Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GOLOG and PDDL: what is the relative expressiveness?

Action formalisms such as GOLOG or FLUX have been developed primarily for representing and reasoning about change in a logical framework. For this reason, expressivity was the main goal in the development of these formalisms. In another line of research, efficiency of planning methods was the topmost goal resulting in the basic STRIPS language, which has only moderate expressivity. The planning language PDDL developed since 1998 is an extension of basic STRIPS with many expressive features. Now the interesting question is how PDDL compares to GOLOG or other action languages from an expressivity point of view. We will show that a GOLOG fragment, which we call Restricted Basic Action Theories, is as expressive as the ADL fragment of PDDL. To prove this equivalence we use the compilation framework. From a practical point of view, this result can be used for employing efficient planners inside a GOLOG interpreter.
Gastroenteritis in children.

INTRODUCTION Acute gastroenteritis results from infection of the gastrointestinal tract, most commonly with a virus. It is characterised by rapid onset of diarrhoea with or without vomiting, nausea, fever, and abdominal pain. Diarrhoea is defined as the frequent passage of unformed, liquid stools. Regardless of the cause, the mainstay of management of acute gastroenteritis is provision of adequate fluids to prevent and treat dehydration. METHODS AND OUTCOMES We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of interventions to prevent acute gastroenteritis in children? What are the effects of treatments for acute gastroenteritis in children? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to March 2010 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). RESULTS We found 42 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions. CONCLUSIONS In this systematic review, we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of: rotavirus vaccines for the prevention of gastroenteritis; enteral rehydration solutions (oral or gastric), lactose-free feeds, loperamide, probiotics, and zinc for the treatment of gastroenteritis; and ondansetron for the treatment of vomiting.
HETEROGENEITY OF THE POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME: CLINICAL, ENDOCRINE AND ULTRASOUND FEATURES IN 556 PATIENTS

This paper reports an analysis of the clinical, endocrine and ultrasound data within a population of 556 patients with ultrasound‐diagnosed polycystic ovaries. Compared with those not so affected, hirsutism was associated with a higher mean serum testosterone concentration, infertility was associated with higher mean gonadotrophin concentrations, obesity was associated with a higher mean serum testosterone concentration, hyperprolactinaemia was associated with a lower mean serum testosterone concentration and smaller ovaries, alopecia was associated with lower mean serum LH and testosterone concentrations, and acanthosis nigricans was associated with obesity and a raised mean serum testosterone concentration. The heterogeneity illustrates the limitations in the use of specific clinical or endocrine criteria as requirements for the diagnosis of the polycystic ovary syndrome.
Periodic motion planning and nonlinear ℋ∞ tracking control of a 3-DOF underactuated helicopter

Nonlinear ℋ∞ synthesis is developed to solve the tracking control problem into a 3-DOF helicopter prototype. Planning of periodic motions under a virtual constraints approach is considered prior the controller design in order to achieve our goal. A local ℋ∞ controller is derived by means of a certain perturbation of the differential Riccati equations that appear while solving the corresponding ℋ∞ control problem for the linearised system. Stabilisability and detectability properties of the control system are thus ensured by the existence of the proper solutions of the unperturbed differential Riccati equations, and hence the proposed synthesis procedure obviates an extra verification work of these properties. Due to the nature of the approach, the resulting controller additionally yields the desired robustness properties against unknown but bounded external disturbances. Convergence and robustness of the proposed design are supported by simulation results.
Predictability of Recurrent Weather Regimes over North America during Winter from Submonthly Reforecasts

Four recurrent weather regimes are identified over North America from October to March through a k-means clustering applied to MERRA daily 500-hPa geopotential heights over the 1982–2014 period. Three regimes resemble Rossby wave train patterns with some baroclinicity, while one is related to an NAO-like meridional pressure gradient between eastern North America and western regions of the North Atlantic. All regimes are associated with distinct rainfall and surface temperature anomalies over North America. The four-cluster partition is well reproduced by ECMWF week-1 reforecasts over the 1995–2014 period in terms of spatial structures, daily regime occurrences, and seasonal regime counts. The skill in forecasting daily regime sequences and weekly regime counts is largely limited to 2 weeks. However, skill relationships with the MJO, ENSO, and SST variability in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans suggest further potential for subseasonal predictability based on wintertime large-scale weather regimes.
Plant Species Composition and Diversity at the Aravalli Mountain Range in Haryana, India

