Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SWIFT: Predictive Fast Reroute

Network operators often face the problem of remote outages in transit networks leading to significant (sometimes on the order of minutes) downtimes. The issue is that BGP, the Internet routing protocol, often converges slowly upon such outages, as large bursts of messages have to be processed and propagated router by router. In this paper, we present SWIFT, a fast-reroute framework which enables routers to restore connectivity in few seconds upon remote outages. SWIFT is based on two novel techniques. First, SWIFT deals with slow outage notification by predicting the overall extent of a remote failure out of few control-plane (BGP) messages. The key insight is that significant inference speed can be gained at the price of some accuracy. Second, SWIFT introduces a new data-plane encoding scheme, which enables quick and flexible update of the affected forwarding entries. SWIFT is deployable on existing devices, without modifying BGP. We present a complete implementation of SWIFT and demonstrate that it is both fast and accurate. In our experiments with real BGP traces, SWIFT predicts the extent of a remote outage in few seconds with an accuracy of ~90% and can restore connectivity for 99% of the affected destinations.
The mismanagement of customer loyalty.

Who wouldn't want loyal customers? Surely they should cost less to serve, they'd be willing to pay more than other customers, and they'd actively market your company by word of mouth, right? Maybe not. Careful study of the relationship between customer loyalty and profits plumbed from 16,000 customers in four companies' databases tells a different story. The authors found no evidence to support any of these claims. What they did find was that the link between customers and profitability was more complicated because customers fall into four groups, not two. Simply put: Not all loyal customers are profitable, and not all profitable customers are loyal. Traditional tools for segmenting customers do a poor job of identifying that latter group, causing companies to chase expensively after initially profitable customers who hold little promise of future profits. The authors suggest an alternative approach, based on well-established "event-history modeling" techniques, that more accurately predicts future buying probabilities. Armed with such a tool, marketers can correctly identify which customers belong in which category and market accordingly. The challenge in managing customers who are profitable but disloyal--the "butterflies"--is to milk them for as much as you can while they're buying from you. A softly-softly approach is more appropriate for the profitable customers who are likely to stay loyal--your "true friends. " As for highly loyal but not very profitable customers--the "barnacles"--you need to find out if they have the potential to spend more than they currently do. And, of course, for the "strangers"--those who generate no loyalty and no profits--the answer is simple: Identify early and don't invest anything.
A new species of Penicillium, P. ramulosum sp. nov., from the natural environment

During a recent survey of Penicillium spp. from fynbos soils in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, several undescribed species were isolated. Similar isolates of one of these species also were collected in the Western Cape from Protea infructescences. These strains were compared morphologically to known species of Penicillium but could not be identified with previously published keys. Morphologically these strains belong to subgenus Biverticillium. They are distinguished by strongly funiculose colonies covered by glutinous exudates and conidiophores with thin acerose phialides (8.5–10[−12] × 2.0–2.5 μm) that give rise to chains of subspheroidal to ellipsoidal conidia (2.5–3.0 × 1.5–2.5 μm). Characteristically short (100–150[−250] μm) determinate synnemata are produced in culture after prolonged incubation with much longer synnemata produced in nature. Based on differences in morphology and molecular characters, the strains are described here as Penicillium ramulosum sp. nov.
Potential benefits of increased access to doula support during childbirth.

