Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On-Line Analytical Process Tools for the VISION Engineering Performance Data Mart

VISION (versatile information system - integrated, on-line) represents a comprehensive, holistic, top down approach to information collection, management, and ultimate transformation into knowledge. VISION employs a Web based approach that combines a modular instrumentation suite and a digital library (VDLS) with modern communications technology. VDLS is a Web based collaborative knowledge management system that incorporates associated data marts and additional test information sources such as reports, analyses and documents. One of these data marts contains engineering performance data. A Web based online analytical processing (OLAP) toolbox has been developed to allow querying of this data mart via a Java graphical user interface (GUI). Currently, the OLAP toolbox contains functions to perform metadata searches, view a Global Positioning System (GPS) map of the location of the item under test, view time series traces of all the parameters, generate custom plots of any parameter or download raw data files. The work described in this paper adds additional functions to this toolbox that allows test engineers, data analysts or mechanical engineers to quickly find the data of interest. Tools were developed that use wavelet transforms for both data validation purposes and for data de-noising. Other tools were created that use Google Earth to plot GPS coordinates as markers where each marker contains a balloon of information (e.g., time, date, latitude, longitude, speed, direction). In addition, Google Earth was used in a spatial data mining application where the GPS coordinates of extreme values (i.e., values exceeding a given threshold) are plotted along the track. All of the algorithms developed in this paper were tested using a dataset from the 10 ton dump truck of the family of medium tactical vehicles (FMTV). Up to 35 sensors were used in these tests measuring everything from GPS position to engine speed to strain rate. The tests were conducted at the Aberdeen Test Center on a variety of courses covering everything from smooth paved surfaces to block gravel to dirt.
Perioperative Comparative Effectiveness of Anesthetic Technique in Orthopedic Patients

Background:The impact of anesthetic technique on perioperative outcomes remains controversial. We studied a large national sample of primary joint arthroplasty recipients and hypothesized that neuraxial anesthesia favorably influences perioperative outcomes. Methods:Data from approximately 400 hospitals between 2006 and 2010 were accessed. Patients who underwent primary hip or knee arthroplasty were identified and subgrouped by anesthesia technique: general, neuraxial, and combined neuraxial–general. Demographics, postoperative complications, 30-day mortality, length of stay, and patient cost were analyzed and compared. Multivariable analyses were conducted to identify the independent impact of choice of anesthetic on outcomes. Results:Of 528,495 entries of patients undergoing primary hip or knee arthroplasty, information on anesthesia type was available for 382,236 (71.4%) records. Eleven percent were performed under neuraxial, 14.2% under combined neuraxial–general, and 74.8% under general anesthesia. Average age and comorbidity burden differed modestly between groups. When neuraxial anesthesia was used, 30-day mortality was significantly lower (0.10, 0.10, and 0.18%; P < 0.001), as was the incidence of prolonged (>75th percentile) length of stay, increased cost, and in-hospital complications. In the multivariable regression, neuraxial anesthesia was associated with the most favorable complication risk profile. Thirty-day mortality remained significantly higher in the general compared with the neuraxial or neuraxial–general group for total knee arthroplasty (adjusted odds ratio [OR] of 1.83, 95% CI 1.08–3.1, P = 0.02; OR of 1.70, 95% CI 1.06–2.74, P = 0.02, respectively). Conclusions:The utilization of neuraxial versus general anesthesia for primary joint arthroplasty is associated with superior perioperative outcomes. More research is needed to study potential mechanisms for these findings.
Research on Automatic Sampling Technology of Transformer Oil Using Robots

Transformer oil is an important insulation medium, and its performance will decrease after long-term operation. Therefore, in daily operation and maintenance work, transformers need to regularly take oil for oilization tests. However, there are the following problems with manual oil sample collection: firstly, it is difficult to ensure personal safety during the oil sample collection process; secondly, the quality of oil sampling is greatly affected by the operational level of personnel; thirdly, the efficiency of oil sampling is low, and the operation of traditional mechanical valves is relatively cumbersome. In response to this issue, this article designs an automatic transformer oil sampling robot, which uses a mechanical arm to drive a gripper to grab and rotate the oil valve, and uses a screw motor to drive a syringe to sample oil. In order to achieve reliable grasping of oil valves by robot grippers, a method for estimating the pose of oil valves based on semantic segmentation was proposed. The experiment was conducted in the on-site environment of a 220kV substation, and the results showed that the proposed algorithm achieved an actual success rate of 83.3% for grasping oil valves, which can meet the requirements of automatic sampling of transformer oil.
A Prospective Study of Bone Marrow Hematopoietic and Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Type 1 Gaucher Disease Patients

