Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the viability of remote renewable energy in datacentre computing

We investigate the feasibility of loosely-coupled distributed datacentre architectures colocated with and powered by renewable energy sources and interconnected using high-bandwidth low-latency data links. The design of these architectures advocates (i) variable machine availability: the number of machines accessible at a particular site at any given time is proportional to the amount of renewable energy available and (ii) workload deferment and migration: if there is insufficient site capacity, workloads are either halted or shifted to transient energy-rich locations. While these architectures are attractive from an environmental perspective, their feasibility depends on (i) the requirement for additional hardware, (ii) the associated service interruptions, and (iii) the data and energy overhead of workload migration. In this work we attempt to broadly quantify these overheads. We define a model of the basic design of the architecture incorporating the energy consumption of machines in the datacentre and the network. We further correlate this energy consumption with renewable energy available at different locations around the globe. Given this model we present two simulation-driven case studies based on data from Google and Facebook production clusters. Generally we provide insights on the trade-offs associated with this off-grid architecture. For example, we show that an optimised configuration consisting of ten distributed datacentres results in a 2% increase in job completion time at the cost of a 50% increase in the number of machines required.
Ethyl Pyruvate Prevents Methyglyoxal-Induced Retinal Vascular Injury in Rats

Pyruvate is an endogenous antioxidant substance. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of ethyl pyruvate (EP) on retinal vascular injury in diabetic retinopathy. To investigate the protective effect of EP on vascular cell apoptosis and blood-retinal barrier (BRB) breakage, we have used intravitreally methylglyoxal-(MGO-) injected rat eyes. Apoptosis of the retinal vascular cell that was stimulated by the intravitreal injection of MGO was evidently attenuated by the EP treatment. EP exerts inhibitory effect on MGO-induced vascular cell apoptosis by blocking oxidative injury. In addition, EP treatment prevented MGO-induced BRB breakage and the degradation of occludin, an important tight junction protein. These observations suggest that EP acts through an antioxidant mechanism to protect against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis in retinal vessels.
Performance-driven task co-scheduling for MapReduce environments

MapReduce is a data-driven programming model proposed by Google in 2004 which is especially well suited for distributed data analytics applications. We consider the management of MapReduce applications in an environment where multiple applications share the same physical resources. Such sharing is in line with recent trends in data center management which aim to consolidate workloads in order to achieve cost and energy savings. In a shared environment, it is necessary to predict and manage the performance of workloads given a set of performance goals defined for them. In this paper, we address this problem by introducing a new task scheduler for a MapReduce framework that allows performance-driven management of MapReduce tasks. The proposed task scheduler dynamically predicts the performance of concurrent MapReduce jobs and adjusts the resource allocation for the jobs. It allows applications to meet their performance objectives without over-provisioning of physical resources.
Networking Strategies in Streptomyces Coelicolor

We are interested the soil dwelling bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor because its cells grow end to end in a line. New branches have the potential to extend from any point along this line and the result is a network of branches and connections. This is a novel form of colonisation in the bacterial world and it is advantageous for spreading through an environment resourcefully. Networking protocols for communication technologies have similar pressures to be resourceful in terms of time, computing power, and energy. In this preliminary investigation we design a computer model of the biological system to understand its limitations and strategies for survival. The decentralised capacity for organisation of both the bacterial system and the model reflects well on the now-popular conventions for path finding and ad hoc network building in human technologies. The project will ultimately become a comparison of strategies between nature and the man-made.
Gender Recognition in Non Controlled Environments

In most of the automatic face classification applications, images should be captured in natural environments, where partial occlusions or high local changes in the illumination are frequent. For this reason, face classification tasks in uncontrolled environment are still nowadays unsolved problems, given that the loss of information caused by these artifacts can easily mislead any classifier. We present in this paper a system to extract robust face features that can be applied to encode information from any zone of the face and that can be used for different face classification problems. To test this method we include the results obtained in different gender classification experiments, considering controlled and uncontrolled environments and extracting face features from internal and external face zones. The obtained rates show, on the one hand, that we can obtain significant information applying the presented feature extraction scheme and, on the other hand, that the external face zone can contribute useful information for classification purposes
Syntrophomonadaceae-Affiliated Species as Active Butyrate-Utilizing Syntrophs in Paddy Field Soil

