Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accelerating Content Delivery via Efficient Resource Allocation for Network Coding Aided D2D Communications

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is one of the emerging paradigms in 5G networks to facilitate ever-increasing demands for local area services. For content delivery, direct transmission via D2D communications among proximity nodes and cooperative content downloading from base stations can enhance system capacity, which on the other hand cause interference to regular cellular networks due to spectrum sharing. Random linear network coding is capable of improving robustness to the varying channel state with severe interference. It also increases collaborative efficiency between users for content sharing. This paper investigates cooperative relaying scheme (RNCC) for cooperative D2D communications, which is aided by the random linear network coding. This is achieved by allocating the downlink resource among multiple cellular users, cooperative relays, and D2D pairs. First a binary integer linear programming-based resource allocation problem is modeled by introducing D2D pairs’ clustering concept, which is an NP-hard problem. For the optimal solution, we leverage the branch-and-cut algorithm. While for large scale networks, we contributed a distributed QoS-aware greedy algorithm, which yields close to optimal solution. Our proposed schemes are evaluated via the extensive simulations considering practical scenarios, and the system sum rate results demonstrate an enhancement of ~20% performance in comparison with several other practical strategies in literature, which validates our schemes’ effectiveness.
Vulgarisation scientifique et médiatisation de la science

This article explores terminological variation, in particular denominative variation, in popular science discourse. Our objective is to analyse the terminological complexity and instability of terms referring to the controversial notion of biocontrol (lutte biologique in French) in two types of publications. The analysis is based on the identification of the different denominations used in this interdisciplinary subject field, both in a Journal specialized in plant protection and in the most popular French daily newspapers. Our study aims to give an in-depth linguistic and cognitive analysis of French terms and explain the reasons for the observed variation. As most scientific research topics gaining public attention, biological control (or biocontrol) is prone to a multiplication of terms. In this study, we show how the profusion of terms, in a domain with important scientific and societal implications, can maintain or even exacerbate terminological and conceptual confusion.
Emergence of Coordination with Asymmetric Benefits via Prior Commitment

When starting a new collective venture, it is important to understand partners’ motives and how strongly they commit to common goals. Arranging prior commitments or agreements on how to behave has been shown to be an evolutionary viable strategy in the context of cooperation dilemmas, ensuring high levels of mutual cooperation among self-interested individuals. However, in many situations, commitments can be used to achieve other types of collective behaviours such as coordination. Coordination is arguably more complex to achieve since there might be multiple desirable collective outcomes in a coordination problem (compared to mutual cooperation, the only desirable outcome in cooperation dilemmas), especially when these outcomes entail asymmetric benefits or payoffs for those involved. Using methods from Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT), herein we study how prior commitments can be adopted as a tool for enhancing coordination when its outcomes exhibit an asymmetric payoff structure. Our results, both by numerical simulations and analytically, show that whether prior commitment would be a viable evolutionary mechanism for enhancing coordination strongly depends on the collective benefit of coordination, and more importantly, how asymmetric benefits are resolved in a commitment deal.
Retrieving, classifying and analysing narrative commentary in unstructured (glossy) annual reports published as PDF files

We provide a methodological contribution by developing, describing and evaluating a method for automatically retrieving and analysing text from digital PDF annual report files published by firms listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The retrieval method retains information on document structure, enabling clear delineation between narrative and financial statement components of reports, and between individual sections within the narratives component. Retrieval accuracy exceeds 95% for manual validations using a random sample of 586 reports. Large-sample statistical validations using a comprehensive sample of reports published by non-financial LSE firms confirm that report length, narrative tone and (to a lesser degree) readability vary predictably with economic and regulatory factors. We demonstrate how the method is adaptable to non-English language documents and different regulatory regimes using a case study of Portuguese reports. We use the procedure to construct new research resources including corpora for commonly occurring annual report sections and a dataset of text properties for over 26,000 U.K. annual reports.
Open Government Data (OGD) in Iran, Lebanon and Jordan: a comparative approach

