Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Distributed Approach to End-to-End Network Topology Inference

To construct an efficient overlay network, the information of underlay is important. However, the inference of an underlay topology is not easy. We consider using end-to-end measurement tools such as traceroute to infer the underlay topology among a group of hosts. Since pair-wise traceroutes among hosts take a long time and generate much network traffic, Max-Delta has been proposed to infer a highly accurate topology with a low number of traceroutes. However, Max-Delta relies on a central server to collect traceroute results and to select paths for hosts to measure. It is hence not scalable to large groups. In this paper, we investigate a distributed version of Max-Delta scheme in order to support scalable inference. In our scheme, each host joins an overlay tree before conducting traceroutes. A host then independently selects paths to traceroute and exchanges traceroute results with others through the overlay tree. As a result, each host can maintain a partially discovered topology. We have studied two key issues in the scheme, i.e., how to construct a low-diameter overlay tree and how to reduce bandwidth consumption in measurements. As compared to Max-Delta, our scheme is fully distributed and scalable. In the scheme, each host computes its own traceroute targets, and the computational loads are distributed to all the hosts instead of a single server. Furthermore, each host only exchanges data with a few other hosts and does not need to set up connections with all the other hosts. Simulation results show that the constructed tree has a low diameter and can support quick data exchange among hosts, and that the use of a lookup table for routers can significantly reduce bandwidth consumption in data exchange.
Effect of dissolved organic matter of various origins and biodegradabilities on the bioaccumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Daphnia magna

As a preliminary study of the influence of urban organic matter on the bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the effect of different types of dissolved organic matter (DOM) on the bioaccumulation of fluoranthene, pyrene, or benzo[a]pyrene in Daphnia magna was studied. Commercial humic substances, DOM from the aeration basin of a wastewater treatment plant, and highly biodegradable DOM (algae or animal extracts) were tested. The bioaccumulation of benzo[a]pyrene was reduced by each DOM (up to 80% reduction with humic substances). Pyrene bioaccumulation was also decreased by each DOM to a lesser extent. Fluoranthene bioaccumulation was affected by the presence of humic acids only. In each experiment, the solution containing humic DOM led to the lowest bioaccumulation. Supposing that only dissolved PAHs were bioavailable, the reduction of bioaccumulation allowed a biological estimate of the partition coefficients of DOM and PAH, KDOC. The estimated coefficients were positively related to the aromaticity of DOM and negatively related to its biodegradability.
Early peripheral nerve regeneration after crushing, sectioning, and freeze studied by implanted electrodes in the cat

Regeneration of axons after Wallerian degeneration is influenced by various factors localized to the distal nerve stump. We have examined elongation of axons to assess the relative influence of basal lamina and of Schwann cells in lesions with and without interruption of the Schwann cell tubes. In particular, we wanted to follow the growth of axons throughout the same distal nerve stump. Silicone cuff and patch electrodes with multiple contacts were therefore implanted around hindlimb nerves proximal and distal to the lesion. The tibial nerve was cut and sutured (15 nerves) or crushed (10 nerves). A 20–25-mm-long segment distal to the lesion was in addition frozen in four crushed and in seven sectioned nerves to eliminate the Schwann cells. Six unlesioned tibial nerves from four cats served as control. Reinnervation of plantar muscle occurred 42–54 d after nerve crushing and 42–84 d after nerve sectioning (P < 0.01). Regeneration was followed by weekly electrophysiological observations that allowed serial identification of the fastest-growing individual axons, with conduction velocities of 0.5–3 m/sec and amplitudes of 0.15–0.5 microV. Unmyelinated axons were present at the most distal lead of the electrode array from which action potentials were identified. The rate of elongation after both crushing and crush+freeze was 3–4 mm/d, and after sectioning only 2.5 mm/d (P < 0.01). Freezing in addition to sectioning was associated with even slower elongation of 1.2 mm/d. Distal to the frozen portion of the nerve elongation accelerated. Our findings suggest that regeneration was slowed throughout the nerve distal to a sectioning compared with a crushing lesion, and that depletion of Schwann cells only influenced axonal elongation after interruption of the basal lamina. This suggests that the basal lamina tubes at the lesion site may facilitate the action of neurotropic factors of distal origin.
Seeking the SuperStar: Automatic assessment of perceived singing quality

