Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Failure Detection in P2P-Grid System

Peer-to-peer (P2P)–Grid systems are being investigated as a platform for converging the Grid and P2P network in the construction of large-scale distributed applications. The highly dynamic nature of P2P–Grid systems greatly affects the execution of the distributed program. Uncertainty caused by arbitrary node failure and departure significantly affects the availability of computing resources and system performance. Checkpoint-and-restart is the most common scheme for fault tolerance because it periodically saves the execution progress onto stable storage. In this paper, we suggest a checkpoint-and-restart mechanism as a fault-tolerant method for applications on P2P–Grid systems. Failure detection mechanism is a necessary prerequisite to fault tolerance and fault recovery in general. Given the highly dynamic nature of nodes within P2P– Grid systems, any failure should be detected to ensure effective task execution. Therefore, failure detection mechanism as an integral part of P2P– Grid systems was studied. We discussed how the design of various failure detection algorithms affects their performance in average failure detection time of nodes. Numerical analysis results and implementation evaluation are also provided to show different average failure detection times in real systems for various failure detection algorithms. The comparison shows the shortest average failure detection time by 8.8s on basis of the WP failure detector. Our lowest mean time to recovery (MTTR) is also proven to have a distinct advantage with a time consumption reduction of about 5.5s over its counterparts. key words: P2P–grid systems, fault tolerance, failure detection, failure recovery
Hedgefonds-Strategien und ihre Performance

Als Alternative zu traditionellen Investments in Aktien oder Anleihen haben Hedgefonds in den vergangenen Jahren eine hohe Popularitat erreicht und sind zugleich Gegenstand kontroverser Diskussionen in Wissenschaft und Praxis. Aufgrund gesetzlicher Restriktionen wurden Hedgefonds in Deutschland erst Ende der 1990er Jahre uber indirekte Beteiligungsformen, wie zum Beispiel Zertifikate oder Genussscheine, zuganglich gemacht. Mit der Einfuhrung des Investmentmodernisierungsgesetzes zum Januar 2004 hat sich die Behandlung von Hedgefonds am deutschen Kapitalmarkt jedoch grundlegend gewandelt, da eine direkte Investition in diese Anlageform fur private wie fur institutionelle Investoren grundsatzlich moglich ist. Diese Arbeit betrachtet die Anlageform Hedgefonds aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln der empirischen Kapitalmarktforschung: Zunachst werden der Begriff und die Eigenschaften von Hedgefonds diskutiert, dann werden Einblicke in die Strategien von Hedgefonds gegeben und schliesslich wird die Performance von Hedgefonds untersucht. Darauf aufbauend, wird eine Analyse der Eignung von Hedgefonds im Asset Management am Beispiel der deutschen Versicherungsindustrie vorgenommen. Die Arbeit vermittelt damit privaten und institutionellen Investoren sowohl einen grundlegenden Uberblick als auch neue wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zur Anlageklasse Hedgefonds.
Response to Victor Grauer: On the Concept of Evolution in the History of Ethnomusicology

This short essay responds to Grauer in the first instance by voicing agreement with his interest in reviving cantometrics and moving further along the lines sketched by Lomax. It reflects surprise at the relative neglect , by ethnomusicolo gists, of the issues raised by cantometrics after c. 1970, and goes on to associate cantometrics with its historical antecedents , the well-known work of Curt Sachs and of adherents of the American " culture area " approach to the interpretation of geographic distributions. Most of the essay is devoted to comments on a movement that has become known as " evolutionary musicology " which are directly or indirectly raised by Grauer. These involve the origins of music, the (sometimes incorrectly labeled) evolutionary approach to universal music history, and the interpretation of music as a biological adaptation. It is in evolutionary musicology that the influence of Lomax and cantometrics is most evident. 1. Appreciation and a Few Questions This is a magisterial work which takes on fundamental questions and issues of ethnomusicology. I congratulate Victor Grauer on his imaginative and comprehensivebut also speculative- presentation of the relationship between cantometrics and theories of a world history of music. In fact, this article does two important things- it narrates a history of music in its early stages and periods, and it picks up the thread of the cantometrics literature from his mentor Alan Lomax, moving its ideas further in the direction Lomax had charted. To be sure, what I see as Grauer' s main thrust, the early history, is based on cantometrics, but not really dependent on its detailed analytical technicalities. To me, Grauer's "history" is in many respects pretty convincing, but in the end, he asks the questions that came to me throughout the reading: "Am I writing a plausible history or weaving a myth? " Can a musical style retain consistency over long periods? Does perpetuation of a musical style go hand-in-hand with perpetuation of social structure? And I also would ask the question implied in Lomax's work: is there
A Comparison between the Hollow-Face and ‘Hollow-Potato’ Illusions

