Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A self‐scalable load injection service

Load testing of applications is an important and costly activity for software provider companies. Classical solutions are very difficult to set up statically, and their cost is prohibitive in terms of both human and hardware resources. Virtualized cloud computing platforms provide new opportunities for stressing an application's scalability, by providing a large range of flexible and less expensive (pay‐per‐use model) computation units. On the basis of these advantages, load testing solutions could be provided on demand in the cloud. This paper describes a Benchmark‐as‐a‐Service solution that automatically scales the load injection platform and facilitates its setup according to load profiles. Our approach is based on: (i) virtualization of the benchmarking platform to create self‐scaling injectors; (ii) online calibration to characterize the injector's capacity and impact on the benched application; and (iii) a provisioning solution to appropriately scale the load injection platform ahead of time. We also report experiments on a benchmark illustrating the benefits of this system in terms of cost and resource reductions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The velocity profile at the base of the liquid core from PKP(BC+Cdiff) data: An argument in favour of radial inhomogeneity

The velocity profile at the base of the core is derived from the mean travel time of the PKP(BC+Cdiff) data collected by the International Seismological Centre. PKP(BC) corresponds to rays having their turning points in the lower third of the liquid core, which give at great distance a branch Cdiff diffracted along the inner core boundary. Travel time residuals are computed with respect to the Earth model PREM (Dziewonski and Anderson, 1981), whose liquid core nearly follows the Adams-Williamson equation at any depth, implying a neutral density stratification. Positive values of PKP(BC+Cdiff) residuals are obtained for epicentral distances greater that 151°. They are well explained by a liquid core model in which the velocity is constant in the lowermost 150 km. This strong decrease of the velocity gradient is in favour of a stable stratification at the base of the liquid core. It cannot be explained by thermal effects only but may correspond to a departure from homogeneity, probably in relation to the crystallization of the inner core.
Isotopic evidence for chemosynthesis‐based nutrition of macrobenthos: The lightness of being at Pacific methane seeps

The importance of chemosynthetic nutritional pathways was examined for macrofaunal invertebrates (≫300 µm) from methane seeps in the Gulf of Alaska (4,413–4,443 m), on the Oregon margin (590 m), and on the northern California slope [Eel River margin] (520 m) by use of natural abundance stable isotopic data. Seep macrofauna exhibited lighter Δ13C and Δ15N values than those in nonseep sediments, but isotopic signatures varied among seep sites. Macrofaunal isotopic signatures indicated chemosynthetically fixed carbon sources with a significant contribution from methane‐derived carbon (MDC) in macrofauna from sediments of pogonophoran fields (average Δ13C, 246.44‰, 32%–51% MDC) and Calyptogena phaseoliformis beds (average Δ13C, 240.89‰, 12%–40% MDC) in the Gulf of Alaska and in microbial mat sediments on the Oregon margin (average Δ13C, 243.80‰, 20%–44% MDC). Lesser influence of MDC was noted in macrofauna from sediments of Calyptogena pacifica beds on the Oregon (average Δ13C, 233.38‰, 0%–27% MDC) and California ( Δ13C, 225.10‰, 0%‐22% MDC) margins and from California microbial mat sediments ( Δ13C, 222.23‰, 0%–5% MDC). Although most macrofauna appeared to be heterotrophic, light Δ15N and Δ13C values together provided evidence for chemoautotrophic symbioses in selected taxa. Carbon isotopic signatures were consistent with consumption of methane‐oxidizing archaea by some dorvilleid polychaetes (Δ13C, 290.62‰ and 273.80‰) and with grazing on filamentous sulfur bacteria by gastropods and polychaetes from the Oregon and California seeps. The importance of chemosynthetic trophic pathways varies regionally and among microhabitats, taxonomic groups, and feeding guilds.
What is gluten?

