price of water used for irrigation for the most important groundwater‐depleting countries and for four staple crops and one cash crop. To quantify the shadow price, the relation between the output and the water input is represented using production functions. We use globally available panel data on country‐specific crop yields and prices together with crop‐specific water consumption, calculated with the global hydrological model PCR‐GLOBWB, to parameterize the production function by country and crop with econometric analyses. Our results show that the variation of shadow prices for staple crops within several countries is high, indicating economically inefficient use of water resources, including nonrenewable groundwater. We also analyze the effects of reallocating irrigation water between crops, showing that changes in water allocation could lead to either an increase in the economic efficiency of water use or large reductions in irrigation water consumption. Our study thus provides a hydroeconomic basis to stimulate sustainable use of finite groundwater resources globally.
Serotonin uptake and configurational change of bovine pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells in culture

Although it is well known that endothelial cells transport serotonin (5‐HT) from extracellular to intracellular locations, it has been generally assumed that smooth muscle cells do not accumulate 5‐HT but, rather, respond to 5‐HT through a receptor activity unrelated to uptake of this amine or via stimulation of endothelial‐derived relaxing factor. In the present study smooth muscle cells (PASMC), isolated and cultured from bovine pulmonary artery, were evaluated for 5‐HT uptake under a variety of conditions. 5‐HT uptake was linear up to 15 min and the rate was seven‐ to eightfold higher than that by bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells. There was intracellular metabolism of 5‐HT to 5‐hydroxy‐indoleacetic acid (5‐HIAA). The uptake was inhibited by exposure to 4°C, absence of Na+ from the medium, and agents such as imipramine, verapamil, ketanserin, and methiothepin. Like that of endothelial cells, 5‐HT uptake by PASMC was stimulated by exposure of cells to anoxia for 24 hr. Unlike endothelial cells that showed no morphological changes, PASMC at early passage showed dendritic formation after 30–60 min exposure to 5‐HT at a concentration as low as 10−8 M. Although this configurational change in response to 5‐HT was lost with passage of cells, transport of 5‐HT by these cells was retained. The configurational change was blocked by agents that inhibited 5‐HT uptake, such as imipramine, verapamil, ketanserin, and methiothepin; it was unaffected by inhibitors of protein kinase C, phospholipase C, and calmodulin or absence of Ca2+ from the medium. We conclude that PASMC, as well as endothelial cells, accumulate 5‐HT; there appears to be a close relationship between 5‐HT uptake and configurational change of early passaged PASMC in culture. The factor(s) required for the configurational change are absent in endothelial cells and lost during passage of PASMC.
Evaluation of a sequential global test of improved recovery following stroke as applied to the ICTUS trial of citicoline

The International Citicoline Trial in acUte Stroke is a sequential phase III study of the use of the drug citicoline in the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke, which was initiated in 2006 in 56 treatment centres. The primary objective of the trial is to demonstrate improved recovery of patients randomized to citicoline relative to those randomized to placebo after 12 weeks of follow‐up. The primary analysis will take the form of a global test combining the dichotomized results of assessments on three well‐established scales: the Barthel Index, the modified Rankin scale and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale. This approach was previously used in the analysis of the influential National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke trial of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator in stroke.
The Appropriate Time Frame for Controlling Monetary Aggregates : The Sto Louis Evidence

Since the mid-1960s increasing attention has been paid to the effect of monetary actions on the pattern of economic activity. An important issue has been the role of monetary aggregates in the conduct of stabilization policy. Monetary actions, measured by changes in monetary aggregates, are now generally recognized as powerful in their effect on economic activity and are considered at least as an equal partner with fiscal actions in economic stabilization programs. For purposes of monetary policy, however, questions remain regarding the nature of the temporal response of important economic variables to monetary shocks. Knowledge of the length of the lags and whether or not the lags are variable is required in order to ascertain the appropriate time period for controlling monetary aggregates. This study investigates the effect on economic activity of one monetary aggregate, the money stock defined as currency plus private demand deposits. The Fisherian interpretation of monetary actions affecting primarily the price level is widely accepted as descriptive of the long-run effect of changes in the stock of money. However, monetary actions are conducted primarily in the pursuit of achieving much shorter-term goals. If the long-run neutrality of money is accepted, it is important for policy purposes to investigate the nature of the intermediate adjustments to changes in the money stock. Of prime concern is the relative effect of changes in money on prices and output. Specifically, do monetary actions affect output, ~nd thus employment in the short run and, if so, what is the time frame of this effect? These questions relate to the policy problem of the extent to which monetary authorities can secure short-run increases in output without incurring the cost of later inflation.
Scalable Detection of Spatiotemporal Encounters in Historical Movement Data

