Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Partially Observable Online Contingent Planning Using Landmark Heuristics

In contingent planning problems, agents have partial information about their state anduse sensing actions to learn the value of some variables.When sensing and actuation are separated, plans for such problems can often be viewed as a tree of sensing actions, separated by conformant plans consisting of non-sensing actions that enable the execution of the next sensing action. This leads us to propose a heuristic, online method for contingent planning which focuses on identifying thenext useful sensing action. The key part of our planner is a novel landmarks-based heuristic for selecting the next sensing action, together with a projection method that uses classical planning to solve the intermediate conformant planning problems.This allows our planner to operate without an explicit model of belief space or the use of existing translation techniques,both of which can require exponential space. The resulting Heuristic Contingent Planner (HCP) solves many more problems than state-of-the-art, translation-based online contingent planners, and in most cases much faster.
VariCarta: a comprehensive database of harmonized genomic variants found in ASD sequencing studies

Background Recent years has seen a boom in the application of the next-generation sequencing technology to the study of human diseases, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), where the focus has been on identifying rare, possibly causative genomic variants in ASD individuals. Because of the high genetic heterogeneity of ASD, a large number of subjects is needed to establish evidence for a variant or gene ASD-association, thus aggregating data across cohorts and studies is necessary. However, methodological inconsistencies and subject overlap across studies complicate data aggregation. Description Here we present VariCarta, a web-based database developed to address these challenges by collecting, reconciling and consistently cataloguing literature-derived genomic variants found in ASD subjects using ongoing semi-manual curation. The careful manual curation combined with a robust data import pipeline rectifies errors, converts variants into a standardized format, identifies and harmonizes cohort overlaps and documents data provenance. The harmonization aspect is especially important since it prevents the potential double-counting of variants which can lead to inflation of gene-based evidence for ASD-association. Conclusion VariCarta is the largest collection of systematically curated, harmonized and comprehensively annotated literature-derived ASD-associated variants. The database currently contains 35,615 variant events from 8,044 subjects, collected across 50 publications, and reconciles 6,057 variants that have been reported in literature multiple times. VariCarta is freely accessible at http://varicarta.msl. ubc.ca.
Effect of Cardiorespiratory Fitness on Vascular Regulation and Oxidative Stress in Postmenopausal Women

Increasing evidence exists suggesting an important role for oxidative stress in the pathogenesis and progression of hypertension in women via a decrease of NO production after menopause. Regular physical training has been shown to upregulate antioxidant enzymatic systems, which may slow down the usual increase of oxidative stress in postmenopausal women. The aims of this study were to determine the impact of fitness status on enzymatic antioxidant efficiency, oxidative stress, and NO production and to determine the associations among oxidative stress, enzymatic antioxidant and NO production, mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), and cerebrovascular conductance (CVC) in postmenopausal women (n=40; 50 to 90 years old). Physical fitness, physical activity, resting MABP, and CVC were measured. End product of NO, lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde and 8-iso-prostaglandin F2&agr;), DNA oxidation (8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine), protein nitration (nitrotyrosine), antioxidant glutathione peroxidase, and catalase activities were measured in plasma. We identified significant negative associations between oxidative stress and indices of physical fitness (malondialdehyde: r=−0.33, P<0.05; 8-iso-prostaglandin F2&agr;: r=−0.39, P<0.05; 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine: r=−0.35, P<0.05) and physical activity (malondialdehyde: r=−0.30, P<0.05; 8-iso-prostaglandin F2&agr;: r=−0.41, P<0.01; 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine: r=−0.39, P<0.05). Conversely, glutathione peroxidase was positively correlated with fitness level (r=0.55; P<0.01). Finally, MABP and CVC were significantly associated with 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (MABP: r=0.36, P<0.05; CVC: r=−0.36, P<0.05), nitrotyrosine (MABP: r=0.39, P<0.05; CVC: r=−0.32, P<0.05), and the end product of NO (MABP: r=−0.57, P<0.01; CVC: r=0.44, P<0.01). These findings demonstrate that, after menopause, fitness level and regular physical activity mediate against oxidative stress by maintaining antioxidant enzyme efficiency. Furthermore, these results suggest that oxidative stress and NO production modulate MABP and CVC.
Emotional Labour and Wellbeing: What Protects Nurses?

