Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electromagnetic Emission-Aware Scheduling for the Uplink of Multicell OFDM Wireless Systems

The increasing demand for data and multimedia services, as well as the ubiquitous nature of the current generation of mobile devices have resulted in continuous network upgrades to support an ever-increasing number of users. Given that wireless communication systems rely on radiofrequency waves, the electromagnetic (EM) emissions from these systems are increasingly becoming a concern, especially in terms of adverse health effects. In order to address these concerns, we propose a novel resource allocation scheme for minimizing the EM emission of users in the uplink of multicell orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, while ensuring the quality of service. Our scheme is based on the assumption that long-term channel state information of all the users in the network is available. A new multicell user grouping that uses the received interference powers of the users of different sectors is proposed. Furthermore, we propose two power allocation algorithms to minimize EM emission. The first power allocation algorithm performs multicell iterative optimization to obtain the transmit powers of each user in the system. On the other hand, our second power allocation algorithm uses the average channel gains of the users of different sectors to obtain an approximation of the transmit power of each user without multicell iterative optimization. As a result, this approach has a reduced complexity when compared to our first power allocation algorithm. Simulation results show that our scheme reduces EM emission by up to 70% when compared to a single-cell EM emission aware scheme and by over 3 to 4 orders of magnitude when compared to spectral efficiency maximization schemes.
Radioactivity measurements and dosimetric evaluation in meat of wild birds

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to determine the background activity concentration of natural radionuclides and 137Cesium (Cs) in meat of 14 migratory birds originating from central and northern Europe. This meat is largely consumed by the Italian population. 40K, 210Pb, and 137Cs were determined by gamma spectrometry and 210Po by alpha spectrometry. The mean 40K activity concentration detected was 490 ± 117 Bq/kgdw. In all the samples, 210Pb was below the limit of detection (LOD), and therefore it was not possible to calculate the ratio 210Po/210Pb. The 210Po activity concentration ranged between 0.11 ± 0.02 Bq/kgdw and 6.2 ± 0.93 Bq/kgdw with a mean value of 1.03 ± 1.75 Bq/kgdw. The 137Cs activity concentration was not detectable or near LOD except in two samples with 45 ± 0.7 Bq/kgdw (wood pigeon, from Italy) and 139.1 ± 1.9 Bq/kgdw (woodcock, from Sweden). The effective dose of 210Po ingested by consumption of wild birds meat accounts for only 0.01–0.6% of natural radiation exposure in Italy. These data indicate that the meat analyzed was safe.
Dynamic networks reveal key players in aging

Motivation: Since susceptibility to diseases increases with age, studying aging gains importance. Analyses of gene expression or sequence data, which have been indispensable for investigating aging, have been limited to studying genes and their protein products in isolation, ignoring their connectivities. However, proteins function by interacting with other proteins, and this is exactly what biological networks (BNs) model. Thus, analyzing the proteins' BN topologies could contribute to understanding of aging. Current methods for analyzing systems-level BNs deal with their static representations, even though cells are dynamic. For this reason, and because different data types can give complementary biological insights, we integrate current static BNs with aging-related gene expression data to construct dynamic, age-specific BNs. Then, we apply sensitive measures of topology to the dynamic BNs to study cellular changes with age. Results: While global BN topologies do not significantly change with age, local topologies of a number of genes do. We predict such genes as aging-related. We demonstrate credibility of our aging-related predictions by: 1) observing significant overlap between the predictions and "ground truth" aging-related genes; 2) showing that our predictions group by functions and diseases that are different than functions and diseases of genes that we do not predict as aging-related; 3) observing significant overlap between functions and diseases that are enriched in our predictions and those that are enriched in "ground truth" aging-related data; 4) providing evidence that diseases which are enriched in our predictions are linked to human aging; and 5) validating our predictions in the literature. This work was published in arXiv:1307.3388 [cs.CE], 2013.
Thyroid and adrenal response to heat stress in chickens and quail differing in heat tolerance.

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the thyroid and adrenal response in groups of birds with altered heat tolerance. Groups of chickens that had been handled on each of 4 days and a nonhandled control group were bled on the 5th day with or without heating for 1 hr at 50 C. Handling did not affect the thyroid response as indicated by thyroxine (T4) or triiodothyronine (T3) levels. Corticosterone levels were lower in handled birds than nonhandled birds after heating. In a second experiment, groups of broilers were fed a diet containing . 2% thiouracil or a control diet. After 2 weeks they were bled either with or without 1 hr of heating at 50 C. The T3 and T4 levels were reduced by thiouracil feeding both with and without heating, but adrenal function was not affected. In Experiment 3, T3 and T4 levels were compared for four lines of Japanese quail. The nongrowth-selected line had higher T3 and T4 levels than growth-selected lines but did not have elevated levels of T3 or T4 in response to heat stress. The growth-selected lines (T, S, and P) responded to heating with increased T3 and T4 levels. Levels of T4 in Line T (selected on a thiouracil diet) after heating were significantly higher than all other lines.
Working Paper

