Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Carbohydrate Elimination or Adaptation Diet for Symptoms of Intestinal Discomfort in IBD: Rationales for “Gibsons' Conundrum”

Therapeutic use of carbohydrates in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) is discussed from two theoretical, apparent diametrically opposite perspectives: regular ingestion of prebiotics or withdrawal of virtually all carbohydrate components. Pathogenesis of IBD is discussed connecting microbial flora, host immunity, and genetic interactions. The best studied genetic example, NOD2 in Crohn's disease, is highlighted as a model which encompasses these interactions and has been shown to depend on butyrate for normal function. The role of these opposing concepts in management of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is contrasted with what is known in IBD. The conclusion reached is that, while both approaches may alleviate symptoms in both IBS and IBD, there is insufficient data yet to determine whether both approaches lead to equivalent bacterial effects in mollifying the immune system. This is particularly relevant in IBD. As such, caution is urged to use long-term carbohydrate withdrawal in IBD in remission to control IBS-like symptoms.
Inter‐Cloud architectures and application brokering: taxonomy and survey

Although Cloud computing itself has many open problems, researchers in the field have already made the leap to envision Inter‐Cloud computing. Their goal is to achieve better overall Quality of Service (QoS), reliability and cost efficiency by utilizing multiple clouds. Inter‐Cloud research is still in its infancy, and the body of knowledge in the area has not been well defined yet. In this work, we propose and motivate taxonomies for Inter‐Cloud architectures and application brokering mechanisms. We present a detailed survey of the state of the art in terms of both academic and industry developments (20 projects), and we fit each project onto the discussed taxonomies. We discuss how the current Inter‐Cloud environments facilitate brokering of distributed applications across clouds considering their nonfunctional requirements. Finally, we analyse the existing works and identify open challenges and trends in the area of Inter‐Cloud application brokering. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Global Public Goods Approach to the Health of Migrants

This paper explores a global public goods approach to the health of migrants. It suggests that this approach establishes that there are a number of health goods which must be provided to migrants not because these are theirs by right (although this may independently be the case), but because these goods are primary goods which fit the threefold criteria of global public goods. There are two key advantages to this approach: first, it is non-confrontational and non-oppositional, and second, it provides self-interested arguments to provide at least some health goods to migrants and thus appeals to those little moved by rights-based arguments.
Resveratrol attenuates doxorubicin-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis in mice through SIRT1-mediated deacetylation of p53.

AIMS Doxorubicin (DOX) is an anthracycline drug with a wide spectrum of clinical antineoplastic activity, but increased apoptosis has been implicated in its cardiotoxicity. Resveratrol (RES) was shown to harbour major health benefits in diseases associated with oxidative stress. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of RES on DOX-induced myocardial apoptosis in mice. METHODS AND RESULTS Male Balb/c mice were randomized to one of the following four treatments: saline, RES, DOX, or RES plus DOX (10 mice in each group). DOX treatment markedly depressed cardiac function, decreased the heart weight, the body weight, and the ratio of heart weight to body weight, but inversely increased the level of protein carbonyl, malondialdehyde, and serum lactate dehydrogenase, and induced mitochondrial cytochrome c release and cardiomyocyte apoptosis. However, these effects of DOX were ameliorated by its combination with RES. Further studies with a co-immunoprecipitation assay revealed an interaction between p53 and Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1). It was found by western blot and electrophoretic mobility shift assay that DOX treatment increased p53 protein acetylation and cytochrome c release from mitochondria, activated p53 binding at the Bax promoter, and up-regulated Bax expression, but supplementation with RES could weaken all these effects. CONCLUSION The protective effect of RES against DOX-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis is associated with the up-regulation of SIRT1-mediated p53 deacetylation.
Design and analysis of FPGA/FPIC switch modules

Switch modules are the most important component of the routing resources in FPGAs and FPICs. The quality of switch modules greatly affects FPGA/FPIC routing solutions. The switch-module design problem was studied by K. Zhu et al. (1993). In order to analyze the routability of designed switch modules, a heuristic algorithm based on network-flow techniques was proposed. In this paper, we mathematically show that the network-flow based algorithm has provably good performance with the bounds 5 and 5/4 away from the optima for two types of switch modules, respectively. Based on the analyses, we developed a new method for designing switch modules. Experimental results show that our designed switch modules significantly improve routability, compared with those by K. Zhu et al. Extensive experiments also show that the network-flow based algorithm is highly accurate and runs very efficiently.
Feature Toggles: Practitioner Practices and a Case Study

