Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fundamental features of ad hoc networks' simulations

ods in description of complicated real-world phenomenons. There are multiple reasons for that such as dramatic increase in processing power and significant decrease of price of the computing systems and the fact that the probability theory is a well-known tool for presentation and processing of stochastic information. As a primary aim, in this article is described fundamental stochastic features of the ad hoc network simulations. Especially, a concept of convergence time of simulation models is considered. It refers to the minimum simulation time required for the reliable results. Its practical numerical model-based evaluation is defined by example simulations. Ad hoc network models considered here are event based discrete time models, which utilize Markov chain theory for the definition of state transitions and Monte Carlo random sampling method for the definition of events probabilities and duration times of them. Numerous reported case studies of the network simulations do not contain any information about the convergence time of the model. In some publications results are achieved by very short simulation times spanning from a few seconds only to tens of seconds. Moreover, the same simulation times are used for different sizes of networks. However, the convergence time even for a moderate size of ad hoc networks, such as 10 nodes, may be thousands of seconds and it increases as a function of nodes as will be shown in this paper. The secondary aim of the paper is to optimize IEEE 802.11b AODV (Ad hoc On demand Distance Vector) based network throughput by parameters optimization. In simulations, it was noticed that RTS/CTS (Ready to Send/Clear to Send) threshold initiation and active route timeout parameters had significant influence to the overall throughput in small networks.
Epidemiologic Assessment of Worker Serum Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) Concentrations and Medical Surveillance Examinations

Perfluorooctanesulfonyl fluoride (POSF, C8F17SO2F) is used to create applications for surfactants and paper, packaging, and surface (eg, carpets, textiles) protectants. Such POSF-based products or their residuals may degrade or metabolize to PFOS (C8F17SO3−). PFOS concentrates in liver and serum and results in hypolipidemia as an early effect of cumulative dosages. Male and female employees of two perfluorooctanyl-manufacturing locations (Antwerp, Belgium and Decatur, Alabama) participated in a periodic medical surveillance program that included hematology, clinical chemistry, thyroid hormone, and urinalysis testing. Serum concentrations of PFOS and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA, C7F15CO2−, used as a fluoropolymer emulsifier) were measured via mass spectrometry methods. The mean serum PFOS and PFOA concentrations for 263 Decatur employees were 1.32 parts per million (ppm; geometric mean 0.91, range 0.06–10.06 ppm) and 1.78 ppm (geometric mean 1.13, range 0.04–12.70 ppm), respectively. Mean concentrations were approximately 50% lower among 255 Antwerp workers. Adjusting for potential confounding factors, there were no substantial changes in hematological, lipid, hepatic, thyroid, or urinary parameters consistent with the known toxicological effects of PFOS or PFOA in cross-sectional or longitudinal analyses of the workers’ measured serum fluorochemical concentrations.
Study of end effects on the performance of the linear switched reluctance motor

The purpose of this paper is to study the end effects in a double-sided linear switched reluctance motor (LSRM). Switched reluctance motors (SRM) and by extension their linear counterpart, LSRM, have been widely studied using two-dimensional finite element analysis (2D FEA). End effects are not included in 2D FEA, even though these effects considerably increase unaligned inductance. This paper describes a procedure that takes into account the end effects in flux linkage, inductance and force profiles on LSRM. It is based on 2D FEA corrected by the inclusion of end-winding inductance and several empirical coefficients. The results of this approach closely coincide with experimental measurements.
Density Functional Theory for Block Copolymer Melts and Blends

We derive an expression for the free energy of the blends of block copolymers expressed as a functional of the density distribution of the monomer of each block. The expression is a generalization of the Flory−Huggins−de Gennes theory for homopolymer blends and also a generalization of the Ohta−Kawasaki theory for the melts of diblock copolymers. The expression can be used for any blends of homopolymers and block copolymers of any topological structure. The expression gives a fast and stable computational method to calculate the micro- and macro-phase separation of the blends of homopolymers and block copolymers.
Narcissism and consumer behaviour: a review and preliminary findings

