Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Pooling in Queueing Networks

We view each station in a Jackson network as a queue of tasks, of a particular type, which are to be processed by the associated specialized server. A complete pooling of queues, into a single queue, and servers, into a single server, gives rise to an M/PH/1 queue, where the server is flexible in the sense that it processes all tasks. We assess the value of complete pooling by comparing the steady-state mean sojourn times of these two systems. The main insight from our analysis is that care must be used in pooling. Sometimes pooling helps, sometimes it hurts, and its effect (good or bad) can be unbounded. Also discussed briefly are alternative pooling scenarios, for example complete pooling of only queues which results in an M/PH/S system, or partial pooling which can be devastating enough to turn a stable Jackson network into an unstable Bramson network. We conclude with some possible future research directions.
Large-signal modeling up to W-band of AlGaN/GaN based high-electron-mobility transistors

This paper reports on the development of a thermo-electrical non-linear model for sub-100 nm gate length AlGaN/GaN High-Electron-Mobility Transistors (HEMT) grown on silicon (111) substrate by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). The presented model benefits from the innovative implementations of a sub-network taking into account access resistances frequency dispersion and a double intrinsic current source well suited for DC/RF dispersion losses. A comparison between simulation and experimental results under large-signal operating conditions at both 40 GHz and 94 GHz demonstrates the functionality of the implemented model.
Osmotic Demyelination Syndrome

The osmotic demyelination syndrome (ODS) has been a recognized complication of the rapid correction of hyponatremia for decades. However, in recent years, a variety of other medical conditions have been associated with the development of ODS, independent of changes in serum sodium. This finding suggests that the pathogenesis of ODS may be more complex and involve the inability of brain cells to respond to rapid changes in osmolality of the interstitial (extracellular) compartment of the brain, leading to dehydration of energy-depleted cells with subsequent axonal damage that occurs in characteristic areas. Features of the syndrome include quadriparesis and neurocognitive changes in the presence of characteristic lesions found on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. Although slow correction of hyponatremia seems to be the best way to prevent development of the syndrome, there are new data that suggest reintroduction of hyponatremia in those patients who have undergone inadvertent rapid correction of the serum sodium and corticosteroids may play a role in prevention of ODS.
Incremental language model and dynamic decoder for Tamil chat system

The paper gives an overview about a newly designed chat system “Tamil Vayadi” that recognizes Tamil voice input from the sender, converts it to text and transfers to the other end in a serialized form. This is received by the receiver in text form and presented in a new chat window. The system tries to eliminate some of the problems that are profound to Speech processing systems. The Input speech is split into words and each word is pre-processed (Normalization and Noise Removal). This is then fed into segmentation algorithm which splits the words into phonemes and PLP values of these phonemes are extracted which is stored for comparison during recognition. During recognition the PLP features of the extracted phonemes are compared with the PLP values of the available phoneme for converting the speech to text. A Bigram Language Model and a Decoder are designed for this purpose of conversion. We have introduced and incorporated the Tri phone effect for effective detection of phonemes. A learning module is also incorporated to effectively identify the phoneme. Using these improvements, we have achieved a word identification rate of 70%.
Institute for Biodiagnostics , National Research Council Canada 435 Ellice Avenue , Winnipeg MB R 3 B 1 Y 6

Various software metrics may be used to quantify object-oriented source code characteristics in order to assess the quality of the software. This type of software quality assessment may be viewed as a problem of classification: given a set of objects with known features (software metrics) and group labels (quality rankings), design a classifier that can predict the quality rankings of new objects using only the software metrics. We have obtained a variety of software measures for a Java application used for biomedical data analysis. A system architect has ranked the quality of the objects as low, medium-low, medium or high with respect to maintainability. A commercial program was used to parse the source code identifying 16 metrics. A genetic algorithm (GA) was implemented to determine which subset of the various software metrics gave the best match to the quality ranking specified by the expert. By selecting the optimum metrics for determining object quality, GA-based feature selection offers an insight into which software characteristics developers should try to optimize.
Morphological and Phagocytic Profile of Microglia in the Developing Rat Cerebellum,,

Abstract Microglia are being increasingly recognized as playing important roles in neurodevelopment. The cerebellum matures postnatally, undergoing major growth, but the role of microglia in the developing cerebellum is not well understood. Using the laboratory rat we quantified and morphologically categorized microglia throughout the vermis and across development using a design-based unbiased stereology method. We found that microglial morphology changed from amoeboid to ramified during the first 3 postnatal weeks in a region specific manner. These morphological changes were accompanied by the sudden appearance of phagocytic cups during the third postnatal week from P17 to P19, with an approximately fourfold increase compared with the first week, followed by a prompt decline at the end of the third week. The microglial phagocytic cups were significantly higher in the granular layer (∼69%) than in the molecular layer (ML; ∼31%) during a 3 d window, and present on ∼67% of microglia with thick processes and ∼33% of microglia with thin processes. Similar proportions of phagocytic cups associated to microglia with either thick or thin processes were found in the ML. We observed cell nuclei fragmentation and cleaved caspase-3 expression within some microglial phagocytic cups, presumably from dying granule neurons. At P17 males showed an approximately twofold increase in microglia with thin processes compared with females. Our findings indicate a continuous process of microglial maturation and a nonuniform distribution of microglia in the cerebellar cortex that implicates microglia as an important cellular component of the developing cerebellum.
Iron supplementation for unexplained fatigue in non-anaemic women: double blind randomised placebo controlled trial