Continuous delivery and rapid releases have led to innovative techniques for integrating new features and bug fixes into a new release faster. To reduce the probability of integration conflicts, major software companies, including Google, Facebook and Netflix, use feature toggles to incrementally integrate and test new features instead of integrating the feature only when it’s ready. Even after release, feature toggles allow operations managers to quickly disable a new feature that is behaving erratically or to enable certain features only for certain groups of customers. Since literature on feature toggles is surprisingly slim, this paper tries to understand the prevalence and impact of feature toggles. First, we conducted a quantitative analysis of feature toggle usage across 39 releases of Google Chrome (spanning five years of release history). Then, we studied the technical debt involved with feature toggles by mining a spreadsheet used by Google developers for feature toggle maintenance. Finally, we performed thematic analysis of videos and blog posts of release engineers at major software companies in order to further understand the strengths and drawbacks of feature toggles in practice. We also validated our findings with four Google developers. We find that toggles can reconcile rapid releases with long-term feature development and allow flexible control over which features to deploy. However they also introduce technical debt and additional maintenance for developers.
Anomaly Detection in Emergency Call Data The First Step to the Intelligent Emergency Call System Management

A collaborative Emergency call taking information system in the Czech Republic processes calls on the European 112 emergency number. Amounts of various incident records are stored in its databases. The data can be used for mining spatial and temporal anomalies. When such an anomalous situation is detected so that the system could suffer from local or temporal performance decrease, either a human, or an automatic management module could take measures to reconfigure the system traffic and balance its load. In this paper we describe a method of knowledge discovery and visualization with respect to the emergency call taking information system database characteristics. The method is based on Kohonen Self Organizing Map (SOM) algorithm. Transformations of categorical attributes into numeric values are proposed to prepare training set appropriate for successful SOM generation.
Moduli of Bridgeland semistable objects on P2

Let X be a smooth projective surface and DðX Þ the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves on X . We study Bridgeland stability conditions s on DðX Þ. We show that if a stability condition s has a certain property, the moduli space of s-(semi)stable objects in DðX Þ coincides with a certain moduli space of Gieseker-(semi)stable coherent sheaves on X . On the other hand, when X has a full strong exceptional collection, we define the notion of s being ‘‘algebraic’’, and we show that for any algebraic stability condition salg, the moduli space of salg-(semi)stable objects in D ðXÞ coincides with a certain moduli space of modules over a finite dimensional C-algebra. Using these observations, we construct moduli spaces of Gieseker-(semi)stable coherent sheaves on P as moduli spaces of certain modules (Theorem 5.1). This gives a new proof (§5.3) of Le Potier’s result [P] and establishes some related results (§6).
A Qualitative Investigation of the Motivation of College Students with Nonvisible Disabilities to Utilize Disability Services.

Students with disabilities experience unique challenges in college. Whereas universities offer support services to students with disabilities, students typically must disclose their disability in order to utilize such services. One important distinction regarding the disclosure of disabilities concerns the visibility of the disability, as students with nonvisible disabilities may have more choice concerning disclosure. Even students who disclose their disability, however, often either do not utilize the available support services or utilize them ineffectively. This study explored the motivation of college students with disabilities to disclose their disability and utilize university support resources. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to explore the way students with nonvisible disabilities made meaning of being a college student with a disability and how these meanings related to their choice to use support services. Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000a) was used as the theoretical framework to guide this study. The analysis identified six themes within which students’ experiences were analyzed as more or less supportive of their psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. An important conclusion of the analysis was that students’ motivation and decision to utilize support services was framed by the level of acceptance of their disability; that is, their integration of their disability to their authentic self. Different levels of integration of the disability in students’ narratives suggested different levels of support for the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, particularly by significant adults at home and in high school.
Is the Pain Worth the Gain? The Advantages and Liabilities of Agreeing With Socially Distinct Newcomers

The impact of diversity on group functioning is multifaceted. Exploring the impact of having a newcomer join a group, the authors conducted a 2 (social similarity of newcomer to oldtimers; in-group or out-group) × 3 (opinion agreement: newcomer has no opinion ally, one opinion ally, or two opinion allies) interacting group experiment with four-person groups. Groups with out-group newcomers (i.e., diverse groups) reported less confidence in their performance and perceived their interactions as less effective, yet they performed better than groups with in-group newcomers (i.e., homogeneous groups). Moreover, performance gains were not due to newcomers bringing new ideas to the group discussion. Instead, the results demonstrate that the mere presence of socially distinct newcomers and the social concerns their presence stimulates among oldtimers motivates behavior that can convert affective pains into cognitive gains.
Localization, quantification, and activation of plateletactivating factor receptor in human endometrium during the menstrual cycle: PAF stimulates NO, VEGF, and FAKpp125

