Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Achieving Global Optimality for Weighted Sum-Rate Maximization in the K-User Gaussian Interference Channel with Multiple Antennas

Characterizing the global maximum of weighted sum-rate (WSR) for the K-user Gaussian interference channel (GIC), with the interference treated as Gaussian noise, is a key problem in wireless communication. However, due to the users' mutual interference, this problem is in general non-convex and thus cannot be solved directly by conventional convex optimization techniques. In this paper, by jointly utilizing the monotonic optimization and rate profile techniques, we develop a new framework to obtain the globally optimal power control and/or beamforming solutions to WSR maximization problems for the GICs with single-antenna transmitters and single-antenna receivers (SISO), single-antenna transmitters and multi-antenna receivers (SIMO), or multi-antenna transmitters and single-antenna receivers (MISO). Different from prior work, this paper proposes to maximize the WSR in the achievable rate region of the GIC directly by exploiting the facts that the achievable rate region is a "normal" set and the users' WSR is a strictly increasing function over the rate region. Consequently, the WSR maximization is shown to be in the form of monotonic optimization over a normal set and thus can be solved globally optimally by the existing outer polyblock approximation algorithm. However, an essential step in the algorithm hinges on how to efficiently characterize the intersection point on the Pareto boundary of the achievable rate region with any prescribed "rate profile" vector. This paper shows that such a problem can be transformed into a sequence of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) feasibility problems, which can be solved efficiently by applying existing techniques. Numerical results validate that the proposed algorithms can achieve the global WSR maximum for the SISO, SIMO or MISO GIC, which serves as a performance benchmark for other heuristic algorithms.
Anti-pseudomonas activity of essential oil, total extract, and proanthocyanidins of Pinus eldarica Medw. bark

Pinus eldarica Medw. (Iranian pine) is native to Transcaucasian region and has been vastly planted in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Various parts of this plant have been widely used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases including infectious conditions (e.g. infectious wounds). In this study we aimed to investigate the antibacterial activity of P. eldarica bark extract, essential oil and proanthocyanidins on three important bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Antibacterial analysis was performed using standard disk diffusion method with different concentrations of essential oil, bark total hydroalcoholic extract, and bark proanthocyanidins (0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mg/ml). After incubation at 37°C for 24 h, the antibacterial activity was assessed by measuring the zone of growth inhibition surrounding the disks. The results indicated that the essential oil, total hydroalcoholic extract, and proanthocyanidins of the bark of the P. eldarica were effective against the gram negative bacteria, P. aeruginosa, and significantly inhibited its growth in disk diffusion method (P<0.001) of which the essential oil had the most potent inhibitory effect. However, none of the bark preparations could significantly inhibit the growth of S. aureus or E. coli. Our findings showed that P. eldarica bark components have significant anti-pseudomonas activity having potentials for new sources of antibacterial agents or antibacterial herbal preparations.
Activation of AMP-Activated Protein Kinase by Interleukin-6 in Rat Skeletal Muscle

OBJECTIVE Interleukin-6 (IL-6) directly activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in vivo and in vitro; however, the mechanism by which it does so is unknown. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We examined this question in skeletal muscle using an incubated rat extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle preparation as a tool. RESULTS AMPK activation by IL-6 coincided temporally with a nearly threefold increase in the AMP:ATP ratio in the EDL. The effects of IL-6 on both AMPK activity and energy state were inhibited by coincubation with propranolol, suggesting involvement of β-adrenergic signaling. In keeping with this notion, IL-6 concurrently induced a transient increase in cAMP, and its ability to activate AMPK was blocked by the adenyl cyclase inhibitor 2′5′-dideoxyadenosine. In addition, like other β-adrenergic stimuli, IL-6 increased glycogen breakdown and lipolysis in the EDL. Similar effects of IL-6 on AMPK, energy state, and cAMP content were observed in C2C12 myotubes and gastrocnemius muscle in vivo, indicating that they were not unique to the incubated EDL. CONCLUSIONS These studies demonstrate that IL-6 activates AMPK in skeletal muscle by increasing the concentration of cAMP and, secondarily, the AMP:ATP ratio. They also suggest that substantial increases in IL-6 concentrations, such as those that can result from its synthesis by muscles during exercise, may play a role in the mobilization of fuel stores within skeletal muscle as an added means of restoring energy balance.
The costs and benefits of being a chimera

