Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heterogeneity increases multicast capacity in clustered network

In this paper, we investigate the multicast capacity for static network with heterogeneous clusters. We study the effect of heterogeneities on the achievable capacity from two aspects, including heterogeneous cluster traffic (HCT) and heterogeneous cluster size (HCS). HCT means cluster clients are more likely to appear near the cluster head, instead of being uniformly distributed across the network and HCS means each cluster is also not equal in size as most prior literatures assume. Both of these two properties are commonly found in realistic networks. For this class of networks, we find that HCT increases network capacity for all the clusters and HCS does not influence the network capacity. Our work can generalize various results obtained under non-heterogeneous networks in the literature.
Statistical Models of Fracture Relevant to Nuclear-Grade Graphite: Review and Recommendations

The nuclear-grade (low-impurity) graphite needed for the fuel element and moderator material for next-generation (Gen IV) reactors displays large scatter in strength and a nonlinear stress-strain response from damage accumulation. This response can be characterized as quasi-brittle. In this expanded review, relevant statistical failure models for various brittle and quasi-brittle material systems are discussed with regard to strength distribution, size effect, multiaxial strength, and damage accumulation. This includes descriptions of the Weibull, Batdorf, and Burchell models as well as models that describe the strength response of composite materials, which involves distributed damage. Results from lattice simulations are included for a physics-based description of material breakdown. Consideration is given to the predicted transition between brittle and quasi-brittle damage behavior versus the density of damage (level of disorder) within the material system. The literature indicates that weakest-link-based failure modeling approaches appear to be reasonably robust in that they can be applied to materials that display distributed damage, provided that the level of disorder in the material is not too large. The Weibull distribution is argued to be the most appropriate statistical distribution to model the stochastic-strength response of graphite.
Extreme risk spillover network: application to financial institutions

Using the CAViaR tool to estimate the value-at-risk (VaR) and the Granger causality risk test to quantify extreme risk spillovers, we propose an extreme risk spillover network for analysing the interconnectedness across financial institutions. We construct extreme risk spillover networks at 1% and 5% risk levels (which we denote 1% and 5% VaR networks) based on the daily returns of 84 publicly listed financial institutions from four sectors—banks, diversified financials, insurance and real estate—during the period 2006–2015. We find that extreme risk spillover networks have a time-lag effect. Both the static and dynamic networks show that on average the real estate and bank sectors are net senders of extreme risk spillovers and the insurance and diversified financials sectors are net recipients, which coheres with the evidence from the recent global financial crisis. The networks during the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis exhibited distinctive topological features that differed from those in tranquil periods. Our approach supplies new information on the interconnectedness across financial agents that will prove valuable not only to investors and hedge fund managers, but also to regulators and policy-makers.
Functional Study of One Nucleotide Mutation in Pri-MiR-125a Coding Region which Related to Recurrent Pregnancy Loss

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs which modulate gene expression by binding to complementary segments present in the 3′UTR of the mRNAs of protein coding genes. MiRNAs play very important roles in maintaining normal human body physiology conditions, meanwhile, abnormal miRNA expressions have been found related to many human diseases spanning from psychiatric disorders to malignant cancers. Recently, emerging reports have indicated that disturbed miRNAs expression contributed to the pathogenesis of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). In this study, we identified a new mutation site (+29A>G, position relative to pre-miR-125a) by scanning pri-miR-125a coding region in 389 Chinese Han RPL patients. This site was co-existed with two polymorphisms (rs12976445 and rs41275794) in patients heterogeneously and changed the predicted secondary structures of pri-miR-125a. Subsequent in vitro analysis indicated that the A>G mutation reduced mature miR-125a expression, and further led to less efficient inhibition of verified target genes. Functional analysis showed that mutant pri-mir-125a can enhance endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) invasive capacity and increase the sensitivity of ESCs cells to mifepristone. Moreover, we further analyzed the possible molecular mechanism by RIP-chip assay and found that mutant pri-mir-125a disturbed the expression of miR-125a targetome, the functions of which includes embryonic development, cell proliferation, migration and invasion. These data suggest that A>G mutation in pri-miR-125a coding region contributes to the genetic predisposition to RPL by disordering the production of miR-125a, which consequently meddled in gene regulatory network between mir-125a and mRNA.
Safety and pharmacokinetic studies of liposomal antioxidant formulations containing N-acetylcysteine, α-tocopherol or γ-tocopherol in beagle dogs

