Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization and performance evaluation for proportional delay differentiated services

We consider a proportional delay model for Internet differentiated services. Under this model, an ISP can control the "spacing" of waiting times between different classes of traffic. Specifically, the ISP tries to ensure that the average waiting time of class i traffic relative to that of class i-1 traffic is consistently a specifiable ratio. If the ratio is less than one, the ISP can legitimately charge users of class i traffic a higher tariff rate (compared to the rate for class i-1 traffic), since class i users consistently enjoy better performance than class i-1 users. We use time-dependent priority scheduling to realize the proportional delay model. We formally characterize the feasible regions in which given delay ratios can be achieved. Moreover a set of scheduling parameters for obtaining the desired delay ratios can be determined by an efficient control algorithm. Experiments are carried out to illustrate the short-term, medium-term and long-term relative waiting time performances for different service classes.
Towards an Accurate Control of Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustor

Circulating fluidized bed combustion is a widely used technology because of its ability to burn a wide variety of fuels efficiently and in an environmentally acceptable manner. To guarantee optimal combustion performances, combustion stability is essential. This paper proposes a comparative approach to define a suitable control strategy for an accurate control of fuel combustion. Several control laws are therefore defined and applied on a dynamic nonlinear model, based on a pilot plant and representative of the main combustion phenomena: a conventional PID, a linear optimal control, a robust H∞ approach and a nonlinear control.
Software Architecture Improvement thru Test-Driven Development : An Empirical Study

Despite a half century of advances, the software construction industry still shows signs of immaturity. Professional software development organizations continue to struggle to produce reliable software in a predictable and repeatable manner. While a variety of development practices are advocated that might improve the situation, developers are often reluctant to adopt new, potentially better practices based on anecdotal evidence alone. As a result, empirical software engineering has gained credibility as a discipline that provides scientific data about practice efficacy on which developers can make critical decisions. This research proposes to apply empirical software engineering techniques to evaluate a new approach that offers the potential to significantly improve the state of software construction. Test-driven development (TDD) is a disciplined software development practice that focuses on software design by first writing automated unit-tests followed by production code in short, frequent iterations. TDD focuses the developer’s attention on a software’s interface and behavior while growing the software architecture organically. TDD has gained recent attention with the popularity of the Extreme Programming agile software development methodology. Although TDD has been applied sporad­ ically in various forms for several decades, possible definitions have only recently been proposed. Advocates of TDD rely primarily on anecdotal evidence with rela­ tively little empirical evidence of the benefits of the practice. A small number of studies have looked at TDD only as a testing practice to remove defects. However, there is no research on the broader efficacy of TDD. This research will be the first comprehensive evaluation of how TDD effects overall software architecture quality beyond just defect density. My hypothesis is that TDD improves overall software quality including charac­ teristics such as extensibility, reusability, and maintainability without significantly impacting cost and programmer productivity. I intend to examine this hypothesis by designing and administering a series of longitudinal empirical studies with un­ dergraduate students and professional programmers. Controlled experiments will be conducted in a set of undergraduate courses. Student programmers will be taught to write automated unit-tests integrated with course topics using a new approach which I am calling test-driven learning (TDL). Formal experiments will then compare the quality of software produced with TDD
Structure and Thermomechanical Properties of Partially Stabilized Zirconia in the CaO‐ZrO2 System

Partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) ceramics in the system CaO-ZrO2 were characterized. The microstructure, as revealed by optical microscopy, consisted of grains of pure ZrO2 distributed in a matrix of fully stabilized material. Electron microscopy showed that the matrix grains have a complex substructure of 1000-A domains of cubic and monoclinic ZrO2. The grains appeared to fit Ubbelohde’s concept of a hybrid single crystal. Evidence obtained indicated that the substructure provides an effective stress-relieving mechanism during thermal shock. It is proposed that initiation of phase inversion in pure ZrO2 domains, even at subtransition temperatures (by thermal stresses), creates an extremely large microcrack density. On the basis of Hasselman’s thermal-shock criterion, only quasi-static crack propagation occurs during thermal shock of PSZ; evidence is presented to support this concept.
Minkowski Valuations