ABSTRACT DNA-based stable-isotope probing was applied to identify the active microorganisms involved in syntrophic butyrate oxidation in paddy field soil. After 14 and 21 days of incubation with [U-13C]butyrate, the bacterial Syntrophomonadaceae and the archaeal Methanosarcinaceae and Methanocellales incorporated substantial amounts of 13C label into their nucleic acids. Unexpectedly, members of the Planctomycetes and Chloroflexi were also labeled with 13C by yet-unclear mechanisms.
The Role of Bioactive Lipids in Stem Cell Mobilization and Homing: Novel Therapeutics for Myocardial Ischemia

Despite significant advances in medical therapy and interventional strategies, the prognosis of millions of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) remains poor. Currently, short of heart transplantation with all of its inherit limitations, there are no available treatment strategies that replace the infarcted myocardium. It is now well established that cardiomyocytes undergo continuous renewal, with contribution from bone marrow (BM)-derived stem/progenitor cells (SPCs). This phenomenon is upregulated during AMI by initiating multiple innate reparatory mechanisms through which BMSPCs are mobilized towards the ischemic myocardium and contribute to myocardial regeneration. While a role for the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis in retention of BMSPCs in bone marrow is undisputed, its exclusive role in their mobilization and homing to a highly proteolytic microenvironment, such as the ischemic/infarcted myocardium, is currently being challenged. Recent evidence suggests a pivotal role for bioactive lipids in the mobilization of BMSPCs at the early stages following AMI and their homing towards ischemic myocardium. This review highlights the recent advances in our understanding of the mechanisms of stem cell mobilization, provides newer evidence implicating bioactive lipids in BMSPC mobilization and differentiation, and discusses their potential as therapeutic agents in the treatment of IHD.
Development of reticulospinal neurons of the zebrafish. II. Early axonal outgrowth and cell body position

The sequence of axonal outgrowth and the early cell body positions of identifiable types of reticulospinal (RS) neurons of the zebrafish (Brachydanio rerio) were determined in order to learn if differences in neuronal characterstics among specific cell types correlate with differences in the times at which the cells develop. The time of axonal outgrowth and the location of the cells in the developing embryo were determined by filling RS neurons retrogradely with horseradish peroxidase from their growing axons over a series of developmental stages.
A new batch calorimeter for aerobic growth studies

A microcalorimeter for aerobic growth studies, derived from a Tian Calvet differential apparatus, was successfully constructed. The calorimetric vessel was a short cylinder, which permitted a good exchange between the surface area and the gas phase. The time constant of the calorimeter was 3.6 min and the sensitivity 234 V/W. The thermochemical aspect of the aerobic growth of Escherichia coli on succinate, acetate, and glucose was investigated. This analysis revealed that the contribution of biosynthetic reactions varied with the substrate used and strongly influenced the heat evolution. The experimental metabolic enthalpy change was in good agreement with the predicted value for succinate and glucose growth. To explain the discrepancy between the two values observed for acetate growth we suggest that acetate metabolism may generate a by‐product which was not further oxidized.
[Questionnaire-based survey of allergic diseases among children aged 0 - 14 years in the downtown of Beijing, Chongqing and Guangzhou].

OBJECTIVE In recent years, the incidence of allergic diseases in China is increasing. With serious influence on the patients' quality of life and even life-threatening, now allergic diseases have become an important public health problem in our country. This survey aimed to obtain a general epidemic outline of children's major allergic diseases, i.e., childhood asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema in the downtown of Beijing, Chongqing and Guangzhou. METHOD Childhood asthma questionnaire was established by Delphi method based on guidelines for childhood asthma diagnosis and prevention made by Chinese medical association in 2008 with reference to the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire (ISAAC). This study was carried out from Oct. 2008-Mar. 2009, in Beijing, Chongqing and Guangzhou by a multi-stage sampling method, covering a sample of 24 290 children aged 0 - 14 years by a multi-stage sampling method, the population of children surveyed in the downtown of Beijing Chongqing and Guangzhou was 10 372, 9874 and 4072 respectively; of whom males were 5545, 5258, 2159, and females were 4917, 4588, 1877; the ratio of males to females in the three cities were 1.11:1, 1.15:1, 1.15:1; the average age of surveyed children were 7.63, 8.74 and 8.30 years old. All the questionnaire was filled in by the parents of children or other guardian of children. RESULT The self-reported prevalence of asthma in Beijing, Chongqing and Guangzhou was 3.15%, 7.45%, 2.09%, the self-reported prevalence of allergic rhinitis was 14.46%, 20.42%, 7.83%, and the prevalence of eczema was 20.64%, 10.02%, 7.22%. In the survey, asthma combined with allergic rhinitis had the highest rate, 49.54%, 50.14%, 34.83%, respectively in the 3 cities. The self-reported prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis was significantly higher in male than female. Besides, the self-reported prevalences of asthma and allergic rhinitis were relatively lower in children under 1 year and over 10 years of age. CONCLUSION The prevalence of asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema and other allergic diseases in children 0 - 14 years of age in the three cities gradually increased, and the prevalence of allergic diseases in Chongqing was relatively higher.
An Exploratory Study on Facial Emotion Recognition Capacity in Beginning Alzheimer’s Disease

