Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cross-Layer Adaptive ARQ and Modulation Tradeoffs

We investigate the tradeoff between uncoded adaptive modulation (AM) in the physical layer, and automatic repeat re-quest (ARQ) in the data link layer, on the system throughput. Most of the applicable research has assumed fixed maximum-number-of-retransmissions (MNR); however, we show that applying adaptive MNR (referred to as adaptive ARQ in this paper) based on channel condition, enhances the throughput performance of the system. In the second part of this paper the effect of finite length queuing, AM, and ARQ on system packet loss is studied. As today's networks and applications generate the traffics that are bursty and self-similar, using Poisson processes to model the packet arrivals proves to be an error-prone assumption. Instead, we will apply generalized exponential (GE) and Pareto distributions, which allow for the modeling of a wide range of bursty distributions, to model the packet arrivals. Closed form expressions for the packet loss and the packet dropping probabilities are derived as functions of MNR and transmission rate. We show that employing adaptive ARQ decreases the packet loss rate while improving the throughput.
A Contract and Balancing Mechanism for Sharing Capacity in a Communication Network

We propose a method for determining how much to charge users of a communication network when they share bandwidth. Our approach can be employed either when a network owner wishes to sell bandwidth for a specified period of time to a number of different users, or when users cooperate to build a network to be shared among themselves. Our proposed contract and balancing mechanism can mediate between rapidly fluctuating prices and the longer time scales over which bandwidth contracts may be traded. An advantage of the process is that it avoids perverse incentives for a capacity provider to increase congestion.
Achievable Rate Region Characterization of the MIMO Broadcast Channel with Channel Distribution Information

We investigate multiple-input multiple-output broadcast channel with channel distribution information at the transmitter. We consider the fading-paper model with Nt transmit and Nr receive antennas. Near-optimal methods for designing the inflation factor matrix (choice of auxiliary random variable) to maximize the linear assignment capacity in a general fading channel model are proposed. Further, it is proved that in the special case of Nt <= Nr, the proposed inflation factor matrix has the similar structure and achieves the similar interference elimination effect as dirty-paper coding. Based on the obtained inflation factor matrix, we provide efficient approaches to evaluate the linear assignment achievable rate region for some popular statistical fading channel models. Monte-Carlo simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed schemes.
Limited Gastrectomy With Dissection of Sentinel Node Stations for Early Gastric Cancer With Negative Sentinel Node Biopsy

Objective:To evaluate the early results of sentinel node (SN)-navigated limited surgery for early gastric cancer. Summary Background Data:False-negative results of SN biopsy cannot be ignored in gastric cancer surgery. Previous studies suggest that dissection of lymph node stations where SNs belong (SN stations) may minimize the possibility of leaving metastasis behind in SN-navigated surgery. Methods:Patients with T1N0M0 gastric cancer <4 cm were informed about the SN-navigated limited surgery from 2003 to 2008. SNs were identified using radioisotope and dye methods. When the SN biopsy by frozen section was negative, limited gastrectomy with dissection of SN stations was performed. Patients with SN stations limited to either the lesser or greater curvature underwent a wedge resection unless it would cause a strong deformity of the stomach. A sleeve gastrectomy was performed in other cases. Results:Six of the 60 enrolled patients chose a standard gastrectomy. Sixteen patients were excluded after laparotomy due to a T2–T3 tumor or tumor location. Three patients with positive SN biopsy underwent D2 gastrectomy, and 35 with negative SN biopsy underwent limited gastrectomy with dissection of SN stations; wedge resection in 8 and sleeve gastrectomy in 27. There were no operative mortalities or morbidities. All patients undergoing the limited surgery had no lymph node metastasis by postoperative pathology, and survived without any recurrence. The average area of the resected stomach for limited surgery was significantly smaller than that for standard procedures (92 ± 50 vs. 189 ± 64 cm2, P < 0.001). Conclusions:SN-navigated limited gastrectomy with dissection of SN stations for T1N0M0 gastric cancer was considered safe and acceptable although long-term follow-up is mandatory.
Differential Recruitment of Brain Networks following Route and Cartographic Map Learning of Spatial Environments

An extensive neuroimaging literature has helped characterize the brain regions involved in navigating a spatial environment. Far less is known, however, about the brain networks involved when learning a spatial layout from a cartographic map. To compare the two means of acquiring a spatial representation, participants learned spatial environments either by directly navigating them or learning them from an aerial-view map. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), participants then performed two different tasks to assess knowledge of the spatial environment: a scene and orientation dependent perceptual (SOP) pointing task and a judgment of relative direction (JRD) of landmarks pointing task. We found three brain regions showing significant effects of route vs. map learning during the two tasks. Parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortex showed greater activation following route compared to map learning during the JRD but not SOP task while inferior frontal gyrus showed greater activation following map compared to route learning during the SOP but not JRD task. We interpret our results to suggest that parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortex were involved in translating scene and orientation dependent coordinate information acquired during route learning to a landmark-referenced representation while inferior frontal gyrus played a role in converting primarily landmark-referenced coordinates acquired during map learning to a scene and orientation dependent coordinate system. Together, our results provide novel insight into the different brain networks underlying spatial representations formed during navigation vs. cartographic map learning and provide additional constraints on theoretical models of the neural basis of human spatial representation.
An Evaluation of a Full-Access Underbody Forced-Air Warming System During Near-Normothermic, On-pump Cardiac Surgery

