Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Receiver-coordinated distributed transmit nullforming with channel state uncertainty

A distributed coherent transmission scheme in which two or more transmit nodes form a beam toward an intended receiver while directing nulls at a number of other “protected” receivers is considered. Unlike pure distributed beamforming, where the ith transmit coefficient depends only on the ith transmit node's channel to the intended receiver, the transmit coefficients of a distributed nullformer each depend on the channel responses from all of the transmit nodes to all of the protected nodes. The requirement for each transmit node to know all of the channels in the system makes distributed transmit nullforming challenging to implement in the presence of channel time variations. This paper describes a receiver-coordinated distributed transmission protocol, in the context of a state-space dynamic channel model, in which the receive nodes feed back periodic channel measurements to the transmit cluster. The transmit nodes use this feedback to generate optimal channel predictions and then calculate a time-varying transmit vector that minimizes the average total power at the protected receivers while satisfying an average power constraint at the intended receiver during distributed transmission. We demonstrate via analysis and numerical simulation the efficacy of the technique even with low channel measurement overhead, infrequent update intervals, and significant feedback latency.
Plant growth promoting and phytostimulatory potential of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens.

Root colonizing bacteria that exert beneficial effects on plant growth have been defined as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). The present study aimed to the production of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and siderophore in WR-W2 and MR-AI strains under in vitro condition. Synthesis of IAA and siderophore was checked in presence of different carbon sources in JNFb - medium amended with L-tryptophan (100 µg/ml) and iron limited M9 medium, respectively. Time course study and simultaneous production of IAA and siderophore was performed in the strain MR-AI and WR-W2. Malate followed by acetate was found as the most suitable sole carbon source for both the IAA and siderophore production by the strain. Siderophore production was inhibited above 20µM concentration of Fe (III). Catecholate type of siderophore production was identified in the culture supernatant of both the strain. Furthermore, significant increase in rice plant (Pusa sugandha III) growth response was observed, when the strains were used as bioinoculum under gnotobiotic condition, in presence of L-tryptophan (100µg/ml). 16S rRNA gene sequence reveals strains MR-AI as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and WR-W2 as Bacillus subtilis. Strain WR-W2 was found to be more efficient as compared to MR-AI in terms of its capability to produce IAA and siderophore. Therefore, strain MR-AI and WR-W2 could be further applied as bioinnoculum in different formulation in seeds or crop fields for sustainable agricultural systems.
Symmetric Confidence Regions and Confidence Intervals for Normal Map Formulations of Stochastic Variational Inequalities

Stochastic variational inequalities (SVIs) model a large class of equilibrium problems subject to data uncertainty and are closely related to stochastic optimization problems. The SVI solution is usually estimated by a solution to a sample average approximation (SAA) problem. This paper considers the normal map formulation of an SVI, and proposes a method for building asymptotically exact confidence regions and confidence intervals for the solution of the normal map formulation, based on the asymptotic distribution of SAA solutions. The confidence regions are single ellipsoids with high probability. We also discuss the computation of simultaneous and individual confidence intervals.
Leakage and temperature aware server control for improving energy efficiency in data centers

Reducing the energy consumption for computation and cooling in servers is a major challenge considering the data center energy costs today. To ensure energy-efficient operation of servers in data centers, the relationship among computational power, temperature, leakage, and cooling power needs to be analyzed. By means of an innovative setup that enables monitoring and controlling the computing and cooling power consumption separately on a commercial enterprise server, this paper studies temperature-leakage-energy tradeoffs, obtaining an empirical model for the leakage component. Using this model, we design a controller that continuously seeks and settles at the optimal fan speed to minimize the energy consumption for a given workload. We run a customized dynamic load-synthesis tool to stress the system. Our proposed cooling controller achieves up to 9% energy savings and 30W reduction in peak power in comparison to the default cooling control scheme.
Building a Life of Meaning Through Therapeutic Recreation: The Leisure and Weil-Being Model, Part I

