Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An analysis of evaluation practices for DTN routing protocols

Over the past decade, a lot of research has been done to develop efficient routing protocols for Delay- and Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTNs). In the course of this work, many comparative evaluation studies have been done to determine which of two proposed protocols is the better one (for a given situation). The majority of these evaluations are based on results gained from simulated network environments. In order to conduct a relevant evaluation of routing schemes, numerous conditions, policies and data need to be specified and fed into the simulation environment. The aim of our work in this paper is to discuss current DTN evaluation practices through a thorough and critical literature study. Based on the surveyed material, we show some weaknesses and lack of argumentation used in the evaluations. Through this, we hope to aid in bridging the gap between simulated and real-world DTN environments. In addition, and as a call for further research, we propose a model for evaluation of DTN routing schemes that outlines the most crucial inputs that needs to be considered in the evaluation process. This model is then projected onto evaluation practices used for evaluations of DTN routing protocols in a set of sixteen papers roughly covering a decade of DTN research.
Planning in Interplanetary Space: Theory and Practice

On May 17th 1999, NASA activated for the first time an AI-based planner/scheduler running on the flight processor of a spacecraft. This was part of the Remote Agent Experiment (RAX), a demonstration of closed-loop planning and execution, and model-based state inference and failure recovery. This paper describes the RAX Planner/Scheduler (RAX-PS), both in terms of the underlying planning framework and in terms of the fielded planner. RAX-PS plans are networks of constraints, built incrementally by consulting a model of the dynamics of the spacecraft. The RAX-PS planning procedure is formally well defined and can be proved to be complete. RAX-PS generates plans that are temporally flexible, allowing the execution system to adjust to actual plan execution conditions without breaking the plan. The practical aspect, developing a mission critical application, required paying attention to important engineering issues such as the design of methods for programmable search control, knowledge acquisition and planner validation. The result was a system capable of building concurrent plans with over a hundred tasks within the performance requirements of operational, mission-critical software.
Socially differentiated cardiac rehabilitation: Can we improve referral, attendance and adherence among patients with first myocardial infarction?

Aim: The comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programme after myocardial infarction (MI) improves quality of life and results in reduced cardiac mortality and recurrence of MI. Hospitals worldwide face problems with low participation rates in rehabilitation programmes. Inequality in recruitment and participation among low educated and socially vulnerable patients must be addressed to lower inequality in post-MI health. Our aim was to improve referral, attendance, and adherence rates among socially vulnerable patients by systematic screening and by offering a socially differentiated cardiac rehabilitation programme. Methods: From 1 September 2002 to 31 December 2005, 388 first-incidence MI patients ≤75 years were hospitalised. Register check for newly hospitalised MI patients, screening interview, and systematic referral were conducted by a project nurse. Patients were referred to a standard rehabilitation programme (SRP). If patients were identified as socially vulnerable, they were offered an extended version of the rehabilitation programme (ERP). Excluded patients were offered home visits by a cardiac nurse. Concordance principles were used in the individualised programme elements. Adherence was registered until the 1-year follow up. Results: 86% were referred to the CR. A large share of elderly patients and women were excluded. The attendance and adherence rates were 80% and 71%, respectively among all hospitalised patients. Among referred patients, the attendance rate was 93%. Patients were equally distributed to the SRP and the ERP. No inequality was found in attendance and adherence among referred patients. Conclusions: It seems possible to overcome unequal referral, attendance, and adherence in cardiac rehabilitation by organisation of systematic screening and social differentiation.
Nitrogen management in okra under tarai conditions of Uttarakhand

The present investigation carried out to examine the effect of on growth and yield of okra at Vegetable Research Centre of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand in summer seasons of 2016 and 2017 with fourteen treatments containing different combinations of organic and inorganic sources of nitrogen replicated thrice. Observations for growth parameters viz., plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves per plant at different growth stages of plants, leaf area index and the total marketable yield of green pods were recorded. The findings of two year investigation revealed that the performance of okra crop was significantly influenced by various treatments. Among all treatments, treatment T6 (RDN75% through neem coated urea + 25% through vermi-compost) was found best with respect to plant growth and yield and hence, recommended for obtaining higher yield of okra under prevailing climatic conditions of Uttarakhand tarai region.
Measurement of the τ-lepton lifetime at Belle.

The lifetime of the τ lepton is measured using the process e+ e- → τ+ τ- , where both τ leptons decay to 3πν(τ). The result for the mean lifetime, based on 711 fb(-1) of data collected with the Belle detector at the ϒ(4S) resonance and 60 MeV below, is τ=(290.17±0.53(stat)±0.33(syst))×10(-15) s. The first measurement of the lifetime difference between τ+ and τ- is performed. The upper limit on the relative lifetime difference between positive and negative τ leptons is |Δτ|/τ<7.0×10(-3) at 90% C.L.
Can ENSO-Like Convection Force an ENSO-Like Extratropical Response on Subseasonal Time Scales?

