Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New MAC Protocol for Reducing the Effect of Needless Transmission Deferment Induced by Failed RTS / CTS Handshake

IEEE802.11DCF employs the RTS/CTS (Request To Send/Clear To Send) mechanism for mitigating the effect of hidden terminals. This mechanism sets the transmission deferral timer for the neighbor terminals by exchanging RTS and CTS between the transmitter and the receiver. Therefore, when the RTS/CTS exchange is successful, the effect of hidden terminals can be suppressed. Otherwise, any neighbor that receives RTS and/or CTS defers its new transmission needlessly, although the DATA packet corresponding to the previous RTS/CTS exchange will not be transmitted. In this paper, we propose the Cancel CTS procedure in order to cope with unnecessary transmission deferments. The results of a computer simulation confirm that our method effectively improves the throughput performance of IEEE802.11DCF. Abstract IEEE802.11DCF employs the RTS/CTS (Request To Send/Clear To Send) mechanism for mitigating the effect of hidden terminals. This mechanism sets the transmission deferral timer for the neighbor terminals by exchanging RTS and CTS between the transmitter and the receiver. Therefore, when the RTS/CTS exchange is successful, the effect of hidden terminals can be suppressed. Otherwise, any neighbor that receives RTS and/or CTS defers its new transmission needlessly, although the DATA packet corresponding to the previous RTS/CTS exchange will not be transmitted. In this paper, we propose the Cancel CTS procedure in order to cope with unnecessary transmission deferments. The results of a computer simulation confirm that our method effectively improves the throughput performance of IEEE802.11DCF.
Effects of Psychosocial Characteristics of Middle School Students on High School Grades and On-Time Graduation

Abstract. Research has shown that psychosocial factors (PSFs) have a positive impact on high school outcomes, including grades and persistence. However, few longitudinal studies have examined the nature of these relationships. We report on a longitudinal study of middle school students followed through high school completion. We found that high school GPA mediates the effects of prior academic achievement, demographics, and most PSFs on on-time high school graduation. A measure of self-regulation had a significant direct effect on on-time graduation. The results underscore the importance of PSFs in predicting academic outcomes, even after accounting for prior achievement and demographics. Implications of examining PSFs early in students’ academic progression are discussed.
An Empirical Study of Classifier Combination for Cross-Project Defect Prediction

To help developers better allocate testing and debugging efforts, many software defect prediction techniques have been proposed in the literature. These techniques can be used to predict classes that are more likely to be buggy based on past history of buggy classes. These techniques work well as long as a sufficient amount of data is available to train a prediction model. However, there is rarely enough training data for new software projects. To deal with this problem, cross-project defect prediction, which transfers a prediction model trained using data from one project to another, has been proposed and is regarded as a new challenge for defect prediction. So far, only a few cross-project defect prediction techniques have been proposed. To advance the state-of-the-art, in this work, we investigate 7 composite algorithms, which integrate multiple machine learning classifiers, to improve cross-project defect prediction. To evaluate the performance of the composite algorithms, we perform experiments on 10 open source software systems from the PROMISE repository which contain a total of 5,305 instances labeled as defective or clean. We compare the composite algorithms with CODEP Logistic, which is the latest cross-project defect prediction algorithm proposed by Panichella et al., in terms of two standard evaluation metrics: cost effectiveness and F-measure. Our experiment results show that several algorithms outperform CODEP Logistic: Max performs the best in terms of F-measure and its average F-measure outperforms that of CODEP Logistic by 36.88%. Bagging J48 performs the best in terms of cost effectiveness and its average cost effectiveness outperforms that of CODEP Logistic by 15.34%.
The Relationship between Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Polymorphisms and Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background and aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is now recognized as one of the major causes of chronic liver disease. It is also one of the most common complications in maintenance hemodialysis (HD) patients. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α promoter polymorphisms are observed to modulate TNF-α levels and thought to have an effect on susceptibility to HCV infection and the virus clearance, but the results are inconsistent. In this study, a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published data was performed to evaluate the relationship between the TNF-α-238, -308 polymorphisms and HCV infection. Methods: A total of 15 studies published were analyzed, which were indexed from PubMed, Embase, and CNKI databases (up to December 2010). All the data were analyzed using RevMan 4.2 software. Odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated by fixed or random-effects models. Heterogeneity and publication bias across the studies were also explored. Results: The data showed no significant association between TNF-α-308, -238 gene polymorphisms and the susceptibility to HCV infection in the global group (p = 0.28, p = 0.38, respectively) and the sub-groups (European, American, African, and Asian). Besides, the distributions of TNF-α-308, -238 A/G alleles were also not significantly different between the persistent infection group and the spontaneous clearance group (p = 0.64, p = 0.75, respectively). Conclusion: TNF-α-238, -308 gene polymorphisms might have no effect on susceptibility to HCV infection and the virus clearance. The findings of this meta-analysis have implications in the optimal prevention of HCV in HD patients and in the guidance of future research.
Neurospora crassa heat shock factor 1 Is an Essential Gene; a Second Heat Shock Factor-Like Gene, hsf2, Is Required for Asexual Spore Formation

