Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visualizing distributed data structures

A new programming style for large-scale parallel programs centered around distributed data structures has emerged. The current parallel program visualization tools were intended for the old style and do not deal with distributed data structures. We show, with several examples of visualizations and animations developed for large scale pC++ programs, that visualizing and animating distributed data structures is an important part of debugging and performance tuning for the new style parallel programs. Our approach is based on a new methodology for recording execution behavior that uses I/O abstractions and compile time source analysis and instrumentation. <<ETX>>
Advanced Location Prediction Techniques in Mobile Computing

Context-awareness is viewed as one of the most important aspects in the emerging pervasive computing paradigm. Mobile context-aware applications are required to sense and react to changing environment conditions. Such applications, usually, need to recognize, classify and predict context in order to act efficiently, beforehand, for the benefit of the user. Firstly, we propose an efficient spatial context classifier and a short-term predictor for the future location of a mobile user in cellular networks. Secondly, we propose a novel adaptive mobility prediction algorithm, which deals with location context representation and trajectory prediction of moving users. Thirdly, we propose a short-memory adaptive location predictor that realizes mobility prediction in the absence of extensive historical mobility information. Fourthly, we assume the existence of a pattern base and try to compare the movement pattern of a certain user with stored information in order to predict future locations. Our findings, compared with other schemes, are very promising for the location prediction problem and the adoption of proactive context-aware applications and services.
Folding and Assembly of Type X Collagen Mutants That Cause Metaphyseal Chondrodysplasia-type Schmid

Schmid metaphyseal chondrodysplasia results from mutations within the COOH-terminal globular domain (NC1) of type X collagen, a short chain collagen expressed in the hypertrophic region of the growth plate cartilage. Previous in vitro studies have proposed that mutations prevent the association of the NC1 domain of constituent chains of the trimer based upon a lack of formation of a trimeric structure that is resistant to dissociation with sodium dodecyl sulfate. To examine the effect of mutations on folding and assembly within a cellular context, bovine type X cDNAs containing analogous disease causing mutations Y598D, N617K, W651R, and wild-type were expressed in semi-permeabilized cells. We assessed trimerization of the mutant chains by their ability to form a collagen triple helix. Using this approach, we demonstrate that although there is an apparent lower efficiency of association of the mutant NC1 domains, they can drive the formation of correctly aligned triple helices with the same thermal stability as the wild-type collagen. When epitope-tagged mutant and wild-type collagen were co-expressed, heterotrimers could be detected by sequential immunoprecipitation. Both wild-type and mutant type X chains were found in association with the molecular chaperones protein disulfide isomerase and Hsp 47. The implications of these findings on the likely mechanism of Schmid metaphyseal chondrodysplasia will be discussed.
Interrater and intrarater reliability of the Assisting Hand Assessment.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate interrater and intrarater reliability for the Assisting Hand Assessment. METHOD For interrater reliability, two designs were used: 2 occupational therapists rated the same 18 children, and 20 occupational therapists rated the same 8 children. For intrarater reliability, 20 raters each rated one child twice. Both English and Swedish versions of the instrument were used. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and standard error of measurement (SEM) were calculated. RESULTS ICCs for the sum score for the interrater were 0.98 (two raters) and 0.97 (20 raters) and for the intrarater 0.99. SEM was 1.5 for interrater and 1.2 for the intrarater study, which gave an error interval of +/-3 raw scores for interrater and +/- 2.4 raw scores for intrarater. CONCLUSION This study shows excellent interrater and intrarater reliability for sum scores.
Patched controls the Hedgehog gradient by endocytosis in a dynamin-dependent manner, but this internalization does not play a major role in signal transduction

The Hedgehog (Hh) morphogenetic gradient controls multiple developmental patterning events in Drosophila and vertebrates. Patched (Ptc), the Hh receptor, restrains both Hh spreading and Hh signaling. We report how endocytosis regulates the concentration and activity of Hh in the wing imaginal disc. Our studies show that Ptc limits the Hh gradient by internalizing Hh through endosomes in a dynamin-dependent manner, and that both Hh and Ptc are targeted to lysosomal degradation. We also found that the ptc14 mutant does not block Hh spreading, as it has a failure in endocytosis. However, this mutant protein is able to control the expression of Hh target genes as the wild-type protein, indicating that the internalization mediated by Ptc is not required for signal transduction. In addition, we noted that both in this mutant and in those not producing Ptc protein, Hh still occurred in the endocytic vesicles of Hh-receiving cells, suggesting the existence of a second, Ptc-independent, mechanism of Hh internalization.
Investigation of rotor eddy current losses in fractional slot PM machines with solid rotor back-iron

