Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Poznań University of Technology Algorithms to Mitigate Partition Skew in MapReduce Applications

Algorithms for mitigating imbalance of the MapReduce computations are considered in this paper. MapReduce is a new paradigm of processing big datasets in parallel. A MapReduce job consists of two phases of mapping and reducing. In the latter phase computation completion times may become imbalanced due to unequal distribution of the data. We propose four algorithms for balancing computational effort in the reducing phase. The static algorithm improves the load distribution by constructing a few times more load partitions than the number of reducing computers. The multi-dynamic algorithm performs many load balancing operations during the reducing phase, whereas the single-dynamic algorithm uses simulation to balance the load in a single step in the reducing phase. The mixed algorithm works both before and during the reducing phase. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated and compared by simulation. We conclude that the distribution of keys in the input data and the complexity of sorting by the reducers determine which algorithm is best to use.
learning ? Do woodpecker finches acquire tool-use by social

, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2001. 1738 268 2001 Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B Sabine Tebbich, Michael Taborsky, Birgit Fessl and Donald Blomqvist learning? Do woodpecker finches acquire tool-use by social References http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing. org/content/268/1482/2189#related-urls Article cited in: Email alerting service here right-hand corner of the article or click Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article sign up in the box at the top
Comparison of the Efficacy of Tigecycline and Teicoplanin in an Experimental Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Osteomyelitis Model

Abstract We evaluated the efficacy of tigecycline and teicoplanin in a rat model of MRSA osteomyelitis. Osteomyelitis was induced with an intramedullary injection of 108 colony-forming units (cfu) of MRSA. After osteomyelitis formation was confirmed on Day 14, infected rats were randomly divided into three groups: tigecycline (n=13), teicoplanin (n=13), and no-treatment control (n=14). A 28-day antibiotic therapy with a subcutaneous injection of tigecycline (14 mg/kg twice daily) or intramuscular administration of teicoplanin (20 mg/kg daily) was administered. Rats were then sacrificed, and the tibias were harvested. The bones were weighed and then cultured. Our results indicated that bacterial growth was significantly reduced in teicoplanin and tigecycline groups, compared to the control group (p=0.019 and p=0.006, respectively). However, no difference was detected between the two antibiotic groups (p=1.000). No bacterial growth was detected in 7 out of 13 and 9 out of 13 specimens of the teicoplanin and tigecycline treated groups, respectively. Although this result was numerically in favor of tigecycline, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.427). In conclusion, tigecycline, a novel antibiotic, appears as an effective alternative to teicoplanin in the treatment of osteomyelitis caused by MRSA.
The Neural Correlates of Chronic Symptoms of Vertigo Proneness in Humans

Vestibular signals are of significant importance for variable functions including gaze stabilization, spatial perception, navigation, cognition, and bodily self-consciousness. The vestibular network governs functions that might be impaired in patients affected with vestibular dysfunction. It is currently unclear how different brain regions/networks process vestibular information and integrate the information into a unified spatial percept related to somatosensory awareness and whether people with recurrent balance complaints have a neural signature as a trait affecting their development of chronic symptoms of vertigo. Pivotal evidence points to a vestibular-related brain network in humans that is widely distributed in nature. By using resting state source localized electroencephalography in non-vertiginous state, electrophysiological changes in activity and functional connectivity of 23 patients with balance complaints where chronic symptoms of vertigo and dizziness are among the most common reported complaints are analyzed and compared to healthy subjects. The analyses showed increased alpha2 activity within the posterior cingulate cortex and the precuneues/cuneus and reduced beta3 and gamma activity within the pregenual and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex for the subjects with balance complaints. These electrophysiological variations were correlated with reported chronic symptoms of vertigo intensity. A region of interest analysis found reduced functional connectivity for gamma activity within the vestibular cortex, precuneus, frontal eye field, intra-parietal sulcus, orbitofrontal cortex, and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, there was a positive correlation between chronic symptoms of vertigo intensity and increased alpha-gamma nesting in the left frontal eye field. When compared to healthy subjects, there is evidence of electrophysiological changes in the brain of patients with balance complaints even outside chronic symptoms of vertigo episodes. This suggests that these patients have a neural signature or trait that makes them prone to developing chronic balance problems.
Use of WASD neuronet in projecting the population of Oceania based on 1000-year historical data

