Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A game-theoretic model and best-response learning method for ad hoc coordination in multiagent systems

The ad hoc coordination problem is to design an ad hoc agent which is able to achieve optimal flexibility and efficiency in a multiagent system that admits no prior coordination between the ad hoc agent and the other agents. We conceptualise this problem formally as a stochastic Bayesian game in which the behaviour of a player is determined by its type. Based on this model, we derive a solution, called Harsanyi-Bellman Ad Hoc Coordination (HBA), which utilises a set of user-defined types to characterise players based on their observed behaviours. We evaluate HBA in the level-based foraging domain, showing that it outperforms several alternative algorithms using just a few user-defined types. We also report on a human-machine experiment in which the humans played Prisoner's Dilemma and Rock-Paper-Scissors against HBA and alternative algorithms. The results show that HBA achieved equal efficiency but a significantly higher welfare and winning rate.
Suppression of pro-inflammatory T-cell responses by human mesothelial cells.

BACKGROUND Human γδ T cells reactive to the microbial metabolite (E)-4-hydroxy-3-methyl-but-2-enyl pyrophosphate (HMB-PP) contribute to acute inflammatory responses. We have previously shown that peritoneal dialysis (PD)-associated infections with HMB-PP producing bacteria are characterized by locally elevated γδ T-cell frequencies and poorer clinical outcome compared with HMB-PP negative infections, implying that γδ T cells may be of diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic value in acute disease. The regulation by local tissue cells of these potentially detrimental γδ T-cell responses remains to be investigated. METHODS Freshly isolated γδ or αβ T cells were cultured with primary mesothelial cells derived from omental tissue, or with mesothelial cell-conditioned medium. Stimulation of cytokine production and proliferation by peripheral T cells in response to HMB-PP or CD3/CD28 beads was assessed by flow cytometry. RESULTS Resting mesothelial cells were potent suppressors of pro-inflammatory γδ T cells as well as CD4+ and CD8+ αβ T cells. The suppression of γδ T-cell responses was mediated through soluble factors released by primary mesothelial cells and could be counteracted by SB-431542, a selective inhibitor of TGF-β and activin signalling. Recombinant TGF-β1 but not activin-A mimicked the mesothelial cell-mediated suppression of γδ T-cell responses to HMB-PP. CONCLUSIONS The present findings indicate an important regulatory function of mesothelial cells in the peritoneal cavity by dampening pro-inflammatory T-cell responses, which may help preserve the tissue integrity of the peritoneal membrane in the steady state and possibly during the resolution of acute inflammation.
Implementing Process Improvement in Very Small Enterprises with ISO/IEC 29110: A Multiple Case Study Analysis

This paper outlines the details of nine case studies involving the pilot usage of the new ISO/IEC 29110 Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities standards and guides, which were specifically designed to address the standardization needs of Very Small Entities. The purpose of this paper is to disseminate the early success stories from pilot trials of this new and emerging standard. The lessons learnt from these case studies should assist the adoption of this new standard in an industrial setting.
miRNA Profile in Three Different Normal Human Ocular Tissues by miRNA-Seq

Purpose Because microRNAs (miRNAs) have been associated with eye diseases, our study aims to profile ocular miRNA expression in normal human ciliary body (CB), cornea, and trabecular meshwork (TM) using miRNA-Seq to provide a foundation for better understanding of miRNA function and disease involvement in these tissues. Methods Total RNAs were extracted from seven normal human CB, seven cornea, and seven TM samples using mirVana total RNA isolation kit. miRNA-Seq was done with Illumina MiSeq. Bowtie software was used to trim and align generated sequence reads, and only exact matches to mature miRNAs from miRBase were included. The miRTarBase database was used to analyze miRNA target interactions, and the expression of five selected miRNAs was validated using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Results Using the miRNA extracted from 21 human samples, we found 378 miRNAs collectively expressed, of which the 11 most abundant miRNAs represented 80% of the total normalized reads. We also identified uniquely expressed miRNAs, of which five share 18 highly validated gene targets, and created a profile of miRNAs known to target genes associated with keratoconus and glaucoma. Using ddPCR, we validated the expression profile of five miRNAs from miRNA-Seq. Conclusions For the first time, we profiled miRNA expression in three human ocular tissues using miRNA-Seq, identifying many miRNAs that had not been previously reported in ocular tissue. Defining the relative expression of miRNAs in nondiseased eye tissues could help uncover changes in miRNA expression that accompany diseases such as glaucoma and keratoconus.
Frequency Modulated Translocational Oscillations of Nrf2 Mediate the Antioxidant Response Element Cytoprotective Transcriptional Response