Most multicellular organisms are uniclonal. This is hypothesized to be because uniclonal organisms function better than chimeras (non–clonal organisms), owing to reduced levels of internal genetic conflict. We tested this idea using the social amoeba or slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. When starving, the normally solitary amoebae aggregate to form a differentiated multicellular slug that migrates towards light and forms a fruiting body, facilitating the dispersal of spores. We added 107 amoebae to Petri plates containing 1, 2, 5 or 10 clones mixed together. We found an intrinsic cost to chimerism: chimeric slugs moved significantly less far than uniclonal slugs of the same size. However, in nature, joining with other clones to form a chimera should increase slug size, and larger slugs travel further. We incorporated this size effect into a second experiment by giving chimeras more cells than single clones (single clones had 106 cells, two–clone chimeras had 2 × 106 cells and so on). The uniclonal treatments then simulated a clone in a mixture that refuses to form chimeras. In this experiment, chimeras moved significantly further than the uniclonal slugs, in spite of the intrinsic cost. Thus, chimerism is costly, which may be why it evolves so seldom, but in D. discoideum the benefits of large size appear to compensate.
Polar stratospheric cloud processed air and potential voracity in the northern hemisphere lower stratosphere at mid‐latitudes during winter

Small-scale (<1000 km) features in ER-2 measurements of ClO, O3, H2O, N2O, and NOy, outside the lower stratospheric Arctic vortex of 1988–1989 are compared with features on potential vorticity maps from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The potential vorticity maps are obtained from Tl06 analyses and forecasts. Some of the plots have been truncated to lower resolution (T63 or T42) which smooths out the finer-scale structure. Comparison of these lower resolution plots shows how much detail is lost by excessive smoothing. It is also evident that the forecast plots lose fine-scale structure due to dissipation in the model resulting mainly from horizontal diffusion. We conclude that blobs of air on the maps at latitudes between the vortex edge and 25°N having potential vorticities characteristic of the vortex, did indeed originate from the vortex, but that the real atmosphere is more sharply differentiated (inhomogeneous) than the meteorological analyses, implying that the potential vorticity maps underestimate the amount of peeled-off material. Areal budgets of the ex-vortex air are considered for ER-2 flight days, and are performed for 24-hour forecasts at T63, and analyses at T42, T63, and T106 resolution at θ = 475 K. Finally, it is concluded that the lower stratospheric Arctic vortex of 1988–1989 spread considerable amounts of air to mid-latitudes which had been processed by polar stratospheric clouds, and that this mechanism is a realistic explanation for the wintertime loss of ozone observed over northern mid-latitudes during the last decade.
Relative Sea‐Level Changes During Roman Times in the Northwest Mediterranean: The 1st Century A.D. Fish Tank of Forum Julii, Fréjus, France

Fish tanks become fashionable throughout the Mediterranean area between the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D. Because of this narrow chronological window, and their link to former sea level, they constitute precious archives to investigate relative sea level (RSL) since the Roman period, especially when combined with fossilized marine benthos found attached to the fish tank walls. Here, we present new results from an integrated analysis of a fish tank located in the Roman colony of Fréjus, Southeastern France. The well‐preserved biological remains on the fish tank wall allow us to estimate an RSL rise of 40 ± 10 cm at Fréjus since Roman times, consistent with a recently published range of −32 to −58 ± 5 cm for the Northwestern Mediterranean for the same time. By contrast, the findings contradict the ∼150 cm of RSL change since Roman times reported for the Northwestern Mediterranean by some authors. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Productive Failure in Learning Math

When learning a new math concept, should learners be first taught the concept and its associated procedures and then solve problems, or solve problems first even if it leads to failure and then be taught the concept and the procedures? Two randomized-controlled studies found that both methods lead to high levels of procedural knowledge. However, students who engaged in problem solving before being taught demonstrated significantly greater conceptual understanding and ability to transfer to novel problems than those who were taught first. The second study further showed that when given an opportunity to learn from the failed problem-solving attempts of their peers, students outperformed those who were taught first, but not those who engaged in problem solving first. Process findings showed that the number of student-generated solutions significantly predicted learning outcomes. These results challenge the conventional practice of direct instruction to teach new math concepts and procedures, and propose the possibility of learning from one's own failed problem-solving attempts or those of others before receiving instruction as alternatives for better math learning.
Near-Optimal Constant-Time Admission Control for DM Tasks via Non-uniform Approximations

Admission control decisions involve determining whether a new task can be accepted by a running system such that the new task and the already running tasks all meet their deadlines. Since such decisions need to be taken on-line, there is a strong interest in developing fast and yet accurate algorithms for different setups. In this paper, we propose a constant-time admission control test for tasks that are scheduled under the Deadline Monotonic (DM) policy. The proposed test approximates the execution demand of DM tasks using a configurable number of linear segments. The more segments are used, the higher the running time of the test. However, a small number of segments normally suffice for a near-optimal admission control. The main innovation introduced by our test is that approximation segments are distributed in a non-uniform manner. We can concentrate more segments for approximating critical parts of the execution demand and reduce the number of segments where this does not change significantly. In particular, the tasks with shorter deadlines dominate the worst-case response time under DM and, hence, these should be approximated more accurately for a better performance of the algorithm. In contrast to other constant-time tests based on well-known techniques from the literature, our algorithm is remarkably less pessimistic and allows accepting a much greater number of tasks. We evaluate this through detailed experiments based on a large number of synthetic tasks and a case study.
Quantile-Based Permutation Thresholds for Quantitative Trait Loci Hotspots

