Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance Analysis of BitTorrent-Like P2P Networks for Video Streaming Services at the Chunk Level

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks are distributed systems where no central authority rules the behavior of the individual peers. These systems rely on the voluntary participation of the peers to help each other and reduce congestion at the data servers. BitTorrent is a popular file-sharing P2P application originally designed for non real-time data. Given the inherent characteristics of these systems, they have been considered to alleviate part of the traffic in conventional networks, particularly for streaming stored playback Video-on-Demand services. In this work, two strategies for implementing a streaming service for stored playback video are presented and studied through simulations at the chunk level. First, a window-based peer selection strategy for P2P networks is proposed that greatly improves the chunk sharing process for such video services. The basic idea is to select the downloader peers according to their progress in the download process. Second, a priority scheme is proposed and analyzed that benefits the peers that are more likely to remain longer in the system by serving them first. The simulation model offers complementary results to the conventional fluid or Markovian models.
Combat Exposure and Risk for Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among Military Personnel and Veterans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Due to seemingly mixed empirical results, questions persist about the possible role of deployments and combat exposure. We conducted a narrative review and meta-analysis of 22 published studies to integrate findings regarding the relationship of deployment-related predictors (i.e., deployment, deployment to a combat zone, combat experience, and exposure to specific combat events) with suicide-related outcomes (i.e., suicide ideation, attempt, and death). Across all predictors and outcomes, the combined effect was small and positive, r = . 08 [0.04, 0.13], and marked by significant heterogeneity, I2 = 99.9%, Q(21)=4880.16, p < . 0001, corresponding to a 25% increased risk for suicide-related outcomes among those who have deployed. Studies examining the relationship between exposure to killing and atrocities (k = 5) showed the largest combined effect, r = . 12 [0.08, 0.17], and less heterogeneity, I2 = 84.4%, Q(4)=34.96, p < . 0001, corresponding to a 43% increased risk for suicide-related outcomes among those exposed to killing or atrocity. Implications for theory, research, and clinical practice are discussed.
Isolation of Macromutations and Mutagenic Effectiveness and Efficiency in Little Millet Varieties

3 Abstract: The present investigation was undertaken to study the frequency and spectrum of macromutations along with the mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency of different doses of gamma rays in two little millet varieties (CO 3 and CO(Samai) 4). In both genotypes, no chlorophyll mutations were observed in the control population. The two treated genotypes behaved differently in the frequency of occurrence of chlorophyll mutations. A 500 Gray registered the highest mutation rate both on M panicle family basis and on M seedlings 12 basis in both varieties. The spectrums of chlorophyll mutations (albina, xantha, chlorina, viridis and striata) were observed and grouped. Except striata, remaining four kinds of mutations viz., xantha, chlorine, viridis and albina were more frequently. The overall mutation spectrum for both the varieties showed that xantha (2.55%) occurred with the highest frequency, followed by chlorina (1.88%), viridis (0.84%) and albino (0.59%). The mutagenic effectiveness decreased with the increase in dose of mutagen in both genotypes, indicating that negative relationship between effectiveness and dose of mutagen. Mutagenic efficiency (mutation rate in relation to M damage) in both varieties, highest at the lowest dose and it decreased with the increase in dose. 1
Non-contiguous finished genome sequence and description of Anaerococcus senegalensis sp. nov.

Anaerococcus senegalensis strain JC48T sp. nov. is the type strain of A. senegalensis sp. nov. a new species within the genus Anaerococcus. This strain whose genome is described here was isolated from the fecal flora of a healthy patient. A. senegalensis is an obligate anaerobic coccus. Here we describe the features of this organism together with the complete genome sequence and annotation. The 1,790,835 bp long genome (1 chromosome but no plasmid) contains 1,721 protein-coding and 53 RNA genes including 5 rRNA genes
Achievement goals affect academic success and help seeking behavior of undergraduates

Meghan McCarthy ACHIEVEMENT GOALS EFFECT ACADEMIC SUCCESS AND HELP SEEKING BEHAVIOR OF UNDERGRADUATES 2005/06 Dr. Dihoff and Dr. Klanderman The purpose of this study is to determine how achievement goals effect students' academic success and help seeking behavior. The three goal orientations measured in this present study are mastery, performance-approach, and work avoidance. A questionnaire is used to assess the students' goal orientation. The researcher also asked the students to self report their current cumulative GPA and the number of times a semester they visit their professors for help. One way ANOVAs were used to determine which achievement goal had the highest GPA and which had the most help seeking behavior. A correlation was also done to determine if GPA and help seeking behavior correlate. The total number of participants is n=65. The researcher found that students with performance-approach goals had significantly higher GPAs than mastery goals and work avoidance goals. The results also showed that mastery goals had significantly higher help-seeking behavior than work avoidance goals, but not performance-approach goals. No correlation was found between GPA and help seeking behavior. The implications of this study are vast for the education field. Professors should be aware that students who seek help do not in turn get better grades. Reasons for this should be looked at in further research. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge Dr. Kenneth Barron of James Madison University. I took his Motivation in Education course during my senior year as an undergraduate student at James Madison University located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It was in his class that my interest in educational motivation theories and achievement goals began. He conducted numerous studies regarding achievement goals and co-wrote the questionnaire used in this study. I would like to thank him for being an inspiring professor and allowing me to use his questionnaire to conduct my thesis. See Appendix A for a copy of the email Dr. Barron sent to give me permission to use his scale.
Immunogenicity of a Recombinant Measles-HIV-1 Clade B Candidate Vaccine

