Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Making a Dataparallel Language Portable forMassively Parallel Array

A key goal in language design is to simultaneously achieve portability and eeciency. Achieving a general solution to this problem is quite diicult: virtually all attempts have emphasized one or the other requirement by restricting either the architecture domain, the application domain, or both. In this study we present i) a framework that explains why meeting these requirements simultaneously is so diicult, and ii) our approach, which, though it may not be the nal word on this subject, implements a new set of trade-oos that may come closer to a balanced solution than has been previously achieved. Our solution includes an easy to use language based on the dataparallel programmer's model, a compiler that hides as many machine variations as possible, a library with emulations of constructs that map directly to hardware on some but not all machines, and a library with diierent versions of those critical application functions for which a single algorithm is not optimal across all hardware conngurations. We have found the programmer cost for the application and architecture domains considered here to be quite reasonable.
Notice of RetractionA research on the the efficiency of partnership

As an ancient governance model, partnership becomes a unique scene in human-capital-intensive industries, breaking the monopoly position of corporate system in the governance models of enterprises. This paper reviews the disputes over the effectiveness of partnership. Some scholars propose that, from the perspective of information economics, team production and unobservable input in corporate system lead to the existence of non-efficiency behaviors-free rider problem. Other scholars speak in defense of the efficiency of partnership. When the professional team production is not easy to supervise, partnership is an effective governance model. As long as the partners bear unlimited liability, partnership can achieve approximate efficiency by a simple pooling strategy. Even if the partners bear limited liability, as long as co-supervision exists, efficiency of partnership is still achievable. Finally, a brief conclusion will be put forward.
Virtual Screening and Biological Evaluation of Inhibitors Targeting the XPA-ERCC1 Interaction

Background Nucleotide excision repair (NER) removes many types of DNA lesions including those induced by UV radiation and platinum-based therapy. Resistance to platinum-based therapy correlates with high expression of ERCC1, a major element of the NER machinery. The interaction between ERCC1 and XPA is essential for a successful NER function. Therefore, one way to regulate NER is by inhibiting the activity of ERCC1 and XPA. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we continued our earlier efforts aimed at the identification and characterization of novel inhibitors of the ERCC1-XPA interaction. We used a refined virtual screening approach combined with a biochemical and biological evaluation of the compounds for their ability to interact with ERCC1 and to sensitize cells to UV radiation. Our findings reveal a new validated ERCC1-XPA inhibitor that significantly sensitized colon cancer cells to UV radiation indicating a strong inhibition of the ERCC1-XPA interaction. Conclusions NER is a major factor in acquiring resistance to platinum-based therapy. Regulating the NER pathway has the potential of improving the efficacy of platinum treatments. One approach that we followed is to inhibit the essential interaction between the two NER elements, ERCC1 and XPA. Here, we performed virtual screening against the ERCC1-XPA interaction and identified novel inhibitors that block the XPA-ERCC1 binding. The identified inhibitors significantly sensitized colon cancer cells to UV radiation indicating a strong inhibition of the ERCC1-XPA interaction.
An Examination of Electronic Cigarette Content on Social Media: Analysis of E-Cigarette Flavor Content on Reddit

In recent years, the emerging electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) marketplace has shown great development prospects all over the world. Reddit, one of the most popular forums in the world, has a very large user group and thus great influence. This study aims to gain a systematic understanding of e-cigarette flavors based on data collected from Reddit. Flavor popularity, mixing, characteristics, trends, and brands are analyzed. Fruit flavors were mentioned the most (n = 15,720) among all the posts and were among the most popular flavors (n = 2902) used in mixed blends. Strawberry and vanilla flavors were the most popular for e-juice mixing. The number of posts discussing e-cigarette flavors has increased sharply since 2014. Mt. Baker Vapor and Hangen were the most popular brands discussed among users. Information posted on Reddit about e-cigarette flavors reflected consumers’ interest in a variety of flavors. Our findings suggest that Reddit could be used for data mining and analysis of e-cigarette-related content. Understanding how e-cigarette consumers’ view and utilize flavors within their vaping experience and how producers and marketers use social media to promote flavors and sell products could provide valuable information for regulatory decision-makers.
Efficient revocation in ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption based cryptographic cloud storage

