Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compact routing schemes with improved stretch

We consider the problem of compact routing in weighted general undirected graphs, in which the goal is to construct local routing tables that allow information to be sent on short paths in the network. In this paper the first improvement to the work of Thorup and Zwick [SPAA'01] is presented. Specifically, we construct an improved routing scheme obtaining for every <i>k</i> routing tables of size Õ(<i>n</i><sup>1/<i>k</i></sup> log <i>D</i>), and stretch (4 -- α)<i>k</i> -- β for some absolute constants α, β > 0, where <i>D</i> is the normalized diameter. This provides a positive answer to a main open question in this area as to the existence of a routing scheme with stretch <i>c</i> • <i>k</i> for some constant <i>c</i> < 4.
Robust Hydrocarbon Degradation and Dynamics of Bacterial Communities during Nutrient-Enhanced Oil Spill Bioremediation

ABSTRACT Degradation of oil on beaches is, in general, limited by the supply of inorganic nutrients. In order to obtain a more systematic understanding of the effects of nutrient addition on oil spill bioremediation, beach sediment microcosms contaminated with oil were treated with different levels of inorganic nutrients. Oil biodegradation was assessed respirometrically and on the basis of changes in oil composition. Bacterial communities were compared by numerical analysis of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes and cloning and sequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes. Nutrient amendment over a wide range of concentrations significantly improved oil degradation, confirming that N and P limited degradation over the concentration range tested. However, the extent and rate of oil degradation were similar for all microcosms, indicating that, in this experiment, it was the addition of inorganic nutrients rather than the precise amount that was most important operationally. Very different microbial communities were selected in all of the microcosms. Similarities between DGGE profiles of replicate samples from a single microcosm were high (95% ± 5%), but similarities between DGGE profiles from replicate microcosms receiving the same level of inorganic nutrients (68% ± 5%) were not significantly higher than those between microcosms subjected to different nutrient amendments (63% ± 7%). Therefore, it is apparent that the different communities selected cannot be attributed to the level of inorganic nutrients present in different microcosms. Bioremediation treatments dramatically reduced the diversity of the bacterial community. The decrease in diversity could be accounted for by a strong selection for bacteria belonging to the alkane-degrading Alcanivorax/Fundibacter group. On the basis of Shannon-Weaver indices, rapid recovery of the bacterial community diversity to preoiling levels of diversity occurred. However, although the overall diversity was similar, there were considerable qualitative differences in the community structure before and after the bioremediation treatments.
Tuning larger membership grades for fuzzy association rules

Sigma count measures scalar cardinality of fuzzy sets. A problem with sigma count is that values of scalar cardinality are calculated entirely from many small membership grades or entirely from few large membership grades. Two novel scalar cardinality measures are proposed for the fitness of a genetic algorithm for tuning membership functions prior to fuzzy association rule mining so that individual membership grades are larger. Preliminary results show a decrease in small membership grades and an increase in large membership grades for fuzzy association rules tested on real-world benchmark datasets.
A Portable Matched-Field Processing System Using Passive Acoustic Time Synchronization

A portable matched-field processing (MFP) system for tracking marine mammals is presented, constructed by attaching a set of autonomous flash-memory acoustic recorders to a rope to form a four-element vertical array, or "insta-array. " The acoustic data are initially time-synchronized by performing a matched-field global inversion using acoustic data from an opportunistic source, and then by exploiting the spatial coherence of the ocean ambient noise background to measure and correct for the relative clock drift between the autonomous recorders. The technique is illustrated by using humpback whale song collected off the eastern Australian coast to synchronize the array, which is then used to track the dive profile of the whale using MFP methods. The ability to deploy autonomous instruments into arbitrary "insta-array" geometries with conventional fishing gear may permit nonintrusive array measurements in regions currently too isolated, expensive, or environmentally hostile for standard acoustic equipment
Design of LDPC Codes Robust to Noisy Message-Passing Decoding

We address noisy message-passing decoding of lowdensity parity-check (LDPC) codes over additive white Gaussian noise channels. Message-passing decoders in which certain processing units iteratively exchange messages are common for decoding LDPC codes. The exchanged messages are in general subject to internal noise in hardware implementation of these decoders. We model the internal decoder noise as additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) degrading exchanged messages. Using Gaussian approximation of the exchanged messages, we perform a two-dimensional density evolution analysis for the noisy LDPC decoder. This makes it possible to track both the mean, and the variance of the exchanged message densities, and hence, to quantify the threshold of the LDPC code in the presence of internal decoder noise. The numerical and simulation results are presented that quantify the performance loss due to the internal decoder noise. To partially compensate this performance loss, we propose a simple method, based on EXIT chart analysis, to design robust irregular LDPC codes. The simulation results indicate that the designed codes can indeed compensate part of the performance loss due to the internal decoder noise.
On Piecewise Affined Large-Signal Modeling of PWM converters

