Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast General Distributed Transactions with Opacity

Transactions can simplify distributed applications by hiding data distribution, concurrency, and failures from the application developer. Ideally the developer would see the abstraction of a single large machine that runs transactions sequentially and never fails. This requires the transactional subsystem to provide opacity (strict serializability for both committed and aborted transactions), as well as transparent fault tolerance with high availability. As even the best abstractions are unlikely to be used if they perform poorly, the system must also provide high performance. Existing distributed transactional designs either weaken this abstraction or are not designed for the best performance within a data center. This paper extends the design of FaRM --- which provides strict serializability only for committed transactions --- to provide opacity while maintaining FaRM's high throughput, low latency, and high availability within a modern data center. It uses timestamp ordering based on real time with clocks synchronized to within tens of microseconds across a cluster, and a failover protocol to ensure correctness across clock master failures. FaRM with opacity can commit 5.4 million neworder transactions per second when running the TPC-C transaction mix on 90 machines with 3-way replication.
Cutting Edge: γδ T Cells Provide Help to B Cells with Altered Clonotypes and Are Capable of Inducing Ig Gene Hypermutation1

It has not been resolved whether γδ T cells can collaborate with germinal center B cells and support Ig hypermutation during an Ab response to a truly defined T-dependent Ag. In this study, we show that in the absence of αβ T cells, immunization with the well-defined T-dependent Ag, (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl) acetyl (NP) conjugate, was able to induce Ig hypermutation. However, the clonotypes of B cells responding to NP were dramatically altered in TCR β−/− mice. Unlike B cells in wild-type mice that use canonical VDJ rearrangements, most NP-responding B cells in mutant mice use analog genes of the J558 gene family. In addition, the majority of anti-NP Abs produced in mutant mice use κL chain instead of λ1L chain, which dominates in mice of Ighb background. Thus, the B cell population that collaborates with γδ T cells is distinct from B cells interacting with conventional αβ Th cells.
Establishment of proteome spot profiles and comparative analysis of the red and green phenotypes of Bon Rouge pear (Pyrus communis L.) leaves

The ‘Bon Rouge’ pear (Pyrus communis L.) cultivar is characterized by high levels of anthocyanins, the pigments responsible for the red leaf and red fruit skin phenotype. Branches of ‘Bon Rouge’ pear trees planted in commercial orchards often revert to the original green phenotype. The study aimed at establishing proteome maps of ‘Bon Rouge’ pear leaves and at comparing the proteomes of the red and green phenotypes of these leaves. In this study, total proteins extracted from red and green leaves were resolved on two-dimensional (2D) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and stained with coomassie brilliant blue (CBB) to establish proteome maps. An average of 183 and 173 protein spots were detected in the red and green phenotypes, respectively. Using mass spectrometry, 12 differentially expressed proteins, as determined by the comparative PDQuest analysis of the two phenotypes, were positively identified. The identifications were then validated using the publicly available apple expressed sequence tag (EST) database. One of the proteins that was up regulated in the green phenotype was identified as phytochrome B, a protein involved with the inhibition of anthocyanin synthesis. Overall, the present data showed a predominant increase of photosynthesis-related proteins in the green leaves.
Barriers to and Facilitators of the Use of Mobile Health Apps From a Security Perspective: Mixed-Methods Study

Background A large number of mobile health (mHealth) apps have been created to help users to manage their health or receive health care services. Many of these mHealth apps have proven to be helpful for maintaining or improving their users’ health. However, many people still choose not to use mHealth apps or only use them for a short period. One of the reasons behind this lack of use is the concern for their health information security and privacy. Objective The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between users’ characteristics and their security and privacy concerns and to identify desired security features in mHealth apps, which could reduce these concerns. Methods A questionnaire was designed and validated by the research team. This questionnaire was then used to determine mobile app users’ security and privacy concerns regarding personal health data in mHealth apps as well as the security features most users’ desire. A semistructured interview was used to identify barriers to and facilitators of adopting mHealth apps. Results In total, 117 randomly selected study participants from a large pool took part in this study and provided responses to the validated questionnaire and the semistructured interview questions. The results indicate that most study participants did have concerns about their privacy when using mHealth apps. They also expressed their preferences regarding several security features in mHealth apps, such as regular password updates, remote wipe, user consent, and access control. An association between their demographic characteristics and their concerns and preferences in security and privacy was identified; however, in most cases, the differences among the different demographic groups were not statistically significant, except for a few very specific aspects. These study participants also indicated that the cost of apps and lack of security features in mHealth apps were barriers for adoption, whereas having free apps, strong but easy-to-use security features, and clear user protection privacy policies might encourage them to use mHealth apps in their health management. Conclusions This questionnaire and interview study verified the security and privacy concerns of mHealth app users, identified the desired security and privacy features, and determined specific barriers to and facilitators of users adopting mHealth apps. The results can be used to guide mHealth app developers to create apps that would be welcomed by users.
Distribution of phyto - and bacterioplankton growth and biomass parameters, dissolved inorganic nutrients and free amino acids during a spring bloom in the Oosterschelde basin, The Netherlands

