Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hardware read-write lock elision

Hardware Lock Elision (HLE) represents a promising technique to enhance parallelism of concurrent applications relying on conventional, lock-based synchronization. The idea at the basis of current HLE approaches is to wrap critical sections into hardware transactions: this allows critical sections to be executed in parallel using a speculative approach, while leveraging on conflict detection capabilities provided by hardware transactions to ensure equivalent semantics to pessimistic lock-based synchronization. In this paper we present RW-LE, the first HLE approach targeting read-write locks. RW-LE introduces an innovative hardware-software co-design that exploits two recent micro-architectural features of POWER8 processors: suspending/resuming transaction execution and rollback-only transactions. RW-LE's original design provides two major benefits with respect to existing HLE techniques: i) eliding the read lock without resorting to the use of hardware transactions, and ii) avoiding to track read memory accesses issued in the write critical section. We evaluate RW-LE by means of an extensive experimental study based on a variety of benchmarks and real-life, complex applications. Our results demonstrate that RW-LE can provide striking performance gain of up to one order of magnitude with respect to state of the art HLE approaches.
The Legitimation and Dissemination Processes of the Innovation System Approach

A new approach in science policy making named the innovation system (IS) approach has been developed during the past three decades. Its primary goal is to better understand the processes through which scientific knowledge is produced and transferred to businesses to improve their competitiveness and develop national and/or regional economies. This approach has been adopted as an analytical framework and guideline for science policy making by numerous public sector organizations around the world. Using a case study of the Canadian and Québec public sectors, our research seeks to understand why the IS approach has gained the adherence of government employees and how it has been disseminated from international organizations down to regional civil servants. Findings show that adherence to the IS approach stems from the prestige of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its associated epistemic community, and from the cultural authority science exerts on government employees; these two factors bestow cultural authority onto the IS approach. The perceived scientific validity of the IS approach also leads government employees to consider its underlying economistic worldview as an unquestionable reality.
Salternamide A Suppresses Hypoxia-Induced Accumulation of HIF-1α and Induces Apoptosis in Human Colorectal Cancer Cells

Hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is an essential regulator of the cellular response to low oxygen concentrations, activating a broad range of genes that provide adaptive responses to oxygen deprivation. HIF-1α is overexpressed in various cancers and therefore represents a considerable chemotherapeutic target. Salternamide A (SA), a novel small molecule that is isolated from a halophilic Streptomyces sp. , is a potent cytotoxic agent against a variety of human cancer cell lines. However, the mechanisms by which SA inhibits tumor growth remain to be elucidated. In the present study, we demonstrate that SA efficiently inhibits the hypoxia-induced accumulation of HIF-1α in a time- and concentration-dependent manner in various human cancer cells. In addition, SA suppresses the upstream signaling of HIF-1α, such as PI3K/Akt/mTOR, p42/p44 MAPK, and STAT3 signaling under hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, we found that SA induces cell death by stimulating G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human colorectal cancer cells. Taken together, SA was identified as a novel small molecule HIF-1α inhibitor from marine natural products and is potentially a leading candidate in the development of anticancer agents.
Chemical composition and anti-inflammatory activity of the essential oils of Psidium guajava fruits and leaves

Psidium guajava L. (Myrtaceae) has been used traditionally against gastrointestinal disturbances and respiratory ailments. The chemical composition of the essential oil of both leaves and fruits were elucidated by gas–liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (GLC/MS). Forty-five and forty-two compounds, accounting for 93.7% and 89.7% of the fruit and leaf oil, were identified, respectively. The dominant compounds were β-caryophyllene (17.6%) and limonene (11.0%) for the fruit oil and β-caryophyllene (16.9%) and selin-7(11)-en-4α-ol (8.3%) for the leaf oil. The radical scavenging activities of both essential oils were assessed by the diphenyl picrylhydrazyl (DPPH•) and deoxyribose degradation assays. Guava leaf oil reduced DPPH• radicals and prevented the degradation of the deoxyribose with ic50 values of 3.59 and 12.64 μg/mL. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the oils in HepG2 and MCF-7 carcinoma cells was examined using the SRB assay (ic50 32.53 and 49.76 μg/mL for the leaves and fruit oils against HepG2 cells). Inhibition of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) was used to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of both oils (ic50 130.69 and 196.45 μg/mL for the leaves and fruit oils). The anti-inflammatory activity was explained via virtual docking of the major identified compounds to the main sites in the 5-LOX crystal structure.
A dose-response curve for biodosimetry from a 6 MV electron linear accelerator

