Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Initial Assessment of Plan-Recognition-Based Coordination for Multi-Agent Teams

Plan recognition remains a largely unexplored paradigm for facilitating coordination. In this paper, we begin to explore domain, task, and agent characteristics which impact upon the utility of using plan recognition for coordinating multiple agents and, in particular, collections of agents organized into competing teams. Agents in our research are supplied plan-recognition capabilities in the form of specially instantiated belief networks called Plan Recognition Networks (PRNs). Our initial experiments test several hypotheses concerning coordination performance as a factor of plan-recognition model expressiveness compared to coordination based upon using communication protocols of varying expressiveness. The initial results demonstrate that plan-recognition capabilities permit agents to realize better coordination performance in many situations due to increased knowledge provided through observation and inference compared to that supplied by communication protocols.
Quantitative Serial MRI of the Treated Fibroid Uterus

Objective There are no long-term medical treatments for uterine fibroids, and non-invasive biomarkers are needed to evaluate novel therapeutic interventions. The aim of this study was to determine whether serial dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and magnetization transfer MRI (MT-MRI) are able to detect changes that accompany volume reduction in patients administered GnRH analogue drugs, a treatment which is known to reduce fibroid volume and perfusion. Our secondary aim was to determine whether rapid suppression of ovarian activity by combining GnRH agonist and antagonist therapies results in faster volume reduction. Methods Forty women were assessed for eligibility at gynaecology clinics in the region, of whom thirty premenopausal women scheduled for hysterectomy due to symptomatic fibroids were randomized to three groups, receiving (1) GnRH agonist (Goserelin), (2) GnRH agonist+GnRH antagonist (Goserelin and Cetrorelix) or (3) no treatment. Patients were monitored by serial structural, DCE-MRI and MT-MRI, as well as by ultrasound and serum oestradiol concentration measurements from enrolment to hysterectomy (approximately 3 months). Results A volumetric treatment effect assessed by structural MRI occurred by day 14 of treatment (9% median reduction versus 9% increase in untreated women; P = 0.022) and persisted throughout. Reduced fibroid perfusion and permeability assessed by DCE-MRI occurred later and was demonstrable by 2–3 months (43% median reduction versus 20% increase respectively; P = 0.0093). There was no apparent treatment effect by MT-MRI. Effective suppression of oestradiol was associated with early volume reduction at days 14 (P = 0.041) and 28 (P = 0.0061). Conclusion DCE-MRI is sensitive to the vascular changes thought to accompany successful GnRH analogue treatment of uterine fibroids and should be considered for use in future mechanism/efficacy studies of proposed fibroid drug therapies. GnRH antagonist administration does not appear to accelerate volume reduction, though our data do support the role of oestradiol suppression in GnRH analogue treatment of fibroids. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00746031
Orofacial Praxis Abilities in Children with Speech Disorders

Abstract Introduction Phonological development occurs in a gradual manner until the age of 7 years. The phonological system is constructed in a similar way for all children, despite presenting some variations in terms of age, paths taken, or repair strategies used. Objective To compare the orofacial praxis abilities of children with typical phonological development (DFT), children with phonetic-phonological impairment (DFoFe), and children with phonological impairment (DF), using two tests to assess the orofacial praxis abilities. Methods The sample consisted of 82 subjects between 4 and 8 years of age who attended public schools (from preschool to the second year of secondary school) in the city of Santa Maria, Brazil. Of these, 29 were diagnosed with DFT, 29 with DF, and 24 with DFoFe; much of this sample was male. Two tests of praxis abilities and assessment of the stomatognathic system were administered. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test, with a significance level of 5%. Results Generally children with DFoFe underperformed in tests of praxis when compared with subjects with DF and DFT. Conclusion The results showed that children with DFoFe have more difficulty in orofacial praxis abilities than subjects in the other groups studied. This result could be expected, because subjects with DFoFe show changes in both phonetic and phonological levels of speech.
Synaptonemal Complex Components Promote Centromere Pairing in Pre-meiotic Germ Cells