Objective: It was the aim of this study to investigate facial emotion recognition (FER) in the elderly with cognitive impairment. Method: Twelve patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 12 healthy control subjects were asked to name dynamic or static pictures of basic facial emotions using the Multimodal Emotion Recognition Test and to assess the degree of their difficulty in the recognition task, while their electrodermal conductance was registered as an unconscious processing measure. Results: AD patients had lower objective recognition performances for disgust and fear, but only disgust was accompanied by decreased subjective FER in AD patients. The electrodermal response was similar in all groups. No significant effect of dynamic versus static emotion presentation on FER was found. Conclusion: Selective impairment in recognizing facial expressions of disgust and fear may indicate a nonlinear decline in FER capacity with increasing cognitive impairment and result from progressive though specific damage to neural structures engaged in emotional processing and facial emotion identification. Although our results suggest unchanged unconscious FER processing with increasing cognitive impairment, further investigations on unconscious FER and self-awareness of FER capacity in neurodegenerative disorders are required.
A competitive Gaussian model and linear regression technique for modeling MST neuron receptive field responses for primate perception of self-motion

A Competitive Gaussian Model and Linear Regression Technique for Modeling MST Neuron Receptive Field Responses for Primate Perception of Self-Motion Jeffrey Robble, M.S. Rochester Institute of Technology, 2010 Supervisor: Dr. Roger Gaborski This thesis presents a linear regression technique applied to non-linear features extracted from a scaled Gaussian mixture model (SGMM) to describe the receptive field (RF) behavior of neurons in the Medial Superior Temporal region of the brain of Rhesus monkeys which viewed visual stimuli on a projector screen. The stimuli consist of simple and complex combinations of planar, circular, and radial motion and neuron responses were recorded in spikes/second. It is our goal to understand the neuronal responses of the primates to these stimuli and to create a model capable of predicting how the RFs in the primates’ neurons respond to novel stimuli simulating the effects of selfmotion. The SGMM is trained in stages using a competitive algorithm where a speciated genetic algorithm competes against a custom greedy algorithm.
Nanowatt-Scale Power Management for On-Chip Photovoltaic Energy Harvesting Beacons

A power-management architecture is presented for bulk-CMOS indoor beacons powered by on-chip photovoltaic energy conversion and storage. The extremely restrictive power and form-factor constraints of indoor operation are met by adopting an asynchronous transmit-only functionality, a distributed power-supply network of dual-supply converters, and a minimalist approach at the topological level of design. Architectural functionality is demonstrated on a radio-frequency identification tag application integrated in a 0.18- μm CMOS technology with deep n-well option. Load voltage is boosted to 1.9 V, stored across a 240-pF on-chip capacitor, and let drop by 0.6 V to release 230-pJ energy for transmitting a 16-bit codeword in each beacon interval. The measured value of beacon interval is 2.7 s at the lower limit 20 μW/cm2 of indoor irradiance, and 25.6 ms at the higher limit 2 mW/cm2. The electrical power consumed in the entire system varies from less than 2 nW to 250 nW between these limits. Duty cycle of transmission is relatively insensitive to irradiance, and remains below 0.2% over the entire range. Storage-capacitor and converter footprints are 0.07 mm2 and 0.35 mm2, respectively. Upgrading to 64-b codeword and 920-nJ transmission energy quadruples the footprint of the capacitor and triples that of the converters.
Fronto-temporal interactions are functionally relevant for semantic control in language processing

Semantic cognition, i.e. processing of meaning is based on semantic representations and their controlled retrieval. Semantic control has been shown to be implemented in a network that consists of left inferior frontal (IFG), and anterior and posterior middle temporal gyri (a/pMTG). We aimed to disrupt semantic control processes with continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over left IFG and pMTG and to study whether behavioral effects are moderated by induced alterations in resting-state functional connectivity. To this end, we applied real cTBS over left IFG and left pMTG as well as sham stimulation on 20 healthy participants in a within-subject design. Stimulation was followed by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and a semantic priming paradigm. Resting-state functional connectivity of regions of interest in left IFG, pMTG and aMTG revealed highly interconnected left-lateralized fronto-temporal networks representing the semantic system. We did not find any significant direct modulation of either task performance or resting-state functional connectivity by effective cTBS. However, after sham cTBS, functional connectivity between IFG and pMTG correlated with task performance under high semantic control demands in the semantic priming paradigm. These findings provide evidence for the functional relevance of interactions between IFG and pMTG for semantic control processes. This interaction was functionally less relevant after cTBS over aIFG which might be interpretable in terms of an indirect disruptive effect of cTBS.
Query Processing Strategies for Location-Dependent Information Systems