It is secure for customers to store and share their sensitive data in the cryptographic cloud storage. However, the revocation operation is a sure performance killer in the cryptographic access control system. To optimize the revocation procedure, we present a new efficient revocation scheme which is efficient, secure, and unassisted. In this scheme, the original data are first divided into a number of slices, and then published to the cloud storage. When a revocation occurs, the data owner needs only to retrieve one slice, and re-encrypt and re-publish it. Thus, the revocation process is accelerated by affecting only one slice instead of the whole data. We have applied the efficient revocation scheme to the ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) based cryptographic cloud storage. The security analysis shows that our scheme is computationally secure. The theoretically evaluated and experimentally measured performance results show that the efficient revocation scheme can reduce the data owner’s workload if the revocation occurs frequently.
Elevated Expression of Stromal Palladin Predicts Poor Clinical Outcome in Renal Cell Carcinoma

The role that stromal renal cell carcinoma (RCC) plays in support of tumor progression is unclear. Here we sought to determine the predictive value on patient survival of several markers of stromal activation and the feasibility of a fibroblast-derived extracellular matrix (ECM) based three-dimensional (3D) culture stemming from clinical specimens to recapitulate stromal behavior in vitro. The clinical relevance of selected stromal markers was assessed using a well annotated tumor microarray where stromal-marker levels of expression were evaluated and compared to patient outcomes. Also, an in vitro 3D system derived from fibroblasts harvested from patient matched normal kidney, primary RCC and metastatic tumors was employed to evaluate levels and localizations of known stromal markers such as the actin binding proteins palladin, alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), fibronectin and its spliced form EDA. Results suggested that RCCs exhibiting high levels of stromal palladin correlate with a poor prognosis, as demonstrated by overall survival time. Conversely, cases of RCCs where stroma presents low levels of palladin expression indicate increased survival times and, hence, better outcomes. Fibroblast-derived 3D cultures, which facilitate the categorization of stromal RCCs into discrete progressive stromal stages, also show increased levels of expression and stress fiber localization of α-SMA and palladin, as well as topographical organization of fibronectin and its splice variant EDA. These observations are concordant with expression levels of these markers in vivo. The study proposes that palladin constitutes a useful marker of poor prognosis in non-metastatic RCCs, while in vitro 3D cultures accurately represent the specific patient's tumor-associated stromal compartment. Our observations support the belief that stromal palladin assessments have clinical relevance thus validating the use of these 3D cultures to study both progressive RCC-associated stroma and stroma-dependent mechanisms affecting tumorigenesis. The clinical value of assessing RCC stromal activation merits further study.
Effects of redirection on spatial orientation in real and virtual environments

We report a user study that investigated the effect of redirection in an immersive virtual environment on spatial orientation relative to both real world and virtual stimuli. Participants performed a series of spatial pointing tasks with real and virtual targets, during which they experienced three within-subjects conditions: rotation-based redirection, change blindness redirection, and no redirection. Our results indicate that when using the rotation technique, participants spatially updated both their virtual and real world orientations during redirection, resulting in pointing accuracy to the targets' recomputed positions that was strikingly similar to the control condition. While our data also suggest that a similar spatial updating may have occurred when using a change blindness technique, the realignment of targets appeared to be more complicated than a simple rotation, and was thus difficult to measure quantitatively.
AN ALTERNATIVE ORIGIN FOR HYPERVELOCITY STARS

