Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online Stochastic Bin Packing

Motivated by the problem of packing Virtual Machines on physical servers in the cloud, we study the problem of one-dimensional online stochastic bin packing. Items with sizes i.i. d. from an unknown distribution with integral support arrive as a stream and must be packed on arrival in bins of size B, also an integer. The size of an item is known when it arrives and the goal is to minimize the waste, defined to be the total unused space in non-empty bins. While there are many heuristics for online stochastic bin packing, all such heuristics are either optimal for only certain classes of item size distributions, or rely on learning the distribution. The state-of-the-art Sum of Squares heuristic (Csirik et al.) obtains sublinear (in number of items seen) waste for distributions where the expected waste for the optimal offline algorithm is sublinear, but has a constant factor larger waste for distributions with linear waste under OPT. Csirik et al. solved this problem by learning the distribution and solving an LP to inject phantom jobs in the arrival stream. We present two distribution-agnostic bin packing heuristics that achieve additive O(sqrt{n}) waste compared to OPT for all distributions. Our algorithms are gradient descent on suitably defined Lagrangian relaxations of the bin packing Linear Program. The first algorithm is very similar to the SS algorithm, but conceptually packs the bins top-down instead of bottom-up. This motivates our second heuristic that uses a different Lagrangian relaxation to pack bins bottom-up. Next, we consider the more general problem of online stochastic bin packing with item departures where the time requirement of an item is only revealed when the item departs. Our algorithms extend as is to the case of item departures. We also briefly revisit the Best Fit heuristic which has not been studied in the scenario of item departures yet.
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome

In 1987, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) was recognized in the USA as a new disease of swine causing late-term reproductive failure and severe pneumonia in neonatal pigs. The syndrome is caused by an RNA virus referred to as PRRS virus (PRRSV), which is classified in the family Arteriviridae. Swine macrophages are the only indigenous cell type known to support PRRSV replication. Direct contact between infected and naive pigs is the predominant route of PRRSV transmission. Exposure of a mucosal surface to PRRSV leads to virus replication in regional macrophages, a prolonged viremia and systemic distribution of virus to other macrophage populations. Reproductive failure induced by PRRSV infection in late-gestation sows is characterized by premature farrowing of stillborn, partially autolyzed, and mummified fetuses. Pneumonia caused by PRRSV infection is more severe in young pigs compared to adults and may be complicated by concurrent bacterial infections. Gross lung lesions associated with PRRSV infection vary from none to diffuse consolidation. In addition, multiple lymph nodes may be markedly enlarged. Microscopically, PRRSV-pneumonia is characterized by multifocal, interstitial thickening by macrophages and necrotic cell debris in alveoli. Other less common microscopic lesions of PRRSV infection include myocarditis, vasculitis, encephalitis, and lymphoid hypertrophy and hyperplasia. In acute or subacute PRRSV infections, serum and lung are the best specimens for diagnosis. Persistent PRRSV infections can be produced by transplacental or intranasal infection. Persistent PRRSV infections are an important factor for virus survival and transmission within a swine herd and will complicate control programs.
Distrust in Information Systems Research: A Need for Stronger Theoretical Contributions to Our Discipline

The literature on distrust in information systems (IS) research is still in its infancy. In this literature review, we have compiled the IS-related texts on distrust from the major journals and conferences and examined how the IT artefact itself is portrayed and conceptualised. We find that a majority of the research treats information technology in a nominal way, failing to explicitly theorise about the specifics of the technology. In accordance with previous commentators we argue that this is unfortunate. We also find that not much consensus as to how to understand distrust has yet emerged, and we argue that a stronger focus on our core -- the information technology -- could help bring together the now rather fragmented understanding.
Facilitating communication, teaching and learning in children with an ASD: Project spectrum

This paper describes the approach taken to, and the design and evaluation of a low cost, tailorable, polysensory environment for children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder in mainstream schools. The results of the qualitative evaluation, undertaken over a six week period, show benefits in terms of the communication and engagement of the children. The implications of these are described in terms of the wider need for tailorable environments, teaching and learning experiences to enable all children to achieve their full potential.
05 05 12 1 v 7 2 5 A ug 2 01 3 Are all maximally entangled states pure ?