We argued previously that an effect of inversion on the hollow-face illusion was evidence that object-specific knowledge was important but not essential in generating the illusion of depth reversal (Hill and Bruce 1993). Although the strength of the illusion was reduced, it was not eliminated when the face was viewed upside down. We attributed the residual illusory effect for the inverted face to an additional preference of the visual system for convexity. A preference for convexity has also been invoked to account for the 'hollow-potato' illusion (Johnston et al 1992), where an unfamiliar randomly undulating concave surface is also perceived as convex from beyond a certain distance (see figure 1). However, in our previous study it is possible that
How Some Drugs Affect the Electroencephalogram (EEG)

ABSTRACT. The effects of drugs on the EEG vary and are often dose dependent. In general, drugs effects on the EEG are fairly predictable and include: no effect, accentuation of beta activity, background slowing with decreased amplitude and/or frequency of the alpha rhythm, intermixed theta and/or delta activity, decreased seizure activity, and lowering of the seizure threshold with increased spike and wave discharges. In severe overdose cases, the EEG may demonstrate alpha/theta coma, burst suppression, or even a “flat” EEG pattern.
Anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder are associated with abnormalities in processing visual information

Background Anorexia nervosa (AN) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are characterized by distorted body image and are frequently co-morbid with each other, although their relationship remains little studied. While there is evidence of abnormalities in visual and visuospatial processing in both disorders, no study has directly compared the two. We used two complementary modalities – event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) – to test for abnormal activity associated with early visual signaling. Method We acquired fMRI and ERP data in separate sessions from 15 unmedicated individuals in each of three groups (weight-restored AN, BDD, and healthy controls) while they viewed images of faces and houses of different spatial frequencies. We used joint independent component analyses to compare activity in visual systems. Results AN and BDD groups demonstrated similar hypoactivity in early secondary visual processing regions and the dorsal visual stream when viewing low spatial frequency faces, linked to the N170 component, as well as in early secondary visual processing regions when viewing low spatial frequency houses, linked to the P100 component. Additionally, the BDD group exhibited hyperactivity in fusiform cortex when viewing high spatial frequency houses, linked to the N170 component. Greater activity in this component was associated with lower attractiveness ratings of faces. Conclusions Results provide preliminary evidence of similar abnormal spatiotemporal activation in AN and BDD for configural/holistic information for appearance- and non-appearance-related stimuli. This suggests a common phenotype of abnormal early visual system functioning, which may contribute to perceptual distortions.
A Pilot Study: Testing of the Psychological Conditions Scale Among Hospital Nurses

OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Psychological Conditions Scale (PCS), a measure of drivers of engagement in hospital-based nurses. BACKGROUND:Research suggests drivers of engagement are positive links to patient, employee, and hospital outcomes. Although this scale has been used in other occupations, it has not been tested in nursing. METHODS:A cross-sectional, methodological study using a convenience sample of 200 nurses in a large Magnet® hospital in New Jersey. RESULTS:Cronbach’s &agr;’s ranged from . 64 to . 95. Principal components exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation revealed that 13 items loaded unambiguously in 3 domains and explained 76% of the variance. Mean PCS scores ranged from 3.62 to 4.68 on a 5-point Likert scale. CONCLUSIONS:The scale is an adequate measure of drivers of engagement in hospital-based nurses. Leadership efforts to promote the facilitators of engagement are recommended.
Lewy pathology and neurodegeneration in premotor Parkinson's disease

