Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Dynamic Clustering Approach in Wireless Networks with Multi-Cell Cooperative Processing

Multi-cell cooperative processing (MCP) has recently attracted a lot of attention because of its potential for co-channel interference (CCI) mitigation and spectral efficiency increase. MCP inevitably requires increased signaling overhead and inter-base communication. Therefore in practice, only a limited number of base stations (BSs) can cooperate in order for the overhead to be affordable. The intrinsic problem of which BSs shall cooperate in a realistic scenario has been only partially investigated. In this contribution linear beamforming has been considered for the sum-rate maximisation of the uplink. A novel dynamic greedy algorithm for the formation of the clusters of cooperating BSs is presented for a cellular network incorporating MCP. This approach is chosen to be evaluated under a fair MS scheduling scenario (round-robin). The objective of the clustering algorithm is sum-rate maximisation of the already selected MSs. The proposed cooperation scheme is compared with some fixed cooperation clustering schemes. It is shown that a dynamic clustering approach with a cluster consisting of 2 cells outperforms static coordination schemes with much larger cluster sizes.
A survey on the potential relationships between TMD, possible sleep bruxism, unilateral chewing, and occlusal factors in Turkish university students

Abstract Objective: To evaluate whether there is a relationship between possible sleep bruxism (PSB), temporomandibular disorders (TMD), unilateral chewing (UC), and occlusal factors in university students recruited from Cumhuriyet University in Turkey. Methods: For this cross-sectional survey, 519 (223 males, mean age 21.57 ± 2.3 years, 296 females, mean age 21.02 ± 2 years) university students who admitted to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology of the Faculty of Dentistry, Cumhuriyet University for dental care between 2012 and 2014 were selected randomly. Students were asked to complete a questionnaire form including questions about TMD, PSB and UC. Presence and direction of malocclusion were recorded during clinical examination. Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis. Results: It was found that 96.6% of the students with PSB had TMD (p < 0.05). The prevalence of severe TMD was high among students with PSB. There was a significant association between UC, PSB and TMD (p < 0.05). No statistically significant association was found between occlusal factors and PSB and TMD (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Sleep bruxism, which heavily depends on self-report, is significantly associated with TMD. Unilateral chewing seems to be a common factor for development of SB and TMD. However, further studies are needed to corroborate this finding. Additionally, this study supports the hypothesis that occlusal factors are not related to self-reported sleep bruxism.
An Application of Reinforcement Learning for Efficient Spectrum Usage in Next-Generation Mobile Cellular Networks

This paper proposes reinforcement learning as a foundational stone of a framework for efficient spectrum usage in the context of next-generation mobile cellular networks. The objective of the framework is to efficiently use the spectrum in a cellular orthogonal frequency-division multiple access network while unnecessary spectrum is released for secondary spectrum usage within a private commons spectrum access model. Numerical results show that the proposed framework obtains the best performance compared with other approaches for spectrum assignment. Moreover, the framework is relatively simple to implement in terms of computational requirements and signaling overhead.
Predictors of Patient Satisfaction After Ultrabrief Bifrontal and Unilateral Electroconvulsive Therapies for Major Depression

Objective: To assess patient satisfaction after ultrabrief electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Method: As part of a larger clinical and neuropsychological assessment, a Patient Satisfaction Survey was obtained from patients participating in a randomized trial comparing bifrontal and unilateral ultrabrief ECT. Results: Forty-eight patients (75%) completed the Patient Satisfaction Survey. Fifty-eight percent of the patients endorsed the statement "If my doctor recommended ECT in the future, I would choose to have ECT again. " A greater change in Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score (regression weight, 0.28; t1 = 5.30; P = < 0.0001) and the absence of psychotic symptoms at baseline (regression weight, −2.40; t1 = −2.54; P = 0.0148) predicted a higher satisfaction. In a multiple regression model with the same predictors but with change in Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores being replaced by change in Squire Subjective Memory Questionnaire scores, decrease in memory complaints proved to be a significant predictor of satisfaction. There were no significant differences between the patients given bifrontal ECT and those given unilateral ECT. Conclusions: Patients report a considerable degree of satisfaction after ultrabrief ECT. Patients who experience a more robust improvement in depressive symptoms and subjective memory complaints, and who have no psychotic symptoms at baseline, are more satisfied after treatment.
Computer Anxiety and Computer Knowledge as Determinants of Candidates’ Performance in Computer-based Test in Nigeria

