Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Estimating the Effectiveness of Temporal and Spatial Coherence in Parallel Ray Tracing

In this paper we estimate the effectiveness of exploiting coherence in Parallel Ray Tracing. We present a loadbalancing technique which divides the original rendering problem in balanced subtasks and distribute them to independent processors through a Prediction Binary Tree (PBT). Furthermore the PBT allows to exploit temporal coherence among successive image frames. At each new frame, it updates the current PBT using a cost function which uses the previous rendering time as cost estimate. We also provide two heuristics which take advantage of data-locality. We assess the effectiveness of the proposed solution by running two experiments. The £rst one aims to investigate the accurancy of predictions made using the PBT. Results show that such predictions are quite accurate even considering a heavily unbalanced scene and a fast moving camera. The second experiment evaluates the two locality-aware heuristics showing a modest improvement.
Regulation of Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells or Tumor-Initiating Cells

Cancer stem cells or tumor-initiating cells (CSC/TICs), which can undergo self-renewal and differentiation, are thought to play critical roles in tumorigenesis, therapy resistance, tumor recurrence and metastasis. Tumor recurrence and chemoresistance are major causes of poor survival rates of ovarian cancer patients, which may be due in part to the existence of CSC/TICs. Therefore, elucidating the molecular mechanisms responsible for the ovarian CSC/TICs is required to develop a cure for this malignancy. Recent studies have indicated that the properties of CSC/TICs can be regulated by microRNAs, genes and signaling pathways which also function in normal stem cells. Moreover, emerging evidence suggests that the tumor microenvironments surrounding CSC/TICs are crucial for the maintenance of these cells. Similarly, efforts are now being made to unravel the mechanism involved in the regulation of ovarian CSC/TICs, although much work is still needed. This review considers recent advances in identifying the genes and pathways involved in the regulation of ovarian CSC/TICs. Furthermore, current approaches targeting ovarian CSC/TICs are described. Targeting both CSC/TICs and bulk tumor cells is suggested as a more effective approach to eliminating ovarian tumors. Better understanding of the regulation of ovarian CSC/TICs might facilitate the development of improved therapeutic strategies for recurrent ovarian cancer.
The beaming factor and other open issues in GRB Jets

I review several central open questions concerning GRB Jets: i) I discuss a new estimate of the beaming correction for the rate of GRBs ∼ 75±20; ii) I discuss the universal structured jet (USJ) model and conclude that while jets might be structured they are less likely to be universal; iii) I discuss recent observations of a sideways expansion of a GRB afterglow and compare these with current hydrodynamics simulations of jet evolution; iv) I discuss the implications of resent outliers to the energy-angle relation.
Appropriateness of Children's Nonurgent Visits to Selected Michigan Emergency Departments

Objectives: To explore parental rationale and the appropriateness of children's visits to emergency departments (EDs) for nonurgent complaints. Methods: At 13 Michigan EDs, interviews were conducted with parents of children aged 6 months to 18 years who were triaged by ED personnel as lowest acuity. Interviews explored chief complaint, reason for ED visit, insurance status, attempts to call for advice before coming to the ED, and usual primary care source. Investigators rated ED visit appropriateness as high, medium, or low based on characteristics of the complaint and parent care-seeking behaviors. Results: Of 422 completed interviews, 51% involved parents of Medicaid enrollees, and 43% involved parents of privately insured enrollees. One third of children presented with injuries. Overall, 50% of visits were rated as high appropriateness. When injuries were excluded, 37% of visits were rated as high appropriateness. Thirty-eight percent of parents called for advice before coming to the ED; of those, 60% were told to go to the ED. The most common parent-reported reason for going to the ED was reassurance (41%), followed by thinking the situation was an emergency (33%). Medicaid patients who could name a primary care physician, rather than a clinic only, were more likely to have ED visits rated as high appropriateness (54% vs 38%, P < 0.05). Conclusions: Half of all nonurgent ED visits were rated as high appropriateness. Considering parental information sources, it would be incorrect to label all nonurgent ED visits as inappropriate. Questions remain as to whether primary care outpatient sites are an appropriate source of care for minor injuries.
Early Back-to-Africa Migration into the Horn of Africa