Between 2006 and 2011, daily print newspapers in the U.S. lost 20% of their paid subscribers, partly due to increasing availability of alternative sources of news, such as free content provided on newspaper websites and by news aggregators such as Yahoo. However, contrary to the expectation that firms respond to softening demand by lowering prices, newspapers increased subscription prices by 40-60% during this period. In this paper, we explain and quantify the factors responsible for these price increases. We calibrate models of readership and advertising demand using data from a top-50 U.S. regional print newspaper. Conditional on these demand models, we calibrate the newspaper's optimal pricing equations, and assess whether the increase in subscription prices are mainly rationalized by: a) the decline in readers' willingness to pay (WTP) in the presence of heterogeneity among subscribers, or b) the newspaper's reduced incentive to subsidize readers at the expense of advertisers, due to softening demand for newspaper advertising. We find that the decline in the ability of the newspaper to subsidize readers by extracting surplus from advertisers explains most of the increase in subscription prices. Of the three available subscription options (Daily, Weekend, and Sunday only), subscription prices increased more steeply for the Daily option, a pattern consistent with the view that newspapers are driving away low valuation weekday readers while preserving Sunday readership and the corresponding ad revenues. Thus, our research augments theoretical propositions in two-sided markets by providing a formal empirical approach to unraveling the relative importance of the role played by agents on the subsidy and demand side in determining prices. for their helpful feedback on the paper. The authors also thank the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri for enabling them to obtain the data. The standard disclaimer applies.
The effect of bile acids and lipase on absorption of tallow in young chicks.

White leghorn chicks were fed diets with 4% tallow supplemented with one of the following bile acids at . 04%: cholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, dehydrocholic acid, deoxycholic acid, or sodium taurocholate. Cholic acid improved the absorption of tallow but not significantly; chenodeoxycholic acid significantly improved tallow absorption during days 0 to 7 but decreased it during days 14 to 21. The bile acids, dehydrocholic acid, deoxycholic acid, and sodium taurocholate had no significant effect on absorption of tallow. In a 2 x 3 factorial design involving cholic acid and lipase, . 04% cholic acid and/or . 10% lipase significantly improved the absorption of tallow by 8 and 4% in chicks 1 and 3 weeks of age, respectively. Dry matter digestibility and efficiency appeared to be improved with the improvement of lipid absorption.
A physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for the broad-spectrum antimicrobial zinc pyrithione: I. Development and verification

ABSTRACT The broad-spectrum antimicrobial zinc pyrithione (ZnPT) is used in numerous products ranging from in-can preservative/mildicide in paints to antidandruff shampoo. Although products containing ZnPT have a long history of safe use, regulatory agencies routinely set limits of exposure based upon toxicological considerations. The objective of this study was to create a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for ZnPT in the rat for improving dose-response analysis of ZnPT-induced toxicity, reversible hindlimb weakness, the endpoint that has been used as the basis for ZnPT risk assessments. A rat oral PBPK model was developed that includes compartments for plasma, liver, kidneys, muscle, brain, and rapidly and slowly perfused tissues. Pyrithione metabolism to 2-(methylsulfonyl)pyridine (MSP) and glucuronide conjugates was incorporated into the model. The model was parameterized and optimized based upon data from single-dose intravenous (iv) and oral gavage pharmacokinetic studies of radiolabeled pyrithione ([14C]PT) administered as zinc [14C]-pyrithione (Zn-[14C]PT) to adult female rats. It was further evaluated and refined using data from repeated, multidose oral gavage and dietary studies of Zn[14C]PT in the adult female rat that included measurements of plasma PT concentration, the putative toxic species. The model replicated the observed short-term elimination kinetics of PT in plasma and [14C]PT in whole blood following single doses and longer term temporal patterns of plasma and blood concentrations during repeated dosing schedules. The model also accounted for production and rapid elimination of S-glucuronide conjugates (SG) of 2-pyridinethiol and 2-pyridinethiol-1-oxide in urine, as well as production and slower elimination of MSP, the major [14C]PT species in blood within several hours following administration of ZnPT. The model provided internal dosimetry predictions for a benchmark dose (BMD) analysis of hindlimb weakness in rats, and was used to combine gavage and dietary studies into a single internal dose-response model with area under the curve (AUC) for plasma PT as the internal dose metric. This PBPK model has predictive validity for calculating internal doses of PT and/or [14C]PT from different routes of exposure in the rat.
Application Specific Asynchronous Microengines for Efficient High-level Control