Aims: To examine the influence of computer anxiety and computer knowledge on candidates’ performance in Computer-Based Test. Study Design: The study used descriptive survey and ex-post facto designs. Place and Duration: Prospective candidates for 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in Nigeria and chose to write in CBT mode. Methodology: Sample comprised 100 candidates (50 males and 50 females) in 2 purportedly chosen universities in Nigeria. A 20-item Computer Knowledge Test (CKT), a 20-item Computer Anxiety Scale (CAS) and a proforma to collect the UTME scores were used to collect data. Regression Analysis, ANOVA and t-test statistics were used to test hypotheses. Results: Findings showed that computer knowledge and computer anxiety significantly combined to predict performance in CBT. They jointly accounted for 9.7 percent of the total variance in CBT performance (R = 0.097, F(2,99) = 5.208, P<0.05). Computer knowledge is the only significant predictor of performance in CBT. It accounted for 29.2 percent of the total variance in CBT performance (t = 3.019, p<0.05). Original Research Article British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 4(4): 495-507, 2014 496 Conclusion: Computer knowledge and computer anxiety jointly influenced candidates’ performance in CBT in Nigeria. Recommendations: It is therefore recommended that Government should provide secondary schools in the country with adequate computers and internet facilities. CBT training centers should as a matter of urgency be set up to train candidates on CBT before their examinations.
Heartbeat Feature Extraction from Vowel Speech Signal Using 2 D Spectrum Representation

ECG is a method using to measure the rate and regularity of heartbeats to detect any irregularity in a heart. ECG translates heart electrical activity into wave-line on paper or screen. Our investigations show that heartbeat modulation exists in human voice signal and can be extracted by transformations in frequency domain. In this paper, the 2D spectrum of human vowel speech will be used to extract the relevant ECG information, where 2D spectrum is a novel proposed method of signal feature extraction.
Crowd Counting via Scale-Adaptive Convolutional Neural Network

The task of crowd counting is to automatically estimate the pedestrian number in crowd images. To cope with the scale and perspective changes that commonly exist in crowd images, state-of-the-art approaches employ multi-column CNN architectures to regress density maps of crowd images. Multiple columns have different receptive fields corresponding to pedestrians (heads) of different scales. We instead propose a scale-adaptive CNN (SaCNN) architecture with a backbone of fixed small receptive fields. We extract feature maps from multiple layers and adapt them to have the same output size; we combine them to produce the final density map. The number of people is computed by integrating the density map. We also introduce a relative count loss along with the density map loss to improve the network generalization on crowd scenes with few pedestrians, where most representative approaches perform poorly on. We conduct extensive experiments on the ShanghaiTech, UCF CC 50 and WorldExpo'10 datasets as well as a new dataset SmartCity that we collect for crowd scenes with few people. The results demonstrate significant improvements of SaCNN over the state-of-the-art.
PKC and PKA Phosphorylation Affect the Subcellular Localization of Claudin-1 in Melanoma Cells

Cytoplasmic expression of claudin-1 in metastatic melanoma cells correlates to increased migration, and increased secretion of MMP-2 in a PKC dependent manner, whereas claudin-1 nuclear expression is found in benign nevi. Melanoma cells were transfected with a vector expressing CLDN-1 fused to a nuclear localization signal (NLS). Despite significant nuclear localization of claudin-1, there was still transport of claudin-1 to the cytoplasm. Phorbol ester treatment of cells transfected with NLS-claudin-1 resulted in an exclusion of claudin-1 from the nucleus, despite the NLS. To ascertain whether PKC or PKA were involved in this translocation, we mutated the putative phosphorylation sites within the protein. We found that mutating the PKC phosphorylation sites to mimic a non-phosphorylated state did not cause a shift of claudin-1 to the nucleus of the cells, but mutating the PKA sites did. Mutations of either site to mimic constitutive phosphorylation resulted in cytoplasmic claudin-1 expression. Stable claudin-1 transfectants containing non-phosphorylatable PKA sites exhibited decreased motility. These data imply that subcellular localization of claudin-1 can be controlled by phosphorylation, dicating effects on metastatic capacity.
Inhibition of interleukin 1 (IL-1) binding and bioactivity in vitro and modulation of acute inflammation in vivo by IL-1 receptor antagonist and anti-IL-1 receptor monoclonal antibody

