Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nearly optimal asynchronous blind rendezvous algorithm for Cognitive Radio Networks

Rendezvous is a fundamental process in Cognitive Radio Networks, through which a user establishes a link to communicate with a neighbor on a common channel. Most previous solutions use either a central controller or a Common Control Channel (CCC) to simplify the problem, which are inflexible and vulnerable to faults and attacks. Some blind rendezvous algorithms have been proposed that rely on no centralization. Channel Hopping (CH) is a representative technique used in blind rendezvous, with which each user hops among the available channels according to a pre-defined sequence. However, no existing algorithms can work efficiently for both symmetric (both parties have the same set of channels) and asymmetric users. In this paper, we introduce a new notion called Disjoint Relaxed Difference Set (DRDS) and present a linear time constant approximation algorithm for its construction. Then based on the DRDS, we propose a distributed asynchronous algorithm that can achieve and guarantee fast rendezvous for both symmetric and asymmetric users. We also derive a lower bound for any algorithm using the CH technique. This lower bound shows that our proposed DRDS based distributed rendezvous algorithm is nearly optimal. Extensive simulation results corroborate our theoretical analysis.
Bioenergetics of methanogenesis from acetate by Methanosarcina barkeri

Methane formation from acetate by resting cells of Methanosarcina barkeri was accompanied by an increase in the intracellular ATP content from 0.9 to 4.0 nmol/mg of protein. Correspondingly, the proton motive force increased to a steady-state level of -120 mV. The transmembrane pH gradient however, was reversed under these conditions and amounted to +20 mV. The addition of the protonophore 3,5,3',4'-tetrachlorosalicylanilide led to a drastic decrease in the proton motive force and in the intracellular ATP content and to an inhibition of methane formation. The ATPase inhibitor N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide stopped methanogenesis, and the intracellular ATP content decreased. The proton motive force decreased also under these conditions, indicating that the proton motive force could not be generated from acetate without ATP. The overall process of methane formation from acetate was dependent on the presence of sodium ions; upon addition of acetate to cell suspensions of M. barkeri, a transmembrane Na+ gradient in the range of 4:1 (Na+ out/Na+ in) was established. Possible sites of involvement of the Na+ gradient in the conversion of acetate to methane and carbon dioxide are discussed. Na+ is not involved in the CO dehydrogenase reaction.
The relationship between IR effectiveness measures and user satisfaction

This paper presents an experimental study of users assessing the quality of Google web search results. In particular we look at how users' satisfaction correlates with the effectiveness of Google as quantified by IR measures such as precision and the suite of Cumulative Gain measures (CG, DCG, NDCG). Results indicate strong correlation between users' satisfaction, CG and precision, moderate correlation with DCG, with perhaps surprisingly negligible correlation with NDCG. The reasons for the low correlation with NDCG are examined.
The contribution of the endothelium to the development of coagulation disorders that characterize Ebola hemorrhagic fever in primates

Summary Recently, there have been substantdevelopments ial in the understanding of Ebola hemorrhagic fever pathogenesis, but there are still major gaps. These infections occur in underdeveloped areas of the world,and much of our knowledge of naturally occurring disease is derived from sporadic outbreaks that occurred decades in the past. Recently conducted laboratory animal studies have provided insight into Ebola pathogenesis and may help guide clinical investigations of disease using contemporary methodologies that were not available previously. A better understanding of the relevant host and viral factors that influence clinical and virologic outcome will be critical to our ability to combat this aggressive pathogen. This article reviews the most relevant information relating to the postulated pathogenesis of this disease, focusing on the role of the endothelium in contributing to the coagulation disorders that characterize Ebola hemorrhagic fever in primates. Some of the remaining and key unanswered questions relating to the role of the vascular system in the pathogenesis of this disease, that need to be addressed in further research, are highlighted.
Energetics, lifestyle, and reproduction in birds

