Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Octans: Optimal Placement of Service Function Chains in Many-Core Systems

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has the potential to offer service delivery flexibility and reduce overall costs by running service function chains (SFCs) on commodity servers with many cores. Existing solutions for placing SFCs in one server treat all CPU cores as equal and allocate isolated CPU cores to different network functions (NFs). However, advanced servers often adopt Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) architecture to improve the scalability of many-core systems. CPU cores are grouped into nodes, incurring performance bottleneck due to cross-node memory access and intra-node resource contention. Our evaluation shows that randomly selecting cores to place NFs in an SFC could suffer from 39.2% lower throughput comparing to an optimal placement solution. In this paper, we propose Octans, an NFV orchestrator to achieve maximum aggregate throughput of all SFCs in many-core systems. Octans first formulates the optimization problem as a Non-Linear Integer Programming (NLIP) model. Then we identify the key factor for problem solving as evaluating the throughput drop of an NF caused by other NFs in the same SFC or different SFCs, i.e. performance drop index, and propose a formal and precise prediction model based on system level performance metrics. Finally, we propose an efficient heuristic algorithm to quickly find near-optimal placement solutions. We have implemented a prototype of Octans. Extensive evaluation shows that Octans significantly improves the aggregate throughput comparing to two state-of the-art placement mechanisms by 26.7%$\sim$51.8%, with very low prediction errors of SFC performance (an average deviation of 2.6%). Moreover, Octans could quickly find a near-optimal placement solution with tiny optimality gap (1.2%$\sim$3.5%).
Joint Subcarrier Matching and Power Allocation for OFDM Multihop System

Relay networks have recently attracted extensive attention due to its potential to increase coverage area and channel capacity. In a relay network, a source node communicates with a destination node with the help of the relay node. The performances of improving the channel capacity and coverage area have been explored and evaluated in the literature (Sendonaris et al., 2003)-(Laneman et al., 2004). There are two main forwarding strategies for relay node: amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) (Laneman et al., 2004). The AF cooperative relay scheme was developed and analyzed in (Shastry & Adve, 2005), where a significant gain in the network lifetime due to node cooperation was shown. Power allocation is studied and compared for AF and DF relaying strategies for relay networks, which improves the channel capacity (Serbetli & Yener, 2006). However, DF means that the signal is decoded at the relay and recoded for retransmission. It is different from AF, where the signal is magnified to satisfy the power constraint and forwarded at the relay. This has the main advantage that the transmission can be optimized for different links, separately. In this chapter, the relay strategy DF is used. In wideband systems, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a mature technique to mitigate the problems of frequency selectivity and intersymbol interference. The optimization of power allocation for different subcarriers offers substantial gain to the system performance. Therefore, the combination of relay network and OFDM modulation is an even more promising way to improve capacity and coverage area. However, as the fading gains for different channels are mutually independent, the subcarriers which experience deep fading over the source-relay channel may not be in deep fading over the relay-destination channel. This motivates us to consider adaptive subcarrier matching and power allocation schemes, where the bits on the subcarriers from the source to the relay are reassigned to the subcarriers from the relay to the destination. The system architecture of OFDM two-hop relay system is demonstrated in the Fig.1. A fundamental analysis of cooperative relay systems was done by Kramer (Kramer et al., 2006), who has given channel capacity of several schemes. Relaying for OFDM systems was considered theoretically in (Shastry & Adve, 2005). Multi-user OFDM relay networks were studied by Zhu (Zhu et al., 2005), where the subcarrier was allocated to transmit own information and forward other nodes’ information. Relay selection in OFDM relay networks was studied by Dai (Dai et al., 2007), which indicated the maximum diversity by selecting different relay for the different subcarrier. Radio resource allocation algorithm for relay
Physiological responses of food animals to road transportation stress

The increasing demand in proteins to feed the ever-growing world population has necessitated the industrialization and transportation of livestock using different means of transportation across several ecological zones with different climatic conditions. The stress factors acting on animals during road transportation are numerous and the responses of the animal to them are complex, non-specific and often detrimental to their health and productivity. In spite of the numerous recommendations and guidelines by many countries on the welfare of animal transport order and their streaked compliance by transporters, several studies still report severe welfare problems during road transportation of food animals. This review, in a new approach examines the effects of individual or the combination of road transport stress factors, such as: handling, loading, unloading, vehicle type and design, type of road and driving methods, vehicle noise and vibration, stocking rate/density, journey duration, climatic conditions and the general animal welfare implication on different physiological parameters of transported food animals. The review provides an insight on the physiological responses of animals to transport stress and possible areas of intervention and adoption of improved and innovative management strategies toward improving the welfare of the transported animals. Key words: Animal welfare, food animal, stress, road transportation.
ISOLATION OF NEW METHANOL-UTILIZING BACTERIA AND ITS THIAMINE-REQUIREMENT FOR GROWTHS

