Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coded Cooperative Data Exchange Problem for General Topologies

We consider the coded cooperative data exchange problem for general graphs, both undirected and directed. In this problem, given a graph G = (V, E) representing clients in a broadcast network, each of which initially hold a (not necessarily disjoint) set of information packets; one wishes to design a communication scheme in which eventually all clients will hold all the packets of the network. Communication is performed in rounds, where in each round a single client broadcasts a single (possibly encoded) information packet to its neighbors in G. The objective is to design a broadcast scheme that satisfies all clients with the minimum number of broadcast rounds. The coded cooperative data exchange problem has seen significant research over the last few years; mostly when the graph G is the complete broadcast graph in which each client is adjacent to all other clients in the network, but also on general topologies, both in the fractional and integral setting. In this paper, we focus on the integral setting in general topologies G, both undirected and directed. For undirected graphs, we tie the coded cooperative data exchange problem on G to variants of the dominating set problem and in such show that solving the problem exactly or even approximately within a multiplicative factor of log |V| is intractable (i.e., NP-hard). We then turn to study efficient data exchange schemes for undirected topologies yielding a number of communication rounds comparable with our intractability result. Last, we tie the coded cooperative data exchange problem for directed topologies to the directed Steiner tree problem, yielding efficient data exchange approximation schemes. Our communication schemes do not involve encoding, and in such yield bounds on the coding advantage in the setting at hand.
Immunohistochemical staining on fine needle aspiration biopsy-cell block specimens in the differential diagnosis of lung cancers.

BACKGROUND Fine needle aspiration biopsy [FNAB] is used extensively in the clinical work-up of radiologically detected lung lesions. However, categorisation of lung cancer by computed tomography guided FNAB alone is limited by overlapping morphological features. AIM To examine further the utility of immunohistochemical panel of antibodies to thyroid transcription factor [TTF-1], synaptophysin, chromogranin A [CgA], cytokeratin-pan, cytokeratin-7 [CK-7], cytokeratin-20 [CK-20], leucocyte common antigen [LCA], and carcinoembryonic antigen [CEA] in cytologic cell block samples in the differential diagnosis of lung cancer. METHODS Twenty-nine FNABs of newly diagnosed cases of lung cancer were studied. Immunohistochemistry was done on paraffin embedded cell block sections using Dako monoclonal antibodies. RESULTS Morphological diagnosis of non-small cell carcinoma (NSCLC) was made in 22/29 [76%] and small cell carcinoma in 7/29 (24%) cases. Five of the seven (71.4%) cases of small cell carcinoma were CgA+/TTF-1+, 14.3% [1/7] were CgA+/ synaptophysin+/TTF-1-negative. In one case, LCA positivity lead to the diagnosis of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The NSCLC was categorised further into well differentiated 11/22 [50%], moderately differentiated 7/22 [31.8%] and poorly differentiated 4/22 [18.2%] cases. Cytokeratin-pan positivity in squamous cell carcinomas [n=15] was seen to be related to cellular differentiation. All the three cases of adenocarcinoma were CK-7+/CK-20 negative. In one case with large cell carcinoma, CgA-positivity lead to recategorisation as large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that the proposed panel of immunohistochemical markers might help further classification of lung carcinomas even in small FNAB material and permit more consistent patient enrollment for trials with targeted treatments.
The Retreat from Locative Overgeneralisation Errors: A Novel Verb Grammaticality Judgment Study

Whilst some locative verbs alternate between the ground- and figure-locative constructions (e.g. Lisa sprayed the flowers with water/Lisa sprayed water onto the flowers), others are restricted to one construction or the other (e.g. *Lisa filled water into the cup/*Lisa poured the cup with water). The present study investigated two proposals for how learners (aged 5–6, 9–10 and adults) acquire this restriction, using a novel-verb-learning grammaticality-judgment paradigm. In support of the semantic verb class hypothesis, participants in all age groups used the semantic properties of novel verbs to determine the locative constructions (ground/figure/both) in which they could and could not appear. In support of the frequency hypothesis, participants' tolerance of overgeneralisation errors decreased with each increasing level of verb frequency (novel/low/high). These results underline the need to develop an integrated account of the roles of semantics and frequency in the retreat from argument structure overgeneralisation.
Different Implementations of AES Cryptographic Algorithm