Abstract The safety and pharmacokinetic profile of liposomal formulations containing combinations of the antioxidants α-tocopherol, γ-tocopherol or N-acetylcysteine in beagle dogs was examined. Each group consisted of beagle dogs of both genders with a control group receiving empty dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) liposomes (330 mg/kg DPPC, EL), and test groups receiving liposomes prepared from DPPC lipids with (i) N-acetylcysteine (NAC) (60 mg/kg NAC [L-NAC]); (ii) NAC and α-tocopherol (αT) (60 mg/kg NAC and 25 mg/kg α-tocopherol [L-αT-NAC]) and (iii) NAC and γ-tocopherol (60 mg/kg NAC and 25 mg/kg γ-tocopherol (γT) [L-γT-NAC]). The dogs in the control group (EL) and three test groups exhibited no signs of toxicity during the dosing period or day 15 post treatment. Weight gain, feed consumption and clinical pathology findings (hematology, coagulation, clinical chemistry, urinalysis) were unremarkable in all dogs and in all groups. Results from the pharmacokinetic study revealed that the inclusion of tocopherols in the liposomal formulation significantly increased the area under the curve (AUC) and β-half life for NAC; the tocopherols had greater impact on the clearance of NAC, where reductions of central compartment clearance (CL) ranged from 56% to 60% and reductions of tissue clearance (CL2) ranged from 73% to 77%. In conclusion, there was no treatment-related toxicity in dogs at the maximum feasible dose level by a single bolus intravenous administration while the addition of tocopherols to the liposomal formulation prolonged the circulation of NAC in plasma largely due to a decreased clearance of NAC.
BlackBox: Lightweight security monitoring for COTS binaries

After a software system is compromised, it can be difficult to understand what vulnerabilities attackers exploited. Any information residing on that machine cannot be trusted as attackers may have tampered with it to cover their tracks. Moreover, even after an exploit is known, it can be difficult to determine whether it has been used to compromise a given machine. Aviation has long-used black boxes to better understand the causes of accidents, enabling improvements that reduce the likelihood of future accidents. Many attacks introduce abnormal control flows to compromise systems. In this paper, we present BLACKBOX, a monitoring system for COTS software. Our techniques enable BLACKBOX to efficiently monitor unexpected and potentially harmful control flow in COTS binaries. BlackBox constructs dynamic profiles of an application's typical control flows to filter the vast majority of expected control flow behavior, leaving us with a manageable amount of data that can be logged across the network to remote devices. Modern applications make extensive use of dynamically generated code, some of which varies greatly between executions. We introduce support for code generators that can detect security-sensitive behaviors while allowing BLACKBox to avoid logging the majority of ordinary behaviors. We have implemented BlackBox in DynamoRIO. We evaluate the runtime overhead of BlackBox, and show that it can effectively monitor recent versions of Microsoft Office and Google Chrome. We show that in ROP, COOP, and state-of-the-art JIT injection attacks, BlackBox logs the pivotal actions by which the attacker takes control, and can also blacklist those actions to prevent repeated exploits.
Clonality Despite Sex: The Evolution of Host-Associated Sexual Neighborhoods in the Pathogenic Fungus Penicillium marneffei

Molecular genetic approaches typically detect recombination in microbes regardless of assumed asexuality. However, genetic data have shown the AIDS-associated pathogen Penicillium marneffei to have extensive spatial genetic structure at local and regional scales, and although there has been some genetic evidence that a sexual cycle is possible, this haploid fungus is thought to be genetically, as well as morphologically, asexual in nature because of its highly clonal population structure. Here we use comparative genomics, experimental mixed-genotype infections, and population genetic data to elucidate the role of recombination in natural populations of P. marneffei. Genome wide comparisons reveal that all the genes required for meiosis are present in P. marneffei, mating type genes are arranged in a similar manner to that found in other heterothallic fungi, and there is evidence of a putatively meiosis-specific mutational process. Experiments suggest that recombination between isolates of compatible mating types may occur during mammal infection. Population genetic data from 34 isolates from bamboo rats in India, Thailand and Vietnam, and 273 isolates from humans in China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam show that recombination is most likely to occur across spatially and genetically limited distances in natural populations resulting in highly clonal population structure yet sexually reproducing populations. Predicted distributions of three different spatial genetic clusters within P. marneffei overlap with three different bamboo rat host distributions suggesting that recombination within hosts may act to maintain population barriers within P. marneffei.
CAN PEOPLE USE GESTURE COMMANDS?