Gaucher disease (GD) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by lysosomal glucocerebrosidase (GBA) deficiency leading to hematological and skeletal manifestations. Mechanisms underlying these symptoms have not yet been elucidated. In vivo, bone marrow (BM) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have important role in the regulation of bone mass and in the support of hematopoiesis, thus representing potential candidate that could contribute to the disease. GBA deficiency may also directly impair hematopoietic stem/progenitors cells (HSPCs) intrinsic function and induce hematological defect. In order to evaluate the role of BM stem cells in GD pathophysiology, we prospectively analyzed BM-MSCs and HSPCs properties in a series of 10 patients with type 1 GD. GBA activity was decreased in all tested cell subtypes. GD-MSCs had an impaired growth potential, morphological and cell cycle abnormalities, decreased capacities to differentiate into osteoblasts. Moreover, GD-MSCs secreted soluble factors that stimulated osteoclasts resorbing activities. In vitro and in vivo primitive and mature hematopoiesis were similar between patients and controls. However, GD-MSCs had a lower hematopoietic supportive capacity than those from healthy donors. These data suggest that BM microenvironment is altered in GD and that MSCs are key components of the manifestations observed in GD.
United Channel Assignments in Residential Environments

Residential wireless networks have grown rapidly in the past decade. Meanwhile, dense deployments and autonomous managements of home Access Points (APs) greatly increase channel congestion levels and degrade the user experience. To address such problems, this paper proposes an architecture in residential environments called Wi-Fi Union (WU), where home APs can voluntarily join WU and become "member APs". WU helps member APs decrease their congestion levels by assigning channels in a coordinated manner with incentive considerations. First, we propose congestion level metric normalized airtime which can be passively and independently measured by member APs. Normalized airtime is further used to classify APs into heavily congested APs and lightly congested APs. A tabu search based channel assignment algorithm is presented which can decrease the congestion level of heavily congested member APs, and guarantee lightly congested member APs to be still lightly congested. Extensive NS-3 simulations driven by actual Wi-Fi data show that the united channel assignments has a 1.5 times throughput than that in the default setting on average.
Flow based clustering algorithm for tourism search engine

This paper introduces a flow based clustering algorithm for tourism search engine. Unlike the general tourism search engines such as www.tripadvisor. com, www.qunar. com and www.kayak. com etc. to return the users' queries huge amount of web page links, this algorithm helps the tourism search engine create a list of words which serve as suggestions to expand and update the users' queries. It is much different from the previous clustering algorithms which cluster the results by the similar subjects. This algorithm clusters the search results by the inside vector distance representing each relationship between the web pages. In this manner, these representatives belong to different clusters merging into something like different flows. The experimental results indicate that the algorithm performs an unexpected usefulness for the users' queries. Meanwhile, through the comparison with some often used algorithms and an online survey, it shows this algorithm has an accepted performance.
Real-Time PCR Quantitation of Clostridia in Feces of Autistic Children

ABSTRACT Based on the hypothesis that intestinal clostridia play a role in late-onset autism, we have been characterizing clostridia from stools of autistic and control children. We applied the TaqMan real-time PCR procedure to detect and quantitate three Clostridium clusters and one Clostridium species, C. bolteae, in stool specimens. Group- and species-specific primers targeting the 16S rRNA genes were designed, and specificity of the primers was confirmed with DNA from related bacterial strains. In this procedure, a linear relationship exists between the threshold cycle (CT) fluorescence value and the number of bacterial cells (CFU). The assay showed high sensitivity: as few as 2 cells of members of cluster I, 6 cells of cluster XI, 4 cells of cluster XIVab, and 0.6 cell of C. bolteae could be detected per PCR. Analysis of the real-time PCR data indicated that the cell count differences between autistic and control children for C. bolteae and the following Clostridium groups were statistically significant: mean counts of C. bolteae and clusters I and XI in autistic children were 46-fold (P = 0.01), 9.0-fold (P = 0.014), and 3.5-fold (P = 0.004) greater than those in control children, respectively, but not for cluster XIVab (2.6 × 108 CFU/g in autistic children and 4.8 × 108 CFU/g in controls; respectively). More subjects need to be studied. The assay is a rapid and reliable method, and it should have great potential for quantitation of other bacteria in the intestinal tract.
Sixth Grade Pupils' Phonological Processing and School Achievement in a Second and the Native Language