ABSTRACT Appropriate responses of organisms to heat stress are essential for their survival. In eukaryotes, adaptation to high temperatures is mediated by heat shock transcription factors (HSFs). HSFs regulate the expression of heat shock proteins, which function as molecular chaperones assisting in protein folding and stability. In many model organisms a great deal is known about the products of hsf genes. An important exception is the filamentous fungus and model eukaryote Neurospora crassa. Here we show that two Neurospora crassa genes whose protein products share similarity to known HSFs play different biological roles. We report that heat shock factor 1 (hsf1) is an essential gene and that hsf2 is required for asexual development. Conidiation may be blocked in the hsf2 knockout (hsf2KO) strain because HSF2 is an integral element of the conidiation pathway or because it affects the availability of protein chaperones. We report that genes expressed during conidiation, for example fluffy, conidiation-10, and repressor of conidiation-1 show wild-type levels of expression in a hsf2KO strain. However, consistent with the lack of macroconidium development, levels of eas are much reduced. Cultures of the hsf2KO strain along with two other aconidial strains, the fluffy and aconidial-2 strains, took longer than the wild type to recover from heat shock. Altered expression profiles of hsp90 and a putative hsp90-associated protein in the hsf2KO strain after exposure to heat shock may in part account for its reduced ability to cope with heat stress.
Malnutrition and growth failure in cyanotic and acyanotic congenital heart disease with and without pulmonary hypertension

AIM To investigate the effect of several types of congenital heart disease (CHD) on nutrition and growth. PATIENTS AND METHODS The prevalence of malnutrition and growth failure was investigated in 89 patients with CHD aged 1−45 months. They were grouped according to cardiac diagnosis: group aP (n = 26), acyanotic patients with pulmonary hypertension; group ap (n = 5), acyanotic patients without pulmonary hypertension; group cp (n = 42), cyanotic patients without pulmonary hypertension; and group cP (n = 16), cyanotic patients with pulmonary hypertension. Information on socioeconomic level, parental education status, birth weight and nutrition history, number of siblings, and the timing, quality, and quantity of nutrients ingested during weaning period and at the time of the examination were obtained through interviews with parents. RESULTS There was no significant difference between groups in terms of parental education status, socioeconomic level, duration of breast feeding, and number of siblings (p > 0.05). Group cP patients ingested fewer nutrients for their age compared to other groups. 37 of the 89 patients were below the 5th centile for both weight and length, and 58 of 89 patients were below the 5th centile for weight. Mild or borderline malnutrition was more common in group aP patients. Most group cp patients were in normal nutritional state, and stunting was more common than wasting. Both moderate to severe malnutrition and failure to thrive were more common in group cP patients. CONCLUSION Patients with CHD are prone to malnutrition and growth failure. Pulmonary hypertension appears to be the most important factor, and cyanotic patients with pulmonary hypertension are the ones most severely affected. This study shows the additive effects of hypoxia and pulmonary hypertension on nutrition and growth of children with CHD.
Assessment of robot guidance modalities conveying instructions to humans in emergency situations

Motivated by the desire to mitigate human casualties in emergency situations, this paper explores various guidance modalities provided by a robotic platform for instructing humans to safely evacuate during an emergency. We focus on physical modifications of the robot, which enables visual guidance instructions, since auditory guidance instructions pose potential problems in a noisy emergency environment. Robotic platforms can convey visual guidance instructions through motion, static signs, dynamic signs, and gestures using single or multiple arms. In this paper, we discuss the different guidance modalities instantiated by different physical platform constructs and assess the abilities of the platforms to convey information related to evacuation. Human-robot interaction studies with 192 participants show that participants were able to understand the information conveyed by the various robotic constructs in 75.8% of cases when using dynamic signs with multi-arm gestures, as opposed to 18.0% when using static signs for visual guidance. Of interest to note is that dynamic signs had equivalent performance to single-arm gestures overall but drastically different performances at the two distance levels tested. Based on these studies, we conclude that dynamic signs are important for information conveyance when the robot is in close proximity to the human but multi-arm gestures are necessary when information must be conveyed across a greater distance.
Rectal Fecal Impaction Treatment in Childhood Constipation: Enemas Versus High Doses Oral PEG