Implantation is characterized by an inflammatory‐like response with expansion of extracellular fluid volume, increased vascular permeability, and vasodilatation. These effects are believed to be mediated at the paracrine level by prostaglandin E2 and platelet‐activating factor (PAF), but the cellular mechanism (or mechanisms) remains largely unknown. We demonstrate that PAF receptor (PAF‐R) immunoreactivity and mRNA are detected in proliferative and secretory endometrial glands, however, the responsiveness of endometrium to physiological concentrations of PAF is confined predominantly to the secretory endometrium. Semiquantitative reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction revealed that PAF‐R transcript levels were highest in the mid‐late proliferative and late secretory phases of the cycle. Interaction of PAF with its receptor resulted in the rapid release of nitric oxide (NO), increased expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and activation of FAKpp125, a focal adhesion kinase, demonstrating that the PAF‐R is functionally active. Inhibition of NO synthesis by NG‐monomethyl‐L‐arginine produced dose‐dependent attenuation of PAF‐evoked NO release, indicating NOS activation; the dependency of PAF‐evoked NO release on PKC and extracellular Ca2+ was confirmed by PKC inhibitor Ro 31–8220 and by the removal of extracellular Ca2+. PAF up‐regulated VEGF gene expression in a concentration‐ and time‐dependent fashion in human endometrial epithelial cell lysates. Transcription of VEGF was rapidly followed by secretion of the protein. These data support our premise that this auto‐coid acts as an angiogenic mediator in the regeneration of the endometrium after menses and as a vasodilator to promote blastocyst attachment during the implantation process. —Ahmed, A. , Dearn, S. , Shams, M. , Li, X. F. , Sangha, R. K. , Rola‐Pleszczynski Marek, Jiang Jianqiao, Localization, quantification, and activation of plateletactivating factor receptor in human endometrium during the menstrual cycle: PAF stimulates NO, VEGF, and FAKpp125. FASEB J. 12, 831–843 (1998)
A Hierarchical GIST Model Embedding Multiple Biological Feasibilities for Scene Classification

We propose a hierarchical GIST model embedding multiple biological feasibilities for scene classification. In the perceptual layer, spatial layout of Gabor features are extracted in a bio-vision guided way: introducing diagnostic color information, tuning the orientations and scales of Gabor filters, as well as the spacial pooling size to a biological feasible value. In the conceptual layer, for the first time, we attempt to build a computational model for the biological conceptual GIST by kernel PCA based prototype representation, which is specific task orientated as biological GIST, and also in accordance with the unsupervised learning assumption in the primary visual cortex and prototype similarity based categorization in human cognition. Using around $200$ dimensions, our model is shown to outperform existing GIST models, and to achieve state-of-the-art performances on four scene datasets.
Non-selective β-blockers in advanced cirrhosis: a critical review of the effects on overall survival and renal function

Introduction Non-selective β-blockers (NSBBs) are widely prescribed in patients with cirrhosis for primary and secondary prophylaxis of bleeding oesophageal varices. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the clinical benefits of NSBBs may extend beyond their haemodynamic effects. Recently, a potentially harmful effect has been described in patients with refractory ascites or spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Methodology A comprehensive literature search on β-blockers and cirrhosis survival using the electronic databases PubMed/MEDLINE, AMED, CINAHL and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Full-text manuscripts published over more than 35 years, from 1980 to April 2016 were reviewed for relevance and reference lists were cross-checked for additional pertinent studies regarding potential NSBB effects, especially focused on those concerned with survival and/or acute kidney injury (AKI). Discussion The proposed review will be able to provide valuable evidence to help decision making in the use of NSBB for the treatment of advanced cirrhosis and highlights some limitations in existing evidence to direct future research.
When Feelings Lack Precision: Low Positive and Negative Emotion Differentiation and Depressive Symptoms in Daily Life

Research suggests the ability to differentiate discrete emotions protects against psychopathology. Little is known about daily processes through which negative and positive emotion differentiation (NED, PED) influence depressive symptomatology. We examined NED and PED as moderators of associations between daily processes (negative/positive experiences, brooding, and savoring) and daily depressive symptoms. Hypotheses were tested using intensive longitudinal techniques in two samples oversampled for depression: 157 young adults (Study 1) and 50 veterans recruited from VA primary care (Study 2). In Study 1, low NED predicted stronger associations between daily brooding and depressive symptoms. In Study 2, low NED predicted stronger reactivity to daily negative events. In both studies, low PED strengthened salutary effects of positive experiences and savoring on symptoms. Largely consistent across demographically divergent samples, results suggest both low NED and PED enhance effects of daily events and perseverative self-focus on fluctuations in depressive symptoms.
Computing Circumscriptive Databases by Integer Programming: Revisited