With growing economic and political influence in the world, the important role played by Oceania in population issues should not be neglected. So it is very important and urgent to find an effective way to make a proper population projections. Nonetheless, the traditional methods focused on fertility and mortality may lead to the lack of all-sidedness in projection results. We realize that the historical data contain the internal mechanism of the population development, and the neuronet performs well with nonlinear data and the multifactor system. Therefore, in this report, we construct a 3-layer feed-forward neuronet equipped with a weights-and-structure-determination (WASD) algorithm to learn the historical data and project the population. With the neuronet well trained by over 1000-year historical data, we successfully project that the future Oceania population will keep a steady increasing trend in the coming fifteen years.
TRank: Ranking Twitter users according to specific topics

Twitter is the most popular real-time micro-blogging service and it is a platform where users provide and obtain information at rapid pace. In this scenario, one of the biggest challenge is to find a way to automatically identify the most influential users of a given topic. Currently, there are several approaches that try to address this challenge using different Twitter signals (e.g., number of followers, lists, metadata), but results are not clear and sometimes conflicting. In this paper, we propose TRank, a novel method designed to address the problem of identifying the most influential Twitter users on specific topics identified with hashtags. The novelty of our approach is that it combines different Twitter signals (that represent both the user and the user's tweets) to provide three different indicators that are intended to capture different aspects of being influent. The computation of these indicators is not based on the magnitude of the Twitter signals alone, but they are computed taking into consideration also human factors, as for example the fact that a user with many active followings might have a very noisy time lime and, thus, miss to read many tweets. The experimental assessment confirms that our approach provides results that are more reasonable than the one obtained by mechanisms based on the sole magnitude of data.
Vocabulary Difficulty, Prior Knowledge, and Text Comprehension

In order to examine the relative importance of vocabulary difficulty and prior knowledge to the comprehension of a narrative passage taken from a social studies text, 61 sixth graders were given either an easy vocabulary or a difficult vocabulary version of a text. They also were given either relevant or irrelevant preinstruction about the culture described in the text. Both vocabulary difficulty and type of preinstruction had significant effects on comprehension, but the two effects did not significantly interact, partially replicating the findings of Freebody and Anderson (1983b). The results indicate that knowledge-based preinstruction can significantly improve comprehension of a text written about an unfamiliar topic but cannot compensate for the effects of text difficulty in itself.
Activity detection in uncontrolled free-living conditions using a single accelerometer

Motivated by a need for accurate assessment and monitoring of patients with knee osteoarthritis in an ambulatory setting, a wearable electrogoniometer composed of a knee angular sensor and a three-axis accelerometer placed on the thigh is developed. Accurate assessment of knee kinematics requires accurate detection of walking amongst dynamic, heterogeneous, and individualized activities of daily living. This paper investigates four different machine learning techniques for detecting occurrences of walking in uncontrolled environments based on a dataset collected from a total of 4 healthy subjects. Multi-class classifier (random forest) based detection method showed the best performance, which supports 90% precision and 75% recall. The in-depth analysis and interpretation of the results show that accurate decision boundaries are necessary between 1) fast walking and descending stairs, 2) slow walking and ascending stairs, as well as 3) slow walking and transitional activities. This work provides a systematic approach to detect occurrences of walking in uncontrolled living conditions, which can also be extended to other activities.
Hunter Perceptions of Risk, Social Trust, and Management of Chronic Wasting Disease in Illinois

