Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Running High Performance Linpack on CPUGPU clusters

A trend is developing in High-Performance Computing with cluster nodes built of general purpose CPUs and GPU accelerators. The common name of these systems is CPUGPU clusters. High Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmarking of High Performance Clusters consisting of nodes with both CPUs and GPUs is still a challenging task and deserves a high attention. In order to make HPL on such clusters more efficient, a multi-layered programming model consisting of at least Message Passing Interface (MPI), Multiprocessing (MP) and Streams Programming (Streams) needs to be utilized. Besides multi-layered programming model, it is crucial to deploy a right load-balancing scheme if someone wants to run HPL efficiently on CPUGPU systems. That means, besides the highest possible utilization rate, both fast and slow processors needs to receive appropriate portion of load, in order to avoid faster resources waiting on slower to finish their jobs. Moreover, in HPC clusters on Cloud, one has to take into account not only computing nodes of different processing power, but also a communication links of different speed between nodes as well. For this reasons we propose a load balancing method based on a semidefinite optimization. We hope that this method, coupled with a multi-layered programming, can perform a HPL benchmark on CPUGPU clusters and HPC Cloud systems more efficiently than methods used today.
‘If Only More Candidates Came Forward’: Supply-Side Explanations of Candidate Selection in Britain

In a familiar observation, members of the British House of Commons are demographically unrepresentative of the British population in terms of gender, race, education and class. This article takes a fresh look at the reasons why this is the case, based on data from the British Candidate Study, 1992. This study analyses the background, experience and attitudes of MPs, candidates, applicants, party members and voters. By comparing strata we can see whether the outcome of the selection process reflects the supply of those willing to stand for Parliament or the demands of local party activists when adopting candidates for local constituencies.
Monitoring of breathing rate by a piezofilm sensor using pyroelectric effect

This paper presents a piezo film based headphone system for respiratory rate monitoring. The proposed system attaches a flexible piezo film sensor to a headphone to sense the respiratory airflow. During breathing, the temperature of respiratory airflow varies in inspiration and expiration phases. This temperature variation could be detected by the pyroelectricity of the piezoelectric film sensor. Monitoring the sensor output variation therefore could monitor the subject's respiratory rate with high accuracy. Experimental result also indicates that the pyroelectric response is faster than temperature-sensitive device thermistors. In addition, the headphone type of the proposed system makes it easy to be used for subjects' respiratory rate monitoring during sleep. The advantages of this respiratory rate monitoring system are rapid response time, low cost, and ease of implementation.
Implementing a Market Orientation in Small Manufacturing Firms: From Cognitive Model to Action

Using in‐depth interviews of the CEO/Presidents of 21 small manufacturing firms, this research explored how leaders with a high market‐oriented cognitive model have intentionally pursued the implementation of that model and how their activities differed from leaders with a low market‐oriented cognitive model. Results indicated that leaders in high market‐oriented organizations appeared to be working from cognitive models that reflected market‐oriented values, and norms consistent with those suggested by Homburg and Pflesser. Additionally, results indicated strong consistencies across firms in the mechanisms used by leaders to implement their high market‐oriented cognitive models and different but equally strong consistencies in the mechanisms used by leaders to implement their low market‐oriented cognitive models. Structurally, high market‐oriented leaders expressed less departmentalization than low market‐oriented firms, used some form of internal customer/supplier networks, had very open communication systems, and established performance management systems designed to initiate and reward market‐oriented behaviors among employees.
Toward an Integrative Model of Effective FOB Succession

Given that less than 10% of family owned businesses (FOBs) survive into the third generation, the issue of top executive succession has received a good deal of attention. Unfortunately, the literature on the topic is fragmented, as it deals with different parts of the elephant. This synthetic effort tries to put together the pieces to (1) derive a more encompassing model of what it takes for a succession to succeed, (2) determine the trends, consensus findings, as well as the gaps in our conceptual and empirical knowledge, and (3) suggest areas for further research.
POLICY ARENA: Can Large Firms Be Run Efficiently Without Being Bureaucratic?

The article is a critical commentary on the World Bank's analysis of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as exemplified in its recently-published Report, Bureaucrats in Business. While noting the positive contributions made by the Report, the article criticises the World Bank's understanding of the issues involved in the management of large-scale enterprises, by applying modern theories of the firm. It then critically examines a number of policy issues emphasised in the Report, including the political economy of SOE reform, macroeconomic consequences of SOE reform, the relationship between SOE reform and the financial sector reform, and finally the interpretation of the recent Chinese experience. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Regional Integration Agreements: A Force for Convergence or Divergence?

