Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MapReduce and PACT - Comparing Data Parallel Programming Models

Web-Scale Analytical Processing is a much investigated topic in current research. Next to parallel databases, new flavors of parallel data processors have recently emerged. One of the most discussed approaches is MapReduce. MapReduce is highlighted by its programming model: All programs expressed as the second-order functions map and reduce can be automatically parallelized. Although MapReduce provides a valuable abstraction for parallel programming, it clearly has some deficiencies. These become obvious when considering the tricks one has to play to express more complex tasks in MapReduce, such as operations with multiple inputs. The Nephele/PACT system uses a programming model that pushes the idea of MapReduce further. It is centered around so called Parallelization Contracts (PACTs), which are in many cases better suited to express complex operations than plain MapReduce. By the virtue of that programming model, the system can also apply a series of optimizations on the data flows before they are executed by the Nephele runtime system. This paper compares the PACT programming model with MapReduce from the perspective of the programmer, who specifies analytical data processing tasks. We discuss the implementations of several typical analytical operations both with MapReduce and with PACTs, highlighting the key differences in using the two programming models.
White Matter Abnormalities Are Related to Microstructural Changes in Preterm Neonates at Term-Equivalent Age: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Probabilistic Tractography Study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Preterm infants have a high risk of brain injury and neurodevelopmental impairment, often associated with WMA on conventional MR imaging. DTI can provide insight into white matter microstructure. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between WMA on conventional MR imaging and DTI parameters in specific fibers in preterm neonates at term-equivalent age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy preterm neonates (39 boys and 31 girls) were included in the study. WMA were classified as no, mild, moderate, or severe. Probabilistic tractography provided tract volumes, FA, MD, λ//, and λ⊥ in the CST, SLF, TRs, and corpus callosum. Data were compared by using MANOVA, and adjustment for multiple comparisons was performed. RESULTS: Important associations were found between WMA and microstructural changes. Compared with neonates with no WMA (n = 41), those with mild WMA (n = 27) had significantly increased λ⊥ and MD in the left ATR, the left sensory STR, the bilateral motor STR, and for λ⊥ also in the right CST; FA decreased significantly in the left sensory STR. Diminished tract volumes and altered diffusion indices were also observed in the 2 neonates with moderate WMA. CONCLUSIONS: Altered DTI indices in specific tracts, with λ⊥ as most prominent, are associated with mild WMA in preterm neonates at term-equivalent age.
Thermoregulatory responses to RF energy absorption

This white paper combines a tutorial on the fundamentals of thermoregulation with a review of the current literature concerned with physiological thermoregulatory responses of humans and laboratory animals in the presence of radio frequency (RF) and microwave fields. The ultimate goal of research involving whole body RF exposure of intact organisms is the prediction of effects of such exposure on human beings. Most of the published research on physiological thermoregulation has been conducted on laboratory animals, with a heavy emphasis on laboratory rodents. Because their physiological heat loss mechanisms are limited, these small animals are very poor models for human beings. Basic information about the thermoregulatory capabilities of animal models relative to human capability is essential for the appropriate evaluation and extrapolation of animal data to humans. In general, reliance on data collected on humans and nonhuman primates, however fragmentary, yields a more accurate understanding of how RF fields interact with humans. Such data are featured in this review, including data from both clinic and laboratory. Featured topics include thermal sensation, human RF overexposures, exposures attending magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), predictions based on simulation models, and laboratory studies of human volunteers. Supporting data from animal studies include the thermoregulatory profile, response thresholds, physiological responses of heat production and heat loss, intense or prolonged exposure, RF effects on early development, circadian variation, and additive drug–microwave interactions. The conclusion is inescapable that humans demonstrate far superior thermoregulatory ability over other tested organisms during RF exposure at, or even above current human exposure guidelines. Bioelectromagnetics Supplement 6:S17–S38, 2003. Published 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
HOCHBERG : MORTALITY FROM SLE IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Mortality rates from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in England and Wales were estimated from Office of Population Censuses and Surveys data from 1974 to 1983, by age and sex. Age-specific average annual mortality rates showed unimodal distributions for both sexes with maximal death rates in the 65-74year age groups. The overall age-adjusted mortality rate for females was about four times that in males, 3.94 versus 1.02 per million person-years, respectively. Examination of individual age-specific rates showed an early sharp rise in females producing female-to-male ratios which exceeded 10 in the 25-34-year age group. Age-adjusted annual mortality rates in females significantly declined during the 10-year interval studied from 4.47 to 2.99 per million person-years (p = 0.0083). These patterns of mortality from SLE observed in England and Wales are comparable to those reported among Caucasians in the United States during a similar time period.
Auspicious Experience in Social Work

