Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persistent Non-Blocking Binary Search Trees Supporting Wait-Free Range Queries

This paper presents the first implementation of a search tree data structure in an asynchronous shared-memory system that provides a wait-free algorithm for executing range queries on the tree, in addition to non-blocking algorithms for Insert, Delete and Find, using single-word Compare-and-Swap (CAS). The implementation is linearizable and tolerates any number of crash failures. Insert and Delete operations that operate on different parts of the tree run fully in parallel (without any interference with one another). We employ a lightweight helping mechanism, where each Insert, Delete and Find operation helps only update operations that affect the local neighbourhood of the leaf that the Find arrives at. Similarly, a range query helps only those updates taking place on nodes in the part of the tree it traverses. Our implementation works in a dynamic system where the number of processes may change over time. The implementation builds upon the non-blocking binary search tree of Ellen et al. [PODC 2010] by making the tree persistent. Experimental results show that the persistent tree compares well with other tree data structures that provide range queries. The experimental evaluation also shows that the persistent tree scales well and that the additional cost of persistence is modest, as is the additional cost for achieving wait-free range queries.
Intimate Partner Violence ? Does Self-Blame Moderate Psychological Adjustment Following

This study explored whether self-blame moderates the relationship between exposure to specific types of abuse and both poor general psychological adjustment (i.e., self-esteem) and specific symptomatology (i.e., posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]) among women who had experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Eighty female IPV survivors were involved in this study. Results indicated that self-blame was negatively associated with self-esteem for physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Self-blame moderated physical abuse, such that high levels of physical abuse interacted with high levels of self-blame in their association with PTSD. Nonsignificant models were noted for psychological and sexual abuse in association with self-blame and PTSD. These findings support the conceptualization that selfblame is associated with both general and specific psychological outcomes in the aftermath of IPV. Future research examining different forms of blame associated with IPV might further untangle inconsistencies in the self-blame literature. 1University of Memphis, TN, USA Corresponding Author: Catherine M. Reich, Department of Psychology, 400 Innovation Drive, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA. Email: cmreich@memphis.edu 540800 JIVXXX10.1177/0886260514540800Journal of Interpersonal ViolenceReich et al research-article2014 at UNIV OF MEMPHIS on October 21, 2014 jiv.sagepub. com Downloaded from 2 Journal of Interpersonal Violence
Automatic 3D segmentation of the liver from abdominal CT images: a level-set approach

Computer-aided surgery requires the accurate registration of tomographic pre-operative images with intra-operative surface points acquired with 3D spatial localizers. Surface-based registration of these tomographic images with the surface points does, in turn, require a precise and accurate surface representation of the structures to be registered. This paper presents a level set technique for the automatic segmentation of the liver in abdominal CT scans. The main difficulty with level set methods is the design of appropriate speed functions for particular applications. Here we propose a novel speed function that is designed to (1) stop the propagating front at organ boundaries with weak edges, and (2) incorporate a-priori information on the relative position of the liver and other structures. We show that the new speed function we have designed to stop the front a weak edges is superior to other approaches proposed in the literature both on simulated images and on CT images. Results obtained with our approach for the segmentation of the liver in several CT scans are compared to contours obtained manually.
Aerobic Vitamin B12 Biosynthesis Is Essential for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Class II Ribonucleotide Reductase Activity During Planktonic and Biofilm Growth

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major pathogenic bacterium in chronic infections and is a model organism for studying biofilms. P. aeruginosa is considered an aerobic bacterium, but in the presence of nitrate, it also grows in anaerobic conditions. Oxygen diffusion through the biofilm generates metabolic and genetic diversity in P. aeruginosa growth, such as in ribonucleotide reductase activity. These essential enzymes are necessary for DNA synthesis and repair. Oxygen availability determines the activity of the three-ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) classes. Class II and III RNRs are active in the absence of oxygen; however, class II RNRs, which are important in P. aeruginosa biofilm growth, require a vitamin B12 cofactor for their enzymatic activity. In this work, we elucidated the conditions in which class II RNRs are active due to vitamin B12 concentration constraints (biosynthesis or environmental availability). We demonstrated that increased vitamin B12 levels during aerobic, stationary and biofilm growth activate class II RNR activity. We also established that the cobN gene is essentially responsible for B12 biosynthesis under planktonic and biofilm growth. Our results unravel the mechanisms of dNTP synthesis by P. aeruginosa during biofilm growth, which appear to depend on the bacterial strain (laboratory-type or clinical isolate).
Adaptation of collins' revised adult attachment dimensional scale to the chilean context

