Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NFRA: Generalized Network Flow-Based Resource Allocation for Hosting Centers

Due to prohibitive cost of data center setup and maintenance, many small-scale businesses rely on hosting centers to provide the cloud infrastructure to run their workloads. Hosting centers host services of the clients on their behalf and guarantee quality of service as defined by service level agreements (SLAs.) To reduce energy consumption and to maximize profit it is critical to optimally allocate resources to meet client SLAs. Optimal allocation is a nontrivial task due to 1) resource heterogeneity where energy consumption of a client task varies depending on the allocated resources 2) lack of energy proportionality where energy cost for a task varies based on server utilization. In this paper, we introduce a generalized Network Flow-based Resource Allocation framework, called NFRA, for energy minimization and profit maximization. NFRA provides a unified framework to model profit maximization under a wide range of SLAs. We will demonstrate the simplicity of this unified framework by deriving optimal resource allocations for three different SLAs. We derive workload demands and server energy consumption data from SPECWeb2009 benchmark results to demonstrate the efficiency of NFRA framework.
Distorted Secretory Granule Composition in Mast Cells with Multiple Protease Deficiency

Mast cells are characterized by an abundance of secretory granules densely packed with inflammatory mediators such as bioactive amines, cytokines, serglycin proteoglycans with negatively charged glycosaminoglycan side chains of either heparin or chondroitin sulfate type, and large amounts of positively charged proteases. Despite the large biological impact of mast cell granules and their contents on various pathologies, the mechanisms that regulate granule composition are incompletely understood. In this study, we hypothesized that granule composition is dependent on a dynamic electrostatic interrelationship between different granule compounds. As a tool to evaluate this possibility, we generated mice in which mast cells are multideficient in a panel of positively charged proteases: the chymase mouse mast cell protease-4, the tryptase mouse mast cell protease-6, and carboxypeptidase A3. Through a posttranslational effect, mast cells from these mice additionally lack mouse mast cell protease-5 protein. Mast cells from mice deficient in individual proteases showed normal morphology. In contrast, mast cells with combined protease deficiency displayed a profound distortion of granule integrity, as seen both by conventional morphological criteria and by transmission electron microscopy. An assessment of granule content revealed that the distorted granule integrity in multiprotease-deficient mast cells was associated with a profound reduction of highly negatively charged heparin, whereas no reduction in chondroitin sulfate storage was observed. Taken together with previous findings showing that the storage of basic proteases conversely is regulated by anionic proteoglycans, these data suggest that secretory granule composition in mast cells is dependent on a dynamic interrelationship between granule compounds of opposite electrical charge.
Increased cell proliferation and granule cell number in the dentate gyrus of protein repair‐deficient mice

Recent studies have demonstrated that mice lacking protein L‐isoaspartate (D‐aspartate) O‐methyltransferase (Pcmt1−/− mice) have alterations in the insulin‐like growth factor‐I (IGF‐I) and insulin receptor pathways within the hippocampal formation as well as other brain regions. However, the cellular localization of these changes and whether the alterations might be associated with an increase in cell number within proliferative regions, such as the dentate gyrus, were unknown. In this study, stereological methods were used to demonstrate that these mice have an increased number of granule cells in the granule cell layer and hilus of the dentate gyrus. The higher number of granule cells was accompanied by a greater number of cells undergoing mitosis in the dentate gyrus, suggesting that an increase in neuronal cell proliferation occurs in this neurogenic zone of adult Pcmt1−/− mice. In support of this, increased doublecortin labeling of immature neurons was detected in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus. In addition, double immunofluorescence studies demonstrated that phosphorylated IGF‐I/insulin receptors in the subgranular zone were localized on immature neurons, suggesting that the increased activation of one or both of these receptors in Pcmt1−/− mice could contribute to the growth and survival of these cells. We propose that deficits in the repair of isoaspartyl protein damage leads to alterations in metabolic and growth‐receptor pathways, and that this model may be particularly relevant for studies of neurogenesis that is stimulated by cellular damage. J. Comp. Neurol. 493:524–537, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SEAT-BELT LEGISLATION IN REDUCING INJURY RATES IN TEXAS