BACKGROUND: A new underbody forced-air warming system is available for use during cardiac surgery. We tested the hypothesis combining underbody forced-air warming with standard thermal management would maintain intraoperative core temperature and reduce core temperature after-drop (largest decrease in core temperature in the 60 min after bypass) in patients undergoing near-normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). METHODS: Patients undergoing routine, nonemergent cardiac surgery were randomly assigned to routine thermal management (fluid warming and passive insulation, n = 30) or routine management supplemented by an active underbody forced-air system (n = 30; Arizant Healthcare Model 635, Eden Prairie, MN). Core body temperature was measured by bladder catheter at 15-min intervals during the perioperative period. Comparisons were made between groups for temperature before, during, and after CPB. RESULTS: Data from four patients were excluded for cause, leaving 29 patients in the routine management group and 27 patients in the forced-air group. Initial temperatures were similar, but temperatures in the forced-air group were higher than in the routine group at the start of CPB (36.3°C ± 0.6°C vs 35.7°C ± 0.7°C, P = 0.002). There were no differences between groups in the lowest temperatures during CPB (forced air, 35.5°C ± 1.5°C vs routine, 35.3°C ± 1.3°C, P = 0.67); the end of CPB (36.7°C ± 0.4°C vs 36.6°C ± 0.4°C, P > 0.99); or the temperature at departure from the operating room (36.5°C ± 0.4°C vs 36.2°C ± 0.5°C, P = 0.36). After-drop was 0.03°C ± 0.54°C in patients randomized to underbody forced-air warming and 0.21°C ± 0.51°C in those assigned to routine management (P = 0.20). CONCLUSIONS: Adding an underbody forced-air warming system to the near-normothermic thermal management protocol significantly increased pre-bypass temperature; however, it had no further clinically important effect on core temperature.
Association study of catechol‐O‐methyltransferase gene polymorphisms with schizophrenia and psychopathological symptoms in Han Chinese

Although dysfunction of catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT)‐mediated dopamine transmission is implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia, the human COMT gene has not been associated consistently with schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the COMT gene is associated with the development of schizophrenia and whether the polymorphisms of this gene influence the psychopathological symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Fourteen polymorphisms of the COMT gene were analyzed in a case–control study of 876 Han Chinese individuals (434 patients and 442 controls). All participants were screened using a Chinese version of the modified Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia‐Lifetime Version (SADS‐L) and all patients met the criteria for schizophrenia. Furthermore, pretreatment of psychopathology was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in a subset of 224 hospitalized schizophrenia patients, who were drug‐naÏve or drug‐free, to examine the association between clinical symptomatology and COMT polymorphisms. No significant differences in allele or genotype frequencies were observed between schizophrenia patients and controls, for all variants investigated. Haplotype analysis showed that three haplotype blocks of the COMT gene were not associated with the development of schizophrenia. Moreover, these COMT polymorphisms did not influence the PANSS scores of schizophrenia patients. This study suggests that the COMT gene may not contribute to the risk of schizophrenia and to the psychopathological symptoms of schizophrenia among Han Chinese.
Contribution of Each Leg to the Control of Unperturbed Bipedal Stance in Lower Limb Amputees: New Insights Using Entropy

The present study was designed to assess the relative contribution of each leg to unperturbed bipedal posture in lower limb amputees. To achieve this goal, eight unilateral traumatic trans-femoral amputees (TFA) were asked to stand as still as possible on a plantar pressure data acquisition system with their eyes closed. Four dependent variables were computed to describe the subject's postural behavior: (1) body weight distribution, (2) amplitude, (3) velocity and (4) regularity of centre of foot pressure (CoP) trajectories under the amputated (A) leg and the non-amputated (NA) leg. Results showed a larger body weight distribution applied to the NA leg than to the A leg and a more regular CoP profiles (lower sample entropy values) with greater amplitude and velocity under the NA leg than under the A leg. Taken together, these findings suggest that the NA leg and the A leg do not equally contribute to the control of unperturbed bipedal posture in TFA. The observation that TFA do actively control unperturbed bipedal posture with their NA leg could be viewed as an adaptive process to the loss of the lower leg afferents and efferents because of the unilateral lower-limb amputation. From a methodological point of view, these results demonstrate the suitability of computing bilateral CoP trajectories regularity for the assessment of lateralized postural control under pathological conditions.
NADPH Oxidase-Mediated Redox Signaling: Roles in Cellular Stress Response, Stress Tolerance, and Tissue Repair