Genetic studies have identified substantial non-African admixture in the Horn of Africa (HOA). In the most recent genomic studies, this non-African ancestry has been attributed to admixture with Middle Eastern populations during the last few thousand years. However, mitochondrial and Y chromosome data are suggestive of earlier episodes of admixture. To investigate this further, we generated new genome-wide SNP data for a Yemeni population sample and merged these new data with published genome-wide genetic data from the HOA and a broad selection of surrounding populations. We used multidimensional scaling and ADMIXTURE methods in an exploratory data analysis to develop hypotheses on admixture and population structure in HOA populations. These analyses suggested that there might be distinct, differentiated African and non-African ancestries in the HOA. After partitioning the SNP data into African and non-African origin chromosome segments, we found support for a distinct African (Ethiopic) ancestry and a distinct non-African (Ethio-Somali) ancestry in HOA populations. The African Ethiopic ancestry is tightly restricted to HOA populations and likely represents an autochthonous HOA population. The non-African ancestry in the HOA, which is primarily attributed to a novel Ethio-Somali inferred ancestry component, is significantly differentiated from all neighboring non-African ancestries in North Africa, the Levant, and Arabia. The Ethio-Somali ancestry is found in all admixed HOA ethnic groups, shows little inter-individual variance within these ethnic groups, is estimated to have diverged from all other non-African ancestries by at least 23 ka, and does not carry the unique Arabian lactase persistence allele that arose about 4 ka. Taking into account published mitochondrial, Y chromosome, paleoclimate, and archaeological data, we find that the time of the Ethio-Somali back-to-Africa migration is most likely pre-agricultural.
Implementing role-based access control using object technology

With Role Based Access Control (RBAC), each role is associated with a set of operations which a user in that role may perform. The power of RBAC a s a n a c c e s s c o n trol mechanism is the concept that an operation may theoretically be anything. This is contrasted to other access control mechanisms where bits or labels are associated with information blocks. These bits or labels indicate relatively simple operations, such as, read or write, which can be performed on an information block. Operations in RBAC m a y be arbitrarily complex, e.g., \a night surgical nurse can only append surgical information to a patient record from a workstation in the operating theater while on duty in that operating theater from midnight to 8 AM. " A goal for implementing RBAC i s t o a l l o w operations associated with roles to be as general as possible while not adversely impacting the administrative fexibility o r t h e be h a vior of applications. Consider the possible activities associated with defning and modifying roles:
Tumour necrosis factor blockers do not increase overall tumour risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, but may be associated with an increased risk of lymphomas

Objective: To determine whether TNF blockers increase tumour risk in patients with RA. Material and methods: The South Swedish Arthritis Treatment Group register (SSATG) comprises over 90% of anti-TNF treated patients with RA in the area. 757 patients treated with etanercept or infliximab included between 1 February 1999 and 31 December 2002 were identified. 800 patients with conventional antirheumatic treatment in a community based cohort served as a comparison cohort. Tumours and deaths were identified in the cancer registry and population census registers. Patients were followed up from initiation of anti-TNF treatment or 1 July 1997 for the comparison group, until death or 31 December 2002. Results: In the anti-TNF group, 16 tumours (5 lymphomas) were identified in 1603 person-years at risk, and in the comparison group 69 tumours (2 lymphomas) in 3948 person-years. Standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) for total tumour relative risk for the anti-TNF group and the comparison group were 1.1 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.6 to 1.8) and 1.4 (95% CI 1.1 to 1.8), respectively. The lymphoma relative risk (RR) was 11.5 (95% CI 3.7 to 26.9) and 1.3 (95% CI 0.2 to 4.5), respectively The total tumour RR excluding lymphoma was 0.79 (95% CI 0.4 to 1.42) and 1.39 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.76), respectively. Proportional hazard analysis for lymphomas yielded RR 4.9 (95% CI 0.9 to 26.2) in anti-TNF treated versus untreated patients. Conclusion: Community based patients with RA treated conventionally had an increased overall tumour risk compared with the background population. A possible additional increased risk for lymphoma associated with TNF blockers was based on few cases and needs confirmation.
The strategies of Staphylococcus aureus to develop a chronic infection