A daily El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) index is developed based on precipitation rate and is used to investigate subseasonal time-scale extratropical circulation anomalies associated with ENSO-like convective heating. The index, referred to as the El Niño precipitation index (ENPI), is anomalously positive when there is El Niño–like convection. Conversely, the ENPI is anomalously negative when there is La Niña–like convection. It is found that when precipitation becomes El Niño–like (La Niña–like) on subseasonal time scales, the 300-hPa geopotential height field over the North Pacific and western North America becomes El Niño–like (La Niña–like) within 5–10 days. The composites show a small association with the MJO. These results are supported by previous modeling studies, which show that the response over the North Pacific and western North America to an equatorial Pacific heating anomaly occurs within about one week. This suggests that the mean seasonal extratropical response to El Niño (La Niña) may in effect simply be the average of the subseasonal response to subseasonally varying El Niño–like (La Niña–like) convective heating. Implications for subseasonal to seasonal forecasting are discussed.
Tasquinimod Modulates Suppressive Myeloid Cells and Enhances Cancer Immunotherapies in Murine Models

Shen, Sundstedt, and colleagues show in murine models that tasquinimod enhanced the antitumor effects of SurVaxM tumor vaccine for prostate cancer and of 5T4Fab-SEA tumor-targeted superantigen for melanoma by inhibiting the accumulation and function of tumor-infiltrating suppressive myeloid cells. A major barrier for cancer immunotherapy is the presence of suppressive cell populations in patients with cancer, such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAM), which contribute to the immunosuppressive microenvironment that promotes tumor growth and metastasis. Tasquinimod is a novel antitumor agent that is currently at an advanced stage of clinical development for treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer. A target of tasquinimod is the inflammatory protein S100A9, which has been demonstrated to affect the accumulation and function of tumor-suppressive myeloid cells. Here, we report that tasquinimod provided a significant enhancement to the antitumor effects of two different immunotherapeutics in mouse models of cancer: a tumor vaccine (SurVaxM) for prostate cancer and a tumor-targeted superantigen (TTS) for melanoma. In the combination strategies, tasquinimod inhibited distinct MDSC populations and TAMs of the M2-polarized phenotype (CD206+). CD11b+ myeloid cells isolated from tumors of treated mice expressed lower levels of arginase-1 and higher levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and were less immunosuppressive ex vivo, which translated into a significantly reduced tumor-promoting capacity in vivo when these cells were coinjected with tumor cells. Tumor-specific CD8+ T cells were increased markedly in the circulation and in tumors. Furthermore, T-cell effector functions, including cell-mediated cytotoxicity and IFNγ production, were potentiated. Taken together, these data suggest that pharmacologic targeting of suppressive myeloid cells by tasquinimod induces therapeutic benefit and provide the rationale for clinical testing of tasquinimod in combination with cancer immunotherapies. Cancer Immunol Res; 3(2); 136–48. ©2014 AACR.
Determination of reference interval for presepsin, an early marker for sepsis

Introduction Presepsin, the circulating soluble form of CD14 subtype (sCD14-ST) is a new emerging early marker for sepsis. Various cutoff levels of presepsin have been proposed, to discriminate between systemic bacterial and nonbacterial infectious diseases. The aim of this work was to define the reference interval for presepsin according to the CLSI C28-A3c approved guideline. Materials and methods Reference individuals (N = 200; 120 females) aged 18-75 years (median 39 years), free from inflammatory diseases, were selected for the study. Presepsin concentrations were measured by a commercially available chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay (PATHFASTTM, Mitsubishi Chemical Europe GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany). Reference limits were calculated using the non-parametric percentile method. Results Overall, the reference limits for the presepsin were 55–184 pg/mL (90% confidence intervals, CI, were 45 to 58 and 161 to 214, respectively). There were no significant differences between males and females and the presepsin concentrations were not even particularly influenced by age. The upper reference limit for the presepsin is much lower than every cut-off limit so far proposed, both for sepsis and also for systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Conclusion Specific decision levels are required to define the diagnostic and prognostic roles of presepsin in different settings of inflammatory and infectious diseases. Reference values can help to distinguish and quickly rule out healthy subjects or patients with other pathologies.
Bayesian Multi-Scale Optimistic Optimization