Abstract Aims: Stress responsive signaling coordinated by nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) provides an adaptive response for protection of cells against toxic insults, oxidative stress and metabolic dysfunction. Nrf2 regulates a battery of protective genes by binding to regulatory antioxidant response elements (AREs). The aim of this study was to examine how Nrf2 signals cell stress status and regulates transcription to maintain homeostasis. Results: In live cell microscopy we observed that Nrf2 undergoes autonomous translocational frequency-modulated oscillations between cytoplasm and nucleus. Oscillations occurred in quiescence and when cells were stimulated at physiological levels of activators, they decrease in period and amplitude and then evoke a cytoprotective transcriptional response. We propose a mechanism whereby oscillations are produced by negative feedback involving successive de-phosphorylation and phosphorylation steps. Nrf2 was inactivated in the nucleus and reactivated on return to the cytoplasm. Increased frequency of Nrf2 on return to the cytoplasm with increased reactivation or refresh-rate under stress conditions activated the transcriptional response mediating cytoprotective effects. The serine/threonine-protein phosphatase PGAM5, member of the Nrf2 interactome, was a key regulatory component. Innovation: We found that Nrf2 is activated in cells without change in total cellular Nrf2 protein concentration. Regulation of ARE-linked protective gene transcription occurs rather through translocational oscillations of Nrf2. We discovered cytoplasmic refresh rate of Nrf2 is important in maintaining and regulating the transcriptional response and links stress challenge to increased cytoplasmic surveillance. We found silencing and inhibition of PGAM5 provides potent activation of Nrf2. Conclusion: Frequency modulated translocational oscillations of Nrf2 mediate the ARE-linked cytoprotective transcriptional response. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 23, 613–629.
Positive Expiratory Pressure Improves Oxygenation in Healthy Subjects Exposed to Hypoxia

Introduction Positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) is commonly used in critical care medicine to improve gas exchange. Altitude sickness is associated with exaggerated reduction in arterial oxygenation. We assessed the effect of PEEP and pursed lips breathing (PLB) on arterial and tissue oxygenation under normobaric and hypobaric hypoxic conditions. Methods Sixteen healthy volunteers were exposed to acute normobaric hypoxia (Laboratory study, FiO2=0.12). The protocol consisted in 3-min phases with PEEPs of 0, 5 or 10 cmH2O, PLB or similar ventilation than with PEEP-10, interspaced with 3-min phases of free breathing. Arterial (pulse oximetry) and quadriceps (near-infrared spectroscopy) oxygenation, ventilation, cardiac function, esophageal and gastric pressures and subjects’ subjective perceptions were recorded continuously. In addition, the effect of PEEP on arterial oxygenation was tested at 4,350 m of altitude in 9 volunteers breathing for 20 min with PEEP-10 (Field study). Results During the laboratory study, PEEP-10 increased arterial and quadriceps oxygenation (arterial oxygen saturation +5.6±5.0% and quadriceps oxyhemoglobin +58±73 µmol.cm compared to free breathing; p<0.05). Conversely, PLB did not increase oxygenation. Oxygenation improvement with PEEP-10 was accompanied by an increase in expiratory esophageal and gastric pressures (esophageal pressure swing +5.4±3.2 cmH2O, p<0.05) but no change in minute ventilation, breathing pattern, end-tidal CO2 or cardiac function (all p>0.05) compared to PEEP-0. During the field study, PEEP-10 increased arterial oxygen saturation by +6.7±6.0% after the 3rd minute with PEEP-10 without further significant increase until the 20th minute with PEEP-10. Subjects did not report any significant discomfort with PEEP. Conclusions These data indicate that 10-cmH2O PEEP significantly improves arterial and muscle oxygenation under both normobaric and hypobaric hypoxic conditions in healthy subjects. PEEP-10 could be an attractive non-pharmacological tool to limit blood oxygen desaturation and possibly symptoms at altitude.
Demography and Design: Predictors of New Product Team Performance