OBJECTIVES The annual costs of US maternity-related hospitalizations exceed $27 billion. Continuous labor support from a trained doula is associated with improved outcomes and potential cost savings. This study aimed to document the relationship between doula support, desire for doula support, and cesarean delivery, distinguishing cesarean deliveries without a definitive medical indication. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective analysis of a nationally representative survey of women who delivered a singleton baby in a US hospital in 2011- 2012 (N = 2400). METHODS Multivariable logistic regression analysis of characteristics associated with doula support and desire for doula support; similar models examine the relationship between doula support, desire for doula support, and 1) any cesarean or 2) nonindicated cesarean. RESULTS Six percent of women reported doula care during childbirth. Characteristics associated with desiring but not having doula support were black race (vs white; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.77; 95% CI,1.03-3.03), and publicly insured or uninsured (vs privately insured; AOR = 1.83, CI, 1.17-2.85; AOR = 2.01, CI, 1.07-3.77, respectively). Doula-supported women had lower odds of cesarean compared without doula support and those who desired but did not have doula support (AOR = 0.41, CI, 0.18-0.96; and AOR = 0.31, CI, 0.13-0.74). The odds of nonindicated cesarean were 80-90% lower among doula-supported women (AOR= 0.17, CI, 0.07-0.39; and AOR= 0.11, CI, 0.03-0.36). CONCLUSIONS Women with doula support have lower odds of nonindicated cesareans than those who did not have a doula as well as those who desired but did not have doula support. Increasing awareness of doula care and access to support from a doula may facilitate decreases in nonindicated cesarean rates.
Morphological Study and Mineral Analysis of the Lower Mandible of Adult Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) from Scotland with Mandibular Deformation

La deformacion mandibular es una patologia que afecta al hueso dentario de salmones adultos, se observo en Noruega y en Chile, ocasionando disminucion de peso, baja calidad de peces cultivados y aumento de la mortalidad. Las causas varian desde temperaturas elevadas al estado de ovas, hasta alimentacion deficitaria en fosforo o vitamina C. Este trabajo tiene como proposito analizar esta deformacion mediante una tecnica histoquimica y de analisis de minerales durante un episodio presentado en centros de mar de Escocia. Se utilizo la mandibula y segmento vertebral de 21 salmones del Atlantico de Escocia. Estas muestras se clasificaron en tres grupos Grupo 1: Severamente deformes. Grupo 2: Levemente afectados. Grupo 3: Controles normales. Cuatro mandibulas por grupo fueron fijadas en formalina al 10 % y se incluyeron en paraplast, se realizaron cortes de 5 µm utilizando un microtomo Microm®. Se utilizo la tecnica histoquimica de Von Kossa para la deteccion de depositos de calcio la cual destaca al calcio de color negro y el osteoide de color rojo. Para el analisis quimico proximal, y con el proposito de obtener y comparar niveles de calcio, fosforo, zinc y magnesio en los huesos se utilizo un total de 9 mandibulas (6 afectadas con DM y 3 controles) y sus 9 secciones corporales. Para comparar estos valores entre salmones deformes y controles se utilizo la prueba de Mann-Whitney. Para correlacionar los valores de mandibula y segmento corporal se hizo una correlacion por jerarquias de Spearman. Los peces del grupo 1, presentaron una desviacion ventral del cuerpo del hueso dentario. En los peces del grupo 2 se observo la prominencia de la articulacion visible en ambos lados o unilateralmente. Al comparar los valores de % Ca, % P, % Mg y Zn de las mandibulas con DM y sanas con el metodo de Mann Witney se encontro que los valores de estos minerales no varian entre salmones afectados y controles. Hubo una diferencia significativa en el porcentaje de P, lo cual indica que existe menos P en vertebras de peces afectados. La correlacion de Spearman senalo que los porcentajes de los minerales estudiados en huesos dentarios y segmentos vertebrales no estan correlacionados. Por el contrario, la tecnica Von Kossa mostro que la distribucion de Ca/ P no es homogenea en el hueso dental producto de la reabsorcion mineral desde el esqueleto incluyendo el operculo, hueso articular y dental hacia la kype. El presente trabajo establece que la tecnica histoquimica de Von Kossa fue la que permitio observar diferencias importantes entre peces deformados y controles, ademas mostro diferencias entre los distintos segmentos del hueso dentario. El hueso dentario es una estructura dinamica adaptada a continuos cambios histologicos pudiendo estar involucrados en la DM, dietas deficientes de fosforo, sumado a la formacion inicial del Kippe.
Spatial Relationship between Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections

We report on the spatial relationship between solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed during 1996-2005 inclusive. We identified 496 flare-CME pairs considering limb flares (distance from central meridian ≥45°) with soft X-ray flare size ≥C3 level. The CMEs were detected by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). We investigated the flare positions with respect to the CME span for the events with X-class, M-class, and C-class flares separately. It is found that the most frequent flare site is at the center of the CME span for all the three classes, but that frequency is different for the different classes. Many X-class flares often lie at the center of the associated CME, while C-class flares widely spread to the outside of the CME span. The former is different from previous studies, which concluded that no preferred flare site exists. We compared our result with the previous studies and conclude that the long-term LASCO observation enabled us to obtain the detailed spatial relation between flares and CMEs. Our finding calls for a closer flare-CME relationship and supports eruption models typified by the CSHKP magnetic reconnection model.
DNA Damage Detection and Repair Pathways—Recent Advances with Inhibitors of Checkpoint Kinases in Cancer Therapy

Insights from cell cycle research have led to the hypothesis that tumors may be selectivity sensitized to DNA-damaging agents, resulting in improved antitumor activity and a wider therapeutic margin. The theory relies primarily on the observation that the majority of tumors are deficient in the G1-DNA damage checkpoint pathway, resulting in reliance on S and G2 phase checkpoints for DNA repair and cell survival. The S and G2 phase checkpoints are predominantly regulated by checkpoint kinase 1; thus, inhibition of checkpoint kinase 1 signaling impairs DNA repair and increases tumor cell death. Normal tissues, however, have a functioning G1 checkpoint signaling pathway that allows for DNA repair and cell survival. There is now a large body of preclinical evidence showing that checkpoint kinase inhibitors do indeed enhance the efficacy of both conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and several agents have recently entered clinical trials. Excitingly, additional therapeutic opportunities for checkpoint kinase inhibitors continue to emerge as biology outside their pivotal role in cell cycle arrest is further elucidated.
Saliency driven clustering for salient object detection

In this work, a novel salient object detection method is proposed based on the saliency driven clustering. To capture visual patterns of an image, the color contrast prior and boundary prior are utilized to generate the image clusters automatically. Then, a simple operation like regional saliency computation is applied to refine the saliency maps generated by two priors. The final saliency map are obtained by combining the refined contrast prior saliency and boundary prior saliency. Extensive experiments show that our proposed model achieves better performance on salient region detection against the state-of-the-art methods.
Protective Role of Spirulina platensis against Acute Deltamethrin-Induced Toxicity in Rats

Deltamethrin is a broad-spectrum synthetic pyrethroid insecticide and acaricide widely used for agricultural and veterinary purposes. However, its human and animal exposure leads to hepatonephrotoxicity. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to examine the hepatonephroprotective and antioxidant potential of Spirulina platensis against deltamethrin toxicity in male Wistar albino rats. Deltamethrin treated animals revealed a significant increase in serum biochemical parameters as well as hepatic and renal lipid peroxidation but caused an inhibition in antioxidant biomarkers. Spirulina normalized the elevated serum levels of AST, ALT, APL, uric acid, urea and creatinine. Furthermore, it reduced deltamethrin-induced lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress in a dose dependent manner. Therefore, it could be concluded that spirulina administration able to minimize the toxic effects of deltamethrin by its free radical-scavenging and potent antioxidant activity.
Optimally sparse representation in general (nonorthogonal) dictionaries via ℓ1 minimization

Given a dictionary D = {dk} of vectors dk, we seek to represent a signal S as a linear combination S = ∑k γ(k)dk, with scalar coefficients γ(k). In particular, we aim for the sparsest representation possible. In general, this requires a combinatorial optimization process. Previous work considered the special case where D is an overcomplete system consisting of exactly two orthobases and has shown that, under a condition of mutual incoherence of the two bases, and assuming that S has a sufficiently sparse representation, this representation is unique and can be found by solving a convex optimization problem: specifically, minimizing the ℓ1 norm of the coefficients γ̱. In this article, we obtain parallel results in a more general setting, where the dictionary D can arise from two or several bases, frames, or even less structured systems. We sketch three applications: separating linear features from planar ones in 3D data, noncooperative multiuser encoding, and identification of over-complete independent component models.
Peripheral nerve regeneration through a synthetic hydrogel nerve tube.

