Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Restricted Broadcast Process Theory

We present a process algebra for modeling and reasoning about Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) and their protocols. In our algebra we model the essential modeling concepts of ad hoc networks, i.e. local broadcast, connectivity of nodes and connectivity changes. Connectivity and connectivity changes are modeled implicitly in the semantics, which results in a more compact state space. Our connectivity model supports unidirectional links. A key feature of our algebra is eliminating connectivity information from the specification of a network, and transferring its complexity to the semantics. We give a formal operational semantics for our process algebra, and define equivalence relations on protocols and networks. We show how our algebra can be applied to prove correctness of an adhoc routing protocol.
The discovery of Iberobaeniidae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea): a new family of beetles from Spain, with immatures detected by environmental DNA sequencing

The ongoing exploration of biodiversity and the implementation of new molecular tools continue to unveil hitherto unknown lineages. Here, we report the discovery of three species of neotenic beetles for which we propose the new family Iberobaeniidae. Complete mitochondrial genomes and rRNA genes recovered Iberobaeniidae as a deep branch in Elateroidea, as sister to Lycidae (net-winged beetles). Two species of the new genus Iberobaenia, Iberobaenia minuta sp. nov. and Iberobaenia lencinai sp. nov. were found in the adult stage. In a separate incidence, a related sequence was identified in bulk samples of soil invertebrates subjected to shotgun sequencing and mitogenome assembly, which was traced to a larval voucher specimen of a third species of Iberobaenia. Iberobaenia shows characters shared with other elateroid neotenic lineages, including soft-bodiedness, the hypognathous head, reduced mouthparts with reduced labial palpomeres, and extremely small-bodied males without strengthening structures due to miniaturization. Molecular dating shows that Iberobaeniidae represents an ancient relict lineage originating in the Lower Jurassic, which possibly indicates a long history of neoteny, usually considered to be evolutionarily short-lived. The apparent endemism of Iberobaeniidae in the Mediterranean region highlights the importance of this biodiversity hotspot and the need for further species exploration even in the well-studied European continent.
Impact of gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist addition on pregnancy rates in gonadotropin-stimulated intrauterine insemination cycles

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist in improving clinical pregnancy rate in gonadotropin-stimulated intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles in patients of unexplained infertility. STUDY DESIGN: This was a prospective, randomized case-controlled study. SETTINGS: The study was conducted in the infertility clinic of a tertiary care center. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four hundred twenty-seven women undergoing IUI following controlled ovarian stimulation with gonadotropins (recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone [r-FSH] 75 IU/day) were randomly divided into two groups. Women in Group I received GnRH antagonist (Cetrorelix 0.25 mg/day) in a multiple dose flexible protocol. Women in Group II received r-FSH alone. Ovulatory trigger was given with human chorionic gonadotropin 5000 IU when dominant follicle was ≥18 mm. IUI was performed within 44-48 h. Both groups received similar luteal phase support. Primary outcome measure was clinical pregnancy rate. The trial was powered to detect an absolute increase in clinical pregnancy rate by 13% from an assumed 20% clinical pregnancy rate in the control group, with an alpha error level of 0.05 and a beta error level of 0.20. RESULTS: Clinical pregnancy rate in Groups I and II was 27.6% (n = 56) and 26.5% (n = 54), respectively (P=0.800). Ongoing pregnancy and multiple pregnancy rates were likewise similar between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Addition of GnRH antagonist to gonadotropin-stimulated IUI cycles results in no significant difference in clinical pregnancy rate.
Increased mortality associated with growth hormone treatment in critically ill adults.

A BSTRACT Background The administration of growth hormone can attenuate the catabolic response to injury, surgery, and sepsis. However, the effect of high doses of growth hormone on the length of stay in intensive care and in the hospital, the duration of mechanical ventilation, and the outcome in critically ill adults who are hospitalized for long periods is not known. Methods We carried out two prospective, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trials in parallel involving 247 Finnish patients and 285 patients in other European countries who had been in an intensive care unit for 5 to 7 days and who were expected to require intensive care for at least 10 days. The patients had had cardiac surgery, abdominal surgery, multiple trauma, or acute respiratory failure. The patients received either growth hormone (mean [±SD] daily dose, 0.10±0.02 mg per kilogram of body weight) or placebo until discharge from intensive care or for a maximum of 21 days. Results The in-hospital mortality rate was higher in the patients who received growth hormone than in those who did not (P<0.001 for both studies). In the Finnish study, the mortality rate was 39 percent in the growth hormone group, as compared with 20 percent in the placebo group. The respective rates in the multinational study were 44 percent and 18 percent. The relative risk of death for patients receiving growth hormone was 1.9 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.3 to 2.9) in the Finnish study and 2.4 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.6 to 3.5) in the multinational study. Among the survivors, the length of stay in intensive care and in the hospital and the duration of mechanical ventilation were prolonged in the growth hormone group. Conclusions In patients with prolonged critical illness, high doses of growth hormone are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. (N Engl J Med 1999;341:785-92.)
The Impact of Micro-Scale Solar Power Supply for Rural Households, in Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia

