Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of NAT on BitTorrent-like P2P systems

BitTorrent nowadays is one of the most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) applications on the Internet; on the other hand, Network Address Translation (NAT) has become pervasive in almost all networking scenarios. Despite the effort of NAT traversal, it is still very likely that P2P applications cannot receive incoming connection requests properly if they are behind NAT. Although this phenomenon has been widely observed, so far there is no quantitative study in the literature examining the impact of NAT on P2P applications. In this paper, we build analytical models to capture the performance of BitTorrent-like P2P systems with the presence of homogeneous and heterogeneous NAT peers. We further propose biased optimistic unchoke strategies in order to improve the overall system performance considerably. The analytical models have been validated by simulation results, which also reveal some interesting facts about the coexistence of NAT and public peers in P2P systems.
Sonographic evaluation of spleen size and prevalence of accessory spleen in a healthy male Turkish population.

OBJECTIVE It is known that the measurement of splenic length in routine clinical practice is a very good indicator of actual splenic size. Knowledge of the normal range of spleen size in the population being examined is a prerequisite. Racial differences in splenic length could result in incorrect interpretation of splenic measurements. The purpose of this study was to establish the range of spleen length in a young male Turkish population. METHODS A total of 2179 volunteers, healthy men aged 17-42 years, from the annual Army Reserve Officer Training Corps training camp at Manisa were included in the study. Sonographic measurements of spleen length were performed on 2179 military personnel. Presence of accessory spleen was also determined. In addition, the height, weight, and age of each volunteer were recorded. Using linear regression analysis, the relation of spleen length and body height, weight and body mass index (BMI) was evaluated. Additionally, the prevalence of accessory spleen detected on ultrasound was calculated. RESULTS The mean±SD height was 173,1±6,5 cm, mean weight 69,1±9,7 kg, and mean BMI 22,62±2,87. Mean spleen length was 10,76±1,8 cm. The length of the spleen was below 12,80 cm in 95% of the subjects. No statistically significant correlation (p<0.01) between spleen length and body height, weight and BMI was found. The prevalence of accessory spleen was determined as 2.5% on ultrasound screening. CONCLUSION It was found that in healthy Turkish men, mean spleen length was 10,76±1,8 cm. This data should be taken into consideration when the diagnosis of splenomegaly is established in Turkish males.
‘Miracle stents’ - a future without restenosis

Over the last three decades, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) technology has revolutionized the field of cardiology. PCI began in the form of balloon angioplasty, and was followed by coronary stenting. In-Stent restenosis is the main limitation of coronary stenting, and has been delayed to some extent by the development of drug eluting stents. Coronary angioplasty with stenting is currently the most popular non-medical treatment of coronary artery disease therefore solving the problem of in-stent restenosis could change the future role of other types of coronary intervention. This review examines the types of percutaneous coronary interventions, the mechanisms leading up to in-stent restenosis, and how previous and current treatments of in-stent restenosis influence the vascular response to injury.
ANTI-PREDATOR BEHAVIOURS OF A FRESHWATER CRAYFISH (PARANEPHROPS ZEALANDICUS )T O AN ATIVE AND AN INTRODUCED PREDATOR

Summary: The anti-predator behaviours of a New Zealand freshwater crayfish (Paranephrops zealandicus) to the native long-finned eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii )a nd the introduced brown trout (Salmo trutta )w ere investigated. Crayfish modified their behaviour in the presence of both trout and eels. However, a significantly greater number of defensive chela displays and swimming responses were made to eels than trout. Crayfish were able to use chemical cues from skin mucus to detect eels but not trout. Paranephrops zealandicus is able to make some appropriate defensive behavioural responses to the introduced brown trout as well as to its native predator, the long-finned eel. However, crayfish may be at greater risk from the introduced predator because of their apparent inability to detect trout using non-contact chemical cues. This may be a reflection of the different co-evolutionary histories crayfish have had with trout and eels.
Fast, robust and occlusion resilient motion based video segmentation

Segmentation using tracked points is an active research area with various applications in video processing. Many algorithms have been proposed and some have shown promising results. Nonetheless, most methods have overlooked the problem of object occlusion. For instance, two objects that move similarly before a partial occlusion, may be merged even if their motions differ afterwards. The occluded parts provide a spurious link that can lead to undersegmentation. In this paper, following the framework of previous work where a video is divided in subsequences, we focus on the negative effect of occlusions and propose a method that resolves such cases. We improve the quality and robustness of segmentation by rejecting noisy trajectories using the sparsity of reprojection error. Finally, we propose a new metric to measure the motion dissimilarity between segments. The experimental evaluation shows that our algorithm achieves competitive results while being significantly faster than other methods.
Water Droplet Erosion Performance of Laser Shock