Gluten is the main storage protein of wheat grains. Gluten is a complex mixture of hundreds of related but distinct proteins, mainly gliadin and glutenin. Similar storage proteins exist as secalin in rye, hordein in barley, and avenins in oats and are collectively referred to as “gluten. ” The objective was to discuss the biochemical and functional properties of the gluten proteins, including structure, sources, and dietary intakes. Literature was reviewed from food science and nutrition journals. The gluten protein networks vary because of different components and sizes, and variability caused by genotype, growing conditions, and technological processes. The structures and interactions of this matrix contribute to the unique properties of gluten. The resulting functions are essential to determining the dough quality of bread and other baked products. Gluten is heat stable and has the capacity to act as a binding and extending agent and is commonly used as an additive in processed foods for improved texture, moisture retention, and flavor. Gliadin contains peptide sequences that are highly resistant to gastric, pancreatic, and intestinal proteolytic digestion in the gastrointestinal tract. The average daily gluten intake in a Western diet is thought to be 5–20 g/day and has been implicated in several disorders. Gluten containing grains (wheat, rye, barley, and oats) are important staple foods. Gluten is among the most complex protein networks and plays a key role in determining the rheological dough properties.
Comparative Oxygen Barometry in Granulites, Bamble Sector, SE Norway

Oxygen fugacities have been estimated for the high-grade portion of the Bamble granulite facies terrane, SE Norway, using both titaniferous magnetite-ilmenite and orthopyroxene-titaniferous magnetite-quartz oxygen barometers. The two oxygen barometers show good agreement, for samples indicating high titaniferous magnetite-ilmenite temperatures whereas agreement is poor for low-temperature samples. Oxygen fugacities estimated from titaniferous magnetite-ilmenite are considerably lower than those estimated from orthopyroxene-titaniferous magnetite-quartz. This discrepancy increases with a decrease in temperature, which appears to reflect preferential resetting of the hematite content in the ilmenite grains, without much alteration of the more numerous titaniferous magnetite or orthopyroxene grains. The mean temperature for the non-reset samples, 795 ± 60°C (1σ), agrees well with temperatures obtained from garnet-orthopyroxene $$K_{D}$$ exchange thermometry in the same region, 785 ± 60°C (1σ). Most non-reset oxygen fugacities range from $$log_{10}fO_{2} = - 11$$ to - 14, well above quartz-fayalite-magnetite at 7.5 kb. These results were derived using an internally consistent data base for both the endmember phases and for the oxide and pyroxene mixing models. Similar conclusions are reached if Andersen's titaniferous magnetite-ilmenite thermometer/oxygen barometer is used. The non-reset oxygen fugacities also agree well with an independent study of the Bamble granulites by Cameron. The QUIlP equilibrium (Quartz-Ulvospinel-Ilmenite-Pyroxene) is used to project self-consistent equilibrium temperatures and oxygen fugacities for samples reset due to hematite loss from the ilmenite grains. These projected temperatures and oxygen fugacities agree reasonably well with non-reset samples. The mean projected temperature is 830 ± 40°C (1σ). This agreement strongly supports the conclusion that low titaniferous magnetite-ilmenite temperatures (down to 485°C) and accompanying low-oxygen fugacities are the result of hematite loss from the ilmenite grains at some time after granulite-facies metamorphism.
A Theoretical Survey for Edge Detection Techniques and Watershed Transformation

Edge is a boundary between two homogeneous regions. Edge detection is a preprocessing step in image analysis. It is a most difficult task in image processing. Edge in an image are with strong intensity contrast. A jump in intensity from one pixels to the very next, which effects in the quality of the picture. A quality of picture is characterized by the sharp discontinuities in an image. Hence a challenge to detect an edge while preserving the important structural properties of an image is challenge. In this paper our main aim is been made to survey the theoretical concepts of commonly used edge detection methods in digital image processing.
Haptic fMRI: A novel five DOF haptic interface for multi-axis motor neuroscience experiments