We review the literature on the relation between narcissism and consumer behavior. Consumer behavior is sometimes guided by self-related motives (e.g., self-enhancement) rather than by rational economic considerations. Narcissism is a case in point. This personality trait reflects a self-centered, self-aggrandizing, dominant, and manipulative orientation. Narcissists are characterized by exhibitionism and vanity, and they see themselves as superior and entitled. To validate their grandiose self-image, narcissists purchase high-prestige products (i.e., luxurious, exclusive, flashy), show greater interest in the symbolic than utilitarian value of products, and distinguish themselves positively from others via their materialistic possessions. Our review lays the foundation for a novel methodological approach in which we explore how narcissism influences eye movement behavior during consumer decision-making. We conclude with a description of our experimental paradigm and report preliminary results. Our findings will provide insight into the mechanisms underlying narcissists’ conspicuous purchases. They will also likely have implications for theories of personality, consumer behavior, marketing, advertising, and visual cognition.
sparse inflorescence1 encodes a monocot-specific YUCCA-like gene required for vegetative and reproductive development in maize

The plant growth hormone auxin plays a critical role in the initiation of lateral organs and meristems. Here, we identify and characterize a mutant, sparse inflorescence1 (spi1), which has defects in the initiation of axillary meristems and lateral organs during vegetative and inflorescence development in maize. Positional cloning shows that spi1 encodes a flavin monooxygenase similar to the YUCCA (YUC) genes of Arabidopsis, which are involved in local auxin biosynthesis in various plant tissues. In Arabidopsis, loss of function of single members of the YUC family has no obvious effect, but in maize the mutation of a single yuc locus causes severe developmental defects. Phylogenetic analysis of the different members of the YUC family in moss, monocot, and eudicot species shows that there have been independent expansions of the family in monocots and eudicots. spi1 belongs to a monocot-specific clade, within which the role of individual YUC genes has diversified. These observations, together with expression and functional data, suggest that spi1 has evolved a dominant role in auxin biosynthesis that is essential for normal maize inflorescence development. Analysis of the interaction between spi1 and genes regulating auxin transport indicate that auxin transport and biosynthesis function synergistically to regulate the formation of axillary meristems and lateral organs in maize.
1994 International Conference on Parallel Processing An Integrated Methodology for the Verification of Directory-based Cache Protocols

The complexity of directory based proto­ cols has motivated us to build a hardware emulator or testbed for the rapid prototyping of various protocols under various memory consistency models for CC-NUMA architectures. To implement and verify new protocols rapidly on the testbed, we have developed an overall methodology around a set of tools applicable to different aspects of the verification of a protocol, i.e., protocol-intrinsic errors, memory access ordering errors and protocol implementation errors. These tools include for­ mal verification techniques, architecture simulators and hard­ ware mechanisms implemented in the FPGAs of the testbed.
Single subunit chimeric integrins as mimics and inhibitors of endogenous integrin functions in receptor localization, cell spreading and migration, and matrix assembly