Theoretical and empirical studies of life history aim to account for resource allocation to the different components of fitness: survival, growth, and reproduction. The pioneering evolutionary ecologist David Lack [(1968) Ecological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds (Methuen and Co., London)] suggested that reproductive output in birds reflects adaptation to environmental factors such as availability of food and risk of predation, but subsequent studies have not always supported Lack’s interpretation. Here using a dataset for 980 bird species (Dataset S1), a phylogeny, and an explicit measure of reproductive productivity, we test predictions for how mass-specific productivity varies with body size, phylogeny, and lifestyle traits. We find that productivity varies negatively with body size and energetic demands of parental care and positively with extrinsic mortality. Specifically: (i) altricial species are 50% less productive than precocial species; (ii) species with female-only care of offspring are about 20% less productive than species with other methods of parental care; (iii) nonmigrants are 14% less productive than migrants; (iv) frugivores and nectarivores are about 20% less productive than those eating other foods; and (v) pelagic foragers are 40% less productive than those feeding in other habitats. A strong signal of phylogeny suggests that syndromes of similar life-history traits tend to be conservative within clades but also to have evolved independently in different clades. Our results generally support both Lack’s pioneering studies and subsequent research on avian life history.
Beyond playing to win: Diversifying heuristics for GVGAI

General Video Game Playing (GVGP) algorithms are usually focused on winning and maximizing score but combining different objectives could turn out to be a solution that has not been deeply investigated yet. This paper presents the results obtained when five GVGP agents play a set of games using heuristics with different objectives: maximizing winning, maximizing exploration, maximizing the discovery of the different elements presented in the game (and interactions with them) and maximizing the acquisition of knowledge in order to accurately estimate the outcome of each possible interaction. The results show that the performance of the agents changes depending on the heuristic used. So making use of several agents with different goals (and their pertinent heuristics) could be a feasible approach to follow in GVGP, allowing different behaviors in response to the diverse situations presented in the games.
Characterization and Pharmacological Properties of a Novel Multifunctional Kunitz Inhibitor from Erythrina velutina Seeds

Inhibitors of peptidases isolated from leguminous seeds have been studied for their pharmacological properties. The present study focused on purification, biochemical characterization and anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant evaluation of a novel Kunitz trypsin inhibitor from Erythrina velutina seeds (EvTI). Trypsin inhibitors were purified by ammonium sulfate (30–60%), fractionation followed by Trypsin-Sepharose affinity chromatography and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography. The purified inhibitor showed molecular mass of 19,210.48 Da. Furthermore, a second isoform with 19,228.16 Da was also observed. The inhibitor that showed highest trypsin specificity and enhanced recovery yield was named EvTI (P2) and was selected for further analysis. The EvTI peptide fragments, generated by trypsin and pepsin digestion, were further analyzed by MALDI-ToF-ToF mass spectrometry, allowing a partial primary structure elucidation. EvTI exhibited inhibitory activity against trypsin with IC50 of 2.2×10−8 mol.L−1 and constant inhibition (Ki) of 1.0×10−8 mol.L−1, by a non-competitive mechanism. In addition to inhibit the activity of trypsin, EvTI also inhibited factor Xa and neutrophil elastase, but do not inhibit thrombin, chymotrypsin or peptidase 3. EvTI was investigated for its anti-inflammatory and anti-coagulant properties. Firstly, EvTI showed no cytotoxic effect on human peripheral blood cells. Nevertheless, the inhibitor was able to prolong the clotting time in a dose-dependent manner by using in vitro and in vivo models. Due to anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant EvTI properties, two sepsis models were here challenged. EvTI inhibited leukocyte migration and specifically acted by inhibiting TNF-α release and stimulating IFN-α and IL-12 synthesis. The data presented clearly contribute to a better understanding of the use of Kunitz inhibitors in sepsis as a bioactive agent capable of interfering in blood coagulation and inflammation.
On the influence of ship motion prediction accuracy on motion planning and control of robotic manipulators on seaborne platforms