Management to reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in northern Illinois includes a controversial sharpshooting program. A mail survey of northern Illinois deer hunters was conducted (n = 3,391, response rate = 58%) to examine support or opposition toward this program, and factors contributing to these reactions. Logistic regression revealed that support for sharpshooting was statistically greater when: (a) respondents trusted the agency’s (Illinois Department of Natural Resources) management of CWD, and (b) perceived risks of CWD to both personal health and deer health increased. Support for sharpshooting was less when hunters trusted CWD information provided by the agency. This regression model predicted 72% of hunter opposition to the program and 74% of support. Log-linear analysis showed that trust and risk interacted in their effects on support or opposition toward sharpshooting. Findings supported past research examining social trust and risk perceptions in predicting other cognitions associated with CWD.
Influence of Ovarian Cancer Risk Status on the Diagnostic Performance of the Serum Biomarkers Mesothelin, HE4, and CA125

Objective: To evaluate the effect of ovarian cancer risk on the performance of the serum biomarkers mesothelin, human epididymis protein 4 (HE4), and CA125. Methods: We measured mesothelin, HE4, and CA125 levels from women with invasive ovarian cancer (n = 143), benign gynecologic conditions (n = 124), and controls (n = 344). Demographic, epidemiologic, reproductive, medical, and family history data were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Pedigree and BRCA 1/2 test results were used to stratify women into average and high-risk groups. The diagnostic accuracy of each biomarker was characterized using receiver operating characteristic curve methods. Results: Baseline characteristics did not vary by risk or case status. The distribution of stage and histology was similar in average and high-risk women. All three markers discriminated ovarian cancer cases from risk-matched healthy and benign controls. Marker performance did not vary by risk status. The sensitivity at 95% specificity for discriminating cases from risk-matched healthy control women in the average and high-risk groups, respectively, was 53.9% and 39.0% for mesothelin, 80.4% and 87.8% for HE4, and 79.4% and 82.9% for CA125. The performance of the markers was not as robust when cases were compared with benign controls. Area under the curve values for cases versus healthy and benign controls did not vary by risk status. Conclusions: The ability of serum mesothelin, HE4, and CA 125 levels to discriminate ovarian cancer cases from healthy and benign controls is not influenced by risk status. Our findings support the pursuit of additional studies evaluating the early detection potential of these markers in high-risk populations. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(5):1365–72)
Determinants of premature mortality in a city population: An eight-year observational study concerning subjects aged 18–64

BackgroundPremature deaths constitute 31.1% of all deaths in Łódź. Analysis of the causes of premature deaths may be helpful in the evaluation of health risk factors. Moreover, findings of this study may enhance prophylactic measures.Material and MethodsIn 2001, 1857 randomly selected citizens, aged 18-64, were included in the Countrywide Integrated Noncommunicable Diseases Intervention (CINDI) Programme. In 2009, a follow-up study was conducted and information on the subjects of the study was collected concerning their health status and if they continued to live in Łódź. The Cox proportional hazards model was used for evaluation of hazard coefficients. We adjusted our calculations for age and sex. The analysis revealed statistically significant associations between the number of premature deaths of the citizens of Łódź and the following variables: a negative self-evaluation of health — HR = 3.096 (95% CI: 1.729–5.543), poor financial situation — HR = 2.811 (95% CI: 1.183–6.672), occurring in the year preceding the study: coronary pain — HR = 2.754 (95% CI: 1.167–6.494), depression — HR = 2.001 (95% CI: 1.222–3.277) and insomnia — HR = 1.660 (95% CI: 1.029–2.678). Our research study also found a negative influence of smoking on the health status — HR = 2.782 (95% CI: 1.581–4.891). Moreover, we conducted survival analyses according to sex and age with Kaplan-Meier curves.ConclusionsThe risk factors leading to premature deaths were found to be highly significant but possible to reduce by modifying lifestyle-related health behaviours. The confirmed determinants of premature mortality indicate a need to spread and intensify prophylactic activities in Poland, which is a post-communist country, in particular, in the field of cardiovascular diseases.
Adaptive-Gain Tracking Filters Based on Minimization of the Innovation Variance

