Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Role of Ground Actions in Refinement Planning

Less than a decade ago, the focus in refinement planning was on partial order planners using lifted actions. Today, the currently most successful refinement planners are all state space planners using ground actions—i.e. actions where all parameters have been substituted by objects. In this paper, we address the role of ground actions in refinement planning, and present empirical results indicating that their role is twofold. First, planning with ground actions represents a bias towards early commitment of parameter bindings. Second, ground actions help enforce joint parameter domain constraints. By implementing these two techniques in a least commitment planner such as UCPOP, together with using an informed heuristic function to guide the search for solutions, we show that we often need to generate far fewer plans than when planning with ground action, while the number of explored plans remains about the same. In some cases a vast reduction can also be achieved in the number of explored plans.
HEMOPHILIA-SPECIFIC QUALITY OF LIFE INDEX (Haemo-QoL AND Haem-A-QoL QUESTIONNAIRES) OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS: Result of a Single Center from Turkey

The aim of this study is to describe the health status, health care received, and their impact on the quality of life in patients with hemophilia. Patients with severe factor VIII or IX deficiency without inhibitors or other chronic disease were enrolled. Turkish version of the Hemophilia-Specific Quality of Life Index (Haemo-QoL) questionnaire was administered to the pediatric patients aged 4 to 16 years and Haem-A-QoL to the adult patients. Joints were evaluated according to the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) orthopedic joint scores.Thirty-nine children/adolescents and 31 adult patients were enrolled. Mean Haemo-QoL scores were 39.6 ± 15.0 for the children and mean Haem-A-QoL 47.4 ± 14.1 for the adult patients, respectively. Internal consistency reliability was generally sufficient. Total Cronbach's alpha coefficient was >. 70 (range .77–.96) in all the age groups. Mean total WFH orthopedic joint scores were 1.83 ± 2.7, 4.9 ± 4.96, and 6.94 ± 6.15 in 4–7, 8–12, and 13–16-year-old groups, respectively. They were more impaired in the adult patients (16.23 ±14.12). These results show that the Turkish version of the Haemo-QoL and Haem-A-QoL are reliable instruments to measure the quality of life in the pediatric and adult patients with severe hemophilia. When compared to the Haemo-QoL scores of an international multicenter West European study of children, quality of life in the Turkish patients were more impaired in the subscales of physical health, feeling, view, school and sport, and treatment as well as more impaired WFH joint scores. The authors recommend primary factor prophylaxis and encouraging the patients to learn home treatment to improve joint scores and quality of life.
Exploring Price-Independent Mechanisms in the Obesity Epidemic

Obesity is a rapidly growing epidemic in the United States and a major public health challenge worldwide. To counteract this epidemic effectively, better understanding of its mechanisms are needed - we must understand not just what factors play a role, but how and why they matter. Most studies to date have focused on prices, technology, and the general availability of food. Less attention has been paid to the roles of social influence and the physiology of energy balance - despite growing evidence that both play important roles. In this paper, we present some initial findings from our analysis of two non-price mechanisms for obesity: the physiology of dieting, and socially influenced weight changes.
An Efficient and Deadlock-Free Network Reconfiguration Protocol

Component failures and planned component replacements cause changes in the topology and routing paths supplied by the interconnection network of a parallel processor system over time. Such changes may require the network to be reconfigured such that the existing routing function is replaced by one that enables packets to reach their intended destinations amid the changes. Efficient reconfiguration methods are desired which allow the network to function uninterruptedly over the course of the reconfiguration process while remaining free from deadlocking behavior. In this paper, we propose, evaluate, and prove the deadlock freedom of a new network reconfiguration protocol that overlaps various phases of "static" reconfiguration processes traditionally used in commercial and research systems to provide performance efficiency on par with that of recently proposed "dynamic" reconfiguration processes but without their complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed Overlapping Static Reconfiguration protocol can reduce reconfiguration time by up to 50 percent, reduce packet latency by several orders of magnitude, reduce packet dropping by an order of magnitude, and provide unhalted packet injection as compared to traditional static reconfiguration while allowing network throughput similar to dynamic reconfiguration.
Canada: Distribution of Streptococcus suis (from 2012 to 2014) and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (from 2011 to 2014) serotypes isolated from diseased pigs.

