Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scalable and Reliable IPTV Service Through Collaborative Request Dispatching

IPTV has emerged as the future standard of television and drawn enormous attention from both industry and research communities. Among different IPTV services, on-demand services are the most popular ones due to their convenience and rich content. However, supporting scalable and reliable on-demand IPTV services remains to be an important challenge. Existing IPTV architecture dedicates a centralized regional station to serve subscribers in the respective region regardless of temporal and spatial dynamics in service demand. As a result, it may cause significant imbalance of resource utilization and service provisioning delay at different stations, especially with increasing subscribers and video content. In this paper, we propose to allow IPTV stations of different regions to collaboratively serve user requests for delivering scalable and reliable IPTV services. One key challenge in achieving this station-wise collaboration is to route service requests to appropriate stations according to cost-effectiveness and load distribution in a fully distributed manner. We devise a novel request dispatching protocol which runs on each IPTV station, and yet forms a collaborative dispatching strategy that avoids hot spots and reduces service delivery cost at the same time. Our experiment results suggest that our service request dispatching algorithm significantly improves the scalability of on-demand IPTV services for the existing IPTV architecture.
Heparin Impairs Glycocalyx Barrier Properties and Attenuates Shear Dependent Vasodilation in Mice

The endothelial glycocalyx is a hydrated mesh of polysaccharides and adsorbed plasma proteins that forms the true interface between the flowing blood and the endothelium. We hypothesized in the present study that competitive binding of heparin to glycocalyx-associated proteins would affect glycocalyx barrier properties and mechanotransduction of shear stress to the endothelium. In anesthetized mice, the clearance of 70-kDa dextrans from the circulation was increased (P<0.05 versus saline) 1 hour after heparin (1.25 U) and glycocalyx degradation with hyaluronidase (35 U; amount cleared in 30 minutes after saline: 11±5%; after heparin: 45±8%; after hyaluronidase: 30±3%). Clearance of 40-kDa dextrans increased (P<0.05 versus saline) to a lesser extent after both treatments (saline: 46±3%; heparin: 60±5%; hyaluronidase: 60±2%). The dilator response of second-order arterioles in cremaster muscle during reactive hyperemia was reduced for ≤90 minutes after heparin as reflected by a decrease (P=0.008) in t50 of diameter recovery, and this effect was associated with a diminished NO bioavailability. Infusion of hyaluronidase resulted in reductions (P<0.05) in baseline and peak reactive hyperemic diameter, whereas, despite an increase in wall shear rate at the beginning of reactive hyperemia, t50 of diameter recovery was not affected. In conclusion, our data in mice show that a heparin challenge is associated with increased vascular leakage of dextrans and impaired arteriolar vasodilation during reactive hyperemia. Our data suggest that protein–heparan sulfate interactions are important for a functional glycocalyx.
Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus Causing Clinical and Subclinical Infections in Atlantic Salmon Have Different Genetic Fingerprints

Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) is the causative agent of IPN, an important disease of salmonids. IPNV infections result in either sub-clinical or overt disease and the basis of this difference is not well-understood. The objective of the present study was to determine the VP2 gene of the virus associated with the different forms of clinical manifestation. Groups of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) reared in farms located in different IPN disease pressures were monitored from brood stock until grow-out over a 3 year period. Hatcheries A1 and B1 as well as cooperating seawater farms were located in a low disease risk area while hatcheries A2 and B2 as well as their cooperating seawater farms were in high IPN risk areas. Samples including eggs, milt, whole fry, kidney depending on the stage of production were collected during outbreaks or in apparently healthy populations where no outbreaks occurred. The virus was re-isolated in CHSE cells and the VP2 gene amplified by RT-PCR followed by sequencing. During the freshwater stage, there were no disease outbreaks at hatcheries A1, A2, and B1 (except in one fish group that originated from hatchery B2), although IPNV was isolated from some of the fish groups at all 3 hatcheries. By contrast, all fish groups at hatchery B2 suffered IPN outbreaks. In seawater, only groups of fish originating from hatchery A1 had no IPN outbreaks albeit virus being isolated from the fish. On the other hand, fish originating from hatcheries A2, B1, and B2 experienced outbreaks in seawater. The VP2 amino acid fingerprint of the virus associated with subclinical infections from A1 and co-operating seawater sites was V64A137P217T221A247N252S281D282E319. By contrast, all virus isolates associated with clinical infections had the motif I64T137T217A221T247V252T281N282A319, where underlined amino acids represent the avirulent and highly virulent motif, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of amino acid sequences showed 2 clades, one of isolates associated with subclinical infections (from A1 and cooperating seawater farms) and the other of isolates from fish with overt disease (all other sites). Furthermore, the clustering pattern of isolates suggests more circulation of virus within fish groups rather than between them.
Relational Treatment of Term Graphs With Bound Variables