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) hotspots (genomic locations affecting many traits) are a common feature in genetical genomics studies and are biologically interesting since they may harbor critical regulators. Therefore, statistical procedures to assess the significance of hotspots are of key importance. One approach, randomly allocating observed QTL across the genomic locations separately by trait, implicitly assumes all traits are uncorrelated. Recently, an empirical test for QTL hotspots was proposed on the basis of the number of traits that exceed a predetermined LOD value, such as the standard permutation LOD threshold. The permutation null distribution of the maximum number of traits across all genomic locations preserves the correlation structure among the phenotypes, avoiding the detection of spurious hotspots due to nongenetic correlation induced by uncontrolled environmental factors and unmeasured variables. However, by considering only the number of traits above a threshold, without accounting for the magnitude of the LOD scores, relevant information is lost. In particular, biologically interesting hotspots composed of a moderate to small number of traits with strong LOD scores may be neglected as nonsignificant. In this article we propose a quantile-based permutation approach that simultaneously accounts for the number and the LOD scores of traits within the hotspots. By considering a sliding scale of mapping thresholds, our method can assess the statistical significance of both small and large hotspots. Although the proposed approach can be applied to any type of heritable high-volume “omic” data set, we restrict our attention to expression (e)QTL analysis. We assess and compare the performances of these three methods in simulations and we illustrate how our approach can effectively assess the significance of moderate and small hotspots with strong LOD scores in a yeast expression data set.
Burning and Seeding Influence Soil Surface Morphology in an Artemisia Shrubland in Southern Idaho

We compared the morphology of soil surfaces dominated by Wyoming big sagebrush at burned-seeded, burned-unseeded, and unburned sites in southern Idaho. Both burning and seeding resulted in significant changes in soil surface morphology. Unburned sites were dominated by Type I (shrub- and grass tussock-dominant coppice) and Type II (lichen- and moss-covered coppice bench)surfaces, while burned-seeded sites were dominated by Types I, II, and III (bare or lichen-covered microplains between the individual coppices) surfaces. Type V surfaces (severely-disturbed, annual grass-dominant microsites) predominated on the burned-unseeded sites. Burning and subsequent conversion of native shrubland to exotic grassland results in a predominance of Type V surfaces unless seeding is used to reintroduce perennials or the surface is allowed to recover in the absence of subsequent fire and disturbance. The benefits of postfire revegetation and subsequent recovery of soil surfaces conducive to germination and establishment of perennial grass and shrub communities outweigh the initial short-term disturbance associated with drill seeding.
Differential effects of everyday stress on the episodic memory test performances of young, mid-life, and older adults

This research explored the differential association of everyday stress with the episodic memory test performances of young, mid-life, and older adults. Participants included 98 community-dwelling adults ranging in age from 19–89 years. Everyday stress was assessed via the Perceived Stress Scale and the Elder Life Stress Inventory. A brief battery of episodic memory tasks was administered which included tests of Logical Memory, Verbal Paired Associates, Digit Symbol Substitution, and Digit Symbol Incidental Learning. Results suggest that everyday hassles and irritations as well as the accumulation of challenging life events may exacerbate age-related decline on episodic memory tests that require greater executive resources and more integrated and elaborative processing. The functional relationship between affective status and risk for dementia is discussed, and consideration of individual differences in everyday stress is suggested so as to allow more sensitive interpretation of episodic memory tests commonly used to discern mild cognitive impairment.
Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Induces Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Expression in Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages through p38/Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase and NF-κB Pathways: Impairment in T Cell Functions