Abstract This personal narrative recounts the experiences of one psychodynamic practitioner as she grew over the course of her social work career. It follows the development of her therapeutic awareness as she first worked with adolescents in a wilderness therapy program, and later with low-income clients in several large urban areas. While discussing the role of her Masters and Doctoral education, it explores particularly the role supervision played in developing her therapeutic awareness and skills. Overall, it is directed toward explaining her professional growth as a psychodynamic practitioner and the components involved in that growth.
Two-stage coordination multi-radio multi-channel mac protocol for wireless mesh networks

Within the wireless mesh network, a bottleneck problem arises as the number of concurrent traffic flows (NCTF) increases over a single common control channel, as it is for most conventional networks. To alleviate this problem, this paper proposes a two-stage coordination multi-radio multi-channel MAC (TSC-M2MAC) protocol that designates all available channels as both control channels and data channels in a time division manner through a two-stage coordination. At the first stage, a load balancing breadth-first-search-based vertex coloring algorithm for multi-radio conflict graph is proposed to intelligently allocate multiple control channels. At the second stage, a REQ/ACK/RES mechanism is proposed to realize dynamical channel allocation for data transmission. At this stage, the Channel-and-Radio Utilization Structure (CRUS) maintained by each node is able to alleviate the hidden nodes problem; also, the proposed adaptive adjustment algorithm for the Channel Negotiation and Allocation (CNA) sub-interval is able to cope with the variation of NCTF. In addition, we design a power saving mechanism for the TSC-M2MAC to decrease its energy consumption. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol is able to achieve higher throughput and lower end-to-end packet delay than conventional schemes. They also show that the TSC-M2MAC can achieve load balancing, save energy, and remain stable when the network becomes saturated.
A multi-view annotation tool for people detection evaluation

In this paper we introduce a novel multi-view annotation tool for generating 3D ground truth data of the real location of people in the scene. The proposed tool allows the user to accurately select the ground occupancy of people by aligning an oriented rectangle on the ground plane. In addition, the height of the people can also be adjusted. In order to achieve precise ground truth data the user is aided by the video frames of multiple synchronized and calibrated cameras. Finally, the 3D annotation data can be easily converted to 2D image positions using the available calibration matrices. One key advantage of the proposed technique is that different methods can be compared against each other, whether they estimate the real world ground position of people or the 2D position on the camera images. Therefore, we defined two different error metrics, which quantitatively evaluate the estimated positions. We used the proposed tool to annotate two publicly available datasets, and evaluated the metrics on two state of the art algorithms.
iAssist:An Intelligent Online Assistance System

World Wide Web is the most useful source of information. A search engine can support only the initial stages of the search process, i.e., it can locate Web sites where relevant information is available. But, most of the search engines are keyword-based and are not much useful within a Web site to help the user to identify his preferred service. For this purpose, many companies use intelligent assistance systems (e.g., case-based systems) to improve customer service quality. We develop iAssist, an intelligent online assistance system, to automatically find problem solution at terns from the past customer- representative interactions.When a new customer request arrives, iAssist searches and ranks the past cases based on their semantic relevance to the request, groups the relevant cases into different clusters using symmetric matrix factorization, and summarizes each case cluster to generate recommended solutions.
The International Politics of Climate Engineering: A Review and Prospectus for International Relations

Proposed large-scale intentional interventions in natural systems in order to counter climate change, typically called “climate engineering” or “geoengineering,” stand to dramatically alter the international politics of climate change and potentially much more. There is currently a significant and growing literature on the international politics of climate engineering. However, it has been produced primarily by scholars from outside the discipline of International Relations (IR). We are concerned that IR scholars are missing a critical opportunity to offer insights into, and perhaps help shape, the emerging international politics of climate engineering. To that end, the primary goal of this paper is to call the attention of the IR community to these developments. Thus, we offer here an overview of the existing literature on the international politics of climate engineering and a preliminary assessment of its strengths and lacunae. We trace several key themes in this corpus, including problem structure, the concern that climate engineering could undermine emissions cuts, the potentially “slippery slope” of research and development, unilateral implementation, interstate conflict, militarization, rising tensions between industrialized and developing countries, and governance challenges and opportunities. The international politics of climate engineering is then considered through the lenses of the leading IR theories (Realism, Institutionalism, Liberalism, and Constructivism), exploring both what they have contributed and possible lines of future inquiry. Disciplinary IR scholars should have much to say on a number of topics related to climate engineering, including its power and transformational potentials, the possibility of counter-climate engineering, issues of institutional design, international law, and emergent practices. We believe that it is incumbent on the IR community, whose defining focus is international relations, to turn its attention to these unprecedented technologies and to the full scope of possible ramifications they might have for the international system.
Liver and hepatic duct cancer.