| Despite the growing interest in asynchronous circuits, programmable asynchronous controllers based on the idea of microprogramming have not been actively pursued. Since programmable control is widely used in many commercial ASICs to allow late correction of design errors, to easily upgrade product families, to meet the time to market, and even e ect run-time modi cations to control in adaptive systems, we consider it crucial that self-timed techniques support e cient programmable control. This is especially true given that asynchronous (self-timed) circuits are well suited for realizing reactive and control-intensive designs. We o er a practical solution to programmable asynchronous control in the form of application-speci c microprogrammed asynchronous controllers (or microengines). The features of our solution include a modular and easily extensible datapath structure, support for two main styles of handshaking (namely two-phase and four-phase), and many efciency measures based on exploiting concurrency between operations and employing e cient circuit structures. Our results demonstrate that the proposed microengine can yield high performance|in fact performance close to that o ered by automated high-level synthesis tools targeting custom hard-wired burstmode machines.
Effect of dietary acidification and alkalinization on urolith formation and renal function in Single Comb White Leghorn laying hens.

One of the major causes of mortality in poultry is urolithiasis. Although two of the major causes of urolithiasis have been defined, active and preventative treatments for this disease have not been extensively field tested. Previous research demonstrated that a diet acidified with NH4Cl was effective in preventing the formation of uroliths in 16-wk-old pullets. In the present study, experiments were designed to evaluate the effects of dietary acidification and alkalinization on preformed uroliths in mature laying hens. Urolithiasis was induced by feeding excess dietary Ca (in commercial layer ration) during pullet growout (6 to 18 wk of age) and during the early laying period (18 to 32 wk of age). At 32 wk of age birds were randomly divided into three diet treatment groups: a normal layer ration group, an acidified layer ration group (1% NH4Cl added); and an alkalinized layer ration group (1% NaHCO3 added). Each group received the respective diets until 52 wk of age, when the experiment was terminated. Blood gas analysis at 44 wk of age demonstrated that hens fed the acidified diet had significantly higher blood H+ concentrations, lower blood bicarbonate concentrations, and lower total blood carbon dioxide levels than hens fed the alkalinized layer ration. At 52 wk of age, hens fed the acidified layer ration had higher urinary H+ concentrations, higher blood H+ concentrations, and lower blood HCO3 and total CO2 concentrations than hens fed the normal and alkalinized layer rations. The acidified layer ration group had no uroliths present in their ureters (0% urolithiasis), whereas the normal and alkalinized layer ration groups had 8.3 and 13.1% incidences of urolithiasis. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Pregabalin versus tramadol for postoperative pain management in patients undergoing lumbar laminectomy: a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study

Prevention and treatment of postoperative pain continues to be a major challenge in postoperative care. Opioid analgesics, with their well-known side effects, continue to represent a cornerstone in postoperative pain control. Anticonvulsant medications are established treatments for neuropathic pain. Pregabalin (S-[+]-3-isobutylgaba), a structural analog of gamma-Aminobutyric acid, has been used for the treatment of various neuropathic pain and also as an adjunctive therapy for adults with partial onset seizures. This study was thus taken up to primarily assess and compare the analgesic and anxiolytic effects of administering pregabalin and tramadol preoperatively for patients undergoing elective decompressive lumbar laminectomy. The study group included 75 patients between the ages of 20–60 years belonging to American Society of Anesthesiology-1 (ASA) and ASA-2 patients. The patients were randomly allocated into three groups of 25 patients each. The placebo group received a placebo capsule, the tramadol group received a 100 mg capsule, while the pregabalin group received a 150 mg capsule orally 1 hour before anesthetic induction. Pregabalin showed statistically significant analgesic effects compared to placebo, but the effect was found to be less prevalent compared to tramadol. The need for rescue analgesia was the least prevalent in tramadol patients followed by pregabalin patients, and reached a maximum in the control group. Pregabalin showed statistically significant anxiolytic effects compared to placebo, and this was associated with less sedation in comparison to tramadol. Pregabalin had fewer numbers of postoperative complications of nausea, vomiting, and drowsiness in comparison to tramadol. The results of this study support the clinical use of pregabalin in the postsurgical setting for pain relief, as it is well tolerated, and usually presents with transient adverse effects.
Zinc stores in chickens delay the onset of zinc deficiency symptoms.