The foremost motor manifestations of Parkinson's disease are resting tremor, cogwheel rigidity, hypokinesia/bradykinesia, and postural instability. Epidemiological and clinical data reveal that a wide variety of additional complaints (nonmotor symptoms), also considerably impar patients' quality of life parallel to the chronic‐progressive neurodegenerative disorder. This article reviews the neuropathology and anatomy of Lewy pathology‐related neurodegeneration in relation to selected nonmotro and prodromal dysfunctions. © 2012 Movement Disorder Society
Coronary venous oximetry using MRI

Based on the Fick law, coronary venous blood oxygen measurements have value for assessing functional parameters such as the coronary flow reserve. At present, the application of this measure is restricted by its invasive nature. This report describes the design and testing of a noninvasive coronary venous blood oxygen measurement using MRI, with a preliminary focus on the coronary sinus. After design optimization including a four‐coil phased array and an optimal set of data acquisition parameters, quality tests indicate measurement precision on the order of the gold standard optical measurement (3%O2). Comparative studies using catheter sampling suggest reasonable accuracy (3 subjects), with variability dominated by sampling location uncertainty (∼7%O2). Intravenous dipyridamole (5 subjects) induces significant changes in sinus blood oxygenation (22 ± 9% O2), corresponding to flow reserves of 1.8 ± 0.4, suggesting the potential for clinical utility. Underestimation of flow reserve is dominated by right atrial mixing and the systemic effects of dipyridamole. Magn Reson Med 42:837–848, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Thrombin activation of endometrial endothelial cells: A possible role in intrauterine growth restriction

Summary Preeclampsia (PE), intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and abruption with or without fetal loss are associated with reduced uteroplacental blood flow, decidual vasculopathy, endothelial cell dysfunction, thrombosis, inflammation and hemorrhage. Our hypothesis is that reduced uteroplacental blood flow causes focal decidual hypoxia that generates vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The latter acts directly on decidual endothelial cells to induce aberrant expression of tissue factor (TF), the primary initiator of coagulation. This in turn generates thrombin that induces: i) further TF expression; and ii) inflammatory cytokines. BothVEGF and TF induce aberrant angiogenesis-vessel maintenance reflected by endothelial cell fenestrations and induction of a prothrombotic surface causing both the decidual hemorrhage (i.e.abruption) and thrombosis (i.e.uteroplacental vascular insuf- ficiency) observed in these adverse pregnancy outcomes. This novel hypothesis is supported by our finding of TF expression in decidual endothelium of pregnancies complicated by IUGR and/ or fetal loss. Moreover, treatment of cultured endometrial endothelial cells with VEGF or thrombin induces TF protein and mRNA expression. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis indicates that thrombin enhances (>10-fold) the output of diverse inflammatory cytokines in these cultures. The greatest effect (>2-log) was seen on macrophage inflammatory protein 3 α (MIP3 α ). In vitro, thrombin results in endometrial endothelial cell aggregations and changes in the apoptotic pathway. Thus, we postulate that reductions in uteroplacental flow initiate a cascade of molecular effects leading to hypoxia, thrombosis, inflammation, and endothelial cell dysfunction resulting in untoward pregnancy outcomes.
Chapter 9 The Evolution of Modern Total Knee Prostheses

Many types of prosthesis are used for total knee arthroplasty, and the evolution of knee ar‐ throplasty, which has a history of almost 40 years, involves repetitious cycles of failure and development. During its early stage (1970-1974), instruments of the unicondylar, duocondy‐ lar, or hinged types were used, but these were eventually abandoned due to low success rates. A replacement for the total condylar type was successfully developed and became the model for total knee arthroplasty. Recently, unicondylar arthroplasty has produced good re‐ sults in selected patients, and arthroplasty of the constrained or hinged type have been pro‐ ven useful for revision surgery or combined surgery, respectively. To solve the problem of the fixed bearing joint, a mobile bearing joint has been developed, and non-cemented fixed knee arthroplasty is receiving renewed attention. Much effort is being expended on the de‐ velopments of new materials, such as, ceramics and cross-linked polyethylene, on new de‐ signs that maximize function and endurance, and on minimally invasive surgery.
Differential Expression of sigH Paralogs during Growth and under Different Stress Conditions in Mycobacterium smegmatis