Abstract Objective To determine the subjective response to iron therapy in non-anaemic women with unexplained fatigue. Design Double blind randomised placebo controlled trial. Setting Academic primary care centre and eight general practices in western Switzerland. Participants 144 women aged 18 to 55, assigned to either oral ferrous sulphate (80 mg/day of elemental iron daily; n=75) or placebo (n=69) for four weeks. Main outcome measures Level of fatigue, measured by a 10 point visual analogue scale. Results 136 (94%) women completed the study. Most had a low serum ferritin concentration; ≤ 20 μg/l in 69 (51%) women. Mean age, haemoglobin concentration, serum ferritin concentration, level of fatigue, depression, and anxiety were similar in both groups at baseline. Both groups were also similar for compliance and dropout rates. The level of fatigue after one month decreased by −1.82/6.37 points (29%) in the iron group compared with −0.85/6.46 points (13%) in the placebo group (difference 0.95 points, 95% confidence interval 0.32 to 1.62; P=0.004). Subgroups analysis showed that only women with ferritin concentrations ≤ 50 μg/l improved with oral supplementation. Conclusion Non-anaemic women with unexplained fatigue may benefit from iron supplementation. The effect may be restricted to women with low or borderline serum ferritin concentrations.
econvolution analysis of target evoked potentials

This paper demonstrates a method for analyzing target evoked potentials in an auditory oddball task, using Wiener deconvolution to separate the brain’s task-dependent properties from its task-invariant response. It is shown that a target response can be deconvolved, and the result contains two delta-like peaks separated by approximately 100 ms, implying that targets resemble a superposition of two standard responses. The latencies and areas of these delta-like peaks give quantitative measures of the evoked
Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in domestic pets from metropolitan regions of Panama

Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide zoonotic disease but information regarding domestic animals in Central America is scarce and fragmented. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in domestic cats and dogs in different metropolitan regions of Panama. A total of 576 samples were collected; sera from 120 cats and 456 dogs were tested using a commercial indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The overall seroprevalence of IgG antibodies was 30.73%. There is high seroprevalence of T. gondii in cats and dogs in the metropolitan regions around the Panama Canal; however, differences between these species were not significant. Statistical analysis indicated that there are relevant variables, such as the age of animals, with a direct positive relationship with seroprevalence. None of the variables related to animal welfare (veterinary attention provided, type of dwelling, and access to green areas and drinking water) were associated with seropositivity.
Focal Stimulation of the Posterior Parietal Cortex Increases the Excitability of the Ipsilateral Motor Cortex

Paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been applied as a probe to test functional connectivity within distinct cortical areas of the human motor system. Here, we tested the interaction between the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and ipsilateral motor cortex (M1). A conditioning TMS pulse over the right PPC potentiates motor evoked-potentials evoked by a test TMS pulse over the ipsilateral motor cortex, with a time course characterized by two phases: an early peak at 4 ms interstimulus interval (ISI) and a late peak at 15 ms ISI. Activation of this facilitatory pathway depends on the intensity of stimulation, because the effects are induced with a conditioning stimulus of 90% resting motor threshold but not at lower or higher intensities. Similar results were obtained testing the ipsilateral interaction in the left hemisphere with a slightly different time course. In control experiments, we found that activation of this facilitatory pathway depends on the direction of induced current in the brain and is specific for stimulation of the caudal part of the inferior parietal sulcus (cIPS) site, because it is not observed for stimulation of adjacent scalp sites. Finally, we found that by using poststimulus time histogram analysis of single motor unit firing, the PPC conditioning increases the excitability of ipsilateral M1, enhancing the relative amount of late I wave input recruited by the test stimulus over M1, suggesting that such interaction is mediated by specific interneurons in the motor cortex. The described facilitatory connections between cIPS and M1 may be important in a variety of motor tasks and neuropsychiatric disorders.
How the Changing Market Structure of U.S. Higher Education Explains College Tuition