In this paper, we consider a method of computing minimal models in circumscription using integer programming in propositional logic and first-order logic with domain closure axioms and unique name axioms. This kind of treatment is very important since this enable to apply various technique developed in operations research to nonmonotonic reasoning. (Nerode et al., 1995) are the first to propose a method of computing circumscription using integer programming. They claimed their method was correct for circumscription with fixed predicates, but we show that their method does not correctly reflect their claim. We show a correct method of computing all the minimal models not only with fixed predicates but also with varied predicates and we extend our method to compute prioritized circumscription as well.
The Spread of HIV in Pakistan: Bridging of the Epidemic between Populations

In the last two decades, ‘concentrated epidemics’ of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have established in several high risk groups in Pakistan, including Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) and among men who have sex with men (MSM). To explore the transmission patterns of HIV infection in these major high-risk groups of Pakistan, 76 HIV samples were analyzed from MSM, their female spouses and children, along with 26 samples from a previously studied cohort of IDUs. Phylogenetic analysis of HIV gag gene sequences obtained from these samples indicated a substantial degree of intermixing between the IDU and MSM populations, suggesting a bridging of HIV infection from IDUs, via MSM, to the MSM spouses and children. HIV epidemic in Pakistan is now spreading to the female spouses and offspring of bisexual MSM. HIV control and awareness programs must be refocused to include IDUs, MSM, as well as bisexual MSM, and their spouses and children.
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 the Interplay between Habitat Structure and Chemical Contaminants on Biotic Responses of Benthic Organisms

Habitat structure influences the diversity and distribution of organisms, potentially affecting their response to disturbances by either affecting their 'susceptibility' or through the provision of resources that can mitigate impacts of disturbances. Chemical disturbances due to contamination are associated with decreases in diversity and functioning of systems and are also likely to increase due to coastal urbanisation. Understanding how habitat structure interacts with contaminants is essential to predict and therefore manage such effects, minimising their consequences to marine systems. Here, we manipulated two structurally different habitats and exposed them to different types of contaminants. The effects of contamination and habitat structure interacted, affecting species richness. More complex experimental habitats were colonized by a greater diversity of organisms than the less complex habitats. These differences disappeared, however, when habitats were exposed to contaminants, suggesting that contaminants can override effects of habitats structure at small spatial scales. These results provide insight into the complex ways that habitat structure and contamination interact and the need to incorporate evidence of biotic responses from individual disturbances to multiple stressors. Such effects need to be taken into account when designing and planning management and conservation strategies to natural systems.
Cooperative live video multicast for small cell base stations with overlapping coverage

In this paper, we present a cooperative video multicast protocol for densely deployed small cells. We assume that the small cell Base Stations (BS) have overlapping coverages and they are allowed to have interfering transmissions. The proposed cooperative multicast protocol realizes a two-hop transmission system where each hop has its own time slot. In the first hop, the small cell base stations simultaneously transmit the packets to the relays who are also the users of multicast transmission. The relays then follow the optimal strategy under interference conditions and apply successive interference cancellation (SIC) decoding. In the second hop, the relays apply a Distributed Space Time Code (DSTC) that dynamically adapts itself based on the result of SIC and broadcast the result. This cooperative transmission scheme is complemented with application layer Forward Error Correction (FEC) in order to handle the remaining packet level losses. Through extensive simulations, we investigate the performance of the proposed scheme and show that the proposed protocol can efficiently handle inter-user interference, leading to superior performance over the state-of-the-art purely orthogonal cooperative transmission schemes.
The Extent and Consequences of P-Hacking in Science

A focus on novel, confirmatory, and statistically significant results leads to substantial bias in the scientific literature. One type of bias, known as “p-hacking,” occurs when researchers collect or select data or statistical analyses until nonsignificant results become significant. Here, we use text-mining to demonstrate that p-hacking is widespread throughout science. We then illustrate how one can test for p-hacking when performing a meta-analysis and show that, while p-hacking is probably common, its effect seems to be weak relative to the real effect sizes being measured. This result suggests that p-hacking probably does not drastically alter scientific consensuses drawn from meta-analyses.