A significant paradigm shift is occurring within health and human services that has the potential to shape the future of therapeutic recreation. Under the old paradigm the primary focus of health and human services was on deficit reduction (Benson, 1997; Frisch, 2006) or the amelioration of problems (Pollard & Rosenberg, 2003). Over time, however, there has been an increasing awareness that the elimination of deficits or problems alone does not result necessarily in healthy, competent, vibrant people or communities. The focus of the new paradigm is on understanding and cultivating the strengths and capacities of individuals, and the institutions and society that allow them to thrive (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002) and to move towards well-being. The profession of Therapeutic Recreation (TR) has the opportunity to play an important role in supporting clients to create a life of meaning, in spite of challenges and limitations. However, the potential role of TR in this process of building capacity and the theoretical support needed has not been articulated clearly in the field. As such, this article will introduce a contemporary service delivery model of TR (The Leisure and Well-Being Model) and will provide theoretical and empirical support for the role of TR in adopting well-being as the desired outcome of service.
Genome-Wide Identification of Alternative Splice Forms Down-Regulated by Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay in Drosophila

Alternative mRNA splicing adds a layer of regulation to the expression of thousands of genes in Drosophila melanogaster. Not all alternative splicing results in functional protein; it can also yield mRNA isoforms with premature stop codons that are degraded by the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway. This coupling of alternative splicing and NMD provides a mechanism for gene regulation that is highly conserved in mammals. NMD is also active in Drosophila, but its effect on the repertoire of alternative splice forms has been unknown, as has the mechanism by which it recognizes targets. Here, we have employed a custom splicing-sensitive microarray to globally measure the effect of alternative mRNA processing and NMD on Drosophila gene expression. We have developed a new algorithm to infer the expression change of each mRNA isoform of a gene based on the microarray measurements. This method is of general utility for interpreting splicing-sensitive microarrays and high-throughput sequence data. Using this approach, we have identified a high-confidence set of 45 genes where NMD has a differential effect on distinct alternative isoforms, including numerous RNA–binding and ribosomal proteins. Coupled alternative splicing and NMD decrease expression of these genes, which may in turn have a downstream effect on expression of other genes. The NMD–affected genes are enriched for roles in translation and mitosis, perhaps underlying the previously observed role of NMD factors in cell cycle progression. Our results have general implications for understanding the NMD mechanism in fly. Most notably, we found that the NMD–target mRNAs had significantly longer 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs) than the nontarget isoforms of the same genes, supporting a role for 3′ UTR length in the recognition of NMD targets in fly.
Small RNA sequencing-microarray analyses in Parkinson leukocytes reveal deep brain stimulation-induced splicing changes that classify brain region transcriptomes

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key post transcriptional regulators of their multiple target genes. However, the detailed profile of miRNA expression in Parkinson's disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide and the first motor disorder has not been charted yet. Here, we report comprehensive miRNA profiling by next-generation small-RNA sequencing, combined with targets inspection by splice-junction and exon arrays interrogating leukocyte RNA in Parkinson's disease patients before and after deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment and of matched healthy control volunteers (HC). RNA-Seq analysis identified 254 miRNAs and 79 passenger strand forms as expressed in blood leukocytes, 16 of which were modified in patients pre-treatment as compared to HC. 11 miRNAs were modified following brain stimulation 5 of which were changed inversely to the disease induced changes. Stimulation cessation further induced changes in 11 miRNAs. Transcript isoform abundance analysis yielded 332 changed isoforms in patients compared to HC, which classified brain transcriptomes of 47 PD and control independent microarrays. Functional enrichment analysis highlighted mitochondrion organization. DBS induced 155 splice changes, enriched in ubiquitin homeostasis. Cellular composition analysis revealed immune cell activity pre and post treatment. Overall, 217 disease and 74 treatment alternative isoforms were predictably targeted by modified miRNAs within both 3′ and 5′ untranslated ends and coding sequence sites. The stimulation-induced network sustained 4 miRNAs and 7 transcripts of the disease network. We believe that the presented dynamic networks provide a novel avenue for identifying disease and treatment-related therapeutic targets. Furthermore, the identification of these networks is a major step forward in the road for understanding the molecular basis for neurological and neurodegenerative diseases and assessment of the impact of brain stimulation on human diseases.
The Chemopreventive Phytochemical Moringin Isolated from Moringa oleifera Seeds Inhibits JAK/STAT Signaling

