Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bounding procedure for stochastic dynamic programs with application to the perimeter patrol problem

One often encounters the curse of dimensionality in the application of dynamic programming to determine optimal policies for controlled Markov chains. In this paper, we provide a method to construct sub-optimal policies along with a bound for the deviation of such a policy from the optimum via a linear programming approach. The state-space is partitioned and the optimal cost-to-go or value function is approximated by a constant over each partition. By minimizing a positive cost function defined on the partitions, one can construct an approximate value function which also happens to be an upper bound for the optimal value function of the original Markov Decision Process (MDP). As a key result, we show that this approximate value function is independent of the positive cost function (or state dependent weights; as it is referred to, in the literature) and moreover, this is the least upper bound that one can obtain; once the partitions are specified. We apply the linear programming approach to a perimeter surveillance stochastic optimal control problem; whose structure enables efficient computation of the upper bound.
Protein-driven inference of miRNA–disease associations

Motivation: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a highly abundant class of non-coding RNA genes involved in cellular regulation and thus also diseases. Despite miRNAs being important disease factors, miRNA–disease associations remain low in number and of variable reliability. Furthermore, existing databases and prediction methods do not explicitly facilitate forming hypotheses about the possible molecular causes of the association, thereby making the path to experimental follow-up longer. Results: Here we present miRPD in which miRNA–Protein–Disease associations are explicitly inferred. Besides linking miRNAs to diseases, it directly suggests the underlying proteins involved, which can be used to form hypotheses that can be experimentally tested. The inference of miRNAs and diseases is made by coupling known and predicted miRNA–protein associations with protein–disease associations text mined from the literature. We present scoring schemes that allow us to rank miRNA–disease associations inferred from both curated and predicted miRNA targets by reliability and thereby to create high- and medium-confidence sets of associations. Analyzing these, we find statistically significant enrichment for proteins involved in pathways related to cancer and type I diabetes mellitus, suggesting either a literature bias or a genuine biological trend. We show by example how the associations can be used to extract proteins for disease hypothesis. Availability and implementation: All datasets, software and a searchable Web site are available at http://mirpd.jensenlab. org. Contact: lars.juhl. jensen@cpr.ku. dk or gorodkin@rth.dk
Parental Occurrence of Stroke and Risk of Stroke in Their Children: The Framingham Study

Background— Data relating parental history of stroke to stroke risk in offspring remain surprisingly inconsistent, largely because of heterogeneity of study design and the absence of verified, as opposed to historical, data on parental stroke status. Methods and Results— We determined whether prospectively verified parental occurrence of stroke increased incident stroke risk among offspring in a community-based sample by studying 3443 stroke-free Framingham offspring (53% female; mean age, 48±14 years) with verified parental stroke status (by 65 years of age) who attended the first, third, fifth, and/or seventh offspring examinations and were followed up for up to 8 years after each baseline examination. Over up to 11 029 such person-observation periods (77 534 person-years), we documented 106 parental strokes by 65 years of age and 128 offspring strokes (74 parental and 106 offspring strokes were ischemic). Using multivariable Cox models adjusted for age, sex, sibship, and baseline stroke risk factors, we observed that parental stroke, both all stroke generally and ischemic stroke specifically, was associated with an increased risk of incident stroke of the same type in the offspring (hazard ratio, 2.79; 95% confidence interval, 1.68 to 4.66; P<0.001 for all stroke; and hazard ratio, 3.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.69 to 5.88; P<0.001 for ischemic stroke). This was true for both maternal and paternal stroke. Conclusions— Documented parental stroke by 65 years of age was associated with a 3-fold increase in risk of offspring stroke. This increased risk persisted after adjustment for conventional stroke risk factors. Thus, verified parental stroke may serve as a clinically useful risk marker of an individual's propensity to stroke.
Evidence for the Presentation of Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I–restricted Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigen 1 Peptides to CD8+ T Lymphocytes

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) is expressed in all EBV-associated tumors, making it an important target for immunotherapy. However, evidence for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I–restricted EBNA1 peptides endogenously presented by EBV-transformed B and tumor cells remains elusive. Here we describe for the first time the identification of an endogenously processed human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B8–restricted EBNA1 peptide that is recognized by CD8+ T cells. T cell recognition could be inhibited by the treatment of target cells with proteasome inhibitors that block the MHC class I antigen processing pathway, but not by an inhibitor (chloroquine) of MHC class II antigen processing. We also demonstrate that new protein synthesis is required for the generation of the HLA-B8 epitope for T cell recognition, suggesting that defective ribosomal products (DRiPs) are the major source of T cell epitopes. Experiments with protease inhibitors indicate that some serine proteases may participate in the degradation of EBNA1 DRiPs before they are further processed by proteasomes. These findings not only provide the first evidence of the presentation of an MHC class I–restricted EBNA1 epitope to CD8+ T cells, but also offer new insight into the molecular mechanisms involved in the processing and presentation of EBNA1.
Localization of PBP3 in Caulobacter crescentus is highly dynamic and largely relies on its functional transpeptidase domain