This work deals with the computation and analysis of the eddy current losses in fractional slot permanent magnet machines with solid back iron. Losses in the magnets and back iron are calculated for different combinations of slots and pole pairs by finite element simulations. From the comparison of the losses, how the losses change with respect to the combination is studied.
Recovering VANET safety messages in transmission holes

The core concern in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is the reliable transfer of safety-related messages to all endangered vehicles on the road. The recent discovery of the presence of transmission holes in the VANET communication range poses a serious challenge in the reliable safety-message dissemination. In this work, a technique for recovering the safety message for vehicles located in transmission holes is proposed. Each vehicle that successfully receives the safety message actively estimates propagation loss for its immediate neighbors. When the receiving vehicle determines a neighbor located in a coverage hole, the safety message is rebroadcast by the receiving vehicle. The propagation-loss estimation makes use of the topology information appended in the periodic beaconing messages. Contention among multiple rebroadcasters is resolved by using the relay schedule mechanism. The proposed technique is evaluated using a detailed implementation in the ns-3 network simulator. The simulation results suggest that the proposed technique guarantees the safety-message dissemination with a minimal overhead delay of five milliseconds even in the dense-urban traffic scenario.
Seneca: remote mirroring done write

Remote mirroring is widely deployed, but its complexities are surprisingly poorly understood. This means that data is less well protected than it ought to be, and possible optimizations are infrequently taken advantage of. To address these difficulties, we (1) demystify the design space by presenting a taxonomy of the approaches in use, (2) describe Seneca – a new asynchronous remote-mirroring protocol that supports write coalescing, asynchronous propagation, and in-order delivery, and (3) report on a performance and correctness validation of Seneca. We are confident that the result is a robust remote-mirroring protocol that provides good performance and predictable behavior in the face of a wide range of failure types, such as rolling disasters.
Students’ Beliefs and Intentions to Play With Peers With Disabilities in Physical Education: Relationships With Achievement and Social Goals

The study investigated beliefs and physical education goals associated with intentions of students without disabilities to play with a hypothetical peer with a physical disability in general physical education (GPE). The Children’s Intentions to Play with Peers with Disabilities in Middle School Physical Education (CBIPPD-MPE), the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Scale-9, and the Social Goal Scale were administered to a convenience sample of 359 participants. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that social goals and task-involved goals significantly contributed (p < .01) to positive behavioral, normative, and control beliefs. In addition, the three beliefs significantly contributed (p < .01) to participants’ intentions. Females had significantly higher intentions, behavioral beliefs, and social goals, whereas males had significantly higher ego-involved goals (p < .05). The findings offer empirical support for consideration of social and achievement goal theories and gender in the CBIPPD-MPE .
A new series of dense graphs of high girth

Let k ≥ 1 be an odd integer, t = b k+2 4 c, and q be a prime power. We construct a bipartite, q–regular, edge–transitive graph CD(k, q) of order v ≤ 2qk−t+1 and girth g ≥ k + 5. If e is the the number of edges of CD(k, q), then e = Ω(v 1 k−t+1 ). These graphs provide the best known asymptotic lower bound for the greatest number of edges in graphs of order v and girth at least g, g ≥ 5, g 6= 11, 12. For g ≥ 24, this represents a slight improvement on bounds established by Margulis and Lubotzky, Phillips, Sarnak; for 5 ≤ g ≤ 23, g 6= 11, 12, it improves on or ties existing bounds.
Effects of ensemble-TCP

TCP currently recalculates the state of each connection from a fixed set of initial parameters; this recalculation occurs over several round trips, during which the connection can be less than efficient. TCP control block sharing is a technique for reusing information among connections in series and aggregating it among connections in parallel. This paper explores the design space of a modified TCP stack that utilizes these two ideas, and one possible design (E-TCP) is presented in detail. E-TCP has been designed so that the network transmission behavior of group of parallel E-TCP connections closely resembles that of a single TCP/Reno connection. Simulated web accesses using HTTP/1.0 over E-TCP show a significant performance improvement compared to TCP/Reno connection bundles. This paper is first to evaluate performance using four different intra-ensemble schedulers for different workloads. In one scenario simulating a common case, E-TCP is 4-75% faster than Reno for transmitting the HTML parts of various pages, and 17-61% faster transmitting the whole pages. In the same scenario, reusing cached state speeds up repeated E-TCP page accesses by 17-53% for the HTML parts and 10-28% for the whole pages, compared to the initial access. E-TCP can also be integrated with other proposed TCP extensions (such as TCP/Vegas or TCP/SACK), to further improve performance.
There and back again: Optimizing the interconnect in networks of memory cubes