Sulforaphane (SFN) and moringin (GMG-ITC) are edible isothiocyanates present as glucosinolate precursors in cruciferous vegetables and in the plant Moringa oleifera respectively, and recognized for their chemopreventive and medicinal properties. In contrast to the well-studied SFN, little is known about the molecular pathways targeted by GMG-ITC. We investigated the ability of GMG-ITC to inhibit essential signaling pathways that are frequently upregulated in cancer and immune disorders, such as JAK/STAT and NF-κB. We report for the first time that, similarly to SFN, GMG-ITC in the nanomolar range suppresses IL-3-induced expression of STAT5 target genes. GMG-ITC, like SFN, does not inhibit STAT5 phosphorylation, suggesting a downstream inhibitory event. Interestingly, treatment with GMG-ITC or SFN had a limited inhibitory effect on IFNα-induced STAT1 and STAT2 activity, indicating that both isothiocyanates differentially target JAK/STAT signaling pathways. Furthermore, we showed that GMG-ITC in the micromolar range is a more potent inhibitor of TNF-induced NF-κB activity than SFN. Finally, using a cellular system mimicking constitutive active STAT5-induced cell transformation, we demonstrated that SFN can reverse the survival and growth advantage mediated by oncogenic STAT5 and triggers cell death, therefore providing experimental evidence of a cancer chemopreventive activity of SFN. This work thus identified STAT5, and to a lesser extent STAT1/STAT2, as novel targets of moringin. It also contributes to a better understanding of the biological activities of the dietary isothiocyanates GMG-ITC and SFN and further supports their apparent beneficial role in the prevention of chronic illnesses such as cancer, inflammatory diseases and immune disorders.
Perceptual magnet effect in German boundary tones

The experiment described in this paper tests for the perceptual magnet effect within the categories of high and low boundary tones in German, referring to question and statement, respectively. The experiment is based on previous work in which the categorical status of the two German boundary tones had been evaluated. The results found there showed that there was a discrimination ability within categories which could not be explained by the classical definition of categorical perception. The results reported in the present paper show that a perceptual magnet exists in the statement category but not in the question category.
Prevalence and management of poststroke spasticity in Thai stroke patients: a multicenter study.

OBJECTIVES To study the prevalence, associated factors and management of poststroke spasticity in two muscle groups namely elbow flexor and knee flexor. MATERIAL AND METHOD The Thai stroke rehabilitation registry (TSRR) was conducted among 9 rehabilitation centers. All subjects received the conventional rehabilitation program until they reached their rehabilitation goals or discharge criteria. The Brunnstrom motor recovery stage, Barthel Index, Thai Mental State Examination, Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), and WHOQOL-BREF-Thai (26 items) questionnaires were used to assess the motor recovery, functional disability, cognition, spasticity and quality of life on admission respectively. The management of spasticity was also recorded. RESULTS There were 327 patients with a mean age of 62.2-years-old participating in the study. The prevalence of poststroke spasticity was 41.6%. Among these the prevalences of spasticity of both elbow and knee flexors was 31.2% and of either elbow or knee flexor were 4.9% and 5.5% respectively. Spasticity with MAS grade 1 was found in the majority. The patients with spasticity had a significantly longer time to rehabilitation admission interval after the stroke (p = 0.049), had the Brunnstrom motor recovery stages of arm (p < 0.001), hand (p = 0.003) and leg (p < 0.001) significantly lower than the no spasticity group. The factor associated with spasticity was Brunnstrom motor recovery stage 2 and 3 of the arm with the odds ratio being 6.1 (95% CI = 2.5-14.9) and 3.5 respectively (95% CI = 1.3-9.2). Management of spasticity was demonstrated in 83 patients (25.4%). Therapeutic exercise, oral antispastic medication and assistive device were the first three managements frequently prescribed respectively. CONCLUSION Spasticity was a common complication after stroke. Although the prevalence was quite high, spasticity with MAS grade 1 was found in the majority of cases. The associated factor was the Brunnstrom motor recovery stage of the arm. Therapeutic exercise was the mainstay of the management.
Efficacy of Left Atrial Voltage‐Based Catheter Ablation of Persistent Atrial Fibrillation

