Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Locality approximation using time

Reuse distance (i.e. LRU stack distance) precisely characterizes program locality and has been a basic tool for memory system research since the 1970s. However, the high cost of measuring has restricted its practical uses in performance debugging, locality analysis and optimizations of long-running applications.In this work, we improve the efficiency by exploring the connection between time and locality. We propose a statistical model that converts cheaply obtained time distance to the more costly reuse distance. Compared to the state-of-the-art technique, this approach reduces measuring time by a factor of 17, and approximates cache line reuses with over 99% accuracy and the cache miss rate with less than 0.4% average error for 12 SPEC 2000 integer and floating-point benchmarks. By exploiting the strong correlations between time and locality, this work makes precise locality as easy to obtain as data access frequency, and opens new opportunities for program optimizations.
The Effects of Dimensionality Curse in High Dimensional kNN Search

The dimensionality curse phenomenon states that in high dimensional spaces distances between nearest and farthest points from query points become almost equal. Therefore, nearest neighbor calculations cannot discriminate candidate points. Many indexing methods that try to cope with the dimensionality curse in high dimensional spaces have been proposed, but, usually these methods end up behaving like the sequential scan over the database in terms of accessed pages when queries like k-Nearest Neighbors are examined. In this paper, we experiment with state of the art multi-attribute indexing methods and try to investigate when these methods reach their limits, namely, at what dimensionality a kNN query requires visiting all the data pages. In our experiments we compare the Hybrid Tree, the R*-tree, and, the iDistance Method.
Declarative, sliding window aggregations for computations at the edge

We present a work in progress report on a new programming model that supports declarative, functional style aggregation operations over devices at the edge. This programming model bridges the gap between the two competing approaches for large-scale aggregations, streaming all data back to a central coordinator versus designing an optimized, distributed algorithm, by leveraging convergent data structures, dynamic scoping, and a declarative functional semantics implemented by a distributed runtime. We motivate our design with an industrial application susceptible to message reordering and arbitrary message delays on an unreliable network.
EFNS guideline on the treatment of cerebral venous and sinus thrombosis

Cerebral venous and sinus thrombosis (CVST) is a rather rare disease which accounts for <1% of all strokes. Diagnosis is still frequently overlooked or delayed due to the wide spectrum of clinical symptoms and the often subacute or lingering onset. Current therapeutic measures which are used in clinical practice include the use of anticoagulants such as dose‐adjusted intravenous heparin or body weight‐adjusted subcutaneous low‐molecular‐weight heparin (LMWH), the use of thrombolysis, and symptomatic therapy including control of seizures and elevated intracranial pressure. We searched MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and the Cochrane Library to review the strength of evidence to support these interventions and the preparation of recommendations on the therapy of CVST based on the best available evidence. Review articles and book chapters were also included. Recommendations were reached by consensus. Where there was a lack of evidence, but consensus was clear we stated our opinion as good practice points. Patients with CVST without contraindications for anticoagulation should be treated either with body weight‐adjusted subcutaneous LMWH or dose‐adjusted intravenous heparin (good practice point). Concomitant intracranial haemorrhage related to CVST is not a contraindication for heparin therapy. The optimal duration of oral anticoagulation after the acute phase is unclear. Oral anticoagulation may be given for 3 months if CVST was secondary to a transient risk factor, for 6–12 months in patients with idiopathic CVST and in those with ‘mild’ hereditary thrombophilia. Indefinite anticoagulation (AC) should be considered in patients with two or more episodes of CVST and in those with one episode of CVST and ‘severe’ hereditary thrombophilia (good practice point). There is insufficient evidence to support the use of either systemic or local thrombolysis in patients with CVST. If patients deteriorate despite adequate anticoagulation and other causes of deterioration have been ruled out, thrombolysis may be a therapeutic option in selected cases, possibly in those without intracranial haemorrhage (good practice point). There are no controlled data about the risks and benefits of certain therapeutic measures to reduce an elevated intracranial pressure (with brain displacement) in patients with severe CVST. Antioedema treatment (including hyperventilation, osmotic diuretics and craniectomy) should be used as life saving interventions (good practice point).
Analysis of the PINK1 gene in a large cohort of cases with Parkinson disease.