Currently, AES is regarded as the most popular symmetric cryptographic algorithm. It is very significant to develop high performance AES to further broaden its widespread applications. And in this paper, it is mainly about the different optimized designs and implementations of AES algorithm. Firstly, it tests the fast implementation of AES algorithm and the performance has been improved by about 50 times when compared to the standard AES algorithm, Secondly, using the Intel AES-NI extended instruction sets, and the performance has been improved by about 50 times compared with the fast implementation of AES algorithm, Finally, using CUDA and GPU to execute the AES in parallel, and it can improve the performance by about 18 times compared with the fast implementation of AES algorithm.
Trichostatin A Stabilizes the Expression of Pluripotent Genes in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells during Ex Vivo Expansion

Background Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been considered as ideal cells for the treatment of a variety of diseases. However, aging and spontaneous differentiation of MSCs during culture expansion dampen their effectiveness. Previous studies suggest that ex vivo aging of MSCs is largely caused by epigenetic changes particularly a decline of histone H3 acetylation levels in promoter regions of pluripotent genes due to inappropriate growth environment. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we examined whether histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) could suppress the histone H3 deacetylation thus maintaining the primitive property of MSCs. We found that in regular adherent culture, human MSCs became flatter and larger upon successive passaging, while the expression of pluripotent genes such as Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, Rex-1, CD133 and TERT decreased markedly. Administration of low concentrations of TSA in culture significantly suppressed the morphological changes in MSCs otherwise occurred during culture expansion, increased their proliferation while retaining their cell contact growth inhibition property and multipotent differentiation ability. Moreover, TSA stabilized the expression of the above pluripotent genes and histone H3 acetylation levels in K9 and K14 in promoter regions of Oct4, Sox2 and TERT. Conclusions/Significance Our results suggest that TSA may serve as an effective culture additive to maintain the primitive feature of MSCs during culture expansion.
A motion field reconstruction scheme for smooth boundary video object segmentation

Motion segmentation is a classic and on-going research topic which is an important pre-stage for many video processes. The reliability of the motion field calculation directly determines either success or failure of such segmentation. Due to the aperture property of optical flow calculation, motion estimation at a moving object boundary remains a challenging ill-posed problem. We propose a reliable optical-flow estimation method from the view of missing data reconstruction. Furthermore, to overcome the occlusion problem at motion boundaries, we apply a motion segmentation scheme which integrates with spatial segmentation. Experimental results of the proposed and other methods are presented.
Positioning in a Primary Writing Workshop: Joint Action in the Discursive Production of Writing Subjects

Drawn from a year-long study in a combined first- and second-grade classroom, this article presents an interpretive portrait of two young students engaged in spontaneous talk while writing. We analyze their conversations to explore the subject positions these student writers assumed, those they assigned each other, and the related functions they assigned the texts they composed. Through our close reading of their conversations, we develop an analytic protocol for positional microanalysis of everyday conversations that honors the intertwined social and emotional dimensions of peer interactions. Countering those who would cast literacy development as the sequential attainment of discrete cognitive skills, we consider the ways that these social and emotional dimensions may interlace with intellectual growth as young children struggle to become students, writers, and people.
Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to Ultrafine, Fine and Microbiologically Derived Particulate Matter Related to Cardiovascular and Respiratory Effects in a Panel of Elderly Urban Citizens