We study if all maximally entangled states are pure through several entanglement monotones. In the bipartite case, we find that the same conditions which lead to the uniqueness of the entropy of entanglement as a measure of entanglement, exclude the existence of maximally mixed entangled states. In the multipartite scenario, our conclusions allow us to generalize the idea of monogamy of entanglement: we establish the polygamy of entanglement, expressing that if a general state is maximally entangled with respect to some kind of multipartite entanglement, then it is necessarily factorized of any other system.
Oct-4 Expression Maintained Cancer Stem-Like Properties in Lung Cancer-Derived CD133-Positive Cells

CD133 (prominin-1), a 5-transmembrane glycoprotein, has recently been considered to be an important marker that represents the subset population of cancer stem-like cells. Herein we report the isolation of CD133-positive cells (LC-CD133+) and CD133-negative cells (LC-CD133−) from tissue samples of ten patients with non-small cell lung cancer (LC) and five LC cell lines. LC-CD133+ displayed higher Oct-4 expressions with the ability to self-renew and may represent a reservoir with proliferative potential for generating lung cancer cells. Furthermore, LC-CD133+, unlike LC-CD133−, highly co-expressed the multiple drug-resistant marker ABCG2 and showed significant resistance to chemotherapy agents (i.e., cisplatin, etoposide, doxorubicin, and paclitaxel) and radiotherapy. The treatment of Oct-4 siRNA with lentiviral vector can specifically block the capability of LC-CD133+ to form spheres and can further facilitate LC-CD133+ to differentiate into LC-CD133−. In addition, knock-down of Oct-4 expression in LC-CD133+ can significantly inhibit the abilities of tumor invasion and colony formation, and increase apoptotic activities of caspase 3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Finally, in vitro and in vivo studies further confirm that the treatment effect of chemoradiotherapy for LC-CD133+ can be improved by the treatment of Oct-4 siRNA. In conclusion, we demonstrated that Oct-4 expression plays a crucial role in maintaining the self-renewing, cancer stem-like, and chemoradioresistant properties of LC-CD133+. Future research is warranted regarding the up-regulated expression of Oct-4 in LC-CD133+ and malignant lung cancer.
Technology-Related Privacy Concerns: An Emerging Challenge

While Internet-based technologies have the potential to empower users immensely, individuals are becoming increasingly aware of the ways in which those technologies can be employed to monitor their computer-based interactions. In the past, much attention has focused on the impact of technology-related privacy concerns from a transactional perspective. However, privacy concerns regarding communication monitoring are now emerging as a significant issue with the potential to negatively impact both productivity and morale within the computer-mediated work environment. This chapter outlines the evolution of technology-related privacy concerns. The lack of definitional consensus and the resulting conceptual and operational confusion that surrounds the privacy construct is described. Furthermore, the significant deficit of rigorous academic studies on this topic is highlighted. The current state of privacy legislation in Europe is addressed and some of the key challenges that face researchers who may wish to conduct research on this phenomenon are outlined.
In Situ Diversification of the Antibody Repertoire in Chronic Lyme Arthritis Synovium1

Lyme arthritis is initiated by the tick-borne spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. In a subset of patients, symptoms do not resolve in response to standard courses of antibiotics. Chronic joint inflammation may persist despite spirochetal killing, suggesting an autoimmune etiology. The pathogenic mechanisms that sustain chronic Lyme arthritis have not been fully elucidated, although T cells are believed to play a role. The synovial lesion contains elements of a peripheral lymph node, with lymphoid aggregates, plasma cells and follicular dendritic cells. An analysis of activated cells at the site of injury could yield clues regarding the nature of the response and the identity of potential autoantigens. Using laser-capture microdissection, we have isolated plasma cells from the joint tissue of chronic Lyme arthritis patients who underwent synovectomy. Expressed Ig V regions were amplified by RT-PCR. A majority of isolated cells expressed γ H chains, which is indicative of a class-switched response. There were a large number of nucleotide substitutions from germline, with a higher fraction of replacement mutations in the CDRs, suggesting a process of Ag-driven selection. We have recovered clonal clusters of cells containing identical junctions and V(D)J rearrangements. Sequence analysis reveals a hierarchy of shared somatic mutations between members of a given clone. Intraclonal diversity among plasma cells of close physical proximity points toward an ongoing process of diversification and affinity maturation, possibly driven by the chronic presence of an autoantigen.
Diversifying product search results

