Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Load Balancing vs. Locality Management in Shared-Memory Multiprocessors

A parallel application executes most efficiently when its workload is evenly distributed among the available processors, and processes are located close to their data. There is often a conflict between the goals of load balancing and locality management policies however, which many existing systems resolve in favor of load balancing. In this paper we use both experimentation and simulation to investigate the relationship between load balancing and locality management in shared-memory multiprocessors. Our experiments with applications on the BBN Butterfly multiprocessor show that although both techniques can improve application performance, locality management should be done before load balancing in many cases. Our simulations show that even in cases where there is a significant variation in the completion time of processes, or where the remote-to-local access time ratio is small, maximizing locality first and balancing load second usually results in the best performance. We conclude that the scheduler should not be oblivious to the location of data, as is the case with the popular central work queue model; instead, the location of data should be the primary factor influencing the initial assignment of processes to processors.
GLOBAL OPTIMIZATION OF PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION PLANNING

Production and distribution planning is an absolute necessity for every industry to thrive in the highly competitive environment. Since the available resources for production such as raw materials, labour, funds, etc are limited, it is necessary to allocate them effectively and utilize the resources optimally to remain agile in the global market. Production plan can be classified into three types, namely short range plan, medium range plan and long range plan. Production and Distribution Planning, a tool for tactical planning, is designed to handle the most complex optimization tasks related to finding best balance between the service level provided to customers and the costs of supply chain management (inventory level at stores, production costs, transportation costs, etc.). Production and Distribution Planning is successfully used in various industries such as the following: food, distribution, pharmaceutics, package printing, automobile production, engineering, metallurgy, electronics, etc.Simulated annealing (SA) is a generic probabilistic metaheuristic for the global optimization problem of applied mathematics, namely locating a good approximation to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. It is often used when the search space is discrete (e.g., all tours that visit a given set of cities). Normal 0 false false false EN-IN X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
Community Colleges and Workforce Development in the New Economy.

Workforce Development and Community Colleges One problem community college practitioners have is developing a common language with which to discuss workforce development issues. Typically, the term "workforce development" is used anecdotally and in a localized context by practitioners speaking about what their college does, in terms of education and training programs , to improve workforce competitiveness. Yet as practitioners know very well, there is great diversity among the states--and even within many states--regarding state-assigned missions and functions, as well as patterns of funding for community colleges. Some states, like Kentucky and Oklahoma, assign a very small postsecondary vocational-technical education role to community colleges, while other states, including North and South Carolina used this role to justify the very creation of their institutions. Most community college historians and commentators cite five major functions of community colleges: (a) to provide general education for transfer to upper division institutions; (b) to provide vocational, occupational, and technical education; (c) to provide developmental/college preparatory education opportunities (central to providing a second chance); (d) to provide community services; and (e) to provide continuing education . The community college programs in workforce training span four of these five functions.
Short-term administration of supraphysiological recombinant human growth hormone (GH) does not increase maximum endurance exercise capacity in healthy, active young men and women with normal GH-insulin-like growth factor I axes.

CONTEXT Despite the fact that the use of GH as a doping agent in sports is widespread, little is known about its short-term effects. OBJECTIVE The objective was to study the effects of GH on exercise capacity. DESIGN A double-blind, placebo-controlled study was used, with a treatment period of 28 d. SETTING Subjects from general community studied ambulatory at a university hospital. PARTICIPANTS Thirty healthy active young normal volunteers (15 women and 15 men) were recruited by local announcement, and all completed the study. INTERVENTION All subjects were randomized to receive a low GH dose (0.033 mg/kg.d or 0.1 IU/kg.d), a high GH dose (0.067 mg/kg.d or 0.2 IU/kg.d), or placebo. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Power output and oxygen uptake on bicycle exercise were the main outcome measures. RESULTS We found no effect of the low or high dosages of GH on maximum oxygen uptake during exercise (mean +/- se for placebo, 45.2 +/- 1.6 to 45.2 +/- 2.1 ml/kg.min; GH low dose, 42.8 +/- 1.6 to 42.8 +/- 1.6 ml/kg.min; GH high dose, 44.8 +/- 3.4 to 44.8 +/- 2.2 ml/kg.min; not significant by two-way ANOVA). Neither was there any effect on maximum achieved power output during exercise or on blood pressure, heart rate, or the electrocardiographic ST level at rest or during exercise. GH significantly increased total body weight (P = 0.028), an effect predominantly ascribed to fluid retention (increased extracellular water volume), whereas muscle mass (as indicated by intracellular water volume) did not change. However, changes in the latter correlated to changes in physical performance, possibly due to different training efforts. CONCLUSION Administration of supraphysiological recombinant human GH during a period of 4 wk does not improve power output or oxygen uptake.
Viyojit: Decoupling battery and DRAM capacities for battery-backed DRAM

