Automatically bridging the semantic gap in machine introspection

Disclosed are various embodiments that facilitate automatically bridging the semantic gap in machine introspection. It may be determined that a program executed by a first virtual machine is requested to introspect a second virtual machine. A system call execution context of the program may be determined in response to determining that the program is requested to introspect the second virtual machine. Redirectable data in a memory of the second virtual machine may be identified based at least in part on the system call execution context of the program. The program may be configured to access the redirectable data. In various embodiments, the program may be able to modify the redirectable data, thereby facilitating configuration, reconfiguration, and recovery operations to be performed on the second virtual machine from within the first virtual machine.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

The Second Choice

This creative thesis strives to carve out the constitutional disappointments in our psychic experiences and the equally constitutional human effort to seek a temporal sense of contentment amid the disappointments, from the context of the increasing fluidity of the present world, where international mobility has ceased to be the privilege or misfortune of a few and become the norm of a growing globalized population. In this thesis, an inward-looking, self-exploring approach is employed to explore the pluralism in both disappointment and self-consoling. The limitations in the characters\u27 perspectives are essential to both stories in this thesis, because a limited perspective can lead to disappointments, but it also allows the human subject to stay hopeful with the remaining options after the disappointing turn of events. Both stories are told in first person, because the first person point of view is very effective in showing the limitations of a particular perspective. Inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro, the stories adopt a very meticulous, analytical style of narration--a style that prompts deep thinking in readers and invites doubts

NR1L: A NOVEL NUCLEAR RECEPTOR GROUP ACTIVATED BY JUVENILE HORMONE ANALOGS

Annotation of the Daphnia pulex nuclear receptors revealed a novel group of three receptors designated NR1L, and named HR97a/b/g because of their similarity to the HR96 receptors involved in xenobiotic detection. We cloned and sequenced the three receptors from a related species often used in aquatic toxicology studies, Daphnia magna, and then analyzed their genomic structure and conducted phylogenetic studies. Phylogenetic studies confirmed that the HR97s do form a distinct group with HR97g being the precursor of HR97a and b. They also confirmed that the HR97 receptors are related to the HR96 (NR1J) receptors, and the VDR/CAR/PXR (NR1I) group. Mining other arthropod genomes revealed that Ixodes also has a NR1L member (IsHR97). Gal4-chimeric plasmids that contain the ligand binding domain of HR97a/b/g were constructed for transactivation assays. Transactivation assays demonstrated that HR97a and HR97g repress basal transcription in the absence of a activator; however, HR97b has constitutive activity. We hypothesized that the HR97\u27s are involved in xenobiotic detoxification. Contrary to our hypothesis, the HR97s are not activated by multiple toxicants. We found that pyriproxyfen and methyl farnesoate activate HR97g. Dose-response studies found that pyriproxyfen and methyl farnesoate have EC50\u27s of 3.4 and 2.2 uM, respectively. The two chemicals are juvenile hormone analogs that have been found to induce the production of males in the otherwise female parthenogenic Daphnia. HR97a and b are also activated by pyriproxyfen. Further, although NR1L is phylogenetically related to NR1I and NR1J, the HR97s do not share significant similarity with the NR1I and NR1J members. We conclude that HR97s are not xenobiotic sensors, but may be involved in juvenile hormone signaling and potentially male production

Purchasing through Social Platforms with Buy Buttons: Academic and Practical Considerations

Social commerce sales are considerably increasing in recent years. Social platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, and WeChat) play a strategic role in world economy. However, social platforms ran into several burning issues: low ad conversion rates, social platform users’ free-riding behaviors, etc. Although buy buttons, a clickable navigation element leading users from a social platform to an e-commerce platform, could be a solution for such issues, the outcomes of using buy buttons did not reach many professionals’ expectation. This thesis studied four issues related to social shopping with buy buttons. First, as it is undetermined whether a social platform should roll out the buy-button feature or not, it is necessary to study whether the presence of buy button is associated with better outcomes (e.g. users’ higher willingness to purchase through the social platform) or not. Second, as social commerce is a remote shopping mode in which buyers and sellers cannot have face-to-face interactions, high risk and low trust could be two crucial barriers of social commerce. Hence, it is needed to study how risk- and trust-related factors influence users’ direct purchasing behavior. Third, considering that social commerce could be risky, this thesis wants to examine whether the presence of safe shopping measures (vs. an unsafe shopping scenario) can improve the performance of social shopping or not. Finally, social commerce involves a purchase path from a social platform to an e-commerce platform. There are many pain points (e.g., re-entering billing and shipping information) in the purchase path. Meanwhile, as social shopping risks and pain points in the purchase path could be caused by a same factor, the silos between social platforms and e-commerce platforms. It is interesting to study how safe shopping measures and integrated path-to-purchase (users can complete a purchase without leaving the social platform; vs. separated path-to-purchase in which users have to leave the social platform and go to the e-commerce platform to complete a purchase) jointly influence users. In order to answer these questions, three essays have been included in this thesis. Several online surveys were conducted. The between-subjects experimental design and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique were used. The results showed that the presence of buy button was related to better outcomes. It found that risk- and trust-related factors significantly influenced users’ direct purchasing behavior. Both the safe shopping measures and the integrated path-to-purchase design can generate better outcomes of using a buy button in social shopping. In most circumstances, users showed more positive reactions when the safe shopping measures or the integrated path-to-purchase was present. However, no significant interaction effects between the safe shopping measures (vs. an unsafe shopping scenario) and the integrated path-to-purchase (vs. the separated path-to-purchase) were found. The theoretical contributions have been discussed in contrast to previous literature. This thesis has added academic value by offering new insights for previously established variable relationships in a different research context and studying variable relationships that have not been examined in previously relevant studies. From a practical viewpoint, as buy buttons inject e-commerce capabilities into social platforms, this thesis implies that socially focused platforms could reap benefits from social commerce by rolling out a buy-button feature. It is recommended that social platforms wanting to roll out buy buttons take safe shopping measures and create a seamless shopping experience for users.Tesis Univ. Granada.China Scholarship Council grant number: 201606170055National Natural Science Foundation of China grant number: 7170206