We present a novel electromagnetically actuated Haptic fMRI Interface with five degrees-of-freedom (DOF), HFI-5. The interface uses two three DOF devices connected with a gimbal in a closed kinematic chain to achieve three-axis translation and two-axis rotation. To highlight the device's design, we develop a taxonomy of similar devices and demonstrate why HFI-5's design excels. We use a cross-correlation based novel analysis method to demonstrate that HFI-5 is transparent by showing that it does not affect unconstrained subject motions. This is due to its low friction (< 0.31 N) and lightweight design. Next, we show that HFI-5 can accurately track positions, velocities, and accelerations, in part due to a 7.5 kHz servo loop. Finally, we demonstrate that HFI-5 is fMRI-compatible and does not interfere with fMRI scans even while applying large torques with its electromagnetic motors.
A Reexamination of the Jordan Mean Tropical Sounding Based on Awareness of the Saharan Air Layer: Results from 2002

Abstract The Jordan mean tropical sounding has provided a benchmark for representing the climatology of the tropical North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea since 1958. However, recent studies of the Saharan air layer (SAL) have suggested that the tropical atmosphere in these oceanic regions may contain two distinct soundings (SAL and non-SAL) with differing thermodynamic and kinematic structures and that a single mean sounding like Jordan’s does not effectively represent these differences. This work addresses this possibility by examining over 750 rawinsondes from the tropical North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea during the 2002 hurricane season. It was found that a two-peak bimodal moisture distribution (dry SAL and moist non-SAL) exists in this region and that the Jordan sounding does not represent either distribution particularly well. Additionally, SAL soundings exhibited higher values of geopotential height, unique temperature profiles, and stronger winds (with an enhanced easterly component) compared to.
Identification of a Novel Di-D-Fructofuranose 1,2’:2,3’ Dianhydride (DFA III) Hydrolysis Enzyme from Arthrobacter aurescens SK8.001

Previously, a di-D-fructofuranose 1,2’:2,3’ dianhydride (DFA III)-producing strain, Arthrobacter aurescens SK8.001, was isolated from soil, and the gene cloning and characterization of the DFA III-forming enzyme was studied. In this study, a DFA III hydrolysis enzyme (DFA IIIase)-encoding gene was obtained from the same strain, and the DFA IIIase gene was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The SDS-PAGE and gel filtration results indicated that the purified enzyme was a homotrimer holoenzyme of 145 kDa composed of subunits of 49 kDa. The enzyme displayed the highest catalytic activity for DFA III at pH 5.5 and 55°C, with specific activity of 232 U mg-1. K m and V max for DFA III were 30.7 ± 4.3 mM and 1.2 ± 0.1 mM min-1, respectively. Interestingly, DFA III-forming enzymes and DFA IIIases are highly homologous in amino acid sequence. The molecular modeling and docking of DFA IIIase were first studied, using DFA III-forming enzyme from Bacillus sp. snu-7 as a template. It was suggested that A. aurescens DFA IIIase shared a similar three-dimensional structure with the reported DFA III-forming enzyme from Bacillus sp. snu-7. Furthermore, their catalytic sites may occupy the same position on the proteins. Based on molecular docking analysis and site-directed mutagenesis, it was shown that D207 and E218 were two potential critical residues for the catalysis of A. aurescens DFA IIIase.
Is climate change causing the increasing narwhal (Monodon monoceros) catches in Smith Sound, Greenland?

This paper evaluates recent changes in narwhal (Monodon monoceros) catches in Siorapaluk, the northernmost community in Greenland, in consideration of the effects of changing climate and uncertainty of stock delineation. The catch statistics show a significant increase in narwhal catches by hunters in Siorapaluk after 2002, which does not appear to be a result of increased effort. Hunters attribute the increase to changed sea-ice conditions providing access by boat to Smith Sound as early as June and July. This indicates that climate change is likely to have a considerable impact on narwhal hunting in northern Greenland. Traditional ecological knowledge and scientific surveys suggest that narwhal in Smith Sound constitute an independent stock. The absence of scientific recommendations for this stock has been seen as an opportunity to increase quotas in West Greenland. Scientific management recommendations are urgently needed to allow the authorities to assign sustainable quotas for this stock. The development of collaborative management agreements and locally based monitoring are recommended to ensure local acceptance of regulations, and to allow rapid responses to climate change.
Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of EGFR over-expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS To elucidate the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) over-expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). METHODOLOGY A meta-analysis of previous studies was performed to assess the effects of EGFR over-expression on clinicopathological parameters and overall survival (OS) in patients with ESCC, using pooled odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) and pooled hazard ratio (HR) with its 95% CI, respectively. RESULTS A total of nine studies including 802 patients were subjected to the final analysis. The overall results suggested that over-expression of EGFR was significantly correlated with, not only the lymph node status and tumour differentiation grade, with a pooled OR of 0.64 (95% CI: 0.46-0.89; Z=2.62; p=0.009) and 1.60 (95% CI: 1.09-2.37; Z=2.37; p=0.018), respectively, but also the poorer OS with a pooled HR of 1.60 (95% CI: 1.05-2.43; Z=2.19 p=0.028). CONCLUSIONS This meta-analysis suggests that over-expression of EGFR might play an important role in the progression of ESCC, and it might be useful as a predictive biomarker in clinical practice, yet the predictive value of EGFR in ESCC still needs further confirmation by prospective trials.
A Perspective from Vietnamese Students on Teaching of Soft Skills