Electricity is one of the basic necessities of people. The provision of micro-scale solar electricity in remote areas is needed to increase public access to electricity as a way of improving the capacity of household members. The aim of this community engagement program is to increase the electricity access of agricultural households as a means of providing financial, economic, and sociocultural benefits to farmer communities. Theoretical background. Based on the theoretical concepts (Zhu, 2011), the community engagement must be tailored to the population interest and community-based organizations must be involved in any engagement initiative. There are six major components of a community engagement, which are collaboration, accessibility, accountability, education, principles, and organizational capacity. Methods. This program was carried out in the Central Kalimantan village of Kampung Baru in Katingan Kuala, Katingan, which was chosen based on its potential to be developed as a food-crop producing region amidst its adverse characteristics (no electricity, a remote area, no land vehicles, and a population living in poverty). The community engagement activities conducted under this program covered observations, village-consultation approaches, participatory education, participatory rural appraisal, and interviews. Transfer of knowledge to mobilize and organize the community was carried out through adult education, learning through a hands-on approach, and on-site training. The beneficiaries were selected from poor families adjudged in part based on the poor condition or habitability of the house and with school-age children in the household. Results and discussion. Around 96% of rural households were found to have food-crop farming livelihoods with only 29% of them having another business. This program’ selected 43 households (HHs) and two Muslim praying rooms. Based on the beneficiaries’ survey responses, 98% were “very happy” while 2% were “quite happy” with this program. A total of 86% of households could expand their respective businesses. The average financial benefits amounted to an estimated 2.72 million rupiah per month, and the socio-cultural benefits impacted 96% of the children in the form of increased diligence to learn owing to having acquired greater free time at night. Conclusion. The empowerment program in the form of the provision of micro-scale solar electricity lighting resulted in positive socio-economic impact on the beneficiaries due to savings in electricity costs that even led to additional businesses for some of the beneficiaries, and children’s increased diligence in learning especially at the night.
Respiratory syncytial virus infection in anti-mu-treated mice

BALB/c mice were depleted of B cells by anti-mu treatment to investigate the pathogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in the absence of antibody. Termination of RSV replication after primary infection occurred with the same kinetics in anti-mu-treated mice as in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)-treated controls. Yet, when rechallenged, anti-mu-treated mice were more permissive to RSV replication than PBS-treated controls. Anti-mu-treated mice also experienced greater illness than PBS-treated controls during both primary infection and rechallenge. Passive transfer of RSV-specific immune serum to anti-mu-treated mice before rechallenge reconstituted complete protection from RSV replication and diminished illness. Thus, RSV-specific antibody is not required to terminate RSV replication in primary infection, but without antibody, only partial immunity against rechallenge is induced. While it is unknown whether the mechanism is a direct effect on RSV titer or modulation of the illness-causing cellular immune response, the presence of RSV-specific antibody reduces illness in both primary RSV infection and rechallenge of mice.
Characterization of RAD51-Independent Break-Induced Replication That Acts Preferentially with Short Homologous Sequences

ABSTRACT Repair of double-strand breaks by gene conversions between homologous sequences located on different Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosomes or plasmids requires RAD51. When repair occurs between inverted repeats of the same plasmid, both RAD51-dependent and RAD51-independent repairs are found. Completion of RAD51-independent plasmid repair events requires RAD52, RAD50, RAD59, TID1 (RDH54), and SRS2 and appears to involve break-induced replication coupled to single-strand annealing. Surprisingly, RAD51-independent recombination requires much less homology (30 bp) for strand invasion than does RAD51-dependent repair (approximately 100 bp); in fact, the presence of Rad51p impairs recombination with short homology. The differences between the RAD51- and RAD50/RAD59-dependent pathways account for the distinct ways that two different recombination processes maintain yeast telomeres in the absence of telomerase.
Discriminant Score for Celiac Disease Based on Immunohistochemical Analysis of Duodenal Biopsies