Non-pigmented methanol-dependent bacteria have been isolated in pure culture from a wide variety of natural sources. They are capable of growing only on methanol among many carbon sources tested, and showed no growth on ordinary nutrient media. These bacteria were identified as a new species, Methanomonas methylovora. The organisms are gram-negative, non- sporeforming rods, 0.4 to 0. 7μ by 1.0 to 4. 0μ in size, having a single polar flagellum. GC content of DNA is 51.2 to 53.6%. Some of them required a relatively high concentration of thiamine as an essential factor for cell growth, and produced an intracellular yellow pigment on methanol-containing agar medium.
Corporate Governance and the Value of Excess Cash Holdings of Large European Firms

We examine the relation between the quality of corporate governance and the value of excess cash for large publicly listed European firms from common-law and civil-law countries. Besides different law origins, we distinguish different dimensions of corporate governance by using ratings for the quality of Shareholder rights, Takeover defences, Disclosure and Board structure. We find that the value of excess cash is positively related to the Takeover defences score only. This finding is mainly driven by firms from common-law countries. If we focus on changes in the level of excess cash, we do find significant effects for civil-law country firms, where the marginal value of €1 of excess cash in a poorly governed firm is only €0.78 while the value is €1.10 for a good governed firm. We furthermore show that the spending of excess cash by poorly governed firms has a negative impact on their operating performance.
Professional considerations in choosing a treatment for neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia

Background: Dementia is often complicated by manifestations of neuropsychiatric symptoms. Dutch guidelines recommend non-pharmaceutical psychosocial interventions as first-line treatment for neuropsychiatric symptoms. However, antipsychotics are very often prescribed as treatment for these symptoms. Prescribing antipsychotics is becoming highly controversial, because antipsychotics are associated with serious adverse events and the effectiveness is modest. Objectives: The aim of this study was to understand the professional considerations in choosing a treatment for dementia patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms, by analysing the importance, according to elderly care physicians, of the factors related to choosing the treatment, by analysing the perceived performance of the treatment options, and by analysing the expected treatment choice.
AEROACOUSTIC RESPONSE OF A SLIT-SHAPED DIAPHRAGM IN A PIPE AT LOW HELMHOLTZ NUMBER , 2 : UNSTEADY RESULTS

In a companion paper the quasi-steady aeroacoustic behavior of diaphragms which prevails for low Strouhal number but Mach number of order unity was discussed. The complementary case of a small Mach number and a Strouhal number of order unity is now considered. In this case, a two-dimensional numerical method is used to predict the Strouhal-number dependence of the coe$cients of the scattering matrix. The numerical method solves the two-dimensional incompressible #ow equations by means of the vortex-blob method. The quality of the numerical results is investigated by comparing results of Howe's energy formulation with results obtained by an integral formulation to calculate the pressure di! erence across the diaphragm. The predictions of the coe$cients are compared with experimental measurements carried out at LAUM. It is shown that the lowand high-frequency behavior are quite well predicted, while for intermediate frequencies a deviation between numerical simulations and experimental measurements is observed. While this is not yet fully understood it is expected to be related to whistling induced by the "nite thickness of the diaphragm in the experiments. ( 2001 Academic Press
Space Debris Removal with an Ion Beam Shepherd Satellite: target-plasma interaction

A novel concept for active space debris removal known as Ion Beam Shepherd (IBS) which has been recently presented by our group is investigated. The concept makes use of a highly collimated ion beam to exert the necessary force on a generic debris to modify its orbit and/or attitude from a safe distance in a controlled manner, without the need of docking. After describing the main characteristics of the IBS system, some of the key aspects of thruster plasma and its interaction with the debris are studied, namely, (1) the modeling of the expansion of an plasma beam, based on the quasi-selfsimilarity exhibited by hypersonic plumes, (2) the characterization of the force and torque exerted upon the target debris, and (3) a preliminary evaluation of other plasma-body interactions.
Show, Attend, Control, and Justify: Interpretable Learning for Self-Driving Cars