Non-Volatile Memories (NVMs) can significantly improve the performance of data-intensive applications. A popular form of NVM is Battery-backed DRAM, which is available and in use today with DRAMs latency and without the endurance problems of emerging NVM technologies. Modern servers can be provisioned with up-to 4 TB of DRAM, and provisioning battery backup to write out such large memories is hard because of the large battery sizes and the added hardware and cooling costs. We present Viyojit, a system that exploits the skew in write working sets of applications to provision substantially smaller batteries while still ensuring durability for the entire DRAM capacity. Viyojit achieves this by bounding the number of dirty pages in DRAM based on the provisioned battery capacity and proactively writing out infrequently written pages to an SSD. Even for write-heavy workloads with less skew than we observe in analysis of real data center traces, Viyojit reduces the required battery capacity to 11% of the original size, with a performance overhead of 7–25%. Thus, Viyojit frees battery-backed DRAM from stunted growth of battery capacities and enables servers with terabytes of battery-backed DRAM.
Comparative Analysis of the Relationship Between Trichloroethylene Metabolism and Tissue-Specific Toxicity Among Inbred Mouse Strains: Liver Effects

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a widely used organic solvent. Although TCE is classified as carcinogenic to humans, substantial gaps remain in our understanding of interindividual variability in TCE metabolism and toxicity, especially in the liver. A hypothesis was tested that amounts of oxidative metabolites of TCE in mouse liver are associated with hepatic-specific toxicity. Oral dosing with TCE was conducted in subacute (600 mg/kg/d; 5 d; 7 inbred mouse strains) and subchronic (100 or 400 mg/kg/d; 1, 2, or 4 wk; 2 inbred mouse strains) designs. The quantitative relationship was evaluated between strain-, dose-, and time-dependent formation of TCE metabolites from cytochrome P-450-mediated oxidation (trichloroacetic acid [TCA], dichloroacetic acid [DCA], and trichloroethanol) and glutathione conjugation [S-(1,2-dichlorovinyl)-L-cysteine and S-(1,2-dichlorovinyl)glutathione] in serum and liver, and various hepatic toxicity phenotypes. In subacute study, interstrain variability in TCE metabolite amounts was observed in serum and liver. No marked induction of Cyp2e1 protein levels in liver was detected. Serum and hepatic levels of TCA and DCA were correlated with increased transcription of peroxisome proliferator-marker genes Cyp4a10 and Acox1 but not with degree of induction in hepatocellular proliferation. In subchronic study, serum and liver levels of oxidative metabolites gradually decreased over time despite continuous dosing. Hepatic protein levels of CYP2E1, ADH, and ALDH2 were unaffected by treatment with TCE. While the magnitude of induction of peroxisome proliferator-marker genes also declined, hepatocellular proliferation increased. This study offers a unique opportunity to provide a scientific data-driven rationale for some of the major assumptions in human health assessment of TCE.
Preferences, Satisfaction Level and Chances of Shifting: A Study of the Customers of Public Sector and New Private Sector Banks

The phenomenal changes taking place in the banking industry indicate that the new private sector banks have gradually won the market with their customer-centric approach. The depleting market share of the public sector banks poses a threat to them. This study mainly focuses on the primary opinion of the customers of these banks. The State Bank of India (SBI) is selected as the representative of the public sector banks and HDFC, ICICI, IDBI and UTI as representatives of the new private sector banks. The study is divided into three parts, the first part deals with customers’ preferences while selecting the bank of their choice; the second part covers the satisfaction level of the customers; and the third part is an attempt to record the instances of customers shifting from one bank to another (competitor bank) due to dissatisfaction. It is evident from the study that the customers of private banks are more satisfied than those of the SBI. Customers of the SBI are more sensitive with regard to the processing time taken for account handling and technological updates. Dissatisfaction in those areas can lead to shifting to another bank, while in the case of private banks’ customers, proximity to residence and sometimes delay in the processing time can be the likely reasons to change the existing bank with a new one.
Service Oriented Smartphone Based Social Network : An Enhancement In Trustworthyness

In this, we propose a Trustworthy Service Evaluation (TSE) system to enable users to share service reviews in service-oriented mobile social networks (S-MSNs). Each service provider independently maintains a TSE for itself, which collects and stores users’ reviews about its services without requiring any third trusted authority. The service reviews can then be made available to interested users in making wise service selection decisions. We also verify the users for trustworthiness. Services are also trustworthy by detecting the Sybil attacks. Keywords— Mobile social networks, trust evaluation, Sybil attack, trustworthiness, email verification, expert
Ginkgo biloba did not prevent dementia or Alzheimer disease in elderly people