Objectives: Celiac disease (CD) represents a spectrum, which includes cases with minor histological abnormalities (potential CD). The aim of this work is to evaluate the contribution of immunohistochemical analysis of duodenal biopsies to the diagnosis of gluten-related minor enteropathy. Methods: Duodenal biopsies from 56 patients with untreated CD and 56 controls were analyzed for CD3 and &ggr;&dgr; intraepithelial lymphocyte number, &ggr;&dgr;/CD3 ratio, and density of CD25+ lamina propria cells. A discriminant equation was obtained by which 61 more biopsies with normal villous architecture were blindly evaluated. Results: All of the immunohistochemical parameters were significantly different between patients with CD and controls. None of the single parameters showed sufficient specificity for CD. The combination of all of the 4 markers resulted in the following discriminant equation: discriminant score (Dscore) = (CD3 × 0.06) − (&ggr;&dgr; × 0.119) + (CD25 × 0.012) + (&ggr;&dgr;/CD3 × 0.131) − 4.709. Using this Dscore, patients were correctly classified as celiac or controls in 97.3% of the cases. When this equation was applied to a validation set of 61 patients with normal villous architecture and unknown diagnosis, 92.9% of those with a positive score turned out to be patients with potential CD. A normal score, however, did not exclude this condition. Conclusions: Immunohistochemistry represents a specific tool for the diagnosis of CD, but does lack sensitivity in detecting all of the potential CD cases.
Functional brain mapping of the relaxation response and meditation

&NA; Meditation is a conscious mental process that induces a set of integrated physiologic changes termed the relaxation response. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to identify and characterize the brain regions that are active during a simple form of meditation. Significant (p <10−7) signal increases were observed in the group‐averaged data in the dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices, hippocampus/parahippocampus, temporal lobe, pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, striatum, and pre‐ and post‐central gyri during meditation. Global fMRI signal decreases were also noted, although these were probably secondary to cardiorespiratory changes that often accompany meditation. The results indicate that the practice of meditation activates neural structures involved in attention and control of the autonomic nervous system.
Advanced SAR Interferometric Analysis to Support Geomorphological Interpretation of Slow-Moving Coastal Landslides (Malta, Mediterranean Sea)

An advanced SAR interferometric analysis has been combined with a methodology for the automatic classification of radar reflectors phase histories to interpret slope-failure kinematics and trend of displacements of slow-moving landslides. To accomplish this goal, the large dataset of radar images, acquired in more than 20 years by the two European Space Agency (ESA) missions ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT, was exploited. The analysis was performed over the northern sector of Island of Malta (central Mediterranean Sea), where extensive landslides occur. The study was assisted by field surveys and with the analysis of existing thematic maps and landslide inventories. The outcomes allowed definition of a model capable of describing the geomorphological evolution of slow-moving landslides, providing a key for interpreting such phenomena that, due to their slowness, are usually scarcely investigated.
Mechanisms Underlying Spatial Representation Revealed through Studies of Hemispatial Neglect

The representations that mediate the coding of spatial position were examined by comparing the behavior of patients with left hemispatial neglect with that of nonneurological control subjects. To determine the spatial coordinate system(s) used to define left and right, eye movements were measured for targets that appeared at 58,108, and 158 to the relative left or right defined with respect to the midline of the eyes, head, or midsaggital plane of the trunk. In the baseline condition, in which the various egocentric midlines were all aligned with the environmental midline, patients were disproportionately slower at initiating saccades to left than right targets, relative to the controls. When either the trunk or the head was rotated and the midline aligned with the most peripheral position while the eyes remained aligned with the midline of the environment, the results did not differ from the baseline condition. However, when the eyes were rotated and the midline aligned with the peripheral position, saccadic reaction time (SRT) differed significantly from the baseline, especially when the eyes were rotated to the right. These findings suggest that target position is coded relative to the current position of gaze (oculocentrically) and that this eye-centered coding is modulated by orbital position (eye-in-head signal). The findings dovetail well with results from existing neurophysiological studies and shed further light on the spatial representations mediated by the human parietal cortex.
An Application of the Traveling Tournament Problem: The Argentine Volleyball League

This article describes an optimization process used to schedule the First Division of Argentina's professional volleyball league. The teams in the league are grouped into couples, and matches are held on Thursdays and Saturdays. In each pair of consecutive Thursday–Saturday matches, the two teams in each couple play against two teams from another couple. Minimization of travel distances is critical because the teams' home locations are scattered throughout the country and teams do not return to their home sites between consecutive away matches, making this problem a variation of the well-known traveling tournament problem. The coupled format gives rise to two key decisions: (1) how to couple the teams, and (2) how to schedule the matches. We apply integer programming techniques and a tabu search heuristic to solve these questions. The league successfully used the resulting schedules in its 2007–2008, 2008–2009, 2009–2010, and 2010–2011 seasons, reducing the total travel distance while meeting all of the teams' requirements. This is the first application of the traveling tournament problem to a real-world sports league reported in the optimization literature.
Application of the Finite Element Method to Solve Coupled Multiphysics Problems for Subsurface Energy Extraction