Purpose The main aim of this study is to do a comparison of Open Government Data (OGD) frameworks in Iran, Lebanon and Jordan and underscore the prospects and challenges in OGD implementation. Design/methodology/approach Basing itself on two OGD models offered by Kalampokis and his colleagues (Kalampokis et al., 2011) and Sieber and Johnson (2015) and the typology of “good” and “bad” data based on factors such as “usability”, “findability” and “understandability”, the study uses a documentary analysis for generating evidences by scanning the websites linked with OGD across the three countries. Following a qualitative methodology, countries shall be classified in terms of these models and the typology depending upon their OGD nature and scope. Findings OGD adoption in Iran, Lebanon and Jordan is at a nascent stage, and the OGD nature is of the “bad” type. These countries have merely “aggregated data” over their Web interfaces which are incomplete, outdated and do not permit analytics. Besides, there are a number of challenges which need to be overcome for proper OGD adherence. Nevertheless, there are a lot of prospects for harnessing OGD for improved citizen–government interaction by creating a culture of transparency, collaboration and accountability. Practical implications The study holds immense significance for government bodies to appreciate the potential of OGD which would go a long way to add social and economic value to propel the country’s growth. Originality/value No study has been conducted so far which compares Iran, Lebanon and Jordan in terms of their OGD policies; this is the main contribution of the study. Also, conceding the significance of the three countries in terms of their socio-economic indices, academic research is warranted in relation to these countries.
The limitations of simple gene set enrichment analysis assuming gene independence

Since its first publication in 2003, the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis method, based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, has been heavily used, modified, and also questioned. Recently a simplified approach using a one-sample t-test score to assess enrichment and ignoring gene-gene correlations was proposed by Irizarry et al. 2009 as a serious contender. The argument criticizes Gene Set Enrichment Analysis’s nonparametric nature and its use of an empirical null distribution as unnecessary and hard to compute. We refute these claims by careful consideration of the assumptions of the simplified method and its results, including a comparison with Gene Set Enrichment Analysis’s on a large benchmark set of 50 datasets. Our results provide strong empirical evidence that gene–gene correlations cannot be ignored due to the significant variance inflation they produced on the enrichment scores and should be taken into account when estimating gene set enrichment significance. In addition, we discuss the challenges that the complex correlation structure and multi-modality of gene sets pose more generally for gene set enrichment methods.
Infecção experimental de Lymnaea columella por Fasciola hepatica

Os ovos de F. hepatica recolhidos em bilis de boi, fezes e em bilis de coelhos foram incubados a temperatura ambiente, dando origem a miracidios apos 9 a 13 dias. Com estes miracidios recem-eclodidos foram infectados experimentalmente 233 exemplares de L. columella medindo 5,0 a 11,0 mm de comprimento. Das limneas infectadas apenas 3% sobreviveram ate o desenvolvimento completo das cercarias. Houve formacao de 190 a 1150 metacercarias entre o 46° ao 54° dia de infeccao. Varios camundongos, ratos, cobaias e coelhos foram infectados com metacercarias de diferentes idades, mas somente os coelhos eliminaram ovos nas fezes 78 dias depois. Com a morte dos coelhos foram recuperados vermes adultos.
Lifestyle Change for Weight Loss in the Inner-City

In low-income minority communities, there is high prevalence and clustering of obesity, coronary heart disease, dyslipidemia, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Evidence suggests one way to treat and prevent these conditions is through a very low-fat, high fiber, vegetarian diet. A feasibility study was conducted to determine whether inner-city African American and Latino patients will accept a low-fat vegetarian diet and to assess attitudes about the life-style intervention. Reductions in fat and animal products were acceptable, though complete conversion to vegetarianism was not. Meanwhile, group support was the most highly rated component of the class. Contrary to common perceptions of immigrants needing to maintain traditional habits, the Latino participants enthusiastically adopted new concepts and incorporated new recipes into their diet. Weight loss was achieved during the 8 week course and continued through 18 month follow-up. It appears that individual empowerment through the group intervention, coupled with simple diet messages, supported life-style change in a high-risk group.
Postmenopausal hormone therapy and body composition—a substudy of the estrogen plus progestin trial of the Women's Health Initiative