Recombinant human interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) and 35F5, a neutralizing monoclonal antibody (mAb) to the type I mouse IL-1 receptor, were examined for their ability to bind to IL-1 receptors (IL- 1Rs) on various types of mouse cells and to block immune and inflammatory responses to IL-1 in vitro and in mice. IL-1ra competed for binding of 125I-IL-1 alpha to type I IL-1R present on EL-4 thymoma cells, 3T3 fibroblasts, hepatocytes, and Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing recombinant mouse type I IL-1R. The IC50 values for IL-1ra binding (ranging from 2 to 4 ng/ml) were similar to those of IL-1 alpha. In contrast, IL-1ra bound with very low affinity (IC50 values ranging from 10 to 200 micrograms/ml) to cells expressing type II IL- 1R, i.e., 70Z/3 pre-B cell line and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) derived from bone marrow and acute inflammatory exudates. The mAb 35F5 bound specifically to type I IL-1R; no inhibition of 125I-IL-1 alpha binding to cells having type II IL-1R was observed with very high concentrations of antibody. While neither IL-1ra nor 35F5 had intrinsic activity in bioassays using T helper D10.G4. 1 cells and mouse thymocytes, both agents blocked the ability of IL-1 to stimulate proliferation of these cells. The effects of IL-1ra and 35F5 on acute inflammatory responses in mice were also evaluated. IL-1ra and 35F5 blocked the local accumulation of PMN after intraperitoneal injection of rIL-1 alpha. The response to IL-1 was inhibited when IL-1ra or 35F5 was administered simultaneously with or before administration of IL-1. IL-1ra and 35F5 also blocked PMN accumulation after intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide or proteose peptone, suggesting IL-1 is important in mediating responses to these agents. In addition, IL-1ra and 35F5 significantly blocked the ability of IL-1 to stimulate egress of PMN from bone marrow, to induce a transient neutrophilia, and to elevate serum levels of hepatic acute phase proteins, IL-6, and corticosterone. Thus, IL-1ra and 35F5 competitively inhibit the binding of IL-1 to the IL-1R on certain cell types. These two IL-1 receptor antagonists act to inhibit biological responses induced by IL-1 and other inflammatory agents.
Perceived threats and marital jealousy

Based upon the principles of structural exchange theory, a number of hypotheses concerning marital jealousy are tested using questionnaire responses from 220 married individuals. Jealousy is measured by asking subjects to rate how they would feel about their mates' behavior in eight hypothetical situations believed to produce jealousy. Results indicate that gender-role orientation and low marital alternatives are related to total jealousy for both males and females and that negative self-esteem is related to it for females. Significantly, marital adjustment, rewardingness, and trust are not related to jealousy. While the variables examined explain only a modest proportion of the variance in jealousy, structural exchange theory shows promise as a general theoretical approach to the topic.
Relationships Between Sexting, Self-Esteem, and Sensation Seeking Among Australian Young Adults

The influence of information communication technology has brought about the phenomenon of sexting. Sexting is defined as sending, receiving, or forwarding on sexually explicit messages and images via the Internet or a mobile phone. The current study investigated relationships between sexting, sensation seeking, and self-esteem. Sexting was categorized in six ways: sending (1) sexually suggestive photos or videos, (2) photos or videos wearing lingerie, (3) nude photos or videos, (4) sexually suggestive text messages, (5) text messages propositioning sex, and (6) forwarding on or showing others sexts which were meant to be kept private. The sample comprised 583 young adults (80% female, M age = 20.72 years, SD age = 2.13) who participated in an online survey. The strongest predictor of sending all types of sexts was being in a relationship (compared to being single). In addition, high self-esteem was associated with reduced odds of sending nude photos/videos, while high sensation seeking was associated with increased odds of sending suggestive texts and texts propositioning sex. Finally, high self-esteem was associated with decreased odds, and high sensation seeking with increased odds, of forwarding on sexts which were meant to be kept private. This pattern of associations points to differences underlying engagement in the various types of sexting behaviors. Such information can be used by educators, parents, and clinicians to raise awareness of traits which make an individual more likely to engage in sexting, with a view to prevention and education about the risks of sexting and violation of privacy.
Institutional Framework for Promoting Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Ghana: Perspective of Entrepreneurs

This study examined the institutional framework for promoting small and medium-scale enterprises in Ghana from the perspectives of SMEs. A cross-sectional survey of 157 SMEs was sampled. Findings confirmed the existence of formal institutions that support SMEs in Ghana. However, there is lack of national strategy which has resulted in poor coordination of government incentive support programmes and that has resulted in these institutions failing to perform to expectations.
Occupational injuries among nurses and aides in a hospital setting.

BACKGROUND Patient care workers in acute care hospitals are at high risk of injury. Recent studies have quantified risks and demonstrated a higher risk for aides than for nurses. However, no detailed studies to date have used OSHA injury definitions to allow for better comparability across studies. METHODS We linked records from human resources and occupational health services databases at two large academic hospitals for nurses (n = 5,991) and aides (n = 1,543) in patient care units. Crude rates, rate ratios, and confidence intervals were calculated for injuries involving no days away and those involving at least 1 day away from work. RESULTS Aides have substantially higher injury rates per 100 full-time equivalent workers (FTEs) than nurses for both injuries involving days away from work (11.3 vs. 7.2) and those involving no days away (9.9 vs. 5.7). Back injuries were the most common days away (DA) injuries, while sharps injuries were the most common no days away (NDA) injuries. Pediatric/neonatal units and non-inpatient units had the lowest injury rates. Operating rooms and the float pool had high DA injury rates for both occupations, and stepdown units had high rates for nurses. NDA injuries were highest in the operating room for both nurses and aides. CONCLUSIONS This study supports the importance of a continuing emphasis on preventing back and sharps injuries and reducing risks faced by aides in the hospital setting. Uniform injury definitions and work time measures can help benchmark safety performance and focus prevention efforts.
Capturing the distinction between task and device errors in a formal model of user behaviour

