Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Taxonomy of Self-configuring Service Discovery Systems

We analyze the fundamental concepts and issues in service discovery. This analysis places service discovery in the context of distributed systems by describing service discovery as a third generation naming system. We also describe the essential architectures and the functionalities in service discovery. We then proceed to show how service discovery fits into a system, by characterizing operational aspects. Subsequently, we describe how existing state of the art performs service discovery, in relation to the operational aspects and functionalities, and identify areas for improvement.
An adaptive polarization-space-time processor for radar system

The authors address the problem of combining adaptive polarization processing and space-time processing for further performance improvement of radar target detection in clutter and jammer environments. Emphasis is placed on the development of adaptive processing in the joint polarization-space-time domain. The processing algorithm developed here does not need a potentially costly polarization filter bank to cover the unknown target polarization parameter. The performance of the new algorithm is derived and evaluated in terms of the probability of detection and the probability of false alarm, and it is compared with other algorithms that do not utilize the polarization information or assume that the target polarization is known. <<ETX>>
Innate Immunity Activation and RNAi Interplay in Citrus Exocortis Viroid—Tomato Pathosystem

Although viroids are the smallest and simplest plant pathogens known, the molecular mechanisms underlying their pathogenesis remain unclear. To unravel these mechanisms, a dual approach was implemented consisting of in silico identification of potential tomato silencing targets of pospiviroids, and the experimental validation of these targets through the sequencing of small RNAs and RNA ends extracted from tomatoes infected with a severe isolate of Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd). The generated RNA ends were also used to monitor the differentially-expressed genes. These analyses showed that when CEVd symptoms are well established: (i) CEVd are degraded by at least three Dicer-like (DCL) proteins and possibly by RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), (ii) five different mRNAs are partially degraded through post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), including argonaute 2a, which is further degraded in phasiRNAs, (iii) Dicer-like 2b and 2d are both upregulated and degraded in phasiRNAs, and (iv) CEVd infection induced a significant shift in gene expression allowing to explain the usual symptoms of pospiviroids on tomato and to demonstrate the constant activation of host innate immunity and systemic acquired resistance (SAR) by these pathogenic RNAs. Finally, based on in silico analysis, potential immunity receptor candidates of viroid-derived RNAs are suggested.
A heuristic ant algorithm for solving QoS multicast routing problem

In this paper, we present an ant colony-based heuristic to solve QoS (quality of service) constrained multicast routing problems. Our algorithm considers multiple QoS metrics, such as bandwidth, delay, delay jitter and packet loss rate, to find the multicast tree that minimizes the total cost. We also explore the scalability of the ant algorithm. Our tests show that the algorithm can find optimal (or near-optimal) solutions quickly and that it has good scalability.
A Functional Variant in Ubiquitin Conjugating Enzyme E2 L3 Contributes to Hepatitis B Virus Infection and Maintains Covalently Closed Circular DNA Stability by Inducing Degradation of Apolipoprotein B mRNA Editing Enzyme Catalytic Subunit 3A

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a common infectious disease, in which nuclear covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) plays a key role in viral persistence, viral reactivation after treatment withdrawal, and drug resistance. A recent genome‐wide association study has identified that the ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2 L3 (UBE2L3) gene is associated with increased susceptibility to chronic HBV (CHB) infection in adults. However, the association between UBE2L3 and children with CHB and the underlying mechanism remain unclear. In this study, we performed two‐stage case–control studies including adults and independent children in the Chinese Han population. The rs59391722 allele in the promoter of the UBE2L3 gene was significantly associated with HBV infection in both adults and children, and it increased the promoter activity of UBE2L3. Serum UBE2L3 protein levels were positively correlated with HBV viral load and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) levels in children with CHB. In an HBV infection cell model, UBE2L3 knockdown significantly reduced total HBV RNAs, 3.5‐kb RNA, as well as cccDNA in HBV‐infected HepG2‐Na+/taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide cells and human primary hepatocytes. A mechanistic study found that UBE2L3 maintained cccDNA stability by inducing proteasome‐dependent degradation of apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme catalytic subunit 3A, which is responsible for the degradation of HBV cccDNA. Moreover, interferon‐α (IFN‐α) treatment markedly decreased UBE2L3 expression, while UBE2L3 silencing reinforced the antiviral activity of IFN‐α on HBV RNAs, cccDNA, and DNA. rs59391722 in UBE2L3 was correlated with HBV DNA suppression and HBeAg loss in response to IFN‐α treatment of children with CHB. Conclusion: These findings highlight a host gene, UBE2L3, contributing to the susceptibility to persistent HBV infection; UBE2L3 may be involved in IFN‐mediated viral suppression and serve as a potential target in the prevention and treatment of HBV infection.
SPQUSAR : A Large-Scale Qualitative Spatial Reasoner Using Apache Spark