To explore associations of exposure to ambient and indoor air particulate and bio-aerosol pollutants with cardiovascular and respiratory disease markers, we utilized seven repeated measurements from 48 elderly subjects participating in a 4-week home air filtration study. Microvascular function (MVF), lung function, blood leukocyte counts, monocyte adhesion molecule expression, C-reactive protein, Clara cell protein (CC16) and surfactant protein-D (SPD) were examined in relation to exposure preceding each measurement. Exposure assessment included 48-h urban background monitoring of PM10, PM2.5 and particle number concentration (PNC), weekly measurements of PM2.5 in living- and bedroom, 24-h measurements of indoor PNC three times, and bio-aerosol components in settled dust on a 2-week basis. Statistically significant inverse associations included: MVF with outdoor PNC; granulocyte counts with PM2.5; CD31 expression with dust fungi; SPD with dust endotoxin. Significant positive associations included: MVF with dust bacteria; monocyte expression of CD11 with PM2.5 in the bedroom and dust bacteria and endotoxin, CD31 expression with dust serine protease; serum CC16 with dust NAGase. Multiple comparisons demand cautious interpretation of results, which suggest that outdoor PNC have adverse effects on MVF, and outdoor and indoor PM2.5 and bio-aerosols are associated with markers of inflammation and lung cell integrity.
IKKα controls canonical TGFβ–SMAD signaling to regulate genes expressing SNAIL and SLUG during EMT in Panc1 cells

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a crucial step in tumor progression, and the TGFβ–SMAD signaling pathway is an inductor of EMT in many tumor types. One hallmark of EMT is downregulation of the adherens junction protein E-cadherin, a process mediated by transcription factors such as the zinc fingers SNAIL and SLUG. Here, we report that the catalytic IκB kinase (IKK) subunit IKKα is necessary for the silencing of E-cadherin in a Panc1 cell model of TGFβ–SMAD-mediated EMT, independently of NFκB. IKKα regulates canonical TGFβ–SMAD signaling by interacting with SMAD3 and controlling SMAD complex formation on DNA. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the TGFβ–IKKα–SMAD signaling pathway induces transcription of the genes encoding SNAIL and SLUG. In addition, we demonstrate that IKKα also modulates canonical TGFβ–SMAD signaling in human MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells, arguing for a more general impact of IKKα on the control of TGFβ–SMAD signaling. Taken together, these findings indicate that IKKα contributes to the tumor-promoting function of the TGFβ–SMAD signaling pathway in particular cancers.
Analgesia nociception index: evaluation as a new parameter for acute postoperative pain.

BACKGROUND A means of identifying the presence and severity of pain that is not reliant on the subjective assessment of pain is desirable whenever a patient self-rating of pain cannot be easily obtained (e.g. sedated patients, very young children, individuals with learning difficulties). The heart rate variability based analgesia nociception index (ANI) has been proposed to reflect different levels of acute pain. The aim of this study was to compare ANI scores with a numeric rating scale (NRS, 0-10) based on self-assessment of pain in the recovery room. METHODS One hundred and twenty patients after non-emergency surgery were included. On arrival in the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU) and subsequently at 5 min intervals, patients were asked to rate their level of pain on a 0-10 NRS. ANI values 0-100 points (low values indicating higher levels of pain) were recorded simultaneously. RESULTS Eight hundred and sixteen pain ratings from 114 patients were included in the analysis. A small but statistically significant negative correlation was found between ANI and the NRS scores (ρ=-0.075; P=0.034). A small but significant difference in ANI was found comparing the extremes of pain [mean (se): NRS 0: 63 (1.4) vs NRS 6-10: 59 (1.4); P=0.027]. However, a receiver-operating analysis testing the value of ANI to distinguish between NRS 0 and NRS 6-10 revealed only low sensitivity and specificity. CONCLUSION ANI did not reflect different states of acute postoperative pain measured on a NRS scale after adult sevoflurane-based general anaesthesia.
Histological and immunohistochemical studies on the epididymal duct in the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius)

