Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy-Aware Placement and Scheduling of Network Traffic Flows with Deadlines on Virtual Network Functions

Hardware MiddleBoxes represent a vital part in today's networks. Despite their important roles, they are accompanied by several problems, namely, their lack of flexibility, high capital and operation expenditures, and power consumption. Network Function Virtualization is one promising solution to address these problems. This trend replaces the MiddleBoxes by software-based entities. Indeed, these Virtual Network Functions promise to alleviate the numerous disadvantages brought by their hardware counterparts. One of these most serious issuesis the steadily increasing power consumption. Studies suggest that the Virtual Network Functions will reduce the electricity costs needed to turn on and operate the hardware functions. In order to further optimize the power consumption of the network, an efficient framework, capable of placing and scheduling traffic on these VNFs, is needed. Such a framework allows to optimally place and schedule the flows to be serviced, and placing theunused servers in energy saving modes. In this article, we assume VNFs are already placed on physical machines, each hosting a subset of the functions. We consider traffic flows with deadlines. We aim at assigning and scheduling flows to VNFs in the most energy efficient manner. We formulate this problem mathematically and, owing to its complexity, present an efficient algorithmic method for solving the problem. We compareour heuristic with two other approaches, one of which aims to minimize the makespan, and the other to minimize number of servers used. We show that our heuristic combines the advantages of both approaches and generates better results by consuming up to 31.3% and 46.1% energy less than other two approaches respectively.
Is It That Difficult to Find a Good Preference Order for the Incremental Algorithm?

In a recent article published in this journal (van Deemter, Gatt, van der Sluis, & Power, 2012), the authors criticize the Incremental Algorithm (a well-known algorithm for the generation of referring expressions due to Dale & Reiter, 1995, also in this journal) because of its strong reliance on a pre-determined, domain-dependent Preference Order. The authors argue that there are potentially many different Preference Orders that could be considered, while often no evidence is available to determine which is a good one. In this brief note, however, we suggest (based on a learning curve experiment) that finding a Preference Order for a new domain may not be so difficult after all, as long as one has access to a handful of human-produced descriptions collected in a semantically transparent way. We argue that this is due to the fact that it is both more important and less difficult to get a good ordering of the head than of the tail of a Preference Order.
Introduction 1.1. the Microbiota 1.4. Regulatory Landscape

The aim of this thesis is to assess innovation drivers in microbiota research & development (R&D) in order to advance gut modulation for unmet medical needs. Increased understanding in the human microbiome and its relation to health and disease opens the field of gut modulation. Probiotic administration was deemed a very promising method in restoring the aberrant gut, thereby preventing, alleviating or treating diseases and illnesses. Although scientists are conducting research and clinical studies with probiotics for over fifteen years now, the evidence is still deemed insufficient to receive a health claim or approval by the main regulatory bodies, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In addition, probiotics failed to gain general acceptance in the clinical practice as well as the general population. This clearly reflects that the innovation cycle of probiotics is faulty. At first we hypothesized that the failed PROPATRIA-trial, with a significantly higher mortality rate in the probiotic treatment arm, was hampering innovation due to serious safety concerns in vulnerable populations. Even though this study had serious design flaws (Morrow et al., 2012), it resulted in intense scrutiny of probiotic research in general and was picked up negatively in the media. The safety profile of probiotics in vulnerable populations is discussed, in particular for infants (Chapter 2), children (Chapter 3) and immune compromised adults (Chapter 4). Although caution should be exerted in individuals with a hampered immune system, there were no major safety concerns after probiotic administration in the setting of controlled clinical studies. This encourages researchers to continue probiotic research in high-risk groups, and indeed we were able to demonstrate an improvement in bowel habits of frail elderly individuals (Chapter 5). How probiotics may exert beneficial effects in the human host, based on a model organism, is described in chapter 6. The pre-discussion chapters illustrate the additional barriers the probiotic industry face, and where the diluted research efforts should focus on in the future based on the unmet medical needs (Chapters 7 and 8). Implications of this research are discussed in chapter 9. The current chapter provides an overview of the probiotic landscape and the overall research design of this thesis. The entire human body is colonized by bacteria, eukaryotes, viruses and fungi. These microorganisms outnumber the human cells ten to one and the majority (approximately 70%) of the bacteria reside in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). This large complex and …
A modified metal-ion affinity chromatography procedure for the purification of histidine-tagged recombinant proteins expressed in Drosophila S2 cells.