In rod‐shaped bacteria, septal peptidoglycan synthesis involves the late recruitment of the ftsI gene product (PBP3 in Escherichia coli) to the FtsZ ring. We show that in Caulobacter crescentus, PBP3 accumulates at the new pole at the beginning of the cell cycle. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments reveal that polar PBP3 molecules are, constantly and independently of FtsZ, replaced by those present in the cellular pool, implying that polar PBP3 is not a remnant of the previous division. By the time cell constriction is initiated, all PBP3 polar accumulation has disappeared in favour of an FtsZ‐dependent localization near midcell, consistent with PBP3 function in cell division. Kymograph analysis of time‐lapse experiments shows that the recruitment of PBP3 to the FtsZ ring is progressive and initiated very early on, shortly after FtsZ ring formation and well before cell constriction starts. Accumulation of PBP3 near midcell is also highly dynamic with a rapid exchange of PBP3 molecules between midcell and cellular pools. Localization of PBP3 at both midcell and pole appears multifactorial, primarily requiring the catalytic site of PBP3. Collectively, our results suggest a role for PBP3 in pole morphogenesis and provide new insights into the process of peptidoglycan assembly during division.
Eﬃcient Compromising

Two agents must select one of three alternatives. Their ordinal rankings are commonly known and diametrically opposed. Eﬃciency requires choosing the alternative the agents rank second whenever the weighted sum of their von Neumann Morgenstern utilities is higher than under either agent’s favorite alternative. The agents’ utilities of the middle-ranked alternative are i.i. d. , privately observed random variables. In our setup, which is closely related to a public goods problem where agents face liquidity constraints but no participation constraints, decision rules that truthfully elicit utilities and implement eﬃcient decisions do not exist. We provide analytical and numerical results on second-best rules.
ParallAX: an architecture for real-time physics

Future interactive entertainment applications will featurethe physical simulation of thousands of interacting objectsusing explosions, breakable objects, and cloth effects. Whilethese applications require a tremendous amount of performanceto satisfy the minimum frame rate of 30 FPS, there is a dramatic amount of parallelism in future physics workloads.How will future physics architectures leverage parallelismto achieve the real-time constraint? We propose and characterize a set of forward-looking benchmarksto represent future physics load and explore the designspace of future physics processors. In response to thedemand of this workload, we demonstrate an architecturewith a set of powerful cores and caches to provide performancefor the serial and coarse-grain parallel components ofphysics simulation, along with a exible set of simple coresto exploit fine-grain parallelism. Our architecture combinesintelligent, application-aware L2 management with dynamiccoupling/allocation of simple cores to complex cores. Furthermore,we perform sensitivity analysis on interconnectalternatives to determine how tightly to couple these cores.
Getting the blend right: listening to the wide student voice to enhance the online learning experience

The Teaching Excellence Framework has brought the retention of year one students and their initial experience of higher education (HE) into sharp focus. This project provides the opportunity for students to act as change agents, actively involved in the design of their programmes and therefore empowered to enhance their experience, in the area of online learning. Despite its importance to the overall student experience, where it is part of a blended-learning course design, online learning is not always addressed in student feedback. This case study focuses on year one students in three accounting and finance-related programmes and sets out how we are exploring students’ experience of using online learning platforms in the areas of mathematics, writing and accounting. However, the project also highlights challenges associated with asking students to evaluate in this way aspects of their HE experience.
SPEAKING THEIR TRUTH: BLACK WOMEN'S PERSPECTIVES ON EXECUTIVE-LEVEL ADMINISTRATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