The quality of the singing voice is an important aspect of subjective, aesthetic perception of music. In this contribution, we propose a method to automatically assess perceived singing quality. We classify monophonic vocal recordings without accompaniment into one of three classes of singing quality. Unprocessed private and non-commercial recordings from a social media website are utilised. In addition to the user ratings given on the website, we let both subjects with and without a musical background annotate the samples. Building on musicological foundations, we define and extract acoustic parameters describing the quality of the sound, musical expression and intonation of the singing. Besides features which are already established in the field of Music Information Retrieval, such as loudness and mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, we propose and employ new types of features which are specific to intonation. For automatic classification by supervised machine learning methods, models predicting the subjective ratings and the user ratings on the social media website are learnt. We perform an exhaustive evaluation of both different classifiers and combinations of features. We show that the performance of automatic classification is close to that of human evaluators. Utilising support vector machines, an accuracy of classification of 55.4 %, based on the subjective ratings, and of 84.7 %, based on the user ratings of the social media website, are achieved.
Using enzyme immunoassay to detect Helicobacter pylori stool antigen for investigating the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in children and adolescents in Changhua.

To investigate the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in adolescents and children in Changhua and to compare the differences between urban and rural areas, we used enzyme immunoassay to detect H. pylori stool antigen for feco-prevalence study. In addition, a questionnaire was designed to obtain demographic and clinical information. Children and adolescents under 18 years of age living in Changhua city and Yung-Chin village were divided into 6 groups respectively, ie. 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12-15, and 15-18 years. A minimum of 30 persons were investigated in each group. A total of 567 subjects (M/F 295/272) were included in this study. There was no significant difference in H. pylori infection with regard to residential area, gender, education of the mother, occupation of parents, family history of peptic ulcer, and number of family members, except for epigastralgia of the subjects (p=0.001) and education of the father (p=0.039). The overall prevalence was 13.75%. A low prevalence was noted in the group 0-3 years (2.0%). The prevalence increased with age and reached its maximum of 23.8% in the age group of 9-12 years and then declined. The multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that only age (odds ratio (OR)=1.3, 95% confidence interval (C.I.)=1.1-1.5) and epigastralgia (OR=1.71, 95% C.I.=1.0-3.0) were the most important risk factors for H. pylori infection after adjusting for participating gender, place of residence and father's age. The difference in age pattern of H. pylori infection between our results and other studies needs further investigation.
Clinical relevance of the plasma load of cytomegalovirus in patients infected with HIV—A survival analysis

To investigate whether asymptomatic cytomegalovirus (CMV) viraemia impact the course of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, this study evaluated the effect of CMV replication on progression of newly‐diagnosed HIV infected individuals towards AIDS events and death. In a 3‐year prospective study on co‐infected patients, clinical, immunological, and virological tests were performed in a national reference hospital quarterly. CMV viraemia was quantified by RoboGene® HCMV DNA Quantification Kit (Analytik Jena, Germany), on ABI Prism® 7000 Sequence Detection System (Applied Biosystems, USA). One hundred and five patients were enrolled with a balanced sex distribution and a median age of 30.7 years. Median CD4+ cell count at enrollment was 164/mm3 and median HIV RNA 4.6 log10copies/ml. Detectable CMV viraemia was found in 25.7% of the patients. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed progression of HIV infection to be significantly increased in those with active CMV replication and/or low CD4+ cell count. Cox regression indicated the risk of developing new AIDS events was 2.6 times greater in patients with detectable CMV viraemia versus those without (CI95% 1–6.6; P = 0.04). Also in multivariate analysis, the overall risk of progression to AIDS events or death was 3‐fold higher in those with detectable CMV viraemia (CI95% 1.3–6.7; P = 0.008) and 2.3‐fold higher if CD4+ cell count was below 100/mm3 (CI95% 1–5.1; P = 0.04). In these young Romanian HIV‐seropositives, active CMV replication increased morbidity, even when treated with combination antiretroviral therapy. Further studies are needed to evaluate if serial quantitative CMV‐DNA levels might correlate with non‐infectious inflammation‐related risks in patients with HIV and active CMV infection. J. Med. Virol. 86:1821–1827, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Higher Gensini score of coronary arteries in acute inferior myocardial infarction with precordial ST-segment depression.