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a large-scale qualitative spatial reasoner using Apache Spark, an in-memory high speed cluster computing environment, which is effective for sequencing and iterating component reasoning jobs. The proposed reasoner can not only check the integrity of a large-scale spatial knowledge base representing topological and directional relationships between spatial objects, but also expand the given knowledge base by deriving new facts in highly efficient ways. In general, qualitative reasoning on topological and directional relationships between spatial objects includes a number of composition operations on every possible pair of disjunctive relations. The proposed reasoner enhances computational efficiency by determining the minimal set of disjunctive relations for spatial reasoning and then reducing the size of the composition table to include only that set. Additionally, in order to improve performance, the proposed reasoner is designed to minimize disk I/Os during distributed reasoning jobs, which are performed on a Hadoop cluster system. In experiments with both artificial and real spatial knowledge bases, the proposed Spark-based spatial reasoner showed higher performance than the existing MapReduce-based one.
Appendix A.

Three broad strategies are used to model land-surface processes in GCMs: first, the prescription of land surface parameters; second, the use of conceptual models; and finally, the use of biophysically based models. According to Sellers (1987), in earlier GCMs, particularly before the work of Dickinson (1984), all surface parameterizations had been confined only to the prescription of land surface parameters and the use of conceptual models. The two approaches are documented below following descriptions given by Sellers (1987, 1991 and 1992).
A Successful Coronary Artery Bypass Operation with Intermittent Factor VIII Administration in a Hemophilia A Patient Who Was Admitted Due to Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Rare and Difficult Case

1Kayseri City Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Internal Medicine, Kayseri, Turkey 2Kayseri City Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Cardiovascular Surgery, Kayseri, Turkey 3Erciyes University Faculty and Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Intensive Care Unit, Kayseri, Turkey 4Erciyes University Faculty and Medicine, Department of Cardiology, Kayseri, Turkey 5Kayseri City Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Hematology, Kayseri, Turkey
Adaptive holographic implementation of a neural network

A holographic implementation for neural networks is proposed and demonstrated as an alternative to the optical matrix-vector multiplier architecture. In comparison, the holographic architecture makes more efficient use of the system space-bandwidth product for certain types of neural networks. The principal network component is a thermoplastic hologram, used to provide both interconnection weights and beam redirection. Given the updatable nature of this type of hologram, adaptivity or network learning is possible in the optical system. Two networks with fixed weights are experimentally implemented and verified, and for one of these examples we demonstrate the advantage of the holographic implementation with respect to the matrix-vector processor.
On Using Classification Techniques for Corpus Reduction in Arabic Text-To-Speech Systems

Abstract Text-to-speech tools are gaining an increasing momentum with the pervasiveness of today’s computer applications. These tools are typically implemented using diphones and syllables, with a body of knowledge (i.e., corpus) comprised of pre-recorded sounds. Although pre-recording achieves high intelligibility and a more natural experience, it requires a large memory size to store the sounds, which in turn leads to slowness in the conversion process. In this paper, we tackle the problem of reducing the size of memory required to store the pre-recordings of an Arabic text-to-speech system. We take a different approach and explore building a classification model based on predefined types of news documents, and propose a scheme for constructing an Arabic corpus based on this model. Performance evaluation results show that, using our scheme, a 29% reduction of the database size will only incur a 0.57% loss of recognition correctness, while a massive 89% reduction will lower the correctness by a mere 1.29%.
The design of radiation-hardened ICs for space: a compendium of approaches