Live attenuated measles virus is one of the most efficient and safest vaccines available, making it an attractive candidate vector for a HIV/AIDS vaccine aimed at eliciting cell-mediated immune responses (CMI). Here we have characterized the potency of CMI responses generated in mice and non-human primates after intramuscular immunisation with a candidate recombinant measles vaccine carrying an HIV-1 insert encoding Clade B Gag, RT and Nef (MV1-F4). Eight Mauritian derived, MHC-typed cynomolgus macaques were immunised with 105 TCID50 of MV1-F4, four of which were boosted 28 days later with the same vaccine. F4 and measles virus (MV)-specific cytokine producing T cell responses were detected in 6 and 7 out of 8 vaccinees, respectively. Vaccinees with either M6 or recombinant MHC haplotypes demonstrated the strongest cytokine responses to F4 peptides. Polyfunctional analysis revealed a pattern of TNFα and IL-2 responses by CD4+ T cells and TNFα and IFNγ responses by CD8+ T cells to F4 peptides. HIV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells expressing cytokines waned in peripheral blood lymphocytes by day 84, but CD8+ T cell responses to F4 peptides could still be detected in lymphoid tissues more than 3 months after vaccination. Anti-F4 and anti-MV antibody responses were detected in 6 and 8 out of 8 vaccinees, respectively. Titres of anti-F4 and MV antibodies were boosted in vaccinees that received a second immunisation. MV1-F4 carrying HIV-1 Clade B inserts induces robust boostable immunity in non-human primates. These results support further exploration of the MV1-F4 vector modality in vaccination strategies that may limit HIV-1 infectivity.
The Cultural Context of Loneliness: Risk Factors in Active Duty Soldiers

Loneliness has been shown to predict mental health problems and suicide in active duty soldiers. In the present study, we examined distal (e.g., demographic & socioeconomic characteristics) to proximal factors (e.g., platoon relations, relationship quality) that were associated with loneliness in active duty soldiers in the U.S. Army. Results revealed a set of factors that were associated with loneliness in active duty soldiers, including age, frequency of contact with friends and family by phone, childhood trauma, self-reported overall emotional health, intra-platoon harassment, perceived stress, perceived platoon cohesion and support, organizational citizenship behavior, relationship satisfaction with friends, and relationship satisfaction with platoon members. The association between loneliness and both perceived stress and relationship satisfaction with platoon members reached a moderate effect size in the multivariate models. Although some of predictors overlap with those identified in studies of civ.
Comparison of Meta-Analytic Results of Indirect, Direct, and Combined Comparisons of Drugs for Chronic Insomnia in Adults: A Case Study

Background:Our Center recently conducted a systematic review of the manifestations and management of chronic insomnia in adults. The efficacy and safety of benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepines, relative to placebo, were compared indirectly. Objectives:Determine how the results of indirect comparisons made in the review compare with the results of direct comparisons, as well as with estimates derived from Bayesian mixed treatment comparisons. Establish general appropriateness of the use of results of indirect or mixed treatment comparisons. Methods:Treatments were compared using frequentist direct, indirect, and combined methods, as well as Bayesian direct and mixed methods. Results:Estimates for comparisons tended to be clinically and statistically similar across methods. Estimates obtained through indirect comparisons were not biased and were similar to those obtained through direct analysis. Conclusions:Results of indirect comparisons made in the review, accurately reflected the current evidence. Frequentist and Bayesian methods of analysis of indirect comparisons should be considered when performing meta-analyses.
PKC Activation in Niemann Pick C1 Cells Restores Subcellular Cholesterol Transport