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that enemas and polyethylene glycol (PEG) would be equally effective in treating rectal fecal impaction (RFI) but enemas would be less well tolerated and colonic transit time (CTT) would improve during disimpaction. METHODS: Children (4–16 years) with functional constipation and RFI participated. One week before disimpaction, a rectal examination was performed, symptoms of constipation were recorded, and the first CTT measurement was started. If RFI was determined, then patients were assigned randomly to receive enemas once daily or PEG (1.5 g/kg per day) for 6 consecutive days. During this period, the second CTT measurement was started and a child's behavior questionnaire was administered. Successful rectal disimpaction, defecation and fecal incontinence frequencies, occurrence of abdominal pain and watery stools, CTTs (before and after disimpaction), and behavior scores were assessed. RESULTS: Ninety-five patients were eligible, of whom 90 participated (male, n = 60; mean age: 7.5 ± 2.8 years). Forty-six patients received enemas and 44 PEG, with 5 dropouts in each group. Successful disimpaction was achieved with enemas (80%) and PEG (68%; P = .28). Fecal incontinence and watery stools were reported more frequently with PEG (P < .01), but defecation frequency (P = .64), abdominal pain (P = .33), and behavior scores were comparable between groups. CTT normalized equally (P = .85) in the 2 groups. CONCLUSION: Enemas and PEG were equally effective in treating RFI in children. Compared with enemas, PEG caused more fecal incontinence, with comparable behavior scores. The treatments should be considered equally as first-line therapy for RFI.
The Causal Element for the Lactase Persistence/ non‐persistence Polymorphism is Located in a 1 Mb Region of Linkage Disequilibrium in Europeans

Expression of lactase in the intestine persists into adult life in some people and not others, and this is due to a cis‐acting regulatory polymorphism. Previous data indicated that a mutation leading to lactase persistence had occurred on the background of a 60 kb 11‐site LCT haplotype known as A ( Hollox et al. 2001 ). Recent studies reported a 100% correlation of lactase persistence with the presence of the T allele at a CT SNP at −14 kb from LCT, in individuals of Finnish origin, suggesting that this SNP may be causal of the lactase persistence polymorphism, and also reported a very tight association with a second SNP (GA –22 kb) ( Enattah et al. 2002 ). Here we report the existence of a one megabase stretch of linkage disequilibrium in the region of LCT and show that the –14 kb T allele and the –22 kb A allele both occur on the background of a very extended A haplotype. In a series of Finnish individuals we found a strong correlation (40/41 people) with lactose digestion and the presence of the T allele. The T allele was present in all 36 lactase persistent individuals from the UK (phenotyped by enzyme assay) studied, 31/36 of whom were of Northern European ancestry, but not in 11 non‐persistent individuals who were mainly of non‐UK ancestry. However, the CT heterozygotes did not show intermediate lactase enzyme activity, unlike those previously phenotyped by determining allelic transcript expression. Furthermore the one lactase persistent homozygote identified by having equally high expression of A and B haplotype transcripts, was heterozygous for CT at the −14 kb site. SNP analysis across the 1 megabase region in this person showed no evidence of recombination on either chromosome between the –14 kb SNP and LCT. The combined data shows that although the –14 kb CT SNP is an excellent candidate for the cause of the lactase persistence polymorphism, linkage disequilibrium extends far beyond the region searched so far. In addition, the CT SNP does not, on its own, explain all the variation in expression of LCT, suggesting the possibility of genetic heterogeneity.
An autonomous mobile grasping system using visual servoing and nonlinear model predictive control

This paper presents an autonomous grasping system using visual servoing and mobile robots. While this kind of system has many potential significant applications, there have been several key challenges, for example, localization accuracy, visibility and velocity constraints, obstacle avoidance, and so on, to prevent the implementation of such a system. The main contribution of this paper is to develop an adaptive nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC) to meet all these challenges in one single controller. In particular, the model of the vision-based mobile grasping system is first derived. Then, based on the model, a nonlinear predictive control strategy with vision feedback is proposed to deal with the issues of optimal control and constraints simultaneously. Different from other work in this field, in order to improve the performance, an adaptive mechanism is proposed in the paper to update the model online so that it can track the nonlinear time-varying plant in a real time manner. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to apply model predictive control to mobile visual servoing and consider various constraints at the same time. The approach was validated with two physical experiments. It was shown that the system with the new control strategy was quite successful to carry out an autonomous mobile grasping task in a complex environment.
Molecular Detection of Human Papillomavirus and Viral DNA Load after Radiotherapy for Cervical Carcinomas