Several technologies, including bulk and epi CMOS, CMOS/SOI-SOS (silicon-on-insulator-silicon-on-sapphire), CML (current-mode logic), ECL (emitter-coupled logic), analog bipolar (JI, single-poly DI, and SOI) and GaAs E/D (enhancement/depletion) heterojunction MESFET, are discussed. The discussion includes the direct effects of space radiation on microelectronic materials and devices, how these effects are evidenced in circuit and device design parameter variations, the particular effects of most significance to each functional class of circuit, specific techniques for hardening high-speed circuits, design examples for integrated systems, including operational amplifiers and A/D (analog/digital) converters, and the computer simulation of radiation effects on microelectronic ICs. >
Relaxing concurrency control in transactional memory

Transactional memory (TM) systems have gained considerable popularity in the last decade driven by the increased demand for tools that ease parallel programming. TM eliminates the need for user-locks that protect accesses to shared data. It offers performance close to that of fine-grain locking with the programming simplicity of coarse-grain locking. Today's TM systems implement the two-phase-locking (2PL) algorithm which aborts transactions every time a conflict occurs. 2PL is a simple algorithm that provides fast transactional operations. However, it limits concurrency in applications with high contention because it increases the rate of aborts. We propose the use of a more relaxed concurrency control algorithm to provide better concurrency. This algorithm is based on the conflict-serializability (CS) model. Unlike 2PL, it allows some transactions to commit successfully even when they make conflicting accesses. We implement this algorithm both in a software TM system as well as in a simulator of a hardware TM system. Our evaluation using TM benchmarks shows that the algorithm improves the performance of applications with long transactions and high abort rates. Performance is improved by up to 299% in the software TM, and up to 66% in the hardware simulator. We argue that these improvements come with little additional complexity and require no changes to the transactional programming model. This makes our implementation feasible.
Hepatocyte Peroxisome Proliferator e Activated Receptor a Enhances Liver Regeneration after Partial Hepatectomy in Mice

Peroxisome proliferator e activated receptor a (PPAR a ) is a key nuclear receptor involved in the control of lipid homeostasis. In rodents, PPAR a is also a potent hepatic mitogen. Hepatocyte-speci ﬁ c disruption of PPAR a inhibits agonist-induced hepatocyte proliferation; however, little is known about the exact role of PPAR a in partial hepatectomy (PHx) e induced liver regeneration. Herein, using hepatocyte-speci ﬁ c PPAR a -de ﬁ cient ( Ppara D Hep ) mice, the function of hepatocyte PPAR a in PHx-induced liver regeneration was investigated. PPAR a protein level and transcriptional activity were increased in the liver after PHx. Compared with the Ppara ﬂ / ﬂ mice, Ppara D Hep mice exhibited signi ﬁ cantly reduced hepatocyte proliferation at 32 hours after PHx. Consistently, reduced Ccnd1 and Pcna mRNA and CYCD1 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen protein were observed at 32 hours after PHx in Ppara D Hep mice. Furthermore, Ppara D Hep mice showed increased hepatic lipid accumulation and enhanced hepatic triglyceride contents because of impaired hepatic fatty acid b oxidation when compared with that observed in Ppara ﬂ / ﬂ mice. These results indicate that PPAR a promotes liver regeneration after PHx, at least partially via regulating the cell cycle and lipid metabolism. (Am J Pathol 2019, 189: 272 e 282; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2018.10.009)
Inhibition of Notch signaling by the p105 and p180 subunits of Drosophila chromatin assembly factor 1 is required for follicle cell proliferation