Malignant tumors of the liver represent one of the most common malignancies in the world today. The international incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is estimated to be more than 1 million new cases per year, with most of these occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and the Far East. The male-to-female ratio of this condition is 4:1 to 8:1 in the high-risk populations. In the United States, approximately 16,600 new cases will occur in 2002, with approximately 14,100 deaths. The male-to-female ratio of this condition in the United States is approximately 2:1, with an incidence estimated to be 5,600 new cases in women in 2002 with an associated 5,200 deaths. There has been progress in treating this disease during the past few years with the advent of newer imaging techniques that can better define the extent of disease, and we now have a better understanding of the etiologic factors that predispose a patient to this disease. In addition, the role of liver transplantation as an option for patients with this condition is better defined, and minor adjustments to surgical technique have decreased the surgical death rate associated with hepatectomy. Other therapeutic options such as cryosurgery, intraarterial chemotherapy, and minimally invasive surgical techniques are also available.
Investigating the Effect of Refactoring on Software Testing Effort

Refactoring, the process of improving the design of existing code by changing its internal structure without affecting its external behavior, tends to improve software quality by improving design, improving readability, and reducing bugs. There are many different refactoring methods, each having a particular purpose and effect. Consequently, the effect of refactorings on software quality attribute may vary. Software testing is an external software quality attributes that takes lots of time and effort to make sure that the software performs as intended. In this paper, we propose a classification of refactoring methods based on their measurable effect on software testing effort. This, in turn, helps the software developers decide which refactoring methods to apply in order to optimize a software system with regard to the testing effort.
Controlling Dynamic Motions of Biped Robots with Reflexes and Motor Patterns

Despite many efforts in the development and control of two-legged robots, nature’s solution of biped walking is still unequaled. Both the mechanical side and neural control surpass what robotics research has come up with. While the properties of the biological locomotion apparatus are fairly well understood, still there seems no technical solution for an equivalent actuation system. Unfortunately the knowledge on nature’s neural control concepts is far from complete.
Dictionary Learning on Riemannian Manifolds

Existing dictionary learning algorithms rely heavily on the assumption that the data points are vectors in some Euclidean space R, and the dictionary is learned from the input data using only the vector space structure of R. However, in many applications, features and data points often belong to some Riemannian manifold with its intrinsic metric structure that is potentially important and critical to the application. The extrinsic viewpoint of existing dictionary learning methods becomes inappropriate and inadequate if the intrinsic geometric structure is required to be incorporated in the model. In this paper, we develop a very general dictionary learning framework for data lying on some known Riemannnian manifolds. Using the local linear structures furnished by the Riemannian geometry, we propose a novel dictionary learning algorithm that can be considered as data-specific, a feature that is not present in the existing methods. We show that both the dictionary and sparse coding can be effectively computed for Riemannian manifolds. We validate the proposed method using a classification problem in medical image analysis. The preliminary results demonstrate that the dictionary learned using the proposed method can and does indeed provide real improvements when compared with other direct approaches.
Repercussões do Transtorno de Déficit de Atenção/Hiperatividade (TDAH) na Experiência Universitária

The goal of this study was to verify how the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or presence of ADHD symptoms affects the academic experience of college students. A systematic literature review was performed using the keywords "estudantes universitarios"/"college students" and "TDAH"/"ADHD" in Scielo Brasil, Index Psi, Redalyc, Medline and PsycARTICLES databases from 2004 to 2014. We found 53 papers and analyzed 15 of them. The study aimed to elicit similarities and differences in variables that can affect the college experience between college students with and without symptoms or diagnosis of ADHD and to describe the disorder in this population. Students with and without ADHD are likely to present no difference regarding self-concept and psychological well-being, although they differ from each other considering college adjustment and concern about academic performance. This review provides an overview of the awareness about ADHD in college students and about the way research has been conducted with this population.
Update on new technologies in digital mammography