We show how and why it makes sense to use a relational formalisation instead of the usual functional one in the treatment of term graphs. Special attention is paid to term graphs with bound variables, that have, to our knowledge, never been formalised with such a generality before. Besides the novel treatment of term graphs themselves, we present an innovative relational homomorphism concept that for the first time allows to consider terms, resp. term trees as a special case of term graphs and still have the full power of (second-order) substitution available.
Influence of Stress State on Crack Growth Retardation

Several mechanisms have been proposed in the literature to account for crack growth retardation following a single peak overload. In order to determine the dominant mechanism, overload tests were performed on thick and thin specimens made from BS4360 50B structural steel. The baseline stress intensity range was 25 MPa √m and the load ratio (= minimum load/maximum load of fatigue cycle) was 0.05, while the overload was of stress intensity range 50 MPa √m. It was observed that the crack growth and closure responses were different at the surface and in the bulk of the thick specimen; no such variations in behavior occurred along the crack front for the thin specimen. For both thicknesses of material, the crack growth rate predicted by measurements of the crack opening load was in agreement with the observed crack growth rate, except for the period when crack growth rates were recovering from the slowest transient growth rate to the post-overload stabilized value. This discrepancy was due to the phenomenon of discontinuous closure-the crack first closed at a location far from its tip. Fracture surface profiles showed that the crack path deviated by only a small amount after application of the overload; hence the retarded growth cannot be due to crack branching. It is concluded from these tests and from a critical examination of the literature that, at high baseline AK levels, retardation is due to plasticity-induced crack closure. At low baseline AK levels approaching the threshold value, retardation may be due to plasticity-induced crack closure or to irregularities of the crack front.
Life and Times in Biochemical Toxicology

The biochemical facets of toxicology have always had a major role in providing insight into mechanisms. Some of the history of the development of this area is summarized, including metabolism, enzymology, and the chemistry of reactive intermediates. Knowledge in these fields has had a major impact in the areas of drug metabolism and safety assessment, which are both critical steps in the development of pharmaceuticals and the rational use of commodity chemicals. The science of toxicology has developed considerably with input from other disciplines and today is poised to emerge as a predictive science with even more dramatic impact. The challenges ahead are considerable but there is renewed excitement in the potential of the field. As in the past, further advances in the field of toxicology will require the input of knowledge from many disciplines.
Effective/census population size ratio estimation: a compendium and appraisal

With an ecological-evolutionary perspective increasingly applied toward the conservation and management of endangered or exploited species, the genetic estimation of effective population size (Ne) has proliferated. Based on a comprehensive analysis of empirical literature from the past two decades, we asked: (i) how often do studies link Ne to the adult census population size (N)? (ii) To what extent is Ne correctly linked to N? (iii) How readily is uncertainty accounted for in both Ne and N when quantifying Ne/N ratios? and (iv) how frequently and to what degree might errors in the estimation of Ne or N affect inferences of Ne/N ratios? We found that only 20% of available Ne estimates (508 of 2617; 233 studies) explicitly attempted to link Ne and N; of these, only 31% (160 of 508) correctly linked Ne and N. Moreover, only 7% (41 of 508) of Ne/N ratios (correctly linked or not) reported confidence intervals for both Ne and N; for those cases where confidence intervals were reported for Ne only, 31% of Ne/N ratios overlapped with 1, of which more than half also reached below Ne/N = 0.01. Uncertainty in Ne/N ratios thus sometimes spanned at least two orders of magnitude. We conclude that the estimation of Ne/N ratios in natural populations could be significantly improved, discuss several options for doing so, and briefly outline some future research directions.
Ground based ultraviolet (290-385 nm) and broadband solar radiation measurements in South-Eastern Spain