Halo stars with unusually high radial velocity (hypervelocity stars, or HVS) are thought to be stars unbound to the Milky Way that originate from the gravitational interaction of stellar systems with the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. We examine the latest HVS compilation and find peculiarities that are unexpected in this black hole ejection scenario. For example, a large fraction of HVS cluster around the constellation of Leo and share a common travel time of ∼100–200 Myr. Furthermore, their velocities are not really extreme if, as suggested by recent galaxy formation models, the Milky Way is embedded within a 2.5 × 1012 h−1 M☉ dark halo with virial velocity of ∼220 km s−1. In this case, the escape velocity at ∼50 kpc would be ∼600 km s−1, and very few HVS would be truly unbound. We use numerical simulations to show that disrupting dwarf galaxies may contribute halo stars with velocities up to and sometimes exceeding the nominal escape speed of the system. These stars are arranged in a thinly collimated outgoing “tidal tail” stripped from the dwarf during its latest pericentric passage. We speculate that some HVS may, therefore, be tidal debris from a dwarf recently disrupted near the center of the Galaxy. In this interpretation, the angular clustering of HVS results because, from our perspective, the tail is seen nearly “end on,” whereas the common travel time simply reflects the fact that these stars were stripped simultaneously from the dwarf during a single pericentric passage. This proposal is eminently falsifiable, since it makes a number of predictions which are distinct from the black hole ejection mechanism and which should be testable with improved HVS datasets.
Robotics within the teaching of problem-Solving

Abstract This paper considers the experiences of teaching on a module where problem-solving is taught first, then programming. The main tools for the problem-solving part, alongside two problem-solving approaches, are tasks using Mindstorm (LEGO, Denmark) robot kits. This is being done as a foundation step before the syntax of a language (Java) is taught to enable a Graphical User Interface (GUI) emulation of a previous robot problem. Results of student evaluation and feedback will be presented and the use of two simulators will be considered.
A Computational Geometric Approach to Visual Hulls

Recognizing 3D objects from their 2D silhouettes is a popular topic in computer vision. Object reconstruction can be performed using the volume intersection approach. The visual hull of an object is the best approximation of an object that can be obtained by volume intersection. From the point of view of recognition from silhouettes, the visual hull can not be distinguished from the original object. In this paper, we present efficient algorithms for computing visual hulls. We start with the case of planar figures (polygons and curved objects) and base our approach on an efficient algorithm for computing the visibility graph of planar figures. We present and tackle many topics related to the query of visual hulls and to the recognition of objects equal to their visual hulls. We then move on to the 3-dimensional case and give a flavor of how it may be approached.
Evaluating Machine Translation Output with Automatic Sentence Segmentation

This paper presents a novel automatic sentence segmentation method for evaluating machine translation output with possibly erroneous sentence boundaries. The algorithm can process translation hypotheses with segment boundaries which do not correspond to the reference segment boundaries, or a completely unsegmented text stream. Thus, the method is especially useful for evaluating translations of spoken language. The evaluation procedure takes advantage of the edit distance algorithm and is able to handle multiple reference translations. It efficiently produces an optimal automatic segmentation of the hypotheses and thus allows application of existing well-established evaluation measures. Experiments show that the evaluation measures based on the automatically produced segmentation correlate with the human judgement at least as well as the evaluation measures which are based on manual sentence boundaries.
Human Cytomegalovirus Induces TLR4 Signaling Components in Monocytes Altering TIRAP, TRAM and Downstream Interferon-Beta and TNF-Alpha Expression