We have developed a modified method of immobilized metal-ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) that can be used for the purification of histidine-tagged proteins from conditioned medium containing free copper ions. Classical methods of IMAC purification, using resins such as Ni-NTA, have proven inefficient for this type of purification and require multiple steps due to the interference of divalent copper ions with the binding of His-tagged protein to the charged resin. In contrast, this modified IMAC procedure, using chelating Sepharose instead of Ni-NTA, enables efficient purification from copper-containing medium in a single step. This method appears to rely upon a preferential interaction of protein-copper complexes with immobilized chelating resin. We have utilized this method to purify active, His-tagged murine interleukin 12 from the conditioned medium of Drosophila S2 cells coexpressing recombinant p40 and His-tagged p35 subunits and for the purification of the extracellular domain of the erythropoietin receptor. This method should be applicable to the purification of a wide variety of His-tagged fusion proteins expressed in Drosophila cells and in other systems where free metal ions are present.
Nicotine exposure in vivo induces long‐lasting enhancement of NMDA receptor‐mediated currents in the hippocampus

The use of nicotine via cigarette smoking forms long‐lasting memories that are recalled in response to environmental cues associated with previous nicotine use. However, the changes in brain memory systems that underlie these long‐lasting memories are not well understood. The N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptor (NMDAR) is critical for long‐lasting modifications of synapses. Here we show that in vivo nicotine exposure induces the enhancement of NR2B‐containing NMDAR‐mediated currents in the hippocampus, a brain region associated with the formation of memories. This nicotine effect is maintained during continued nicotine exposure and is accompanied by increased tyrosine phosphorylation of NR2B. Furthermore, long‐term potentiation (LTP), which is considered to be a cellular substrate of learning and memory, induced in nicotine‐exposed hippocampi contains a protein synthesis‐independent long‐lasting component. An NR2B‐selective antagonist blocks a long‐lasting component of LTP, but not LTP. These results suggest that exposure to nicotine provides conditions that promote the induction of long‐lasting modifications of synapses, which may be involved in the formation of memories involving nicotine use.
Listening to the Shapes of Collaborative Artmaking

AJ~ | *|~~ Bthe artworl (Gablik, 19 (Levin, 198 pedagogy( connection dialogue, p (Noddings richly conn BY RITA L. IRWIN anotheran( the last 4 years, five women ist-teachers' and I have been amining gender issues in art ucation through an action roject2. The collaboratively roject has enabled us to y integrate theory, practice and ot only for the practice of it for the practice of artmaking. re collaboratively created an quilt for a group exhibition. The lesigned to symbolize many uding: our social concern for ies, our collaborative processes, ise of community as artistn the following account I wish to share my reflections upon our installation not only as a visual-centered product but more importantly, as a listener-centered process. To do this, I integrate ideas from d, such as connective aesthetics 95) and enlightened listening ;9) with ideas from feminist (Sandell, 1991), including caring, . s, community, modeling, ractice and confirmation 1984,1992). These ideas are lected and supportive of one d may offer teachers interested
Identification of Vibrotactile Patterns Encoding Obstacle Distance Information