ABSTRACT The assessment of plant biodiversity specifies adaptability of species and other sets of environmental conditions, which are essential for the growth of an ecosystem. During this study, a total of 92 plant species including 15 trees, 9 shrubs and 68 herbs belonging to 34 families and 84 genera were noticed. The quadrates of 10m×10m, 05m×05m and 01m×01m sized were fixed for trees, shrubs and herbs, respectively, inside 15 p lots of 50m×50m sized to get density, abundance, relative density, relative frequency and basal area etc. The density and frequency represented the species composition, whereas the importance value index indicated the dominancy of one species over another and besides, Shannon and Simpson’s index revealed the species diversity and concentration of dominance, respectively. The Acacia arabica amongst trees, Prosopis juliflora in shrubs and Cynodon dactylon in herbs were found to be the dominant species. Although, the herbs were found dominated over shrubs, followed by trees. The Febaceae amongst trees, Febaceae and Malvaceae among shrubs and Poaceae amid herbs was observed to be the dominant family. This study provides exact information about composition of every plant species at the site, which is essential to make conservational strategies for the preservation and development of plant biodiversity.
Association between genetic polymorphisms in folate-related enzyme genes and infertile men with non-obstructive azoospermia

Abstract Polymorphisms in the genes encoding enzymes in the folate metabolism pathway have been associated with male infertility and chromosome abnormalities. The aim of this study was to analyze the distribution of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), methionine synthase (MTR), and methionine synthase reductase (MTRR) polymorphisms in fertile men and infertile men with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). A case-control study comprising 85 infertile men with NOA and 246 fertile men as controls was carried out. MTHFR c.677C > T (rs1801133), MTHFR c.1298A > C (rs1801131), MTR c.2756A > G (rs1805087), and MTRR c.66A > G (rs1801394) polymorphisms were determined using the polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. There were significant differences in AC + CC genotype (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.1–3.2) and C allele frequencies (OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.2–2.8) of MTHFR c.1298A > C polymorphism between NOA patients and controls after applying the Bonferroni correction. Moreover, the 1298AC genotype, 1298AC + CC genotype, and 1298C allele frequencies were statistically significant in NOA with chromosomal abnormalities and/or a Y chromosome deletion compared to the controls (AC genotype: OR = 3.0; AC + CC genotype: OR = 3.0; C allele: OR = 2.3). Considering the other polymorphisms, no differences were found between cases and controls. Our findings suggest the MTHFR c.1298A > C polymorphism is associated with an increased risk of male infertility, i.e., NOA.
Phenobarbital Lacks Promoting Activity for Neurogenic Tumors in F344 Rats Transplacentally Exposed to Ethylnitrosourea

A chronic rodent study in F344 rats was conducted to investigate the promoting ability of phenobarbital (PB) on neurogenic tumors initiated by transpla-cental administration of ethylnitrosourea (ENU). Pregnant F344 rats were given a single intravenous dose of 3.5 mg ENU/kg or vehicle on the twentieth day of gestation. A total of 192 male offspring were divided into four groups: ENU-PB, ENU-control, PB-control, and control-control. Rats in ENU-PB and PB-control groups received 0.05% PB in their drinking water from four to 78 weeks of age. Nervous system tumors were induced only in animals exposed to ENU. The difference in the incidence of neuroectodermal tumors in rats that were ENU initiated only (13/37; 35%) compared to the incidence in rats that were initiated and given PB (13/57; 23%) was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). ENU-control and ENU-PB treatment groups exhibited no differences in tumor multiplicity or tumor latency. These results demonstrate that PB lacks promoting activity for neurogenic tumors in F344 male rats transplacentally exposed to ENU.
Crystal structure of a DNA/Ba2+ G-quadruplex containing a water-mediated C-tetrad

We have determined the 1.50 Å crystal structure of the DNA decamer, d(CCACNVKGCGTGG) (CNVK, 3-cyanovinylcarbazole), which forms a G-quadruplex structure in the presence of Ba2+. The structure contains several unique features including a bulged nucleotide and the first crystal structure observation of a C-tetrad. The structure reveals that water molecules mediate contacts between the divalent cations and the C-tetrad, allowing Ba2+ ions to occupy adjacent steps in the central ion channel. One ordered Mg2+ facilitates 3′-3′ stacking of two quadruplexes in the asymmetric unit, while the bulged nucleotide mediates crystal contacts. Despite the high diffraction limit, the first four nucleotides including the CNVK nucleoside are disordered though they are still involved in crystal packing. This work suggests that the bulky hydrophobic groups may locally influence the formation of non-Watson–Crick structures from otherwise complementary sequences. These observations lead to the intriguing possibility that certain types of DNA damage may act as modulators of G-quadruplex formation.
Dose-Sparing H5N1 A/Indonesia/05/2005 Pre-pandemic Influenza Vaccine in Adults and Elderly Adults: A Phase III, Placebo-Controlled, Randomized Study