The increasing reliance on teams in organizations raises the question of how these teams should be formed. Should they be formed completely of engineers or should they include a range of specialists? Should they be made up to people who have long tenure in the organization, or those with a wide range of experience? As teams increasingly get called upon to do more complex tasks and to cross functional boundaries within the organization, conventional wisdom has suggested that teams be composed of more diverse members. This study suggests that the answer may not be so simple.Using 409 individuals from 45 new product teams in five high-technology companies, this study investigates the impact of diversity on team performance. We found that functional and tenure diversity each has its own distinct effects. The greater the functional diversity, the more team members communicated outside the team's boundaries. This communication was with a variety of groups such as marketing, manufacturing, and top management. The more the external communication, the higher the managerial ratings of innovation.Tenure diversity had its impact on internal group dynamics rather than external communications. Tenure diversity is associated with improved task work such as clarifying group goals and setting priorities. In turn, this clarity is associated with high team ratings of overall performance.Yet diversity is not solely positive. While it does produce internal processes and external communications that facilitate performance, it also directly impedes performance. That is, overall the effect of diversity on performance is negative, even though some aspects of group work are enhanced. It may be that for these teams diversity brings more creativity to problem solving and product development, but it impedes implementation because there is less capability for teamwork than there is for homogeneous teams.These research findings suggest that simply changing the structure of teams (i.e. combining representatives of diverse function and tenure) will not improve performance. The team must find a way to garner the positive process effects of diversity and to reduce the negative direct effects. At the team level, greater negotiation and conflict resolution skills may be necessary. At the organization level, the team may need to be protected from external political pressures and rewarded for team, rather than functional, outcomes.
Integration of ICT in Education: Key Challenges

In many countries, education is more than a means for enabling progress and avoiding poverty; it is also critical for the development of knowledge societies and knowledge-based economies. It has been suggested that information and communication technologies (ITCs) can play a number of roles in education. Although lessons may be learned from best practices around the world, there is no specific or best formula for determining the best level of ICTs integration in the Education. Many researchers suggested that the role of higher education institutions within the context of knowledge-based economies and globalization is to provide individuals the ability to transform information into socially beneficial knowledge, skills, and value; modernize societies and improve the standard of living [1, 2, 3]. This paper examined some key challenges faced by the higher education institutions (HEIs) in integrating information and communication technologies (ICTs) into teaching and learning. This paper argues also that the main purpose of integrating ICTs in education is to provide extra approaches that can be used to address the serious environmental, cultural and educational challenges faced by policymakers, educators, educational administrators and students in higher education. The paper concludes by providing some essential elements that can be used in integrating ICTs use in education. Keywords— Education, HEIs, ICT, ICTs integration
Systematic Analysis of Translocator Protein 18 kDa (TSPO) Ligands on Toll-like Receptors-mediated Pro-inflammatory Responses in Microglia and Astrocytes

Translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO) is a mitochondrial protein highly expressed on reactive microglia and astrocytes, and is considered as a biomarker for neurodegeneration and brain damage, especially neuroinflammation. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are closely related with inflammatory responses of microglia and astrocytes and these signaling pathways regulate neuroinflammation. Previous reports have identified the anti-inflammatory effects of TSPO ligands, however study of their effects in relation to the TLR signaling was limited. Here, we investigated the effects of five representative TSPO ligands on microglia and astrocytes following activation by various TLR ligands. Our results show that TSPO ligands reduce the pro-inflammatory response elicited by the TLR ligands with more profound effects on microglia than astrocytes.
Comparisons of the pharmacokinetics and tolerability of fixed-dose combinations of amlodipine besylate/losartan and amlodipine camsylate/losartan in healthy subjects: a randomized, open-label, single-dose, two-period, two-sequence crossover study

Background A fixed-dose combination (FDC) of amlodipine and losartan has been used to reduce blood pressure in patients whose hypertension is not sufficiently controlled with either drug alone. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pharmacokinetic (PK) characteristics and tolerability of an FDC of 6.94 mg amlodipine besylate (5 mg as amlodipine)/50 mg losartan potassium compared to an FDC of 5 mg amlodipine camsylate/50 mg losartan potassium in healthy subjects. Subjects and methods A randomized, open-label, single-dose, two-period, two-sequence crossover study was conducted on 46 healthy male subjects. Blood concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Blood samples were collected up to 144 hours post dose for each period. PK parameters were calculated in each treatment group using a noncompartmental method. The 90% confidence intervals (CIs) of the geometric mean ratios of the two treatments for the maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) and the area under the concentration curve from time zero to the last quantifiable time point (AUC0–t) were estimated. Tolerability assessments were performed for all subjects who received the drug at least once. Results The PK profiles of the two treatments were similar. For amlodipine, the geometric mean ratios (90% CIs) of amlodipine besylate to amlodipine camsylate for the Cmax and AUC0–t were 0.98 (0.94−1.01) and 0.97 (0.93−1.01), respectively. The corresponding values for losartan were 0.91 (0.81−1.02) and 1.05 (0.98−1.12), respectively. The incidence of adverse events was not significantly different between the two treatments, and both were well tolerated. Conclusion An FDC of 6.94 mg amlodipine besylate (5 mg as amlodipine)/50 mg losartan potassium produced similar results to an FDC of 5 mg amlodipine camsylate/50 mg losartan potassium treatment with respect to the PK parameters of amlodipine and losartan based on Cmax and AUC0–t values. The amlodipine besylate/losartan potassium combination was well tolerated by healthy male subjects.
How do endurance runners actually train? Relationship with competition performance.