Delivering distance information of nearby obstacles from sensors embedded in a white cane - in addition to the intrinsic mechanical feedback from the cane - can aid the visually impaired in ambulating independently. Haptics is a common modality for conveying such information to cane users, typically in the form of vibrotactile signals. In this context, we investigated the effect of tactile rendering methods, tactile feedback configurations and directions of tactile flow on the identification of obstacle distance. Three tactile rendering methods with temporal variation only, spatio-temporal variation and spatial/temporal/intensity variation were investigated for two vibration feedback configurations. Results showed a significant interaction between tactile rendering method and feedback configuration. Spatio-temporal variation generally resulted in high correct identification rates for both feedback configurations. In the case of the four-finger vibration, tactile rendering with spatial/temporal/intensity variation also resulted in high distance identification rate. Further, participants expressed their preference for the four-finger vibration over the single-finger vibration in a survey. Both preferred rendering methods with spatio-temporal variation and spatial/temporal/intensity variation for the four-finger vibration could convey obstacle distance information with low workload. Overall, the presented findings provide valuable insights and guidance for the design of haptic displays for electronic travel aids for the visually impaired.
Osteopontin Expression Is Required for Myofibroblast Differentiation

Osteopontin (OPN) is a multifunctional cytokine that is strongly expressed in healing wounds and fibrotic lesions, both of which are characterized by the formation of myofibroblasts. We examined the role of OPN in myofibroblast differentiation induced by the profibrotic cytokine transforming growth factor-β1. In cultured cardiac or dermal fibroblasts treated with transforming growth factor-β1, there was a 2- to 5-fold increase in the expression of the myofibroblast markers α-smooth muscle actin and extradomain A fibronectin but no significant increase of these proteins in OPN-null fibroblasts. Phalloidin staining for actin filaments and immunostaining for α-smooth muscle actin and focal adhesion proteins showed reduced stress fibers, focal adhesions, and lamellipodia in OPN-null fibroblasts compared with wild-type cells. OPN-null fibroblasts exhibited 40% to 60% less spreading, 50% less resistance to detachment by shear force, and a ≈3-fold reduction in collagen gel contraction. These defects were partially rescued by ectopic expression of OPN. Mass spectrometric analysis of proteins in focal adhesions formed on collagen type I beads revealed an enrichment of HMGB1 protein in wild-type cells, whereas HMGB1 was not detected in OPN-null cells. Treatment of wild-type cells with small interfering RNA to knock down OPN reduced transforming growth factor-β1–induced α-smooth muscle actin and HMGB1 to levels observed in OPN-null cells. These studies demonstrate that OPN is required for the differentiation and activity of myofibroblasts formed in response to the profibrotic cytokine transforming growth factor-β1.
Randomized, double‐blind clinical trial, controlled with placebo, of the toxicology of chronic melatonin treatment

The objective of the present study was to assess the toxicology of melatonin (10 mg), administered for 28 days to 40 volunteers randomly assigned to groups receiving either melatonin (N=30) or placebo (N=10) in a double‐blind fashion. The following measurements were performed: polysomnography (PSG), laboratory examinations, including complete blood count, urinalysis, sodium, potassium and calcium levels, total protein levels, albumin, blood glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, high‐density lipoprotein (HDL), low‐density lipoprotein (LDL), and very low‐density lipoprotein (VLDL), urea, creatinine, uric acid, glutamic‐oxalacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamic‐pyruvate transaminase (GPT), bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, gama‐glutamic transaminase (GGT), T3, T4, TSH, LH/FSH, cortisol, and melatonin serum concentrations. In addition, the Epworth Somnolence Scale (ESS) and a sleep diary (SD) were also applied to the volunteers 1 wk before each PSG. In addition, the volunteers were asked about possible side effects (SE) that appeared during the treatment. The study was carried out according to the following timetable: Visit 0, filling out the term of consent and inclusion criteria; Visit 1, PSG, laboratory examinations, ESS, SD, melatonin serum concentrations; Visit 2, SD, melatonin serum concentrations, SE; Visit 3, melatonin serum concentrations, PSG, ESS, SE; Visit 4, laboratory examinations, SE, melatonin serum concentrations, SD; and Visit 5, PSG, ESS, SE. Analysis of the PSG showed a statistically significant reduction of stage 1 of sleep in the melatonin group. No other differences between the placebo and melatonin groups were obtained. In the present study we did not observe, according to the parameters analyzed, any toxicological effect that might compromise the use of melatonin at a dose of 10 mg for the period of time utilized in this study.
Capacity Enhancement of Ad Hoc Networks Using a New Single-RF Compact Beamforming Scheme

