Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards the design of an automatically tuned linear algebra library

In this work we propose the architecture of an automatically tuned linear algebra library, which is composed by a set of linear algebra routines along with their installation routines. During the installation process on a system, the linear algebra routines will be tuned automatically to the system conditions: hardware characteristics and basic libraries used in the linear algebra routines. The design methodology is analysed with a block LU factorisation. Variants for a sequential and parallel version of this, routine on a logical rectangular mesh of processors are, considered. An analytical model of the algorithm is developed as the basis of our methodology, and the behaviour of the algorithm is analysed with message-passing using MPI on several platforms: Network of SUN workstations, SGI Origin 2000 and IBM SP2, and with, different basic linear algebra libraries: reference BLAS, machine-specific BLAS and ATLAS. The experiments show that it is possible to make a good automatic choice of configurable parameters of the linear algebra routines during the installation process. The average execution time of the linear algebra routine is reduced by about 15% with respect to the non-tuned version.
Blocking PD-1/PD-L1 in Genitourinary Malignancies: To Immunity and Beyond

Abstract Genitourinary malignancies represent a diverse biologic and immunologic landscape. Recently, checkpoint blockade has transformed the treatment paradigms for bladder and kidney cancer. However, continued progress will be essential in bladder and kidney cancer, given response to inhibition of the PD-1/PD-L1 (PD-1/PD-L1) axis remains variable and only a minority of patients respond. In contrast with the clinical trial results in bladder and kidney cancer, studies of anti–PD-1/PD-L1 therapy in prostate cancer have generally been disappointing. Nevertheless, an exciting array of studies is underway that are translating lessons learned from tumor biology into promising clinical trials. Here we highlight important features of the immune tumor microenvironment of bladder, kidney, and prostate cancer and review key completed and ongoing clinical trials of anti–PD-1/PD-L1 therapy in these tumor types.
Alcohol outlet density and harm: comparing the impacts on violence and chronic harms.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS A number of studies have previously identified relationships between the density of alcohol outlets and rates of violence, with different types of outlets related to violence in different locations. The previous work in Australia has been limited to studies based on police data, which are subject to numerous biases. This study extends the previous work by utilising hospital admissions as a less biased outcome measure, incorporating a 14 year longitudinal design and by developing comparative models for violence and rates of alcohol use disorders. DESIGN AND METHODS The study examines trends in postcode-level hospital admission data for assault and for alcohol use disorders over a 14 year period (n = 186) and their relationship with the density of three kinds of alcohol outlets. Fixed-effects models are developed to control for the differences between postcodes and for the overall trends in outlet density and morbidity rates. RESULTS The results of this study suggest that the density of alcohol outlets where the main activity is alcohol consumption (i.e. pubs) is positively related to rates of assault-related hospital admissions, while the density of off-premise alcohol outlets is related to the rate of alcohol use disorders. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS These findings have significant implications for alcohol policies in Victoria, in particular pointing to the significant contribution of packaged alcohol outlets to both acute and chronic alcohol-related harm.
Potential of Lactic Streptococci to Produce Bacteriocin

A survey was made on the bacteriocin-producing potential of lactic streptococci. Bacteriocin-like activities were isolated and partially purified from about 5% of the 280 strains investigated. The frequency of production varied from about 1% in Streptococcus lactis subsp. diacetylactis to 9 and 7.5% in S. lactis and Streptococcus cremoris, respectively. Eight strains of S. cremoris produced bacteriocins which, on the basis of heat stability at different pH values and inhibitory spectrum, could be divided into four types. From 54 S. lactis strains, 5 strains produced inhibitory substances, namely, three nisin-like antibiotics and two different bacteriocins. Only 1 of 93 S. lactis subsp. diacetylactis strains produced a bacteriocin which was very similar to bacteriocins of type I in S. cremoris. All of the bacteriocins that were partially purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation showed very limited inhibitory spectra. Most of the lactic streptococci and a few members of the genera Clostridium, Leuconostoc, and Pediococcus were inhibited. None of the bacteriocins acted on gram-negative bacteria. The bacteriocinogenic strains were also characterized on the basis of plasmid content. All strains possessed between one and nine plasmids ranging from 1 to 50 megadaltons.
Software reliability as a function of user execution patterns