Using TLR pathways, primary human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) induces innate responses including the production of inflammatory cytokines. Mounting evidence suggests that LPS recognition by TLR4/MD2/CD14 results in differential utilization of TIRAP-TRAF6 and TRAM-TRIF signaling, thereby leading to transcriptional activation of various cytokine genes. However, relative roles of the TLR4/MD2/CD14 complex and its adaptor proteins TIRAP and TRAM involved in regulating monocyte responses to HCMV are incomplete. Here, we provided evidence supporting the notion that the TLR4/MD2/CD14 complex contributes notably to HCMV-induced signaling and subsequent cytokine production in monocytes. In particular, induction of both IL-6 and IL-8 is associated with elevated TIRAP and reduced TRAM mRNA expression. The latter may serve in a compensatory pathway that yields a robust IFN response when TIRAP signaling is blocked in monocytes incubated with Toledo strain HCMV. Inhibitory studies using antisense oligonucleotides or neutralizing antibodies indicate that IL-6 induction by TLR4/MD2 complex is important for the activation of endogenous CD14 which later acts in concert or synergy with TLR4/MD2 as a factor resulting in IL-8 gene expression. We further show that exogenous recombinant CD14 can potentiate innate immune response via TLR4-dependent and possibly via TLR9-dependent pathways to promote enhanced expression/production of IL-8 and IFN-β, respectively.
Dark matter in the Milky Way II. The HI gas distribution as a tracer of the gravitational potential

Context. Gas within a galaxy is forced to establish pressure balance against gravitational forces. The shape of an unperturbed gaseous disk can be used to constrain dark matter models. Aims. We derive the 3D H i volume density distribution for the Milky Way out to a galactocentric radius of 40 kpc and a height of 20 kpc to constrain the Galactic mass distribution. Methods. We used the Leiden/Argentine/Bonn all sky 21-cm line survey. The transformation from brightness temperatures to densities depends on the rotation curve. We explored several models, reflecting different dark matter distributions. Each of these models was set up to solve the combined Poisson-Boltzmann equation in a self-consistent way and optimized to reproduce the observed flaring. Results. Besides a massive extended halo of M ∼ 1.8 × 10 12 M� , we find a self-gravitating dark matter disk with M = 2t o 3 × 10 11 M� , including a dark matter ring at 13 < R < 18.5 kpc with M = 2. 2t o 2.8 × 10 10 M� . The existence of the ring was previously postulated from EGRET data and coincides with a giant stellar structure that surrounds the Galaxy. The resulting Milky Way rotation curve is flat up to R ∼ 27 kpc and slowly decreases outwards. The H i gas layer is strongly flaring. The HWHM scale height is 60 pc at R = 4 kpc and increases to ∼2700 pc at R = 40 kpc. Spiral arms cause a noticeable imprint on the gravitational field, at least out to R = 30 kpc. Conclusions. Our mass model supports previous proposals that the giant stellar ring structure is due to a merging dwarf galaxy. The fact that the majority of the dark matter in the Milky Way for R < 40 kpc can be successfully modeled by a self-gravitating isothermal disk raises the question of whether this massive disk may have been caused by similar merger events in the past. The substructure in the Galactic dark matter disk suggests a dissipative nature for the dark matter disk.
Protein characterization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae RNA polymerase II after in vivo cross-linking

To characterize proteins associated with active transcription complexes, we purified RNA polymerase II (pol II) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae after fixing live cells with formaldehyde. The approach mimics ChIP and requires solubilizing cross-linked complexes with sonication. Pol II was affinity-purified, and associated proteins were identified by MS. Several classes of proteins depended on cross-linking, including Mediator, general transcription factors, elongation factors, ribonucleoprotein particle (RNP) proteins, and histones. A tagged RNP protein reciprocally purified pol II under identical cross-linking conditions, and the association between RNP proteins and pol II was largely RNase-sensitive. The data indicate that the cross-linked Pol II purification contains elongating pol II with associated nascent RNP. Consistent with this view, some elongation factors no longer associate with pol II after inactivation of transcription in the temperature-sensitive pol II mutant, rpb1-1. Taken together, our data suggest that the cross-linked pol II purification contains a mixed population of pol II, including initiating pol II and elongating pol II.
Sample-space bright spots removal using density estimation