Mitosis and meiosis are two distinct cell division programs. During mitosis, sister chromatids separate, whereas during the first meiotic division, homologous chromosomes pair and then segregate from each other. In most organisms, germ cells do both programs sequentially, as they first amplify through mitosis, before switching to meiosis to produce haploid gametes. Here, we show that autosomal chromosomes are unpaired at their centromeres in Drosophila germline stem cells, and become paired during the following four mitosis of the differentiating daughter cell. Surprisingly, we further demonstrate that components of the central region of the synaptonemal complex are already expressed in the mitotic region of the ovaries, localize close to centromeres, and promote de novo association of centromeres. Our results thus show that meiotic proteins and meiotic organization of centromeres, which are key features to ensure reductional segregation, are laid out in amplifying germ cells, before meiosis has started.
Functional versus design measures for model-driven Web applications: A case study in the context of Web effort estimation

In the literature we can identify two main approaches for sizing model-driven Web applications: one based on design measures and another based on functional measures. Design measures take into account the modeling primitives characterizing the models of the specific model-driven approach. On the other hand, the functional measures are obtained by applying functional size measurement procedures specifically conceived to map the modeling primitives of the model-driven approach into concepts of a functional size measurement method. In this paper, we focus our attention on the Object-Oriented Hypermedia (OO-H) method, a model-driven approach to design and develop Web applications. We report on the results of an empirical study carried out to compare the ability of some design measures and OO-HFP (a model-driven functional size measurement procedure) to predict the development effort of Web applications. To this aim, we exploited a dataset with 30 Web projects developed using OO-H. The analysis highlighted that each design measure was positively correlated with the Web application development effort. However, the best estimation model obtained by exploiting the Manual Stepwise Regression employed only the measure Internal Links (IL). Furthermore, the study highlighted that the estimates obtained with the IL based prediction model were significantly better than those achieved using the OO-HFP based prediction model. These results seem to confirm previous investigations suggesting that Function Point Analysis can fail to capture some specific features of Web applications.
AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTIONAL RESPONSE IN RELATION TO A POPULATION BOTTLENECK

Selection for increased morphometric shape (ratio of wing length to thorax width) was compared between control (nonbottlenecked) populations and bottlenecked populations founded with two male–female pairs of flies. Contrary to neutral expectation, selectional response was not reduced in bottlenecked populations, and the mean realized heritabilities and additive genetic variances were higher for the bottlenecked lines than for the nonbottlenecked lines. Additive genetic variances based on these realized heritabilities were consistent with independent estimates of genetic variances based on parent–offspring covariances. Joint scaling tests applied to the crosses between selected lines and their controls revealed significant nonadditive components of genetic variance in the ancestor, which were not detected in the crosses involving bottlenecked lines. The nonbottlenecked lines responded principally by changes in one trait or the other (wing length or thorax width) but not in both, and regardless of which trait responded, larger trait size was dominant and epistatic to smaller size. Stabilizing selection for morphometric shape in the ancestor likely molded the genetic architecture to include nonadditive genetic effects.
Circadian organization of the rodent retina involves strongly coupled, layer‐specific oscillators