Centroid and difference bodies define SL(n) equivariant operators on convex bodies and these operators are valuations with respect to Minkowski addition. We derive a classification of SL(n) equivariant Minkowski valuations and give a characterization of these operators. We also derive a classification of SL(n) contravariant Minkowski valuations and of Lp-Minkowski valuations. 2000 AMS subject classification: 52A20 (52B11, 52B45) Centroid, difference, and projection bodies are fundamental notions in the affine geometry of convex bodies. The most important affine isoperimetric inequalities (and open problems) are formulated using these bodies. We show that the operators defined by these bodies together with the identity are basically the only examples of homogeneous, SL(n) equivariant or contravariant Minkowski valuations. The centroid body ΓK of a convex body K ⊂ R is a classical notion from geometry (see [5], [16], [36]) that has attracted much attention in recent years (see [4], [6], [8], [20], [21], [25], [27], [31]). If K is o-symmetric, then ΓK is the body whose boundary consists of the locus of the centroids of the halves of K formed when K is cut by hyperplanes through the origin. In general it can be defined in the following way. Let K denote the set of convex bodies (that is, of compact, convex sets) in R, and let K o denote the set of convex bodies in R that contain the origin. A convex body K is uniquely determined by its support function h(K, ·), where h(K, v) = max{v · x : x ∈ K}, v ∈ R, and where v · x denotes the standard inner product of v and x. The moment body MK of K ∈ K o is the convex body whose support function is given by
Down‐regulation of α6 integrin, an anti‐oncogene product, by functional cooperation of H‐Ras and c‐Myc

The molecular basis of cooperation of H‐Ras and c‐Myc in regulating cellular behaviour, such as cell adhesiveness, is still poorly understood. To investigate the role of H‐Ras and c‐Myc in cell adhesiveness, a constitutively active H‐RasV12 (H‐RasV12) and c‐Myc were stably expressed, singly or in combination in a haematopoietic cell line, and the expression and activity of cell adhesion molecules were monitored.
Molecular dynamics simulation study of carbon nanotube welding under electron beam irradiation

The simulation of electron beam induced welding of crossed carbon nanotubes is considered with classical molecular dynamics simulations. Covalent junctions are predicted to form between various types of carbon nanotubes that contain many defects and are likely to be representative of experimentally welded nanotubes under highly nonequilibrium synthesis conditions. The effect of the junction structure and hydrogen termination of dangling bonds on the mechanical responses of the junctions is also considered.
Efficacy of prophylactic mastectomy in women with unilateral breast cancer: a cancer research network project.

PURPOSE We investigated the efficacy of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) in reducing contralateral breast cancer incidence and breast cancer mortality among women who have already been diagnosed with breast cancer. METHODS This retrospective cohort study comprised approximately 50,000 women who were diagnosed with unilateral breast cancer during 1979 to 1999. Using computerized data confirmed by chart review, we identified 1,072 women (1.9%) who had CPM. We obtained covariate information for these women and for a sample of 317 women who did not undergo CPM. RESULTS The median time from initial breast cancer diagnosis to the end of follow-up was 5.7 years. Contralateral breast cancer developed in 0.5% of women with CPM, metastatic disease developed in 10.5%, and subsequent breast cancer developed in 12.4%; 8.1% died from breast cancer. Contralateral breast cancer developed in 2.7% of women without CPM, and 11.7% died of breast cancer. After adjustment for initial breast cancer characteristics, treatment, and breast cancer risk factors, the hazard ratio (HR) for the occurrence of contralateral breast cancer after CPM was 0.03 (95% CI, 0.006 to 0.13). After adjustment for breast cancer characteristics and treatment, the HRs for the relationship of CPM with death from breast cancer, with death from other causes, and with all-cause mortality were 0.57 (95% CI, 0.45 to 0.72), 0.78 (95% CI, 0.57 to 1.06), and 0.60 (95% CI, 0.50 to 0.72), respectively. CONCLUSION CPM seems to protect against the development of contralateral breast cancer, and although women who underwent CPM had relatively low all-cause mortality, CPM also was associated with decreased breast cancer mortality.
Modeling social groups in crowds using Common Ground Theory

Social interaction and group coordination are important factors in the simulation of human crowd behavior. To date, few simulation methods have been informed by models of human group behavior from the social science studies. In this paper we advance a computational model informed by Common Ground (CG) Theory that both inherits the social realism provided by the CG model and is computationally tractable for a large number of groups and individuals. The task of navigation in a group is viewed as performing a joint activity among agents, which requires effective coordination among group members. Our model includes both macro and micro coordination, addressing the joint plans, and the actions for coordination respectively. These coordination activities and plans inform the high-level route and walking strategies of the agents. We demonstrate a series of studies to show the qualitative and quantitative differences in simulation results with and without incorporation of the CG model.
Synthesis and Modeling of Spiral Inductor at 90nm Technology

Spiral Inductors suffer from complex loss mechanism in the metal and substrate and consume large chip area making them difficult to characterize and expensive to implement. The performance of on chip spiral inductors is a limiting factor. The spiral inductor design space is complex and innovative optimization and synthesis techniques are required to maximize performance. Numerous analog circuits such as Low Noise Amplifiers (LNA), Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCO) and on chip filters depend on inductors with optimized design parameters. Consequently, the modeling of automated design of spiral inductors is critical to the successful realization of mixed signal systems. RF/analog circuits depend on inductors with optimized design parameters to enhance performance of integrated spiral inductors is increased in the 100 MHz to 10 GHz range where the low frequency quality factor (omega l/r) of the inductor is large. To reduce the time required for the synthesis and modeling of the spiral inductor new tools has been developed which are fast and much more accurate. In this paper synthesis of an Inductor is described using new EM solver.
A new N-parallel updating method of the Hopfield-type neural network for N-queens problem