The ability of single subunit chimeric receptors containing various integrin beta intracellular domains to mimic and/or inhibit endogenous integrin function was examined. Chimeric receptors consisting of the extracellular and transmembrane domains of the small subunit of the human interleukin-2 receptor connected to either the beta 1, beta 3, beta 3B, or beta 5 intracellular domain were transiently expressed in normal human fibroblasts. When expressed at relatively low levels, the beta 3 and beta 5 chimeras mimicked endogenous ligand-occupied integrins and, like the beta 1 chimera (LaFlamme, S. E., S. K. Akiyama, and K. M. Yamada. 1992. J. Cell Biol. 117:437), concentrated with endogenous integrins in focal adhesions and sites of fibronectin fibril formation. In contrast, the chimeric receptor containing the beta 3B intracellular domain (a beta 3 intracellular domain modified by alternative splicing) was expressed diffusely on the cell surface, indicating that alternative splicing can regulate integrin receptor distribution by an intracellular mechanism. Furthermore, when expressed at higher levels, the beta 1 and beta 3 chimeric receptors functioned as dominant negative mutants and inhibited endogenous integrin function in localization to fibronectin fibrils, fibronectin matrix assembly, cell spreading, and cell migration. The beta 5 chimera was a less effective inhibitor, and the beta 3B chimera and the reporter lacking an intracellular domain did not inhibit endogenous integrin function. Comparison of the relative levels of expression of the transfected beta 1 chimera and the endogenous beta 1 subunit indicated that in 10 to 15 h assays, the beta 1 chimera can inhibit cell spreading when expressed at levels approximately equal to the endogenous beta 1 subunit. Levels of chimeric receptor expression that inhibited cell spreading also inhibited cell migration, whereas lower levels were able to inhibit alpha 5 beta 1 localization to fibrils and matrix assembly. Our results indicate that single subunit chimeric integrins can mimic and/or inhibit endogenous integrin receptor function, presumably by interacting with cytoplasmic components critical for endogenous integrin function. Our results also demonstrate that beta intracellular domains, expressed in this context, display specificity in their abilities to mimic and inhibit endogenous integrin function. Furthermore, the approach that we have used permits the analysis of intracellular domain function in the processes of cell spreading, migration and extracellular matrix assembly independent of effects due to the rest of integrin dimers. This approach should prove valuable in the further analysis of integrin intracellular domain function in these and other integrin-mediated processes requiring the interaction of integrins with cytoplasmic components.
How some hearts age.

Aging of the heart has not impressed the physician, although the striking anatomic change, brown atrophy, has long been known and recently has been emphasized by quantitative studies. 1 The electron microscope has shown that there are comparable changes in the mitochondria, 2 and the biochemists measure the decline in the enzymes needed to maintain contraction. 3 The nervous elements also atrophy, 4 so that the heart can less effectively mobilize the catecholamines which augment the speed and force of contraction when the circulatory needs are increased by stress. The observations of I. Starr and his disciples on the change in headfoot ballistocardiograms and pulse contours in an aging "normal" population, 5,6 and those of Harrison's group on the motion of the precordium, 7 seem to point to a steady decline in the force of contraction and rise in resistance to diastolic filling, from nonage to nonagenarity. The data on
Comparative susceptibilities of hybrid mice to four mammary tumor viruses from two mouse strains.

The effect of inoculation of four different strains of murine mammary tumor virus into several mouse strains and their F1 hybrids has been measured by both the presence of viral antigen in the milk and the occurrence of mammary tumors. Strain A virus, in low-parity A milk, is highly infectious in BALB/c mice but very poorly infectious in both C57BL and C57BL × BALB/c F1 hybrids. Strain Af virus, in high-parity Af milk, is poorly infectious in all three groups. Strain RIII virus, in low-parity RIII milk, is more infectious in C57BL and RIIIf × C57BL F1 hybrid than in RIIIf mice; however, RIII virus is much more infectious in RIIIf × BALB/c F1 hybrid mice than in either RIIIf or BALB/c mice. RIIIf virus, in high-parity RIIIf milk, is moderately infectious in RIIIf mice but very poorly infectious in both C57BL and RIIIf × C57BL F1 hybrid; it is, however, highly infectious and produces tumors at an early age in BALB/c and RIIIf × BALB/c F1 hybrid. These results demonstrate the differences in the various viruses and the marked influence the father can exert on the susceptibility of certain hybrids to a particular virus. The results also show a good correlation between incidence of infection and incidence of mammary tumors, although some mice showing viral antigen in third-lactation milks did not develop tumors by age 20 months and vice versa. Tests at later lactations were more predictive of eventual tumor development.
How A Newly Established Company Realises The Benefits Of ERP Implementation: A Palestinian Case Study