The most common technique for analysis and control of power electronics circuits is switch averaging. The model is not linear however, and often results in a multiplicative term in the state equations. Hence, it is common to perform a small signal linearization of the model about an operating point. Models obtained with such method involve considerable approximation, and produce results that are limited for higher performance designs. In this paper a piecewise affine approximation (PWA) technique is introduced for modeling of switched circuits. Modeling of a DC-DC buck-boost converter is presented as an illustrative example to show the favorable properties and broad utility of this approach. The approximation preserved the stability of the original system.
Research Note: An Evaluation of Juvenile Sexual Offender Treatment

Although interest in the treatment of juvenile sexual offenders has increased significantly in recent years, there are still few programs specifically geared toward these youths and few of the existing programs have been evaluated. This article presents an evaluation of one court-based program. The results show that youths handled in the program fare no better than youths processed through normal, nonoffense specific programming. These results suggest that the growth of interventions has proceeded without adequate knowledge of how to identify at-risk youths, the causes of the behavior, and the most appropriate treatment for juvenile sexual offending.
Mechanical thrombolysis: a new rotational catheter approach for acute thrombi.

We tested a new rotational thrombectomy catheter in acute thrombi formed both in vitro and in vivo. The catheter consisted of a rounded platinum tip, 0.025 inch diameter by 0.08 inch long, attached to a flexible steel guidewire supported by an external sheath. In vitro, the force required to penetrate thrombus was reduced fivefold by rotation of the catheter at 4000 rpm (0.75 +/- 1.2 g rotating vs 3.9 +/- 2.1 g static; p less than .001). Fibrin was extracted selectively from the thrombus and tightly wound about the shaft (3.8 +/- 1.5 mg rotating vs 0.75 +/- 0.4 mg static; p less than .001). In vivo, subtotal or complete thrombosis of the canine femoral artery was created. Thrombectomy by catheter rotation always produced tightly wound adherent fibrin on the catheter shaft. Angiographic patency was restored in 20 of 22 (91%) arteries, totally in seven of 22 (32%) and partially (greater than 20% increase in lumen diameter) in 13 of 22 (59%). There was one arterial perforation (5%). We conclude that this new mechanical catheter device reduces the force required to penetrate thrombus. Additionally, by winding fibrin about its shaft, the catheter is able to selectively remove the fibrin matrix of thrombus. Thus both the ease of initial thrombus recanalization as well as physical removal of thrombus are promoted by this new approach. Such an approach may be relevant to the treatment of recent thrombosis in acute myocardial infarction.
GRASS: the Graz corpus of Read And Spontaneous Speech

This paper provides a description of the preparation, the speakers, the recordings, and the creation of the orthographic transcriptions of the first large scale speech database for Austrian German. It contains approximately 1900 minutes of (read and spontaneous) speech produced by 38 speakers. The corpus consists of three components. First, the Conversation Speech (CS) component contains free conversations of one hour length between friends, colleagues, couples, or family members. Second, the Commands Component (CC) contains commands and keywords which were either read or elicited by pictures. Third, the Read Speech (RS) component contains phonetically balanced sentences and digits. The speech of all components has been recorded at super-wideband quality in a soundproof recording-studio with head-mounted microphones, large-diaphragm microphones, a laryngograph, and with a video camera. The orthographic transcriptions, which have been created and subsequently corrected manually, contain approximately 290 000 word tokens from 15 000 different word types.
Devices and software possibilities for using of motion tracking systems in the virtual reality system

In today's time companies very often need to simulate some natural events such as people walking or moving some things from some place to another. This article is focused on the kind of virtual reality (VR) - MoCap - motion capture. Motion capture is the process of the recording of user's movements and the interpretation of these movements into the movements of digital model. VR is used too in the design process of workplace. Firstly, the workplace is designed and before real building the different conditions are simulated. Result of this simulation by VR is workplace, which makes provision for ergonomic requirements, because the bad designed workplace increases additional costs and assembling time Currently the most companies try to prepare the projects of new products by simulations and analysis and not on assumptions or conjecture.
Contribution of endothelial progenitors and proangiogenic hematopoietic cells to vascularization of tumor and ischemic tissue