In the previous N-parallel updating methods of the Hopfield-type neural network for N-queens problem, N/spl times/N neurons have been grouped into N groups. Each group composed of N neurons which are located in a same horizontal line (column) or in a same diagonal line. However, these method did not give convergence results of 100% in all size of N. Also, they required a large convergence time steps. In our work, we propose a new N-parallel updating method of the Hopfield-type neural network for N-queens problem, in which, a new grouping method for N neurons composed in the same group has been adopted. As a result, simulation results of the proposed method show a best performance than the previous generally.
Finding low-tension communities

Motivated by applications that arise in online social media and collaboration networks, there has been a lot of work on community-search. In this class of problems, the goal is to find a subgraph that satisfies a certain connectivity requirement and contains a given collection of seed nodes. In this paper, we extend the community-search problem by associating each individual with a profile. The profile is a numeric score that quantifies the position of an individual with respect to a topic. We adopt a model where each individual starts with a latent profile and arrives to a conformed profile through a dynamic conformation process, which takes into account the individual's social interaction and the tendency to conform with one's social environment. In this framework, social tension arises from the differences between the conformed profiles of neighboring individuals as well as from the differences between individuals' conformed and latent profiles. Given a network of individuals, their latent profiles and this conformation process, we extend the community-search problem by requiring the output subgraphs to have low social tension. From the technical point of view, we study the complexity of this problem and propose algorithms for solving it effectively. Our experimental evaluation in a number of social networks reveals the efficacy and efficiency of our methods.
Research on the mathematical model of fluid jet polishing

A novel polishing and shaping process called fluid jet polishing (FJP) is introduced in this paper. Different from classical polishing methods, the material is removed by collision and shearing actions between the abrasive particles and the work piece in FJP, and the classical Preston Equation does not represent the polishing process correctly. It is necessary to establish a new mathematical model to do this. By using monofactorial experimental method, the important process parameters of FJP including working pressure, processing time and the rotational speed of the work piece were investigated in experiments. Based on the experimental results, the expressions between the important process parameters and the amount of removed material were constructed through data fitting. And then we put forward a new mathematical model to describe the polishing process of FJP, and control the amount of removed material quantitatively. The construction of this equation is a theoretical basis to realize numerical controlled fluid jet polishing, and foundation of applying this technology to modern optical fabrication
Low-fat dietary pattern and cancer incidence in the Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND The Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification (DM) Randomized Controlled Trial evaluated the effects of a low-fat dietary pattern on chronic disease incidence, with breast cancer and colorectal cancer as primary outcomes. The trial protocol also listed ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer as outcomes that may be favorably affected by the intervention. METHODS A total of 48,835 postmenopausal women were randomly assigned during 1993-1998 to a DM intervention (n = 19,541) or comparison (usual diet; n = 29,294) group and followed up for an average of 8.1 years. The intervention goal was to reduce total fat intake to 20% of energy and to increase consumption of vegetables, fruits, and grains. Cancer outcomes were verified by pathology report review. We used weighted log-rank tests to compare incidence of invasive cancers of the ovary and endometrium, total invasive cancer, and invasive cancers at other sites between the groups. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Ovarian cancer risk was lower in the intervention than in the comparison group (P = .03). Although the overall ovarian cancer hazard ratio (HR) was not statistically significantly less than 1.0, the hazard ratio decreased with increasing intervention duration (P(trend) = . 01). For the first 4 years, the risk for ovarian cancer was similar in the intervention and control groups (0.52 cases per 1000 person-years in the intervention group versus 0.45 per 1000 person-years in the comparison group; HR = 1.16, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.73 to 1.84); over the next 4.1 years, the risk was lower in the intervention group (0.38 cases per 1000 person-years in the intervention group versus 0.64 per 1000 person-years in the comparison group; HR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.38 to 0.96). Risk of cancer of the endometrium did not differ between the groups (P = .18). The estimated risk of total invasive cancer was slightly lower in the intervention group than in the control group (HR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.89 to 1.01; P = .10). CONCLUSIONS A low-fat dietary pattern may reduce the incidence of ovarian cancer among postmenopausal women.
Efficient online learning with individual learning-rates for phoneme sequence recognition