Many organisations adopt large-scale enterprise information systems (EIS), because they are looking for more comprehensive benefits than those available from small, off-the-shelf software applications. However, adoption of EIS has often proved to be challenging and expensive. This work is designed as an inductive case study using a retrospective investigation to understand the process that allows a newly established company to obtain substantial benefits from an ERP system. The main contribution of this work is an improved understanding of how a successful implementation for the ERP system that incorporates some activities of benefits management framework but, without explicit adoption of these benefits managements techniques, can help organizations realise substantial benefits from the system. The results of this study also suggest that broad expectations and wide-ranging objectives are determined in the early stage, without detailed specification of the benefits. The findings also emphasise that a low level of customisation can lead to improved realisation of benefits.
Routing stability in congested networks: experimentation and analysis

Loss of the routing protocol messages due to network congestion can cause peering session failures in routers, leading to route flaps and routing instabilities. We study the effects of traffic overload on routing protocols by quantifying the stability and robustness properties of two common Internet routing protocols, OSPF and BGP, when the routing control traffic is not isolated from data traffic. We develop analytical models to quantify the effect of congestion on the robustness of OSPF and BGP as a function of the traffic overload factor, queueing delays, and packet sizes. We perform extensive measurements in an experimental network of routers to validate the analytical results. Subsequently we use the analytical framework to investigate the effect of factors that are difficult to incorporate into an experimental setup, such as a wide range of link propagation delays and packet dropping policies. Our results show that increased queueing and propagation delays adversely affect BGP's resilience to congestion, in spite of its use of a reliable transport protocol. Our findings demonstrate the importance of selective treatment of routing protocol messages from other traffic, by using scheduling and utilizing buffer management policies in the routers, to achieve stable and robust network operation.
Open nephron-sparing surgery in renal tumors with normal contralateral kidney: A single centre experience of 8 years

Introduction: We present our eight-year experience with open nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) in renal tumors with contralateral normal kidney to assess its oncological efficacy and safety. Materials and Methods: Thirty-six patients undergoing open NSS for small localized renal tumors with normal contralateral kidney from January 1998 to August 2006 were studied regarding demographic, clinical and pathological characteristics along with long-term follow-up. Results: The mean age was 48.28 ± 9.5 years. The mean tumor size was 3.72 cm (range 1.5-6). The following surgeries were performed: Wedge resection-13, partial polar nephrectomy-15, segmental resection-eight. The following techniques were used for vascular control: clamping and cooling-eight, warm ischemia-12, a novel technique of serial encirclage-16. The mean warm ischemia time was 23.2 ± 3.2 min. The mean operating time was 190.07 ± 11.3 min. The mean estimated blood loss was 331 ± 17.4 ml. The majority of renal tumors were renal cell carcinoma (97.22%). There were no positive surgical margins. There were no major intraoperative and postoperative complications. The mean follow up was 52.1 months (range 4-80) with no case showing progression to renal insufficiency (defined as serum creatinine > 2 mg/dl). There was only one local recurrence. However, four distant metastases were reported. The five-year cancer-specific survival, recurrence-free survival and overall survival were 94.4%, 88.88% and 86.11% respectively. Conclusions: In patients with solitary, small localized, unilateral renal tumors with normal contralateral kidney, elective open NSS is feasible, safe and provides excellent long-term local control and oncological efficacy with functional benefits.
Use of digital photography and image analysis techniques to quantify erythema in health care workers

Background/aims: Nosocomial infections affect up to 26% of ICU patients. Compliance with the required hand hygiene procedures remains low, rarely exceeding 50%, with skin irritation as one of the main reasons for lack of conformity. The aim was to quantify the epidermal barrier effects, particularly erythema, from repetitive exposure to hand hygiene procedures among health care workers (HCWs) using an objective, reliable clinical method that could evaluate the entire hand surface.
Prophylactic, prandial rofecoxib treatment lacks efficacy against acute PTZ‐induced seizure generation and kindling acquisition

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine whether prophylactic prandial administration of rofecoxib, a selective cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) inhibitor, could alter seizure generation, kindling acquisition, and/or kindling maintenance in the mouse pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) epilepsy model.
Transcriptional control of antioxidant defense by the circadian clock.