The water droplet erosion (WDE) performance of laser shock peened (LSP) Ti-6Al-4V was investigated. LSP condition using two or three peening impacts per unit area induced compressive residual stresses. However, LSP treatment showed a mild increase in microhardness and no observable changes in the microstructure. The effect of LSP and its associated attributes on the WDE performance was studied according to the American Society for Testing and Materials Standard (ASTM G73). Influence of the impact speed between 150 and 350 m/s on the WDE performance was explored. Two sample geometries, T-shaped flat and airfoil, were used for the WDE tests. For the flat samples, LSP showed little or no beneficial effect in enhancing the WDE performances at all tested speeds. The peened and unpeened flat samples showed similar erosion initiation and maximum erosion rate (ERmax). The LSP airfoil samples showed mild improvement in the WDE performance at 300 m/s during the advanced erosion stage compared to the as-machined (As-M) condition. However, at 350 m/s, no improved WDE performance was observed for the LSP airfoil condition at all stages of the erosion. It was concluded that compressive residual stresses alone are not enough to mitigate WDE. Hence, the notion that the fatigue mechanism is dominating in WDE damage is unlikely.
Retrieval of Biomass in Boreal Forest from Multi-temporal ERS-1 / 2 Interferometry

It is well known that C-band repeat-pass InSAR coherence can more accurately predict boreal forest stem volume than microwave radar backscatter. In this paper two boreal forest areas have been studied, one in Finland and one in Sweden. In spite of the small number of forest stands (approximately 40 stands at each site with mean area of 7 ha and stem volume range of 350 m /ha and 550 m/ha) a division in two halves has been made, one considered as reference stands and one as test stands. The observed coherence and backscatter values have been fitted to the interferometric water cloud model and a multi-temporal combination of up to seven InSAR pairs has been performed. For one of the test sites the accuracy of the best single pair is 36 m /ha (equal to 22 tons/ha), while a multi-temporal combination increases the accuracy to 21 m/ha (equal to 13 tons/ha). For the other test site the values are 91 m/ha, and 89 m/ha respectively. The results in this case are believed to be caused by differences between species distribution and also by weather conditions. We conclude that in some cases multitemporal InSAR is able to provide extremely good stem volume estimates.
Information Theory and Statistical Mechanics

Treatment of the predictive aspect of statistical mechanics as a form of statistical inference is extended to the density-matrix formalism and applied to a discussion of the relation between irreversibility and information loss. A principle of "statistical complementarity" is pointed out, according to which the empirically verifiable probabilities of statistical mechanics necessarily correspond to incomplete predictions. A preliminary discussion is given of the second law of thermodynamics and of a certain class of irreversible processes, in an approximation equivalent to that of the semiclassical theory of radiation.
CD4-Positive T Cells and M2 Macrophages Dominate the Peritoneal Infiltrate of Patients with Encapsulating Peritoneal Sclerosis

Background Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) is a severe complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD). Previously, it has been shown that infiltrating CD4-positive T cells and M2 macrophages are associated with several fibrotic conditions. Therefore, the characteristics of the peritoneal cell infiltrate in EPS may be of interest to understand EPS pathogenesis. In this study, we aim to elucidate the composition of the peritoneal cell infiltrate in EPS patients and relate the findings to clinical outcome. Study Design, Setting, and Participants We studied peritoneal membrane biopsies of 23 EPS patients and compared them to biopsies of 15 PD patients without EPS. The cellular infiltrate was characterized by immunohistochemistry to detect T cells(CD3-positive), CD4-positive (CD4+) and CD8-positive T cell subsets, B cells(CD20-positive), granulocytes(CD15-positive), macrophages(CD68-positive), M1(CD80-positive), and M2(CD163-positive) macrophages. Tissues were analysed using digital image analysis. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to investigate the survival in the different staining groups. Results The cellular infiltrate in EPS biopsies was dominated by mononuclear cells. For both CD3 and CD68, the median percentage of area stained was higher in biopsies of EPS as opposed to non-EPS patients (p<0.001). EPS biopsies showed a higher percentage of area stained for CD4 (1.29%(0.61-3.20)) compared to CD8 (0.71%(0.46-1.01), p = 0.04), while in the non-EPS group these cells were almost equally represented (respectively 0.28%(0.05-0.83) versus 0.22%(0.17-0.43), p = 0.97). The percentage of area stained for both CD80 and CD163 was higher in EPS than in non-EPS biopsies (p<0.001), with CD163+ cells being the most abundant phenotype. Virtually no CD20-positive and CD15-positive cells were present in biopsies of a subgroup of EPS patients. No relation was found between the composition of the mononuclear cell infiltrate and clinical outcome. Conclusions A characteristic mononuclear cell infiltrate consisting of CD4+ and CD163+ cells dominates the peritoneum of EPS patients. These findings suggest a role for both CD4+ T cells and M2 macrophages in the pathogenesis of EPS.
Comparative analysis of physiological signals and electroencephalogram (EEG) for multimodal emotion recognition using generative models