We describe a fast and efficient online algorithm for phoneme sequence speech recognition. Our method is using a discriminative training to update the model parameters one utterance at a time. The algorithm is based on recent advances in confidence-weighted learning and it maintains one learning rate per feature. The algorithm is evaluated using the TIMIT database and was found to achieve the lowest phoneme error rate compared to other discriminative and generative models. Additionally, our algorithm converges in less iterations over the training set compared with other online methods.
In vivo influence of extract from Aronia melanocarpa on the erythrocyte membranes in patients with hypercholesterolemia

Summary Background Hypercholesterolemia increases cholesterol concentration in erythrocyte membranes, which results in decrease of membrane fluidity and decreases the deformability of red blood cells. The fruits of Arona melanocarpa contains many of polyphenols and other compounds that have beneficial health effects. Material/Methods The aim of the study was to estimate the influence of 2-month supplementation of extract from Aronia melanocarpa (100 mg Aronox, three times per day) on cholesterol concentration, lipid peroxidation, membrane fluidity, level of thiol groups and activity of ATPase in erythrocytes from patients with hypercholesterolemia. The study involved 25 patients with hypercholesterolemia without pharmacological treatment and 20 healthy individuals as a control group. Blood samples were collected before, and after 1 and 2 months of Aronia administration. Results The 2-month Aronia supplementation resulted in a decrease of cholesterol concentration (by 22%) and a decrease of lipid peroxidation (by 40%), and an increase of membrane fluidity. No statistically significant increase of the concentration of thiol groups and of ATPase activity were observed. Conclusions Our study shows that supplementation of extract from Aronia melanocarpa has a beneficial effect on rheological properties of erythrocytes.
Random Walk and Feedback on Scholarly Network

The approach of random walk on heterogeneous bibliographic graph has been proven effective in the previous studies. In this study, by using various kinds of positive and negative feedbacks, we propose the novel method to enhance the performance of meta-path-based random walk for scholarly recommendation. We hypothesize that the nodes on the heterogeneous graph should play different roles in terms of different queries or various kinds implicit/explicit feedbacks. Meanwhile, we prove that the node usefulness probability has significant impact for the path importance. When positive and negative feedback information is available, we can calculate each node’s proximity to the feedback nodes, and use the proximity to infer the usefulness probability of each node via the sigmoid function. By combining the transition probability and the usefulness probability of nodes on the path instance, we propose the new random walk function to compute the importance of each path instance. Experimental results with ACM full-text corpus show that the proposed method (considering the node usefulness) significantly outperforms the previous approaches.
Perioperative Echocardiographic Examination for Ventricular Assist Device Implantation

Ventricular assist devices (VADs) are systems for mechanical circulatory support of the patient with severe heart failure. Perioperative transesophageal echocardiography is a major component of patient management, and important for surgical and anesthetic decision making. In this review we present the rationale and available data for a comprehensive echocardiographic assessment of patients receiving a VAD. In addition to the standard examination, device-specific pre-, intra-, and postoperative considerations are essential to the echocardiographic evaluation. These include: (a) the pre-VAD insertion examination of the heart and large vessels to exclude significant aortic regurgitation, tricuspid regurgitation, mitral stenosis, patent foramen ovale, or other cardiac abnormality that could lead to right-to-left shunt after left VAD placement, intracardiac thrombi, ventricular scars, pulmonic regurgitation, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary embolism, and atherosclerotic disease in the ascending aorta; and to assess right ventricular function; and (b) the post-VAD insertion examination of the device and reassessment of the heart and large vessels. The examination of the device aims to confirm completeness of device and heart deairing, cannulas alignment and patency, and competency of device valves using two-dimensional, and color, continuous and pulsed wave Doppler modalities. The goal for the heart examination after implantation should be to exclude aortic regurgitation, or an uncovered right-to-left shunt; and to assess right ventricular function, left ventricular unloading, and the effect of device settings on global heart function. The variety of VAD models with different basic and operation principles requires specific echocardiographic assessment targeted to the characteristics of the implanted device.
A surface-potential-based high-voltage compact LDMOS transistor model

In this paper, a surface potential-based compact model is described for high-voltage LDMOS transistors. This model combines the low-voltage MOS region with the high-voltage drift region of an LDMOS transistor. The model includes the effect of the gate extending over the drift region as well as its temperature behavior and geometry scaling. In contrast to subcircuit models, the model has no internal node, since the so-called internal drain voltage is explicitly expressed in terms of the external terminal voltages. By use of an explicit formulation of the surface potential, the dc model thus combines the benefits of short computation times and robustness with accuracy. A comparison with dc measurements shows that the dc model provides an accurate description in all regimes of operation, ranging from subthreshold to super-threshold. In addition, a nodal charge model is derived, to account for the time-dependent behavior of the device. Capacitances obtained from high-frequency measurements show a good agreement with those obtained from the nodal charge model.