ABSTRACT SigH regulates a transcriptional network that responds to heat and oxidative stress in mycobacteria. Seven sigH paralogs are reported to exist in the Mycobacterium smegmatis genome. A comprehensive real-time reverse transcriptase PCR analysis during different stages of growth and upon exposure to various stress conditions and antimycobacterial compounds showed differential expression of sigH paralogs during stationary phase and severalfold increases in the levels of transcription of sigH1, sigH4, sigH5, sigH6, and sigH7 under specific stress conditions.
Semantic Community Identification in Large Attribute Networks

Identification of modular or community structures of a network is a key to understanding the semantics and functions of the network. While many network community detection methods have been developed, which primarily explore network topologies, they provide little semantic information of the communities discovered. Although structures and semantics are closely related, little effort has been made to discover and analyze these two essential network properties together. By integrating network topology and semantic information on nodes, e.g., node attributes, we study the problems of detection of communities and inference of their semantics simultaneously. We propose a novel nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) model with two sets of parameters, the community membership matrix and community attribute matrix, and present efficient updating rules to evaluate the parameters with a convergence guarantee. The use of node attributes improves upon community detection and provides a semantic interpretation to the resultant network communities. Extensive experimental results on synthetic and real-world networks not only show the superior performance of the new method over the state-of-the-art approaches, but also demonstrate its ability to semantically annotate the communities.
Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension Among United States Adults 1999–2004

Detection of hypertension and blood pressure control are critically important for reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. We analyzed the trends in the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in the United States in the period 1999–2004. We used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2004 database. Blood pressure information on 14 653 individuals (4749 in 1999–2000, 5032 in 2001–2002, and 4872 in 2003–2004) aged ≥18 years was used. Hypertension was defined as blood pressure ≥140/90 mm Hg or taking antihypertensive medications. The prevalence of hypertension in 2003–2004 was 7.3±0.9%, 32.6±2.0%, and 66.3±1.8% in the 18 to 39, 40 to 59, and ≥60 age groups, respectively. The overall prevalence was 29.3%. When compared with 1999–2000, there were nonsignificant increases in the overall prevalence, awareness, and treatment rates of hypertension. The blood pressure control rate was 29.2±2.3% in 1999–2000 and 36.8±2.3% in 2003–2004. The age-adjusted increase in control rate was 8.1% (95% CI: 2.4 to 13.8%; P=0.006). The control rates increased significantly in both sexes, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican Americans. Among the ≥60 age group, the awareness, treatment, and control rates of hypertension had all increased significantly (P≤0.01). The improvement in blood pressure control is encouraging, although the prevalence of hypertension has not declined.
Activated CD3+ T cells are involved in elimination of Candida albicans from the livers of mice

Summary. We have investigated the course of infection of Balb/c mice with Candida albicans. After intravenous infection of mice, the yeasts were evenly distributed in the liver sections. There was a 90% reduction in the yeasts found within 7 days after infection. This reduction was accompanied by an increase in the number of phagocytic cells (Mac‐1+ Gr‐1+) in cellular infiltrates around the yeast cells. Furthermore, both CD4+ CD8+ T lymphocytes were found in these pseudogranulomata, with the CD8+ cells in the periphery. Peak amounts of the cell types investigated were found at days 5 and 6 post infection, with an increased expression of receptors for interleukin 2 (IL‐2R) on the surface of CD8+ cells. At day 14 of infection, the same levels as those in control mice were reached. At this time, the yeasts were virtually eliminated from the liver. By using simultaneous detection of cell surface markers and yeast cells in immunohistology, these data demonstrate the close association of fungal cells, phagocytes, TH and Tc cells in pseudogranulomata during elimination of Candida albicans from the livers of mice.
Development and characterization of nuclear microsatellite markers in the endophytic fungus Epichloë festucae (Clavicipitaceae)