Background. Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses remain a threat to human health, with potential to become pandemic agents. Methods. This phase III, placebo-controlled, observer-blinded study evaluated the immunogenicity, cross-reactivity, safety, and lot consistency of 2 doses of oil-in-water (AS03A) adjuvanted H5N1 A/Indonesia/05/2005 (3.75 μg hemagglutinin antigen) prepandemic candidate vaccine in 4561 adults aged 18–91 years. Results. Humoral antibody responses in the H5N1 vaccine groups fulfilled US and European immunogenicity licensure criteria for pandemic vaccines in all age strata 21 days after the second dose. At 6 months after the administration of the primary dose, serum antibody seroconversion rates continued to fulfill licensure criteria. Neutralizing cross-clade immune responses were demonstrated against clade 1 A/Vietnam/1194/2004. Consistency was demonstrated for 3 consecutive H5N1 vaccine lots. Temporary injection-site pain was more frequent with H5N1 vaccine than placebo (89.3% and 70.7% in the 18–64 and ≥65 years strata vs 22.2% and 14.4% in the placebo groups). Unsolicited adverse event frequency, including medically attended and serious events, was similar between groups through day 364. Conclusions. In adults and elderly adults, AS03A-adjuvanted H5N1 candidate vaccine was highly immunogenic for A/Indonesia/05/2005, with cross-reactivity against A/Vietnam/1194/2004. Temporary injection site reactions were more frequent with H5N1 vaccine than placebo, although the H5N1 vaccine was well tolerated overall. Clinical Trials Registration. NCT00616928.
Primary or secondary antifungal prophylaxis in patients with hematological maligancies: efficacy and damage

Background Patients with hematological malignancies often develop febrile neutropenia (FN) as a complication of cancer chemotherapy. Primary or secondary antifungal prophylaxis is recommended for patients with hematological malignancies to reduce the risk of invasive fungal infection (IFI). This study retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and potential harm of administration of primary and secondary antifungal prophylaxis to patients with hematological malignancies at one hospital. Methods All patients with hematological malignancies older than 14 years of age who had experienced at least one FN attack during chemotherapy while being treated at one hospital between November 2010 and November 2012 were retrospectively evaluated. Results A total of 282 FN episodes in 126 consecutive patients were examined during a 2-year study period. The mean patient age was 51.73±14.4 years (range: 17–82 years), and 66 patients were male. Primary prophylaxis with posaconazole was administered to 13 patients and systemic antifungal treatment under induction or consolidation chemotherapy to seven patients. Of 26 patients who received secondary antifungal prophylaxis with either oral voriconazole (n=17) or posaconazole (n=6) during 46 FN episodes, systemic antifungal therapy was administered in 16 of 38 episodes and three of eight episodes, respectively. Secondary antifungal prophylaxis with caspofungin was found effective in treating six FN episodes in three patients who had experienced at least two persistent candidemia attacks. The mortality rates associated with IFI were 9% in the first year, 2% in the second year, and 6% overall. The mortality rates associated with candidemia were 33% in the first year, 22% in the second year, and 27% overall. Conclusion Primary antifungal prophylaxis should be administered to selected patients on the basis of consideration of efficacy, cost, and potential harm. Use of secondary prophylaxis may reduce systemic antifungal use and IFI frequency but may increase risk of colonization and infection with azole-resistant fungal strains.
A NEW METHOD FOR THE SYNTHESIS OF NON-UNIFORM LINEAR ARRAYS WITH SHAPED POWER PATTERNS

Antenna arrays with shaped power patterns have many applications in communications and radars. Many antenna array synthesis techniques for shaped patterns have been developed in the past years, and most of them deal only with uniformly spaced arrays. In this paper, a new method is proposed for the synthesis of nonuniform linear antenna arrays with shaped power patterns. The proposed synthesis method consists of three steps. First, we find a satisfactory power pattern for the required radiation characteristics by solving a constrained least-squares problem which is obtained with the help of non-redundant representation of squared magnitude of a linear array factor. Then, we factorize the polynomial associated with the power pattern by using polynomial rooting, and consequently obtain the corresponding field patterns. Finally, the forward-backward matrix pencil method is used to obtain a nonuniform linear array with optimized excitation magnitudes, phases and locations for a specific choice of field patterns. The synthesized array has a smaller number of elements than the one with uniformly spaced elements for the same Received 9 June 2010, Accepted 7 August 2010, Scheduled 18 August 2010 Corresponding author: Z. Nie (zpnie@uestc.edu.cn). 350 Liu, Nie, and Liu pattern performance. Several synthesis experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed synthesis method.
Leadership and Satisfaction in Change Commitment

Managerial transformational leadership skills may directly influence banking counter staff toward change commitment and improve job satisfaction and service quality, or the influence instead may be mediated by change commitment. For a sample comprised of 246 managers from four large Taiwanese banks, the following path relationships were tested: (1) the association of transformational leadership with change commitment, (2) the association of change commitment with job satisfaction, and (3) the direct or indirect (through the mediation of change commitment) effect of transformational leadership on job satisfaction. Regression was utilized to gain insight into the effects of transformational leadership and change commitment on job satisfaction. Transformational leadership may foster change by providing psychological support to the banking counter staff, enabling them to use their skills to meet the needs of individual customers in response to complex environments.
Global DNA methylation: uncommon event in oral lichenoid disease.