Streptococcus suis is an important pathogen of swine and serotype determination remains a valuable tool for veterinary practitioners and/or diagnosticians to understand the epidemiology of the infection and to evaluate the need for serotype-specific vaccines in a herd (1). Due to the fact that we have a reference laboratory for S. suis serotyping, more than 60% of worldwide data on serotype distribution is from Canada (2). From January 2012 to December 2014 a total of 472 isolates were received in our laboratory for serotyping. Except for a few isolates that came from Ontario, most isolates originated from the Diagnostic Service of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Universite de Montreal and from provincial laboratories. All isolates originated from tissues of diseased pigs with a variety of clinical signs such as respiratory and nervous signs, septicemia with sudden death, arthritis, and endocarditis. Serotyping was carried out by using a coagglutination test. Untypable isolates were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the identification of S. suis species and for further serotyping (2,3).
Epidemiologic and Clinical Impact of Acinetobacter baumannii Colonization and Infection

AbstractAcinetobacter baumannii is one of the most important antibiotic-resistant nosocomial bacteria. We investigated changes in the clinical and molecular epidemiology of A. baumannii over a 10-year period. We compared the data from 2 prospective multicenter cohort studies in Spain, one performed in 2000 (183 patients) and one in 2010 (246 patients), which included consecutive patients infected or colonized by A. baumannii. Molecular typing was performed by repetitive extragenic palindromic polymerase chain reaction (REP-PCR), pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The incidence density of A. baumannii colonization or infection increased significantly from 0.14 in 2000 to 0.52 in 2010 in medical services (p < 0.001). The number of non-nosocomial health care-associated cases increased from 1.2% to 14.2%, respectively (p < 0.001). Previous exposure to carbapenems increased in 2010 (16.9% in 2000 vs 27.3% in 2010, p = 0.03). The drugs most frequently used for definitive treatment of patients with infections were carbapenems in 2000 (45%) and colistin in 2010 (50.3%). There was molecular-typing evidence of an increase in the frequency of A. baumannii acquisition in non-intensive care unit wards in 2010 (7.6% in 2000 vs 19.2% in 2010, p = 0.01). By MSLT, the ST2 clonal group predominated and increased in 2010. This epidemic clonal group was more frequently resistant to imipenem and was associated with an increased risk of sepsis, although not with severe sepsis or mortality.Some significant changes were noted in the epidemiology of A. baumannii, which is increasingly affecting patients admitted to conventional wards and is also the cause of non-nosocomial health care-associated infections. Epidemic clones seem to combine antimicrobial resistance and the ability to spread, while maintaining their clinical virulence.
ON THE SIGNAL-TO-INTERFERENCE RATIO OF CDMA SYSTEMS IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

Let $\{s_{ij}:i,j=1,2,. \}$ consist of i.i. d. random variables in $\mathbb{C}$ with $\mathsf{E}s_{11}=0$, $\mathsf{E}|s_{11}|^2=1$. For each positive integer $N$, let $\mathbf{s}_k={\mathbf{s}}_k(N)=(s_{1k},s_{2k},.,s_{Nk})^T$, $1\leq k\leq K$, with $K=K(N)$ and $K/N\to c>0$ as $N\to\infty$. Assume for fixed positive integer $L$, for each $N$ and $k\leq K$, ${\bolds\alpha}_k=(\alpha_k(1),. ,\alpha_k(L))^T$ is random, independent of the $s_{ij}$, and the empirical distribution of $(\alpha_1,.,\alpha_K)$, with probability one converging weakly to a probability distribution $H$ on $\mathbb{C}^L$. Let ${\bolds\beta }_k={\bolds\beta}_k(N)=(\alpha_k(1)\mathbf{s}_k^T,. ,\alpha_k(L)\m athbf{s}_k^T)^T$ and set $C=C(N)=(1/N)\sum_{k=2}^K{\bolds \beta}_k{\bolds \beta}_k^*$. Let $\sigma^2>0$ be arbitrary. Then define $SIR_1=(1/N){\bolds\beta}^*_1(C+\sigma^2I)^{-1}{\bolds\beta}_1$, which represents the best signal-to-interference ratio for user 1 with respect to the other $K-1$ users in a direct-sequence code-division multiple-access system in wireless communications. In this paper it is proven that, with probability 1, $SIR_1$ tends, as $N\to\infty$, to the limit $\sum_{\ell,\ell'=1}^L\bar{\alpha}_1(\ell) alpha_1(\ell')a_{\ell,\ell'},$ where $A=(a_{\ell,\ell'})$ is nonrandom, Hermitian positive definite, and is the unique matrix of such type satisfying $A=\bigl(c \mathsf{E}\frac{{\bolds\alpha}{\bolds \alpha}^*}{1+{\bolds\alpha}^*A{\bolds\alpha}}+\sigma^2I_L\bigr)^{-1}$, where ${\bolds\alpha}\in \mathbb{C}^L$ has distribution $H$. The result generalizes those previously derived under more restricted assumptions.
Naive mnemonics: what the «do-nothing» control group does