Multimodal Emotion recognition (MER) is an application of machine learning were different biological signals are used in order to automatically classify a determined affective state. MER systems has been developed for different type of applications from psychological evaluation, anxiety assessment, human-machine interfaces and marketing. There are several spaces of classification proposed in the state of art for the emotion recognition task, the most known are discrete and dimensional spaces were the emotions are described in terms of some basic emotions and latent dimensions respectively. The use of dimensional spaces of classification allows a higher range of emotional states to be analyzed. The most common dimensional space used for this purpose is the Arousal/Valence space were emotions are described in terms of the intensity of the emotion that goes from inactive to active in the arousal dimension, and from unpleasant to pleasant in the valence dimension. The use of physiological signals and the EEG is well suited for emotion recognition due to the fact that an emotional states generates responses from different biological systems of the human body. Since the expression of an emotion is a dynamic process, we propose the use of generative models as Hidden Markov Models (HMM) to capture de dynamics of the signals for further classification of emotional states in terms of arousal and valence. For the development of this work an international database for emotion classification known as Dataset for Emotion Analysis using Physiological signals (DEAP) is used. The objective of this work is to determine which of the physiological and EEG signals brings more relevant information in the emotion recognition task, several experiments using HMMs from different signals and combinations of them are performed, and the results shows that some of those signals brings more discrimination between arousal and valence levels as the EEG and the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and the Heart rate (HR).
Substance‐related and addictive disorders as mediators between borderline personality disorder and aggressive behavior

© 2017 The Australian Psychological Society.Background: Impulsivity is considered a core clinical feature in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Evidence also indicates that impulsivity is part of the biological vulnerability for BPD. The purpose of the study was to verify if the presence of substance-related and addictive disorders (SRADs) may increase impulsivity and aggression in BPD. Methods: Eighty patients (27 with BPD, 26 with BPD and SRAD, 27 with other personality disorders (OPDs)) completed a comprehensive assessment for personality disorder symptoms, impulsivity, and aggressive behaviour. Results: BPD patients with SRAD showed higher scores on impulsivity and aggression compared with other groups. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed between BPD and OPD patients on impulsivity and aggression. Conclusion: The presence of SRAD was found to be a mediator between BPD and impulsive and aggressive behaviour. The findings are discussed and directions for future research presented.
Multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy induces normalization of reward related activity in somatoform disorder

Abstract Objectives. Somatoform disorder patients demonstrate a disturbance in the balance between internal and external information processing, with a decreased focus on external stimulus processing. We investigated brain activity of somatoform disorder patients, during the processing of rewarding external events, paying particular attention to the effects of inpatient multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. Methods. Using fMRI, we applied a reward task that required fast reactions to a target stimulus in order to obtain monetary rewards; a control condition contained responses without the opportunity to gain rewards. Twenty acute somatoform disorder patients were compared with twenty age-matched healthy controls. In addition, 15 patients underwent a second scanning session after participation in multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy. Results. Acute patients showed diminished hemodynamic differentiation between rewarding and non rewarding events in four regions, including the left postcentral gyrus and the right ventroposterior thalamus. After multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy, both regions showed a significant normalization of neuronal differentiation. Conclusion. Our results suggest that diminished responsiveness of brain regions involved in the processing of external stimuli underlies the disturbed balance of internal and external processing of somatoform disorder patients. By providing new approaches to cope with distressing events, multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy led to decreased symptoms and normalization of neuronal activity.
The role of information in different bargaining protocols

We analyze a bargaining protocol recently proposed in the literature vis-à-vis unconstrained negotiation. This new mechanism extracts “gains from trade” inherent in the differing valuation of two parties towards various issues where conflict exists. We assess the role of incomplete vs. complete information in the efficiency achieved by this new mechanism and by unconstrained negotiation. We find that unconstrained negotiation does best under a situation of complete information where the valuations of both bargaining parties are common knowledge. Instead, the newly proposed mechanism does best in a situation with incomplete information. The sources of inefficiencies in each of the two cases arise from the different strategic use of the available information.
Predictive and prognostic analysis of PIK3CA mutation in stage III colon cancer intergroup trial.