To investigate the significance of precordial ST-segment depression in acute inferior myocardial infarction, we compared the Gensini score of coronary artery stenosis between 2 groups of patients with and without precordial ST-segment depression. Group I consisted of 28 patients who showed ST-segment depression on admission (greater than or equal to 1 mm in V2-V6) and Group II (n = 16) those without ST-segment depression (less than 1 mm). The Gensini score of the coronary arteries (56 +/- 29 vs. 28 +/- 18; p less than 0.001), the partial score of the infarction-related artery (29 +/- 16 vs. 17 +/- 11; p less than 0.01) and of the infarction-nonrelated artery (27 +/- 24 vs. 11 +/- 12; p less than 0.02) were significantly higher in Group I than in Group II. The Killip score (greater than or equal to II) (34% vs. 6%; p less than 0.05), frequency of arrhythmias (75% vs. 38%; p less than 0.02) and peak CK value (3,676 +/- 2,290 vs. 1,818 +/- 1,153 IU/L; p less than 0.005) were higher in Group I than in Group II. Four patients in Group I died following admission, while no patient died in Group II (N.S.). Autopsy findings from the 4 Group I patients revealed fresh extensive inferior infarction and healed diffuse subendocardial infarction which could not be predicted from electrocardiograms. All patients who survived the acute stage performed treadmill exercise testing and 22 patients underwent exercise thallium-201 single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT). On treadmill exercise test, there was no significant difference between the 2 groups in the frequency of angina pectoris and ST-segment depression. On SPECT, the perfusion defect area under 55% of maximum uptake at the redistribution phase was 45.8 +/- 19.6 cm2 in Group I (n = 14) and 34.7 +/- 21.3 cm2 in Group II (n = 8; N.S.). In conclusion, precordial ST-segment depression in acute inferior myocardial infarction suggested advanced atherosclerosis in both the infarction-related and nonrelated coronary arteries, indicating a larger infarct size.
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Quetiapine Treated First-Episode Psychosis

Objective. It has been suggested that atypical antipsychotics confer their effects via brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We investigated the effect of quetiapine on serum levels of BDNF and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in drug-naive first-episode psychosis subjects. Methods. Fifteen patients drawn from a larger study received quetiapine treatment for twelve weeks. Baseline levels of serum BDNF and VEGF were compared to age- and sex-matched healthy controls and to levels following treatment. Linear regression analyses were performed to determine the relationship of BDNF and VEGF levels with outcome measures at baseline and week 12. Results. The mean serum BDNF level was significantly higher at week 12 compared to baseline and correlated with reductions in Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and general psychopathology scores. Changes in serum VEGF levels also correlated significantly with a reduction in BPRS scores, a significant improvement in PANNS positive symptoms scores, and displayed a positive relationship with changes in BDNF levels. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that BDNF and VEGF are potential biomarkers for gauging improvement of psychotic symptoms. This suggests a novel neurotrophic-based mechanism of the drug effects of quetiapine on psychosis. This is the first report of VEGF perturbation in psychosis.
Development and Characterization of a Theranostic Micelles System using TPGS with Docetaxel and Coumarin-6: A Dual Polymeric Nanocarrier System

Theranostic micelles and polymeric nanocarrier-based drug delivery system are well known techniques that involve a diagnostic agent in polymeric micelles for a combination of therapy by using a co-delivery approach which can help in detection of a cancer cell in an early stage, increase killing effect and suppress multi-drug resistance (MDS) for better therapeutic effectiveness. The aim of this study is to develop a dual modality micellar system using D-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) as a nanocarrier for co-delivery of docetaxel as a model chemotherapeutic drug and coumarin-6 as a model fluorescence imaging agent for simultaneous cancer imaging and therapy in an early stage. The theranostic micelles were prepared by a solvent casting method and characterized by their particle size, drug loading, drug encapsulation efficiency (EE) and in-vitro drug release profile. These dual modality micellar system TPDC6 micelles were successfully developed with average particle size of 79.59±0.57 nm in diameter and drug loading up to 15.46±1.02 % (EE of 78.99±1.26%) and 9.83±0.76 % (EE of 36.20±0.89%) for docetaxel and coumarin-6 respectively. Besides, the in-vitro drug release profile of the micelles revealed a desired sustained and controlled drug release manner for both docetaxel (21.62±0.36%) and coumarin-6 (10.70±0.46%). In conclusion, the micelles size obtained is in the favourable range for passive targeting through enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect and the drug loading and encapsulation efficiency attained are adequate for therapy and diagnosis purposes on cancer cells. This dual modality system is taking great advantages for tumour imaging and inhibition of tumour growth which is very important for early cancer detection.
The influence of robot anthropomorphism on the feelings of embarrassment when interacting with robots

Medical robots are expected to help with providing care in an aging society. The degree to which patients experience embarrassment in a medical examination might be influenced by the robots’ level of anthropomorphism. The results of our preliminary study show that young, healthy, Dutch university students were less embarrassed when interacting with a technical box than with a robot. Highly human-like robots might therefore not be the best choice for a medical robot. This result also shows that the robot was perceived as a person more so than the technical box. The next step is to compare the robot to a real nurse or doctor. If patients are less embarrassed when interacting with a robot, then, potentially, patients will be less likely to defer important medical examinations when carried out by medical robots.
Machado‐joseph disease/spinocerebellar ataxia 3 responsive to buspirone

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Nucleotide sequences of five IncF plasmid finP alleles