This paper proposes a new single-radio-frequency (RF) compact beamforming scheme that forms the beam by adjusting variable loads. In a conventional phased-array beamformer, half-wavelength antenna spacing is required in order to achieve a reasonable performance without taking into account the mutual coupling. On the other hand, a conventional electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) system requires smaller antenna spacing, but it provides a lower beamforming performance compared to the phased-array beamformer. The proposed method delivers a beamforming performance close to that of a phased array, without having any constraints on the antenna spacing. In the proposed structure, the RF front-end is connected to each antenna via a tunable load, whereas all antenna elements are also terminated by other tunable reactive loads. Simulation results confirm that the proposed scheme provides better interference suppression and achieves more average capacity compared to ESPAR technique. To further validate the beamforming ability of the proposed method, a testbed with 1/20 of the wavelength antenna spacing was fabricated. A good agreement is observed between the measurement and simulation results.
Embryonic Stem Cells Facilitate the Isolation of Persistent Clonal Cardiovascular Progenitor Cell Lines and Leukemia Inhibitor Factor Maintains Their Self-Renewal and Myocardial Differentiation Potential in vitro

Compelling evidence for the existence of somatic stem cells in the heart of different mammalian species has been provided by numerous groups; however, so far it has not been possible to maintain these cells as self-renewing and phenotypically stable clonal cell lines in vitro. Thus, we sought to identify a surrogate stem cell niche for the isolation and persistent maintenance of stable clonal cardiovascular progenitor cell lines, enabling us to study the mechanism of self-renewal and differentiation in these cells. Using postnatal murine hearts with a selectable marker as the stem cell source and embryonic stem cells and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF)-secreting fibroblasts as a surrogate niche, we succeeded in the isolation of stable clonal cardiovascular progenitor cell lines. These cell lines self-renew in an LIF-dependent manner. They express both stemness transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog and early myocardial transcription factors Nkx2.5, GATA4, and Isl-1 at the same time. Upon LIF deprivation, they exclusively differentiate to functional cardiomyocytes and endothelial and smooth muscle cells, suggesting that these cells are mesodermal intermediates already committed to the cardiogenic lineage. Cardiovascular progenitor cell lines can be maintained for at least 149 passages over 7 years without phenotypic changes, in the presence of LIF-secreting fibroblasts. Isolation of wild-type cardiovascular progenitor cell lines from adolescent and old mice has finally demonstrated the general feasibility of this strategy for the isolation of phenotypically stable somatic stem cell lines.
The entropy distance between the Wiener and stationary Gaussian measures

Investigating the entropy distance between the Wiener measure, W-t0,W- (tau) and stationary Gaussian measures, Q(t0, tau) on the space of continuous functions C[t(0) - tau, t(0) + tau], we show that in some cases this distance can essentially be computed. This is done by explicitly computing a related quantity which in effect is a valid approximation of the entropy distance, provided it is sufficiently small; this will be the case if tau/t(0) is small. We prove that H(Wt(0, tau), Q(t0, tau)) > tau/2(t0), and then show that tau/2t(0) is essentially the typical case of such entropy distance, provided the mean and the variance of the stationary measures are set "appropriately". Utilizing a similar technique, we estimate the entropy distance between the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck measure and other stationary Gaussian measures on C[1 - tau, 1 + tau]. Using this result combined with a variant of the triangle inequality for the entropy distance, which we devise, yields an upper bound on the entropy distance between stationary Gaussian measures which are absolutely continuous with respect to the Wiener measure.
Operator formalism for double quantum NMR