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Detailed Illustration of the Visual Field Representation along the Visual Pathway to the Primary Visual Cortex: A Graphical Summary

Purpose: In the literature, different graphic illustrations are available, which depict different parts of the visual pathway in relation to visual field sectors, to retinal sectors, the layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), or sections of the primary visual cortex (V1). However, a complete overview is missing, which may be useful for a more precise differentiation of predominantly ophthalmological from intracerebral diseases. It may also be of interest to investigate additional intracerebral reasons that are involved in impaired vision of largely unknown pathophysiology. Methods: This work combines the scientific knowledge of partial graphics in one detailed illustration that allows exact follow-up of the neuronal connections from individual visual field sectors to the V1 areas. A selective search for peer-reviewed graphics of the visual pathway was performed in PubMed and Google Pictures. Results: Sixteen different visual field sectors and their 16 corresponding retinal sectors were set in relation to 64 LGN sections and 20 areas of V1. Segmented cross-sectional areas of the optic nerve supplemented the graphical representation of the fiber orientation in relation to the visual field. Conclusion: The detailed illustration of the visual field projection along the visual pathway structures may facilitate a more precise calculation of correlations between morphological and functional measurements of ophthalmological and neuroradiological examinations.
BEOWULF: A Parallel Workstation for Scientific Computation

Network-of-Workstations technology is applied to the challenge of implementing very high performance workstations for Earth and space science applications. The Beowulf parallel workstation employs 16 PC-based processing modules integrated with multiple Ethernet networks. Large disk capacity and high disk to memory bandwidth is achieved through the use of a hard disk and controller for each processing module supporting up to 16 way concurrent accesses. The paper presents results from a series of experiments that measure the scaling characteristics of Beowulf in terms of communication bandwidth, file transfer rates, and processing performance. The evaluation includes a computational fluid dynamics code and an N-body gravitational simulation program. It is shown that the Beowulf architecture provides a new operating point in performance to cost for high performance workstations, especially for file transfers under favorable conditions.
A self-powered rectifier circuit for low-voltage energy harvesting applications

This paper presents a fully self-powered low voltage and low power active rectifier circuit for vibration-based electromagnetic (EM) energy harvesters. A passive AC/DC doubler is used to provide a supply voltage for the active rectifier circuit. The proposed circuit is designed using standard 90 nm TSMC CMOS technology. The simulation results show that the proposed active rectifier circuit has voltage conversion ratio higher than 150% when the input peak voltage is more than 100 mV at open-load condition. The maximum power conversion efficiency of the circuit is 92% with 500 mV input peak voltage and 40 kΩ load resistance. Moreover, the rectifier is able to operate with low frequency input signals commonly available from vibrational energy harvesters.
Multispecies and Monoculture Rhizoremediation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the Soil

In this study, we investigated the potential of multispecies rhizoremediation and monoculture rhizoremediation in decontaminating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contaminated soil. Plant-mediated PAH dissipation was evaluated using monoplanted soil microcosms and soil microcosms vegetated with several different grass species (Brachiaria serrata and Eleusine corocana). The dissipation of naphthalene and fluorene was higher in the “multispecies” vegetated soil compared to the monoplanted and nonplanted control soil. The concentration of naphthalene was undetectable in the multispecies vegetated treatment compared to 96% removal efficiencies in the monoplanted treatments and 63% in the nonplanted control after 10 wk of incubation. Similar removal efficiencies were obtained for fluorene. However, there was no significant difference in the dissipation of pyrene in both the mono- and multispecies vegetated treatments. There also was no significant difference between the dissipation of PAHs in the monoplanted treatments with different grass species. Principle component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis were used to evaluate functional diversity of the different treatments during phytoremediation of PAHs. Both PCA and cluster analysis revealed differences in the metabolic fingerprints of the PAH contaminated and noncontaminated soils. However, the differences in metabolic diversity between the multispecies vegetated and monoplanted treatments were not clearly revealed. The results suggest that multispecies rhizoremediation using tolerant plant species rather than monoculture rhizoremediation have the potential to enhance pollutant removal in moderately contaminated soils.
Rad51 in regulating the radiosensitivity of non‐small cell lung cancer with different epidermal growth factor receptor mutation status

Non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring kinase‐domain mutations in epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) has been observed to be sensitive to ionizing radiation (IR). We explore Rad51‐dependent homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair in regulating radiosensitivity in two NSCLC cell lines with different EGFR mutation status.