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive coccal bacterium that is a member of the Firmicutes. S. aureus is a facultative pathogenic bacterium that can colonize the epithelial surfaces of humans and domestic animals and can also cause different types of severe tissue infections. Approximately 20% of individuals are persistently nasally colonized with S. aureus, and 30% of individuals are intermittently colonized [1, 2]. However, other sites can be colonized, including the axillae, groin, and gastrointestinal tract [3]. Colonization provides a reservoir from which bacteria can cause different types of infection [4]. In a study of bacteraemia, blood isolates were identical to nasal insolates in 82% of patients, suggesting that S. aureus can occasionally breach epithelial barriers and enter the bloodstream [5]. S. aureus is the main pathogen of osteomyelitis worldwide. Osteomyelitis is a bone infection that can be associated with high levels of inflammation and bone tissue destruction. The infection can sometimes develop into a chronic course and may become extremely difficult to treat with antimicrobials [6]. Osteomyelitis can be categorized into three groups, according to the route used by the infecting bacterium to gain access to the bone [7]. First, in haematogenous osteomyelitis, staphylococci access the bone tissue via the bloodstream. This form of osteomyelitis affects mainly prepubertal children. Second, osteomyelitis develops by way of a contiguous spread from a local infection after trauma, bone surgery, or joint replacement. Finally, osteomyelitis can be peripheral to vascular insufficiency. This form of osteomyelitis occurs mostly in diabetic patients and usually originates from an infected foot ulcer that spreads to the bone. All its forms can present in the acute or chronic phase and in virtually any bone. Osteomyelitis is the most frequent cause of non-traumatic limb amputation, as antimicrobial compounds often fail to clear the infection [6-9]. Despite the availability of effective antimicrobial agents to treat staphylococcal infection, it continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide [10]. Epidemiological studies due to the spread of successful clones continue to be reported from virtually every geographic region [11].
The Impact of the Online Channel on Retailers' Performances: An Empirical Evaluation

The use of the Internet as an additional sales channel offers traditional retailers opportunities to reach expanded markets while improving the efficiency of their operations. Although the potential benefits of the online channel are clear, there are significant variations in the scope and depth of online channel use among retailers. Drawing from data on more than 100 publicly traded companies, this study examines the impact of online-channel use on retailers’ performance. The results suggest that the online channel provides significant improvements in sales, cost, inventory, and return on investments. Inaddition,wefindthatthetimingofonline-channeladoptiondoesnotplayasignificant role in performance improvement, but having a local store presence does. Subject Areas: E-business, Event Study, Firm Performance, Online Channel, and Retailing.
USENIX Association Proceedings of HotOS IX : The 9 th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems

Attribute-based naming enables powerful search and organization tools for ever-increasing user data sets. However, such tools are only useful in combination with accurate attribute assignment. Existing systems rely on user input and content analysis, but they have enjoyed minimal success. This paper discusses new approaches to automatically assigning attributes to files, including several forms of context analysis, which has been highly successful in the Google web search engine. With extensions like application hints (e.g., web links for downloaded files) and inter-file relationships, it should be possible to infer useful attributes for many files, making attribute-based search tools more effective.
Building support infrastructure for technology-based businesses : What emerging economies can learn from the Western experience ?