Biological dosimetry (biodosimetry) is based on the investigation of radiation-induced biological effects (biomarkers), mainly dicentric chromosomes, in order to correlate them with radiation dose. To interpret the dicentric score in terms of absorbed dose, a calibration curve is needed. Each curve should be constructed with respect to basic physical parameters, such as the type of ionizing radiation characterized by low or high linear energy transfer (LET) and dose rate. This study was designed to obtain dose calibration curves by scoring of dicentric chromosomes in peripheral blood lymphocytes irradiated in vitro with a 6 MV electron linear accelerator (Mevatron M, Siemens, USA). Two software programs, CABAS (Chromosomal Aberration Calculation Software) and Dose Estimate, were used to generate the curve. The two software programs are discussed; the results obtained were compared with each other and with other published low LET radiation curves. Both software programs resulted in identical linear and quadratic terms for the curve presented here, which was in good agreement with published curves for similar radiation quality and dose rates.
Collaborative mixed reality visualization of an archaeological excavation

We present VITA (visual interaction tool for archaeology), an experimental collaborative mixed reality system for offsite visualization of an archaeological dig. Our system allows multiple users to visualize the dig site in a mixed reality environment in which tracked, see-through, head-worn displays are combined with a multi-user, multi-touch, projected table surface, a large screen display, and tracked hand-held displays. We focus on augmenting existing archaeological analysis methods with new ways to organize, visualize, and combine the standard 2D information available from an excavation (drawings, pictures, and notes) with textured, laser range-scanned 3D models of objects and the site itself. Users can combine speech, touch, and 3D hand gestures to interact multimodally with the environment. Preliminary user tests were conducted with archaeology researchers and students, and their feedback is presented here.
ColE1-Plasmid Production in Escherichia coli: Mathematical Simulation and Experimental Validation

Plasmids have become very important as pharmaceutical gene vectors in the fields of gene therapy and genetic vaccination in the past years. In this study, we present a dynamic model to simulate the ColE1-like plasmid replication control, once for a DH5α-strain carrying a low copy plasmid (DH5α-pSUP 201-3) and once for a DH5α-strain carrying a high copy plasmid (DH5α-pCMV-lacZ) by using ordinary differential equations and the MATLAB software. The model includes the plasmid replication control by two regulatory RNA molecules (RNAI and RNAII) as well as the replication control by uncharged tRNA molecules. To validate the model, experimental data like RNAI- and RNAII concentration, plasmid copy number (PCN), and growth rate for three different time points in the exponential phase were determined. Depending on the sampled time point, the measured RNAI- and RNAII concentrations for DH5α-pSUP 201-3 reside between 6 ± 0.7 and 34 ± 7 RNAI molecules per cell and 0.44 ± 0.1 and 3 ± 0.9 RNAII molecules per cell. The determined PCNs averaged between 46 ± 26 and 48 ± 30 plasmids per cell. The experimentally determined data for DH5α-pCMV-lacZ reside between 345 ± 203 and 1086 ± 298 RNAI molecules per cell and 22 ± 2 and 75 ± 10 RNAII molecules per cell with an averaged PCN of 1514 ± 1301 and 5806 ± 4828 depending on the measured time point. As the model was shown to be consistent with the experimentally determined data, measured at three different time points within the growth of the same strain, we performed predictive simulations concerning the effect of uncharged tRNA molecules on the ColE1-like plasmid replication control. The hypothesis is that these tRNA molecules would have an enhancing effect on the plasmid production. The in silico analysis predicts that uncharged tRNA molecules would indeed increase the plasmid DNA production.
Enriched Bone Marrow Derived Disseminated Neuroblastoma Cells Can Be a Reliable Source for Gene Expression Studies—A Validation Study

Background Metastases in the bone marrow (BM) in form of disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) are frequent events at diagnosis and also at relapse in high-risk neuroblastoma patients. The frequently highly diluted occurrence of DTCs requires adequate enrichment strategies to enable their detailed characterization. However, to avoid methodical artifacts we tested whether pre-analytical processing steps—including transport duration, temperature and, importantly, tumor cell enrichment techniques—are confounding factors for gene expression analysis in DTCs. Methods LAN-1 neuroblastoma cells were spiked into tumor free BM and/or peripheral blood and: i) kept at room temperature or at 4°C for 24, 48 and 72 hours; ii) frozen down at -80°C and thawed; iii) enriched via magnetic beads. The effect on the gene expression signature of LAN-1 cells was analyzed by qPCR arrays and gene expression microarrays. Results Neither storage at –80°C in DMSO and subsequent thawing nor enrichment of spiked-in neuroblastoma cells changed the expression of the analyzed genes significantly. Whereas storage at 4°C altered the expression of analyzed genes (14.3%) only at the 72h-timepoint in comparison to the 0h-timepoint, storage at room temperature had a much more profound effect on gene expression by affecting 20% at 24h, 26% at 48h and 43% at 72h of the analyzed genes. Conclusion Using neuroblastoma as a model, we show that tumor cell enrichment by magnetic bead separation has virtually no effect on gene expression in DTCs. However, transport time and temperature can influence the expression profile remarkably. Thus, the expression profile of routinely collected BM samples can be analyzed without concern as long as the transport conditions are monitored.
Who benefits from adolescent sleep interventions? Moderators of treatment efficacy in a randomized controlled trial of a cognitive‐behavioral and mindfulness‐based group sleep intervention for at‐risk adolescents