PURPOSE To quantify the relationship between total training load and running performance during the most important competitions of the season (national cross-country championships, 4.175- and 10.130-km races). METHODS Eight well-trained, subelite endurance runners (age (mean+/-SD): 23+/-2 yr; VO2max: 70.0+/-7.3 mL.kg. min) performed a maximal cardiorespiratory exercise test before the training period to determine ventilatory threshold (VT) and respiratory compensation threshold (RCT). Heart rate was continuously recorded using telemetry during each training session over a 6-month macrocycle, designed to achieve peak performance during the aforementioned cross-country races, lasting from late August to the time that these races were held, that is, mid-February. This allowed us to quantify the total cumulative time spent in three intensity zones calculated as zone 1 (low intensity, lower than the VT); zone 2 (moderate intensity, between VT and RCT); and zone 3 (high intensity, above the RCT). RESULTS Total training time in zone 1 (4581+/-979 min) was significantly higher (P<0.001) than that accumulated in zones 2 (1354+/-583 min) and 3 (487+/-154 min). Total time in zone 2 was significantly higher than time in zone 3 (P<0.05). A correlation coefficient of r=-0.79 (P=0.06) and r=-0.97 (P=0.008) was found between the total training time spent in zone 1 and performance time during the short and long cross-country races, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that total training time spent at low intensities might be associated with improved performance during highly intense endurance events, especially if the event duration is approximately 35 min. Interventional studies (i.e., improving or reducing training time in zone 1) are needed to corroborate our findings and to elucidate the physiological mechanisms behind them.
A scalable evolvable hardware processing array

Evolvable hardware (EH) is an interesting alternative to conventional digital circuit design, since autonomous generation of solutions for a given task permits self-adaptivity of the system to changing environments, and they present inherent fault tolerance when evolution is intrinsically performed. Systems based on FPGAs that use Dynamic and Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) for evolving the circuit are an example. Also, thanks to DPR, these systems can be provided with scalability, a feature that allows a system to change the number of allocated resources at run-time in order to vary some feature, such as performance. The combination of both aspects leads to scalable evolvable hardware (SEH), which changes in size as an extra degree of freedom when trying to achieve the optimal solution by means of evolution. The main contributions of this paper are an architecture of a scalable and evolvable hardware processing array system, some preliminary evolution strategies which take scalability into consideration, and to show in the experimental results the benefits of combined evolution and scalability. A digital image filtering application is used as use case.
. A flexibly shaped spatial scan statistic for detecting clusters

As described above, we are currently investigating the use of GraphScan for learning an unknown graph structure from data (Somanchi and Neill, in preparation). We tested our new graph structure learning algorithm on various sorts of simulated disease outbreaks, including spread according to spatial adjacency, spatial spread (using distance rather than adjacency), spread according to adjacency plus simulated travel patterns, and random graphs (both Erdos-Renyi and preferential attachment). Our preliminary results demonstrate that the learned graph structure is similar to the true underlying graph structure, but interestingly, it often has better detection performance than the true graph structure, enabling more timely detection and higher spatial accuracy. For example, the above figure compares the spatial accuracy (overlap coefficient, precision and recall) and the average number of days to detection for the original and learned graphs, for simulated outbreaks based on spatial adjacency. We observe that the learned graph results in substantially improved detection time, and slightly improved spatial accuracy. Additional experiments comparing several variants of our graph structure learning algorithm, on multiple types of graph, are in progress. We expect to submit the resulting paper to a top-tier machine learning conference this summer. In Neill (2011a), we present formal proofs of the linear-time subset scanning property for a large class of score functions, using the " proof by inclusion " and " proof by substitution " methods described in the " Research Activities " section. First, we show (via proof by inclusion), that if F(S) can be written as a function of two additive sufficient statistics X(S) = ∑ i∈S x i and Y(S) = ∑ i∈S y i , and if F(X,Y) is monotonically increasing with X, quasi-convex, and restricted to positive Y, then F(S) satisfies the LTSS property. As a corollary, this set of sufficient conditions allows us to prove that Kulldorff's (1997) spatial scan statistic satisfies LTSS, as do the more recently proposed expectation-based Poisson (Neill et al., 2005) and Gaussian (Neill, 2006) statistics. We also present a counterexample which shows that these functions do not satisfy the strong LTSS property. Second, we show (via proof by substitution) that if F(S) can be written as F(X(S), |S|) for a single additive sufficient statistic X(S) = ∑ i∈S x i , and if F(X) is monotonically increasing with X, then F(S) satisfies the (strong) LTSS property. As a corollary, this set of sufficient conditions for LTSS allows us to …