The widespread adoption of location‐aware devices is resulting in the generation of large amounts of spatiotemporal movement data, collected and stored in digital repositories. This forms a fertile ground for domain experts and scientists to analyze such historical data and discover interesting movement behavioral patterns. Experts in many domains, such as transportation, logistics and retail, are interested in detecting and understanding movement patterns and behavior of objects in relation to each other. Their insights can point to optimization potential and reveal deviations from planned behavior. In this paper, we focus on the detection of the encounter patterns as one possible type in movement behavior. These patterns refer to objects being close to one another in terms of space and time. We define scalability as a core requirement when dealing with historical movement data, in order to allow the domain expert to set parameters of the encounter detection algorithm. Our approach leverages a designated data structure and requires only a single pass over chronological data, thus resulting in highly scalable and fast technique to detect encounters. Consequently, users are able to explore their data by interactively specifying the spatial and temporal windows that define encounters. We evaluate our proposed method as a function of its input parameters and data size. We instantiate the proposed method on urban public transportation data, where we found a large number of encounters. We show that single encounters emerge into higher level patterns that are of particular interest and value to the domain.
RSDB: representative protein sequence databases have high information content

MOTIVATION Biological sequence databases are highly redundant for two main reasons: 1. various databanks keep redundant sequences with many identical and nearly identical sequences 2. natural sequences often have high sequence identities due to gene duplication. We wanted to know how many sequences can be removed before the databases start losing homology information. Can a database of sequences with mutual sequence identity of 50% or less provide us with the same amount of biological information as the original full database? RESULTS Comparisons of nine representative sequence databases (RSDB) derived from full protein databanks showed that the information content of sequence databases is not linearly proportional to its size. An RSDB reduced to mutual sequence identity of around 50% (RSDB50) was equivalent to the original full database in terms of the effectiveness of homology searching. It was a third of the full database size which resulted in a six times faster iterative profile searching. The RSDBs are produced at different granularity for efficient homology searching. AVAILABILITY All the RSDB files generated and the full analysis results are available through internet: ftp://ftp.ebi.ac. uk/pub/contrib/jong/RSDB/http://cyrah.e bi.ac. uk:1111/Proj/Bio/RSDB
Journal of Knowledge Management Knowledge management strategy diagnosis from KM instruments use

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to measure knowledge management (KM) implementation and determine KM strategy by assigning KM instruments into KM orientations. Design/methodology/approach – Information is collected from ten SMEs in Spain and ten in Austria taking part in a KM audit project. Findings – Results show that instruments can be used to diagnose KM strategy. Besides, some firm’s characteristics as industry, national culture, size and age act as contingent factors. Personalisation strategy is predominant probably due to be more feasible in first KM stages. Research limitations/implications – Besides the increase of cases, business strategy could be introduced to explore relationships with KM instruments and strategy. Practical implications – This study helps management to auto-diagnosis its KM implementation and strategy Originality/value – Instead of sophisticated measures, KM strategy is revealed considering knowledge instruments use.
Examining the Use of Classroom Observations in the Evaluation of Special Education Teachers

A primary focus of recent educational policymaking has been on improving measures of teaching effectiveness, attributable in part to recent federal policies such as the Race to the Top initiative and Investing in Innovation. To date, neither researchers nor practitioners have arrived at a consensus on the best methods for evaluating special educators. While value-added scores are likely not suitable for the majority of special education teachers, observation systems appear to be more promising because they can be used across a variety of instructional settings and formats. To illustrate the steps that would be necessary to validate observation systems for use with special educators, we examine the observation system being most commonly used in school districts—Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching (FFT). Drawing on empirical research, we propose a definition of effective special education teaching, and we then use this definition to frame our investigation into FFT. We conclude with a series of recommendations for research that would establish the validity of using FFT to evaluate special educators. We also describe how the challenges specific to FFT would generalize to other observation systems.
The Roles of Safety Behaviour in the Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment of Anxiety Disorders