ABSTRACT Chromatin assembly factor 1 (CAF1), a histone chaperone that mediates the deposition of histone H3/H4 onto newly synthesized DNA, is involved in Notch signaling activation during Drosophila wing imaginal disc development. Here, we report another side of CAF1, wherein the subunits CAF1-p105 and CAF1-p180 (also known as CAF1-105 and CAF1-180, respectively) inhibit expression of Notch target genes and show this is required for proliferation of Drosophila ovarian follicle cells. Loss-of-function of either CAF1-p105 or CAF1-p180 caused premature activation of Notch signaling reporters and early expression of the Notch target Hindsight (Hnt, also known as Pebbled), leading to Cut downregulation and inhibition of follicle cell mitosis. Our studies further show Notch is functionally responsible for these phenotypes observed in both the CAF1-p105- and CAF1-p180-deficient follicle cells. Moreover, we reveal that CAF1-p105- and CAF1-p180-dependent Cut expression is essential for inhibiting Hnt expression in follicle cells during their mitotic stage. These findings together indicate a novel negative-feedback regulatory loop between Cut and Hnt underlying CAF1-p105 and CAF-p180 regulation, which is crucial for follicle cell differentiation. In conclusion, our studies suggest CAF1 plays a dual role to sustain cell proliferation by positively or negatively regulating Drosophila Notch signaling in a tissue-context-dependent manner. Summary: CAF1 is a Notch signaling activator in Drosophila wing imaginal disc development. Unexpectedly, this study reveals that CAF1 silences Notch signaling to sustain Drosophila follicle cell proliferation.
Digital Image Watermark Key Extraction with Encryption and Decryption Scheme in MATLAB

Digital watermarking and image processing is a rapidly evolving area of research and development. One key challenge in the research problem is that we are still facing today is the development of truly robust, secure and transparent watermarking technique for different digital media including video, documentary text, graphics, images, and audio. In digital image processing, detection and extraction of text from a documentary image is found a challenging task, especially for inclined, vertical and circular text. The paper focuses on the MATLAB simulation of watermark encryption and decryption scheme using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The goal of the work is not to restrict access to the original image, but to ensure that embedded data remain recoverable. The research work is carried out on MATLAB 2012, image processing tool.
Adiabatic-CMOS/CMOS-adiabatic logic interface circuit

This paper describes the design of an adiabatic-CMOS/CMOS-adiabatic logic interface circuit for a group of low-power adiabatic logic families with a similar clocking scheme. The circuit provides interfacing between several recently proposed low-power adiabatic logic circuits and traditional digital CMOS circuits. One advantage of this design is that it is insensitive to clock overlap. With the proposed interface circuit, both adiabatic and CMOS logic circuits are able to co-exist on a single chip, taking advantage of the strengths of each approach in the design of low power systems.
SIZE ESTIMATION OF OLAP SYSTEMS

Software size estimation at early stages of project development holds great significance to meet the competitive demands of software industry. Software size represents one of the most interesting internal attributes which has been used in several effort/cost models as a predictor of effort and cost needed to design and implement the software. The whole world is focusing towards object oriented paradigm thus it is essential to use an accurate methodology for measuring the size of object oriented projects. The class point approach is used to quantify classes which are the logical building blocks in object oriented paradigm. In this paper, we propose a class point based approach for software size estimation of On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) systems. OLAP is an approach to swiftly answer decision support queries based on multidimensional view of data. Materialized views can significantly reduce the execution time for decision support queries. We perform a case study based on the TPC-H benchmark which is a representative of OLAP System. We have used a Greedy based approach to determine a good set of views to be materialized. After finding the number of views, the class point approach is used to estimate the size of an OLAP System The results of our approach are validated.
Solving a Real-World Train Unit Assignment Problem