Robotic manipulators on non-inertial platforms, such as ships, have to endure large inertial forces due to the non-inertial motion of the platform. When the non-inertial platform's motion is known, motion planning and control algorithms can eliminate these perturbations—in fact, in some situations the motion planning algorithms can even leverage the inertial forces to more cheaply move to a target point. However, for many non-inertial platforms, the motion is unknown. In this paper we investigate how prediction errors and the choice of the prediction horizon affect the motion planning and control of robots mounted on a non-inertial base with a particular focus on seaborne platforms. We study the following three aspects: (i) We study prediction of ship motion and how prediction errors affect the motion planning and control of the manipulator. (ii) We evaluate the relationship between prediction accuracy and control. In particular, we study what prediction horizon length is useful for motion planning and control. We also consider how uncertainties in the ship motion predictions map to uncertainties in the future state of the robot and how to include the variance in the cost function to increase the optimal horizon length. (iii) Finally, we study a receding horizon approach, which re-solves the optimal control problem on-line over a horizon as determined to be meaningful from (ii). Several simulations are presented and, to our knowledge, for the first time experiments of ship-manipulator systems based on real ship motion data are presented.
Longitudinal Associations Between Changes in Physical Activity and Onset of Type 2 Diabetes in Older British Men

OBJECTIVE To determine how much physical activity (PA) is needed to protect against diabetes onset in older adults, whether protection is greater among overweight individuals, and whether taking up moderate activity in later life is beneficial. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Men (4,252) from a U.K. population-based cohort self-reported usual PA (regular walking and cycling, recreational activity, and sport) in 1996 and in 1998–2000, alongside other health behaviors and medical history. Fasting blood lipids were measured. Median follow-up was 7.1 years, during which 135 cases of type 2 diabetes (validated self-report) occurred. RESULTS Among 3,012 men free from cardiovascular disease and diabetes in 1998–2000, 9% reported no usual leisure-time PA, 23% occasional PA, and 15% vigorous PA. Compared with men reporting no activity, men reporting occasional, light, moderate, moderately vigorous, and vigorous PA had lower diabetes risks: hazard ratio (HR) 0.58 (95% CI 0.33–1.02), 0.39 (0.20–0.74), 0.38 (0.19–0.73), 0.39 (0.20–0.77), and 0.33 (0.16–0.70), respectively; P (trend) = 0.002, adjusted for age, social class, tobacco, alcohol, diet, and blood lipids. Adjustment for BMI, waist circumference, or fasting insulin attenuated HRs. HRs were stronger in men with BMI ≥28 vs. <28 kg/m2 (interaction P = 0.02). Compared with men reporting light activity or less in 1996 and 2000, men who became at least moderately active by 2000 or remained at least moderately active at both times had adjusted HRs of 0.62 (0.34–1.12) and 0.51 (0.31–0.82), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Even light PA markedly reduced diabetes risk in older men, especially among the overweight or obese. Taking up or maintaining at least moderate PA in older adulthood strongly protected against diabetes.
Preparation, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of bexarotene nanocrystals with surface modification by folate-chitosan conjugates

Abstract Bexarotene (Bex) is a synthetic retinoid that exhibits anti-tumor activities. However, the low solubility of the compound hinders its development. In this study, bexarotene nanocrystal was developed and its surface was modified to improve the dissolution and absorption of the drug. The nanocrystals were prepared via precipitation, high-pressure homogenization method, and modified by folate-chitosan (FA-CS), which relied on the charge interaction between the negatively charged nanocrystals and the positively charged FA-CS. The physical–chemical properties in terms of particle size, size distribution, zeta potential, morphology and crystallinity were evaluated. The results showed that bexarotene nanocrystals with surface modification by folate–chitosan conjugates (FC–NC–Bex) with a mean particle size of 631.3 ± 2.7 nm, a polydispersity index of 0.33 ± 0.06 and a zeta potential of 24.6 ± 1.9 mV was obtained. The result of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that the nanocrystals were still in crystalline state after the preparation procedure. In the in vitro dissolution test, FC-NC-Bex showed significant increase in dissolution rate compared to raw bexarotene (nearly 6.5-fold). Compared to bexarotene suspension, FC-NC-Bex exhibited significant increase in AUC0–∞ (approximately 3-fold) and Cmax (about 1.5-fold). Taken together, the results suggested that FC-NC-Bex may provide a potential opportunity in enhancing the dissolution rate of bexarotene and its gastrointestinal absorption.
Messages for men: the efficacy of EPPM-based messages targeting men's physical activity.