Purpose of reviewDuring the last several years, a substantial amount of evidence from animal as well as human studies has advanced our knowledge of how bone marrow derived cells contribute to neoangiogenesis. In the light of recent findings, we may have to redefine our thinking of endothelial cells as well as of perivascular mural cells. Recent findingsInflammatory hematopoietic cells, such as macrophages, have been shown to promote neoangiogenesis during tumor growth and wound healing. Dendritic cells, B lymphocytes, monocytes, and other immune cells have also been found to be recruited to neoangiogenic niches and to support neovessel formation. These findings have led to the concept that subsets of hematopoietic cells comprise proangiogenic cells that drive adult revascularization processes. While evidence of the importance of endothelial progenitor cells in adult vasculogenesis increased further, the role of these comobilized hematopoietic cells has been intensely studied in the last few years. SummaryAngiogenic factors promote mobilization of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1-positive hematopoietic cells through matrix metalloproteinase-9 mediated release of soluble kit-ligand and recruit these proangiogenic cells to areas of hypoxia, where perivascular mural cells present stromal-derived factor 1 (CXCL-12) as an important retention signal. The same factors are possibly involved in mobilization of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2-positive endothelial precursors that may participate in neovessel formation. The complete characterization of mechanisms, mediators and signaling pathways involved in these processes will provide novel targets for both anti and proangiogenic therapeutic strategies.
Generation of high curvature membranes mediated by direct endophilin bilayer interactions

Endophilin 1 is a presynaptically enriched protein which binds the GTPase dynamin and the polyphosphoinositide phosphatase synptojanin. Perturbation of endophilin function in cell-free systems and in a living synapse has implicated endophilin in endocytic vesicle budding (Ringstad, N., H. Gad, P. Low, G. Di Paolo, L. Brodin, O. Shupliakov, and P. De Camilli. 1999. Neuron. 24:143–154; Schmidt, A., M. Wolde, C. Thiele, W. Fest, H. Kratzin, A.V. Podtelejnikov, W. Witke, W.B. Huttner, and H.D. Soling. 1999. Nature. 401:133–141; Gad, H., N. Ringstad, P. Low, O. Kjaerulff, J. Gustafsson, M. Wenk, G. Di Paolo, Y. Nemoto, J. Crun, M.H. Ellisman, et al. 2000. Neuron. 27:301–312). Here, we show that purified endophilin can directly bind and evaginate lipid bilayers into narrow tubules similar in diameter to the neck of a clathrin-coated bud, providing new insight into the mechanisms through which endophilin may participate in membrane deformation and vesicle budding. This property of endophilin is independent of its putative lysophosphatydic acid acyl transferase activity, is mediated by its NH2-terminal region, and requires an amino acid stretch homologous to a corresponding region in amphiphysin, a protein previously shown to have similar effects on lipid bilayers (Takei, K., V.I. Slepnev, V. Haucke, and P. De Camilli. 1999. Nat. Cell Biol. 1:33–39). Endophilin cooligomerizes with dynamin rings on lipid tubules and inhibits dynamin's GTP-dependent vesiculating activity. Endophilin B, a protein with homology to endophilin 1, partially localizes to the Golgi complex and also deforms lipid bilayers into tubules, underscoring a potential role of endophilin family members in diverse tubulovesicular membrane-trafficking events in the cell.
Optimal Placement of Virtual Machines in Mobile Edge Computing

Mobile edge computing (MEC), as an extension of the cloud computing paradigm to the edge network, is a promising solution to provide resource-intensive and time-critical applications to mobile users. It overcomes some obstacles of traditional mobile cloud computing by offering ultra-short latency and less core network traffic. This paper proposes a new framework based on the architecture of MEC to deliver cloud services to the edge. We introduce enumeration based optimal placement algorithm (EOPA) and divide-and- conquer based near-optimal placement algorithm (DCNOPA) to attain minimal data traffic by distributing virtual machine replica copies (VRCs) of applications to the edge network. Simulation results show that compared to the famous K-medians clustering algorithm (KMCA), the performance of DCNOPA is much closer to that of EOPA with lower computational complexity. Furthermore, we investigate the optimal number of VRCs within a given limitation of benefit-to-cost ratio.
Frequency of communication within NPD projects: Implications for key measures of success

The nature of cross-functional relationships during NPD projects has received considerable research attention with an emphasis on achieving successful integration. To achieve this functional integration new product development activities often require functional specialists to communicate with one another to achieve their respective task goals. This study examines the frequency of communication within NPD projects as reported by R&D Manager from 184 Australian NPD projects. We find that informal methods of communication have a positive relationship with three key NPD outcome variables such as perceived relationship effectiveness, interpersonal collaboration and NPD project success. This study provides empirical support for the proposition that while formal communication methods are useful in NPD activities the communication process should not be overly formalized and thus prevent informal communication to occur between managers.
ISCAS at Subtopic Mining Task in NTCIR9

paper, we describe our work at subtopic mining subtask in NTCIR-9 in simplified Chinese. To find possible subtopics of a specific query, we select related queries recorded by query log, or titles of searching results provided by Google and Baidu, or the catalog of corresponding entry in Baidu encyclopedia, which are lexically similar as the original query, then we apply k-means algorithm to cluster these candidate queries with different k (k=5, 10), and rank these queries with consideration of similarities and clusters. Keywordssubtopic mining, query log
Mental motor imagery and chronic pain: The foot laterality task