This study was conducted to underscore the spatial distribution of some biologically active proteins within the epididymal duct in the dromedary camel. Paraffin-embedded sections from different regions of epididymis were stained by conventional histological techniques and by immunohistochemistry. A battery of primary antibodies against six proteins (S100, alpha smooth muscle actin [α-SMA], connexin-43 [Cx43], galactosyltransferase [GalTase], angiotensin converting enzyme [ACE], and vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF]) were used. The epididymal epithelium consisted of five cell populations: principal, basal, apical, dark, and halo cells. The histochemical findings indicated the absence of binding sites for VEGF and Cx43. The principal cells (PCs) showed variable immunoreactivity (IR) for ACE, S100, and GalTase throughout the whole length of the duct. The apical surfaces of most PCs (at the caput) and some PCs (at the corpus) exhibited intense ACE-IR, whereas those at the cauda displayed alternating negative and strong immunostaining. Similarly, moderate S100-IR was found in cytoplasm and nuclei of all PCs at the caput, few PCs at the corpus, and several PCs alternating with negative PCs at the cauda. In contrast, only some PCs showed weak to strong GalTase-IR in different regions. Apart from negative to weak positive S100-IR, basal cells failed to show IR for all other proteins. Apical cells displayed strong IR for ACE, S100, and GalTase with some regional differences. The peritubular and vascular smooth muscle cells revealed strong α-SMA-IR in all regions. In conclusion, the spatial distribution of different proteins in camel epididymis showed similarities and differences to other mammalian species. The region-specific topographic distribution of different proteins and cell types might indicate that the caput and cauda are metabolically more active than that of the corpus.
Incidence of Cerebrovascular Accidents Following Brain Tumor Surgery

Background and Purpose: Cancer and cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) are two most common causes of mortality and morbidity in the elderly. Patients with brain tumor can be highly affected by postsurgical stroke. CVA may be the first manifestation in these patients . Therefore, we aimed to assess the epidemiological factors affecting CVA after brain surgery. Methods: In this cross-sectional study we enrolled 241 patients admitted for brain surgery due to a brain tumor during April 2009 to March 2013 in Tohid Hospital, Sanandaj, Iran, using the convenient sampling method. Results: The mean±SD age of the patients was 48.1±21.3 years. 5 patients (2%) were complicated with CVAs(4ischemic stroke and one haemorrhagic). The frequency of CVA was not different regarding age,sex,type of tumor, tumor site,hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, and type of intervention.Type of tumor was meningioma in 2 patients, Oligodendroglioma in 2 patients, and metastatic cancer in 1 patient. Of the 5 patients with CVA, 2 were in middle fossa (1.9% of middle fossa tumors), 2 in anterior fossa (2.5%), and one in the meningeal membrane (3.3%). Conclusion: Despit low incidence of stroke in this study,it seems there is a considerable rate of mortality and morbidity of cerebral vascular diseases, especially in people with underlying chronic medical conditions such as brain tumors necessitates regular follow-up of patients with brain tumors for assessing risk factors to be able to increase survival rate and reduce disease-related complications.
Darmstadt Discussion Papers in Economics Dance with the Dollar : Exchange Rate Exposure on the German Stock Market

We estimate the Dollar exposure of German DAX corporations. Our results are based on a new time-variant, APT-based and panel econometric extension of the exchange rate exposure model in the tradition of Adler and Dumas (1984) and Jorion (1990). Our stock market data consist of 28 performance indices of German DAX corporations. We include macroeconomic risk factors, and data on export and import involvement. Dollar exposures turn out to differ between exporters and importers and they are rather unstable over time. In contrast to most previous studies in the literature that find little evidence of exposure, we confirm recent results of Dominguez and Tesar (2001) who report that higher foreign involvement corresponds to higher exposure at least in Germany. Moreover, our findings suggest that exposure also depends on the prevailing level of the Dollar exchange rate.
Effects of Intratumoral Inflammatory Process on 18F-FDG Uptake: Pathologic and Comparative Study with 18F-Fluoro-α-Methyltyrosine PET/CT in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