This paper presents theoretical and empirical evidence demonstrating the ways in which" the changing market structure of American higher education from 1940 to the present affected" college prices and college quality. Over this period, the market for baccalaureate education" became significantly more competitive, as it was transformed from a collection of local autarkies" to a nationally integrated market. I demonstrate that the results of increased competition were" what industrial organization models (with product differentiation and students being both" consumers of and inputs into higher education) would predict: higher average college quality and" tuitions, greater between-college variation in tuition, greater between-college variation in student" quality, less within-college variation in student quality, higher average subsidies to students greater between-college variation in subsidies. Changing market structure can explain real" tuition increases of approximately 50 percent for selective private colleges. Panel data from" 1940 to 1991 on 1121 baccalaureate-granting colleges are employed, including data on students'" home residences.
Thyroid Hormone Causes Sexually Distinct Neurochemical and Morphological Alterations in Rat Septal‐Diagonal Band Neurons

Abstract: Sex differences were investigated in cholinergic neurons of the septal‐diagonal band region of adult rats subjected to neonatal treatment with 3,3′,5‐triiodo‐L‐thyronine (T3). Neonatal hyperthyroidism resulted in a 44% increase in specific activity of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT; EC 2.3.1.6) in adult male rat septal‐diagonal band region, whereas no change in ChAT activity could be detected in either dorsal or ventral hippocampus. An increase in muscarinic cholinergic receptors, as measured by [3H]quinu‐clidinyl benzilate ([3H]QNB) binding, was discovered in both septum‐diagonal band and dorsal hippocampus of the T3‐treated male rats. Immunohistochemistry in the septal‐diagonal band region indicated a more intense staining in the neonatally T3‐treated adult male rats than in controls, with larger and more abundant ChAT‐positive and nerve growth factor receptor (NGF‐R)‐positive varicosities. ChAT immunocytochemistry showed a substantial decrease in cell body area in the medial septum and in the vertical limb of the diagonal band of T3‐treated male rats, while cell density increased twofold. Female littermates subjected to the same treatment showed no changes in any of the biochemical or immunohistochemical cholinergic markers. Only in the medial septum was morphology significantly altered in the female T3‐treated rats in that ChAT‐positive cell body area increased. These results indicate a marked sexual variation in the septal‐diagonal band region with respect to the sensitivity of postnatally developing cholinergic neurons to the actions of excess thyroid hormone.
PERCEPTUAL ASYMMETRY BETWEEN INITIAL AND FINAL GLIDES: PSYCHO ACOUSTICS AND COCHLEAR ENCODING

Psycho-acoustic experiments show a perceptual asymmetry between tone and formant transitions in initial and final position: difference limens in end point frequency are significantly larger for transitions followed by a steady-state than preceded by one. Sensitivity of end point detection decreases as a result of auditory masking and/or a memory recency effect. The present paper describes how sensitivity varies with duration, stimulus complexity and position of the transition (section I) and tentatively examines whether peripheral indications can be found for the perceptual asymmetry, by means of a cochlear model (section II).
TECHNOSTRESS : TECHNOLOGICAL ANTECEDENTS AND IMPLICATIONS 1

With the proliferation and ubiquity of information and communication technologies (ICTs), it is becoming imperative for individuals to constantly engage with these technologies in order to get work accomplished. Academic literature, popular press, and anecdotal evidence suggest that ICTs are responsible for increased stress levels in individuals (known as technostress). However, despite the influence of stress on health costs and productivity, it is not very clear which characteristics of ICTs create stress. We draw from IS and stress research to build and test a model of technostress. The person–environment fit model is used as a theoretical lens. The research model proposes that certain technology characteristics—like usability (usefulness, complexity, and reliability), intrusiveness (presenteeism, anonymity), and dynamism (pace of change)—are related to stressors (work overload, role ambiguity, invasion of privacy, work–home conflict, and job insecurity). Field data from 661 working professionals was obtained and analyzed. The results clearly suggest the prevalence of technostress and the hypotheses from the model are generally supported. Work overload and role ambiguity are found to be the two most dominant stressors, whereas intrusive technology characteristics are found to be the dominant predictors of stressors. The results open up new avenues for research by highlighting the incidence of technostress in organizations and possible interventions to alleviate it.
Anti-proliferative effect of Jesridonin on paclitaxel-resistant EC109 human esophageal carcinoma cells