Rhythmic physiology is central to retinal function and survival and adapts vision to daily light intensity changes. Mammalian retina rhythmically releases melatonin when cultured under constant conditions, and the occurrence of clock gene [e.g., Period(Per)] expression has been shown for most cellular layers. However, contribution of the distinct layers to genesis of circadian rhythms within the retina is still debated. To characterize their endogenous oscillatory capacity and their communication at the whole‐tissue level, we used a vibratome‐based method to isolate individual or paired retina cellular layers from the mPer2Luc mouse and Per1‐luciferase (Per1‐Luc) rat, and real‐time recorded bioluminescence. We report that each layer of the mouse retina harbors a self‐sustained oscillator whose period is significantly longer (~26 hours) than in whole‐retina explants (~22.9 hours), indicating that the period is correlated with the degree of coupling. Accordingly, the maximal period (~29 hours) is reached upon complete enzymatic dissociation of the retina. By using pharmacological approaches, we demonstrate that connection between retina oscillators involves gap junctions but only minor contribution from the main retina neurochemicals. Taken together with results from Per1‐Luc rats, these data show that mammalian retina consists of a network of layer‐specific oscillators whose period is determined by their connectivity. —Jaeger, C. , Sandu, C. , Malan, A. , Mellac, K. , Hicks, D. , Felder‐Schmittbuhl, M. ‐P. Circadian organization of the rodent retina involves strongly coupled, layer‐specific oscillators. FASEB J. 29, 1493‐1504 (2015). www.fasebj. org
Behavioral/systems/cognitive Hippocampal Place Cell Instability after Lesions of the Head Direction Cell Network

The occurrence of cells that encode spatial location (place cells) or head direction (HD cells) in the rat limbic system suggests that these cell types are important for spatial navigation. We sought to determine whether place fields of hippocampal CA1 place cells would be altered in animals receiving lesions of brain areas containing HD cells. Rats received bilateral lesions of anterodorsal thalamic nuclei (ADN), postsubiculum (PoS), or sham lesions, before place cell recording. Although place cells from lesioned animals did not differ from controls on many place-field characteristics, such as place-field size and infield firing rate, the signal was significantly degraded with respect to measures of outfield firing rate, spatial coherence, and information content. Surprisingly, place cells from lesioned animals were more likely modulated by the directional heading of the animal. Rotation of the landmark cue showed that place fields from PoS-lesioned animals were not controlled by the cue and shifted unpredictably between sessions. Although fields from ADN-lesioned animals tended to have less landmark control than fields from control animals, this impairment was mild compared with cells recorded from PoS-lesioned animals. Removal of the prominent visual cue also led to instability of place-field representations in PoS-lesioned, but not ADN-lesioned, animals. Together, these findings suggest that an intact HD system is not necessary for the maintenance of place fields, but lesions of brain areas that convey the HD signal can degrade this signal, and lesions of the PoS might lead to perceptual or mnemonic deficits, leading to place-field instability between sessions.
Is isoflurane safer than halothane in equine anaesthesia? Results from a prospective multicentre randomised controlled trial.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Approximately 1 in 100 horses suffer unexpectedly from anaesthetic-related death. Identification and use of the safest anaesthetic drugs should support this aim. Experimental evidence has suggested that isoflurane should be a safer maintenance agent in equine anaesthesia than halothane. HYPOTHESIS The death rate would be reduced in horses being maintained with isoflurane compared to halothane. METHODS A multicentre randomised controlled trial was undertaken to compare the effects of isoflurane and halothane for maintenance of equine anaesthesia for all types of operation. Data were analysed from 8242 horses in which anaesthesia was maintained with either halothane or isoflurane using mixed effects logistic regression models. RESULTS No overall benefit of either drug was detected. However, although not part of the primary hypothesis, data showed that the overall death rate was significantly reduced in horses age 2-5 years with isoflurane and that death from cardiac arrest was also reduced with isoflurane, particularly in high risk cases. CONCLUSIONS AND POTENTIAL RELEVANCE Halothane remains an acceptable anaesthetic for maintenance of anaesthesia in horses, but isoflurane may be safer in the young horse and in high risk cases.
Acute systemic DNA damage in youth does not impair immune defense with aging