NADPH oxidase (Nox) has a dedicated function of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS). Accumulating evidence suggests that Nox has an important role in signal transduction in cellular stress responses. We have reviewed the current evidence showing that the Nox system can be activated by a collection of chemical, physical, and biological cellular stresses. In many circumstances, Nox activation fits to the cellular stress response paradigm, in that (1) the response can be initiated by various forms of cellular stresses; (2) Nox-derived ROS may activate mitogen-activated protein kinases (extracellular signal-regulated kinase, p38) and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase, which are the core of the cell stress-response signaling network; and (3) Nox is involved in the development of stress cross-tolerance. Activation of the cell survival pathway by Nox may promote cell adaptation to stresses, whereas Nox may also convey signals toward apoptosis in irreversibly injured cells. At later stage after injury, Nox is involved in tissue repair by modulating cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and fibrosis. We suggest that Nox may have an integral role in cell stress responses and the subsequent tissue repair process. Understanding Nox-mediated redox signaling mechanisms may be of prominent significance at the crossroads of directing cellular responses to stress, aiming at either enhancing the stress resistance (in such situations as preventing ischemia-reperfusion injuries and accelerating wound healing) or sensitizing the stress-induced cytotoxicity for proliferative diseases such as cancer. Therefore, an optimal outcome of interventions on Nox will only be achieved when this is dealt with in a timely and disease-and stage-specific manner.
Congenital Short QT Syndrome

The Short QT Syndrome is a recently described new genetic disorder, characterized by abnormally short QT interval, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and life threatening ventricular arrhythmias. This autosomal dominant syndrome can afflict infants, children, or young adults; often a remarkable family background of cardiac sudden death is elucidated. At electrophysiological study, short atrial and ventricular refractory periods are found, with atrial fibrillation and polymorphic ventricular tachycardia easily induced by programmed electrical stimulation. Gain of function mutations in three genes encoding K+ channels have been identified, explaining the abbreviated repolarization seen in this condition: KCNH2 for Ikr (SQT1), KCNQ1 for Iks (SQT2) and KCNJ2 for Ik1 (SQT3). The currently suggested therapeutic strategy is an ICD implantation, although many concerns exist for asymptomatic patients, especially in pediatric age. Pharmacological treatment is still under evaluation; quinidine has shown to prolong QT and reduce the inducibility of ventricular arrhythmias, but awaits additional confirmatory clinical data.
Deficient fear conditioning in psychopathy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

CONTEXT Psychopaths belong to a larger group of persons with antisocial personality disorder and are characterized by an inability to have emotional involvement and by the repeated violation of the rights of others. It was hypothesized that this behavior might be the consequence of deficient fear conditioning. OBJECTIVE To study the cerebral, peripheral, and subjective correlates of fear conditioning in criminal psychopaths and healthy control subjects. DESIGN An aversive differential pavlovian delay conditioning paradigm with slides of neutral faces serving as conditioned and painful pressure as unconditioned stimuli. SETTING The Department of Medical Psychology at the University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. PARTICIPANTS Ten male psychopaths as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and 10 age- and education-matched healthy male controls. The psychopaths were criminal offenders on bail and waiting for their trial or were on parole. The healthy controls were recruited from the community. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Brain activation based on functional magnetic resonance imaging, electrodermal responses, emotional valence, arousal, and contingency ratings. RESULTS The healthy controls showed enhanced differential activation in the limbic-prefrontal circuit (amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, and anterior cingulate) during the acquisition of fear and successful verbal and autonomic conditioning. The psychopaths displayed no significant activity in this circuit and failed to show conditioned skin conductance and emotional valence ratings, although contingency and arousal ratings were normal. CONCLUSION This dissociation of emotional and cognitive processing may be the neural basis of the lack of anticipation of aversive events in criminal psychopaths.
Metabolic Adaptations of Plant Respiration to Nutritional Phosphate Deprivation

Plants respond adaptively to orthophosphate (Pi) deprivation through the induction of alternative pathways of glycolysis and mitochondrial electron transport. These respiratory bypasses allow respiration to proceed in Pi-deficient plant cells because they negate the necessity for adenylates and Pi, both pools of which are severely depressed following nutritional Pi starvation.
Effects of Cortisol and Dexamethasone on Insulin Signalling Pathways in Skeletal Muscle of the Ovine Fetus during Late Gestation