BACKGROUND Mutations in the PTEN-induced kinase (PINK1) gene located within the PARK6 locus on chromosome 1p35-p36 have recently been identified in patients with recessive early-onset Parkinson disease. OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence of PINK1 mutations within a series of early- and late-onset Parkinson disease patients living in North America. DESIGN All coding exons of the PINK1 gene were sequenced in a series of 289 Parkinson disease patients and 80 neurologically normal control subjects; the mutation frequencies were evaluated in additional controls (100 white and 50 Filipino subjects). RESULTS We identified 27 variants, including the first reported compound heterozygous mutation (Glu240Lys and Leu489Pro) and a homozygous Leu347Pro mutation in 2 unrelated young-onset Parkinson disease patients. CONCLUSION Autosomal recessive mutations in PINK1 are a rare cause of young-onset Parkinson disease.
Comparing Interpersonal Interactions with a Virtual Human to Those with a Real Human

This paper provides key insights into the construction and evaluation of interpersonal simulators¿systems that enable interpersonal interaction with virtual humans. Using an interpersonal simulator, two studies were conducted that compare interactions with a virtual human to interactions with a similar real human. The specific interpersonal scenario employed was that of a medical interview. Medical students interacted with either a virtual human simulating appendicitis or a real human pretending to have the same symptoms. In Study I (n = 24), medical students elicited the same information from the virtual and real human, indicating that the content of the virtual and real interactions were similar. However, participants appeared less engaged and insincere with the virtual human. These behavioral differences likely stemmed from the virtual human's limited expressive behavior. Study II (n = 58) explored participant behavior using new measures. Nonverbal behavior appeared to communicate lower interest and a poorer attitude toward the virtual human. Some subjective measures of participant behavior yielded contradictory results, highlighting the need for objective, physically-based measures in future studies.
LncRNA GAS5 is a critical regulator of metastasis phenotype of melanoma cells and inhibits tumor growth in vivo

The present study intended to demonstrate the effects of long noncoding RNA growth arrest-specific transcript 5 (GAS5) on the migration and invasion of melanoma cells. We first detected the expression of GAS5 among four kinds of melanoma cell lines, followed by constructing GAS5-knocked down and overexpressed stable cells. Next, we evaluated the effects of GAS5 on cell migration and invasion using wound healing and gelatin zymography assays. Finally, melanoma cells with different GAS5 expression were injected into nude mice, and the tumor volumes were recorded and tumor tissues were analyzed after sacrificing the mice. This study systematically examined the function of GAS5 in mediating melanoma metastasis and revealed that GAS5 plays an anticancer role in melanoma via regulating gelatinase A and B, both in vitro and in vivo.
Temperature-Dependent Thermal Conductivity of Single-Crystal Silicon Layers in SOI Substrates

Self heating diminishes the reliability of SOI transistors, particularly those that must withstand electrostatic discharge (ESD) pulses. This problem is alleviated in part by lateral thermal conduction in the silicon device layer, whose thermal conductivity is not known. The present work develops a technique for measuring this property and provides data for layers in wafers fabricated using bond-and-etch-back (BESOI) technology. The room-temperature thermal conductivity data decrease with decreasing layer thickness, ds, to a value nearly 40 percent less than that of bulk silicon for ds = 0.42 μm. The agreement of the data with the predictions of phonon transport analysis between 20 and 300 K strongly indicates that phonon scattering on layer boundaries is responsible for a large part of the reduction. The reduction is also due in part to concentrations of imperfections larger than those in bulk samples, which results from the BESOI wafer fabrication process. The data show that the buried oxide in BESOI wafers has a thermal conductivity that is nearly equal to that of bulk fused quartz. The data provided here will lead to more accurate thermal simulations of SOI transistors and cantilever MEMS structures.
Screening for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in hospital patients and their healthcare worker and family contacts: a prospective descriptive study