OBJECTIVE The majority of men are insufficiently active. Men's tendencies to participate in risky behaviors and their inactivity likely contribute to their increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Physical activity decreases the risk of developing many chronic diseases and may be an optimal behavior to target in men's health interventions. However, educational resources promoting physical activity for men are lacking. To address this gap, we tested the efficacy of messages based upon the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM; Witte, 1992) to increase men's physical activity intentions and behaviors. METHOD Men who were not meeting physical activity guidelines (n = 611) were randomly assigned to read high or low efficacy physical activity messages paired with high or no health risk information. Participants read four brief messages on four consecutive days. Intentions were assessed at baseline and the first follow-up (Day 5). Manipulation check measures were assessed at Day 5. Behavior was assessed at baseline and the second follow-up (Day 14). RESULTS Overall, the messages had small sized effects. A completer analysis revealed that although men's intentions to be active increased over the course of the study regardless of the messages they received, only men who received risk information significantly increased their physical activity. Men who received low efficacy and risk information were less likely to meet the physical activity guidelines at Day 14 than men who only received low efficacy information. CONCLUSIONS From these results, we suggest preliminary recommendations for the development of physical activity messages for men and areas for future EPPM-based research.
Exploring the Impact of Pragmatic Phenomena on Irony Detection in Tweets: A Multilingual Corpus Study

This paper provides a linguistic and pragmatic analysis of the phenomenon of irony in order to represent how Twitter’s users exploit irony devices within their communication strategies for generating textual contents. We aim to measure the impact of a wide-range of pragmatic phenomena in the interpretation of irony, and to investigate how these phenomena interact with contexts local to the tweet. Informed by linguistic theories, we propose for the first time a multi-layered annotation schema for irony and its application to a corpus of French, English and Italian tweets. We detail each layer, explore their interactions, and discuss our results according to a qualitative and quantitative perspective.
Factors Responsible For Rural Residential Water Supply Shortage In Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract Efficient water supply is very crucial to sustenance of socio-economic growth, poverty attenuation, and food security. In most rural areas of developing countries including Nigeria water supplies are not commensurate with demand leading to a shortfall in water use and many people suffer from this scenario. This research investigated the factors responsible for rural residential water supply shortage in Southeastern Nigeria. Data were collected through the use of four mixed but complimentary methods namely questionnaire survey, interviews, focus group discussions and secondary data sources. The data generated were analyzed through the use of descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Principal Component Analysis was employed to combine the variables accounting for water supply shortage into a few underlying dimensions. The results indicated that physical environment and inadequate water supply infrastructure; socio-economic and geographical location; management and socio-cultural problems are responsible for water supply shortage in the area. Residential water supply can be sustainable in the area by regulating the influence of these factors impacting on water supply as well as lessen the implications of water deficiency. The research concludes that the process of water supply development should be stepwise in accordance with the participatory and managerial capacity of communities.
A high-efficiency PWM DC-DC buck converter with a novel DCM control under light-load