In a series of experiments, undergraduates were asked to predict the number of words they could recall from a 15-word list. They were then given the list, and recall performance was recorded. Participants then reported the type of memory aids or mnemonic strategies they had used. The average recall performance of the group was consistently higher than the average recall performance that had been predicted. In all studies, a large number of individuals had perfect or near-perfect recall and reported using sophisticated mnemonic strategies. Strategies were codified into different levels of processing, and these levels were found to be related in a consistent way to recall performance. Individual differences in the effectiveness of strategy utilization were noted. The need to focus on intra-individual change in assessing the impact of training individuals to use mnemonics is discussed, along with the large potential for attenuated results when between groups designs are used in this research area.
Dynamics of Almost Periodic Scalar Parabolic Equations

The current paper is devoted to study of the asymptotic behavior of bounded solutions for the following type of parabolic equation: u t = u xx + f (t, x, u, u x), t > 0, 0 < x < 1, (1.1) with the boundary conditions: βu(t, 0) + (1 − β)u x (t, 0) = 0, βu(t, 1) + (1 − β)u x (t, 1) = 0, t > 0, (1.2) where β = 0 or 1, f : IR 1 × [0, 1] × IR 1 × IR 1 → IR 1 is C 2 , and f (t, x, u, p) with all its partial derivatives (up to order 2) are almost periodic in t uniformly for (x, u, p) in compact subsets. To carry out our study for the nonautonomous equation (1.1)-(1.2), we define a dy-namical system associated to it in the following way. Let C = C(IR 1 ×[0, 1]×IR 1 ×IR 1 , IR 1) be the space of continuous functions F : IR 1 × [0, 1] × IR 1 × IR 1 → IR 1. Give C the compact open topology, that is, the topology of uniform convergence on compact subsets. It follows from classical topological dynamical system theory ([26]) that the time translation (F, t) → F t : F t (s, x, u, p) = F (t + s, x, u, p) defines a flow on C, and the hull of f , H(f) = cl{f t |t ∈ IR 1 } is an almost periodic minimal set (that is, H(f) is minimal and each motion in H(f) is almost periodic). Furthermore, each g ∈ H(f) is also a C 2 function (see [17]). By introducing the hull H(f), (1.1)-(1.2) gives rise to a family of equations associated to each g ∈ H(f),    u t = u xx + g(t, x, u, u x), t > 0, 0 < x < 1, βu(t, 0) + (1 − β)u x (t, 0) = 0, βu(t, 1) + (1 − β)u x (t, 1) = 0, t > 0. defines a (local) skew product semiflow Π t on X × H(f) : Π t (U, g) = (u(t, ·, U, g), g · t), t > 0, (1.4) 2 where g · t is the flow on H(f) defined by time translations. In the terminology of the (local) skew …
Comparison of soil solution speciation and diffusive gradients in thin‐films measurement as an indicator of copper bioavailability to plants