Chemoresistance to anticancer drugs is a major obstacle in the efforts to develop a successful treatment strategy for esophageal squamous carcinoma (ESCC). Thus, the exploration of new drugs and treatment strategies for combating resistance are of utmost importance. In this study, we investigated the antitumor drug resistance activity of Jesridonin, a new ent-kaurene diterpenoid, and its possible mechanisms of action using the resistant cancer cell line, EC109/Taxol. MTT assay revealed that Jesridonin had similar IC50 values against EC109 paclitaxel-sensitive cells and drug-resistant EC109/Taxol cells in vitro. In mice, Jesridonin effectively prevented the growth of EC109/Taxol tumor xenografts without exerting any significant toxicity. In addition, Jesridonin significantly inhibited the proliferation of EC109/Taxol cells, induced apoptosis and arrested the cell cycle at the G2/M phase. Furthermore, western blot analysis revealed that Jesridonin upregulated the expression of p53, p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA), cleaved-caspase-9 and cleaved-caspase-3 in EC109/Taxol cells, and downregulated the expression of procaspase-3, procaspase-9 and Bcl-2 in the EC109/Taxol cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Overall, our results demonstrate that Jesridonin may have potential for use in the treatment of paclitaxel-resistant ESCC. The data of the present study may lead to the development of novel treatment strategies for paclitaxel-resistant tumors.
Multi Rectangle Modeling Approach for Application Mapping on a Many-Core System

The importance of first node selection in run-time resource management is shown in our previous work, SHiC. It is desired in SHiC to find the optimum node in an agile manner. Accordingly, the current mapping picture of the system is simplified to SHiC by modeling each application as a rectangle of occupied nodes. However, the algorithm performance can be influenced significantly with the rectangle model of each application. In this work, we introduce a precise description of our new accurate rectangle modeling algorithm. Moreover, we show that it is not sufficient to always model an application with only one rectangle, as dispersion of the allocated nodes is an irrepressible phenomenon. Accordingly, our algorithm enables to model a mapped application with several rectangles by tuning the model accuracy against the algorithm complexity. However, the algorithm is not in the critical path of the applications executions. Our results shows up to 5% reduction in power dissipation of the network.
Bank Stock Returns under Money Supply Endogeneity: Empirical Evidence Using Panel Data

There is as yet a study of money supply effect on the aggregate bank stock prices using modern money supply theories.Endogenous money theory suggests loans made by banks cause deposits, and, consequently, bank creates money supply. Resulting changes in bank’s loans and deposits affects bank stock returns: Also, consequent credit creations/reductions affect a bank’s profitability, thus stock prices. Whether money endogeneity is in fact the way the money supply behaves has also not yet been widely tested. Applying panel regression and generalized method of moments, this paper provides new evidence on this little explored relationship between endogenous money supply theory and bank stock returns by testing across several major economies (G-7 countries). We do this by controlling for the actual monetary policy regimes in the economies. The results, while confirming the money endogeneity as a proposition, also shows significant money supply effect on the aggregate prices of banking shares.
Energy Prices and Alberta Government Revenue Volatility

Alberta government needs a revamped resource revenue stabilization fund to overcome the effects of wild swings in resource revenue and spending.Energy prices change substantially and unpredictably, causing revenue planning trouble for the Alberta government. Adjusting to these movements typically involves economic, social, and political costs that need to be factored into the government’s fiscal outlook. The best option for handling this is a resource revenue stabilization fund that collects a fixed proportion of resource revenue each year, and funds the provincial budget each year with a fixed share of the fund’s assets.
Activating and inhibitory functions for the histone lysine methyltransferase G9a in T helper cell differentiation and function

Accumulating evidence suggests that the regulation of gene expression by histone lysine methylation is crucial for several biological processes. The histone lysine methyltransferase G9a is responsible for the majority of dimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (H3K9me2) and is required for the efficient repression of developmentally regulated genes during embryonic stem cell differentiation. However, whether G9a plays a similar role in adult cells is still unclear. We identify a critical role for G9a in CD4+ T helper (Th) cell differentiation and function. G9a-deficient Th cells are specifically impaired in their induction of Th2 lineage-specific cytokines IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 and fail to protect against infection with the intestinal helminth Trichuris muris. Furthermore, G9a-deficient Th cells are characterised by the increased expression of IL-17A, which is associated with a loss of H3K9me2 at the Il17a locus. Collectively, our results establish unpredicted and complex roles for G9a in regulating gene expression during lineage commitment in adult CD4+ T cells.
An Enhanced Spanning Tree Topology for Wireless Sensor Networks

Most of the parallel and distributed applications are subject to frequent disruptions due to resource contention and failure. Such disruptions are inherently unpredictable and, therefore, robustness is a desirable property for the distributed operating environment. An approach to robustness is considered for applications that operate on a spanning tree overlay network. For such applications, a robust spanning tree is designed by considering a weighted combination of hop count and path weight. The robust spanning tree topology shows good performance when applied to wireless sensor network. For wireless sensor networks, the expected data loss and power consumption metrics are very important. When both of these metrics are considered, the proposed robust tree shows average results as compared with the existing spanning tree topologies. When a node fails, the expected data loss is also average when compared with the existing trees like Dijkstra’s, fewest hop and Prim’s minimum spanning tree topologies. The full text of the article is not available in the cache. Kindly refer the IJCA digital library at www.ijcaonline.org for the complete article. In case, you face problems while downloading the full-text, please send a mail to editor at editor@ijcaonline.org