Distribution of phytoand bacterioplankton growth and biomass parameters were followed during a spring bloom in the marine Oosterschelde basin, Netherlands. Several other biotic and abiotic parameters were measured. During the measuring period from 4 April until 4 June, concentrations of the dissolved nutrients silicate, ammonium, and nitrate decreased, while dissolved phosphate tehded to increase. Concentrations of chlorophyll a increased with a distinct maximum in mid May during a bloom of the haptophycean Phaeocystispouchetii. In the shallower part of the basin maxima of particulate primary production and bacterioplankton production were reached at the end of Apr~l during a mixed bloom of diatoms of the genera Cryptornonas, Skeletonerna and Thalassiosira as well as small flagellates. In the central basin, the most pronounced particulate primary production was observed during the P. pouchetii bloom. Relatively low percentages of extracellular release of total primary production were observed during and after this bloom. Percentage of bacterial incorporation of total exudates was high at the beginning of the experiment and decreased until the P. pouchetii bloom, when it increased again. Maximum bacterial productivities and biomasses were recorded during the decline of the P. pouchetii bloom. Overall oxygen consumption rates seemed to be determined by phytoplankton biomass and by bacterioplankton production, but not by phytoplankton production or bacterioplankton biomass. Concentrations of dissolved free amino acids (DFAA) tended to decrease until the end of the large P. pouchetii bloom when an increase was observed; lowest concentrations were durlng this bloom. Alanine, aspartate, glycine, leucine and serine were always quantitatively the most important amino aclds; during the P. pouchetii bloom also glutamate. Mole percentages of aspartate and methionine increased at the end of this bloom.
Extraction of Blood Vessels in Fundus Images of 
Retina through Hybrid Segmentation Approach

A hybrid segmentation algorithm is proposed is this paper to extract the blood vesselsfrom the fundus image of retina. Fundus camera captures the posterior surface of the eye and thecaptured images are used to diagnose diseases, like Diabetic Retinopathy, Retinoblastoma, Retinalhaemorrhage, etc. Segmentation or extraction of blood vessels is highly required, since the analysisof vessels is crucial for diagnosis, treatment planning, and execution of clinical outcomes in the fieldof ophthalmology. It is derived from the literature review that no unique segmentation algorithm issuitable for images of different eye-related diseases and the degradation of the vessels differ frompatient to patient. If the blood vessels are extracted from the fundus images, it will make thediagnosis process easier. Hence, this paper aims to frame a hybrid segmentation algorithmexclusively for the extraction of blood vessels from the fundus image. The proposed algorithm ishybridized with morphological operations, bottom hat transform, multi-scale vessel enhancement(MSVE) algorithm, and image fusion. After execution of the proposed segmentation algorithm, thearea-based morphological operator is applied to highlight the blood vessels. To validate theproposed algorithm, the results are compared with the ground truth of the High-Resolution Fundus(HRF) images dataset. Upon comparison, it is inferred that the proposed algorithm segments theblood vessels with more accuracy than the existing algorithms.
Short- and long-distance transport of boric acid in plants.

SUMMARY The molecular weight and ether-water partition coefficient of boric acid are consistent with a PB(OH)3 in plant cell membranes of at least 10-6 cm s-1. This permeability coefficient is high enough to account for the measured magnitude of boric acid fluxes at many plant cell membranes. The use of active transport of boric acid to maintain B distribution across a membrane away from thermodynamic equilibrium is consequently likely to be energetically expensive. The content of m-diols (with which boric acid can form complexes) in cell walls and inside the cells varies widely between different plant species without any obvious correlation with either total B content or with the B content at which deficiency (in B-requirers) or toxicity symptoms are manifested. B distribution at the cell level depends on the relative extents of passive permeation, active transport and cisdiol formation; regulations may be in response to total intracellular B rather than free boric acid. The net uptake of boric acid by intact vascular land plants is influenced by the rate of transpiration; while transport of B within the xylem is probably directly proportional to the rate of transpiration, neither whole plant B uptake nor transfer from root tissue into the xylem exhibit such a simple relationship. Redistribution of B in the phloem from transpirational termini is very limited. This limitation could result from the toxicity of B (which requires a low B concentration in the translocation stream relative to other nutrients and to sink requirements) or to ‘counter-current distribution’ of B from the phloem to the adjacent xylem stream (low in B) through the B-permeable sieve-tube plasmalemma. The transport of B is discussed in relation to the evolution of multi-cellular algae and of vascular land plants.
Bases structurales et biochimiques de la résistance au gui dans le genre Populus