Abstract The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health implemented a pro-active surveillance programme for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus (MERS-CoV). We report MERS-CoV data from 5065 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia individuals who were screened for MERS-CoV over a 12-month period. From 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2013, demographic and clinical data were prospectively collected from all laboratory forms received at the Saudi Arabian Virology reference laboratory. Data were analysed by referral type, age, gender, and MERS-CoV real-time PCR test results. Five thousand and 65 individuals were screened for MER-CoV: hospitalized patients with suspected MERS-CoV infection (n = 2908, 57.4%), healthcare worker (HCW) contacts (n = 1695; 33.5%), and family contacts of laboratory-confirmed MERS cases (n = 462; 9.1%). Eleven per cent of persons tested were children (<17 years of age). There were 108 cases (99 adults and nine children) of MERS-CoV infection detected during the 12-month period (108/5065, 2% case detection rate). Of 108 cases, 45 were females (six children and 39 adults) and 63 were males (three children and 60 adults). Of the 99 adults with MERS-CoV infection, 70 were hospitalized patients, 19 were HCW contacts, and ten were family contacts. There were no significant increases in MERS-CoV detection rates over the 12-month period: 2.6% (19/731) in July 2013, 1.7% (19/1100) in August 2013, and 1.69% (21/1238) in September 2013. Male patients had a significantly higher MERS-CoV infection rate (63/2318, 2.7%) than females (45/2747, 1.6%) (p 0.013). MERS-CoV rates remain at low levels, with no significant increase over time. Pro-active surveillance for MERS-CoV in newly diagnosed patients and their contacts will continue.
A indução afetiva em cenários de realidade virtual: avaliação da sensação de presença induction affective scenarios virtual reality: assessMent of the sensation of presence inducción afectiva en escenarios de realidad virtual: evaluación de la sensación de presencia

A Realidade Virtual (RV) tem sido utilizada na inducao de emocoes asso-ciadas a respostas emocionais de maior validade ecologica. A presenca, enquanto experiencia de “estar la”, num determinado ambiente mediado, tornou-se inti-mamente associada a RV. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo verificar se a visualizacao dos Cenarios de Inducao Afetiva 3D induz uma maior sensacao de presenca comparativamente aos seus homologos apresentados com a tecnologia 2D. Apresentamos a 30 participantes saudaveis os Cenarios de Inducao Afeti-va 3D em ambas as modalidades de visualizacao (2D 3D), simultaneamente
Automatic creation of a technical trend map from research papers and patents

For a researcher in a field of great industrial relevance, retrieving and analyzing research papers and patents has become an important aspect of assessing the scope of the field. We propose a method for creating a technical trend map automatically from both research papers and patents. For the construction of the technical trend map, we focus on the elemental (underlying) technologies used in a particular field, and their effects. Knowledge of the history and effects of the elemental technologies used in a particular field is essential for grasping the outline of technical trends in the field. Therefore, we have constructed a method that can recognize the application of elemental technologies and their effects in any research field. To investigate the effectiveness of our method, we conducted an experiment using the data in the NTCIR-8 Patent Mining Task. From our experimental results, we obtained Recall and Precision scores of 0.160 and 0.491, respectively, for the analysis of research papers. We also obtained Recall and Precision scores of 0.431 and 0.545, respectively, for the analysis of patents. Finally, we have constructed a system that creates an effective technical trend map for a given field.
X-ray hiccups from Sagittarius A* observed by XMM-Newton - The second brightest flare and three moderate flares caught in half a day