PURPOSE As alternatives to nerve grafts for peripheral nerve repair, we have synthesized 12 mm long poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate) (PHEMA-MMA) porous tubes and studied their regenerative capacity for the repair of surgically-created 10 mm rat sciatic nerve gaps. We compared the in vivo regenerative efficacy of these artificial tubes with the gold standard, the nerve autograft. METHODS Tubes were assessed in vivo for their ability to support nerve regeneration at 4, 8, and 16 weeks post-implantation by histology, electrophysiology, histomorphometry, and reinnervated lateral gastrocnemius (LG) dry muscle mass. RESULTS Axonal regeneration within the tubes was observed by 8 weeks, with outcome parameters comparable to autografts. This finding was further supported by the electrophysiological and histomorphometric results. The 16 week tube group had a bimodal response, with 60% of the tubes having a similar response to autografts and the other 40% having significantly lower (p < 0.05) outcome measures in several parameters. CONCLUSIONS Axonal regeneration in artificial tubes was similar to that in autografts at 8 and 16 weeks, however, a bimodal distribution of regeneration was observed in 16 week tubes.
Expected time-invariant effects of biological traits on mammal species duration

Significance Determining which biological traits influence differences in extinction risk is vital for understanding differential diversification of life and for making predictions about species’ vulnerability to human impacts. The durations of fossil species are a rich source of information for estimating systematic differences in extinction risk. I analyzed Cenozoic North American fossil mammal species durations and their relationship with multiple ecological traits, their time of origination, and their shared evolutionary histories. I find support for generalists having a lower extinction risk than specialists as a general statement. When these results are compared with risk factors associated with living mammals, I find some incongruities that may indicate that the current biodiversity crisis is akin to the great mass extinctions in Earth’s history. Determining which biological traits influence differences in extinction risk is vital for understanding the differential diversification of life and for making predictions about species’ vulnerability to anthropogenic impacts. Here I present a hierarchical Bayesian survival model of North American Cenozoic mammal species durations in relation to species-level ecological factors, time of origination, and phylogenetic relationships. I find support for the survival of the unspecialized as a time-invariant generalization of trait-based extinction risk. Furthermore, I find that phylogenetic and temporal effects are both substantial factors associated with differences in species durations. Finally, I find that the estimated effects of these factors are partially incongruous with how these factors are correlated with extinction risk of the extant species. These findings parallel previous observations that background extinction is a poor predictor of mass extinction events and suggest that attention should be focused on mass extinctions to gain insight into modern species loss.
On Synchronization and Traveling Waves in Chains of Relaxation Oscillators with an Application to Lamprey CPG

We study chains of relaxation-type neural oscillators with local excitatory coupling. Phase reductions suggest that such networks typically exhibit traveling waves, but relaxation oscillators often synchronize. We examine these behaviors using the phase response and fast threshold modulation (FTM) theories, which respectively describe network behavior for infinitesimally weak and moderate coupling. Surprisingly, the two different approximations yield quantitatively consistent predictions for chains with one-way coupling. Specifically, approaching the relaxation limit, such chains can exhibit waves with vanishing phase differences (i.e., synchrony) propagating in the coupling direction, or waves with persistent phase differences traveling against the coupling direction. These results provide novel support for the finding that caudo-rostral coupling dominates in the lamprey central pattern generator (CPG), and they suggest that recent models may underestimate the role of network effects in burst generation.
The Cooperative Effect of Genistein and Protein Hydrolysates on the Proliferation and Survival of Osteoblastic Cells (hFOB 1.19)