OBJECTIVES Accumulating evidence indicates that aberrant DNA methylation is closely related to oral carcinogenesis, and it has been shown that methylation changes might be used as prognostic biomarker in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Oral lichenoid disease (OLD) is the most common oral potentially malignant disorder in our region. The aim of this study was to perform the first wide DNA methylation study in OLD in order to investigate the relevance of DNA methylation changes in this premalignant disorder. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two different Illumina microarray platforms, namely the GoldenGate Cancer Panel I and the HumanMethylation27 DNA Analysis BeadChip, were utilized in the discovery phase to interrogate the methylation profile of 59 OLD cases and 9 healthy individuals. Top-ranked genes were further validated by pyrosequencing in a second sample set consisting of 160 OLD and 65 controls. RESULTS Our results show that the frequency of aberrant DNA methylation is rare in OLD, and this finding was further corroborated by pyrosequencing in the biological validation. CONCLUSIONS These findings reinforce the notion that molecular alterations associated with oral carcinogenesis do not seem to be common events in OLD, which in turn might explain the low rate of malignization of this disorder.
Aging Results in Molecular Changes in an Enriched Population of Undifferentiated Rat Spermatogonia1

ABSTRACT A strong correlation exists between increasing paternal age and a decline in reproductive function. Testis aging is associated with testicular atrophy, increased DNA damage, and de novo mutations. It is unclear whether these problems arise from the spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), a buildup of anomalies as older germ cells progress through spermatogenesis, or both. We hypothesize that with the continual divisions of SSCs that maintain the germ cell population, an alteration of these cells occurs over time. To test this, we utilized young (4-mo-old) and aged (18- and 21-mo-old) transgenic rats that express GFP in germ cells only. We first examined the number and activity of SSCs from the different age groups by transplantation. Aged rats had numerically fewer SSCs than young rats (<50%; not significant) despite the lack of testicular atrophy, and 21-mo-old rats show a significant reduction in colony length, suggesting that the quality of SSCs also deteriorates. To evaluate any molecular changes occurring in the early cells of spermatogenesis with age, we isolated an SSC-enriched population of CD9-positive (CD9+) cells using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (confirmed by transplantation studies) and extracted RNA for microarray analysis. In the aged CD9+ cells, 60 transcripts were upregulated and more than 500 downregulated compared to the young cells. An altered expression was found for transcripts involved in mitosis and in DNA damage response. These results suggest molecular alterations in the SSC-enriched population of aged CD9+ cells, implying that reproductive aging originates in the undifferentiated cells of spermatogenesis.
Estrogenic Induction of NADPH‐ Diaphorase Activity in the Preoptic Neurons Containing Estrogen Receptor Immunoreactivity in the Female Rat

Nitric oxide and estrogen have been shown to play a critical role in the control of female reproductive function. In order to determine an anatomical relationship between nitric oxide generating neurons and estrogen target neurons, NADPH‐diaphorase histochemistry was combined with estrogen receptor immunohistochemistry in the female medial preoptic area. While only a few weakly stained neurons for NADPH‐diaphorase were found in ovariectomized control rats, a drastic increase in NADPH‐diaphorase activity was observed in the medial preoptic nucleus of estradiol‐treated ovariectomized animals. The total number of NADPH‐diaphorase neurons in the estradiol‐treated group increased three‐fold relative to controls, and more than 80% of those neurons contained estrogen receptor‐immunoreactivity in their nuclei. Since neuronal NADPH‐diaphorase is nitric oxide synthase, the present result suggests that nitric oxide synthase activity can be positively regulated by estradiol in neurons containing estrogen receptor in the female medial preoptic nucleus.
Approximate Projected Consensus for Convex Intersection Computation: Convergence Analysis and Critical Error Angle

In this paper, we study an approximate projected consensus algorithm for a network to cooperatively compute the intersection of convex sets, where each set corresponds to one network node. Instead of assuming exact convex projection that each node can compute, we allow each node to compute an approximate projection with respect to its own set. After receiving the approximate projection information, nodes update their states by weighted averaging with the neighbors over a directed and time-varying communication graph. The approximate projections are related to projection angle errors, which introduces state-dependent disturbance in the iterative algorithm. Projection accuracy conditions are presented for the considered algorithm to converge. The results indicate how much projection accuracy is required to ensure global consensus to a point in the intersection set when the communication graph is uniformly jointly strongly connected. In addition, we show that π/4 is a critical angle for the error of the projection approximation to ensure the boundedness. Finally, the results are illustrated by simulations.