The nucleotide sequences of five finP alleles from various IncF plasmids (finP types I to V) as well as of three finP mutations were determined and compared. The finP gene specificity could be attributed to a variable, six-to-seven-nucleotide loop located between inverted repeats, and the sequence data were consistent with the product of finP being an RNA molecule rather than a protein. The finP mutations interrupted a proposed finP promoter or destabilized a predicted stem-and-loop structure in the finP RNA molecule.
Tissue Expression of Caspase-4 and-5 in Some Chronic Colorectal Diseases

Background: Colonic lining epithelium is subject to variety of insults ranging from inflammatory, infectious to neoplastic processes. One of the most common colon problems are inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal polyps, cancerous growths. Caspases are involved in apoptosis, necrosis, and inflammation. Altered Caspase activity has been associated with a variety of colonic diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer. Caspases-4 and -5 involvement during intestinal homeostasis and disease has not yet been established. Aim: Detection of the tissue expression of Caspases-4 and -5 in some chronic colorectal diseases. Methods: 100 patients underwent colonoscopy divided into four groups: colorectal cancer (CRC) (35 patients), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (25 patients), colorectal polyp (CRP) (20 patients) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as control (20 patients). The diagnosis was established on the basis of clinical history, laboratory (CBC, ESR, liver function tests, CEA), endoscopic and histological data. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques were employed to examine the cellular expression profile of Caspase-4 and -5. Results: Tissue Caspase-4 and -5 were statistically highly significantly increased in the epithelium of CRC in comparison to the other groups. On the other hand, stromal expression of Caspase -4 and -5 were statistically highly significantly increased in IBD group in comparison to the other groups. Conclusions: This study identified epithelialexpressed Caspases -4 and -5 as biomarkers with diagnostic potential in CRC. Also they were a potential marker of dysplasia in IBD and colorectal polyps.
Recoverable cognitive dysfunction at hospital admission in older persons during acute illness

BACKGROUND: While acute illness and hospitalization represent pivotal events for older persons, their contribution to recoverable cognitive dysfunction (RCD) has not been well examined. OBJECTIVE: Our goals were to estimate the frequency and degree of RCD in an older hospitalized cohort; to examine the relationship of RCD with delirium and dementia; and to determine 1-year cognitive outcomes. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Four hundred and sixty patients aged ≥70 years drawn from consecutive admissions to an academic hospital. MEASUREMENTS: Patients underwent interviews daily during hospitalization and at 1 year. The primary outcome was RCD, defined as an admission Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score that improved by 3 or more points by discharge. RESULTS: Recoverable cognitive dysfunction occurred in 179 of 460 (39%) patients, with MMSE impairment at baseline ranging from 3 to 13 points (median=5.0 points). The majority of cases were not characteristic of either delirium or dementia, as 144 of 179 (80%) cases did not meet criteria for delirium, and 133 of 164 (81%) cases did not meet criteria for dementia at baseline. In multivariable analysis controlling for baseline MMSE level, 3 factors were predictive of RCD: higher educational level, preadmission functional impairment, and higher illness severity. At 1 year, further improvement in MMSE score occurred in 38 of 92 (41%) patients with RCD. Recoverable cognitive dysfunction was independently predictive of 1-year mortality with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.82 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.03 to 3.20). CONCLUSIONS: Acute illness is accompanied by a high rate of RCD that is neither characteristic of delirium or dementia. Our observations underscore the reversible nature of this cognitive dysfunction with continued improvement over the ensuing year, and highlight the potential clinical implications of this under-recognized phenomenon.
LuxU connects quorum sensing to biofilm formation in Vibrio fischeri

Biofilm formation by Vibrio fischeri is a complex process involving multiple regulators, including the sensor kinase (SK) RscS and the response regulator (RR) SypG, which control the symbiosis polysaccharide (syp) locus. To identify other regulators of biofilm formation in V. fischeri, we screened a transposon library for mutants defective in wrinkled colony formation. We identified LuxQ as a positive regulator of syp‐dependent biofilm formation. LuxQ is a member of the Lux phosphorelay and is predicted to control bioluminescence in concert with the SK AinR, the phosphotransferase LuxU and the RR LuxO. Of these, LuxU was the only other regulator that exerted a substantial impact on biofilm formation. We propose a model in which the Lux pathway branches at LuxU to control both bioluminescence and biofilm formation. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that LuxU functions to regulate syp transcription, likely by controlling SypG activity. Finally, we found that, in contrast to its predicted function, the SK AinR has little impact on bioluminescence under our conditions. Thus, this study reveals a novel connection between the Lux and Syp pathways in V. fischeri, and furthers our understanding of how the Lux pathway regulates bioluminescence in this organism.