This paper reports initial results from a paper and pencil study of the use of hand-drawn gestures for simple editing tasks (see Wolf, 1986, for a more detailed report). Hand-drawn gestures are of particular interest in an interface which allows the user to write directly on the surface of a display with a stylus. In such an interface, the user can, for example, delete a word simply by crossing it out.
3D Unified Approach to Missile Guidance Laws

Since the proportional navigation guidance law was first introduced, many of the researchers had proposed different methodologies to investigate the corresponding performances of all the existing guidance laws. In 1997, Yang and Yang introduced an unified approach, in that paper the authors found that under the proposed framework, all the existing guidance laws, namely IPN, TPN and PPN, are indeed special cases of the mentioned general guidance law. However, their results were restricted to two dimensional space. In this paper, the author not only extends the results to three dimensional space, but also to GIPN, GTPN and PPN. Unlike conventional researchers, a modified polar coordinate (MPC) is adopted. It is shown that with the property of this modified polar coordinate, for the line of sight based guidance laws (GIPN and GTPN) the number of differential equations required to fully describe the relative dynamics can be reduced from six to three, however, for the missile's velocity based guidance law, i.e. PPN, five differential equations are required. In the mean time all the terms of differential equations involve only products and additions of variables. For all the mentioned guidance laws in this paper, only two transformed variables are required to describe the capture region, while the third variable is required to provide the condition of finite turn rate. For each type of guidance laws (GIPN, GTPN and PPN), the corresponding time-to-go's are also derived.
1-Should we use antibiotics in Acute Pancreatitis ?

Background and objective: The use of antibiotics in acute pancreatitis despite recent clinical trials remains controversial. The aim of this study is to review the latest clinical trials and guidelines about antibiotics in acute pancreatitis and determine its proper use. Methods: Through a Medline search, we selected and analyzed pertinent randomized clinical trials and guidelines that evaluated the use of antibiotics in acute pancreatitis. We answered the most frequent questions about this topic. Results and conclusion: Based on these clinical trials and guidelines, we conclude that the best treatment currently is the use of antibiotics in patients with severe acute pancreatitis with more than 30% of pancreatic necrosis. The best option for the treatment is Imipenem 3 × 500 mg/day i.v. for 14 days. Alternatively, Ciprofloxacin 2 × 400 mg/day i.v. associated with Metronidazole 3 × 500 mg for 14 days can also be considered as an option. Review Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) as defined by the Atlanta criteria, is present in up to 25% of patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) [1], with mortality of 10%–20%. In these patients, AP develops in two phases: the first ten days are characterized by the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), whereas in the end of the second week infection complications begin to appear [2]. These complications due to infection are responsible for up to 80% of deaths in patients with AP. About 40% to 75% of patients with pancreatic necrosis develop infection, 24% after the first week and 71% after the third week [3,4], with mortality rates up to 50% [5,6]. The mechanisms of infection in AP are bacteria translocation, via lymphatic, via hematogenic, and reflux from duodenum and biliary tree as well [7]. If the major problem in AP is infection of pancreatic necrosis, it makes sense to consider that the use of antibiotics in this situation could reduce the morbidity and mortality of these patients. However, at present there are still controversies about this topic. Therefore, some questions remain unclear regarding the use of antibiotics in AP: 1-Should we use antibiotics in Acute Pancreatitis?
Regular Hemoperfusion in Regular Dialysis Treatment. A Long-Term Study

The capacity of activated charcoal to remove toxins from the blood is well established. Its poor biocompatibility, inability to remove urea, electrolytes and water, and high cost have so far been the major objection to a wider use of charcoal with chronic uremic patients. The availability of a charcoal coated by a new highly hydrophilic methacrylate based membrane enabled us to keep 18 uremic patients on a combined hemodialysis-hemoperfusion schedule for 4–52 weeks. Investigations concerned patients in whom relapsing signs of uremia occurred despite technically adequate dialysis, and other cases where dialysis was both technically and clinically adequate. In the first group of patients, the conbined programme led to an improvement of the dialysis resistent clinical signs, while certain positive metabolic effects were also observed. In the second group, the hemodialysis-hemoperfusion treatment allowed a reduction of about 30% in time of treatment per week. Tolerance of the new coated charcoal was good throughout treatment in terms both of biocompatibility and of side effects.
The Role of Natriuretic Peptides for the Diagnosis of Left Ventricular Dysfunction