Despite controversy regarding mammography’s efficacy, it continues to be the most commonly used breast cancer-screening modality. With the development of digital mammography, some improved benefit has been shown in women with dense breast tissue. However, the density of breast tissue continues to limit the sensitivity of conventional mammography. We discuss the development of some derivative digital technologies, primarily digital breast tomosynthesis, and their strengths, weaknesses, and potential patient impact.
Dissimulation strategies on neuropsychological tests: A qualitative investigation

People are known to feign or exaggerate symptoms of cognitive impairment for a wide range of reasons, such as for financial gain or avoidance of criminal responsibility. With £5.2 million paid out daily in compensation claims (Association of British Insurers, 2011), it is important that neuropsychologists have as much information as possible at their disposal for detecting unworthy claims. This study investigates the strategies employed by individuals attempting to feign cognitive impairment on standard neuropsychological tests. A review of the literature revealed that most previous studies in the area of malingering neuropsychological deficits have focused on developing and validating measures to detect falsification of symptoms or poor performance on standard tests. The only qualitative study published in this area investigated strategies employed by individuals feigning memory impairment (Iverson, 1995). Iverson (1995) used questionnaires and brief interviews, subjected to a simple content analysis. The present research constitutes a more thorough and in-depth qualitative study than any that have been previously disseminated in this area. Detailed semi-structured interviews were administered to 15 non-neurological individuals instructed to feign cognitive impairment on a battery of standard neuropsychological tests. The interviews examined both the strategies used and the thinking underlying participants’ choices to achieve a richer and more detailed understanding of the phenomena of feigning. Thematic Analysis revealed three main organising themes. Participants described Using Strategies, on specific tests and generally across the battery, offered explanations of the Rationale behind their decisions and spontaneously commented on their Experience of the Task. The findings of the present study reveal numerous potentially useful identifiers of feigning strategies, including many not previously reported. The resulting themes point to the development of more effective methods for detecting feigned cognitive impairments and could have a significant impact on the way that neuropsychological testing sessions are conducted.
The Complexity of Approximating a Bethe Equilibrium

This paper resolves a common complexity issue in the Bethe approximation of statistical physics and the belief propagation (BP) algorithm of artificial intelligence. The Bethe approximation and the BP algorithm are heuristic methods for estimating the partition function and marginal probabilities in graphical models, respectively. The computational complexity of the Bethe approximation is decided by the number of operations required to solve a set of nonlinear equations, the so-called Bethe equation. Although the BP algorithm was inspired and developed independently, Yedidia, Freeman, and Weiss showed that the BP algorithm solves the Bethe equation if it converges (however, it often does not). This naturally motivates the following question to understand limitations and empirical successes of the Bethe and BP methods: is the Bethe equation computationally easy to solve? We present a message-passing algorithm solving the Bethe equation in a polynomial number of operations for general binary graphical models of n variables, where the maximum degree in the underlying graph is O(logn). Equivalently, it finds a stationary point of the Bethe free energy function. Our algorithm can be used as an alternative to BP fixing its convergence issue and is the first fully polynomial-time approximation scheme for the BP fixed-point computation in such a large class of graphical models, whereas the approximate fixed-point computation is known to be polynomial parity arguments on directed graphs (PPAD-)hard in general. We believe that our technique is of broader interest to understand the computational complexity of the cavity method in statistical physics.
Reconciling Successful Aging with HIV

ABSTRACT As HIV is increasingly viewed as a chronic condition, primary care clinicians, case managers, and researchers must address the emerging implications of aging with this disease. Many aspects of HIV overlap with similar aspects of the aging process; however, a synthesis of topics related to both phenomena reveals some unique influences on disease prognosis, which affect the social, psychological, and medical well-being of persons aging with this disease. Fortunately, the geronto-logical literature is replete with theories, models, and examples of how to age successfully. This literature can inform the topic of aging with HIV in order to provide direction for research, interventions, and services. Trends found within both aging and HIV contexts are used to predict potential difficulties in cognitive decline, depression, social withdrawal, financial planning, immune dysfunction, and mitochondria damage. To understand the biopsychosocial mechanisms surrounding successful aging with HIV, mitochondria damage is used to illustrate the dynamic effects of physical, psychological, and social functioning on each other. Interventions and questions for further research in successful aging with HIV are presented.