Abstract Several lines of evidence suggest that mental motor imagery is subserved by the same cognitive operations and brain structures that underlie action. Additionally, motor imagery is informed by the anticipated sensory consequences of action, including pain. We reasoned that motor imagery could provide a useful measure of chronic leg or foot pain. Forty subjects with leg pain (19 bilateral, 11 right, and 10 left leg pain), 42 subjects with chronic pain not involving the legs, and 38 controls were shown 12 different line drawings of the right or left foot and asked to indicate which foot was depicted. Previous work suggests that subjects perform this task by mentally rotating their foot to match the visually presented stimulus. All groups of subjects were slower and less accurate with stimuli that required a greater degree of mental rotation of their foot. Subjects with leg pain were both slower and less accurate than normal and pain control subjects in responding to drawings of a painful extremity. Furthermore, subjects with leg pain exhibited a significantly greater decrement in performance for stimuli that required larger amplitude mental rotations. These data suggest that motor imagery may provide important insights into the nature of the pain experience. (JINS, 2010, 16, 603–612.)
Developing the Travel Career Approach to Tourist Motivation

The purpose of this study lies in the conceptual adjustment of the travel career ladder (TCL) approach to travel motivation. In this context, the study examined the relationship between patterns of travel motivation and travel experience. This research was conducted through two studies: an interview phase to guide the further conceptual development of the travel career approach and a major survey phase for further empirical exploration of the ideas. Overall results suggested that host-site-involvement motivation (e.g., experiencing different cultures) and nature-related motivation (e.g., being close to nature) were more important factors to the more experienced travelers, whereas motivations such as stimulation, personal development, relationship (security), self-actualization, nostalgia, romance, and recognition had a higher priority for the less experienced ones. Importantly, a core of travel motivation factors including escape, relaxation, relationship enhancement, and self-development seem to comprise the central backbone of motivation for all travelers.
Willful Ignorance in a Biased Information World

Suppose individuals face a claim stating they can incur some bene…t by taking a costly action, but individuals are uncertain of the validity of the claim and can only obtain more information from biased sources. In such situations, optimal behavior for expected utility maximizers is to select the source biased toward their current behavior, even if that source is more biased than the alternatively biased one. Moreover, if bias is inevitable, usually a source on one side of the claim will optimally report with high bias, while the
Risk Factors for Violence in Psychosis: Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis of 110 Studies

Background Previous reviews on risk and protective factors for violence in psychosis have produced contrasting findings. There is therefore a need to clarify the direction and strength of association of risk and protective factors for violent outcomes in individuals with psychosis. Method We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis using 6 electronic databases (CINAHL, EBSCO, EMBASE, Global Health, PsycINFO, PUBMED) and Google Scholar. Studies were identified that reported factors associated with violence in adults diagnosed, using DSM or ICD criteria, with schizophrenia and other psychoses. We considered non-English language studies and dissertations. Risk and protective factors were meta-analysed if reported in three or more primary studies. Meta-regression examined sources of heterogeneity. A novel meta-epidemiological approach was used to group similar risk factors into one of 10 domains. Sub-group analyses were then used to investigate whether risk domains differed for studies reporting severe violence (rather than aggression or hostility) and studies based in inpatient (rather than outpatient) settings. Findings There were 110 eligible studies reporting on 45,533 individuals, 8,439 (18.5%) of whom were violent. A total of 39,995 (87.8%) were diagnosed with schizophrenia, 209 (0.4%) were diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and 5,329 (11.8%) were diagnosed with other psychoses. Dynamic (or modifiable) risk factors included hostile behaviour, recent drug misuse, non-adherence with psychological therapies (p values<0.001), higher poor impulse control scores, recent substance misuse, recent alcohol misuse (p values<0.01), and non-adherence with medication (p value <0.05). We also examined a number of static factors, the strongest of which were criminal history factors. When restricting outcomes to severe violence, these associations did not change materially. In studies investigating inpatient violence, associations differed in strength but not direction. Conclusion Certain dynamic risk factors are strongly associated with increased violence risk in individuals with psychosis and their role in risk assessment and management warrants further examination.