Context. Our Galaxy hosts at its dynamical center Sgr A*, the closest supermassive black hole. Surprisingly, its luminosity is several orders of magnitude lower than the Eddington luminosity. However, the recent observations of occasional rapid X-ray flares from Sgr A* provide constraints on the accretion and radiation mechanisms at work close to its event horizon. Aims. Our aim is to investigate the flaring activity of Sgr A* and to constrain the physical properties of the X-ray flares. Methods. In Spring 2007, we observed Sgr A* with XMM-Newton with a total exposure of ~230 ks. We have performed timing and spectral analysis of the new X-ray flares detected during this campaign. To study the range of flare spectral properties, in a consistent manner, we have also reprocessed, using the same analysis procedure and the latest calibration, archived XMM-Newton data of previously reported rapid flares. The dust scattering was taken into account during the spectral fitting. We also used Chandra archived observations of the quiescent state of Sgr A* for comparison. Results. On April 4, 2007, we observed for the first time within a time interval of roughly half a day, an enhanced incidence rate of X-ray flaring, with a bright flare followed by three flares of more moderate amplitude. The former event represents the second brightest X-ray flare from Sgr A* on record with a peak amplitude of about 100 above the quiescent luminosity. This new bright flare exhibits similar light-curve shape (nearly symmetrical), duration (~3 ks) and spectral characteristics to the very bright flare observed in October 3, 2002 by XMM-Newton. The measured spectral parameters of the new bright flare, assuming an absorbed power law model taken into account dust scattering effect, are N H = $12.3^{+2.1}_{-1.8}\times 10^{22}$ cm -2 and Γ = 2.3 ± 0.3 calculated at the 90% confidence level. The spectral parameter fits of the sum of the three following moderate flares, while lower ( N H = $8.8^{+4.4}_{-3.2} \times 10^{22}$ cm -2 and $\Gamma = 1.7^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$), are compatible within the error bars with those of the bright flares. The column density found, for a power-law model taking into account the dust scattering, during the flares is at least two times higher than the value expected from the (dust) visual extinction toward Sgr A* ( A V ~ 25 mag), i.e., 4.5 $\times$ 10 22 cm -2 . However, our fitting of the Sgr A* quiescent spectra obtained with Chandra, for a power-law model taking into account the dust scattering, shows that an excess of column density is already present during the non-flaring phase. Conclusions. The two brightest X-ray flares observed so far from Sgr A* exhibited similar soft spectra.
Multi level modeling and loop closing with GridTiles

The objective of this paper is to use GridTiles to model a complex multi level scenario and additionally use the resulting model to help solving the loop closing problem. The GridTile algorithm is a memory and computational efficent method to map an unbounded outdoor environment of a human driven car. GridTiles are a set of small occupancy grids with a neighbourhood relation in the four directions. This paper discusses four of the major problems in modelling: the local and the global mapping, multi level modelling and loop closing. For each of these problems possible solutions will be shown. Local and global maps can be directly modelled with the standard GridTile algorithm. Because the neighbourhood of the tiles is only known locally, multi level scenarios can be modelled implicitly. Additionally a loop closing solution is proposed to correct the built model afterwards in a memory efficient way. Instead of the classic approach that has to store all measurements over an unpredictable duration, the GridTiles are used as a data storage.
Institute of Economic Studies Working Paper Series the Impact of the Cost of the Time Resource on the Efficiency of Economic Processes

The objective of the paper is to simulate behavior of economic agents with a special emphasis on the use of the time resource in economic processes. The case studied, is brought from the fishing industry. With an aid of simulations, the study analyzes behavior of economic agents as they lead their processes through time. The paper estimates the value of time in a fishery operation, and shows that the time cost is essential in clarifying some phenomena in economic behavior of agents. Among the conclusions is that difference in economic efficiency between strong and weak ownership is due to difference in time costs. The secondary goal of the paper is to develop a simulation tool that can be of use in analyzing a range of problems in the fishing industry, ranging from decision situations onboard fishing vessels to serve as a tool for fishery managers and legislators.
Variations in Brain Volume and Growth in Young Children With Type 1 Diabetes