The effects of seat-belt regulations on automobile-related fatality and injury rates have been of great interest to economists and policy-makers over the past few years. ' The effects of the laws have been evaluated by various statistical techniques using timeseries data for particular states and pooled time-series data for national models.2 The results of these studies provide some evidence that seat-belt laws (SBL) reduce injury and fatality rates. However, the effects of seat-belt laws vary across states and time periods as well as across the levels of injuries. This study assesses the effects of the Texas seat-belt law on injury rates using policereported accident data. The data are from the U.S. Department of Transportation State Traffic Accident Files and are compiled monthly for the period 1982-1987 for driver-involved accidents. Furthermore, the data comprise singleand multiple-vehicle accidents. Only accidents involving towed vehicles are used in the analysis so as to normalize for changes in accident-reporting thresholds over time.3 The analysis was conducted for several sets of injury classifications using the KABCO scale, which indicates the numbers of fatalities (K), severe injuries (A), moderate injuries (B), complaints of injuries (C), and no injuries (0).
Phylogenetic similarity and structure of Agaricomycotina communities across a forested landscape

The Agaricomycotina are a phylogenetically diverse group of fungi that includes both saprotrophic and mycorrhizal species, and that form species – rich communities in forest ecosystems. Most species are infrequently observed, and this hampers assessment of the role that environmental heterogeneity plays in determining local community composition and in driving β‐diversity. We used a combination of phenetic (TRFLP) and phylogenetic approaches [Unifrac and Net Relatedness Index (NRI)] to examine the compositional and phylogenetic similarity of Agaricomycotina communities in forest floor and surface soil of three widely distributed temperate upland forest ecosystems (one, xeric oak – dominated and two, mesic sugar maple dominated). Generally, forest floor and soil communities had similar phylogenetic diversity, but there was little overlap of species or evolutionary lineages between these two horizons. Forest floor communities were dominated by saprotrophic species, and were compositionally and phylogenetically similar in all three ecosystems. Mycorrhizal species represented 30% to 90% of soil community diversity, and these communities differed compositionally and phylogenetically between ecosystems. Estimates of NRI revealed significant phylogenetic clustering in both the forest floor and soil communities of only the xeric oak‐dominated forest ecosystem, and may indicate that this ecosystem acts as a habitat filter. Our results suggest that environmental heterogeneity strongly influences the phylogenetic β‐diversity of soil inhabiting Agaricomycotina communities, but has only a small influence on forest floor β‐diversity. Moreover, our results suggest that the strength of community assembly processes, such as habitat filtering, may differ between temperate forest ecosystems.
Evaluation of nasal morphology in predicting vertical and sagittal maxillary skeletal discrepancies’

Objective: The purpose of this prospective observational study was to evaluate the relationship between nasal morphology and maxillary skeletal pattern. The clinical significance was to emphasize the importance of role of nasal pattern in diagnosis and treatment planning. Materials and Methods: The sample included the pre-treatment lateral cephalometric radiographs of 180 South Indian adults (94 women, 86 men), aged 18 to 28 years. Six maxillary and six nasal soft tissue parameters were measured. Pearson correlation coefficients and Analysis of variance were used for statistical analyses. Results: There were significant correlations between maxillary vertical and sagittal, skeletal and soft tissue parameters. The Mean and standard deviations were correlated between low insignificant range to high significant levels with nasal length, nasal depth and columella convexity. Nasal length also showed significant correlation with inclination of palatal plane. Significant influence of gender was seen on nasal length, nasal depth, columella convexity and nasal tip angle. A statistically significant difference was seen regarding nasal length between males and females, with nasal length being more in males (50.26 ± 4.18) than in females (48.86 ± 3.45), nasal depth being more in males (18.64 ± 2.56) than in females (16.63 ± 2.16), columella convexity being greater in males (4.31 ± 1.26) than in females (3.41 ± 1.13), nasolabial angle decreased in males (87.26° ±13.79°) than in females (89.38° ±15.72°) and nasal tip angle being more in females (80.18° ±9.44°) than in males (73.60° ±10.24°). There was no statistically significant difference in nasal hump between males (-2.01 ± 1.76) and females (-2.02 ± 1.62). Conclusion: Long nose with increased nasal prominence were seen with increase in the anteroposterior length and vertical height of maxilla. Male and female genders had a varied amount of nasal length, nasal depth and columella convexity along with nasal tip angle.
Ellipsoidal Modeling for Articulated Robot Manipulators for Interactive Motion Planning

The report presents an enclosing and enclosed ellipsoids based solid modeling technique for serial links of articulated robot manipulators. This modeling allows the collision detection for interactive robot motion planning in a graphical simulation environment or in a telerobotic simulator be performed efficiently and precisely. A systematic way of determining the kinematic transformation matrices between links and its associated ellipsoids model is presented. An example, a PUMA560 manipulator, is shown in details to demonstrate the proposed modeling technique.
Anthropometric facial analysis of the African American woman.