Aging‐related decline in immunity is believed to be the main driver behind decreased vaccine efficacy and reduced resistance to infections in older adults. Unrepaired DNA damage is known to precipitate cellular senescence, which was hypothesized to be the underlying cause of certain age‐related phenotypes. Consistent with this, some hallmarks of immune aging were more prevalent in individuals exposed to whole‐body irradiation (WBI), which leaves no anatomical repository of undamaged hematopoietic cells. To decisively test whether and to what extent WBI in youth will leave a mark on the immune system as it ages, we exposed young male C57BL/6 mice to sublethal WBI (0.5–4 Gy), mimicking human survivor exposure during nuclear catastrophe. We followed lymphocyte homeostasis thorough the lifespan, response to vaccination, and ability to resist lethal viral challenge in the old age. None of the irradiated groups showed significant differences compared with mock‐irradiated (0 Gy) animals for the parameters measured. Even the mice that received the highest dose of sublethal WBI in youth (4 Gy) exhibited equilibrated lymphocyte homeostasis, robust T‐ and B‐cell responses to live attenuated West Nile virus (WNV) vaccine and full survival following vaccination upon lethal WNV challenge. Therefore, a single dose of nonlethal WBI in youth, resulting in widespread DNA damage and repopulation stress in hematopoietic cells, leaves no significant trace of increased immune aging in a lethal vaccine challenge model.
Study of pulmonary and autonomic functions of asthma patients after yoga training.

"The concept of yoga is helpful for the treatment of Bronchial Asthma", has created a great interest in the medical research field. In order to investigate whether autonomic functions and pulmonary functions are improved in asthma patients after short term yoga training, a study was conducted with nine diagnosed bronchial asthma patients. Yoga training was given for seven days in a camp in Adhyatma Sadhna Kendra, New Delhi. The autonomic function tests to measure the parasympathetic reactivity (Deep Breathing test, Valsalva Manouever), Sympathetic reactivity (Hand Grip test, Cold Pressure test), and pulmonary function tests FVC, FEV1, PEFR, PIF, BHT and CE were recorded before and after yoga training. The resting heart rate after yoga training (P < 0.05) was significantly decreased (89.55 +/- 18.46/min to 76.22 +/- 16.44/min). The sympathetic reactivity was reduced following yoga training as indicated by significant (P < 0.01) reduction in DBP after HGT. There was no change in parasympathetic reactivity. The FVC, FEV1, PEFR did not show any significant change. The PIF (P < 0.01), BHT (P < 0.01) and CE (P < 0.01) showed significant improvement. The results closely indicated the reduction in sympathetic reactivity and improvement in the pulmonary ventilation by way of relaxation of voluntary inspiratory and expiratory muscles. The "comprehensive yogic life style change programme for patients of Bronchial Asthma" have shown significant benefit even within a short period.
Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation of Distributed Intelligent Energy Management System for Microgrids

Microgrids are autonomous low-voltage power distribution systems that contain multiple distributed energy resources (DERs) and smart loads that can provide power system operation flexibility. To effectively control and coordinate multiple DERs and loads of microgrids, this paper proposes a distributed intelligent management system that employs a multi-agent-based control system so that delicate decision-making functions can be distributed to local intelligent agents. This paper presents the development of a hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) system for distributed intelligent management system for microgrids and its promising application to an emergency demand response program. In the developed HILS system, intelligent agents are developed using microcontrollers and ZigBee wireless communication technology. Power system dynamic models are implemented in real-time simulation environments using the Opal-RT system. This paper presents key features of the data communication and management schemes based on multi-agent concepts. The performance of the developed system is tested for emergency demand response program applications.
Disturbance Observer-Based Trajectory Tracking Control for Nonholonomic Wheeled Mobile Robot Subject to Saturated Velocity Constraint

The problem of trajectory tracking control for a nonholonomic mobile robot is discussed in this study, in which both the dynamic behaviors of disturbance adaptability and the velocity saturation constraint are considered simultaneously. To realize this objective, a double closed-loop control structure is presented. On the outer loop, an improved velocity saturated controller based on hyperbolic tangent function is established; on the inner loop, an integral sliding mode controller, which possesses a fast transient response property with less steady-state error, is developed. In addition, to alleviate the inherent chattering behavior of sliding mode technology and enhance the external disturbance adaptability, an adaptive scheme as a disturbance observer is adopted by which one could estimate the uncertain disturbance acting on the mobile wheels rapidly. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control theories.
Validation of the Arabic versions of the Thirty- and Twelve-Item General Health Questionnaires in Primary Care Patients