The Adult Attachment Revised Scale is a measure of relationship attachment that contains three dimensions: closeness, dependence and anxiety. In Study 1, the scale was translated and applied to a sample of 420 university students in order to assess reliability. In addition, the scale criterion validity was estimated through measures of self-perception and affectivity. The results of Study 1 supported the internal consistency of two dimensions of attachment, but dependence was lower than expected (α = .62). A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and failed to reach a convergent fit, thus demonstrating that two of the items in dependence were considered problematic. In Study 2, difficult items in Study 1 were reworded and the new version of the scale was applied to 81 participants. The results of two subsequent CFAs showed adequate fit of the scale and increased internal consistency with this new wording (α > .73), which replaced the expression "depend on others" by "getting help from others", which is a better construct representation of the meaning of dependence in the context of attachment closeness. Therefore, not only did we adapt the three dimensions of the attachment scale, but also provided evidence of its validity related to locally adapted instruments.
I-Number Assay and Erythropoietin Potency: Retrospective Capillary Zone Electrophoresis Data Analysis of the Biological Reference Preparations of Erythropoietin

The capillary zone electrophoresis data of erythropoietin reference preparations batch 1 (BRP1), batch 2 (BRP2) and batch 3 (BRP3) of three collaborative studies published in 2004, 2007 and 2015 have retrospectively been analyzed by the author via the I-number assay, a physicochemical assay that allows potency calculation of erythropoietin samples in a precise and accurate manner. The results are summarized as follows: The I-number assay revealed an inter-laboratory precision of CV 3.0%. This retrospective analysis by the author of the CZE data of the (candidate) EPO BRPs has revealed that the bioactivity stated for EPO BRP1 (130.0 IU/μg) should have been stated about 5% higher (“BRP1+5%”=136.5 IU/μg) and the bioactivity stated for EPO BRP2 (130.0 IU/μg) should have been stated about 10% higher (“BRP2+10%”=143.0 IU/μg), and the two new potency values are proposed by the author herewith. The potency assigned for EPO BRP3 (141.1 IU/μg) was without any doubt and therefore confirmed.
Trekking based distributed algorithm for opportunistic spectrum access in infrastructure-less network

An opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) in the infrastructure-less network has received significant attention in last few years due to their ability to improve spectrum utilization as well as usefulness in the infrastructure-less networks established for disaster relief and military applications. The main research problem for feasible implementation of such network is to achieve coordination among secondary users (SUs) (i.e. unlicensed users). Existing algorithms incur a significant number of collisions which in turn require retransmissions and hence, lead to inefficient use of battery power, spectrum and time. In this paper, we set-up the problem as a multi-player Bandit and develop a new distributed algorithm which allows SUs to select one of the top channels with a significantly fewer number of collisions. We show that the proposed algorithm has constant regret with high confidence. We validate our claims and the superiority of the proposed algorithm over existing state-of-the-art algorithms through the exhaustive simulated experiments as well as a realistic USRP based experiments in the real radio environment.
Natural Language Generation by Hierarchical Decoding with Linguistic Patterns

Natural language generation (NLG) is a critical component in spoken dialogue systems. Classic NLG can be divided into two phases: (1) sentence planning: deciding on the overall sentence structure, (2) surface realization: determining specific word forms and flattening the sentence structure into a string. Many simple NLG models are based on recurrent neural networks (RNN) and sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) model, which basically contains a encoder-decoder structure; these NLG models generate sentences from scratch by jointly optimizing sentence planning and surface realization using a simple cross entropy loss training criterion. However, the simple encoder-decoder architecture usually suffers from generating complex and long sentences, because the decoder has to learn all grammar and diction knowledge. This paper introduces a hierarchical decoding NLG model based on linguistic patterns in different levels, and shows that the proposed method outperforms the traditional one with a smaller model size. Furthermore, the design of the hierarchical decoding is flexible and easily-extendible in various NLG systems.
Algorithmic Analysis of Qualitative and Quantitative Termination Problems for Affine Probabilistic Programs

In this article, we consider the termination problem of probabilistic programs with real-valued variables. The questions concerned are: qualitative ones that ask (i) whether the program terminates with probability 1 (almost-sure termination) and (ii) whether the expected termination time is finite (finite termination); and quantitative ones that ask (i) to approximate the expected termination time (expectation problem) and (ii) to compute a bound B such that the probability not to terminate after B steps decreases exponentially (concentration problem). To solve these questions, we utilize the notion of ranking supermartingales, which is a powerful approach for proving termination of probabilistic programs. In detail, we focus on algorithmic synthesis of linear ranking-supermartingales over affine probabilistic programs (Apps) with both angelic and demonic non-determinism. An important subclass of Apps is LRApp which is defined as the class of all Apps over which a linear ranking-supermartingale exists. Our main contributions are as follows. Firstly, we show that the membership problem of LRApp (i) can be decided in polynomial time for Apps with at most demonic non-determinism, and (ii) is NP-hard and in PSPACE for Apps with angelic non-determinism. Moreover, the NP-hardness result holds already for Apps without probability and demonic non-determinism. Secondly, we show that the concentration problem over LRApp can be solved in the same complexity as for the membership problem of LRApp. Finally, we show that the expectation problem over LRApp can be solved in 2EXPTIME and is PSPACE-hard even for Apps without probability and non-determinism (i.e., deterministic programs). Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach to answer the qualitative and quantitative questions over Apps with at most demonic non-determinism.
Poststroke delivery of MANF promotes functional recovery in rats