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to test moderators of therapeutic improvement in an adolescent cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based group sleep intervention. Specifically, we examined whether the effects of the program on postintervention sleep outcomes were dependent on participant gender and/or measures of sleep duration, anxiety, depression, and self-efficacy prior to the interventions. METHOD Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial conducted with 123 adolescent participants (female = 59.34%; mean age = 14.48 years, range 12.04-16.31 years) who had elevated levels of sleep problems and anxiety symptoms. Participants were randomized into either a group sleep improvement intervention (n = 63) or group active control 'study skills' intervention (n = 60). The sleep intervention ('Sleep SENSE') was cognitive behavioral in approach, incorporating sleep education, sleep hygiene, stimulus control, and cognitive restructuring, but also had added anxiety-reducing, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing elements. Components of the active control intervention ('Study SENSE') included personal organization, persuasive writing, critical reading, referencing, memorization, and note taking. Participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) and wore an actigraph and completed a sleep diary for five school nights prior to the interventions. Sleep assessments were repeated at postintervention. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12612001177842; http://www.anzctr.org.au/TrialSearch.aspx? searchTxt=ACTRN12612001177842&isBasic=True). RESULTS The results showed that compared with the active control intervention, the effect of the sleep intervention on self-reported sleep quality (PSQI global score) at postintervention was statistically significant among adolescents with relatively moderate to high SCAS, CES-D, and GSE prior to the intervention, but not among adolescents with relatively low SCAS, CES-D, and GSE prior to the intervention. The results were consistent across genders. However, the effects of the sleep intervention on actigraphy-measured sleep onset latency and sleep diary-measured sleep efficiency at postintervention were not dependent on actigraphy-measured total sleep time, SCAS, CES-D, or GSE prior to the intervention. CONCLUSIONS This study provides evidence that some sleep benefits of adolescent cognitive-behavioral sleep interventions are greatest among those with higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, suggesting that this may be an especially propitious group to whom intervention efforts could be targeted. Furthermore, adolescents with lower levels of self-efficacy may need further targeted support (e.g. additional motivational interviewing) to help them reach treatment goals.
Plane wave diffraction by a small rectangular aperture in a thick conducting screen

Based on the application of the exact solution for the plane wave diffraction by a rectangular hole, the transmission property of a rectangular aperture less than the half-wavelength is investigated by calculating the transmitted power for various aperture sizes and screen's thicknesses, and we derive a useful formula for predicting the transmitted power by fitting lines to the asymptotes of the plots of the transmission coefficients. We also visualize the power flow near the aperture by means of the 2D vector plot and the behavior of the diffracted wave is examined. The results for various screen's thicknesses and aperture sizes provide some understanding of the diffraction phenomena for the strong power transmission.
Throughput-Optimized, Global-Scale Join Processing in Scientific Federations

We present distributed query scheduling algorithms that minimize network utilization for spatial joins in the Sky-Query federation of Astronomy databases. Unlike existing works that measure the quality of join schedules based on query response time, our metric both minimizes network utilization and balances the utilization of heterogeneous network paths. Preliminary experiments show that our algorithms reduce network utilization dramatically when compared with SkyQuery's existing scheduling algorithm.
Employment Issues Among Drug Court Participants

Abstract The overall goal of the current study, which was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant #DA13076), was to develop and evaluate an enhanced Drug Court employment intervention with the goals of improving drug treatment retention and reducing recidivism. Focus groups were conducted with Drug Court clients in order to gain a better understanding of employment needs in order to target and refine the enhanced employment intervention. As expected, findings indicate that Drug Court participants encounter a variety of employment issues. Perhaps the major theme that emerged is the consistent difficulty expressed by participants in balancing work and treatment involvement. Implications from this study provide important insights for developing employment interventions, as well as for further research.
When the social becomes personal: Exploring the role of common ground in stereotype communication