Low‐voltage zones (LVZs) represent fibrotic tissue and are substrates for atrial fibrillation (AF). We hypothesized that LVZ‐based substrate modification along with pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) would improve outcomes in persistent AF (PeAF) patients with LVZs, whereas PVI alone would work in patients without LVZs.
An Online Algorithm for Separating Sparse and Low-Dimensional Signal Sequences From Their Sum

This paper designs and extensively evaluates an online algorithm, called practical recursive projected compressive sensing (Prac-ReProCS), for recovering a time sequence of sparse vectors St and a time sequence of dense vectors Lt from their sum, Mt: = St + Lt, when the Lt's lie in a slowly changing low-dimensional subspace of the full space. A key application where this problem occurs is in real-time video layering where the goal is to separate a video sequence into a slowly changing background sequence and a sparse foreground sequence that consists of one or more moving regions/objects on-the-fly. Prac-ReProCS is a practical modification of its theoretical counterpart which was analyzed in our recent work. Extension to the undersampled case is also developed. Extensive experimental comparisons demonstrating the advantage of the approach for both simulated and real videos, over existing batch and recursive methods, are shown.
The gender ratio imbalance and its relationship to risk of HIV/AIDS among African American women at historically black colleges and universities

Abstract African American women are at increased risk of HIV transmission through heterosexual contact. HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among African American women between 25 to 34 years of age, and many of these women were likely infected while in college. Four focus groups were conducted with African American students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in order to learn about the college dating environment and how it influenced women's risk of HIV infection. We used constant comparison techniques and visual display matrixes to analyse the data. Students identified the gender ratio imbalance of more women to men on campus as a key element of the campus dating environment and described how it places women at an increased risk for HIV infection. Primary consequences of this gender ratio imbalance were men having multiple female sexual partners during the same time period and women complying with men's condom use preferences. HIV preventive intervention programmes at HBCUs must address the gender ratio imbalance and its consequences to reduce women's risk of contracting the infection.
Tera-scale 1D FFT with low-communication algorithm and Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessors

This paper demonstrates the first tera-scale performance of Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessors on 1D FFT computations. Applying a disciplined performance programming methodology of sound algorithm choice, valid performance model, and well-executed optimizations, we break the tera-flop mark on a mere 64 nodes of Xeon Phi and reach 6.7 TFLOPS with 512 nodes, which is 1.5× than achievable on a same number of Intel® Xeon® nodes. It is a challenge to fully utilize the compute capability presented by many-core wide-vector processors for bandwidth-bound FFT computation. We leverage a new algorithm, Segment-of-Interest FFT, with low inter-node communication cost, and aggressively optimize data movements in node-local computations, exploiting caches. Our coordination of low communication algorithm and massively parallel architecture for scalable performance is not limited to running FFT on Xeon Phi; it can serve as a reference for other bandwidth-bound computations and for emerging HPC systems that are increasingly communication limited.
A Dual-layer CRFs Based Joint Decoding Method for Cascaded Segmentation and Labeling Tasks

Many problems in NLP require solving a cascade of subtasks. Traditional pipeline approaches yield to error propagation and prohibit joint training/ decoding between subtasks. Existing solutions to this problem do not guarantee nonviolation of hard-constraints imposed by subtasks and thus give rise to inconsistent results, especially in cases where segmentation task precedes labeling task. We present a method that performs joint decoding of separately trained Conditional Random Field (CRF) models, while guarding against violations of hard-constraints. Evaluated on Chinese word segmentation and part-of-speech (POS) tagging tasks, our proposed method achieved state-of-the-art performance on both the Penn Chinese Treebank and First SIGHAN Bakeoff datasets. On both segmentation and POS tagging tasks, the proposed method consistently improves over baseline methods that do not perform joint decoding.
Co-Doping Effect of Nanoscale C and SiC on ${\hbox {MgB}}_{2}$ Superconductor