The toxicity effect concentrations (10% effective concentration [EC10] and 50% effective concentration [EC50]) of total added Cu derived from barley root elongation and tomato growth assays varied widely among 18 European soils. We investigated whether this variation could be explained by the solubility or speciation of Cu in soil solutions or the diffusive gradients in thin‐films (DGT) measurement. Solubility and Cu speciation varied greatly among the soils tested. However, the EC10 and EC50 of soil solution Cu or free Cu2+ activity varied even more widely than those based on the total added Cu, indicating that solubility or soil solution speciation alone could not explain intersoil variation in Cu toxicity. Estimated EC10 and EC50 of free Cu2+ activity correlated closely and negatively with soil pH, indicating a protective effect of H+, which is consistent with the biotic ligand model concept. The DGT measurement was found to narrow the intersoil variation in EC50 considerably and to be a better predictor of plant Cu concentrations than either soil solution Cu or free Cu2+ activity. We conclude that plant bioavailability of Cu in soil depends on Cu speciation, interactions with protective ions (particularly H+), and the resupply from the solid phase, and we conclude that the DGT measurement provides a useful indicator of Cu bioavailability in soil.
Short-chain fructo-oligosaccharide and inulin modulate inflammatory responses and microbial communities in Caco2-bbe cells and in a mouse model of intestinal injury.

BACKGROUND Few studies have focused on the ability of prebiotics to prevent pathogen-induced cellular changes or alter the composition of the intestinal microbiota in complimentary relevant cell and animal models of inflammatory bowel disease. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine if pretreatment with inulin and a short-chain fructo-oligosaccharide (sc-FOS) prevents enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 infection in Caco2-bbe epithelial cells and what effect 10% wt:v sc-FOS or inulin has on C57BL/6 mice under sham conditions or pretreatment with prebiotics before Citrobacter rodentium infection (10(8) colony-forming units). METHODS Actin rearrangement and tight junction protein (zona occludin-1) were examined with immunofluorescence. Barrier function was assessed by a fluorescent probe and by measuring transepithelial electrical resistance (TER). Alterations in cytokine gene expression and microbiome were assessed with quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were measured by GC. RESULTS sc-FOS added to monolayers altered actin polymerization without affecting TER or permeability to a fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) probe, whereas inulin increased TER (P < 0.005) and altered actin arrangement without affecting FITC permeability. Neither prebiotic attenuated EHEC-induced decreases in barrier function. Prebiotics increased interleukin 10 (Il10) and transforming growth factor-β (Tgfβ) cytokine responses alone (P < 0.05) or with EHEC O157:H7 infection (P < 0.05) in vitro. Increases in tumor necrosis factor-α (Tnfα) (P < 0.05) and decreases in chemokine CXC motif ligand 8 (Cxcl8) (P < 0.05) expression were observed with prebiotic treatment prior to EHEC infection. No differences were noted in barrier function or cytokine responses in the absence or presence of C. rodentium in vivo. Alterations in microbiome were evident at 6 d and 10 d postinfection in treatment groups, but a change in C. rodentium load was not observed. Inulin and sc-FOS (P < 0.05) increased fecal SCFAs in the absence of infection. CONCLUSION This study provides new insights as to how prebiotics act in complementary in vitro and in vivo models of intestinal injury.
Improving network connection locality on multicore systems

Incoming and outgoing processing for a given TCP connection often execute on different cores: an incoming packet is typically processed on the core that receives the interrupt, while outgoing data processing occurs on the core running the relevant user code. As a result, accesses to read/write connection state (such as TCP control blocks) often involve cache invalidations and data movement between cores' caches. These can take hundreds of processor cycles, enough to significantly reduce performance. We present a new design, called Affinity-Accept, that causes all processing for a given TCP connection to occur on the same core. Affinity-Accept arranges for the network interface to determine the core on which application processing for each new connection occurs, in a lightweight way; it adjusts the card's choices only in response to imbalances in CPU scheduling. Measurements show that for the Apache web server serving static files on a 48-core AMD system, Affinity-Accept reduces time spent in the TCP stack by 30% and improves overall throughput by 24%.
Is family history of depression a risk factor for poststroke depression? Meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether family history of psychiatric disorder constitutes a risk factor for the development of poststroke depression. DESIGN A meta-analysis setting: patients examined for depression following stroke seen in acute care, rehabilitation hospital, or outpatient care settings. PARTICIPANTS All patients who were reported in the world's literature in English language publications in which information was provided about the existence or not of poststroke depression and the presence or absence of a family history of psychiatric disorder. MEASUREMENTS The frequency of family history of psychiatric disorder was determined for each study as well as the relationship of family history to the presence of poststroke depression. RESULTS Based on data obtained from 903 patients with stroke, the fixed model analysis found a risk ratio of 1.51 and the random model a risk ratio of 1.46 for the existence of poststroke depression if there is a positive family history of psychiatric disorder compared with a negative family history. CONCLUSIONS The existence of a positive family history of psychiatric disorder constitutes a risk factor for development of poststroke depression. The role of family history in poststroke depression, however, appears to be substantially lower than among elderly depressed patients without evidence of vascular disease.
Comparison of an Immunochromatographic Rapid Strip Test, ELISA and PCR in the Diagnosis of Hepatitis C in HIV Patients in Hospital Settings in Cameroon