Investigation of the Effect of Biodiesel Blends on Fuel Injection Pumps based on Vibration and Pressure Measurements

Amongst alternative fuels for diesel-engine application, biodiesel is very attractive because it is biodegradable, an environmentally-friendly and sustainable source that can meet future energy demands. However, there are few published studies of the impact of biodiesel fuel and its blends on fuel injection pumps (FIPs). This study will investigate the influence of biodiesels derived from waste cooking oils with incremental blends of B10, B20, B30, B40 and B100. The FIP in this study is a rotary type attached to a four-cylinder, four-stroke direct injection, turbocharged diesel engine. Vibration and pressure measurements were made on the FIP. The results show the peak pressure close to the pump increases slightly the higher the proportion of biodiesel because of increased viscosity, density and bulk modulus of the fuel. Low frequency vibration increased as the proportion of biodiesel increased. These results demonstrate an increase in dynamic load on the pump components. However, high frequency vibration levels are lowest for the blends B10, B20 and B30, which may be helpful for improving the service life of the delivery

Green Communication for More Package-Free Ecommerce Returns

The existing packed mail-based return mode in ecommerce has a considerable negative impact on the natural environment. In contrast, a package-free return mode accepts unpacked ecommerce returns using return points in-store and is a more eco-friendly service. On the basis of the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework, this study aims to identify key factors in green communication that contribute to consumers switching from mail return services to package-free return services. A scenario-based online survey was conducted. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Push factors (consumer dissatisfaction) and a mooring factor (mail return habit) only manifested weak effects on switching intention. Regarding pull factors (service convenience and green value), in contrast to previous research, the effect of green value on switching intention was found to be much weaker than the effect of service convenience. Convenience was found to be the key factor in green communication. Our research adds value to green communication and the PPM framework. It updates existing knowledge concerning the role of consumer dissatisfaction, perceived green value, and perceived convenience of return service in green communication. This study also explains why the mooring factor of habit fails to predict switching intention.National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project in Zhejiang Province 72032008 21ZJQN03Y

The Study of the Dynamics of Diesel Engine Fuel Injectors with Alternative Fuels for Diagnosis

With the oncoming energy crisis in fossil fuels, the study of alternative fuels has become a topic of much concern for industry in recent years. Among the alternative fuels, biodiesel shows huge potential for solving the crisis as it can be used in traditional diesel engine systems with minimal modifications. The injector has the highest failure rate in diesel engines, which has more potential for using biodiesels that have higher viscosity and bulk modulus. However, the influence of biodiesel on the injector’s dynamics and diagnostics has rarely been reported. In practice, the injector operation is influenced by many factors and it is hard to extract its dynamic characteristics for the purpose of detection and analysis by using the traditional techniques like the vibration and the airborne sound (AS), which are highly affected by other processes in the engine systems, such as combustion. As a non-intrusive condition monitoring (CM) technique, acoustic emissions (AE) can detect a very high frequency event, which means it has good localized performance and is less likely to be interfered by noises from other engine process such as combustion. Thereafter, as a promising nonintrusive technique, AE measurement is employed in this project to study the injector dynamics for the purpose of diagnosis. At the same time, to verify this method, conventional intrusive monitoring methods, such as cylinder pressure and injector pressure are also investigated. A series of analytic studies and experiments are carried out based on a four-stroke diesel engine system by changing the running of the engine with different loads, speeds and fuel types. The signals are converted to the angular domain to help understand the behavior of the injection process. From the results analysis, it has been found that the injection parameters, such as starting angle, closing angle and impact strength, have high correlation with AE signals. Moreover, current study results show that the envelope of the AE signal has good performance in estimating the injection open angle for all fuel types. Therefore, AE can be employed as a non-intrusive method for monitoring the injection behaviour of different fuels. In addition, AE amplitudes of injecting pure biodiesels show little increase although the injection pressures are clearly higher in comparison with normal diesel fuel. This may be accounted by the softening effect of high viscosity

Risk Factors and Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori

Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of H. pylori infection in areas with high prevalence of gastric cancer in Jiangsu Province, China. Methods. A prospective epidemiologic survey of H. pylori infection was accomplished in a natural population of 5417 individuals in Yangzhong city. Questionnaires and 13C-urea breath test for H. pylori infection were performed. Results. Among 5417 subjects who completed questionnaires and 13C-urea breath test, 3435 (63.41%) were H. pylori positive. The prevalence reached a peak at the age of 30–39 years (90.82%). There was significant difference between sexes and women had a higher infection rate than men. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was also associated with eating kipper food and fried food. No association between H. pylori prevalence and smoking or drinking was found. Compared to healthy individuals, people with dyspeptic diseases (peptic ulcer, gastroenteritis) presented a high prevalence of H. pylori infection. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, age and history of peptic ulcer and gastroenteritis were the independent predictors for H. pylori infection. Conclusions. Yangzhong city had a high prevalence of H. pylori infection and was related to several risk factors. The underlying mechanisms are needed to be further investigated