Bayesian optimization is a powerful global optimization technique for expensive black-box functions. One of its shortcomings is that it requires auxiliary optimization of an acquisition function at each iteration. This auxiliary optimization can be costly and very hard to carry out in practice. Moreover, it creates serious theoretical concerns, as most of the convergence results assume that the exact optimum of the acquisition function can be found. In this paper, we introduce a new technique for efficient global optimization that combines Gaussian process confidence bounds and treed simultaneous optimistic optimization to eliminate the need for auxiliary optimization of acquisition functions. The experiments with global optimization benchmarks and a novel application to automatic information extraction demonstrate that the resulting technique is more efficient than the two approaches from which it draws inspiration. Unlike most theoretical analyses of Bayesian optimization with Gaussian processes, our finite-time convergence rate proofs do not require exact optimization of an acquisition function. That is, our approach eliminates the unsatisfactory assumption that a difficult, potentially NP-hard, problem has to be solved in order to obtain vanishing regret rates.
Transition to farming more likely for small, conservative groups with property rights, but increased productivity is not essential

Significance The Neolithic revolution was one of the most influential events in human history, but why and how it occurred are still not fully understood. To try to infer what may have happened, mathematical models have been developed. We describe and implement a method of parameter space exploration when ideal outcomes of a model are known. This method is applied to a published agent-based model for the Neolithic transition, revealing previously unidentified parameter interactions, sensitivities, and complexities. Our results highlight the importance of group structuring, group size, conservatism, and farming-friendly property rights, for the switch to farming around 12,000 years ago. We also find that, although advantageous, it is not essential that farming productivity is greater than foraging productivity. Theories for the origins of agriculture are still debated, with a range of different explanations offered. Computational models can be used to test these theories and explore new hypotheses; Bowles and Choi [Bowles S, Choi J-K (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(22):8830–8835] have developed one such model. Their model shows the coevolution of farming and farming-friendly property rights, and by including climate variability, replicates the timings for the emergence of these events seen in the archaeological record. Because the processes modeled occurred a long time ago, it can be difficult to justify exact parameter values; hence, we propose a fitting to idealized outcomes (FIO) method to explore the model’s parameter space in more detail. We have replicated the model of Bowles and Choi, and used the FIO method to identify complexities and interactions of the model previously unidentified. Our results indicate that the key parameters for the emergence of farming are group structuring, group size, conservatism, and farming-friendly property rights (lending further support to Bowles and Choi’s original proposal). We also find that although advantageous, it is not essential that farming productivity be greater than foraging productivity for farming to emerge. In addition, we highlight how model behaviors can be missed when gauging parameter sensitivity via a fix-all-but-one variation approach.
Chronological Citation Recommendation with Information-Need Shifting

As the volume of publications has increased dramatically, an urgent need has developed to assist researchers in locating high-quality, candidate-cited papers from a research repository. Traditional scholarly-recommendation approaches ignore the chronological nature of citation recommendations. In this study, we propose a novel method called "Chronological Citation Recommendation" which assumes initial user information needs could shift while users are searching for papers in different time slices. We model the information-need shifts with two-level modeling: dynamic time-related ranking feature construction and dynamic evolving feature weight training. In more detail, we employed a supervised document influence model to characterize the content "time-varying" dynamics and constructed a novel heterogeneous graph that encapsulates dynamic topic-based information, time-decay paper/topic citation information, and word-based information. We applied multiple meta-paths for different ranking hypotheses which carried different types of information for citation recommendation in various time slices, along with information-need shifting. We also used multiple learning-to-rank models to optimize the feature weights for different time slices to generate the final "Chronological Citation Recommendation" rankings. The use of Chronological Citation Recommendation suggests time-series ranking lists based on initial user textual information need and characterizes the information-need shifting. Experiments on the ACM corpus show that Chronological Citation Recommendation can significantly enhance citation recommendation performance.
Interpreting Overdiagnosis Estimates in Population-based Mammography Screening

Estimates of overdiagnosis in mammography screening range from 1% to 54%. This review explains such variations using gradual implementation of mammography screening in the Netherlands as an example. Breast cancer incidence without screening was predicted with a micro-simulation model. Observed breast cancer incidence (including ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive breast cancer) was modeled and compared with predicted incidence without screening during various phases of screening program implementation. Overdiagnosis was calculated as the difference between the modeled number of breast cancers with and the predicted number of breast cancers without screening. Estimating overdiagnosis annually between 1990 and 2006 illustrated the importance of the time at which overdiagnosis is measured. Overdiagnosis was also calculated using several estimators identified from the literature. The estimated overdiagnosis rate peaked during the implementation phase of screening, at 11.4% of all predicted cancers in women aged 0–100 years in the absence of screening. At steady-state screening, in 2006, this estimate had decreased to 2.8%. When different estimators were used, the overdiagnosis rate in 2006 ranged from 3.6% (screening age or older) to 9.7% (screening age only). The authors concluded that the estimated overdiagnosis rate in 2006 could vary by a factor of 3.5 when different denominators were used. Calculations based on earlier screening program phases may overestimate overdiagnosis by a factor 4. Sufficient follow-up and agreement regarding the chosen estimator are needed to obtain reliable estimates.
Simvastatin induces a central hypotensive effect via Ras‐mediated signalling to cause eNOS up‐regulation