Aims and background Infection with high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is a necessary cause for cervical carcinoma. Radiation therapy together with surgery is the most effective treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the molecular basis of the response to radiotherapy in cervical cancer cells. Methods and study design Tumor cells were obtained from biopsies of 44 cervical cancers, collected before and after radiotherapy. The presence of HPV was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers specific for the L1 region. Results The prevalence of HPV was 70.4%, with HPV16 being the most common (54.5%) and HPV18 the second (15.9%). Our analyses show that ionizing radiation does not influence HPV detection, as the percentage of HPV-positive biopsies was similar in patients before and after radiotherapy (HPV16 60% vs. 51.7% and HPV18 20% vs. 13.7%, respectively). However, the detection of HPV did vary by tumor stage, with the highest proportion observed in late-stage tumors (HPV16 and HPV18 in 80% and 60% of stage III tumors, respectively). We also found that HPV viral load is influenced by radiotherapy and tumor stage, with the highest viral loads in late-stage tumors (stage III) after 1 day since radiotherapy (p<0.05). According to Kaplan-Meier curves, higher HPV viral load was associated with significantly shortened progression-free survival (p = 0.04). Conclusions Our data provide prospective evidence that ionizing radiation can affect the HPV viral load and this might offer the best strategies for assessment of therapeutic efficacy.
Dignity in older age: what do older people in the United Kingdom think?

BACKGROUND Dignity is a complex concept and there is little empirical research to show how older people view dignity. This study, using qualitative methods, explored the concept of dignity from the older person's perspective. METHODS 15 focus groups and two individual interviews were conducted in 12 different settings, with a total of 72 participants. Participants were purposively sampled to ensure a mix of socio-economic status, ethnicity, gender, age (65+) and level of fitness. Focus groups were audio-taped and transcribed. The method of constant comparison was used to analyse the data. RESULTS There was strong evidence to suggest that dignity was salient to the concerns of older people. Dignity was seen as a multi-faceted concept: (i). dignity of identity (self-respect/esteem, integrity, trust); (ii). human rights (equality, choice); and (iii). autonomy (independence, control). Examples of dignity being jeopardised rather than being enhanced were given. A loss of self-esteem arose from being patronised, excluded from decision-making, and being treated as an 'object'. Lack of integrity in society meant that there was an inability to trust others and an increased vulnerability. Equality was an important issue but many felt that government policies did not support their rights. CONCLUSIONS This work identifies the different ways dignity is conceptualised by older people. The evidence showed that person centred care for older people needs to be specifically related to communication, privacy, personal identity and feelings of vulnerability. It provides evidence for policy makers and professionals to tailor policies and practices to the needs of the older person.
Comparison of Road Traffic Injury Characteristics between Local versus Floating Migrant Patients in a Tertiary Hospital between 2007 and 2010

Background The aim of this study is to give a description of the road traffic injuries (RTIs) characteristics of floating migrant population by comparing with those of local residents in a harbor city of China. Methods A population-based descriptive study was carried out between 2007 and 2010 with RTI patient records from the Fifth Center Hospital of Tianjin. Inpatient diagnoses of RTI patients were defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes. We analyzed the demographics and general characteristics of RTI patients that were in the hospital during the four years. In order to compare the group differences between local resident patients and floating migrant patients, the distribution of their ages, diagnoses, severity of injuries, duration of inpatient stays, hospitalization cost were analyzed. Results People between the ages of 16 and 55 were the most likely to suffer RTIs. The floating migrant patients between the ages of 16 and 45 had a higher incidence of accidents, while local resident patients between 46 and 55 had a higher incidence of accidents. Compared to local resident patients, floating migrant patients were more vulnerable to open injuries and severe traffic injuries. With the severity of injuries ranked from mild to severe, floating migrant patients had lower duration of inpatient stay, but higher hospitalization costs compared to local resident patients. Conclusions Floating migrant patients had a different age distribution, severity of injuries, diseases, inpatient duration and hospitalization cost compared with local resident patients. Compared to local resident patients, floating migrants had a higher risk to RTIs and were more vulnerable to severer traffic accidents at lower ages.
Genetic polymorphisms in the promoter region of catalase gene, creates new potential PAX-6 and STAT4 response elements

Catalase (CAT, OMIM: 115500) is an endogenous antioxidant enzyme and genetic variations in the regulatory regions of the CAT gene may alter the CAT enzyme activity and subsequently may alter the risk of oxidative stress related disease. In this study, potential influence(s) of the A-21T (rs7943316) and C-262T (rs1001179) genetic polymorphisms in the CAT promoter region, using the ALGGEN-PROMO.v8. 3 online software were analyzed. Our findings show that the A allele at the -21 position creates a new potential binding site for PAX-6 and the T allele at the -262 position changes the TFII-I binding site into STAT4 response element. The PAX-6 and STAT4 are the multifunctional and enhancing transcription factors.