Background The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of the Arabic versions of the GHQ–30 and GHQ–12 in a sample of primary health care (PHC) patients in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Method A randomly selected sample (n=157) of patients attending a PHC centre in Al Ain was screened using the Arabic version of the GHQ–30, the first 12 items of which constitute the GHQ–12. Then a standardised clinical interview using the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS) was conducted with all screened patients. The receiver operating characteristic analyses of the Arabic versions of both GHQ–30 and GHQ–12 were compared and their correlation coefficients with the weighted total score of the CIS and the overall severity rate were estimated. Discriminant functional analysis was also performed to assess the discriminatory powers of both the GHQ–30 and GHQ–12. Results Using the simple Likert scoring method, the best cut-off point of the GHQ–30, that balances between sensitivity and specificity, was 31/32 with a sensitivity of 0.83 and specificity of 0.83, and that of the GHQ–12 was 12/13 with a sensitivity of 0.83 and specificity 0.80. The total discriminatory powers of the GHQ–30 and GHQ–12 were approximately 93 and 86%, respectively. Both versions of the GHQ were found to have a significant concurrent validity. Conclusion The Arabic versions of both GHQ–30 and GHQ–12 are valid psychiatric screening instruments, with almost similar performance, for Arabic-speaking PHC patients.
Waste glass powder as cement replacement in concrete

The pozzolanic reactivity of waste glass powder was experimentally studied at cement replacement levels of 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60% by weight. Results revealed that the concrete compressive strength was not decreased by the cement substitution after 28 days because of the pozzolanic reaction between glass powders and cement hydration products, if the replacement is below 30%. Also, the resistance to chloride ion and water penetration continuously increases with increasing glass powder content up to 60% cement replacement. At 60% replacement level, the electrical resistivity and water penetration depth were reduced by 95% and 80%, respectively, while the compressive strength was maintained as 85%. These improvements in durability properties are due to the refined microstructures, particularly at the interfacial transition zone. Pore size distribution was measured to confirm the refinement in the capillary pores, which partially block the pathways for water and chloride ions. This study also demonstrates that high performance concrete (improved strength and impermeability against chloride and water) could be achieved by using glass powder as 15% additive, which contributes to the pozzolanic reaction instead of being inert fines for compact packing.
High-Rate Quasi-Cyclic Low-Density Parity-Check Codes Derived From Finite Affine Planes

This paper shows that several attractive classes of quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes can be obtained from affine planes over finite fields. One class of these consists of duals of one-generator QC codes. Presented here for codes contained in this class are the exact minimum distance and a lower bound on the multiplicity of the minimum-weight codewords. Further, it is shown that the minimum Hamming distance of a code in this class is equal to its minimum additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) pseudoweight. Also discussed is a class consisting of codes from circulant permutation matrices, and an explicit formula for the rank of the parity-check matrix is presented for these codes. Additionally, it is shown that each of these codes can be identified with a code constructed from a constacyclic maximum distance separable code of dimension 2. The construction is similar to the derivation of Reed-Solomon (RS)-based LDPC codes presented by Chen and Djurdjevic Experimental results show that a number of high rate QC-LDPC codes with excellent error performance are contained in these classes
Microfilaria in Cytological Smears at Rare Sites Coexisting with Unusual Pathologies - A Series of Eight Cases

Microfilaria infection is one of the major health problem in developing countries like India, especially in rural areas. In most of the cases microfilaria was an incidental finding in FNAC smears prepared from swellings from various locations in the body and also from fluid aspirate. Peripheral blood smear examination is usually done for the diagnosis. Here, we presented a series of eight cases with very unusual and rare locations. We found microfilaria in subcutaneous arm swelling, pleural effusion, axillary swelling, breast and salivary gland. All cases were rare and unique.