Deep neural perception and control networks have become key components of self-driving vehicles. User acceptance is likely to beneﬁt from easy-to-interpret visual and textual driving rationales which allow end-users to understand what triggered a particular behavior. Our approach involves two stages. In the ﬁrst stage, we use visual (spatial) attention model to train a convolutional network end-to-end from images to steering angle commands. The attention model identiﬁes image regions that potentially inﬂuence the network’s output. We then apply a causal ﬁltering step to determine which input regions causally inﬂuence the vehicle’s control signal. In the second stage, we use a video-to-text language model to produce textual rationales that justify the model’s decision. The explanation generator uses a spatiotemporal attention mechanism, which is encouraged to match the controller’s attention.
A Telepresence and Teleoperation Implementation on the Nao Humanoid Robotic Platform

Telepresence and Teleoperation of robotic platforms expand the application domain of a robotic system. Unlike remotely operated robots, the telepresence systems built on autonomous platforms takes only a limited set of mission statements from the remote operator. The decisions and methods required for completing a mission on the workspace is still controlled autonomously by the robotic platform. We present such a system being implemented on the Nao humanoid robotic platform. Robot's search targets and endactions are specified remotely by the user. Some components of the system are implemented on remote servers and are amalgamated using the cloud based service demand architecture. The system was modeled using Agent Relation Charts, which are components in the Computational independent layer of the Hyperactive Transaction Model, HTM5. This is an extended version of the paper “An Auto Operated Telepresence System for the Nao Humanoid Robot” published in CSNT2013. Keywords-Nao Humanoid Robot; Agent Relation Charts; Multi Agent Systems; Telepresence; Teleoperation; Cloud
Regional Health Information Organizations in the US

Health information technology (HIT) has been acknowledged as a possible response to the rising cost of healthcare across many industrialized nations, including the United States. The adoption of HIT in the United States has, however, lagged significantly behind other industrial nations in critical areas such as Electronic Health Records and the sharing of health information among care providers (Jha, Doolan, Grandt, Scott, &Bates, 2008). Health Information Exchange (HIE) among providers and other stakeholders is, in fact, a foundational concern in the US (Adler-Milstein, Bates, & Jha, 2009, 2011). HIE is an important concern because the vagaries of the US healthcare system spreads patient information across many healthcare providers as well as other organizations that support the provision of care as in the case of insurance agencies (AdlerMilstein et al., 2009; Vest & Gamm, 2010; Wilcox et al., 2006). Overcoming this fragmentation is difficult because the identification and transfer of patient health information among qualified members of the healthcare community must still respect concerns such as privacy and confidentiality. There have been several waves of organizations that have sought to overcome these challenges and provide HIE as a service for care providers. These organizations have gone by several names, and the objective of this article is to introduce Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) as the current organizations offering HIE as a service, and discuss some of the key dimensions of their current proliferations across the US. BACKGROUND
A New Mode of Coordination of the Division of Labour: The Significance of the Physical Features of Product Models and of the Application of Information Technology

The purpose of this paper is to examine the sources of strengths and weaknesses in competitiveness of Japanese firm organisations, which form a certain mode of coordination for the division of labour between or within firm organisations. Japanese firms also employ economic institutions (employment and financial systems), which support the mode of coordination. The key issue here are the physical features of the products, which determine whether or not Japanese firms have competitiveness. Firstly, regarding this issue, the reason why Japanese firms displayed strong competitiveness in electronic appliances will be examined. Also in this paper, the recent changes in the physical features of products, such as those of the information industry that seems to be the future leading industry, will be examined. Japanese firms are facing pressure to restructure the mode of coordination to gain competitiveness in this area of industry.
Entrepreneurial Networking and Women Entrepreneurs’ Contribution to Employment Creation in Rivers State, Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial networking and women entrepreneurs’ contribution to employment creation in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design to solicit responses from women entrepreneurs in Rivers state, using simple random. The target population of Women Entrepreneurs in Rivers State was 329 obtained from the 2017 Directory of the Rivers State Ministry of Women Affairs and Rivers State Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The sample size was 181 using the Taro Yamen’s formula. After data cleaning, only data of 153 respondents were finally used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Findings revealed that entrepreneurial networking has a significant relationship with women entrepreneurs to employment . The study thus concluded that entrepreneurial networking bears a positive and significant influence on women entrepreneurs’ contribution to employment creation. We recommend that women should be engaged in entrepreneurial education to develop right competencies, skills and needed entrepreneurial capacities.
Efeito da adição de adjuvantes à calda com fungicida em plantas de citros sob chuva artificial