OF DISSERTATION SPEAKING THEIR TRUTH: BLACK WOMEN’S PERSPECTIVES ON EXECUTIVE-LEVEL ADMINISTRATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION While Black women have etched a place for themselves as leaders within colleges and universities, few have advanced to the most senior levels of postsecondary administration and they remain underrepresented in those type of roles (Gamble & Turner, 2015; Jackson & Harris, 2007; West, 2015). Scholarly research has explored Black women’s experiences as institutional leaders (Davis & Maldonado, 2015; Smith & Crawford, 2007; Waring, 2003); yet the phenomenon of executive-level higher education administration, specifically as it relates to Black women’s perspectives, is not well known (Enke, 2014; Jean-Marie, Williams, & Sherman, 2009). Moreover, research that directs attention to Black women’s unique leadership experiences as executive-level leaders within a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) is scarce (Gamble & Turner, 2015; Mosley, 1980; West, 2015). This transcendental phenomenological study examined the perceptions of Black women’s leadership experiences in their roles as executive-level higher education administrators at a PWI and strategies they used to cope with their experiences. Black Feminist Theory, which centers the narratives of Black women and explores how intersecting oppressions impact their everyday lives, was used to frame the study. Semistructured, face-to-face interviews and a review of relevant documents were used to collect the voices of four Black women executive-level leaders. Data collected were analyzed using Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological method of analysis and synthesized to reveal an essence of the experience of an executive-level higher education administrator at a PWI from the Black woman’s vantage point. Results indicated the meaning ascribed to the experience of being an executivelevel higher education administrator were rooted in: Knowing Who You Are, Developing as a Leader, Engaging in the Rules of the Game, Building Relationships, and Navigating Bias and Conflict. Further, Finding Strength through Spirituality, Relying on Family and Friends, Pursuing Enjoyable Activities emerged as strategies used to manage the phenomenon. This study offers a unique view into Black women’s lived experiences and their perspective on leading at a PWI as an executive-level higher education administrator. Findings contribute to building transformative change at colleges and universities by providing insight and knowledge about the experiences of Black women in higher education administration.
On dynamical r-matrices obtained from Dirac reduction and their generalizations to affine Lie algebras

According to Etingof and Varchenko, the classical dynamical Yang-Baxter equation is a guarantee for the consistency of the Poisson bracket on certain Poisson-Lie groupoids. Here it is noticed that Dirac reductions of these Poisson manifolds give rise to a mapping from dynamical r-matrices on a pair ⊂ to those on another pair ⊂, where ⊂⊂ is a chain of Lie algebras for which admits a reductive decomposition as = + . Several known dynamical r-matrices appear naturally in this setting, and its application provides new r-matrices, too. In particular, we exhibit a family of r-matrices for which the dynamical variable lies in the grade zero subalgebra of an extended affine Lie algebra obtained from a twisted loop algebra based on an arbitrary finite-dimensional self-dual Lie algebra.
An Adaptive Evolutionary Algorithm for Traveling Salesman Problem with Precedence Constraints

Traveling sales man problem with precedence constraints is one of the most notorious problems in terms of the efficiency of its solution approach, even though it has very wide range of industrial applications. We propose a new evolutionary algorithm to efficiently obtain good solutions by improving the search process. Our genetic operators guarantee the feasibility of solutions over the generations of population, which significantly improves the computational efficiency even when it is combined with our flexible adaptive searching strategy. The efficiency of the algorithm is investigated by computational experiments.
A Novel Optimization Method for the Maximum Coverage Sets of WSN

To resolve the problem of traditional lifetime, target coverage and network connectivity, a novel algorithm for selecting the optimal coverage set based on improved particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSOA) is proposed. There are two competing objectives presented to determine where to place the sensor nodes, the coverage rate and the number of working nodes. And then As another new contribution, we apply the novel algorithm in the K-disjoint coverage sets problem, which divides all the sensors into K-disjoint sets, guaranteeing each set with complete coverage. This method can improve the capability of search and convergence of algorithm. By alternating coverage subsets and using only one at each round, the maximum network lifetime is achieved. The simulation result shows that our analysis for wireless sensor networks is better than other algorithms and more effective.
Embedded Middleware on Distributed Smart Cameras

Two trends emerge in recent image processing research: distributed computing and embedded processing. Both trends are exemplified in smart cameras which combine image sensing, image processing and communication on a single embedded device. Networks of distributed smart cameras help to overcome some hard problems that are inherent in single-camera systems. Designing, implementing and deploying image processing applications for cooperating distributed cameras is much more complex than for single-camera systems. In this paper, we focus on software services required for distributed embedded image processing on a network of smart cameras. We identify important middleware services and present our lightweight middleware implemented on our distributed SmartCams. A multi-camera tracking application demonstrates the benefits of our approach.
Entrusting Remote Software Executed in an Untrusted Computation Helper

How to trust an application executed in a remote untrusted client? Indeed, in an untrusted environment, an attacker may tamper with the application code or the execution environment to alter the application behavior for its own purposes. This problem is traditionally addressed by checking the integrity of the application code at loading and during runtime. However, this line of protection is not sufficient when the client is used as a computation helper and is expected to return the result to a trusted server. An attacker may execute the application without altering its code but returns an invalid result. This paper proposes a new approach to deal with remote software execution in an untrusted client used as a computation helper. The proposed solution provides the integrity of the computation result returned to a secure server.
Indentifying Fault-Prone Object in the Web Service