A kinematic tracking filter is considered in the context of gain adaptation problem. The study suggests a simple adaptive-gain tracker based on minimization of the innovation variance. This is shown to provide the optimal Kalman gain. Accordingly, the innovation-based adaptive Kalman-like filter is constructed. The adaptive scheme is associated with a recursive MA-parameter estimator. With proper links for the optimal gain-vector components, the multiple-parameter adaptive filter reduces to a constrained single-parameter version. The simulation study justifies the filter performance for a wide range of conditions
Bad luck: an underestimated factor in the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Our clinical experience with patients with OCD has shown us that a sizeable proportion of patients report previous experiences such as accidents, very unusual events, or serious mistakes that in some cases may predate the onset of OCD by many years. In some cases these events, often perceived as bad luck, still appear to play a major role in supporting faulty appraisals of obsessional thoughts. In these cases it may be very useful to analyse and correct the specific learning experiences offered by these bad luck events. This article presents a series of case examples where specific events appear to have contributed to the development of faulty appraisals or at the least the patient attributes an important role to the event in the development of the disorder. We will also provide examples of some interventions that were useful in correcting the basis of these interpretations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Is attachment at ages 1, 6 and 16 related to autonomy and relatedness behavior of adolescents in interaction towards their mothers?

This study investigates whether attachment quality at ages 1, 6 and 16 is related to autonomy and relatedness behavior in adolescence. In a follow-up of the Regensburg Longitudinal Study, forty-three 16-year-old adolescents and their mothers were assessed in a revealed differences task and a planning a vacation task. Attachment was assessed during infancy using the Ainsworth Strange Situation and at age six with the reunion procedure. Adolescent attachment representation was assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview. Results provided no evidence for significant continuity between infant or childhood attachment behavior and adolescent attachment representation. Instability of attachment organization, however, was linked to a higher number of experienced risk factors. Substantial relations between adolescent attachment representation and adolescent autonomy and relatedness behavior were found in both interaction tasks with their mothers. Further, significant relations between attachment qualities at ages 1 and 6 and adolescent interaction behavior during the planning a vacation task at age 16 were found. Thus, independent of attachment stability or instability, both early attachment in infancy and childhood and concurrent attachment representation were significantly related to autonomy and relatedness behavior in adolescence.
Hidden-articulator Markov models: performance improvements and robustness to noise

A Hidden-Articulator Markov Model (HAMM) is a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) in which each state represents an articulatory configuration. Articulatory knowledge, known to be useful for speech recognition [4], is represented by specifying a mapping of phonemes to articulatory configurations; vocal tract dynamics are represented via transitions between articulatory configurations. In previous work [13], we extended the articulatory-feature model introduced by Erler [7] by using diphone units and a new technique for model initialization. By comparing it with a purely random model, we showed that the HAMM can take advantage of articulatory knowledge. In this paper, we extend that work in three ways. First, we decrease the number of parameters, making it comparable in size to standard HMMs. Second, we evaluate our model in noisy contexts, verifying that articulatory knowledge can provide benefits in adverse acoustic conditions. Third, we use a corpus of sideby-side speech and articulator trajectories to show that the HAMM can reasonably predict the movement of the articulators.
Social Imaginaries of Technology and Work. A connective ethnography