Presented here is the first analysis of hourly solar ultraviolet irradiance (290‐385 nm) and broadband global irradiance data, registered in a radiometric station located in the outskirts of Granada (37.18°N, 3.58°W, 660 m a.m.s.l.), an inland location in south-eastern Spain, during a 2-year period. According to the prevailing cloudless conditions, the results show that the highest UV radiation levels are received in June or July and the lowest in December. Hourly monthly means of the ratio UV to broadband solar radiation covers a range from a minimum of ca. 3% to a maximum of 5%. The higher values of this ratio are associated to cloudy situations. In this way for 1994, the lowest values of this ratio are encountered in December, and the highest value appears in May, associated with a higher frequency of cloudy days. The study of the ratio UV to global radiation hourly monthly means reveals a clear effect of the optical air mass and of the cloud cover. It is found that, the UV to broadband global radiation ratio increases with decreasing optical air mass and increasing cloud cover. © 1998 Royal Meteorological Society.
Space-time block-coded OFDMA with linear precoding for multirate services

Relying on space-time linearly precoded orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) and exploiting both transmit and receive antenna diversity, we design herein multirate transceivers that guarantee deterministic symbol recovery with diversity gains regardless of the (possibly unknown) frequency-selective finite impulse response (FIR) channels and multiuser interference. Our approach is based on a three-level design of user codes: the top level (based on OFDMA) handles multiuser interference, the middle level (based on space-time block coding) results in space-time diversity gains, and the lower level (based on linear precoding) mitigates intersymbol interference (ISI). In a multiuser/multirate setting, with two transmit and a single receive antenna, our designs achieve guaranteed diversity gains, whereas the use of two receive antennas could potentially double the capacity of the system (in terms of maximum number of users or achievable transmission rates) under favorable conditions (such as no frequency offset). Simulations illustrate the merits of our approach.
In vitro assessment of laser efficiency for caries prevention in pits and fissures

This study aimed to assess the in vitro efficacy of the lasers Er:YAG, Nd:YAG, and CO2 operating in the low energy mode for caries prevention in pits and fissures. Forty‐five caries‐free enamel occlusal sections were randomly divided into three groups: G1 − Er:YAG (80 mJ/2Hz); G2 − Nd:YAG Laser (1W and 10 Hz); and G3 − CO2 Laser (0.4 W and 20 Hz). After surface treatment, the samples were submitted to challenge with acid consisting of a 10‐day immersion in demineralizing (6 h) and remineralizing solution (18 h). Next, enamel demineralization was quantitatively evaluated by subsurface microhardness test and polarized‐light microscopy (PLM, mm2) and qualitatively assessed by scanning electron microscopy. The Wilcoxon test was used for comparison of each group with its own control. ANOVA (α = 5%) was employed for comparison among groups, and Fisher's LSD multiple comparison test was applied, to check the difference in means. Concerning the microhardness analyses, statistical difference between control, and experimental areas was only detected for the CO2 group. Experimental values were higher than the controls. As for PLM analyses, smaller demineralized areas were measured for G2 (Nd:YAG) and G3 (CO2) compared with the control areas. In conclusion, the present findings suggest that the CO2 laser should be selected in order to increase the enamel resistance to acid in pits and fissures. Microsc. Res. Tech. 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Comparison of Feature and Pixel-Based Methods for Recognizing Handwritten Bangla Digits