Building support infrastructure for technology­based businesses: What emerging economies can learn from the Western experience? Original Citation Williams, Dina (2013) Building support infrastructure for technology­based businesses: What emerging economies can learn from the Western experience? In: New Technology­Based Firms in Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not­for­profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way.
Resting State Functional Connectivity MRI among Spectral MEG Current Sources in Children on the Autism Spectrum

Social and communicative impairments are among the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and a great deal of evidence supports the notion that these impairments are associated with aberrant functioning and connectivity of various cortical networks. The present study explored the links between sources of MEG amplitude in various frequency bands and functional connectivity MRI in the resting state. The goal of combining these modalities was to use sources of neural oscillatory activity, measured with MEG, as functionally relevant seed regions for a more traditional pairwise fMRI connectivity analysis. We performed a seed-based connectivity analysis on resting state fMRI data, using seed regions derived from frequency-specific amplitude sources in resting state MEG data in the same nine subjects with ASD (10–17 years of age). We then compared fMRI connectivity among these MEG-source-derived regions between participants with autism and typically developing, age-matched controls. We used a source modeling technique designed for MEG data to detect significant amplitude sources in six frequency bands: delta (2–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), beta (12–30 Hz), low gamma (30–60 Hz), and high gamma (60–120 Hz). MEG-derived source maps for each participant were co-registered in standard MNI space, and group-level source maps were obtained for each frequency. For each frequency band, the 10 largest clusters resulting from these t-tests were used as regions of interest (ROIs) for the fMRI functional connectivity analysis. Pairwise BOLD signal correlations were obtained between each pair of these ROIs for each frequency band. Each pairwise correlation was compared between the ASD and TD groups using t-tests. We also constrained these pairwise correlations to known network structures, resulting in a follow-up set of correlation matrices specific to each network we considered. Frequency-specific MEG sources had distinct patterns of fMRI resting state functional connectivity in the ASD group, but perhaps the most significant was a finding of hypoconnectivity between many sources of low and high gamma activity. These novel findings suggest that in ASD there are differences in functionally defined networks as shown in previous fMRI studies, as well as between sets of regions defined by magnetoencephalographic neural oscillatory activity.
Reovirus Infection Changes Transcript Levels of Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 4E (eIF4E) Family Members and eIF4E-Binding Protein (4E-Bp) in the Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus

ABSTRACT The blue crab Callinectes sapidus reovirus 1 (CsRV1), a double-stranded RNA virus, belongs to the Class III virus family Reoviridae and infects marine invertebrates, including the blue crab C. sapidus. Callinectes sapidus reovirus 1 levels correlate with disease progression, and high levels of infection usually result in death. To understand CsRV1 disease progression, the impact of CsRV1 infection on the translation initiation machinery in adult female C. sapidus was determined. Using transcriptome analysis of C. sapidus, sequences representing each of the three classes of metazoan eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) family members, eIF4E1, eIF4E2, and eIF4E3, as well as the eIF4E-binding protein (4E-BP), were identified as the first description of a Class III eIF4E in decapod crustaceans. Transcripts encoding the three eIF4E family members and 4E-BP are found in all tissues examined by end-point RT-PCR analysis, except for the hypodermis. In the noninfected animals, EIF4E1 transcript levels are;11.5- to 150-fold higher than those of EIF4E2, EIF4E3, or 4EBP in both hemocytes and eyestalk ganglia. In CsRV1 infected animals, transcript levels of eIF4E family members and 4EBP initially increase in hemocytes and to a much lesser extent in eyestalk ganglia. In hemocytes, EIF4E2, EIF4E3, and 4EBP transcript levels are highest at low levels of infection. By contrast, EIF4E1 transcript levels peak at moderate levels of infection. In the eyestalk ganglia, an endocrine tissue, CsRV1 infection only slightly impacts EIF4E1 and EIF4E2 levels, although more substantial increases in EIF4E3 and 4EBP are seen. These results provide the first window into how CsRV1 infection and disease progression perturb the host C. sapidus eIF4E family members and 4E-BP in different tissues, suggesting nuanced responses of the host translationalmachinery during disease progression.
Improving the decoding of m-sequences by exploiting their decimation property