The faults in web services are very variant. They are occurred by software complexity. This paper focuses on identifying the fault-prone objects in the Web service that are very complex and different. At first define software complexity metrics for the web service. The technique is successful in classifying objects with relatively low error rate. This procedure shows very useful method in the detection of objects, which occur the fault of web services with high potential.
Energy Efficiency Manual

Review: Energy Efficiency Manual By Donald R. Wulfinghoff Reviewed by Irwin Weintraub Brooklyn College Library, USA Wulfinghoff, Donald R. Energy Efficiency Manual. Wheaton, MD: Energy Institute Press, 1999. 1536 pp. ISBN 0-9657926-7-6. US$199.95 In today’s fast paced world where we spend a good part of each day in buildings at work and play, it is important to plan building energy systems that meet our needs for heating, cooling, air flow, and lighting successfully and efficiently. The Energy Efficiency Manual offers up-to-date and practical solutions for energy planning applicable to building environments in one comprehensive volume. Wulfinghoff presents the information you need to plan, design, and construct efficient energy systems in homes, businesses, institutions, factories, farms, and other buildings. This easy-to-read, heavily illustrated work will be used over and over again by architects, engineers, contractors, code officers, environmental advocates, students, and homeowners who are dedicated to producing energy activities that save resources, are cost effective, reliable, and function at maximum efficiency. Nontechnical language is used throughout and terms are explained and illustrated when appropriate. Thus, the volume will appeal to a wide audience of users who are involved in building maintenance and those who just want to read it and learn more about energy conservation concepts. The Manual is arranged in two parts. Part I, Energy Measures, presents 400 specific energy efficiency improvements and cost saving activities. The measures are arranged under 10 sections covering boiler plants, chiller plants, service water systems, air handling systems, air conditioning systems, building air leakage, building insulation, control and use of sunlight, artificial lighting, and independent components such as motors and pumps. Since many energy projects serve several parts of a building or facility, readers will find practical solutions to all their energy efficiency questions in this section. I chose some entries at random and was impressed with the wide coverage of nearly all aspects of energy design. There are measures for efficient operation of low load heating systems; managing refrigerants in cooling equipment; reducing energy consumption of water pumps; regulating outside air intake and building pressurization; improving the efficiency of heating with radiators and convectors; reducing air leakage through windows and window frames; insulating roofs to prevent heat loss during cold weather; using daylight to save energy in open buildings; spatial layout of fixtures and wiring to provide efficient lighting; and eliminating excess output in constant flow fans. Each measure gives an explanation of
Incorporating the Treat-to-Target Concept in Rheumatoid Arthritis

BACKGROUND: Recent publications have proposed revisions to diseaseclassification criteria, new definitions of remission, and guidelines forimplementing treat-to-target strategies for the management of patientswith rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Despite developments leading to thispractice-changing approach, the concept of treat to target has not yetbeen widely accepted or implemented in managed care. At the 24th AnnualMeeting Expo of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), heldin San Francisco on April 18, 2012, a 4-hour activity titled IncorporatingNew Treat-to-Target Guidance and Strategies in RA: What Managed CareNeeds to Know was conducted in association with AMCP’s ContinuingProfessional Education Partner Program. The practicum featured didacticpresentations, a roundtable session, and an expert panel discussion detailingresearch evidence, ideas, and discussion topics central to the treat-totargetconcept in RA and its applications to managed care. OBJECTIVES: To (a) discuss recent advances in RA management, (b) evaluatestrategies to optimize the use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs(DMARDs), and (c) explain how to incorporate the treat-to-target paradigmin contemporary clinical practice and clinical care models in order toimprove outcomes for patients. SUMMARY: The past decade has seen a tremendous amount of change inthe field of rheumatology. The early and aggressive treatment of RA, includingthe use of novel biologic agents, has been shown to have favorablepatient outcomes in reducing synovial inflammation, delaying joint damage,and maintaining functional status, leading to the recently publishedrevisions in classification criteria and updated recommendations for theutilization of conventional DMARDs and biologic agents in the treatment ofRA. The revised classification criteria can be used to diagnose RA patientsat an earlier point in the disease course by placing greater emphasis onclinical features that manifest early in the disease process. The conceptof achieving tight control of RA and treating to target has been well establishedand utilizes early diagnosis, aggressive treatment, and regular monitoring,leading to positive outcomes in a significant number of patients withRA who achieve current treatment goals of low levels of disease activity orclinical remission.
3D Background Modeling in Multi-view RGB-D Video

In this paper, we proposed a 3D background modeling system for multi-view 3D video. We first reconstructed a 3D model, and we updated the subsequent frames into it using our proposed updating strategy. The results show that dynamic objects in the model can be excluded, leaving behind a compact 3D background model.