Before birth, glucocorticoids retard growth, although the extent to which this is mediated by changes in insulin signalling pathways in the skeletal muscle of the fetus is unknown. The current study determined the effects of endogenous and synthetic glucocorticoid exposure on insulin signalling proteins in skeletal muscle of fetal sheep during late gestation. Experimental manipulation of fetal plasma glucocorticoid concentration was achieved by fetal cortisol infusion and maternal dexamethasone treatment. Cortisol infusion significantly increased muscle protein levels of Akt2 and phosphorylated Akt at Ser473, and decreased protein levels of phosphorylated forms of mTOR at Ser2448 and S6K at Thr389. Muscle GLUT4 protein expression was significantly higher in fetuses whose mothers were treated with dexamethasone compared to those treated with saline. There were no significant effects of glucocorticoid exposure on muscle protein abundance of IR-β, IGF-1R, PKCζ, Akt1, calpastatin or muscle glycogen content. The present study demonstrated that components of the insulin signalling pathway in skeletal muscle of the ovine fetus are influenced differentially by naturally occurring and synthetic glucocorticoids. These findings may provide a mechanism by which elevated concentrations of endogenous glucocorticoids retard fetal growth.
Neoplastic transformation of guinea pig fetal cells in culture induced by chemical carcinogens.

Twenty-four cell strains derived from freshly isolated diploid strain 2 guinea pig fetal cells exposed in utero or directly in culture to a carcinogenic or noncarcinogenic chemical were evaluated during 4 to 24 months of continuous cultivation. Morphological alterations in carcinogen, i.e., benzo(a)pyrene-, 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-, 3-methylcholanthrene-, N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine-, diethylnitrosamine-, aflatoxin B1-, or N-acetoxyacetylaminofluorene-treated cultures were seen shortly after treatment; transformation, a loss of cell orientation, did not occur for 4 or more months, was not seen in controls and did not uniformly appear simultaneously with the capacity of transformed cells to grow as tumors in irradiated syngeneic newborn guinea pigs. Changes in plating efficiency, saturation density, doubling time, and chromosome alterations of transformed cells also did not correlate with progressive tumor growth. Formation of colonies in 0.35% agar appeared subsequent to or concomitantly with morphological transformation, and in every case they developed concurrently with the potential for neoplastic growth. Controls originally treated with a noncarcinogen (acetone, polycyclic hydocarbon, or aromatic amide) did not form agar colonies or tumors after inoculation of 108 cells. Studies with guinea pig cells indicate that persistent alterations in some growth parameters occur prior to expression of tumor growth. The ability of cells to form colonies in agar and to produce tumors may require 4 to 18 months of culturing. Of the cell properties examined, colony formation in agar was the best indication of the neoplastic state.
A Multiword Expression Data Set: Annotating Non-Compositionality and Conventionalization for English Noun Compounds

Scarcity of multiword expression data sets raises a fundamental challenge to evaluating the systems that deal with these linguistic structures. In this work we attempt to address this problem for a subclass of multiword expressions by producing a large data set annotated by experts and validated by common statistical measures. We present a set of 1048 noun-noun compounds annotated as non-compositional, compositional, conventionalized and not conventionalized. We build this data set following common trends in previous work while trying to address some of the well known issues such as small number of annotated instances, quality of the annotations, and lack of availability of true negative instances.
Accepted for Publication in Ieee Transactions on Robotics 2 Inverse Depth Parametrization for Monocular Slam

— We present a new parametrization for point features within monocular SLAM which permits efficient and accurate representation of uncertainty during undelayed initialisation and beyond, all within the standard EKF (Extended Kalman Filter). The key concept is direct parametrization of the inverse depth of features relative to the camera locations from which they were first viewed, which produces measurement equations with a high degree of linearity. Importantly, our parametrization can cope with features over a huge range of depths, even those which are so far from the camera that they present little parallax during motion — maintaining sufficient representative uncertainty that these points retain the opportunity to 'come in' smoothly from infinity if the camera makes larger movements. Feature initial-ization is undelayed in the sense that even distant features are immediately used to improve camera motion estimates, acting initially as bearing references but not permanently labelled as such. The inverse depth parametrization remains well behaved for features at all stages of SLAM processing, but has the drawback in computational terms that each point is represented by a six dimensional state vector as opposed to the standard three of a Euclidean XYZ representation. We show that once the depth estimate of a feature is sufficiently accurate, its representation can safely be converted to the Euclidean XYZ form, and propose a linearity index which allows automatic detection and conversion to maintain maximum efficiency — only low parallax features need be maintained in inverse depth form for long periods. We present a real-time implementation at 30Hz where the parametrization is validated in a fully automatic 3D SLAM system featuring a hand-held single camera with no additional sensing. Experiments show robust operation in challenging indoor and outdoor environments with very large ranges of scene depth, varied motion and also real-time 360 • loop closing.