Soft skills are significant to the engineering labour market, especially in Information Technology where demands are high on for instance communication skill, teamwork skill, presentation skill, etc. Despite their importance, educating students in using those skills is not fully included in the bachelor education programmes, especially in developing countries. This project aims to gain insights in how soft skills are taught in Vietnamese universities, and which skills are missing in their bachelor education programmes. The findings are intended to support education in order to develop the teaching of soft skills for Vietnamese students, and decrease the unemployment rate of Vietnamese graduates. In this project, semi-structured interviews, by e-mail, have been used to collect the data. There are eight Vietnamese interviewees who have experiences from various education programmes. The interview transcripts were then analysed and categorised into themes. The results of our work are a preliminary identification of missing skills in the undergraduate programmes, and a set of proposed skills that could be considered to improve the education programmes.
Using simulated students to evaluate an adaptive testing system

This paper describes a strategy for evaluating an assessor algorithm through the use of simulated students. The assessor is an adaptive testing strategy elicited from a human expert. The assessor claims an accurate assessment of the student's domain knowledge with a minimum number of questions presented to the student. An evaluation of the assessor is carried out to test the claim. Three types of students are simulated-one who knows all the relevant skills in the subject domain, one who knows a subset of the relevant skills, and one who has one or more malrules. The performance of the assessor in predicting the mastery of skills of each student is analysed. Future work involves the evaluation of its accuracy in the assessment of other types of students, such as students with lucky guesses or careless slips.
Research on data fusion for monitoring ground subsidence using InSAR

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) magtitude map, extracted from Differential- Interferometric Syntheric Aperture Radar (D-InSAR) technology, has a low-resolution, so it has a certain limitation to the explanation and analysis of subsiding area. In order to solve the problem of lacking enough spatial information of D-InSAR image, in this essay we take a data fusion between D-InSAR image and high resolution Remote Sensing (RS) image, obtaining an image containing subsiding information and high-resolution spatial information. This paper mainly focuses on the study of a Mag-Phase algorithm (MPH) algorithm and other fusion algorithms including Hue-Intensity-Saturation (HIS) transformation, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) transformation, Product fusion, Ratio fusion, Wavelet fusion for magtitude map and deformation map, and we take the deformation map and panchromatic (PAN) image of Enhanced Thematic Mapper + (ETM+) (magtitude map) of Xi'an area as an example to do data fusion according to the algorithms above. At last, a comprehensive evaluation and analysis for fusion images is made with subjective and objective evaluation criteria, and a conclusion that MPH fusion algorithm is better than others is also obtained.
Hydrothermal Processes Beneath Arctic River Channels