OBJECTIVE To assess the differences in facial proportions between African American and Caucasian women. Differences within the African American population are sought. DESIGN Anthropometric survey. PARTICIPANTS Volunteer sample of African American women (N = 108), aged 18 through 30 years, with African American parents and no previous facial surgery or trauma. INTERVENTION Photographs and 16 standard anthropometric measurements were taken in concordance with the 9 neoclassical canons. Results were compared with the North American white standard and the neoclassical canons, and an intragroup evaluation was performed. One-way analysis of variance, 99.7% confidence intervals, and t tests were used to test differences for significance. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Anthropometric measures. RESULTS Compared with white women, the following measurements were found to be significantly different (P<.003) in African American women: special head height was shorter; forehead height II was longer; nose length was shorter; lower face height was longer; height of the calva was shorter; forehead height I was longer; and ear length was shorter. In addition, most horizontal measures were wider, ie, eye-fissure width, nasal width, mouth width, and facial width. The nose and ear have greater angles of inclination. Of the 9 neoclassical canons, the orbital proportion was found to include the most proportional subjects (30.6%), followed by the nasoaural proportion (13.0%) and the nasofacial proportion (9.3%). Subcategorization based on nasal dorsal height yielded the most significantly different measures. CONCLUSIONS African American female facial anthropometric measures, especially those of the horizontal dimension, differ significantly from those of young white subjects. The average African American woman does not fit the neoclassical standard of facial proportion.
Hierarchical Alignment and Full Resolution Pattern Recognition of 2D NMR Spectra: Application to Nematode Chemical Ecology

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is the most widely used nondestructive technique in analytical chemistry. In recent years, it has been applied to metabolic profiling due to its high reproducibility, capacity for relative and absolute quantification, atomic resolution, and ability to detect a broad range of compounds in an untargeted manner. While one-dimensional (1D) 1H NMR experiments are popular in metabolic profiling due to their simplicity and fast acquisition times, two-dimensional (2D) NMR spectra offer increased spectral resolution as well as atomic correlations, which aid in the assignment of known small molecules and the structural elucidation of novel compounds. Given the small number of statistical analysis methods for 2D NMR spectra, we developed a new approach for the analysis, information recovery, and display of 2D NMR spectral data. We present a native 2D peak alignment algorithm we term HATS, for hierarchical alignment of two-dimensional spectra, enabling pattern recognition (PR) using full-resolution spectra. Principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) regression of full resolution total correlation spectroscopy (TOCSY) spectra greatly aid the assignment and interpretation of statistical pattern recognition results by producing back-scaled loading plots that look like traditional TOCSY spectra but incorporate qualitative and quantitative biological information of the resonances. The HATS-PR methodology is demonstrated here using multiple 2D TOCSY spectra of the exudates from two nematode species: Pristionchus pacificus and Panagrellus redivivus. We show the utility of this integrated approach with the rapid, semiautomated assignment of small molecules differentiating the two species and the identification of spectral regions suggesting the presence of species-specific compounds. These results demonstrate that the combination of 2D NMR spectra with full-resolution statistical analysis provides a platform for chemical and biological studies in cellular biochemistry, metabolomics, and chemical ecology.
Image Recognition with Deep Learning Techniques

This paper investigates a Deep Learning (DL) approach for image recognition. We have considered two DL neural models: Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Deep Belief Network (DBN). We have chosen several architectures for each of the proposed models. We have chosen Caltech101 dataset to train and test the above proposed models; this database is composed by images belonging to 101 widely various object categories. One has considered the SVM-KNN algorithm as benchmark, being the best available model selected by the Caltech101 database issuer. Several dataset preprocessing techniques are considered. Using our proposed DL approach, we have obtained a correct recognition score of 67.23%, corresponding to an increase of 1% over the chosen benchmark algorithm (66.23%). Key-Words: Deep Learning (DL), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Deep Belief Networks (DBN), image classification, Caltech101
Optimal trajectory generation of compass-gait biped based on passive dynamic walking

This work aims at finding optimal trajectory of compassgait biped walking robot in terms of energy consumption and passive dynamic walking. The planar biped model, an inverted double pendulum, has a free hinge at all joints, i.e., the hip and stance ankle. The impulsive external force is exerted on the swing ankle for short initial period. With the equation of motion, the power of external force is minimized to generate optimal trajectory. The finite element method, where the solution is parameterized by a piecewise second order polynomial, is applied for numerical implementation. The validity of the proposed trajectory is investigated through numerical simulations.
When Environmental Protection Collides with Economic Development