Natriuretic peptides (NPs) are entered in current guidelines for heart failure (HF) diagnosis and management because of their high specificity and sensibility in screening patients with acute dyspnea. Due to their availability and relatively low cost, they became the first step examinations in HF patients evaluation at hospital admission together with clinical and chest radiography examination. NPs are released following any cardiac haemodynamic stress due to volume or pressure overload and should be considered as a mirror of cardiac condition helping in recognizing patients with poor outcome. Moreover, the exact role of NPs in early HF stages, in isolated diastolic dysfunction, and in general population is questioned. Several promising reports described their potential role; however, the wide cut-off definition, inclusion criteria, and intrinsic measurement biases do not actually consent to their clinical application in these settings. A multimodality strategy including both NPs and imaging studies appears to be the best strategy to define the cardiac dysfunction etiology and its severity as well as to identify patients with higher risk. In this review, we describe the current and potential role of NPs in patients with asymptomatic cardiac insufficiency, evaluating the requirement to obtain a better standardization for imaging as for laboratory criteria.
Linear reformulation of the Kuramoto model: Asymptotic mapping and stability properties

For the classical “all-to-all” Kuramoto model, we construct a family of auxiliary linear models that preserves information on the natural frequencies and interconnection gains of the original Kuramoto model and depends on its phase-locked solutions. Stability properties of the family of linear systems are analyzed, we show that there is only one system in this family which is stable and for almost all initial conditions its solutions exponentially converge to a stable periodic limit cycle. Finally, we show that asymptotically, in the time limit, this linear system maps on the original Kuramoto model.
Risk-Controlled Product Mix Planning in Semiconductor Manufacturing Using Simulation Optimization

Production ramp-up refers to the period between the completion of product development and full capacity utilization. In semiconductor industry, engineering lots are given higher priority in the manufacturing process in order to improve the manufacturing process and/or to facilitate the new product development. However, the implementation of engineering lots can disrupt the smoothness of the manufacturing process and thus increase the cycle time of normal lots. Because semiconductor manufacturing is a very complicated manufacturing process, the determination of the appropriate product mix is a difficult task for many semiconductor companies, especially when risks are taken into consideration. We propose a model to characterize this hard tradeoff and apply an efficient simulation optimization method to obtain the optimal product mix where risks are taken into consideration. An extensive numerical study shows that the proposed method has satisfactory performance and is capable of identifying the nearly optimal product mix in reasonable computing time. An empirical study conducted in collaboration with a semiconductor company further validates the viability of this research in practical settings.
Raman microscopy of de-novo woven bone tissue

The composition of the bone tissue initially formed during the early mineralization of calvarial bone is poorly understood. Calvarial de novo mineral deposition occurs rapidly; however, whether the mineral is first deposited as an amorphous calcium phosphate or some other calcium phosphate lattice is unclear. Raman microscopy offers the ability to distinguish differences in the mineral lattice through the positions and shifts in the bands of the bone tissue mineral constituents, particularly in the phosphate v1 stretch vibration (950 - 963 cm-1). The ratios of the mineral and organic matrix constituents throughout the sampled region can also elucidate the type of bone tissue deposited. The ability to examine intact specimens at high spatial resolution, without interference from water, is an important feature of Raman microscopy. Using postnatal murine calvaria, we show that the earliest mineral detected is a carbonated hydroxyapatite with other phosphate environments present at lower levels as well. We discuss the mineral composition changes with respect to the age of the mouse over the time period of 2 weeks using a sequence of calvarial sections: postnatal days 3, 7 and 14. We use two different data analysis techniques, factor analysis and center of gravity calculations, to elucidate these discrete changes.
JUST RELAX: CONVEX PROGRAMMING METHODS FOR SUBSET SELECTION AND SPARSE APPROXIMATION

Subset selection and sparse approximation problems request a good approximation of an input signal using a linear combination of elementary signals, yet they stipulate that the approximation may only involve a few of the elementary signals. This class of problems arises throughout electrical engineering, applied mathematics and statistics, but small theoretical progress has been made over the last fifty years. Subset selection and sparse approximation both admit natural convex relaxations, but the literature contains few results on the behavior of these relaxations for general input signals. This report demonstrates that the solution of the convex program frequently coincides with the solution of the original approximation problem. The proofs depend essentially on geometric properties of the ensemble of elementary signals. The results are powerful because sparse approximation problems are combinatorial, while convex programs can be solved in polynomial time with standard software. Comparable new results for a greedy algorithm, Orthogonal Matching Pursuit, are also stated. This report should have a major practical impact because the theory applies immediately to many real-world signal processing problems.