Delayed delivery of MANF to rat brain after ischemic stroke promotes functional recovery and recruits phagocytic immune cells. Stroke is the most common cause of adult disability in developed countries, largely because spontaneous recovery is often incomplete, and no pharmacological means to hasten the recovery exist. It was recently shown that mesencephalic astrocyte–derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) induces alternative or M2 activation of immune cells after retinal damage in both fruit fly and mouse and mediates retinal repair. Therefore, we set out to study whether poststroke MANF administration would enhance brain tissue repair and affect behavioral recovery of rats after cerebral ischemic injury. We used the distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (dMCAo) model of ischemia-reperfusion injury and administered MANF either as a recombinant protein or via adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector. We discovered that, when MANF was administered to the peri-infarct region 2 or 3 days after stroke, it promoted functional recovery of the animals without affecting the lesion volume. Further, AAV7-MANF treatment transiently increased the number of phagocytic macrophages in the subcortical peri-infarct regions. In addition, the analysis of knockout mice revealed the neuroprotective effects of endogenous MANF against ischemic injury, although endogenous MANF had no effect on immune cell–related gene expression. The beneficial effect of MANF treatment on the reversal of stroke-induced behavioral deficits implies that MANF-based therapies could be used for the repair of brain tissue after stroke.
Age-Related Reference Intervals for Blood Amino Acids in Thai Pediatric Population Measured by Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Background Age, race, and analytic method influence levels of blood amino acids, of which reference intervals are required for the diagnosis and management of inherited metabolic disorders. Objectives To establish age-specific reference intervals for blood amino acids in Thai pediatric population measured by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Methods A cross-sectional study of 277 healthy children from birth to 12 years was conducted. Anthropometric, clinical, and dietary information were recorded. Dried blood spots on a filtered paper were used for measurement by derivatized LC-MS/MS. Factors that might affect amino acids such as fasting time and dietary intake were analyzed using quantile regression analysis. Results Levels of thirteen blood amino acids were reported as median and interval from 2.5th–97.5th percentiles. Compared with those of Caucasian, most blood amino acid levels of Thai children were higher. Compared with a previous study using HPLC in Thai children, many amino acid levels are different. Glycine, alanine, leucine/isoleucine, and glutamic acid sharply decreased after birth. Citrulline, arginine, and methionine stayed low from birth throughout childhood, whereas phenylalanine was at middle level and slightly increased during preadolescence. Conclusion Reference intervals of age-specific blood amino acids using LC-MS/MS were established in the Thai pediatric population. They diverge from previous studies, substantiating the recommendation that, for the optimal clinical practice, age-specific reference intervals of amino acids should be designated for the particular population and analysis method.
Allopatric chromosomal variation in Nematocharax venustus Weitzman, Menezes & Britski, 1986 (Actinopterygii: Characiformes) based on mapping of repetitive sequences

Characiformes is the most cytogenetically studied group of freshwater Actinopterygii, but karyotypical data of several taxa remain unknown. This is the case of Nematocharax , regarded as a monotypic genus and characterized by marked sexual dimorphism. Therefore, we provide the first cytogenetic report of allopatric populations of Nematocharax venustus based on distinct methods of chromosomal banding and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with repetitive DNA probes (18S and 5S rDNA). The karyotype macrostructure was conserved in all specimens and populations, independently on sex, since they shared a diploid number (2n) of 50 chromosomes divided into 8m+26sm+14st+2a. The heterochromatin was mainly distributed at pericentromeric regions and base-specific fluorochrome staining revealed a single pair bearing GC-rich sites, coincident with nucleolar organizer regions (NORs). On the other hand, interpopulation variation in both number and position of repetitive sequences was observed, particularly in relation to 5S rDNA. Apparently, the short life cycles and restricted dispersal of small characins, such as N. venustus , might have favored the divergence of repetitive DNA among populations, indicating that this species might encompass populations with distinct evolutionary histories, which has important implications for conservation measures.
Anthocephalus cadamba extract shows hypoglycemic effect and eases oxidative stress in alloxan-induced diabetic rats