1 Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, Jaboticabal, SP, Brasil 2 Departamento de Fitossanidade, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, Jaboticabal, SP, Brasil Autor correspondente: Lucas Aparecido Gaion, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, Via de Acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Zona Rural, CEP 14884-900, Jaboticabal, SP, Brasil. E-mail: lucas.gaion@yahoo.com. br RESUMO
The MH-2 core from project hotspot: Description, geologic interpretation, and significance to geothermal exploration in the Western Snake River Plain, Idaho

THE MH-2 CORE FROM PROJECT HOTSPOT: DESCRIPTION, GEOLOGIC INTERPRETATION, AND SIGNIFICANCE TO GEOTHERMAL EXPLORATION IN THE WESTERN SNAKE RIVER PLAIN, IDAHO by Jerome A. Varriale, Master of Science Utah State University, 2015 Major Professor: Dr. James P. Evans Department: Geology The MH-2 science drill hole, on Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, was drilled in 2012 to a total depth 1821 m as part of Project Hotspot. It encountered flowing artesian thermal water at 1,745 m below ground surface. This signature of a potential blind high temperature geothermal resource indicates that further analyses are needed to characterize the resource. Whole rock core was recovered to a total depth of 1821 m below ground surface and a suite of wireline logs collected. In this thesis I describe the lithologies represented in the core, correlate these lithologies to outcrop analogs, and identify and characterize petrophysical properties observable within the wireline logs, which represent fine-scale variations in stratigraphy, composition and/or alteration. The lithologies in the core are a series of basalts, brecciated and altered basalt, basaltic sands, carbonate-rich muds, and siliciclastic sediments. Basalt flows with evidence of increasing influence of an aqueous environment with time typify iv the lower half of core, whereas the upper half represents a period of diminished volcanism, lacustrine depositional environment, and a catastrophic water overflow event. The top of the core represents a resurgence of basaltic volcanism in the area. An overprint of brecciation at depth, fracturing, and secondary mineralization records the history of the geothermal system. All the elements of a relatively shallow and potentially energy generating geothermal resource are present at the MH-2 well location. These new data from the MH-2 borehole contributes to evaluating a parallel geothermal risk assessment of the Snake River Plain. Play fairway analysis was implemented for perhaps the first time in a geothermal regime. The Snake River Plain was divided up into three distinct play types; the area surrounding the Mountain Home Air Force Base was systematically identified as prospective. A region where sedimentary and altered rocks may create a seal, and blind faults create porosity in deep basalts. (89 pages)
Modelling the Suitability of Pine Sawdust for Energy Production via Biomass Steam Explosion

Biomass material as a source of fuel is difficult to handle, transport, store, and utilize in its original form. To overcome these challenges and make it suitable for energy prodution, the material must be pre-treated. Biomass steam explosion is one of the promising pretreatment methods where moisture and hemicellulose are removed in order to improve biomass storage and fuel properties. This paper is aimed to model the suitability of pine saw dust for energy production through steam explosion process. The peak property method was used to determine the kinetic parameters. The model has shown that suitable operating conditions for steam explosion process to remove moisture and hemicellulose from pine sawdust. The temperature and pressure ranges attained in the current study are 260 -317 ℃ (533 -590 K), 4.7 -10.8 MPa, respectively.
A Novel Connectivity-based Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Ranking Linked Data on the Social Semantic Web

In social web zone, semantic web (web of data), in particular Linked Data (LD), has made it possible to link previously disconnected social datasets and services via common semantic definitions of terms (vocabularies, ontologies). In addition, semantic entities can be extracted from user-generated content items by web mining, Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and another Named Entity Recognition (NER) systems, and hence these content items can be connected together through common semantic definitions. In this regard, the social semantic web aims to overcome some of the essential restrictions through a combination of social web frameworks with semantic web standards, thereby creating a technology platform enabling semantically enhanced social spaces where communities and individuals participate in building distributed interoperable information. In this paper, a new ranking algorithm for LD on the social semantic web is offered, using Reinforcement Learning (RL) notions. The proposed algorithm is mapping of the connectivity-based PageRank algorithm, form web of documents to web of data with formulation of ranking as an RL problem. Experimental results demonstrate using RL concepts leads considerable improvements in PageRank raking algorithms.
Miniature passively Q-switched lasers and their application to nonlinear frequency conversion in microstructured optical fiber

OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATION HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLO GY P. O. BOX 1000, FI-02015 TKK http://www.tkk. fi Author Esa Tapani Räikkönen Name of the dissertation Manuscript submitted 10.3. 2009 Manuscript revised Date of the defence 7.8. 2009 Article dissertation (summary + original articles) Monograph Faculty Department Field of research Opponent(s) Supervisor Instructor Abstract