We propose a novel handwritten character recognition method for isolated handwritten Bangla digits. A feature is introduced for such patterns, the contour angular technique. It is compared to other methods, such as the hotspot feature, the gray-level normalized character image and a basic low-resolution pixel-based method. One of the goals of this study is to explore performance differences between dedicated feature methods and the pixel-based methods. The four methods are compared with support vector machine (SVM) classifiers on the collection of handwritten Bangla digit images. The results show that the fast contour angular technique outperforms the other techniques when not very many training examples are used. The fast contour angular technique captures aspects of curvature of the handwritten image and results in much faster character classification than the gray pixel-based method. Still, this feature obtains a similar recognition compared to the gray pixel-based method when a large training set is used. In order to investigate further whether the different feature methods represent complementary aspects of shape, the effect of majority voting is explored. The results indicate that the majority voting method achieves the best recognition performance on this dataset.
Correlation of IL-17 Level in Synovia and Severity of Knee Osteoarthritis

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of interleukin-17 (IL-17) level in synovia and its relationship with the severity of knee osteoarthritis (OA). Material/Methods We enrolled 226 OA patients and 106 controls in this study. The symptomatic/radiation severity of OA was assessed by the Western Ontario McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain score/Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grading system. Serum IL-17 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results Synovia IL-17 levels were significantly higher in OA patients compared with controls (P<0.01), and were negatively correlated with OA severity. IL-17 level gradually decreased among different phases but lacked statistical significance. Conclusions IL-17 might play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of OA and is closely related to pain. Blocking the IL-17 signaling pathway may delay pain related to OA.
Synthesis and Characterization of a Remarkable Ceramic: Ti3SiC2

Polycrystalline bulk samples of Ti{sub 3}SiC{sub 2} were fabricated by reactively hot-pressing Ti, graphite, and SiC powders at 40 MPa and 1,600 C for 4 h. This compound has remarkable properties. Its compressive strength, measured at room temperature, was 600 MPa, and dropped to 260 MPa at 1,300 C in air. Although the room-temperature failure was brittle, the high-temperature load-displacement curve shows significant plastic behavior. The oxidation is parabolic and at 1,000 and 1,400 C the parabolic rate constants were, respectively, 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}8} and 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} kg{sup 2}{center_dot}m{sup {minus}4}{center_dot}s{sup {minus}1}. The activation energy for oxidation is thus {approx}300 kJ/mol. The room-temperature electrical conductivity is 4.5 {times} 10{sup 6} {Omega}{sup {minus}1}{center_dot}m{sup {minus}1}, roughly twice that of pure Ti. The thermal expansion coefficient in the temperature range 25 to 1,000 C, the room-temperature thermal conductivity, and the heat capacity are respectively, 10 {times} 10{sup {minus}6} C{sup {minus}1}, 43 W/(m{center_dot}K), and 588 J/(kg{center_dot}K). With a hardness of 4 GPa and a Young`s modulus of 320 GPa, it is relatively soft, but reasonably stiff. Furthermore, Ti{sub 3}SiC{sub 2} does not appear to be susceptible to thermal shock; quenching from 1,400 C into water does not affect the postquench bend strength.more » As significantly, this compound is as readily machinable as graphite. Scanning electron microscopy of polished and fractured surfaces leaves little doubt as to its layered nature. « less
Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) activate mast cells

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) represent one of the many types of chemical modifications that occur with age in long‐lived proteins. AGEs also accumulate in pathologies such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegeneration and cancer. Mast cells are major effectors of acute inflammatory responses that also contribute to the progression of chronic diseases. Here we investigated interactions between AGEs and mast cells.
Anticholinergic Medication Use and Risk of Fracture in Elderly Adults with Depression