Activation of protein kinase C (PKC) has previously been shown to ameliorate the cholesterol transport defect in Niemann Pick Type C1 (NPC1) cells, presumably by increasing the soluble levels of one of its substrates, vimentin. This activity would then restore the vimentin cycle in these cells and allow vimentin-dependent retrograde transport to proceed. Here, we further investigate the effects of PKC activation in NPC1 cells by evaluating different isoforms for their ability to solubilize vimentin and correct the NPC1 cholesterol storage phenotype. We also examine the effects of PKC activators, including free fatty acids and the PKC-specific activator diazoxide, on the NPC1 disease phenotype. Our results indicate that PKC isoforms α, βII, and ε have the greatest effects on vimentin solubilization. Furthermore, expression or activation of PKCε in NPC1 cells dramatically reduces the amount of stored cholesterol and restores cholesterol transport out of endocytic vesicles. These results provide further support for the contribution of PKCs in NPC1 disease pathogenesis and suggest that PKCs may be targeted in future efforts to develop therapeutics for NPC1 disease.
Machine Perfusion of Porcine Livers with Oxygen-Carrying Solution Results in Reprogramming of Dynamic Inflammation Networks

Background: Ex vivo machine perfusion (MP) can better preserve organs for transplantation. We have recently reported on the first application of an MP protocol in which liver allografts were fully oxygenated, under dual pressures and subnormothermic conditions, with a new hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (HBOC) solution specifically developed for ex vivo utilization. In those studies, MP improved organ function post-operatively and reduced inflammation in porcine livers. Herein, we sought to refine our knowledge regarding the impact of MP by defining dynamic networks of inflammation in both tissue and perfusate. Methods: Porcine liver allografts were preserved either with MP (n = 6) or with cold static preservation (CSP; n = 6), then transplanted orthotopically after 9 h of preservation. Fourteen inflammatory mediators were measured in both tissue and perfusate during liver preservation at multiple time points, and analyzed using Dynamic Bayesian Network (DyBN) inference to define feedback interactions, as well as Dynamic Network Analysis (DyNA) to define the time-dependent development of inflammation networks. Results: Network analyses of tissue and perfusate suggested an NLRP3 inflammasome-regulated response in both treatment groups, driven by the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-18 and the anti-inflammatory mediator IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA). Both DyBN and DyNA suggested a reduced role of IL-18 and increased role of IL-1RA with MP, along with increased liver damage with CSP. DyNA also suggested divergent progression of responses over the 9 h preservation time, with CSP leading to a stable pattern of IL-18-induced liver damage and MP leading to a resolution of the pro-inflammatory response. These results were consistent with prior clinical, biochemical, and histological findings after liver transplantation. Conclusion: Our results suggest that analysis of dynamic inflammation networks in the setting of liver preservation may identify novel diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.
Permeable Participation: Civic Engagement and Protest Mobilization in 20 OECD Countries, 1981–2008

Civic engagement and protest mobilization have generally been treated as distinct activities, with separate literatures examining each form of participation. This differentiation largely rests on the political nature of protest, which is treated as inconsistent with more apolitical civic engagement. We argue that the boundaries between protest participation and civic engagement became more permeable over time. We link this to consistency in the profiles of individuals who become engaged and the institutionalization of protest, which expanded the participatory base of protest to new groups. Using four waves of the European and World Values Survey, we analyze 78,524 individuals from 20 member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Results from a multilevel multinomial logistic regression analysis demonstrate that while there have been modest increases in protesting and civic engagement over time, individuals participating in both types of activities have experienced the most growth, consistent with our argument.
Generating contextualized sentiment lexica based on latent topics and user ratings

Sentiment lexica are useful for analyzing opinions in Web collections, for domain-dependent sentiment classification, and as sub-components of recommender systems. In this paper, we present a strategy for automatically generating topic-dependent lexica from large corpora of review articles by exploiting accompanying user ratings. Our approach combines text segmentation, discriminative feature analysis techniques, and latent topic extraction to infer the polarity of n-grams in a topical context. Our experiments on rating prediction demonstrate a substantial performance improvement in comparison with existing state-of-the-art sentiment lexica.
Induced fit of the peptidyl-transferase center of the ribosome and conformational freedom of the esterified amino acids

The catalytic site of most enzymes can essentially deal with only one substrate. In contrast, the ribosome is capable of polymerizing at a similar rate at least 20 different kinds of amino acids from aminoacyl-tRNA carriers while using just one catalytic site, the peptidyl-transferase center (PTC). An induced-fit mechanism has been uncovered in the PTC, but a possible connection between this mechanism and the uniform handling of the substrates has not been investigated. We present an analysis of published ribosome structures supporting the hypothesis that the inducedfit eliminates unreactive rotamers predominantly populated for some A-site aminoacyl esters before induction. We show that this hypothesis is fully consistent with the wealth of kinetic data obtained with these substrates. Our analysis reveals that induction constrains the amino acids into a reactive conformation in a side-chain independent manner. It allows us to highlight the rationale of the PTC structural organization, which confers to the ribosome the very unusual ability to handle large as well as small substrates.
Asset Holding and Consumption Volatility