Assessing the reliability of a software system has always been an elusive target. A program may work very well for a number of years and this same program may suddenly become quite unreliable if its mission is changed by the user. This has led to the conclusion that the failure of a software system is dependent only on what the software is currently doing. If a program is always executing a set of fault free modules, it will certainly execute indefinitely without any likelihood of failure. A program may execute a sequence of fault prone modules and still not fail. In this particular case, the faults may lie in a region of the code that is not likely to be expressed during the execution of that module. A failure event can only occur when the software system executes a module that contains faults. If an execution pattern that drives the program into a module that contains faults is ever selected, then the program will never fail. Alternatively, a program may execute successfully a module that contains faults just as long as the faults are in code subsets that are not executed. The reliability of the system then, can only be determined with respect to what the software is currently doing. Future reliability predictions will be bound in their precision by the degree of understanding of future execution patterns. We investigate a model that represents the program sequential execution of nodules as a stochastic process. By analyzing the transitions between modules and their failure counts, we may learn exactly where the system is fragile and under which execution patterns a certain level of reliability can be guaranteed.
Analysis and practice of uniquely decodable one-to-one code

In this paper, we consider the uniquely decodable one-to-one code (UDOOC) that is obtained by inserting a comma indicator, termed the unique word (UW), between consecutive one-to-one codewords for separation. As such, we analyze a class of UDOOCs and present practical algorithms for encoding and decoding such codes. Specifically, for various cases of UWs, we investigate the number of length-n codewords of UDOOCs and their asymptotic growth rates in n. The proposed encoding and decoding algorithms of UDOOCs can be implemented in parallel at low computational complexity without storing the codebook. Simulation results show that for proper choices of UWs, UDOOCs can achieve better compression efficiency than Lempel-Ziv codes even when the source is not statistically independent.
A Method for the Analysis of the Nano- and Micromorphology of Printed Structures on Flexible Polymer Films

The de velopment of smart sensor systems, wearables or internet of things devices necessitates new fabrication technologies. The challenge is to meet requirements such as low-cost, flexibility, reproducibility and capability for large area fabrication. Fabricating conductive microstructures on polymer films by additive processes like inkjet printing has become increasingly important for these applications in the last decade. Additive processes are potentially more ecofriendly than conventional electronics fabrication processes but printing has still not reached wider implementation in industry. One of the potential reasons is the still insufficient reliability of printed components that must sustain electrical, thermal, mechanical and chemical stress. This reliability of printed products is influenced by a vast number of factors and process parameters. The impact of a certain parameter on the product’s reliability can so far not be defined precisely. Besides functional testing, the examination of cross sections of printed structures can lead to a more detailed understanding of their morphology and may entail information for the optimization of the fabrication process. Regarding the requirements, the nanoand microstructure of printed structures has to be analyzed. In the present work, a method is described for the investigation of nanoand microstructures of inkjet-printed conductive traces on polymer substrates by means of scanning electron microscopy of cross sections prepared by ultramicrotome
Theoretical study and design of third-order random fiber laser

We present result of achieving a random fiber laser at a working wavelength of 1178nm while pumping at 1018nm. The laser power is realized by 200m long cavity which includes three high reflectivity fiber Bragg gratings. This simple and efficient random fiber laser could provide a novel approach to realize low-threshold and high-efficiency 1178nm long wavelength laser. We theoretically analyzed the laser power in random fiber lasers at different pump power by changing three high reflectivity fiber Bragg gratings. We also calculated the forward and backward power of 1st-order stokes, 2nd-order stokes, 3rd-order stokes. With the theoretical analysis, we optimize the cavity’s reflectivity to get higher laser power output. The forward random laser exhibits larger gain, the backward random laser has lower gain. By controlling the value of angle-cleaved end fiber’s reflectivity to 3×10-7, when the high reflectivity increases from 0.01 to 0.99, the laser power increases, using this proposed configuration, the 1178nm random laser can be generated easily and stably.
Once daily vs multiple daily mesalamine therapy for mild to moderate ulcerative colitis: a meta‐analysis

5‐Aminosalicylic acid is the first‐line drug for mild to moderate ulcerative colitis (UC). The most commonly used 5‐aminosalicylic acid is mesalamine. Several systematic reviews have demonstrated that mesalamine is effective in inducing and maintaining remission. Efficacy, safety and adherence to once daily (OD) and multiple daily (MD) dosing of mesalamine for the induction and maintenance of remission in mild to moderate UC were systematically reviewed and compared.
Therapeutic potential of larval excretory/secretory proteins of the pig whipworm Trichuris suis in allergic disease

Gastrointestinal nematodes are currently being evaluated as a novel therapeutic in the treatment of chronic human inflammatory disorders, due to their unique ability to induce immunoregulatory pathways in their hosts. In particular, administration of ova from the pig whipworm Trichuris suis (T. suis; TSO) has been proposed for the treatment of allergic, inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. Despite these advances, the biological pathways through which TSO therapy modulates the host immune system in the context of human disease remain undefined.
Statistical Significance in Song-Spotting in Audio