In recent years, online shopping is becoming more and more popular. Users type keyword queries on product search systems to find relevant products, accessories, and even related products. However, existing product search systems always return very similar products on the first several pages instead of taking diversity into consideration. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to address the diversity issue in the context of product search. We transform search result diversification into a combination of diversifying product categories and diversifying product attribute values within each category. The two sub-problems are optimization problems which can be reduced into well-known NP-hard problems respectively. We further leverage greedy-based approximation algorithms for efficient product search results re-ranking.
Geoengineering Biodiversity: Study to Access Feasibility of Geoengineering Techniques on Biodiversity

As Earth continues to experience increased global warming, biological species on Earth are pushed to constantly modify and adapt to the changing Earth’s climate in order to survive. This environmental pressure might push some of the more fragile species toward the brink of extinction thus human interventions are deemed necessary to minimize the current and future impacts of climate change. Current interventions include mitigation through international policies and regional laws by reducing anthropogenic outputs into Earth’s climate system as well as conservation efforts to slow down extinction rate. In this paper, we will discuss how geoengineering can be added into one of these human interventions to reduce impacts of climate change on Earth’s biodiversity. Geoengineering might provide immediate and simple solutions to current climate problems, however, only few researches have been conducted to study impacts and feasibility of geoengineering on life on Earth. Discussion on the feasibility and impacts of geoengineering on biodiversity will be assessed for two main techniques of geoengineering; carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM). From these two techniques, afforestation, which is one of CDR methods was selected as this method provide viable and sustainable form of geoengineering towards biodiversity. Short Research Article Paul; AJEE, 5(1): 1-9, 2017; Article no.AJEE. 37610 2
Alternative binding proteins: Affibody binding proteins developed from a small three‐helix bundle scaffold

In recent years, classical antibody‐based affinity reagents have been challenged by novel types of binding proteins developed by combinatorial protein engineering principles. One of these classes of binding proteins of non‐Ig origin are the so‐called affibody binding proteins, functionally selected from libraries of a small (6 kDa), non‐cysteine three‐helix bundle domain used as a scaffold. During the first 10 years since they were first described, high‐affinity affibody binding proteins have been selected towards a large number of targets for use in a variety of applications, such as bioseparation, diagnostics, functional inhibition, viral targeting and in vivo tumor imaging/therapy. The small size offers the possibility to produce functional affibody binding proteins also by chemical synthesis production routes, which has been found to be advantageous for the site‐specific introduction of various labels and radionuclide chelators.
Agricultural Pesticides Used in Eskişehir and Kütahya Population Areas of Great Bustard (Otis tarda, Linnaeus, 1758)