Although compassionate care has wide-ranging benefits for patients, it can be emotionally demanding for healthcare staff. This may be a particular problem for those with little experience in a caring role. This study utilises the job demands-resources model to examine links between “emotional labour” and emotional exhaustion in student nurses. In line with the triple-match principle—whereby interactive effects are more likely when job demands, resources, and outcomes are within the same qualitative domain—the protective role of emotional support and emotion-focused coping (i.e., emotional venting) in the relationship between emotional labour and exhaustion is also explored. An online questionnaire was completed by 351 student nurses with experience working in healthcare settings. A strong positive relationship was found between emotional labour and emotional exhaustion, and some support was found for the moderating effects of emotional support and emotion-focused coping. Ways to help student and qualified nurses develop the emotional resilience required to protect their wellbeing, while providing high-quality compassionate care to patients are considered.
A new approach to communications using chaotic signals

In this paper, a new approach for communication using chaotic signals is presented. In this approach, the transmitter contains a chaotic oscillator with a parameter that is modulated by an information signal. The receiver consists of a synchronous chaotic subsystem augmented with a nonlinear filter for recovering the information signal. The general architecture is demonstrated for Lorenz and Rossler systems using numerical simulations. An electronic circuit implementation using Chua's circuit is also reported, which demonstrates the practicality of the approach.
A layered P2- and O3-type composite as a high-energy cathode for rechargeable sodium-ion batteries.

A layered composite with P2 and O3 integration is proposed toward a sodium-ion battery with high energy density and long cycle life. The integration of P2 and O3 structures in this layered oxide is clearly characterized by XRD refinement, SAED and HAADF and ABF-STEM at atomic resolution. The biphase synergy in this layered P2+O3 composite is well established during the electrochemical reaction. This layered composite can deliver a high reversible capacity with the largest energy density of 640 mAh g(-1), and it also presents good capacity retention over 150 times of sodium extraction and insertion.
Breeding Performance of a Captive Colony of Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatto)

Summary For most of the 18 years recorded, fewer than 50% of the adult females gave birth in any one year. The colony, of 6 social groups, showed a clear-cut breeding season. Female parity and dominance had no effect on breeding rate, though 1st infants were born earlier in the year than 2nd-born ones. Only when females gave birth in successive years were the months of giving birth correlated. Mothers and daughters may tend to give birth closer in time within a breeding season than do other females.
Hypocalcaemia as a prognostic factor of early mortality in moderate and severe traumatic brain injury

Abstract Objectives: Our main objective was to evaluate whether serum hypocalcaemia on the third day [defined as < 2·1 mmol/l (8·5 mg/dl)] is a prognostic factor for early mortality after moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: We developed an ambispective comparative case control study. We evaluated clinical profiles from included patients from January 2005 to July 2009 and we prospectively recruited additional patients from August 2009 to July 2011. Patients were between 1 and 89 years old and had a Glasgow Coma Scale of 3–12 points following TBI. Results: We calculated an Odds Ratio of 5·2 (Confidence Intervals 95%: 4·48 to 6·032) for hypocalcaemia on day three, which was associated with death. Retrospectively (January 2005 to July 2009) we compiled data from 81 patients. Prospectively (August 2009 to July 2011) we recruited 41 patients. The adjusted variables in the logistic regression final model were: serum calcium on day three (Odds Ratio 3·5, Confidence Intervals 95%: 1·12 to 13·61, P < 0·028) and anisocoria (Odds Ratio 8·24, Confidence Intervals 95%: 1·3 to 67·35, P < 0·019) obtaining an adjusted R2 of 0·22 (P < 0·005). Discussion: The serum levels of calcium on day three could be useful for the prediction of mortality in patients with moderate and severe TBI.
Efficiently enforcing spatiotemporal access control under uncertain location information