We present some methods for improving the performance a system capable of automatically identifying audio titles by listening to broadcast radio. We outline how the techniques, placed in an identification system, allow us detect and isolate songs embedded in hours of unlabelled audio yielding over a 91% rate of recognition of the songs and no false alarms. The whole system is also able of working real-time in an off-the-shelf computer.
Adaptive Function and Brain Evolution

Comparing brains is not a mere intellectual exercise but also helps to understand how the brain enables adaptive behavioral strategies to cope with an ever-changing world and how this complex organ has evolved during the phylogeny. For instance, comparative neurobiology helps understanding the specific features of our species, an issue that attracted scientists since the time of Santiago Ramon y Cajal. Following this tradition, 20 years ago Hans ten Donkelaar and Gerhard Roth started the European Conferences on Comparative Neurobiology (ECCN). This e-book includes some of the contributions to the last meeting, the sixth ECCN (Valencia, Spain; April 22-24 2010), plus selected works by several authors interested in the topic. The 7th ECCN Meeting will be organized by Andras Csillag and held in April 2013 in Budapest (Hungary).
The Nitric Oxide Reductase Activity of Cytochrome c Nitrite Reductase from Escherichia coli*

Cytochrome c nitrite reductase (NrfA) from Escherichia coli has a well established role in the respiratory reduction of nitrite to ammonium. More recently the observation that anaerobically grown E. coli nrf mutants were more sensitive to NO· than the parent strain led to the proposal that NrfA might also participate in NO· detoxification. Here we describe protein film voltammetry that presents a quantitative description of NrfA NO· reductase activity. NO· reduction is initiated at similar potentials to NrfA-catalyzed reduction of nitrite and hydroxylamine. All three activities are strongly inhibited by cyanide. Together these results suggest a common site for reduction of all three substrates as axial ligands to the lysine-coordinated NrfA heme rather than nonspecific NO· reduction at one of the four His-His coordinated hemes also present in each NrfA subunit. NO· reduction by NrfA is described by a Km of the order of 300 μm. The predicted turnover number of ∼840 NO· s–1 is much higher than that of the dedicated respiratory NO· reductases of denitrification and the flavorubredoxin and flavohemoglobin of E. coli that are also proposed to play roles in NO· detoxification. In considering the manner by which anaerobically growing E. coli might detoxify exogenously generated NO· encountered during invasion of a human host it appears that the periplasmically located NrfA should be effective in maintaining low NO· levels such that any NO· reaching the cytoplasm is efficiently removed by flavorubredoxin (Km ∼ 0.4 μm).
Association of Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Parathyroid Hormone With Hypertension in Middle-Aged and Older Korean Adults.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested that serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels are associated with hypertension. However, the associations have yet to be studied in Koreans. This study explored the relationship among serum 25(OH)D, PTH concentrations, and the presence of hypertension in middle-aged and older Korean adults using the most recent nationally representative survey data. METHODS A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted with data collected from 5,260 Korean adults (aged ≥50 years) who participated in the 2010 and 2011 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg, or current use of antihypertensive medication. RESULTS The prevalence of hypertension significantly increased according to the quartiles of serum PTH levels (P < 0.0001), but not of serum 25(OH)D levels. In multivariable logistic analysis, the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for hypertension were significantly higher among participants in the highest quartile than among those in the lowest quartile of serum PTH level, after adjusting for potential confounders (OR = 1.26, 95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.56, P = 0.03). The adjusted ORs for hypertension tended to decrease across the quartiles of serum 25(OH)D level, but the associations were not significant. CONCLUSION Serum 25(OH)D was not associated with the presence of hypertension, whereas serum PTH was positively associated, suggesting that serum PTH may be an independent risk factor for hypertension in middle-aged and older Korean adults.
In vitro assessment of artifacts induced by titanium dental implants in cone beam computed tomography.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the geometric pattern and the intensity of artifacts around titanium implants in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) using an in vitro model. MATERIAL AND METHODS Ten test models, each containing one 4.1-mm-diameter titanium implant, were cast from a human mandible using silicone impression material and dental stone. Each model contained an implant in one of the following single-tooth gaps: 37, 36, 34, 33, 31, 41, 43, 44, 46, and 47. For control purposes, three models without implants were produced. Each model was scanned five times using a CBCT scanner. Gray values (GV) were recorded at eight circumferential positions around the implants at 0.5 mm, 1 mm, and 2 mm from the implant surface (GVTest ). GV were measured in the corresponding volumes of interest (VOI) in the models without implants (GVControl ). Differences of gray values (ΔGV) between GVTest and GVControl were calculated as percentages. To detect differences between GVTest and GVControl , the 95% confidence interval (CI) was computed for the values of ΔGV. Repeated measures ANOVA was used for the comparison of ΔGV at 0.5 mm, 1 mm, and 2 mm from the implant surface. RESULTS Artifacts reflected by altered GV were always present in the proximity of titanium implants, regardless of the implant position. When comparing GVTest and GVControl , increased GV were found at the buccal and lingual aspects of the implant sites, whereas regions with reduced GV were located along the long axis of the mandibular body of the test models. A significant decrease in artifact intensity was found with increasing distance from the buccal implant surface (ΔGV0.5 mm : 45 ± 10% [SD], ΔGV1 mm : 28 ± 14% [SD], ΔGV2 mm : 14 ± 7% [SD]) (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Artifacts around titanium implants in CBCT images were distributed according to a geometrical pattern.
Systematic review of therapeutic lumbar transforaminal epidural steroid injections.