Early-onset type 1 diabetes may affect the developing brain during a critical window of rapid brain maturation. Structural MRI was performed on 141 children with diabetes (4–10 years of age at study entry) and 69 age-matched control subjects at two time points spaced 18 months apart. For the children with diabetes, the mean (±SD) HbA1c level was 7.9 ± 0.9% (63 ± 9.8 mmol/mol) at both time points. Relative to control subjects, children with diabetes had significantly less growth of cortical gray matter volume and cortical surface area and significantly less growth of white matter volume throughout the cortex and cerebellum. For the population with diabetes, the change in the blood glucose level at the time of scan across longitudinal time points was negatively correlated with the change in gray and white matter volumes, suggesting that fluctuating glucose levels in children with diabetes may be associated with corresponding fluctuations in brain volume. In addition, measures of hyperglycemia and glycemic variation were significantly negatively correlated with the development of surface curvature. These results demonstrate that early-onset type 1 diabetes has widespread effects on the growth of gray and white matter in children whose blood glucose levels are well within the current treatment guidelines for the management of diabetes.
A Twin-Candidate Based Approach for Event Pronoun Resolution using Composite Kernel

Event Anaphora Resolution is an important task for cascaded event template extraction and other NLP study. In this paper, we provide a first systematic study of resolving pronouns to their event verb antecedents for general purpose. First, we explore various positional, lexical and syntactic features useful for the event pronoun resolution. We further explore tree kernel to model structural information embedded in syntactic parses. A composite kernel is then used to combine the above diverse information. In addition, we employed a twin-candidate based preferences learning model to capture the pair wise candidates' preference knowledge. Besides we also look into the incorporation of the negative training instances with anaphoric pronouns whose antecedents are not verbs. Although these negative training instances are not used in previous study on anaphora resolution, our study shows that they are very useful for the final resolution through random sampling strategy. Our experiments demonstrate that it's meaningful to keep certain training data as development data to help SVM select a more accurate hyper plane which provides significant improvement over the default setting with all training data.
In silico prediction of splice-altering single nucleotide variants in the human genome

In silico tools have been developed to predict variants that may have an impact on pre-mRNA splicing. The major limitation of the application of these tools to basic research and clinical practice is the difficulty in interpreting the output. Most tools only predict potential splice sites given a DNA sequence without measuring splicing signal changes caused by a variant. Another limitation is the lack of large-scale evaluation studies of these tools. We compared eight in silico tools on 2959 single nucleotide variants within splicing consensus regions (scSNVs) using receiver operating characteristic analysis. The Position Weight Matrix model and MaxEntScan outperformed other methods. Two ensemble learning methods, adaptive boosting and random forests, were used to construct models that take advantage of individual methods. Both models further improved prediction, with outputs of directly interpretable prediction scores. We applied our ensemble scores to scSNVs from the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer database. Analysis showed that predicted splice-altering scSNVs are enriched in recurrent scSNVs and known cancer genes. We pre-computed our ensemble scores for all potential scSNVs across the human genome, providing a whole genome level resource for identifying splice-altering scSNVs discovered from large-scale sequencing studies.
Ethanol sensitizes mitochondria to the permeability transition by inhibiting deacetylation of cyclophilin-D mediated by sirtuin-3

Ethanol increases the vulnerability of mitochondria to induction of the mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT). Cyclophilin-D activity enhances the potential for the permeability transition pore (PTP) to open. In the present study, we demonstrate that ethanol and its metabolism sensitize the PTP to opening, in part by increasing the acetylation and activity of cyclophilin-D. This effect of ethanol is mediated by inhibiting the activity of sirtuin-3, an NAD+ dependent deacetylase that is localized to the mitochondrial matrix. The ethanol-enhanced acetylation of cyclophilin-D also increases the interaction of cyclophilin-D with the adenine nucleotide translocator-1 (ANT-1) and is dependent on ethanol metabolism. Moreover, activation of AMPK, a known positive modulator of sirtuin activity, prevented the ethanol-induced suppression of sirtuin-3 activity and the attendant increase of cyclophilin-D acetylation, activity and association with ANT-1. Additionally, AMPK reactivation of sirtuin-3 prevented the sensitization to the MPT and the enhancement of cell killing by TNF in cells exposed to ethanol.