In a mobile environment, user's physical location plays an important role in determining access to resources. However, because current moving object databases do not keep the exact location of the moving objects, but rather maintain their approximate location for reasons of minimizing the updates, the access request evaluation cannot always guarantee the intended access control policy requirements. This may be risky to the system's security, especially for highly sensitive resources. In this paper, we introduce an authorization model that takes the uncertainty of location measures into consideration for specifying and evaluating access control policies. An access request is granted only if the confidence level of the location predicate exceeds the predefined uncertainty threshold level specified in the policy. However, this access request evaluation is computationally expensive as it requires to evaluate a location predicate condition and may also require evaluating the entire moving object database. For reducing the cost of evaluation, in this paper, we compute lower and upper bounds (R min and R max) on the region that minimize the region to be evaluated, thereby allowing unneeded moving objects to be discarded from evaluation. To further minimize the region of evaluation, we propose to compute R′ min and R′ max that have smaller filter size so that filtering more objects out for evaluation. In addition, we extend our approach such that it does not require assumptions on the probability distribution functions. We show how these filters R min, R max, R′ min, and R′ max can be computed and maintained, and provide algorithms to process access requests.
Perspectives on Child Behavior Problems: Comparisons of Children's Self-Reports with Parent and Teacher Reports

Associations among parents', teachers', and children's self-reports of internalizing and externalizing child behavior problems were examined in two studies. In the first, both teachers' and parents' reports were modestly and independently associated with children's self-reported behavior problems. In the second, mothers' and fathers' reports of their children's behavior problems were moderately associated with parents' self-reports of their own psychological symptoms as well as with their children's self-reports of their behavior problems. Implications of these studies for the use of multiple perspectives in the assessment of children's behavior problems are discussed. An emerging trend in the development and use of behavior checklists is the advent of versions of these measures to obtain children's self-reports of their own problems (e.g., Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1987; Finch & Rogers, 1984). An essential step in the further development of measures of children's self-reports involves examining their association with the reports of other informants, especially parents and teachers. Two issues warrant further attention in this regard: (a) To what extent do children's self-reports agree with the reports of other informants observing their behavior in different situations? and (b) What factors affect the association between the child's report and other informants' reports in the same situation?
Non‐Melanoma Skin Cancers between the Years of 1990 and 1999 in Izmir, Turkey: Demographic and Clinicopathological Characteristics

The incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) has been rapidly increasing in epidemic proportions all over the world. The purpose was to evaluate the demographic and clinico‐pathological patterns of skin cancers in Izmir, a region with high ultraviolet light exposure. The study was retrospective and hospital‐based. The data related to all NMSC patients registered from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 1999, in the Dermatology Department of Ege University Medical School in Izmir, were collected and analyzed according to the personal statistics, anatomic location, dimensions of the lesion and clinical and histopathological type of skin cancer. A total number of 2,879 patients, aged between 20 and 96 years, were included in the study; among them 1,633 were men and 1,246 were women. The mean age of the patient population was 62.81 years, with a standard deviation of 12.50 years. Among the tumour patients, there were 2,062 basal cell carcinomas (BCCs), 746 squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) and 71 both BCC and SCC; the total number of lesions was 3,186 (2,339 BCCs, 847 SCCs). Of all the NMSC lesions studied, the highest percentage (46.6%) were located on the face. For the BCCs, the most frequent histopathological subtype was the solid pattern (50.74%). The mean male: female ratios for SCC and BCC lesions were 2.86 and 1.01, respectively. Nodular and ulcerative forms (69.8%) were the most commonly found clinical types. Of all NMSCs, 78.4% had diameters in the 11 to 20 mm. BCC is the most common type of skin cancer diagnosed in our region. Among the NMSC patients, farming was the most widespread and risky job. The majority of SCC tumors were observed mostly in men 60 years old or above. This is the first comprehensive description of NMSCs in our region.
Estimation of Impulse Response Functions When Shocks Are Observed at a Higher Frequency Than Outcome Variables