In any complex interactive human-computer system, people are likely to make errors during its operation. In this paper, we describe a validation study of an existing generic model of user behaviour. The study is based on the data and conclusions from an independent prior experiment. We show that the current model does successfully capture the key concepts investigated in the experiment, particularly relating to results to do with the distinction between task and device-specific errors. However, we also highlight some apparent weaknesses in the current model with respect to initialisation errors, based on comparison with previously unpublished (and more detailed) data from the experiment. The differences between data and observed model behaviour suggest the need for new empirical research to determine what additional factors are at work. We also discuss the potential use of formal models of user behaviour in both informing, and generating further hypotheses about the causes of human error.
Two cycles of cisplatin‐vindesine and radiotherapy for localized nonsmall cell carcinoma of the lung (stage III). Results of a prospective trial with 149 patients

One hundred forty‐nine patients with localized nonsmall cell carcinoma of the lung (Stage III A and B) were treated with two monthly cycles of initial chemotherapy that included vindesine‐cisplatin followed by 6000 cGy of thoracic irradiation. Patients with complete, partial, and minor response after initial chemotherapy were randomized into groups to receive either maintenance chemotherapy (four cycles) after radiotherapy or radiotherapy alone. The objective response rate was 24% after chemotherapy and 41% after combined chemoradiotherapy (complete response, 7.5%). The overall median survival was 9 months and the 2‐year survival was 14%. Survival was identical with or without maintenance chemotherapy. The 2‐year survival of patients with complete response was 75% compared with 9% for patients with partial or minor response. These results suggest that only the few patients (ten) who achieve complete response have a strong probability of survival. It is therefore essential to search for other therapeutic modalities that result in an increase of the complete response rate.
Implication of the toll‐like receptor 4 pathway in the response to interferon‐β in multiple sclerosis

Interferon‐beta (IFNβ) has demonstrated beneficial effects reducing disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, but a relatively large proportion of patients do not respond to treatment. Here we aimed to investigate the roles of the Toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) and the type I IFN pathways in the response to IFNβ in MS patients.
The Triple Threat to Nascent Apolipoprotein B

We previously showed that Ω-3 fatty acids reduce secretion of apolipoprotein B (apoB) from cultured hepatocytes by stimulating post-translational degradation. In this report, we now characterize this process, particularly in regard to the two known processes that degrade newly synthesized apoB, endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation and re-uptake from the cell surface. First, we found that Ω-3-induced degradation preferentially reduces the secretion of large, assembled apoB-lipoprotein particles, and apoB polypeptide length is not a determinant. Second, based on several experimental approaches, ER-associated degradation is not involved. Third, re-uptake, the only process known to destroy fully assembled nascent lipoproteins, was clearly active in primary hepatocytes, but Ω-3-induced degradation of apoB continued even when re-uptake was blocked. Cell fractionation showed that Ω-3 fatty acids induced a striking loss of apoB100 from the Golgi, while sparing apoB100 in the ER, indicating a post-ER process. To determine the signaling involved, we used wortmannin, a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor, which blocked most, if not all, of the Ω-3 fatty acid effect. Therefore, nascent apoB is subject to ER-associated degradation, re-uptake, and a third distinct degradative pathway that appears to target lipoproteins after considerable assembly and involves a post-ER compartment and PI3K signaling. Physiologic, pathophysiologic, and pharmacologic regulation of net apoB secretion may involve alterations in any of these three degradative steps.
Cystic fibrosis in a southern Brazilian population: characteristics of 90% of the alleles

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease that frequently leads to death in infancy among Europeans and their descendants. The goals of the present study were to analyze the molecular aspects of CFTR gene characterizing mutations, their frequencies, and the haplotypes formed by four CFTR gene intragenic markers, IVS8‐6(T)n, IVS8CA, IVS17bTA and IVS17bCA, in a southern Brazilian population of Caucasian origin. DNA samples from 56 non‐related CF patients were analyzed using scanning techniques (single strand conformation polymorphism and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis), restriction fragment length polymorphism and direct DNA sequencing to identify the mutations. Our results revealed a total of 25 different CF mutations representing nearly 90% of CF alleles, two being novel mutations. Microsatellite haplotypes were defined for CF and normal alleles. The mutational spectrum and the associated haplotypes described for the first time in this study should prove relevant for genetic counselling and CF population screening in Brazil. Moreover, our results suggest the presence of a major Mediterranean component in the contemporary Brazilian CF patient pool.