Perennially unfrozen ground (river talik) exists beneath Rengleng River and Caribou Creek near Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Subchannel ground temperature observations to 13 meters depth were obtained in April, August, and November of 1977–1978. River talik thermal diffusion parameters were determined from heat transfer simulations of the summer and autumn profiles. It was found that while conduction is the dominant heat transfer process in the talik beneath Caribou Creek, macrodispersion of heat by flowing ground water is the dominant process beneath Rengleng River. The latter increases apparent conductivity by an order of magnitude over simple conduction and resulted in 14°C of summer heating 3 meters beneath the channel. Ground water flow along a talik is shown by flow net analysis to vary periodically in both time and space when the surface water profile in the channel follows a pool-and-riffle sequence. After the streams cease flowing in midwinter, a frost layer up to 2 meters thick develops beneath the center of the channels. Temperature recordings in 1978 showed that frost did not begin to thaw until the runoff peak of June 8, 1978, remaining partially frozen at deeper levels over 16 additional days.
Quantized Correlation Hashing for Fast Cross-Modal Search

Cross-modal hashing is designed to facilitate fast search across domains. In this work, we present a cross-modal hashing approach, called quantized correlation hashing (QCH), which takes into consideration the quantization loss over domains and the relation between domains. Unlike previous approaches that separate the optimization of the quantizer independent of maximization of domain correlation, our approach simultaneously optimizes both processes. The underlying relation between the domains that describes the same objects is established via maximizing the correlation between the hash codes across the domains. The resulting multi-modal objective function is transformed to a unimodal formalization, which is optimized through an alternative procedure. Experimental results on three real world datasets demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art multi-modal hashing methods.
Whole cancer genome analysis using an I/O aware job scheduler on high performance computing resource

Recent advances in DNA sequencing technology have enabled Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) instruments to accelerate generating billions of DNA reads in a few days. However, the management of enormous NGS data and the concurrent analysis of these vast amount of data requires a great deal of computing power and memory as well as huge disk storage. Current popular job scheduling systems provide efficient ways for managing and scheduling vast amount of analysis based on the available computing resources but don't consider the maximum amount of Input/Output (I/O). Thus, when executing large number of genome analysis on a large scale cluster system, the maximum bandwidth of storage I/O is insufficient to utilize all computing resources so the analysis jobs are frequently suspended. Here we developed a disk I/O aware job submission scheduler to maximize disk I/O usage but not hampering previously running jobs due to the heavy disk I/O of a new job. And we constructed a cancer genome analysis pipeline by using our I/O aware scheduler and HPC resources in National Institute of Supercomputing and Networking (NISN) to overcome the obstacles of concurrent analysis for vast amount of NGS data. Based on our I/O aware job submission scheduler, we performed major genome analyses on over 50 case-control pairs of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma patients whole genome samples sequenced by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and successfully completed all analysis jobs while maintaining no jobs to be suspended by I/O bottleneck.
Non-stationary response of Plio-Pleistocene East Asian winter monsoon variation to ice volume forcing

Abstract Recent progress both in studies of Chinese loess and deep-sea sediments have provided robust and longer records of winter monsoon variation and ice volume change back to the Late Miocene. However, when and how the winter monsoon became coupled with global ice volume change remains uncertain. Here we compare quartz grain size (a reliable winter monsoon proxy) generated from two loess-palaeosol and red clay sequences with a stacked benthic δ18O record (a global ice volume proxy). Our results indicate that at longer (>500 ka) timescales, the winter monsoon became strongly coupled with global ice volume change at 2.1 Ma, while at orbital timescales the winter monsoon variations started to be influenced by global ice volume change at c. 3.3 Ma. Correlation coefficients between these two records further indicate that winter monsoon intensity was strongly coupled with global ice volume change during intervals of 0–1.1 Ma, 1.4–1.8 Ma, and 2–2.85 Ma. In spite of these close connections amplitude mismatches between these two records are evident in terms of both long-term trend and glacial–interglacial fluctuations, suggesting that additional processes might have played a role in modulating the response of the winter monsoon variation to ice volume forcing.
Multiuser Scheduler and FDE Design for SC-FDMA MIMO Systems

This paper presents a novel spatial frequency domain packet scheduling and frequency domain equalization (FDE) algorithm for uplink Single Carrier (SC) Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) multiuser MIMO systems. Our analysis model is confined to 3GPP uplink SC-FDMA transmission with Multi-user (MU) Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM). The results show that the proposed MU-MIMO scheduler in conjunction with the new FDE singificantly increases the maximum achievable rate and improves the bit error rate (BER) performance for the system under consideration.