Summary In the poplar/mistletoe association, the resistance phenomenon was investigated using histochemistry, histofluorescence and analytical methods. Among the six poplar cultivars tested, the cv. “Fritzi Pauley” was sensitive, the cvs “Blanc de Garonne”, “Vereecken” and “Italica” were totally resistant whereas the cvs “1214” and “Bergerac” were intermediate. The different responses of these cvs. to mistletoe occurred 10 months approximatively after the beginning of the artificial infestation. Resistant cvs developed successive inner periderms. The last one could not be passed through by the growing primary haustorium. In the perihaustorial zone delimited by the inner periderm and the haustorium, a large amount of polyphenols accumulated. Their taniferous and flavonoidic nature was established by histochemistry, histofluorescence and thin layer chromatography. In the sensitive cv. , the peridermic reaction was so weak that the inner periderm was rapidly torn out, allowing a rapid growth of the haustorium.
Making Configurable and Unified Platform, Ready for Broader Future Devices

The wide spread of IoT and edge devices has introduced new challenges for software platforms of consumer electronics, of which traditional targets had been smart phones, wearable devices, and smart TVs. In general, such traditional devices share well-defined common features and requirements, which emerging IoT devices lack of. Besides, IoT and edge devices have much longer tails, which makes it further intractable to define common features and requirements, composing a customized software platform. Such high diversities prohibits having individual build configurations per device type, which multiplies burdens for developers as well as infrastructures. Besides, IoT developers need to customize platforms for new devices on-the-fly, which traditional platform tools are not capable of; such tasks usually require the rare release and build experts along with significant time and effort. In this paper, we have successfully addressed the issues: unifying a software platform (Tizen) and its infrastructure to increase the developmental productivity for varying device types and making Tizen highly configurable so that novice developers may create their own variations on-the-fly easily and quickly. This has enabled a public web service, Craftroom.tizen. org, where IoT developers may acquire their own customized Tizen on-the-fly. This project is integrated into Tizen since 4.0, which is released to the public, and has enabled Tizen team to start IoT platforms and others to prepare a software platform for autonomous driving systems and on-device AI systems with minimal time and effort.
Uso de taxonomias na recomendação de produtos

Sistemas de recomendacao procuram compreender o interesse do usuario e gerar uma lista de recomendacao com itens relacionados. Neste trabalho investigamos como obter vantagem da informacao presente em taxonomias para melhorar a qualidade de sistemasde recomendacao baseada em conteudo. Adotamos o cenario onde o usuario esta interessado em uma noticia publicada na Internet e um sistema de recomendacao e usado para recomendar produtos, por exemplo, livros de uma livraria online. O sistema analisa o texto da noticia e, por meio de tecnicas de Recuperacao de Informacao(RI), encontra livros semelhantes ao assunto da noticia. O uso de taxonomias abre a oportunidade de incorporar conhecimento de um dominio especifico compilado por humanos. Esta dissertacao apresenta um estudo de tres estrategias para explorar o uso detaxonomias em sistemas de recomendacao baseada em conteudo, a saber: descritores de categoria, caracteristicas de classificacao e filtro de categorias. Embora algumas dessas estrategias tenham sido empregadas anteriormente para resolver outros problemas deRI, neste trabalho, essas estrategias foram aplicadas em um cenario diferente. Varios metodos de recomendacao foram derivados a partir das tres estrategias, explorando diversas configuracoes e premissas. Os experimentos foram realizados sobre uma colecao de 100 paginas de noticias (paginas alvo) do The New York Times, uma taxonomiae uma colecao de livros, ambas coletadas da Amazon.com. Os resultados experimentais mostram que as estrategias consideradas podem ser aplicadas com sucesso para melhorar os sistemas de recomendacao baseada em conteudo. Em particular, quandoa pagina alvo e manualmente associada a uma categoria por humanos, os ganhos sao proximos de 20% na precisao media. Por outro lado, se essa associacao e automatica, os ganhos ainda sao representativos e proximos de 13% na precisao media.
Encouraging Desistance from Crime

Half of individuals released from prison in the United States will be re-incarcerated within three years, creating an incarceration cycle that is detrimental to individuals, families, and communities. There is tremendous public interest in ending this cycle, and public policies can help or hinder the reintegration of those released from jail and prison. This review summarizes the existing empirical evidence on how to intervene with existing offenders to reduce criminal behavior and improve social welfare. (JEL D91, I18, I28, I38, K42, R23)
Application of “Protozyme” (Aspergillus orizae) to Poultry Feeding.