The author examines how benefits - and costs - of a free trade area are divided among member countries. Outcomes depend on the member countries'comparative advantage, relative to one another and to the rest of the world. The author finds that free trade agreements between low-income countries tend to lead to divergence in member country incomes, while agreements between high-income countries tend to lead to convergence. Changes introduced by comparative advantage may be amplified by the effects of agglomeration. The results suggest that developing countries may be better served by"north-south"free trade agreements, because"north-south"agreements increase their prospects for convergence with high-income members of the free trade area. In"north-south"free trade agreements, additional forces are likely to operate. The agreements may be used, for example, as a commitment mechanism to lock in economic reforms (as happened in Mexico with the North American Free Trade Agreement and in Eastern European countries with the European Union). A free trade agreement may also - through its effect on trade and through foreign direct investment - promote technology transfer to lower-income members.
A concise framework for disassemblability metrics

With growing interest in the recovery of materials and subassemblies from consumer products at the end of their useful life, there is a need to develop decision-making methodologies that determine how to maximize the environmental benefits of end-of-life processing while minimizing recovery costs. Design for Environment (DfE) emerged as the common design framework that encompasses current and future approaches to the environmental management of industrial products. Within the context of DfE, disassembly appears to be the most common procedure of current end-of-life treatment methods. Consequently quantitative design evaluation from the disassembly perspective has received special attention in the literature and a conceptual sub-framework known as Design for Disassembly (DfD) has been developed for defining disassembly goals, for guaranteeing their transformation to product design characteristics and for assessing the success of the entire design process. Unfortunately adequate metrics for the disassembly evaluation at the design stage are still lacking. This paper presents a set of requirements for novel disassemblability metrics for specific product families.
Thrombostatin Inhibits Cyclic Flow Variations in Stenosed Canine Coronary Arteries

Summary Thrombostatins are a group of compounds based upon a breakdown product of bradykinin, RPPGF. They inhibit -thrombin-induced platelet activation by binding to protease activated receptor 1 and, at a lower affinity, by interacting with thrombin’s active site. After a single intravenous infusion of MAP4-RPPGF (11.58 mg/kg), its t½α was 4.5 min with a clearance of 2.0 ml/min. MAP4-RPPGF administration had a sustained antiplatelet effect, preventing γ-thrombin-induced (12.5 nM) platelet activation for 4 h. Its antiplatelet effect summated with that of aspirin and/or clopidogrel. MAP4-RPPGF was compared with aspirin and clopidogrel in the Folts model of coronary artery thrombosis. Dogs were randomized to 3 treatment groups: aspirin 1.14 mg/kg i. v. , clopidogrel 0.5 mg/kg i. v. , or MAP4-RPPGF 0.77 mg/kg i. v. Cyclic flow variations (CFV) were recorded in 5 untreated dogs hourly for 3 successive hours and for 1 h before (all groups >11 CFV/h), and for 2 h after drug infusion in each of the 3 treatment groups. After 1 h drug treatment, all groups of animals had <6 CFV/h; after 2 h treatment, all had <1 CFV/h. All agents significantly reduced CFV from control at each hour, but none was significantly better than any other. Thrombostatin was as effective as aspirin or clopidogrel in inhibiting coronary artery thrombosis in this canine model.
Party Change and Europeanisation: Elements of an Integrated Approach

The literature on party organisational change emphasises environmental factors as well as internal circumstances. The literature on Europeanisation and political parties privileges the EU as a key environmental factor in terms of change. This article combines insights from the party organisation and Europeanisation literatures in order to more precisely conceptualise the EU as a stimulus and therefore causal factor in party organisational change. Two types of party change are analysed, new party positions (MEPs and specialised EU party staff) and party leaderships' responses to internal dissent over the EU. Linking a specific form of EU stimulus to a particular party goal helps to explain certain types of change, while inter-governmental bargaining may produce uncertainty for domestic political actors thereby inducing defensive reactions.
White Matter Changes Contribute to Corpus Callosum Atrophy in the Elderly: The LADIS Study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The corpus callosum (CC) is the most important structure involved in the transmission of interhemispheric information. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential correlation between regional age-related white matter changes (ARWMC) and atrophy of CC in elderly subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 578 subjects with ARWMC from the Leukoaraiosis And DISability (LADIS) study, the cross-sectional area of the CC was automatically segmented on the normalized midsagittal MR imaging section and subdivided into 5 regions. The ARWMC volumes were measured quantitatively by using a semiautomated technique and segmented into 6 brain regions. RESULTS: Significant correlation between the area of the rostrum and splenium regions of the CC and the ARWMC load in most brain regions was identified. This correlation persisted after correction for global atrophy. CONCLUSION: Increasing loads of ARWMC volume were significantly correlated with atrophy of the CC and its subregions in nondisabled elderly subjects with leukoaraiosis. However, the pattern of correlation between CC subregions and ARWMC was not specifically related to the topographic location of ARWMC. The results suggest that ARWMC may lead to a gradual loss of CC tissue.
Danger signals derived from stressed and necrotic epithelial cells activate human eosinophils