BACKGROUND Epidural injection of corticosteroids is one of the most commonly used interventions in managing chronic spinal pain. The transforaminal route to the lumbar epidural space for steroid injection has gained rapid and widespread acceptance for the treatment of lumbar and leg pain. However, there are few well-designed randomized, controlled studies to determine the effectiveness of epidural injections. The role and value of transforaminal lumbar epidural steroid injections is still questioned. STUDY DESIGN A systematic review of transforaminal epidural injection therapy for low back and lower extremity pain. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of transforaminal lumbar epidural steroid injections in managing lumbar (low-back) and sciatica (leg) pain. METHODS The available literature of lumbar transforaminal epidural injections in managing chronic low back and lower extremity pain was reviewed. The quality assessment and clinical relevance criteria utilized were the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Review Group criteria as utilized for interventional techniques for randomized trials and the criteria developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) criteria for observational studies. The level of evidence was classified as Level I, II, or III based on the quality of evidence developed by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Data sources included relevant literature of the English language identified through searches of PubMed and EMBASE from 1966 to November 2008, and manual searches of the bibliographies of known primary and review articles. OUTCOME MEASURES The primary outcome measure was pain relief (short-term relief = up to 6 months and long-term > 6 months). Secondary outcome measures were improvement in functional status, psychological status, return to work, and reduction in opioid intake. RESULTS The indicated evidence is Level II-1 for short-term relief and Level II-2 for long-term relief in managing chronic low back and lower extremity pain. LIMITATIONS The limitations of this systematic review include the paucity of literature. CONCLUSION The indicated evidence for transforaminal lumbar epidural steroid injections is Level II-1 for short-term relief and Level II-2 for long-term improvement in the management of lumbar nerve root and low back pain.
Low‐pass filter using a hybrid EBG structure

This paper presents an innovative design of a hybrid electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure based on nonuniform period and dimensions. A high rejection bandwidth is achieved when the nonuniform period and the dimensions follow the Kaiser distribution. The EBG structures are fabricated on the transmission line and the ground plane, where the offset is one‐quarter of the EBG period. The measurement results show a low‐pass filter response up to the C‐band with insertion loss below 0.25 dB and rejection bandwidth above 12 GHz. This type of nonuniform EBG structure is more compact than the conventional uniform structure. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 45: 95–98, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20734
Paroxysmal fussing in infancy, sometimes called colic.

The literature on "infantile colic" or "paroxysmal fussing" is reviewed. The frequent occurrence of a regular evening fussy period in two groups of infants is reported as indicative that this is a normal physiological event of the first few weeks of life. The longitudinal records of 98 infants who were study subjects of the Yale Rooming-In Project were analyzed with respect to incidence, duration, and severity of "paroxysmal fussing. " Forty-eight of the infants were classified as "fussy" and 50 as "contented. " The "fussy" babies typically began to have their paroxysms in the second week of life and ceased to have them at about eight weeks. Almost all of them were more fussy in the evening hours than in the morning. The rationale of various methods of treatment is discussed. The "fussy" group was similar to the "contented" group as regards details of feeding, birth weight, weight gain, sex, educational level of the mother, and family history of allergy. Of the 48 "fussy" infants, family tension was judged to be an important contributing cause in 22 cases, allergy in six cases; both allergy and family tension together in nine cases; in 11 cases there was no apparent cause. "Paroxysmal fussing" or "infantile colic" is possibly one of the earliest somatic responses to the presence of tension in the environment. The particular degree to which any infant reacts is probably determined by constitutional factors.
Integrating Expression Data from Different Microarray Platforms in Search of Biomarkers of Radiosensitivity

The goal of this study was to propose a method for meta-analysis of expression sets of single and dual channel intensity microarray data. This involved solving the issue of computational and biological consistency of the expression measures. We tested this approach on two sets from microarray data acquired in experiments performed to search for genetic biomarkers of radiosensitivity. The expression sets were uniﬁed taking into account the technical aspects of the design of the experiment and commonly used algorithms for the removal of batch eﬀects. The resulting genes were subject to annotation analysis for enrichment in ontologies and signaling pathways.