MgB2 was thought as a promising superconductor used at temperatures around 20 K for cryogen-free magnet. Nanostructure materials were often selected as MgB2 additives due to their high chemical reactivity. In this paper, the mixture of nano-C and nano-SiC was doped to MgB2 bulks and tapes. The co-doping effect of C and SiC on the phase formation, microstructure, and critical current density of MgB2 bulks and tapes were systematically investigated. The mechanisms for the superconducting properties improvement in co-doped MgB2 superconductor was analyzed based on the characterization and measuring results.
Paced Left Ventricular QRS Width and ECG Parameters Predict Outcomes After Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy: PROSPECT-ECG Substudy

Background— For patients with symptomatic New York Heart Association class III or IV, ejection fraction ⩽35%, and QRS ≥130 ms, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has become an established treatment option. However, use of these implant criteria fails to result in clinical or echocardiographic improvement in 30% to 45% of CRT patients. Methods and Results— The Predictors of Response to CRT (PROSPECT)-ECG is a substudy of the prospective observational PROSPECT trial. ECGs collected before, during, and after CRT implantation were analyzed. Primary outcomes were improvement in clinical composite score (CCS) and reduction of left ventricular end systolic volume (LVESV) of >15% after 6 months. Age, sex, cause of cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction location, right ventricular function, mitral regurgitation, preimplantation QRS width, preimplantation PR interval, preimplantation right ventricular–paced QRS width, preimplantation axis categories, LV-paced QRS width, postimplantation axis categories, difference between biventricular (Bi-V) pacing and preimplantation QRS width, and QRS bundle branch morphological features were analyzed univariably in logistic regression models to predict outcomes. All significant predictors (&agr;=0.1), age, and sex were used for multivariable analyses. Cardiomyopathy cause interaction and subanalyses were also performed. In multivariable analyses, only QRS left bundle branch morphological features predicted both CCS (odds ratio [OR]=2.46, P=0.02) and LVESV (OR=2.89, P=0.048) response. The difference between Bi-V and preimplantation QRS width predicted CCS improvement (OR=0.89, P=0.04). LV-paced QRS width predicted LVESV reduction (OR=0.86, P=0.01). Specifically, an LV-paced QRS width of ⩽200 ms was predictive of nonischemic LVESV reduction (OR=5.12, P=0.01). Conclusions— Baseline left bundle branch QRS morphological features, LV-paced QRS width, and the difference between Bi-V and preimplantation QRS width can predict positive outcomes after CRT and may represent a novel intraprocedural method to optimize coronary sinus lead placement. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00253357.
The cDNA-deduced amino acid sequence for trichohyalin, a differentiation marker in the hair follicle, contains a 23 amino acid repeat

Trichohyalin is a highly expressed protein within the inner root sheath of hair follicles and is similar, or identical, to a protein present in the hair medulla. In situ hybridization studies have shown that trichohyalin is a very early differentiation marker in both tissues and that in each case the trichohyalin mRNA is expressed from the same single copy gene. A partial cDNA clone for sheep trichohyalin has been isolated and represents approximately 40% of the full-length trichohyalin mRNA. The carboxy-terminal 458 amino acids of trichohyalin are encoded, and the first 429 amino acids consist of full- or partial- length tandem repeats of a 23 amino acid sequence. These repeats are characterized by a high proportion of charged amino acids. Secondary structure analyses predict that the majority of the encoded protein could form alpha-helical structures that might form filamentous aggregates of intermediate filament dimensions, even though the heptad motif obligatory for the intermediate filament structure itself is absent. The alternative structural role of trichohyalin could be as an intermediate filament-associated protein, as proposed from other evidence.