Eosinophilic granulocytes are found in tissues with an interface with the external environment, such as the gastrointestinal, genitourinary and respiratory tracts. These leucocytes have been associated with tissue damage in a variety of diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether necrotic epithelial cells can activate eosinophils. The danger theory postulates that cells of the innate immune system primarily recognize substances that signal danger to the host. We damaged epithelial cell lines derived from the genital (HeLa cells), respiratory (HEp‐2 cells) and intestinal tracts (HT29 cells) and assessed their capacity to cause eosinophilic migration, release of putative tissue‐damaging factors, such as eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), as well as secretion of tissue‐healing factors, e.g. fibroblast growth factors (FGF)‐1 and ‐2 and transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β1. We found that necrotic intestinal cells induced chemotaxis in human eosinophils. EPO release was elicited in eosinophils stimulated with necrotic cells derived from all cell lines, as well as from viable HEp‐2 and HT29 cells. Release of ECP was only seen in eosinophils incubated with necrotic intestinal or genital cells, not viable ones. Both necrotic intestinal and genital cells elicited FGF‐2 secretion from eosinophils. TGF‐β1 was released from eosinophils exposed to viable and necrotic HT29 cells. These findings indicate that eosinophils are able to recognize and be activated by danger signals released from damaged epithelial cells, which may be of importance in understanding the role of eosinophils in the various inflammatory conditions in which they are involved.
Economic benefits of enterprise resource planning systems: some empirical evidence

The present study provides empirical evidence on the economic benefits of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. We use a modified value chain approach and identify several ratios for each component of the value chain to reflect improvements as a result of the adoption of ERP systems. These financial ratios are tracked for 2 years for a group of companies that adopted ERP systems versus a group of companies that did not adopt ERP. Both univariate and multivariate statistics are used to test for differences. The key result of the present study is that the adoption of ERP systems leads to sustained operational efficiencies and improved overall liquidity. In addition, some support is found for increased profitability 2 years after the adoption of ERP and for improvements in accounts receivable management.
Development of a heterologous, multigenotype vaccine against hepatitis C virus infection

Background Unquestionably viral diversity and genetic heterogeneity in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and other viral diseases play an essential role in viral immune escape and the development of chronicity. Despite this knowledge most vaccine approaches against HCV have excluded this important issue. Moreover the feasibility of developing an effective HCV vaccine has been questioned, mainly because prophylactic immunity against HCV cannot be achieved in chimpanzees by either vaccination or previous HCV infection, and reinfection in men has been reported, most likely due to genetic shift and immune escape. To analyse and characterize a new technique of a ‘multigenotype’‐ and/or ‘library’‐vaccine, we established an envelope 1 (E1) plasmid vaccine against HCV and characterized humoral and cellular immune responses after vaccination in a mouse model.
Employee choice among unions: the case of nurses in the NHS

This article examines the main factors that shape the choice made by individual nurses in the NHS concerning which union they join. The research methods include surveys, case studies, interviews and participant observation. Among the findings from the work is the relatively strong influence of an individual nurse's discipline or area of training on this particular choice or decision.
Professional competition and modernizing the clinical workforce in the NHS

Located within a debate about changing organizational forms and new workforce roles this article provides an analysis of policy attempts to modernize the healthcare workforce. Theoretically, the article draws upon sociology of professions literature to focus upon competition within and between professions that impacts upon new roles in the NHS for doctors, designed to combine specialist and generalist knowledge and cross organizational and professional boundaries. The article highlights that attempts by policy-makers to reconfigure the clinical workforce may be constrained due to attempts at occupational closure by more powerful professional groups and by associated concerns about professional identities.
A novel multi-band antenna design with matching network for use in mobile terminals

Today's mobile terminals need to operate in more than one standard some of which are GSM850, GSM900, LTE 700 MHz and 2.5 GHz, DCS, PCS, W-CDMA and WLAN in order to comply with the user requirements. The mobile terminal antenna also needs to be highly efficient in these frequency bands, which means it shall have low reflection coefficient and high radiation efficiency. As known, an antenna should have a length approximately comparable to the operating wavelength for being an efficient radiator. For the lower frequency standards like LTE700, GSM850 and GSM900, the free space wavelength is very large in comparison to the size of a handheld terminal, which means that in a resonant approach, an electrically small antenna need to be coupled to the chassis. In this study, an electrically small antenna for a mobile terminal is designed for the communication standards mentioned before. Therefore, associated matching circuits are designed, integrated and optimized using passive lumped components to increase the total efficiency of the structure to an acceptable level. To cover all the standards mentioned before, a two branched matching network was designed each of which enables matching at different frequency bands.
Global Warming Economics in the Long Run: A Conceptual Framework