The accurate depiction of both biologic and anatomic profiles of tumors has long been a challenge in PET imaging. An inflammation, which is innate in the carcinogenesis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), frequently complicates the image analysis because of the limitations of 18F-FDG and maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax). New PET parameters, metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG), as well as 18F-fluoro-α-methyltyrosine (18F-FAMT), a malignancy-specific amino acid–based PET radiotracer, are considered more comprehensive in tumor image analysis. Here, we showed the substantial effects of the intratumoral inflammatory process on 18F-FDG uptake and further study the possibility of MTV and TLG to predict both tumor biology (proliferation activity) and anatomy (pathologic tumor volume). Methods: 18F-FDG and 18F-FAMT PET images from 25 OSCC patients were analyzed. SUVmax on the tumor site was obtained. PET volume computerized-assisted reporting was used to generate a volume of interest to obtain MTV and TLG for 18F-FDG and total lesion retention (TLR) for 18F-FAMT. The whole tumor dissected from surgery was measured and sectioned for pathologic analysis of tumor inflammation grade and Ki-67 labeling index. Results: The high SUVmax of 18F-FDG was related to the high inflammation grade. The SUVmax ratio of 18F-FDG to 18F-FAMT was higher in inflammatory tumors (P < 0.05) whereas the corresponding value in tumors with a low inflammation grade was kept low. All 18F-FAMT parameters were correlated with Ki-67 labeling index (P < 0.01). Pathologic tumor volume predicted from MTV of 18F-FAMT was more accurate (R = 0.90, bias = 3.4 ± 6.42 cm3, 95% confidence interval = 0.77–6.09 cm3) than that of 18F-FDG (R = 0.77, bias = 8.1 ± 11.17 cm3, 95% confidence interval = 3.45–12.67 cm3). Conclusion: 18F-FDG uptake was overestimated by additional uptake related to the intratumoral inflammatory process, whereas 18F-FAMT simply accumulated in tumors according to tumor activity as evaluated by Ki-67 labeling index in OSCC.
Willingness to Accept and Pay for Implantable Tinnitus Treatments: A Survey

Objectives: At present, there is no cure for tinnitus. Neurostimulation techniques have shown great promise, but it is uncertain whether they will gain acceptance because of their invasive nature. We have previously demonstrated that pairing acoustic stimuli with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) also has potential as a viable tinnitus treatment approach.
faBrickation: fast 3D printing of functional objects by integrating construction kit building blocks

We present a new approach to rapid prototyping of functional objects, such as the body of a head-mounted display. The key idea is to save 3D printing time by automatically substituting sub-volumes with standard building blocks'in our case Lego bricks. When making the body for a head-mounted display, for example, getting the optical path right is paramount. Users thus mark the lens mounts as "high-resolution" to indicate that these should later be 3D printed. faBrickator then 3D prints these parts. It also generates instructions that show users how to create everything else from Lego bricks. If users iterate on the design later, faBrickator offers even greater benefit as it allows re-printing only the elements that changed. We validated our system at the example of three 3D models of functional objects. On average, our system fabricates objects 2.44 times faster than traditional 3D printing while requiring only 14 minutes of manual assembly.
A Neural Model for User Geolocation and Lexical Dialectology

We propose a simple yet effective text-based user geolocation model based on a neural network with one hidden layer, which achieves state of the art performance over three Twitter benchmark geolocation datasets, in addition to producing word and phrase embeddings in the hidden layer that we show to be useful for detecting dialectal terms. As part of our analysis of dialectal terms, we release DAREDS, a dataset for evaluating dialect term detection methods.
Tyrosine Deprotonation and Associated Hydrogen Bond Rearrangements in a Photosynthetic Reaction Center

Photosynthetic reaction centers from Blastochloris viridis possess Tyr-L162 located mid-way between the special pair chlorophyll (P) and the heme (heme3). While mutation of the tyrosine does not affect the kinetics of electron transfer from heme3 to P, recent time-resolved Laue diffraction studies reported displacement of Tyr-L162 in response to the formation of the photo-oxidized P+•, implying a possible tyrosine deprotonation event. pK a values for Tyr-L162 were calculated using the corresponding crystal structures. Movement of deprotonated Tyr-L162 toward Thr-M185 was observed in P+• formation. It was associated with rearrangement of the H-bond network that proceeds to P via Thr-M185 and His-L168.