Three chick assays were conducted to evaluate Zn depletion rates in whole body and various tissues. In Assay 1, chicks fed a corn-soybean meal diet containing 1,037 mg Zn/kg had twice as much Zn in intestine and bone and 50% more Zn in liver and whole body than chicks fed 37 mg Zn/kg (P < .01). In Assay 2, the minimum Zn requirement for growth of chicks consuming a chemically defined, amino acid diet was 10.6 mg Zn/kg. In Assay 3, chicks were fed the chemically defined diet containing either 300 or 10.6 mg Zn/kg during an 8-d pretest period, after which they were fed either 0 or 10.6 mg Zn/kg for 9 d. Tissue Zn concentrations were determined on Days 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 of the test period. Following the pretest period, Zn was higher in the liver, tibia, and small intestine, but not in muscle, of chicks fed 300 mg Zn/kg than of those fed 10.6 mg Zn/kg (P < .01). Growth of chicks switched from 10.6 to 0 mg Zn/kg was less than for chicks maintained on 10.6 mg Zn/kg by Day 5 (P < .05), whereas chicks switched from 300 to 0 mg Zn/kg did not display a growth depression relative to the control until Day 8 (P < .05). Zinc that accumulated in the liver and small intestine of chicks fed the 300 to 0 Zn regimen declined until Day 3 of the test period, whereas tibia Zn decreased until Day 8. Chicks fed the 10.6 to 0 regimen did not display a substantial decrease in small intestine, liver, or tibia Zn. The data confirm that Zn can accumulate in bone, liver, and intestine and can subsequently be released for use during a period of Zn deficiency. The data also indicate that chicks fed a diet containing the minimum requirement of Zn cannot accumulate reserves of Zn that become available for use during a subsequent period of Zn depletion.
Pixel Recursive Super Resolution

Super resolution is the problem of artificially enlarging a low resolution photograph to recover a plausible high resolution version. In the regime of high magnification factors, the problem is dramatically underspecified and many plausible, high resolution images may match a given low resolution image. In particular, traditional super resolution techniques fail in this regime due to the multimodality of the problem and strong prior information that must be imposed on image synthesis to produce plausible high resolution images. In this work we propose a new probabilistic deep network architecture, a pixel recursive super resolution model, that is an extension of PixelCNNs to address this problem. We demonstrate that this model produces a diversity of plausible high resolution images at large magnification factors. Furthermore, in human evaluation studies we demonstrate how previous methods fail to fool human observers. However, high resolution images sampled from this probabilistic deep network do fool a naive human observer a significant fraction of the time.
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of family physicians and nurses regarding unintentional injuries among children under 15 years in Cairo, Egypt

Unintentional injuries are a leading cause of death among children, especially in developing countries. Lack of reliable data regarding primary health care professionals' role in childhood unintentional injury prevention hinders the development of effective prevention strategies. A survey of 99 family physicians and nurses from 10 family health centres sought to develop insight into their knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding unintentional injury prevention for children <15 in Cairo, Egypt. Approximately, 60% were familiar with the terms unintentional injuries and injury prevention. Falls and road traffic crashes were identified as primary causes of childhood injuries by 54.5%. While >90% agreed injury prevention counselling (IPC) could be effective, only 50.5% provided IPC. Lack of time and educational materials were the leading barriers to provision of IPC (91.9% and 85.9%, respectively), while thinking counselling is not part of their clinical duties was the least perceived barrier (9.1%). There is a large disconnect between providers' knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding IPC, more training and provision of counselling tools are essential for improving IPC by Egyptian medical providers.
Suppression of reactive oxygen species generation in heart mitochondria from anoxic turtles: the role of complex I S-nitrosation

ABSTRACT Freshwater turtles (Trachemys scripta) are among the very few vertebrates capable of tolerating severe hypoxia and re-oxygenation without suffering from damage to the heart. As myocardial ischemia and reperfusion causes a burst of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mammals, the question arises as to whether, and if so how, this ROS burst is prevented in the turtle heart. We find that heart mitochondria isolated from turtles acclimated to anoxia produce less ROS than mitochondria from normoxic turtles when consuming succinate. As succinate accumulates in the hypoxic heart and is oxidized when oxygen returns, this suggests an adaptation to lessen ROS production. Specific S-nitrosation of complex I can lower ROS in mammals and here we show that turtle complex I activity and ROS production can also be strongly depressed in vitro by S-nitrosation. We detect in vivo endogenous S-nitrosated complex I in turtle heart mitochondria, but these levels are unaffected upon anoxia acclimation. Thus, while heart mitochondria from anoxia-acclimated turtles generate less ROS and have a lower aerobic capacity than those from normoxic turtles, this is not due to decreases in complex I activity or expression levels. Interestingly, in-gel activity staining reveals that most complex I of heart mitochondria from normoxic and anoxic turtles forms stable super-complexes with other respiratory enzymes and, in contrast to mammals, these are not disrupted by dodecyl maltoside. Taken together, these results show that although S-nitrosation of complex I is a potent mechanism to prevent ROS formation upon re-oxygenation after anoxia in vitro, this is not a major cause of the suppression of ROS production by anoxic turtle heart mitochondria. Summary: Heart mitochondria show suppressed reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation when isolated from anoxic turtles. Surprisingly, complex I S-nitrosation, a potent modification inhibiting ROS production, is not involved in this response.