Ulkemizde Toy Kusu ( Otis tarda , Linnaeus, 1758) ’nun yasam alanlari, dogal ve ikincil bozkirlarin tarim alanlarina donusturulmesinden dolayi, gunumuzde cogunlukla tarim arazileri olusturmaktadir. Yine gunumuzde tarim alanlarindaki zararlilarla mucadele etmek ve dolayli olarak tarim alanlarindan daha fazla urun almak icin cok cesitli tarim ilaclari (Herbisit, Rodentisit, Insektisit vb.) kullanilmaktadir. Bu calismada bu turun yasam alanlari icerisinde kullanilan tarim ilaclarinin neler oldugu belirlenerek elde edilen bulgularla literatur karsilastirmasi da yapilarak bu ilaclarin bu tur uzerindeki olasi etkilerinin tartisilmasi amaclanmistir. Bu calisma, Mart 2013-Mayis 2017 tarihleri arasinda Eskisehir ili Aliken Onemli Doga Alani (ODA) ve Kutahya Ili Altintas Yaban Hayati Gelistirme Sahasi (YHGS) icinde gerceklestirilmistir. Yapilan arazi calismalari sirasinda Toy kusunun yasam alanlari icinde kullanilan 13 farkli herbisit aktif maddesi, 3 farkli insektisit aktif maddesi ve 2 farkli fungisit aktif maddesi belirlenmis, fotograflanmis ve koordinatlari alinmistir. Son olarak belirlenen bu tarimsal ilaclarin etken maddeleri uzerine yapilan makaleler taranmis ve nesli tehlikede olan bu tur uzerine olusturacagi olasi etkileri tartisilmistir.
Proximate mechanisms of variation in the carotenoid‐based plumage coloration of nestling great tits (Parus major L.)

Abstract Many vertebrates use carotenoid‐based signals in social or sexual interactions. Honest signalling via carotenoids implies some limitation of carotenoid‐based colour expression among phenotypes in the wild, and at least five limiting proximate mechanisms have been hypothesized. Limitation may arise by carotenoid‐availability, genetic constraints, body condition, parasites, or detrimental effects of carotenoids. An understanding of the relative importance of the five mechanisms is relevant in the context of natural and sexual selection acting on signal evolution. In an experimental field study with carotenoid supplementation, simultaneous cross‐fostering, manipulation of brood size and ectoparasite load, we investigated the relative importance of these mechanisms for the variation in carotenoid‐based coloration of nestling great tits (Parus major). Carotenoid‐based plumage coloration was significantly related to genetic origin of nestlings, and was enhanced both in carotenoid‐supplemented nestlings, and nestlings raised in reduced broods. We found a tendency for ectoparasite‐induced limitation of colour expression and no evidence for detrimental effects of carotenoids on growth pattern, mortality and recruitment of nestlings to the local breeding population. Thus, three of the five proposed mechanisms can generate individual variation in the expression of carotenoid‐based plumage coloration in the wild and thus could maintain honesty in a trait potentially used for signalling of individual quality.
NarJ is a specific chaperone required for molybdenum cofactor assembly in nitrate reductase A of Escherichia coli

The formation of active membrane‐bound nitrate reductase A in Escherichia coli requires the presence of three subunits, NarG, NarH and NarI, as well as a fourth protein, NarJ, that is not part of the active nitrate reductase. In narJ strains, both NarG and NarH subunits are associated in an unstable and inactive NarGH complex. A significant activation of this complex was observed in vitro after adding purified NarJ‐6His polypeptide to the cell supernatant of a narJ strain. Once the apo‐enzyme NarGHI of a narJ mutant has become anchored to the membrane via the NarI subunit, it cannot be reactivated by NarJ in vitro. NarJ protein specifically recognizes the catalytic NarG subunit. Fluorescence, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and molybdenum quantification based on inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy (ICPES) clearly indicate that, in the absence of NarJ, no molybdenum cofactor is present in the NarGH complex. We propose that NarJ is a specific chaperone that binds to NarG and may thus keep it in an appropriate competent‐open conformation for the molybdenum cofactor insertion to occur, resulting in a catalytically active enzyme. Upon insertion of the molybdenum cofactor into the apo‐nitrate reductase, NarJ is then dissociated from the activated enzyme.
Treatment with dasatinib or nilotinib in chronic myeloid leukemia patients who failed to respond to two previously administered tyrosine kinase inhibitors – a single center experience