Limited research exists regarding the effect of anticholinergics on falls and fractures in elderly nursing home residents in the United States. This study examined the risk of fractures associated with anticholinergic medication use in elderly nursing home residents with depression. A nested case‐control design involving a cohort of elderly adults with depression from the 2007 to 2010 Minimum Data Set (MDS)–linked Medicare data was used to evaluate the risk of fractures. The study sample included Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older diagnosed with depression having at least one nursing home stay during 2007 to 2010 and no history of falls or fractures in 2007 (base period). Cases were individuals with incident fractures after the baseline period. For each case, four age‐ and sex‐matched controls were selected using incidence density sampling. Anticholinergic exposure was defined using the Anticholinergic Drug Scale (ADS). Prescription of Level 2 or 3 anticholinergic medications within 30 days before the event date was the primary exposure. The primary outcome was an inpatient or outpatient claim for a fracture between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2010. A conditional logistic regression model stratified on matched case‐control sets was used to evaluate association between anticholinergic use and fractures, controlling for other risk factors of the outcome. The study sample consisted of 40,452 individuals with fractures and 161,808 matched controls. After adjusting for other risk factors, high‐level anticholinergic use was associated with 14% greater fracture risk than nonuse (odds ratio (OR) = 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.11–1.17). The high risk of fractures remained consistent across levels of anticholinergic potency (Level 2, OR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.11–1.19; Level 3, OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.07–1.15). The study findings remained consistent in multiple sensitivity analyses. Overall, use of high‐level anticholinergic medications was associated with greater risk of fracture than no use in elderly adults with depression. Given safety concerns, there is a need to optimize anticholinergic use in elderly adults.
PA-6 clay nanocomposite hybrid as char forming agent in intumescent formulations

This work deals with new flame retardant (FR) intumescent formulations for ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA) using charring polymers polyamide-6 (PA-6) and polyamide-6 clay nanocomposite hybrid (PA-6-nano) as carbonization agents. Use of PA-6 nano improved both the mechanical and fire properties of FR EVA-based materials. The part played by the clay in the improvement of the FR performance was studied using FTIR and solid state NMR. It is shown that the clay allowed the thermal stabilization of a phosphorocarbonaceous structure in the intumescent char which increased the efficiency of the shield and, in addition, the formation of a ‘ceramic’ which can act as a protective barrier. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bactericidal Antibiotics Do Not Appear To Cause Oxidative Stress in Listeria monocytogenes

ABSTRACT Oxidative stress can be an important contributor to the lethal effect of bactericidal antibiotics in some bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Thus, despite the different target-specific actions of bactericidal antibiotics, they have a common mechanism leading to bacterial self-destruction by internal production of hydroxyl radicals. The purpose of the present study was to determine if a similar mechanism is involved in antibiotic killing of the infectious human pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes. We treated wild-type L. monocytogenes and oxidative stress mutants (Δsod and Δfri) with three different bactericidal antibiotics and found no difference in killing kinetics. In contrast, wild-type E. coli and an oxidative stress mutant (ΔsodA ΔsodB) differed significantly in their sensitivity to bactericidal antibiotics. We conclude that bactericidal antibiotics did not appear to cause oxidative stress in L. monocytogenes and propose that this is caused by its noncyclic tricarboxylic acid (TCA) pathway. Hence, in this noncyclic metabolism, there is a decoupling between the antibiotic-mediated cellular requirement for NADH and the induction of TCA enzyme activity, which is believed to mediate the oxidative stress reaction.
Optimal uplink and downlink channel assignment in a full-duplex multiuser system

Full-duplex (FD) has emerged as a promising solution for increasing the data rate of wireless communication systems. With FD, a wireless terminal can transmit and receive concurrently at the same frequency band. This paper focuses on the resource allocation in a FD multiuser system. With a FD-enabled base-station (BS) and multiple half-duplex (HD) mobile stations (MS), we are interested in jointly optimizing the uplink and downlink channel assignment for each MS and maximizing the system sum-rate. Since the joint optimization problem is a difficult nonconvex problem, we then propose an iterative algorithm to obtain at least a locally optimal solution. In the proposed algorithm, the system sum-rate is maximized via an equivalent problem of minimizing the weighted sum mean-squared error, whereas the channel assignment is updated by a gradient method. Simulation results show that the FD mode has the potential to substantially enhance a multiuser system's data-rate, compared to the HD mode.