Abstract This article proposes mixed-frequency distributed-lag (MFDL) estimators of impulse response functions in a setup where (i) the shock of interest is observed, (ii) the impact variable of interest is observed at a lower frequency (as a temporally aggregated or sequentially sampled variable), (iii) the data generating process (DGP) is given by a VAR model at the frequency of the shock, and (iv) the full set of relevant endogenous variables entering the DGP is unknown or unobserved. Consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed MFDL estimators is established, and their small-sample performance is documented by a set of Monte Carlo experiments. The usefulness of MFDL estimator is then illustrated in three empirical applications: (i) the daily pass-through of shocks to crude oil prices observed at the daily frequency to U.S. gasoline consumer prices observed at the weekly frequency, (ii) the impact of shocks to global investors’ risk appetite on global capital flows, and (iii) the impact of monetary policy shocks on real activity.
A Low-Power Microcontroller in a 40-nm CMOS Using Charge Recycling

A 40-nm microcontroller featuring voltage stacked memory and logic is presented. This involved connecting the power domains of the memory and logic in series, such that the ground of one power domain is connected to the positive supply rail of the other. In this paper, an ARM Cortex-M0+ and its peripherals are powered from 0 V to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{{\mathrm{DD}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, while its 4-kB ROM and the 16-kB SRAM are powered from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{{\mathrm{DD}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to 2 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{{\mathrm{DD}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Since the memory and logic will, in general, draw different supply currents, the midrail <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{{\mathrm{DD}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is provided by an on-chip switched capacitor voltage regulator (SCVR). To allow a direct comparison of voltage stacking with a conventional single supply, it can be turned off by configuring the SCVR to power both the memory and logic from 0 V and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{{\mathrm{DD}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Turning on voltage stacking results in 96% power conversion efficiency, while the active converter area is reduced by 2.6<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Despite the use of a smaller SCVR, the voltage stacking reduces the supply noise by 3.4 dB and the output voltage drops from 58 to 36 mV.
Mediation by the Protein-tyrosine Kinase Tec of Signaling between the B Cell Antigen Receptor and Dok-1*

A variety of growth factor receptors induce the tyrosine phosphorylation of a nonreceptor protein-tyrosine kinase Tec as well as that of a Tec-binding protein of 62 kDa. Given the similarity in properties between this 62-kDa protein and p62Dok-1, the possibility that these two proteins are identical was investigated. Overexpression of a constitutively active form of Tec in a pro-B cell line induced the hyperphosphorylation of endogenous Dok-1. Tec also associated with Dok-1 in a phosphorylation-dependent manner in 293 cells. Tec mediated marked phosphorylation of Dok-1 both in vivo and in vitro, and this effect required both the Tec homology and Src homology 2 domains of Tec in addition to its kinase activity. Expression of Dok-1 in 293 cells induced inhibition of Ras activity, suggesting that Dok-1 is a negative regulator of Ras. In the immature B cell line Ramos, cross-linking of the B cell antigen receptor (BCR) resulted in tyrosine phosphorylation of Dok-1, and this effect was markedly inhibited by expression of dominant negative mutants of Tec. Furthermore, overexpression of Dok-1 inhibited activation of the c-fos promoter induced by stimulation of the BCR. These results suggest that Tec is an important mediator of signaling from the BCR to Dok-1.
Submucosal tunneling endoscopic resection for upper gastrointestinal multiple submucosal tumors originating from the muscular propria layer: a feasibility study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In recent years, submucosal tunneling endoscopic resection (STER) was applied more and more often for single gastrointestinal (GI) submucosal tumor (SMT). However, little is known about this technique for treating multiple SMTs in GI tract. In the present study, we investigated the feasibility and outcome of STER for upper GI multiple SMTs originating from the muscularis propria (MP) layer. PATIENTS AND METHODS A feasibility study was carried out including a consecutive cohort of 23 patients with multiple SMTs from MP layer in esophagus, cardia, and upper corpus who were treated by STER from June 2011 to June 2014. Clinicopathological, demographic, and endoscopic data were collected and analyzed. RESULTS All of the 49 SMTs were resected completely by STER technique. Furthermore, only one tunnel was built for multiple SMTs of each patient in this study. En bloc resection was achieved in all 49 tumors. The median size of all the resected tumors was 1.5 cm (range 0.8-3.5 cm). The pathological results showed that all the tumors were leiomyoma, and the margins of the resected specimens were negative. The median procedure time was 40 min (range: 20-75 min). Gas-related complications were of the main complications, the rates of subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum, pneumothorax, and pneumoperitoneum were 13.0%, 8.7% and 4.3%. Another common complication was thoracic effusion that occurred in 2 cases (8.7%), among which only 1 case (4.3%) with low-grade fever got the drainage. Delayed bleeding, esophageal fistula or hematocele, and infection in tunnel were not detected after the operation there were no treatment-related deaths. The median hospital stay was 4 days (range, 2-9 days). No residual or recurrent lesion was found during the follow-up period (median 18, ranging 3-36 months). CONCLUSION Submucosal tunneling endoscopic resection is a safe and efficient technique for treating multiple esophageal SMTs originating from MP layer, which can avoid patients suffering repeated resections.
Size Matters More Than Chemistry for Cloud-Nucleating Ability of Aerosol Particles