Cameroon belongs to the group of countries highly endemic for hepatitis C viruses. Coinfection of hepatitis C and HIV are also common due to the shared route of transmission of both viruses. In hospital settings in Cameroon, diagnosis prior to treatment of hepatitis C is based solely on the results obtained with an immunochromatographic rapid strip test (97%). This study was aimed at determining the validity of the results that is obtained when an immunochromatographic rapid strip test is used to diagnose hepatitis C virus infection in HIV-positive patients in comparison with more sensitive and specific methods like ELISA and PCR. In a cross-sectional study in two parts, 700 participants were enrolled, 350 were HIV-positive patients and a control group of 350 individuals not infected with HIV. All participants were screened for anti-HCV antibodies using ACON HCV strip test, an assay commonly used in 57·1% of Cameroon hospitals. While using the rapid strip test, of the 350 HIV-positive patients, 25 (7·1%) were found to be positive with the rapid strip test of whom 3(12%) were positive with an ELISA and all 3(100%) positive with the ELISA were also positive with PCR. Evaluation of the rate of false positives with the rapid strip test using ELISA as the gold standard gave a rate of 6·3%. Meanwhile in the control group, after screening with the rapid strip test, 39 (11·1%) were positive of whom 6 (15·4%) were positive with the ELISA and 3 (50%) of the 6 positive with the ELISA were positive with the PCR. Evaluation of the rate of false positives with the rapid strip test in the control group using ELISA as the gold gave a rate of 9·6%. False positive results with this immunochromatographic rapid strip test for the diagnosis of hepatitis C virus infection is therefore common and therefore reinforce the need for a confirmatory test prior to treatment in hospital settings in Cameroon.
Test anxiety among German medical students and its impact on lifestyle and substance abuse

Test anxiety (TA) is an underestimated and widespread problem among students (Neuderth et al. 2009). Like other anxiety disorders, untreated TA can lead to chronicity and aggravation of the symptoms. Also, it has been shown that TA becomes more severe in the course of the studies. Teaching medical students in their first semesters, we recently initiated a program which enables affected students to face their TA problem early (Tektas & Paulsen 2012). However, detailed data about the prevalence of TA among German medical students is lacking so far. For this purpose we performed an anonymous-questionnaire based cross-sectional examination among medical students of our faculty. We evaluated the frequency of self-reported TA and whether and how far selfreported TA is affecting study performance and alcohol, nicotine as well as drug consumption/abuse among medical students, as especially those have detailed knowledge of negative consequences and the range of drugs requiring prescription. About 909 students in their first to fifth year of education participated in the study. 29.9% of the students answered that they believe they would suffer from TA. Applying a screening method, we were able to detect only these students who are seriously and objectively affected by TA. This method included the consideration of typical symptoms which could be indicated by the participating students. With this classification, it could be shown that approximately 10% of the students are affected by TA, which is similar to the results of other studies considering students of other disciplines. We could show that students affected by TA are older and significantly less successful in their first state exams when compared to students of the control group. Also, they show a different substance consumption/abuse behaviour as they are smoking tobacco much more often and also consume distinctly more often drugs requiring prescription (beta-blockers, benzodiazepines and methylphenidate) and stimulating drugs (amphetamines, cocaine), but less cannabis and alcohol when compared to students not affected by TA. Regarding the lecturer’s attitude and awareness towards students affected from TA, more than 50% of the students in the first and second year and 70% of the students in the thired to fifth year stated that the lecturers are not considerate of students with obvious TA. Our results show that distinctly more efforts have to be made to offer special programs which enable affected students to face the problem as TA can lead to several negative long-term consequences among students.