Safety behaviour, which includes idiosyncratic strategies aimed at reducing anxiety and avoiding or averting perceived catastrophe, has been conceptualized in cognitive-behavioural models of anxiety disorders as having an anti-therapeutic, anxiety-maintaining function. There is substantial empirical support for its proposed negative effects in the context of exposure-based treatments for anxiety disorders. However, other hypotheses and findings suggest that incorporation of safety behaviour into such treatments might instead facilitate gains and/or enhance treatment acceptability. This research aimed to further understand the role of safety behaviour in the treatment of anxiety disorders. In Study 1, an experimental paradigm was used to examine the effect of ‘safety gear’ on belief change. Spider fearful participants were asked to evaluate the validity of a targeted negative belief about spiders during a brief session with a live tarantula while either using or not using protective gear during the session. The results demonstrated that negative beliefs declined equally and robustly in both groups after the session. Study 2 investigated treatment acceptability and preference as a function of safety behaviour use (judicious vs. discouraged) and treatment rationale (cognitive vs. extinction). Clinically anxious participants and undergraduate students provided acceptability ratings and preference ranks for four written vignettes describing a course of CBT for fear or anxiety. Treatment descriptions promoting judicious safety behaviour use received significantly higher acceptability ratings than those discouraging its use. Descriptions that presented a cognitive versus an extinction rationale were also rated as more acceptable. The most highly ranked treatment included judicious safety behaviour use under a cognitive rationale. The same pattern of results was observed in both participant groups. Study 3 involved the development and psychometric evaluation of a novel self-report measure of safety behaviour, the Safety Behaviour Inventory (SBI), using a large undergraduate student sample and a smaller sample of clinically anxious participants. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and analyses of reliability and validity were conducted. Preliminary support was obtained for the discriminant and construct validity of a four-factor SBI. The combined results of these studies are discussed in terms of cognitive-behavioural theories and treatments of anxiety disorders, and future research directions are suggested.
Using compressed bytecode traces for slicing Java programs

Dynamic slicing is a well-known program debugging technique. Given a program P and input I, it finds all program statements which directly/indirectly affect the values of some variables' occurrences when P is executed with I. Dynamic slicing algorithms often proceed by traversing the execution trace of P produced by input I (or a dependence graph which captures control/data flow in the execution trace). Consequently, it is important to develop space efficient representations of the execution trace. In this paper, we use results from data compression to compactly represent bytecode traces of sequential Java programs. The major space savings come from the optimized representation of data (instruction) addresses used by memory reference (branch) bytecodes as operands. We give detailed experimental results on the space efficiency and time overheads for our compact trace representation. We then show how dynamic slicing algorithms can directly traverse our compact traces without resorting to costly decompression. We also develop an extension of dynamic slicing which allows us to explain omission errors (i.e. why some events did not happen during program execution).
Genetic Approaches to Neurotrauma Research: Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls of Murine Models

Genetic strategies provide new ways to define the molecular cascades that regulate the responses of the mammalian nervous system to injury. Genetic interventions also provide opportunities to manipulate and control key molecular steps in these cascades, so as to modify the outcome of CNS injury. Most current genetic strategies involve the use of mice, an animal that has not heretofore been used extensively for neurotrauma research. Therefore, one purpose of the present review is to consider how mice respond to neural trauma, focusing especially on recent information that reveals important differences between mice and rats, and between different inbred strains of mice. The second aim of this review is to provide a brief introduction to the opportunities, caveats, and potential pitfalls of studies that use genetically modified animals for neurotrauma research.
Measurement and Enhancement of Peer-to-Peer based File Synchronization with Cloud Assistance

Recent years have witnessed the rising popularity of file synchronization systems. Powered by rich datacenter resources, such commercial products as Dropbox and Google Drive not only provide conventional file hosting but also enable file synchronization with multi-party user collaborations. It is however known that their datacenter-based design will limit the system scalability. Peer-to-peer (P2P) based file synchronization, most notably BitTorrent Sync, is therefore widely suggested as a more scalable and efficient alternative. Unfortunately, the framework design and the protocol operation of P2P file synchronization remain vague to the general public. Identifying the exact performance bottlenecks or enabling theoretical and practical optimization is challenging and largely blinding to date. In this thesis, we for the first time investigate the performance of P2P file synchronization in real-world measurement. We deploy BitTorrent Sync on highly-distributed PlanetLab testbed and closely investigate its framework design. Based on our measurements, we find that the P2P file synchronization system can provide very efficient file synchronization, especially for large contents. Different from traditional BitTorrent-like systems, our packet-level analysis also indicates that BitTorrent Sync does not have built-in tit-fortat protocols. Peers' downloading speed is therefore, independent of their uploading. This modification naturally improves the synchronization efficiency yet also introduces certain fairness issues. For example, our measurement shows that 80% of our peers can obtain a 500MB file within 10 minutes. The remaining 20% users, on the other hand, will suffer from very long synchronization latency; the slowest peers will spend over 30 minutes to download the same file. To mitigate such a problem, we explore the potential to merge the existing P2P-based and cloud-based synchronization systems. The main idea of this hybrid framework is using cloud-based synchronization to accelerate the slower peers in P2P