We face a real-world train unit assignment problem for an operator running trains in a regional area. Given a set of timetabled train trips, each with a required number of passenger seats, and a set of train units, each with a given number of available seats, the problem calls for an assignment of the train units to trips, possibly combining more than one train unit for a given trip, that fulfills the seat requests. With respect to analogous case studies previously faced in the literature, ours is characterized by the fairly large number of distinct train unit types available (in addition to the fairly large number of trips to be covered). As a result, although there is a wide margin of improvement over the solution used by the practitioners (as our results show), even only finding a solution of the same value is challenging in practice. We present a successful approach, based on an ILP formulation in which the seat requirement constraints are stated in a A¢â‚¬A“strongA¢â‚¬Â form, derived from the description of the convex hull of the variant of the knapsack polytope arising when the sum of the variables is restricted not to exceed two, illustrating computational results on our case study.
Evaluating the Effects of a Topical Preparation with Dexpanthenol, Silbiol, Undecylenic Acid, and Lidocaine on Palatal Mucosa Wound Healing in a Rat Model

Background: Postoperative complications occur after periodontal plastic surgeries, but an ideal treatment to overcome them has not been found yet. Aims: To evaluate the effects of topically applied Oral-norm gel on the healing of excisional wounds. Study Design: Animal experiment. Methods: Excisional wounds with a diameter of 3 mm were made in the center of the palatal mucosa of 63 Sprague Dawley rats. Seven animals were sacrificed at time 0. The remaining rats were divided into two groups: a test group in which the topical Oral-norm gel was applied three times a day and a control group in which nothing was applied. Seven animals in each group were sacrificed at 3, 7, 14, and 21 days. Mean wound surface area was measured photographically, while wound healing and width were evaluated microscopically. Results: The mean wound surface area decreased significantly after 3 days in both groups (p<0.001). Between days 3 and 7, the mean wound surface area decreased from 6.62 (2.85) to 0.83 (1.62) mm2 in the control group and 5.07 (0.88) to 1.42 (1.67) mm2 in the test group. The wound width decreased significantly on day 7 in both groups (p<0.001), with no further changes by day 14. Both groups had a significant increase in inflammation and vascularization on day 3 (p<0.001), with a reduction thereafter. No significant differences in macroscopic and microscopic measurements were observed between the groups at any time point (p>0.05). Conclusion: The Oral-norm gel has no positive healing effects in the palatal mucosa of rats.
Evidence for Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor-Mediated Inhibition of Osteoblast Differentiation in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) maintain the ability to differentiate into adipogenic, chondrogenic, or osteogenic cell lineages. There is increasing concern that exposure to environmental agents such as aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) ligands, may perturb the osteogenic pathways responsible for normal bone formation. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the potential of the prototypic AhR ligand 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) to disrupt osteogenic differentiation of human bone-derived MSCs (hBMSCs) in vitro. Primary hBMSCs from three donors were exposed to 10 nM TCDD and differentiation was interrogated using select histological, biochemical, and transcriptional markers of osteogenesis. Exposure to 10 nM TCDD resulted in an overall consistent attenuation of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and matrix mineralization at terminal stages of differentiation in primary hBMSCs. At the transcriptional level, the transcriptional regulator DLX5 and additional osteogenic markers (ALP, OPN, and IBSP) displayed attenuated expression; conversely, FGF9 and FGF18 were consistently upregulated in each donor. Expression of stem cell potency markers SOX2, NANOG, and SALL4 decreased in the osteogenic controls, whereas expression in TCDD-treated cells resembled that of undifferentiated cells. Coexposure with the AhR antagonist GNF351 blocked TCDD-mediated attenuation of matrix mineralization, and either fully or partially rescued expression of genes associated with osteogenic regulation, extracellular matrix, and/or maintenance of multipotency. Thus, experimental evidence from this study suggests that AhR transactivation likely attenuates osteoblast differentiation in multipotent hBMSCs. This study also underscores the use of primary human MSCs to evaluate osteoinductive or osteotoxic potential of chemical and pharmacologic agents in vitro.