ABSTRACT Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection has been observed in tumor-infiltrated macrophages, but its infection effects on macrophage immune functions are poorly understood. Here, we showed that some macrophages in the tumor stroma of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissue expressed the immunosuppressive protein indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) more strongly than did tumor cells. EBV infection induced mRNA, protein, and enzymatic activity of IDO in human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs). Infection increased the production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), whereas the neutralizing antibodies against TNF-α and IL-6 inhibited IDO induction. EBV infection also activated the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38 and NF-κB, and the inhibition of these two pathways with SB202190 and SN50 almost abrogated TNF-α and IL-6 production and inhibited IDO production. Moreover, the activation of IDO in response to EBV infection of MDMs suppressed the proliferation of T cells and impaired the cytotoxic activity of CD8+ T cells, whereas the inhibition of IDO activity with 1-methyl-l-tryptophan (1-MT) did not affect T cell proliferation and function. These findings indicate that EBV-induced IDO expression in MDMs is substantially mediated by IL-6- and TNF-α-dependent mechanisms via the p38/MAPK and NF-κB pathways, suggesting that a possible role of EBV-mediated IDO expression in tumor stroma of NPC may be to create a microenvironment of suppressed T cell immune responses. IMPORTANCE CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) play an important role in the control of viral infections and destroy tumor cells. Activation of the tryptophan-catabolizing enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) in cancer tissues facilitates immune escape by the impairment of CTL functions. IDO expression was observed in some macrophages of the tumor stroma of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissue, and IDO could be induced in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-infected human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs). NPC cells and macrophages have been found to produce IDO in a gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-dependent manner. Instead, EBV-induced IDO expression in MDMs is substantially mediated by IL-6- and TNF-α-dependent mechanisms via the p38/MAPK and NF-κB pathways, which suppressed the proliferation of T cells and impaired the cytotoxic activity of CD8+ T cells. This finding provides a new interpretation of the mechanism of immune escape of EBV and shows the immunosuppressive role of EBV-mediated IDO expression in tumor stroma of NPC.
Increased Thromboxane Biosynthesis in Type IIa Hypercholesterolemia

BackgroundIncreased platelet thromboxane (TX)A2 production has been described in type IIa hypercholesterolemia. To verify the relevance of these capacity-related measurements to the actual rate of TXA2 biosynthesis in vivo, we studied the urinary excretion of its major enzymatic metabolites in 46 patients with type hIa hypercholesterolemia and 20 age-matched controls. Methods and ResultsUrinary 11-dehydro-TXB2 and 2,3-dinor-TXB2 were measured by previously validated radioimmunoassays. The excretion rate of 11-dehydro-TXB2 was significantly (p < 0.001) higher in patients (68.7±35.1 ng/hr, mean±SD) than in controls (22.4±9.4 ng/hr), with metabolite excretion >2 SD of the normal mean in 74% of the patients. Urinary 11-dehydro-TXB2 was significantly (p < 0.01) correlated with the threshold aggregating concentration of collagen (r = −0.641) and arachidonate (r = −0.734) and with agonist-induced platelet TXB2 production in vitro (r = 0.647 and 0.748, respectively). Moreover, a statistically significant correlation (r = 0.673, p < 0.001, n = 66) was found between 11-dehydro-TXB2 excretion and total plasma cholesterol. The enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitor simvastatin (20 mg/day for 6 months) significantly reduced cholesterol levels by 22–28% and urinary 11-dehydro-TXB2 excretion by 32–42% in 10 patients. However, the reduction in the latter did not correlate with the reduction in the former and may have resulted from a nonspecific effect of simvastatin. Moreover, selective inhibition of platelet cyclooxygenase activity by low-dose aspirin (50 mg/day for 7 days) was associated with cumulative inhibition of 11-dehydro-TXB2 excretion by approximately 70% in six patients. ConclusionsTXA2 biosynthesis is enhanced in the majority of patients with type lla hypercholesterolemia; this is, at least in part, a consequence of abnormal cholesterol levels, as suggested by the correlation between the two. Low-dose aspirin can largely suppress increased metabolite excretion, thus suggesting that it reflects TXA2-dependent platelet activation in vivo.
Soil improvement using electroosmosis with the injection of chemical solutions: field tests

Previous laboratory studies have shown that the injection of a calcium chloride solution followed by the injection of a sodium silicate solution during electroosmosis is effective in strengthening soft silty clay. Very stiff cemented soil near the anodes is formed after the treatment. This paper presents the effectiveness of the process in the field. Nine electrodes were installed using two grid arrangements with electrode spacings of 2.0 m × 2.5 m and 2.0 m × 5.0 m. The test procedure is similar to those employed in the laboratory. Test results show that the soil surrounding the anodes (within a diameter of 50–60 cm) became very stiff and cemented due to the effect of cementation between the two chemical solutions and soil particles under the electric field. Except for the areas of stiff cemented soil, the undrained shear strength of the soil between electrodes was increased substantially. Polarity reversal after normal polarity did not produce favorable improvement effects in terms of undrained shear st.
A comparison of modeling and statistical evaluation of hydrologic change

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Hydrograph Laboratory model of watershed hydrology is adapted for use on a research watershed where land use changed drastically as a result of reforestation and subsequent thinning. Eight years of measured runoff from a mature forest are used to estimate two of the model parameters; the remaining 39 are based on physical measurements. Model simulations properly evaluated both the magnitude and statistical significance of the hydrologic changes with much less data than were needed for standard statistical analyses.