Premise of the study: Microsatellite primers were developed for the endophytic fungus Epichloë festucae, which is symbiotic with Festuca rubra, to study the population genetics of the species and to compare population structures between E. festucae and its host F. rubra. Methods and Results: We developed 14 polymorphic markers using the unplaced genomic scaffold sequences of E. festucae from GenBank. The number of alleles per locus (A) varied from four to 16, and unbiased haploid diversity (h) was 0.717 in eight populations located in the Faroe Islands, Finland, and Spain. The Spanish populations possessed a higher number of alleles and haploid diversity (on average A = 5.1 and h = 0.591, respectively) compared to northern populations (on average A = 1.5 and h = 0.199, respectively). Conclusions: These polymorphic markers will be used by grass breeders for uses including the improvement of commercial turfgrass cultivars, and by population geneticists to study different species of the Epichloë genus.
A Block-Wise Deformation-Based Approach for Facial Expression Recognition

This paper presents the recognition results about exploring the combination of an approach based on non-rigid deformation with a block-wise method to describe the facial deformation caused by the muscle contractions and expansions that are presented in facial expressions. The proposed feature extraction method takes advantage of the knowledge related to which parts of the face reflects the highest deformations, so we selected 4 specific facial regions at which the appearance descriptor were applied. The most common approaches used for feature extraction are the holistic and the local strategies. In this work we present the results of using a local appearance approach estimating the correlation coefficient of the 4 corresponding landmark-localized facial templates of the expression face related to the neutral face. The results let us prove how the proposed estimation of non-rigid deformation scheme with the dominant block based on computational correlation can simply and intuitively measure the deformation parameters for some of the most relevant facial regions and how these parameters together can be used to recognize facial expressions automatically. Using a Levenberg-Marquardt Back Propagation neural network, it was obtained as the highest successful classification accuracy 93.17%.
Estudio Transversal: Prevalencia de Disfunción Sexual Femenina y Factores Asociados en Pacientes del Hospital “José Carrasco Arteaga”.

INTRODUCCION : La disfuncion sexual femenina (DSF) incluye multiples desordenes presentes en una de cada tres mujeres, la cual esta asociada a varios factores propios y externos principal­mente biologicos y psicologicos. El objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar la prevalencia de disfuncion sexual femenina y sus factores asociados. METODO: El presente es un estudio transversal de prevalencia llevado a cabo en 303 pacientes entrevistadas en el servicio de Ginecologia del hospital “Jose Carrasco Arteaga” (HJCA) durante 2013. Se conformaron dos grupos definidos por la presencia o ausencia de disfuncion sexual para lo cual se utilizo el IFSF y contrastar los factores asociados. Se analizo la informacion de acuerdo a la estadistica descriptiva, razon de prevalencia (RP) y chi cuadrado (χ 2 ). RESULTADOS: La prevalencia de DSF fue de 60.4%; las pacientes refirieron dolor durante la relacion sexual (60.7%), alteracion en el deseo y excitacion (60.1%), falta de lubricacion y anorgasmia (51.4%) e insatisfaccion sexual (41%). Se estudiaron como factores: instruccion primaria (OR=7.04; IC–95%=2.21– 22.27; P=0.0001), edad 41–60 anos (OR=5.72; IC–95%=3.37–9.70; P=0.0001), trastornos nerviosos (OR=2.70; IC–95%=1.44–5.04; P=0.002), enfermedades organicas (OR=2.35; IC–95%=1.44–3.82; P=0.001), cirugia pelvica anterior (OR=2.26; IC–95%: 1.31–3.90; P=0.003), violencia (OR=1.95; IC–95%=1.03–3.70; P=0.047), instruccion superior (OR=0.37; IC–95%=0.23–0.6; P=0.0001), consumo de cigarrillos (OR=0.46; IC–95%=0.25–0.87; P=0.023) y la ingesta de alcohol (OR=0.40; IC–95%=0.17–0.91; P=0.034). CONCLUSIONES: La prevalencia de disfuncion sexual femenina fue muy alta (60.4%), se encontro asociacion como factores de riesgo con: instruccion primaria, edad entre 41 y 60 anos, trastornos nerviosos, enfermedades organicas, antecedentes de cirugia pelvica y violencia; como factores protectores: union libre, la instruccion superior, el consumo de cigarrillo y de alcohol. DESCRIPTORES DeCS: TRASTORNOS SEXUALES Y DE GENERO, DISFUNCIONES SEXUALES PSICO­LOGICAS, PREVALENCIA, FACTORES DE RIESGO.