ions and symbols that both represent the world and are objects in the world” (ibid.) and; (3) “it requires a formal education, i.e. abstract, technical and theoretical knowledge” (ibid.). Apart from the centrality of knowledge and information in the narratives of the information society/knowledge economy, assumptions are made about the changed nature of work demanding specifi c skills on the part of the knowledge worker or informational laborer. For instance, in Castells’ account of information labor, jobs are performed by “the group in the information age that manages, initiates and shapes affairs, by being well-educated, having initiative, welcoming the frenetic pace of change which typifi es the current epoch, and having, perhaps above all, the capacity to ‘selfprogramme’ itself” (Webster, 2005: 447). Similar to this notion of informational labor, Drucker asserts that “in knowledge work the task does not program the worker” (ibid.: 144). To this Drucker adds that “knowledge work requires continuous learning on the part of the knowledge worker, but equally continuous teaching on the part of the knowledge worker” (Drucker, 1999: 142). The knowledge worker or information laborer defi es routinization (reproducible ways of working), has a heightened self-monitoring, and is inquisitive and creative (Drucker, 1993). In both accounts of informational labor (Castells, 1996-1998) and knowledge work (Drucker, 2001) identifi ed is thus a process of ‘refl exive accumulation’ (Lash and Urry, 1994). Refl exive accumulation refers to the fact that “the labour force becomes increasingly self-monitoring as well as develops an even greater refl exivity with respect to the rules and resources of the workplace” (Lash and Urry: 1994: 6). The expectations of the information society/knowledge economy as discussed in the above are translated into the postulate of a post-bureaucratic organization in organizations. Post-bureaucracy is “a ‘trend’ encompassing a range of organizational changes which have as their espoused aim the erosion or dismantling of bureaucracy” (Grey and Garsten 2001: 230). In line with the notion of refl exive accumulation, and in stark contrast to the unwieldy bureaucratic organization, the post-bureaucratic organization appeals to characteristics such as fl uidity, fl exibility and creativity.3 Whereas the aforementioned thinking can be categorized under the heading of the information ‘revolution’, similar statements on the information society are made in the so-called computer or ICT revolution interpretation of the information society. In fact, the two interpretations are often found to converge. 3 As Barley and Kunda (2001) state, however, “most [academic and popular accounts of the post-bureaucratic organization] fall short of offering either a nuanced description of attributes of postbureaucratic organizing or a full account of why new forms of organizing have emerged” (Barley and Kunda, 2001: 77).
Maturational Factors Modulate Transcription Factors CCAAT/Enhancer-Binding Proteins α, β, δ, and Peroxisome Proliferator–Activated Receptor-γ in Fetal Rat Lung Epithelial Cells

Previous investigations have evidenced the importance of CCAAT/enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBPs) and peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor (PPAR)γ for lung development, especially for alveolar type II cells (ATII). This prompted us to explore whether ATII maturation-promoting mediators controlled their expression in isolated ATII. In whole rat lung, C/EBPα, β, δ, and PPARγ mRNAs increased 3–5 times between gestational day 18 and term (Day 22), dropped around birth, then reincreased. C/EBPβ and δ, but not PPARγ, displayed similar profile in isolated ATII; C/EBPα transcript disappeared and the protein became hardly detectable in isolated cells. In cultured ATII, dexamethasone increased C/EBPβ and PPARγ mRNAs 2–4 times, and cyclic AMP increased C/EBPβ and δ mRNAs ∼ 1.5 times. Whereas retinoic acid increased C/EBPβ and PPARγ mRNAs 1.5 times in ATII in vitro, vitamin-A deficiency strongly decreased fetal lung C/EBPα, β, and PPARγ transcripts in vivo. C/EBPβ, δ, and PPARγ mRNAs were also increased in vitr.
Virtual sounding boards: How deliberative is on‐line political discussion?

Abstract Emerging forums in cyberspace, accessible using advanced teletechnologies, augur new public and political spaces. A content analysis was conducted of a random sample of postings to Usenet newsgroups, self‐identified as political, to ascertain the extent to which they are being used for democratic deliberation. The results show that these gathering places are, in general, home to an array of overlapping, short‐lived conversations, usually among like‐minded individuals. Sustained deliberation is rare in these forums which means that, as currently designed and used, they may not be effective sounding boards for signalling and expounding issues and problems to be processed by government.