High-performance computing, enterprise, and datacenter servers are driving demands for higher total memory capacity as well as memory performance. Memory “cubes” with high per-package capacity (from 3D integration) along with high-speed point-to-point interconnects provide a scalable memory system architecture with the potential to deliver both capacity and performance. Multiple such cubes connected together can form a “Memory Network” (MN), but the design space for such MNs is quite vast, including multiple topology types and multiple memory technologies per memory cube. In this work, we first analyze several MN topologies with different mixes of memory package technologies to understand the key tradeoffs and bottlenecks for such systems. We find that most of a MN's performance challenges arise from the interconnection network that binds the memory cubes together. In particular, arbitration schemes used to route through MNs, ratio of NVM to DRAM, and specific topologies used have dramatic impact on performance and energy results. Our initial analysis indicates that introducing non-volatile memory to the MN presents a unique tradeoff between memory array latency and network latency. We observe that placing NVM cubes in a specific order in the MN improves performance by reducing the network size/diameter up to a certain NVM to DRAM ratio. Novel MN topologies and arbitration schemes also provide performance and energy deltas by reducing the hop count of requests and response in the MN. Based on our analyses, we introduce three techniques to address MN latency issues: (1) Distance-based arbitration scheme to improve queuing latencies throughout the network, (2) skip-list topology, derived from the classic data structure, to improve network latency and link usage, and (3) the MetaCube, a denser memory cube that leverages advanced packaging technologies to improve latency by reducing MN size.
Interference in Ballistic Motor Learning: Specificity and Role of Sensory Error Signals

Humans are capable of learning numerous motor skills, but newly acquired skills may be abolished by subsequent learning. Here we ask what factors determine whether interference occurs in motor learning. We speculated that interference requires competing processes of synaptic plasticity in overlapping circuits and predicted specificity. To test this, subjects learned a ballistic motor task. Interference was observed following subsequent learning of an accuracy-tracking task, but only if the competing task involved the same muscles and movement direction. Interference was not observed from a non-learning task suggesting that interference requires competing learning. Subsequent learning of the competing task 4 h after initial learning did not cause interference suggesting disruption of early motor memory consolidation as one possible mechanism underlying interference. Repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of corticospinal motor output at intensities below movement threshold did not cause interference, whereas suprathreshold rTMS evoking motor responses and (re)afferent activation did. Finally, the experiments revealed that suprathreshold repetitive electrical stimulation of the agonist (but not antagonist) peripheral nerve caused interference. The present study is, to our knowledge, the first to demonstrate that peripheral nerve stimulation may cause interference. The finding underscores the importance of sensory feedback as error signals in motor learning. We conclude that interference requires competing plasticity in overlapping circuits. Interference is remarkably specific for circuits involved in a specific movement and it may relate to sensory error signals.
Acute Induction of Adriamycin‐resistance in Human Colon Carcinoma HT‐29 Cells Exposed to a Sublethal Dose of Adriamycin

To study the mechanisms of the acute induction of drug resistance in cancer cells, we have established a model system in which adriamycin (ADM) induces immediate drug resistance. In this system, human colon carcinoma HT‐29 cells were pretreated for 1 h with a subtoxic dose of ADM (0.3 μg/ml) and incubated for 24 h in drug‐free medium. Then the cells were treated for 1 h with ADM, and the cell survival was determined in terms of colony‐forming ability. The survival of the pretreated cells was increased up to 100‐fold, as compared with that of untreated cells. Such increased survival, however, was observed only after high doses of ADM (2 to 8 μg/ml); more than 99% of the cells were killed. These results indicate that only a small fraction of ADM‐pretreated cells acquire the ADM‐resistant phenotype. Similar induced resistance was observed in five of seven subclones isolated from HT‐29 cells by limiting dilution, suggesting that the majority of cells in the parental HT‐29 population could acquire the ADM‐resistant phenotype. In the subclone HT‐29T9, the ADM pretreatment induced concomitant resistance to daunomycin, VP‐16, and VM‐26 but not to agents other than topoisomerase II inhibitors. The ADM‐induced drug resistance did not accompany MDR1 gene expression and could not be overcome by verapamil, a P‐glycoprotein inhibitor. The present system could be useful to study the acute induction mechanism(s) of ADM‐resistance, which could be relevant to clinical resistance in patients.
The Limits and Frontiers of Desiccation-Tolerant Life1