Two studies test the assumption that the tendency to preferentially communicate stereotype-consistent information about individuals can be explained in terms of communicational grounding. In Study 1, this bias was stronger when communicators told a story to a friend than to a stranger. In Study 2, dyads either discussed a stereotype about a novel group (discussion condition) or merely thought individually about this stereotype (thinking condition). Participants then reproduced a story involving a group member performing both stereotype-consistent and inconsistent behaviors to one of two audiences. One member addressed the other dyad member whereas the latter wrote the story for an unknown audience. Participants in the discussion condition were more likely to emphasize stereotype-consistent behaviors when addressing the other dyad member (with whom they had grounded the stereotype) than an unknown audience. These findings suggest that stereotype-consistent communication is more likely when stereotypes are part of the personal common ground.
The Second Subunit of the Replication Factor C complex (RFC40) and the Regulatory Subunit (RI?) of Protein Kinase A form a Protein Complex Promoting Cell Survival

Replication Factor C (RFC) is required for the loading of Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) onto DNA during DNA replication, repair and recombination. RFC40, the second subunit of the RFC complex, and PCNA have been shown to be over-expressed in gestational trophoblastic diseases. Using RFC40 as the bait in a yeast two-hybrid screening, we have identified a novel interaction between RFC40 and the regulatory subunit (RI? ) of cAMP-dependent Protein kinase A (PKA). The interaction sites between these two proteins were investigated and mapped to the N-terminus of RI? and the C-terminus of RFC40. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the C-subunit of PKA was not associated with the RFC40-RI? complex. Furthermore, RFC37, the third subunit of the RFC complex, competes with RI? and displaces it from the RFC40-RI? complex. Interestingly, down regulation of endogenous RI? by 8-chloro cAMP, in MCF7 breast cancer cells led to reduction in the amount of RFC40-RI? complex, together with decrease in cell survival.
Efficient Online Linear Optimization with Approximation Algorithms

We revisit the problem of online linear optimization in the case where the set of feasible actions is accessible through an approximated linear optimization oracle with a factor α multiplicative approximation guarantee. This setting in particular is interesting because it captures natural online extensions of well-studied offline linear optimization problems that are NP-hard yet admit efficient approximation algorithms. The goal here is to minimize the α-regret, which is the natural extension to this setting of the standard regret in online learning. We present new algorithms with significantly improved oracle complexity for both the full-information and bandit variants of the problem. Mainly, for both variants, we present α-regret bounds of [Formula: see text], were T is the number of prediction rounds, using only [Formula: see text] calls to the approximation oracle per iteration, on average. These are the first results to obtain both the average oracle complexity of [Formula: see text] (or even polylogarithmic in T) and α -regret bound [Formula: see text] for a constant c > 0 for both variants.
How to make Face Recognition Work: The Power of Modeling Context

Face recognition in the wild has been one of the longest standing computer vision challenges. While there has been constant improvement over the years, the variations in appearance, illumination, pose etc. still makes it one the hardest task to do well. In this paper we summarize two techniques that leverage context and show significant improvement over vision only methods. At the heart of the approach is a probabilistic model of context that captures dependencies induced via set of contextual relations. The model allows application of standard variational inference procedures to infer labels that are consistent with contextual constraints. With the ever increasing popularity of digital photos, visionassisted tagging of personal photo albums has become an active research topic. Existing efforts in this area have mostly been devoted to using face recognition to help tag people. However, current face recognition algorithms are still not very robust to the variation of face appearance in real photos. This paper explores how contextual cues can aid and improve face recognition in the wild. In particular instead of just focusing on answering who, we incorporate methods to consider what, when, and where, and in doing so show how such contextual can immensely help with the task. We consider the domains of people, events, and locations, as a whole and the key insight that the domains are not independent and knowledge in one domain can help the others. For example, if we know the event that a photo was captured in, we can probably infer who was in the photo, or at least reduce the set of possibilities. On the other hand, the identities of the people in a photo may help us infer when and where the photo was taken. Our approach is based on the principles of probabilistic graphical models where we build a network of classifiers over different domains. Ideally, if a strong classifier is available to recognize the instances in one domain accurately, the labels in this domain can be used to help recognition in the other domains. However, a challenge that arises in real systems is that we often do not have a strong initial classifier in any of the domains. One of the primary contributions of the work presented here is to develop a unified framework that Copyright c © 2012, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved. couples the recognition across the domains. A joint learning and inference algorithm allows accurate recognition in all domains by exploiting the statistical dependency between them and reinforces individual classifiers, which alone may be relatively weak.