Economic models of climate change typically analyze its short-run effects, for example, up to the year 2100 or for a doubling of atmospheric CO2. This is a potentially serious shortcoming since under a business-as-usual scenario, atmospheric CO2 concentrations could more than quadruple. We introduce a framework that endogenously accounts for long-run climate change and examine the implications of alternative mitigation strategies: one in which the rates of annual emissions are reduced, and one that places absolute limits on the total amount of carbon released. We discuss alternative valuation frameworks, drawing on the debate surrounding the Stern Review. (JEL D61, D63)
CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells Specific for a Thymus-Expressed Antigen Prevent the Development of Anaphylaxis to Self1

A role for CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the control of allergic diseases has been postulated. We developed a mouse model in which anaphylaxis is induced in SJL mice by immunization and challenge with the fragment of self myelin proteolipid protein (PLP)139–151, that is not expressed in the thymus, but not with fragment 178–191 of the same protein, that is expressed in the thymus. In this study, we show that resistance to anaphylaxis is associated with naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ Tregs specific for the self peptide expressed in the thymus. These cells increase Foxp3 expression upon Ag stimulation and suppress peptide-induced proliferation of CD4+CD25− effector T cells. Depletion of Tregs with anti-CD25 in vivo significantly diminished resistance to anaphylaxis to PLP178–191, suggesting an important role for CD4+CD25+ Tregs in preventing the development of allergic responses to this thymus-expressed peptide. These data indicate that naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ Tregs specific for a peptide expressed under physiological conditions in the thymus are able to suppress the development of a systemic allergic reaction to self.
Serotypes, Virulence Genes, and Intimin Types ofShiga Toxin (Verotoxin)-Producing Escherichia coli Isolatesfrom Cattle in Spain and Identification of a New Intimin VariantGene(eae-ξ)

ABSTRACT A total of 514 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) isolates from diarrheic and healthy cattle in Spain were characterized in this study. PCR showed that 101 (20%) isolates carried stx1 genes, 278 (54%) possessed stx2 genes, and 135 (26%) possessed both stx1 and stx2. Enterohemolysin (ehxA) and intimin (eae) virulence genes were detected in 326 (63%) and in 151 (29%) of the isolates, respectively. STEC isolates belonged to 66 O serogroups and 113 O:H serotypes (including 23 new serotypes). However, 67% were of one of these 15 serogroups (O2, O4, O8, O20, O22, O26, O77, O91, O105, O113, O116, O157, O171, O174, and OX177) and 52% of the isolates belonged to only 10 serotypes (O4:H4, O20:H19, O22:H8, O26:H11, O77:H41, O105:H18, O113:H21, O157:H7, O171:H2, and ONT:H19). Although the 514 STEC isolates belonged to 164 different seropathotypes (associations between serotypes and virulence genes), only 12 accounted for 43% of isolates. Seropathotype O157:H7 stx2eae-γ1 ehxA (46 isolates) was the most common, followed by O157:H7 stx1stx2eae-γ1 ehxA (34 isolates), O113:H21 stx2 (25 isolates), O22:H8 stx1stx2ehxA (15 isolates), O26:H11 stx1eae-β1 ehxA (14 isolates), and O77:H41 stx2ehxA (14 isolates). Forty-one (22 of serotype O26:H11) isolates had intiminβ 1, 82 O157:H7 isolates possessed intimin γ1, three O111:H- isolates had intimin type γ2, one O49:H- strain showed intimin type δ, 13 (six of serotype O103:H2) isolates had intimin type ε and eight (four of serotype O156:H-) isolates had intimin ζ. We have identified a new variant of the eae intimin gene designated ξ (xi) in two isolates of serotype O80:H-. The majority (85%) of bovine STEC isolates belonged to serotypes previously found for human STEC organisms and 54% to serotypes associated with STEC organisms isolated from patients with hemolytic uremic syndrome. Thus, this study confirms that cattle are a major reservoir of STEC strains pathogenic for humans.
Project Control for Healthcare Information Systems Initiatives

If left unchecked, trends in healthcare will overwhelm our tax base. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have the potential to improve quality of care and lower costs. They also have the potential to deliver new forms of care that will save money in the long term. The problem is that information technology projects are difficult to implement. This paper uses diabetes management as a case for the use of ICTs in chronic care. In this paper, the characteristics of specific areas of eHealth project management are explored, namely, project team and leadership selection, project resources and tracking.