The hydroethanolic extract of the flowering tops of Anthocephalus cadamba (Roxb.) Miq. , Rubiaceae, a Bangladeshi medicinal plant, was studied for its potential hypoglycemic effect and antioxidant property in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. The extract induced significant reduction in serum glucose, and transaminases, e.g. aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatases (ALP), activities. Significant changes in the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), peroxidase and catalase levels during the experimental period were also observed. The results established that the hydroethanolic extract of the flowering tops of A. cadamba possesses hypoglycemic property and is able to protect liver and brain from oxidative damages caused by diabetes.
Antifungal activity of selected natural preservatives against the foodborne molds Penicillium verrucosum and Aspergillus westerdijkiae

The present study examines the inhibitory effect of the essential oil (EO) of Origanum vulgare, its active components carvacrol and thymol, and a few active components of other EOs, namely, eugenol, trans-cinnamaldehyde and 1,8-cineole, against Penicillium verrucosum CBS 302.48, Aspergillus westerdijkiae CBS 112803 and Aspergillus westerdijkiae CBS 112804. Therefore, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by broth macrodilution of each antifungal agent. Regarding their antifungal activity, the following ranking in order of decreasing inhibitory action is: trans-cinnamaldehyde > carvacrol = thymol > O. vulgare EO > eugenol > 1,8-cineole. The combined effects of the natural preservatives were studied by checkerboard assay. The results are based on the fractional inhibitory concentration indices (FICIs), which are interpreted as 'synergy', 'no interaction' or 'antagonism'. The indices ranging from 0.8 to 1.3 and thus show no interaction. In addition, the dependence of the natural inhibitors on different pH values (pH 7.0, 5.6, 4.5 and 3.5) and water activity (0.99, 0.92, 0.90 and 0.87 aw) was investigated. All tested natural preservatives are tolerant to the different examined milieu conditions, with the lowest MICs recorded at pH 3.5 and 0.87 aw.
Effect of Mini-Trampoline Physical Activity on Executive Functions in Preschool Children

The study investigated the effect of mini-trampoline physical activity on the development of executive functions (EF) in Chinese preschool children. Fifty-seven children aged 3–5 were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 29) and a control group (n = 28). The children in the intervention and control group had the same classes and care service in the preschool, but children in the intervention group had an extra 20 min of trampoline training after school for 5 school days per week in the 10-week intervention. Spatial conflict arrow (SCA), animal Go/NoGo (GNG), working memory span (WMS), and flexible item selection (FIS) were used to assess children's EF before and after the intervention. Results revealed that no significant differences emerged in the SCA, GNG, WMS, and FIS tests between two groups postintervention. Findings indicated that a 10-week trampoline PA training may not be sufficient to trigger the improvement of preschool children's EF. Future research with larger representative samples is warranted to discern the dose-response evidence in enhancing young children's EF through physical activity.
The Geographic, Geological and Oceanographic Setting of the Indus River

The discovery of an early advanced civilization in the Indus Valley (Meadows and Meadows, 1999 and references therein) further increased this interest in the history of the river. Its source lies in Tibet, close to sacred Mount Kailas and part of its upper course runs through India, but its channel and drainage basin are mostly in Pakiistan. Recent geological and geophysical information suggests that the Indus River system was initiated shortly after the collision between the Indian and Eurasian Plates prior to 45 million years ago (Clift
EEG correlates of seizure freedom in genetic generalized epilepsies

Background: We investigated the association between epileptiform EEG abnormalities and the preceding duration of seizure freedom in genetic generalized epilepsies (GGE). Methods: We analyzed 24-hour ambulatory EEG recordings of patients with GGE diagnosed and classified according to the International League Against Epilepsy criteria. We quantified epileptiform EEG abnormalities into density scores (total duration of epileptiform discharges per hour) and estimated the preceding seizure-free duration at the time of EEG recording based on the last self-reported seizure. We then employed regression analysis to quantitate the relationship between the duration of seizure freedom and EEG variables. Results: We analyzed 6,923 epileptiform discharges from 105 patients with abnormal 24-hour EEGs. In the regression analysis exploring the crude associations, we found significant correlations between 6 EEG variables and the duration of seizure freedom indicating that shorter duration of seizure freedom was associated with higher spike densities and longer paroxysms. These associations were not affected by confounders such as syndrome, age at EEG, age at epilepsy onset, sex, duration of epilepsy, or number of antiepileptic drugs. Conclusions: Higher densities and longer durations of epileptiform discharges may be retrospectively associated with a shorter duration of self-reported seizure freedom. Hence, EEG can potentially be used as a biomarker of prognosis in GGE. These findings need to be validated in a prospective study in order to define EEG markers of future seizure freedom.