The demand of mobile Location Dependent Information Services (LDIS) has fueled in recent years. However, the request of a correct answer in a mobile environment needs to have more attention. This is due to the scope of query based on a location of users. In this article, we propose a new approach to generate a query result for Location-Dependent Information Services. It argues that choosing a square as a scope brings a bigger chance to get rare targets. In addition, avoiding resubmitting the same queries when the query results missed reduces bandwidth at server and client sides. Some different situation examples and evaluations show the efficiency of our proposed algorithm. The aim of our approach is to reduce a continuous query submission, speed up the processing time, and reduce the server load while a server is processing a user query.
The biology of chronic myeloid leukemia.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative expansion of transformed, primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells. It involves myeloid, monocytic, erythroid, megakaryocytic, B-lymphoid, and occasionally T-lymphoid lineages.1 CML was the first human disease in which a specific abnormality of the karyotype — the Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome — could be linked to pathogenetic events of leukemogenesis.2 It was among the first neoplastic diseases in which therapy with a biologic agent (interferon) was found to suppress the leukemic clone and prolong survival.3 Although heterogeneous, CML is the best-characterized leukemia at a molecular level, and studies in recent years have helped to define further .
Possibilistic mean-variance utility to portfolio selection for bounded assets

Compared with the conventional probabilistic mean-variance methodology, fuzzy number can better describe an uncertain environment with vagueness and ambiguity. Based on this fact, possibilistic mean-variance utilities to portfolio selection for bounded assets are discussed in this paper. The possibilistic mean value of the expected return is termed measure of investment return and the possibilistic variance of the expected return is termed measure of investment risk. Moreover, we propose three kinds of optimization portfolio selection models under assumption each investor’s utility is the mean-variance type function: (I) a quadratic programming model for upper possibilistic mean-variance utility; (II) a quadratic programming model for lower possibilistic mean-variance utility; and (III) a quadratic programming model with a parameter for weighted upper and lower mean-variance utility. Finally, a numerical example of the portfolio selection problem is given to illustrate our proposed effective upper and lower possibilistic means, variances and approaches, which can be regarded as a natural extension of Carlsson et al.(2002) (possibilistic mean-variance utility to portfolio selection without bounded assets).
Designing Insurance to Promote Use of Childhood Obesity Prevention Services

Childhood obesity is a recognized public health crisis. This paper reviews the lessons learned from a voluntary initiative to expand insurance coverage for childhood obesity prevention and treatment services in the United States. In-depth telephone interviews were conducted with key informants from 16 participating health plans and employers in 2010-11. Key informants reported difficulty ensuring that both providers and families were aware of the available services. Participating health plans and employers are beginning new tactics including removing enrollment requirements, piloting enhanced outreach to selected physician practices, and educating providers on effective care coordination and use of obesity-specific billing codes through professional organizations. The voluntary initiative successfully increased private health insurance coverage for obesity services, but the interviews described variability in implementation with both best practices and barriers identified. Increasing utilization of obesity-related health services in the long term will require both family- and provider-focused interventions in partnership with improved health insurance coverage.
Should We Abolish Chapter 11? Evidence from Canada

Chapter 11 has been severely criticized over the last decade. Some American jurists arguing in favor of revising Chapter 11 have raised the possibility that the Canadian reorganization system might be a good alternative. This article examines data on firms undergoing reorganization under the Canadian bankruptcy system and argues that there are fruitful lessons to be learned from the Canadian experience with court‐supervised reorganization. Canadian reorganization plans have very high rates of acceptance, confirmation, and consummation. Firms in Canada are almost eight times more likely to survive reorganization than are firms in Chapter 11. Further, small firms are just as likely as large firms are to emerge from reorganization in Canada, contrary to experience in the United States. The data also show that Canadian reorganization procedure offers a very rapid solution to financial distress and that creditors gain, in expected value terms, from reorganization over liquidation. We use our analysis of the relative performance of the two systems to suggest some avenues for reform of Chapter 11.