M-sequences are widely used in communications and positioning systems for synchronization purposes. In these systems, the receiver does not know which sequence is used by the transmitter, this needs to be detected. This paper establishes first a link between the conventional detection theory and the recently developed detection technique relying on iterative message-passing algorithm. Then, a novel decoding strategy is proposed. It exploits the decimation property of m-sequences to improve significantly the detection performance compared to the existing decoding strategy.
Convergence analysis of Runge-Kutta multiresolution time-domain scheme based on the Coifman scaling function

In this paper we have studied the Runge-Kutta multiresolution time-domain (RK-MRTD) scheme, in which the electromagnetic fields are expanded by the Coifman scaling functions as basis function. We have analyzed the convergence of the Runge-Kutta MRTD scheme based on the Coifman scaling functions by the theoretical solution predictions on the convergence and the numerical simulations. Because of the character of the unique vanishing moment, it has found that use of basis of the Coifman scaling functions easier to complete, compared with the basis of the Daubechies scaling function and others, and to save the CPU time and using memory.
Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Envelopment Follows Two Diverse Pathways

ABSTRACT Herpesvirus envelopment is assumed to follow an uneconomical pathway including primary envelopment at the inner nuclear membrane, de-envelopment at the outer nuclear membrane, and reenvelopment at the trans-Golgi network. In contrast to the hypothesis of de-envelopment by fusion of the primary envelope with the outer nuclear membrane, virions were demonstrated to be transported from the perinuclear space to rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) cisternae. Here we show by high-resolution microscopy that herpes simplex virus 1 envelopment follows two diverse pathways. First, nuclear envelopment includes budding of capsids at the inner nuclear membrane into the perinuclear space whereby tegument and a thick electron dense envelope are acquired. The substance responsible for the dense envelope is speculated to enable intraluminal transportation of virions via RER into Golgi cisternae. Within Golgi cisternae, virions are packaged into transport vacuoles containing one or several virions. Second, for cytoplasmic envelopment, capsids gain direct access from the nucleus to the cytoplasm via impaired nuclear pores. Cytoplasmic capsids could bud at the outer nuclear membrane, at membranes of RER, Golgi cisternae, and large vacuoles, and at banana-shaped membranous entities that were found to continue into Golgi membranes. Envelopes originating by budding at the outer nuclear membrane and RER membrane also acquire a dense substance. Budding at Golgi stacks, designated wrapping, results in single virions within small vacuoles that contain electron-dense substances between envelope and vacuolar membranes.
No-reference image quality assessment using statistics of sparse representations

We present a no-reference (NR) image quality assessment (IQA) algorithm that is inspired by the representation of visual scenes in the primary visual cortex of the human visual system. Specifically, we use the sparse coding model of the area V1 to construct an overcomplete dictionary for sparsely representing pristine (undistorted) natural images. First, we empirically demonstrate that the distribution of the sparse representation coefficients of natural images have sharp peaks and heavy tails, and can therefore be modeled using a Univariate Generalized Gaussian Distribution (UGGD). We then show that the UGGD model parameters form good features for distortion estimation and formulate our no-reference IQA algorithm based on this observation. Subsequently, we find UGGD model parameters that are representative of the class of pristine natural images. This is achieved using a training set of undistorted natural images. The perceptual quality of a test image is then defined to be the likelihood of its sparse coefficients being generated from the pristine UGGD model. We show that the proposed algorithm correlates well with subjective evaluation over several standard image databases. Further, the proposed method allows us to construct a distortion map that has several useful applications like distortion localization, adaptive rate allocation etc. Finally and importantly, the proposed NR-IQA algorithm does not make use of any distortion information or subjective scores during the training process.