We investigate the possibility that limited participation in asset markets, and the stock market in particular, might explain the lack of correspondence between the sample moments of the intertemporal marginal rate of substitution and asset returns in U.K. data. We estimate ownership probabilities to separate “likely” shareholders from nonshareholders, enabling us to control for changing composition effects as well as selection into the group. We then construct estimates of the IMRS for each of these different groups and consider their time‐series properties. We find that the consumption growth of shareholders is more volatile than that of nonshareholders and more highly correlated with excess returns to shares. In particular, one cannot reject the predictions of the consumption capital asset pricing model for the group of households predicted to own both assets. This is in contrast to the failure of the model when estimated on data for all households.
A new overall approach to psychosocial risk prevention and well-being development

L’objectif de cet article de recherche est de proposer une nouvelle demarche de prevention des risques psychosociaux. En s’appuyant sur une methodologie de recherche-intervention, cette etude presente un nouveau modele selon trois niveaux : 1) la comprehension des relations entre la sante et le travail ; 2) le developpement des leviers d’action au niveau de l’individu et de l’organisation pour reduire les risques psychosociaux ; 3) la mise en place du processus de changement. Cette etude s’appuie sur une intervention au sein d’une entreprise francaise du bâtiment. Elle presente les differents resultats obtenus suite a la mise en place de cette nouvelle demarche de prevention des risques psychosociaux.
Clinical Potential of Regulatory T Cell Therapy in Liver Diseases: An Overview and Current Perspectives

The increasing demand for liver transplantation and the decline in donor organs has highlighted the need for alternative novel therapies to prevent chronic active hepatitis, which eventually leads to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Liver histology of chronic hepatitis is composed of both effector and regulatory lymphocytes. The human liver contains different subsets of effector lymphocytes that are kept in check by a subpopulation of T cells known as Regulatory T cells (Treg). The balance of effector and regulatory lymphocytes generally determines the outcome of hepatic inflammation: resolution, fulminant hepatitis, or chronic active hepatitis. Thus, maintaining and adjusting this balance is crucial in immunological manipulation of liver diseases. One of the options to restore this balance is to enrich Treg in the liver disease patients. Advances in the knowledge of Treg biology and development of clinical grade isolation reagents, cell sorting equipment, and good manufacturing practice facilities have paved the way to apply Treg cells as a potential therapy to restore peripheral self-tolerance in autoimmune liver diseases (AILD), chronic rejection, and posttransplantation. Past and on-going studies have applied Treg in type-1 diabetes mellitus, systemic lupus erythematosus, graft versus host diseases, and solid organ transplantations. There have not been any new therapies for the AILD for more than three decades; thus, the clinical potential for the application of autologous Treg cell therapy to treat autoimmune liver disease is an attractive and novel option. However, it is fundamental to understand the deep immunology, genetic profiles, biology, homing behavior, and microenvironment of Treg before applying the cells to the patients.
The Initial Mass Function of the Stellar Association NGC 602 in the Small Magellanic Cloud with Hubble Space Telescope ACS Observations

We present our photometric study of the stellar association NGC 602 in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The data were taken in the filters F555W and F814W using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Photometry was performed using the ACS module of the stellar photometry package DOLPHOT. We detected more than 5500 stars with a magnitude range of 14≲ m555≲ 28 mag. Three prominent stellar concentrations are identified with star counts in the observed field, the association NGC 602 itself, and two clusters, one of them not being currently in any known catalog. The color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of both clusters show features typical for young open clusters, while that of the association reveals bright main-sequence (MS) and faint pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars as the members of the system. We construct the initial mass spectrum (IMS) of the association by applying an age-independent method of counting the PMS stars within evolutionary tracks, while for the bright MS stars we transform their magnitudes to masses with the use of mass-luminosity relations. The IMS of NGC 602 is found to be well represented by a single power law, corresponding to an initial mass function (IMF) of slope Γ ≈ − 1.2 for 1 ≲ M/M☉ ≲ 45. This indicates that the shape of the IMF of a star-forming system in the SMC for stars with masses higher than 1 M☉ seems to be quite similar to the field IMF in the solar neighborhood.
Use of Internet Technologies and e-Business Solutions: A Structural Model of Sources of Business Value among Canadian Micro-Enterprises

This paper presents a structural model of sources of use value of Internet technologies and e-business solutions among micro-enterprises. The model postulates direct effects of connectivity, website functionality, transaction capability, and e-business use on perceived business value, and indirect effects of these capabilities on value creation via internal and external factors. The model is estimated with PLS with data from 181 micro-enterprises in Eastern Canada. It shows that perceived business value is predictable among micro-enterprises that use specific Internet technologies and e-business solutions to sell goods or services online and that seek to expand their market reach. This finding helps to explain the relatively slower uptake of e-business among micro-enterprises, many of which operate in face-to-face service industries and are embedded in local markets.