Chum salmon skin gelatin, de-isoflavoned soy protein, and casein were hydrolyzed at two degrees of hydrolysis. Genistein, the prepared hydrolysates, and genistein-hydrolysate combinations were assessed for their proliferative and anti-apoptotic effects on human osteoblasts (hFOB 1.19) to clarify potential cooperative effects between genistein and these hydrolysates in these two activities. Genistein at 2.5 μg/L demonstrated the highest proliferative activity, while the higher dose of genistein inhibited cell growth. All hydrolysates promoted osteoblast proliferation by increasing cell viability to 102.9%–131.1%. Regarding etoposide- or NaF-induced osteoblast apoptosis, these hydrolysates at 0.05 g/L showed both preventive and therapeutic effects against apoptosis. In the mode of apoptotic prevention, the hydrolysates decreased apoptotic cells from 32.9% to 15.2%–23.7% (etoposide treatment) or from 23.6% to 14.3%–19.6% (NaF treatment). In the mode of apoptotic rescue, the hydrolysates lessened the extent of apoptotic cells from 15.9% to 13.0%–15.3% (etoposide treatment) or from 13.3% to 10.9%–12.7% (NaF treatment). Gelatin hydrolysates showed the highest activities among all hydrolysates in all cases. All investigated combinations (especially the genistein-gelatin hydrolysate combination) had stronger proliferation, apoptotic prevention, and rescue than genistein itself or their counterpart hydrolysates alone, suggesting that genistein cooperated with these hydrolysates, rendering greater activities in osteoblast proliferation and anti-apoptosis.
Microvesicles Derived from Adult Human Bone Marrow and Tissue Specific Mesenchymal Stem Cells Shuttle Selected Pattern of miRNAs

Background Cell-derived microvesicles (MVs) have been described as a new mechanism of cell-to-cell communication. MVs after internalization within target cells may deliver genetic information. Human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and liver resident stem cells (HLSCs) were shown to release MVs shuttling functional mRNAs. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether MVs derived from MSCs and HLSCs contained selected micro-RNAs (miRNAs). Methodology/Principal Findings MVs were isolated from MSCs and HLSCs. The presence in MVs of selected ribonucleoproteins involved in the traffic and stabilization of RNA was evaluated. We observed that MVs contained TIA, TIAR and HuR multifunctional proteins expressed in nuclei and stress granules, Stau1 and 2 implicated in the transport and stability of mRNA and Ago2 involved in miRNA transport and processing. RNA extracted from MVs and cells of origin was profiled for 365 known human mature miRNAs by real time PCR. Hierarchical clustering and similarity analysis of miRNAs showed 41 co-expressed miRNAs in MVs and cells. Some miRNAs were accumulated within MVs and absent in the cells after MV release; others were retained within the cells and not secreted in MVs. Gene ontology analysis of predicted and validated targets showed that the high expressed miRNAs in cells and MVs could be involved in multi-organ development, cell survival and differentiation. Few selected miRNAs shuttled by MVs were also associated with the immune system regulation. The highly expressed miRNAs in MVs were transferred to target cells after MV incorporation. Conclusions This study demonstrated that MVs contained ribonucleoproteins involved in the intracellular traffic of RNA and selected pattern of miRNAs, suggesting a dynamic regulation of RNA compartmentalization in MVs. The observation that MV-highly expressed miRNAs were transferred to target cells, rises the possibility that the biological effect of stem cells may, at least in part, depend on MV-shuttled miRNAs. Data generated from this study, stimulate further functional investigations on the predicted target genes and pathways involved in the biological effect of human adult stem cells.
Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Single Event Effects in SOI Lateral Power MOSFETs

150 V SOI lateral power MOSFETs were designed and fabricated with features intended to provide hardness against SEB and SEGR. The response of SOI power MOSFETs to heavy ion radiation was investigated both experimentally and using TCAD simulations. These power MOSFETs demonstrated an electrical performance figure of merit <i>Q</i><sub>GD</sub> × R<sub>DSON</sub> considerably improved over state of the art commercial trench VDMOS and rad-hard planar VDMOS devices, and survived heavy ion irradiation at the full <i>V</i><sub>DS</sub> biasing of 150 V and full <i>V</i><sub>GS</sub> biasing of -16 V simultaneously.