An operator formalism is presented which conveniently treats the interaction of a spin-l nucleus wi th a weak radio frequency field, The Hamiltonian in the rotating frame is X = tow Iz w, Ix + (1/3 )wQ X [3I} -1(1 + I) I, where tow is the resonance offset (tow = wo w), WI is the intensity of the rf field, and wQ is the quadrupolar splitting. Nine fictitious spin 1/2 operators, I p" where p = x ,y, z and i = 1,2,3, are defined where p refers to the transition between two of the levels and i the Cartesian component. The operators, which are the generators of the group S U(3), satisfy spin-l/2 commutation relations [IpJ' Ip.kl = i Ip,I' where j,k,l = 1,2,3 or cyclic permutation. Thus each p defines a threedimensional space termed p space. For irradiation near one of the quadrupolar satellites, for example, ~W = wQ + 6w with 6w, w, <wQ' it is shown that the effective Hamiltonian can be written X::::: -6wlx,) V'2 w, Ix", i,e" a fictitious spin-l/2 Hamiltonian in x space with effective magnetogyric ratio y along the 3 (resonance offset) axis and V'2 y along the I (rf field) axis, For irradiation near the center we can effect double quantum transitions between m = ± I, The formalism allows us to write the effective operators for these transitions, For example, if we take ~w = 6w again with 6w, w,<wQ we find the effective double quantum (DQ) Hamiltonian XlJQ::::: -2 6w I"l-(wilwQ) 1,,3' Thus the z space is referred to as the double quantum frame with effective magnetogyric ratio 2')' along the 1 (resonance offset) axis and (w,lwQ)y along the 3 (rf field) axis. The limiting expressions are compared with exact calculations for arbitrary ~l done by high speed computer. The theory is applied to various cases of irradiation including our previously reported technique of Fourier transform double quantum NMR. Various pulse sequences for preparing, storing, and maintaining the evolution of double quantum coherence are analyzed for single crystal and polycrystalline samples, Finally, the effects of rf phase on the double quantum phase are presented briefly, and the possibility of double quantum spin lockhg is analyzed.
Insulin stimulation of SREBP-1c processing in transgenic rat hepatocytes requires p70 S6-kinase

Insulin activates sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c) in liver, thereby increasing fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis. We created a line of transgenic rats that produce epitope-tagged human SREBP-1c in liver under control of the constitutive apolipoprotein E promoter/enhancer. This system allows us to dissect the pathway by which insulin stimulates SREBP-1c processing without interference by the insulin-mediated increase in SREBP-1c mRNA. Rats are used because freshly isolated rat hepatocytes respond much more robustly to insulin than do mouse hepatocytes. The data reveal that insulin-mediated stimulation of SREBP-1c processing requires the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), which also is required for insulin-mediated SREBP-1c mRNA induction. However, in contrast to mRNA induction, insulin stimulation of SREBP-1c processing is blocked by an inhibitor of p70 S6-kinase. The data indicate that the pathways for insulin enhancement of SREBP-1c mRNA and proteolytic processing diverge after mTORC1. Stimulation of processing requires the mTORC1 target p70 S6-kinase, whereas induction of mRNA bypasses this enzyme. Insulin stimulation of both processes is blocked by glucagon. The transgenic rat system will be useful in further defining the molecular mechanism for insulin stimulation of lipid synthesis in liver in normal and diabetic states.
A Tale of Two Daily Build Projects

Daily build testing has proved to be an effective tool for managing integration problems. Introducing it however requires major changes to the whole development process and organizational culture. In this paper, we tell a tale of two organizations being in the process of introducing daily build practice into their organizations: one successful and one unsuccessful. Our results show that a daily build process is not amenable for a step-wise implementation. The majority of its requisite components must be in place before the process is introduced.