Size-resolved cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) spectra measured for various aerosol types at a non-urban site in Germany showed that CCN concentrations are mainly determined by the aerosol number size distribution. Distinct variations of CCN activation with particle chemical composition were observed but played a secondary role. When the temporal variation of chemical effects on CCN activation is neglected, variation in the size distribution alone explains 84 to 96% of the variation in CCN concentrations. Understanding that particles' ability to act as CCN is largely controlled by aerosol size rather than composition greatly facilitates the treatment of aerosol effects on cloud physics in regional and global models.
Treatment With an Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Protein Prolongs Mouse Islet Allograft Survival

An interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein was evaluated with regard to its efficacy in allogeneic and xenogeneic islet transplantation. Alloxan-induced diabetic C57BL/6 (H-2b) mice were transplanted under the kidney capsule with 500 C57BL/Ks (H-2d) mouse islets. Alzet osmotic pumps, which release their content over an 11- to 13-day period, were implanted subcutaneously for continuous infusion of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein (1.0, 5.0, 8.0 mg · kg−1 · day−1) or phosphate-buffered saline. Blood glucose determinations were performed every second or third day; at death, the islet-bearing kidneys were morphologically evaluated. Mice treated initially with the higher interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein concentrations were followed for an additional period after cessation of the drug release to evaluate whether a transitory interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein treatment would induce tolerance to the graft. All phosphate-buffered saline–treated mice were hyperglycemic 11 days after islet allotransplantation. Most of their grafts were heavily infiltrated with mononuclear cells. In the various interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein–treated groups, 60–80% of the mice were normoglycemic after 11 days. Moreover, light microscopic examinations showed that most mice treated with interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein had normal islet grafts or grafts infiltrated with only a few mononuclear cells. After interruption of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein infusion (8.0 mg · kg−1 · day−1), all animals developed hyperglycemia within 2–9 days. In xenogeneic experiments, 500–750 fetal porcine islet-like cell clusters were transplanted under the kidney capsule of normoglycemic C57BL/6 mice. These animals were treated either with interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein (8.0 mg · kg−1 · day−1) or phosphate-buffered saline. Examination of graft morphology on day 11 showed similarly rejected grafts in both groups. In conclusion, these data suggest that interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein protects islet allograft, but not xenograft, against acute rejection. Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein may become useful as an adjuvant immunosuppressive drug after human islet transplantation.