Abstract Drying to equilibrium with the air is lethal to most species of animals and plants, making drought (i.e., low external water potential) a central problem for terrestrial life and a major cause of agronomic failure and human famine. Surprisingly, a wide taxonomic variety of animals, microbes, and plants do tolerate complete desiccation, defined as water content below 0.1 g H2O g−1 dry mass. Species in five phyla of animals and four divisions of plants contain desiccation-tolerant adults, juveniles, seeds, or spores. There seem to be few inherent limits on desiccation tolerance, since tolerant organisms can survive extremely intense and prolonged desiccation. There seems to be little phylogenetic limitation of tolerance in plants but may be more in animals. Physical constraints may restrict tolerance of animals without rigid skeletons and to plants shorter than 3 m. Physiological constraints on tolerance in plants may include control by hormones with multiple effects that could link tolerance to slow growth. Tolerance tends to be lower in organisms from wetter habitats, and there may be selection against tolerance when water availability is high. Our current knowledge of limits to tolerance suggests that they pose few obstacles to engineering tolerance in prokaryotes and in isolated cells and tissues, and there has already been much success on this scientific frontier of desiccation tolerance. However, physical and physiological constraints and perhaps other limits may explain the lack of success in extending tolerance to whole, desiccation-sensitive, multicellular animals and plants. Deeper understanding of the limits to desiccation tolerance in living things may be needed to cross this next frontier.
Ensemble learning and hierarchical data representation for microarray classification

The microarray data classification is an open and active research field. The development of more accurate algorithms is of great interest and many of the developed techniques can be straightforwardly applied in analyzing different kinds of omics data. In this work, an ensemble learning algorithm is applied within a classification framework that already got good predictive results. Ensemble techniques take individual experts, (i.e. classifiers), to combine them to improve the individual expert results with a voting scheme. In this case, a thinning algorithm is proposed which starts by using all the available experts and removes them one by one focusing on improving the ensemble vote. Two versions of a state of the art ensemble thinning algorithm have been tested and three key elements have been introduced to work with microarray data: the ensemble cohort definition, the nonexpert notion, which defines a set of excluded expert from the thinning process, and a rule to break ties in the thinning process. Experiments have been done on seven public datasets from the Microarray Quality Control study, MAQC. The proposed key elements have shown to be useful for the prediction performance and the studied ensemble technique shown to improve the state of the art results by producing classifiers with better predictions.
Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks: Byzantines and Mitigation Techniques

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are vulnerable to Byzantine attacks in which malicious sensors send falsified information to the Fusion Center (FC) with the goal of degrading inference performance. In this paper, we consider Byzantine attacks for the location estimation task in WSNs using binary quantized data. Posterior Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (PCRLB) is used to characterize the performance of the network. Two kinds of attack strategies are considered: Independent and Collaborative attacks. We determine the fraction of Byzantine attackers in the network that make the FC incapable of utilizing sensor information to estimate the target location. Optimal attacking strategies for given attacking resources are also derived. Furthermore, we propose two schemes for the mitigation of Byzantine attacks. The first scheme is based on a Byzantine Identification method under the assumption of identical local quantizers. We show with simulations that the proposed scheme identifies most of the Byzantines. In order to improve the performance, we propose a second scheme in conjunction with our identification scheme where dynamic non-identical threshold quantizers are used at the sensors. We show that it not only reduces the location estimation error but also makes the Byzantines `ineffective' in their attack strategy.
El cuestionario de valores de Schwartz (CVS): propuesta de adaptación en el formato de respuesta Schwartz Value Survey (SVS): Adaptation of its response format

ResumenEl objetivo de este estudio fue comprobar la posibilidad de simplificar el formato de contestacion del Cuestionario de Valores de Schwartz (CVS), en su adaptacion espanola (Ros y Grad, 1991). Una muestra de 176 universitarios ha sido considerada, siendo la mayoria mujeres y solteros; estos contestaron dos versiones del CVS: la original y la adaptada, y una escala sobre individualismo-colectivismo (Singelis y colsi., 1995). Cuando se comparan las dos versiones en funcion de los supuestos teoricos, los datos apoyan la adecuacion de la version alternativa. Asimismo son equivalentes respecto de un criterio externo: la religiosidad. Se recomienda el uso de la version alternativa, aunque se realizan algunas puntualizaciones.
Isolation of diesel degrading bacteria, identification of Catechol gene and its biogas production

Microorganisms are the important factors in the degradation of the toxic substances in our environment. Diesel oil is one of the complex mixtures which cannot be easily degraded. Many microorganisms are involved in the degradation of diesel like complex toxic substances into non toxic. In our study we have identified nine different isolates from the diesel polluted. The identified isolates were morphologically and biochemically characterized. The identified isolates were morphologically and biochemically characterized. Then the colonies were grown in the Bushnell Haas medium to identify the degradation capacity of an organism by zone formation. The isolates with a High zone of clearance were 16s rRNA sequenced by using specific primers and identified has Pseudomonas stutzeri. The ability of these isolates to degrade hydrocarbons is clear evidence that their genome harbors the relevant degrading gene. These bacteria were screened for the presence of hydrocarbon degrading gene catechol 2, 3 dioxygenase gene, PCR amplification of a gene using specific primers. High diesel degrading potential organism was treated for biogas production with cow dung as substrate. In which the Pseudomonas stutzeri treated biogas digester showed better production of methane comparing to the other organism.