This paper, based on two case studies from Polish localities, makes a case for a scalar interpretation of conflicts related to environmental protection and economic development. Poland, one of the poorest and least environmentally friendly member countries of the European Union, has to reconcile conflicting objectives and contradictory interests that—due to the imperatives of both fast economic growth and ecological sustainability—manifest themselves at different scales. Thus, drawing on dynamic and interactive conceptualizations of scale, the study argues that the two cases can be seen as an illustration of interscalar conflicts. In doing so, the paper demonstrates why a scalar interpretation is preferable to other explanations. It also sheds light on the question of the privileged status of the local scale, suggesting that it is problematic to uncritically regard any scale as superior to other scales. By exploring sociospatial processes in the east European context, the study aims to expand the existing body of knowledge.
Whisker Vibration Information Carried by Rat Barrel Cortex Neurons

Rats can make extremely fine texture discriminations by “whisking” their vibrissa across the surface of an object. We have investigated one hypothesis for the neuronal basis of texture representation by measuring how clusters of neurons in the barrel cortex of anesthetized rats encode the kinetic features of sinusoidal whisker vibrations. Mutual information analyses of spike counts led to a number of findings. Information about vibration kinetics became available as early as 6 msec after stimulus onset and reached a peak at ∼20-30 msec. Vibration speed, proportional to the product of vibration amplitude (A) and frequency (f), was the kinetic property most reliably reported by cortical neurons. Indeed, by measuring information when the complete stimulus set was collapsed into feature-defined groups, we found that neurons reduced the dimensionality of the stimulus from two features (A, f) to a single feature, the product Af. Moreover, because different neurons encode stimuli in the same manner, information loss was negligible even when the activity of separate neuronal clusters was pooled. This suggests a decoding scheme whereby target neurons could capture all available information simply by summating the signals from separate barrel cortex neurons. These results indicate that neuronal population activity provides sufficient information to allow nearly perfect discrimination of two vibrations, based on their deflection speeds, within a time scale comparable with that of a single whisking motion across a surface.
Real-time video communications over GPRS

One of the stated aims of 3/sup rd/ generation mobile communications systems is to provide enhanced multimedia services to the user. Such services will include an integration of video, high-quality audio and data services. This paper describes a real-time mobile video communications system which employs ETSI's GPRS mobile packet system as a mobile access medium. Subjective performance tests are carried out for the error-resilient MPEG-4 video decoder using a real-time GPRS radio access emulator.
T helper type 1/T helper type 2 cytokines and T cell death: preventive effect of interleukin 12 on activation-induced and CD95 (FAS/APO-1)- mediated apoptosis of CD4+ T cells from human immunodeficiency virus- infected persons

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection leads to a progressive loss of CD4+ T helper (Th) type 1 cell-mediated immunity that is associated with defective in vitro CD4+ T cell proliferation and abnormal T cell death by apoptosis in response to T cell receptor (TCR) stimulation. Quantification of interleukin (IL)-2, interferon gamma, IL- 4, IL-5, and IL-10 secretion by immunoassays, and of interferon gamma, IL-4 and IL-10 messenger RNA expression by competitive reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction after in vitro stimulation of the TCR revealed a similar Th1 cytokine profile in T cells from HIV- infected persons and from controls. These data indicated that the loss of CD4+ Th1 cell function in HIV-infected persons is not related to a Th1 to Th2 cytokine switch as previously proposed, but to a process of activation-induced death of CD4+ Th1 cells. Despite the absence of elevated levels of Th2 cytokines, apoptosis of CD4+ T cells, but not of CD8+ T cells, was prevented in vitro by antibodies to IL-10 or IL-4, two Th2 cytokines that downregulate Th1 cell responses, or by the addition of recombinant IL-12, a cytokine that upregulates Th1 functions. TCR-induced apoptosis of T cell hybridomas and preactivated T cells has been shown to involve the CD95 (Fas/Apo-1) molecule. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from HIV-infected persons expressed high levels of the CD95 molecule, and, in contrast to T cells from controls, were highly sensitive to antibody-mediated CD95 ligation, which induced apoptosis in a percentage of T cells similar to that induced by TCR stimulation. As TCR-induced apoptosis, CD95-mediated apoptosis of CD4+ T cells, but not of CD8+ T cells, was prevented by the addition of recombinant IL- 12. Together, these findings suggest that apoptosis of CD4+ T cells from HIV-infected persons involves an abnormal sensitivity to CD95 ligation, and to TCR stimulation in the presence of normal levels of Th2 cytokines. The preventive effect of IL-12 on both mechanisms has potential implications for the design of immunotherapy strategies aimed at the upregulation of CD4+ Th1 cell functions in AIDS.