Rendering images using Monte-Carlo estimation is prone to bright spots artefacts. Bright spots correspond to high intensity pixels that appear when a very low probability sample outweighs all other sample contributions. We present an average estimator that is robust to outliers, which detects and removes samples that are considered as outliers, and lead to bright spots in images computed using Monte-Carlo estimation. By progressively building a per-pixel representation of the luminance distribution, our method is able to delay samples whose luminance is considered as an outlier with respect to the current distribution. This distribution is continuously updated so that delayed samples may be re-considered as viable later in the rendering process, thus making the presented approach robust. Our method does not suffer from blurring in high-frequency zones. It can be easily integrated in any Monte-Carlo-based rendering system, used in conjunction with any adaptive sampling scheme, and it introduces a very small computational overhead, which is negligible compared to the use of over-sampling.
Bayesian Optimization Algorithm with Random Immigration

Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDA) are stochastic population based search algorithms that use a distribution model of the population to create new candidate solutions. One problem that directly affects the EDAs' ability to find the best solutions is the premature convergence to some local optimum due to diversity loss. Inspired by the Random Immigrants technique, this paper presents the Bayesian Optimization Algorithm with Random Immigration (BOARI). The algorithm generates and migrates random individuals as a way to improve the performance of the Bayesian Optimization Algorithm (BOA) by maintaining the genetic diversity of the population along the generations. The proposed approach has been evaluated and compared to BOA using benchmark functions. Results indicate that, with appropriate settings, the algorithm is able to achieve better solutions than the standard BOA for these functions.
Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling for Categorical Longitudinal Data from Sedation Measurements

We investigate a Bayesian hierarchical model for the analysis of categorical longitudinal data from sedation measurement for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computerized Tomography (CT). Data for each patient is observed at different time points within the time up to 60 min. A model for the sedation level of patients is developed by introducing, at the first stage of a hierarchical model, a multinomial model for the response, and then subsequent terms are introduced. To estimate the model, we use the Gibbs sampling given some appropriate prior distributions.
High performances of shielded LTCC vertical transitions from DC up to 50 GHz

This paper reports on research on two generic shielded vertical transitions in low-temperature cofired ceramic technology. These interconnections are simulated and optimized by three-dimensional electromagnetic simulations. The first circuit, a coplanar waveguide (CPW) or microstrip-to-stripline transition, presents great experimental performances from dc up to 50 GHz, and the second, a CPW-to-waveguide transition, is defined for Q-band applications.
Methylglyoxal Impairs the Insulin Signaling Pathways Independently of the Formation of Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species

Nonenzymatic glycation is increased in diabetes and leads to elevated levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which link hyperglycemia to the induction of insulin resistance. In hyperglycemic conditions, intracellularly formed α-ketoaldehydes, such as methylglyoxal, are an essential source of intracellular AGEs, and the abnormal accumulation of methylglyoxal is related to the development of diabetes complications in various tissues and organs. We have previously shown in skeletal muscle that AGEs induce insulin resistance at the level of metabolic responses. Therefore, it was important to extend our work to intermediates of the biosynthetic pathway leading to AGEs. Hence, we asked the question whether the reactive α-ketoaldehyde methylglyoxal has deleterious effects on insulin action similar to AGEs. We analyzed the impact of methylglyoxal on insulin-induced signaling in L6 muscle cells. We demonstrate that a short exposure to methylglyoxal induces an inhibition of insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of protein kinase B and extracellular-regulated kinase 1/2, without affecting insulin receptor tyrosine phosphorylation. Importantly, these deleterious effects of methylglyoxal are independent of reactive oxygen species produced by methylglyoxal but appear to be the direct consequence of an impairment of insulin-induced insulin receptor substrate-1 tyrosine phosphorylation subsequent to the binding of methylglyoxal to these proteins. Our data suggest that an increase in intracellular methylglyoxal content hampers a key molecule, thereby leading to inhibition of insulin-induced signaling. By such a mechanism, methylglyoxal may not only induce the debilitating complications of diabetes but may also contribute to the pathophysiology of diabetes in general.