S T DeKosky Dr S T DeKosky, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA; dekosky@virginia.edu Does Ginkgo biloba reduce incident dementia and Alzheimer disease in elderly people with normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment? ### Design: randomised placebo controlled trial (Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory [GEM] study). ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00010803. ### Allocation: unclear allocation concealment. * ### Blinding: blinded (patients, clinicians, and outcome assessors). * ### Follow-up period: median 6.1 years. ### Setting: 5 academic medical centres in the USA. ### Participants: 3069 participants >75 years of age (mean age 79 y, 54% men) who had normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment (impaired at ⩽10th percentile of Cardiovascular Health Study normative data on 2 of 10 neuropsychological tests and Clinical Dementia …
PARTIAL INBREEDING: EQUILIBRIUM HETEROZYGOSITY AND THE HETEROZYGOSITY PARADOX

The effect of partial inbreeding on equilibrium populations has been extended to any degree of mating. As expected, for distantly related mates, the equilibrium levels of inbreeding and heterozygosity are not affected as much as by partial selfing. Formulas are also given for equilibrium levels of inbreeding and heterozygosity when two or more degrees of mating are present in a population. Inbreeding, other than selfing, may partially explain the deficiency of heterozygotes in outcrossers, part of the “heterozygosity paradox. ”
Comparison of Analyses of DNA Curvature

Abstract Popular programs for characterizing DNA structure include Curves 5.1 (Lavery, R. and Sklenar, H. J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. 6, 63–91, 1988; Lavery, R. and Sklenar, H. J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. 6, 655–67, 1989) and Freehelix98 (Dickerson, R. E. Nucleic Acids Res. 26, 1906–1926, 1998), along with the more recent 3DNA (X. J. Lu, Z. Shakked and W. K. Olson. J. Mol. Biol. 300, 819–840 (2000). Given input of structural coordinates, all of these programs return values of the local helical parameters, such as roll, tilt, twist, etc. The first two programs also provide characterization of global curvature. Madbend (Strahs, D. and Schlick, T. J. Mol. Biol. 301, 643–663, 2000), a program that computes global curvature from local roll, tilt, and twist parameters, can be applied to the output of all three structural programs. We have compared the curvature predicted by the three programs with and without the use of Madbend. Global bend magnitudes and directions as well as values of helical kinks were calculated for four high-resolution DNA structures and four model DNA helices. Global curvature determined by Curves 5.1 without Madbend was found to differ from values obtained using Freehelix98 with or without Madbend or 3DNA and Curves 5.1 with Madbend. Using model helices, this difference was attributed the fact that Curves 5.1 is the only program sensitive to changes in axial displacement, such as shift and slide. Madbend produced robust values of bend magnitude and direction, and displayed little sensitivity to axis displacement or the source of local helical parameters. Madbend also appears to be the method of choice for bending comparisons of high-resolution structures with results from cyclization kinetics, a method that measures DNA curvature as a vectorial sum of local roll and tilt angles.
Algebraic Geometry for Computer Vision

Author(s): Kileel, Joseph David | Advisor(s): Sturmfels, Bernd | Abstract: This thesis uses tools from algebraic geometry to solve problems about three-dimensional scene reconstruction. 3D reconstruction is a fundamental task in multiview geometry, a field of computer vision. Given images of a world scene, taken by cameras in unknown positions, how can we best build a 3D model for the scene? Novel results are obtained for various challenging minimal problems, which are important algorithmic routines in Random Sampling Consensus pipelines for reconstruction. These routines reduce overfitting when outliers are present in image data.Our approach throughout is to formulate inverse problems as structured systems of polynomial equations, and then to exploit underlying geometry. We apply numerical algebraic geometry, commutative algebra and tropical geometry, and we derive new mathematical results in these fields. We present simulations on image data as well as an implementation of general-purpose homotopy-continuation software for implicitization in computational algebraic geometry.Chapter 1 introduces some relevant computer vision. Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to the recovery of camera positions from images. We resolve an open problem concerning two calibrated cameras raised by Sameer Agarwal, a vision expert at Google Research, by using the algebraic theory of Ulrich sheaves. This gives a robust test for identifying outliers in terms of spectral gaps. Next, we quantify the algebraic complexity for notorious poorly understood cases for three calibrated cameras. This is achieved by formulating in terms of structured linear sections of an explicit moduli space and then computing via homotopy-continuation. In Chapter 4, a new framework for modeling image distortion is proposed, based on lifting algebraic varieties in projective space to varieties in other toric varieties. We check that our formulation leads to faster and more stable solvers than the state of the art. Lastly, Chapter 5 concludes by studying possible pictures of simple objects, as varieties inside products of projective planes. In particular, this dissertation exhibits that algebro-geometric methods can actually be useful in practical settings.
Disparities in women’s referral to and enrollment in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation

AbstractOBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of referral and enrollment, including racial differences, in phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation programs among African-American and white women who are eligible for such programs. DESIGN: Prospective longitudinal design. SETTING: One large academic medical center and two large community hospitals. PATIENTS: A total of 253 women (108 African American, 145 white) were surveyed within the first month of discharge from the hospital for a percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary artery bypass surgery, or myocardial infarction without revascularization. A total of 234 (99 African American, 135 white) completed the 6-month follow-up. MAIN RESULTS: The rate of referral to outpatients phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation was significantly lower for African-American women compared with white women, 12 (12%) versus 33 (24%) (P=.03). Only 35 (15%) of women in the study reported enrollment in phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation programs, with fewer African-American women reporting enrollment compared with white women, 9 (9%) versus 26 (19%) (P=.03). Controlling for age, education, angina class, and comorbidities, women with annual incomes <$20,000 were 66% less likely to be referred to cardiac rehabilitation (P=.01) and 60% less likely to enroll compared to women with incomes >$20,000 (P=.01). Although borderline significant, African-American women were 55% less likely to be referred (P=.059) and 58% less likely to enroll (P=.059) than white women. CONCLUSIONS: We found disparities in cardiac rehabilitation program participation, with women with lower incomes less likely to be referred and to have lower enrollment rates in cardiac rehabilitation and a strong trend for African-American women to be less likely to be referred and enroll. Because almost all patients who have had an acute coronary event, with or without revascularization procedures, will benefit from cardiac rehabilitation, automatic referral systems should be considered to increase utilization and reduce disparities.
A General Formulation of Impedance and Admittance of Cables

Interest in the analysis of wave propagation characteristics and transients associated with cable systems has rapidly increased. In order to answer the need of the analyst, impedances and admittances of various cables have to be known. This paper describes a general formulation of impedances and admittances of single-core coaxial and pipe-type cables. The formulation presented here can handle a coaxial cable consisting of a core, sheath and armor, a pipe-type cable of which the pipe thickness is finite and an overhead cable, which has not been discussed in the literature heretofore.
Persistent ischaemic ECG abnormalities on repeated ECG examination have important prognostic value for cardiovascular disease beyond established risk factors: a population-based study in middle-aged men with up to 32 years of follow-up

Objective: To determine the effect of new, persistent or reverted ischaemic ECG abnormalities at ages 50 and 70 years on the risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease. Design, setting and participants: A prospective community-based observational cohort of 50-year-old men in Sweden, followed for 32 years. 2322 men of age 50 years participated in 1970–3, and 1221 subjects were re-examined at the age of 70 years. Main outcome measures: Myocardial infarction (MI), cardiovascular mortality and overall mortality. Results: At 50 years of age, after adjusting for established conventional risk factors, T wave abnormalities, ST segment depression, major Q/QS pattern and ECG-left ventricular hypertrophy were all found to be independent risk factors for the main outcome measures during the 32 years of follow-up. When ECG variables were re-measured at 70 years of age, they were still found to be independent risk factors for the mortality outcomes, but lost in significance for prediction of MI. Regarding mortality, it was twice as dangerous to have persistent T wave abnormalities (HR 4.63; 95% CI 2.18 to 9.83) or ST segment depression (HR 5.66; 95% CI 1.77 to 18.1), as with new T wave abnormalities (HR 2.20; 95% CI 1.48 to 3.29) or ST segment depression (HR 2.55; 95% CI 1.74 to 3.75), developing between ages 50 and 70 years. The addition of “ECG indicating ischaemia” significantly increased the predictive power of the Framingham score (p<0.001). Conclusions: It is worthwhile to obtain serial ECGs for proper risk assessment, since persistent ST-T abnormalities carried twice as high a risk for future mortality compared with new or reverted abnormalities.
Total rural land performance in a free trade economy

The importance of agriculture in many countries has tended to reduce as their economies move from a resource base to a manufacturing industry base. Although the level of agricultural production in first world countries has increased over the past two decades, this increase has generally been at a less significant rate compared to other sectors of the economies. Despite this increase in secondary and high technology industries, developed countries have continued to encourage and support their agricultural industries. This support has been through both tariffs and price support. Following pressure from developing economies, particularly through the World Trade Organisation (WTO), GATT Uruguay round and the Cairns Group Developed countries are now in various stages of winding back or de-coupling agricultural support within their economies. A major concern of farmers in protected agricultural markets is the impact of a free market trade in agricultural commodities on farm incomes and land values. This paper will analyse the capital and income performance of the NSW rural land market over the period 1990-1999. This analysis will be based on land use and will compare the total return from rural properties based on world agricultural commodity prices.