SIGNIFICANCE The circadian clock, an internal timekeeping system, is implicated in the regulation of metabolism and physiology, and circadian dysfunctions are associated with pathological changes in model organisms and increased risk of some diseases in humans. RECENT ADVANCES Data obtained in different organisms, including humans, have established a tight connection between the clock and cellular redox signaling making it among the major candidates for a link between the circadian system and physiological processes. CRITICAL ISSUES In spite of the recent progress in understanding the importance of the circadian clock in the regulation of reactive oxygen species homeostasis, molecular mechanisms and key regulators are mostly unknown. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Here we review, with an emphasis on transcriptional control, the circadian-clock-dependent control of oxidative stress response system as a potential mechanism in age-associated diseases. We will discuss the roles of the core clock components such as brain and muscle ARNT-like 1, Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput, the circadian-clock-controlled transcriptional factors such as nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor and circadian clock control chromatin modifying enzymes from sirtuin family in the regulation of cellular and organism antioxidant defense.
years of Immunization in India : Progress and Future VM

Immunization is one of the most cost effective public health interventions and largely responsible for reduction of under-5 mortality rate. However, vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) are still responsible for over 5 lakh deaths annually in India. This underlines the need of further improvement. Today, India is a leading producer and exporter of vaccines, still the country is home to one-third of the world’s unimmunized children. There are a number of reasons why India lags behind its many less developed neighbors in vaccination rates. They include huge population with relatively high growth rate, geographical diversity and some hard to reach populations, lack of awareness regarding vaccination, inadequate delivery of health services, inadequate supervision and monitoring, lack of microplanning and general lack of inter-sectoral coordination, and weak VPD surveillance system. In this article, we discuss some of the remedial measures to remove obstacles and improve immunization status of the country. Heightened political and bureaucratic will, increasing demand for vaccination by using effective Information, education and communication (IEC), creating more ‘delivery points’ for routine immunization, proper monitoring of the program, and changing overall objective of the program from merely targeting coverage to more meaningful monitoring of the ‘VPD reduction’ and ‘demand creation’ referred as the ‘output’ of entire vaccination program. Successful AFP surveillance network should serve as platform for an efficient integrated disease surveillance system. AEFI and postmarketing surveillance systems should be urgently upgraded, and there is need of strengthening the regulatory capacity of the country. Restructuring of EPI with induction of some new vaccines, clear-cut guidelines on the policy of introduction of newer vaccines, and establishing a separate, independent department of public health are few other areas that need urgent attention.
The efficiency of electrocoagulation in treating wastewater from a dairy industry, Part I: Iron electrodes

Iron electrodes were used for electrocoagulation (EC) treatment of wastewater from a dairy plant. Electrolysis time, pH, current density and distance between electrodes were considered to assess the removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total solids (TS) and their fractions and turbidity. Samples were collected from the effluent of a dairy plant using a sampling methodology proportional to the flow. The treatments were applied according to design factorial of half fraction with two levels of treatments and three repetitions at the central point. The optimization of parameters for treating dairy industry effluent by electrocoagulation using iron electrodes showed that electric current application for 15 minutes, an initial sample pH close to neutral (pH 7.0) and a current density of 50 A . m−2 resulted in a significant reduction in COD by 58 %; removal of turbidity, suspended solids and volatile suspended solids by 95 %; and a final treated effluent pH of approximately 9.5. Negative consequences of the type of electrode used were the emergence of an undesirable color and an increase in the proportion of dissolved solids in the treated effluent.