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate hematological, cytogenetic and molecular responses as well as the overall, progression-free and event-free survivals of chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with a third tyrosine kinase inhibitor after failing to respond to imatinib and nilotinib/dasatinib. METHODS: Bone marrow karyotyping and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction were performed at baseline and at 3, 6, 12 and 18 months after the initiation of treatment with a third tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Hematologic, cytogenetic and molecular responses were defined according to the European LeukemiaNet recommendations. BCR-ABL1 mutations were analyzed by Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: We evaluated 25 chronic myeloid leukemia patients who had been previously treated with imatinib and a second tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Nine patients were switched to dasatinib, and 16 patients were switched to nilotinib as a third-line therapy. Of the chronic phase patients (n=18), 89% achieved a complete hematologic response, 13% achieved a complete cytogenetic response and 24% achieved a major molecular response. The following BCR-ABL1 mutations were detected in 6/14 (43%) chronic phase patients: E255V, Y253H, M244V, F317L (2) and F359V. M351T mutation was found in one patient in the accelerated phase of the disease. The five-year overall, progression-free and event-free survivals were 86, 54 and 22% (p<0.0001), respectively, for chronic phase patients and 66%, 66% and 0% (p<0.0001), respectively, for accelerated phase patients. All blast crisis patients died within 6 months of treatment. Fifty-six percent of the chronic phase patients lost their hematologic response within a median of 23 months. CONCLUSIONS: Although the responses achieved by the third tyrosine kinase inhibitor were not sustainable, a third tyrosine kinase inhibitor may be an option for improving patient status until a donor becomes available for transplant. Because the long-term outcome for these patients is poor, the development of new therapies for resistant chronic myeloid leukemia patients is necessary.
Analysis of UHF RFID CMOS rectifier structures and input impedance characteristics

Passive radio frequency identification (RFID) systems deployment efforts are revolutionizing supply chain logistics by providing unprecedented supply chain visibility. The widely used bandwidth of operation in modern systems is the UHF ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical) band. The performance of UHF RFID systems are largely reliant on low power CMOS circuits, efficient power rectification and the ability of RFID label antennas to match to the input impedance of the RFID label IC. This paper examines a new rectifying structure and considers it for its merits in RFID applications while analysing contribution of the rectifying structure to the input impedance of RFID chips as this is an important consideration in impedance matching to an external antenna.
CS364B: Frontiers in Mechanism Design Lecture #18: Multi-Parameter Revenue-Maximization

With this lecture we commence the fifth and final part of the course. All previous lectures focused on the objective of maximizing the welfare ∑n i=1 vi(Si) of an auction. In these last three lectures, we study the objective of maximizing the revenue ∑n i=1 pi of an auction. Of course, all of the auctions that we’ve studied to generate revenue, but only as a side effect of the quest for incentive-compatible welfare-maximization. In effect, are we switching perspectives from that of a non-profit-maximizing entity (like a government) to that of a monopolist. Alternatively, we’re moving from a competitive market, where competition might prevent monopoly pricing, to a non-competitive market. This change in objective leads to a quite different theory. One thing in common between this part and previous ones is that major progress has been made just in the past few years, in particular in the theoretical computer science literature.
Texture Classification Using Texton Co-Occurrence Matrix Derived From Texture Orientation

— The present paper derived a new co-occurrence matrix based on textons and texture orientation for rotation invariant texture classification of 2D images. The new co-occurrence matrix is called as Texton and Texture Orientation Co-occurrence Matrix (T&TO-CM). The Co-occurrence Matrix (CM) characterizes the relationship between the values of neighboring pixels, while the histogram based techniques have high indexing performance. If the CM is used to represent image features directly, then the dimension will be high and the performance is decreased. On the other hand, if histogram is used to represent image features, the spatial information will be lost. Texture Classification based on T&TO-CM, integrates color, texture and edge features of an image. The proposed T&TO-CM is used to describe the spatial correlation of textons and texture orientation for texture classification. T&TO-CM can capture the spatial distribution of edges, and it is an efficient texture descriptor for images with heavy textural presence. The proposed method is computationally attractive as it computes different features with limited number of selected pixels. The experimental results indicate the efficacy of the present method over the various other methods.