Clinical studies indicate that statins have a BP‐lowering effect in hypercholesterolemic individuals with hypertension. Specifically, statins modulate BP through the up‐regulation of endothelial NOS (eNOS) activation in the brain. However, the signalling mechanisms through which statins enhance eNOS activation remain unclear. Therefore, we examined the possible signalling pathways involved in statin‐mediated BP regulation in the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS).
Cross-influence of Risk, Return, and Governance on Decision-Making in Hydropower Investments

The sustainable growth of an economy pivots on a robust financial system, particularly in the context of capital availability. This study analyzes the behavior of investors towards initial public offerings (IPOs), focusing on the hydropower development sector in Nepal. The research explores the multifaceted relationship between factors such as risk, return, and governance on investor behavior, considering elements like Idiosyncratic risk (IR), timing of issue (TIPO), Bandwagon effect (BE), expected return (ER), sectoral performance (SP), corporate governance (CG), pre-issue financial health (PFH), and marketability (MKT). Additionally, sociodemographic variables and their connection to investor behavior are examined. Employing a descriptive research design, the study involves a sample size of 392 individuals, selected through a convenient sampling method. The study's main finding documented that idiosyncratic risks, expected returns, and corporate governance stand out as crucial factors influencing investment decisions (P < 0.05). Notably, the regression analysis indicated the absence of a significant impact from market risks (P > 0.05), including the bandwagon effect and IPO timing, on investor behavior towards hydropower IPOs. This finding suggests that Nepalese investors prioritize returns and organizational governance over market risks, despite having significant concerns regarding idiosyncratic risk. The analysis also reveals significant associations between investor behavior and sociodemographic variables like age, education, occupation, and primary investment objectives (P < 0.05). This study offers valuable insights and implications for investors seeking to align investments with their goals. Hydropower developers should prioritize investor protection and transparency, while regulators must enhance disclosures, shareholder accountability, and project oversight.
Teleretinal Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy in Six Los Angeles Urban Safety-Net Clinics: Final Study Results

In a previous paper, we presented initial findings from a study on the feasibility and challenges of implementing teleretinal screening for diabetic retinopathy in an urban safety net setting facing eyecare specialist shortages. This paper presents some final results from that study, which involved six South Los Angeles safety net clinics. A total of 2,732 unique patients were screened for diabetic retinopathy by three ophthalmologist readers, with 1035 receiving a recommendation for referral to specialty care. Referrals included 48 for proliferative diabetic retinopathy, 115 for severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), 247 for moderate NPDR, 246 for mild NPDR, 97 for clinically significant macular edema, and 282 for a non-diabetic condition, such as glaucoma. Image quality was also assessed, with ophthalmologist readers grading 4% to 13% of retinal images taken at the different clinics as being inadequate for any diagnostic interpretation.
SATB1 Plays a Critical Role in Establishment of Immune Tolerance

Special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1 (SATB1) is a genome organizer that is expressed by T cells. T cell development is severely impaired in SATB1 null mice; however, because SATB1 null mice die by 3 wk of age, the roles of SATB1 in T cell development have not been well clarified. In this study, we generated and analyzed SATB1 conditional knockout (cKO) mice, in which the SATB1 gene was deleted from all hematopoietic cells. T cell numbers were reduced in these mice, mainly because of a deficiency in positive selection at the CD4+CD8+ double-positive stage during T cell development in the thymus. We also found that SATB1 cKO mice developed autoimmune diseases within 16 wk after birth. In SATB1 cKO mice, the numbers of Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells were significantly reduced at 2 wk of age compared with wild-type littermates. Although the numbers gradually increased upon aging, Treg cells in SATB1 cKO mice were still less than those in wild-type littermates at adulthood. Suppressive functions of Treg cells, which play a major role in establishment of peripheral tolerance, were also affected in the absence of SATB1. In addition, negative selection during T cell development in the thymus was severely impaired in SATB1 deficient mice. These results suggest that SATB1 plays an essential role in establishment of immune tolerance.