Phonological processing was studied in relation to academic achievement in the native and a second language in a total of 66 12-13-year-old pupils at the end of their sixth school year. Phonological ability was assessed using a pseudoword spelling and an auditory discrimination task, which were assumed to probe two domains of phonological processing: verbal short-term memory and phonological awareness. School report marks and the scores they obtained in the Finnish national test of English were used as indicators of the pupils' academic achievement. Of the two phonological tasks, the pseudoword spelling was strongly related to success in both Finnish and English. The correlation coefficients remained statistically significant after the pupils' performances in other school subjects had been controlled for. In general, the results are in agreement with findings obtained in previous studies. The educational implications of the present results are discussed.
NMDA receptor antibodies associated with distinct white matter syndromes

Objective: To report the clinical and radiologic findings of children with NMDA receptor (NMDAR) antibodies and white matter disorders. Method: Ten children with significant white matter involvement, with or without anti-NMDAR encephalitis, were identified from 46 consecutive NMDAR antibody–positive pediatric patients. Clinical and neuroimaging features were reviewed and the treatment and outcomes of the neurologic syndromes evaluated. Results: Three distinct clinicoradiologic phenotypes were recognized: brainstem encephalitis (n = 3), leukoencephalopathy following herpes simplex virus encephalitis (HSVE) (n = 2), and acquired demyelination syndromes (ADS) (n = 5); 3 of the 5 with ADS had myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein as well as NMDAR antibodies. Typical NMDAR antibody encephalitis was seen in 3 patients remote from the first neurologic syndrome (2 brainstem, 1 post-HSVE). Six of the 7 patients (85%) who were treated acutely, during the original presentation with white matter involvement, improved following immunotherapy with steroids, IV immunoglobulin, and plasma exchange, either individually or in combination. Two patients had escalation of immunotherapy at relapse resulting in clinical improvement. The time course of clinical features, treatments, and recoveries correlated broadly with available serum antibody titers. Conclusion: Clinicoradiologic evidence of white matter involvement, often distinct, was identified in 22% of children with NMDAR antibodies and appears immunotherapy responsive, particularly when treated in the acute phase of neurologic presentation. When observed, this clinical improvement is often mirrored by reduction in NMDAR antibody levels, suggesting that these antibodies may mediate the white matter disease.
Paternal Postnatal and Subsequent Mental Health Symptoms and Child Socio-Emotional and Behavioural Problems at School Entry

Research on the effect of paternal mental health problems, particularly on young children, is based predominantly on clinical levels of depression. Furthermore, potential mediators such as marital discord have often been overlooked. This longitudinal community study assessed the association between paternal mental health symptoms in a community sample (N = 705) assessed at 3 months postnatally (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) and 36 months (General Health Questionnaire) and children's socio-emotional and behavioural problems at 51 months (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) as reported by mother, father and teacher. Controlling for socioeconomic status and maternal mental health symptoms at 3 and 36 months, paternal postnatal depressive symptoms predicted more father-reported child problems at 51 months but, in contrast to previous findings, not mother-reported problems. Paternal mental health symptoms at 36 months predicted both maternal and paternal reports of child problems at 51 months controlling for both paternal and maternal postnatal symptoms. Paternal mental health symptoms at 3 and 36 months were not significant predictors of teacher-reported child problems. Postnatal marital discord and paternal mental health problems at 36 months both mediated the relationship between paternal postnatal symptoms and later child emotional and behavioural problems. Child gender did not moderate the relationship. Implications for interventions are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cloud Computing: Distributed Internet Computing for IT and Scientific Research