This paper presents a high-efficiency PWM DC-DC buck converter with a novel discontinuous-conduction mode (DCM) control under light-load condition. It is designed by using TSMC 1.8/3.3V 0. 18µm CMOS technology. The proposed PWM buck converter with DCM operation not only can reach high efficiency in heavy-load (over 95% at 100mA loading), but also has great improvement in light-load efficiency (36.14% higher than the conventional PWM converter at 10mA loading) without using any PFM techniques. The output accuracy and the output ripples are better than PFM converters under light-load, and as good as a normal PWM converter under heavy-load. The proposed PWM converter is designed at 1.8V supply and 1V output voltage, and the maximum output power is 500mW.
K-Aggregation: Improving Accuracy for Differential Privacy Synthetic Dataset by Utilizing K-Anonymity Algorithm

Enterprises and governments around the world have been attempting to leverage intelligence from the community by making formally in-house database available to the public for analyzing. The released data was often "anonymized": sensitive attributes were removed from the dataset for privacy protection. However it is proved that masking sensitive attributes alone is not adequate for data protection. Differential privacy can be used to generate "synthetic dataset" that retain statistical properties of the original dataset and limit data-leaking risk at the same time, but there's always a trade-off between data privacy and utility. In this study we aggregate data counts across value with little counts to ease the problem of excessive error at the data value with small data count. Experiments show that K-aggregation has the potential to reduce error of count queries on value with smaller counts. Limitations of this approach are also discussed.
Home- and community-based long-term care: lessons from Denmark.

PURPOSE Denmark is cited as a model in the development of home- and community-based systems for the frail elderly population. We examined the results of this natural experiment and considered implications for U.S. policy. DESIGN AND METHODS We used international comparative policy analysis, including site visits and semistructured interviews with Danish leadership in conjunction with a review of published literature, reports, and administrative data from Denmark and the United States. RESULTS After 12 years of implementing integrated systems for home- and community-based services in 275 municipalities, growth in Danish long-term care expenditures has leveled off; expenditures appear to be decreasing for the over-80 population and have dropped as a percentage of the gross domestic product. Access to and quality of long-term care services appear to remain generally satisfactory. During this period, comparable expenditures in the United States have increased, and deficits in access and quality persist. IMPLICATIONS These findings should be of interest to state and federal policy makers considering strategies to reduce the rate of growth in Medicaid and Medicare expenditures for elders and to expand home- and community-based services.
Hay Fever and Asthma as Markers of Atopic Immune Response and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Three Large Cohort Studies

Background: In a previous analysis of 12 cancers in the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II) cohort including follow-up from 1982–2000, having both hay fever and asthma was associated with lower colorectal cancer mortality. The combination of these allergic conditions may be a marker for allergy-related immune responses that could inhibit colorectal carcinogenesis. Methods: We examined the association of having both hay fever and asthma with colorectal cancer mortality among 1,023,191 participants in CPS-I, followed from 1959–1972, and 1,102,092 participants in CPS-II, now followed from 1982–2008. We also examined associations with colorectal cancer incidence among 174,917 participants in the CPS-II Nutrition Cohort, a subgroup of CPS-II followed from 1992–2007. During the follow-up, there were 5,644 colorectal cancer deaths in CPS-I, 13,558 colorectal cancer deaths in CPS-II, and 3,365 incident colorectal cancer cases in the CPS-II Nutrition Cohort. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate multivariable-adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: RRs for colorectal cancer mortality associated with having both asthma and hay fever, compared with neither condition, were 0.90 (95% CI, 0.74–1.09) in CPS-I, 0.79 (95% CI, 0.69–0.91) in CPS-II, and 0.83 (95% CI, 0.74–0.92) when results from both cohorts were combined in a meta-analysis. The corresponding RR for colorectal cancer incidence in the CPS-II Nutrition Cohort was 0.90 (95% CI, 0.71–1.14). Conclusion: These results support an association between having both hay fever and asthma and modestly lower colorectal cancer mortality. Impact: Research examining other potential markers of allergy-related immune response in relation to colorectal cancer is warranted. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(4); 661–9. ©2013 AACR.