BACKGROUND Somatic mutations in PIK3CA (phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphonate 3-kinase [PI3K], catalytic subunit alpha gene) activate the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway and contribute to pathogenesis of various malignancies, including colorectal cancer. METHODS We examined associations of PIK3CA oncogene mutation with relapse, survival, and treatment efficacy in 627 stage III colon carcinoma case subjects within a randomized adjuvant chemotherapy trial (5-fluorouracil and leucovorin [FU/LV] vs irinotecan [CPT11], fluorouracil and leucovorin [IFL]; Cancer and Leukemia Group B 89803 [Alliance]). We detected PIK3CA mutation in exons 9 and 20 by polymerase chain reaction and pyrosequencing. Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess prognostic and predictive role of PIK3CA mutation, adjusting for clinical features and status of routine standard molecular pathology features, including KRAS and BRAF mutations and microsatellite instability (mismatch repair deficiency). All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Compared with PIK3CA wild-type cases, overall status of PIK3CA mutation positivity or the presence of PIK3CA mutation in either exon 9 or 20 alone was not statistically significantly associated with recurrence-free, disease-free, or overall survival (log-rank P > .70; P > .40 in multivariable regression models). There was no statistically significant interaction between PIK3CA and KRAS (or BRAF) mutation status in survival analysis (P(interaction) > . 18). PIK3CA mutation status did not appear to predict better or worse response to IFL therapy compared with FU/LV therapy (P(interaction) > . 16). CONCLUSIONS Overall tumor PIK3CA mutation status is not associated with stage III colon cancer prognosis. PIK3CA mutation does not appear to serve as a predictive tumor molecular biomarker for response to irinotecan-based adjuvant chemotherapy.
Ameliorative Effect of Curcumin-Encapsulated Hyaluronic Acid–PLA Nanoparticles on Thioacetamide-Induced Murine Hepatic Fibrosis

In this study, we developed curcumin-encapsulated hyaluronic acid–polylactide nanoparticles (CEHPNPs) to be used for liver fibrosis amelioration. CD44, the hyaluronic acid (HA) receptor, is upregulated on the surface of cancer cells and on activated hepatic stellate cells (aHSCs) rather than normal cells. CEHPNPs could bind to CD44 and be internalized effectively through endocytosis to release curcumin, a poor water-soluble liver protective agent. Thus, CEHPNPs were potentially not only improving drug efficiency, but also targeting aHSCs. HA and polylactide (PLA) were crosslinked by adipic acid dihydrazide (ADH). The synthesis of HA–PLA was monitored by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). The average particle size was approximately 60–70 nm as determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Zeta potential was around −30 mV, which suggested a good stability of the particles. This drug delivery system induced significant aHSC cell death without affecting quiescent HSCs, hepatic epithelial, and parenchymal cells. This system reduced drug dosage without sacrificing therapeutic efficacy. The cytotoxicity IC50 (inhibitory concentration at 50%) value of CEHPNPs was approximately 1/30 to that of the free drug treated group in vitro. Additionally, the therapeutic effects of CEHPNPs were as effective as the group treated with the same curcumin dose intensity in vivo. CEHPNPs significantly reduced serum aspartate transaminase/alanine transaminase (ALT/AST) significantly, and attenuated tissue collagen production and cell proliferation as revealed by liver biopsy. Conclusively, the advantages of superior biosafety and satisfactory therapeutic effect mean that CEHPNPs hold great potential for treating hepatic fibrosis.
miRNAs-19b, -29b-2* and -339-5p Show an Early and Sustained Up-Regulation in Ischemic Models of Stroke

Stroke, the loss of neurons after ischemic insult to the brain, is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Despite its prevalence and severity, current therapy is extremely limited, highlighting the importance of further understanding the molecular events underlying ischemia-induced neuronal cell death. An ischemic area can be subdivided into two separate pathophysiological regions: the rapidly dying necrotic core, and the potentially salvageable apoptotic penumbra. Understanding molecular events occurring in the apoptotic ischemic penumbra may give greater insight into mechanisms controlling this salvageable tissue. miRNAs are known to have key roles in the regulation of gene expression in numerous pathological conditions, including the modulation of distinct pathways in stroke. However, previous studies have profiled miRNAs in the whole ischemic infarct, and do not differentiate between miRNA regulation in the necrotic core versus the apoptotic penumbra. We asked if there were unique miRNAs that are differentially regulated following ischemic insults in the salvageable apoptotic penumbra. miRNA expression profiles were compared in the whole infarct from in vivo stroke models, using the three vessel occlusion approach, to an in vitro model of the ischemic penumbra, prior to apoptotic induction. Multiple miRNAs were found to be differentially regulated following ischemic insults in each system. However, miR-19b, miR-29b-2* and miR-339-5p were significantly up-regulated in both model systems. Further, we confirmed these results in a neuroblastoma cell line subjected to a penumbra-like ischemic insult that induced the apoptotic cell death pathway. The data show that miR-19b, miR-29b-2* and miR-339-5p are up-regulated following ischemic insults and may be regulating gene expression to control important cellular pathways in the salvageable ischemic penumbra. Further investigation of their role and mRNA target identification may lead to new insights into the molecular mechanisms taking place in the salvageable apoptotic penumbra.