Cloud computing is a disruptive technology with profound implications not only for Internet services but also for the IT sector as a whole. Its emergence promises to streamline the on-demand provisioning of software, hardware, and data as a service, achieving economies of scale in IT solutions' deployment and operation. This issue's articles tackle topics including architecture and management of cloud computing infrastructures, SaaS and IaaS applications, discovery of services and data in cloud computing infrastructures, and cross-platform interoperability. Still, several outstanding issues exist, particularly related to SLAs, security and privacy, and power efficiency. Other open issues include ownership, data transfer bottlenecks, performance unpredictability, reliability, and software licensing issues. Finally, hosted applications' business models must show a clear pathway to monetizing cloud computing. Several companies have already built Internet consumer services such as search, social networking, Web email, and online commerce that use cloud computing infrastructure. Above all, cloud computing's still unknown "killer application" will determine many of the challenges and the solutions we must develop to make this technology work in practice.
A Scale of Block Constructions for Young Children1

be used as a measuring device to evaluate constructive and manipulative ability of children of nursery school and kindergarten ages. Block constructions were selected as the best approach to the problem; they provide a situation which the child can initiate himself and also one at which he can work alone or with other children. A scale of block constructions would, then, make possible study and investigation into phases of child development which heretofore have been neglected because of the lack of an adequate measuring device which would give objective, quantitative results.
Rumination and executive function in depression: an experimental study

Background: Major depression is associated with cognitive deficits, particularly those requiring central executive functioning. Depressed patients also tend to focus on and think about their symptoms and problems (“ruminate”) more than non-depressed controls. Although an association has been found between rumination and impaired performance on a central executive processing task, the causal relation between impaired executive functioning and rumination has not been determined. This study sought to directly manipulate rumination and assess the impact on executive functioning in depression as measured by random number generation. Methods: Depressed patients (n=14) and non-depressed controls (n=14) were compared on a random number generation task, performed after both a rumination induction and after a distraction induction, with order of inductions counter balanced within each group. Results: Compared with the distraction induction, the rumination induction produced a significant increase in both ruminations and the tendency towards stereotyped counting responses (thought to reflect a failure of inhibitory executive control) in depressed patients but not in controls. However, after distraction, no difference in random number generation or rumination was found between the two groups. Conclusions: The aspects of executive function involved in random number generation are not fundamentally impaired in depressed patients. In depressed patients, the rumination induction seems to trigger the continued generation of ruminative stimulus independent thoughts, which interferes with concurrent executive processing.
Simple Testing Can Prevent Most Critical Failures: An Analysis of Production Failures in Distributed Data-Intensive Systems

Large, production quality distributed systems still fail periodically, and do so sometimes catastrophically, where most or all users experience an outage or data loss. We present the result of a comprehensive study investigating 198 randomly selected, user-reported failures that occurred on Cassandra, HBase, Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), Hadoop MapReduce, and Redis, with the goal of understanding how one or multiple faults eventually evolve into a user-visible failure. We found that from a testing point of view, almost all failures require only 3 or fewer nodes to reproduce, which is good news considering that these services typically run on a very large number of nodes. However, multiple inputs are needed to trigger the failures with the order between them being important. Finally, we found the error logs of these systems typically contain sufficient data on both the errors and the input events that triggered the failure, enabling the diagnose and the reproduction of the production failures. We found the majority of catastrophic failures could easily have been prevented by performing simple testing on error handling code - the last line of defense - even without an understanding of the software design. We extracted three simple rules from the bugs that have lead to some of the catastrophic failures, and developed a static checker, Aspirator, capable of locating these bugs. Over 30% of the catastrophic failures would have been prevented had Aspirator been used and the identified bugs fixed. Running Aspirator on the code of 9 distributed systems located 143 bugs and bad practices that have been fixed or confirmed by the developers.
Views, Values and Perceptions in Geographical Fieldwork in Singapore Schools

This article suggests that there is an overwhelming support for fieldwork among a prominent group of professionals in Singapore. Professionals were surveyed to assess how fieldwork is viewed amongst the subject leaders (heads of departments, subject heads and geography coordinators) and the various stakeholders (school leaders comprising principals/vice-principals, curriculum officers from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and geography lecturers at the National Institute of Education) in Singapore. The article concludes that the majority of the fieldwork was only of the ‘traditional field excursion’ type which did not allow much geographical enquiry and discovery. There were also divergent views on the adequacy of training for teachers. The article also highlights the current level of fieldwork undertaken in schools and the current level of training for teachers. It also offers a number of recommendations based on a deeper understanding of challenges and issues faced by schools.