Abstract “Protozyme” is a trade name given to a group of vegetable enzymes of a fungus origin ; namely, those produced by cultures of Aspergillus orizae. There have been several changes in the industrial methods of preparing the enzyme since the original process outlined by Takamine, (Effront & Prescott) (4) the essential changes being those which would increase the amyloclastic, peptonizing or saccharifying power, in order to satisfy the conditions required for its various applications. The history of the production and application of diastatic enzymes from fungus sources is not without interest and is worthy of brief comment in a paper of this nature. Nageli C. (1879) is credited with being the first to demonstrate the production of diastase by micro-organisms, his experiments being later followed by the works of Kuscheldt who produced the enzyme in workable quantities and applied the name “Eurotin” to the product. The various workers, as they .
A substantial export flux of particulate organic carbon linked to sinking dead copepods during winter 2007–2008 in the Amundsen Gulf (southeastern Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean)

In the Arctic Ocean, vertical fluxes of particulate organic carbon (POC) remain low during the dark winter period because POC fluxes are derived from photosynthetic production. Passively sinking dead copepods are traditionally excluded from POC fluxes estimated using sediment traps, resulting in the underestimation of the total POC flux. Here, we present the seasonal variability of total POC export flux measured by a sediment trap moored at ∼ 100 m in the Amundsen Gulf (southeastern Beaufort Sea) over October 2007‐July 2008. Surprisingly, the integrated total POC flux for February (466 mg m−2) was the second highest flux during the study period (the highest was in Jul; 1015 mg C m−2) due to a contribution of 91% from sinking dead copepods. The total POC flux in February 2008 in the Amundsen Gulf was up to two orders of magnitude higher than the previously reported traditional POC winter fluxes that did not include the contribution of sinking dead copepods. Hence, the POC flux in February only could be equivalent to ∼ 18% of the quasi‐annual traditional POC flux. Our observations suggest that a substantial POC export flux occurred during winter 2007–2008 due to zooplankton life cycle.
Determination of Isomers of Inositol Mono- to Hexaphosphates in Selected Foods and Intestinal Contents Using High-Performance Ion Chromatography

A sensitive high-performance ion chromatography (HPIC) method for separation and quantitative determination of inositol mono- to hexaphosphate (IP1−IP6) isomers in selected foods and intestinal contents is described. The method includes extraction of samples with HCl, separation of the inositol phosphates from the crude extract by anion-exchange chromatography, separation on high-performance ion-exchange columns with gradient elution in two combined HPIC systems, and detection using either postcolumn reaction and UV detection (system 1) or chemically suppressed conductivity detection (system 2). IP2−IP6 in samples were determined on the first system, which also separated isomers of IP4 and IP5. Fractions of IP1−IP3 from the first system were transferred to the second system after some additional sample preparation and analyzed for isomers. The applicability and sensitivity of the method are illustrated by measuring the content of inositol phosphates in foods, ileal contents, and feces of human balances. K.
Biotechnology and its Impact on Food Security and Safety

A global recession, along with highly increased food prices in many countries in unregenerate manner, have caused some 100 million more people than last year suffering from silent hunger and poverty that would leave the world extremely vulnerable. The global food crisis potentially imposes a serious risk towards world peace and security. The crop production however will have to be dramatically increased to meet the need. The ability of biotechnology to act as a tool to assist in solving the issue is far from being fully exploited. Low crops production is considered to be the main reason for poverty and food insecurity in the world. High percentage of poor and food insecure people are living in developing countries and in rural aereas. Therefore, biotechnology can:1) increase the crops yield through introducing high-yielding varieties resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses; 2) reduce pest– associated losses; and 3) increase the nutritional values of foods which is a very important factor in rural areas or developing countries. Furthermore, in order to reduce or eliminate food insecurity, postharvest approach in wasting less is of a vital strategy to supplement increasing food productivity. Hence, the environmental issues in supplying safe and nutritious foods in a sustainable manner should be taken into account. Biotechnology research and development have already produced significant products on the market, and will further have a pivotal role to play in encouraging and enhancing food production, considering the safety and environmental quality. Although the major concern being the safety and potential impact of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on human health, the future of biotech crops looks encouraging as the global area of biotech crops continue to increase yearly and commercialization of drought tolerant maize and Golden Rice are expected in 2013/2014. Thus, biotech crops could possibly contribute in accomplishing the 2015 Millennium Development Goal particularly in reducing poverty by half through maximizing crop productivity. Microorganisms play a vital role in sustaining soil health and productivity, in the process of plant biomass conversion to produce both food and fuel, and in the production of novel foods and feeds mainly by fermentation. This review discussed the current trends and future perspectives on how biotechnology and genetic engineering can help us to provide safe and secure food and can act as a valuable tool to reduce poverty.