Author(s): Chen, Zhao; Bassford, Tamsen; Green, Sylvan B; Cauley, Jane A; Jackson, Rebecca D; LaCroix, Andrea Z; Leboff, Meryl; Stefanick, Marcia L; Margolis, Karen L | Abstract: It has been suggested that hormone therapy may help counter undesirable changes in body composition in older women.This study was designed to test whether estrogen plus progestin (E+P) therapy favorably affects age-related changes in body composition in postmenopausal women.The substudy was composed of 835 women from the estrogen plus progestin trial of the Women's Health Initiative who were randomly assigned to receive either E+P therapy (n = 437) or placebo (n = 398). The women had a mean age of 63.1 y and, on average, were 13.8 y past menopause. More than 17% of the participants were from an ethnic minority. No significant differences in baseline body composition (measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) by intervention assignment were observed.After 3 y of intervention, the women who received active E+P therapy lost less lean soft tissue mass (-0.04 kg) than did the women who received placebo (-0.44 kg; P = 0.001). Additionally, the women in the E+P group had less upper-body fat distribution than did the women in the placebo group (change in ratio of trunk to leg fat mass: -0.025 for the E+P group and 0.004 for the placebo group; P = 0.003). A sensitivity analysis, which was conducted on the women who took g or = 80% of the study medication during the intervention period, corroborated the findings from the intent-to-treat analysis.A 3-y E+P intervention significantly reduced both the loss of lean soft tissue mass and the ratio of trunk to leg fat mass in postmenopausal women. However, the effect sizes were small, and whether these changes in body composition lead to significant health benefits remains to be confirmed.
Therapeutic Effects of Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) in Knee Osteoarthritis, Compared to Therapeutic Ultrasound

INTRODUCTION: Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is thought to have analgesic and biomodulatory effects. Our objective was to assess the pain-relieving effect of LLLT and possible changes in joint stiffness and disability of patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and compare it to the more commonly used modality; therapeutic ultrasound(US). METHODS: 37 patients with mild or moderate KOA were randomized to receive either LLLT, placebo LLLT or US. All patients received a common treatment including acetaminophen (up to 2gr/d) and medical advices for lifestyle modification and exercise. Treatments were delivered 5 times a week over a period of 2 weeks. Active laser group was treated with a diode laser (wavelength 880 nm, continuous wave, power 50 mW) at a dose of 6 J/point (24 J/knee). The placebo control group was treated with an ineffective probe (power 0 mW) of the same appearance. The third group received pulsed ultrasound with an intensity of 1.5-2 w/cm2, and for 5 minutes per knee. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Western Ontario MacMaster (WOMAC) questionnaires were used for data gathering before,1 and 3 months after completing the therapy. RESULTS: Pain reduced in all 3 groups but laser was superior in comparison. Stiffness improved 1 mo after therapy in the laser group but not in the others. Disability decreased in both laser and US groups (more significantly in the laser group) but not in the placebo group. CONCLUSION: Our results show that LLLT reduces pain, joint stiffness and disability in KOA and is superior to placebo and US.
Mycobacterium avium Complex and the Normal Hosts

IN an era that has seen the recognition of important new infectious diseases and syndromes such as the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), legionellosis, and toxic shock, and the subsidence of venerable infectious disorders such as smallpox, polio, and streptococcal-induced acute rheumatic fever or glomerulonephritis, it should come as no surprise that another battle is being joined between humanity and microbes. In this issue of the Journal, Prince and colleagues1 report on a series of patients from two hospitals in the Philadelphia area who had pulmonary disease due to Mycobacterium avium complex. Several aspects of their experience merit discussion. First, .
Impact of a Prohibitive Versus Restrictive Tobacco Policy on Liver Transplant Candidate Outcomes

Tobacco use has been associated with poorer outcomes after liver transplantation (LT). Our study examined the effect on LT listing outcomes of a newly implemented policy prohibiting the use of all tobacco products compared with a prior restrictive policy. Medical records of consecutive adult patients evaluated for LT from January 2010 to July 2013 (era 1, n = 1344) and August 2013 to March 2017 (era 2, n = 1350) were reviewed. The proportion of LT candidates listed was the primary outcome. The mean age of the 2694 LT candidates was 54 ± 11 years, 60% were male, and the mean Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score was 15 ± 7. Although the proportion of LT candidates who were smokers was significantly higher in era 2 (33% versus 23%; P < 0.005), the proportion of smokers listed for LT remained stable (13% versus 17%; P = 0.25). However, there were more smokers excluded for ongoing tobacco use in era 2 compared with era 1 (9.6% versus 4.4%; P = 0.001). Factors independently associated with LT listing included a diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma, being married, private insurance, absence of psychiatry comorbidity, and absence of tobacco, marijuana, or opiate use but evaluation during era 2 was not associated with LT listing. However, the median time to listing significantly increased over time, especially in smokers (from 65 to 122 days; P = 0.001), and this trend was independently associated with evaluation during era 2, a lower MELD score, not having children, and a lower level of education (P < 0.05). In conclusion, despite an increasing incidence of active smokers being referred for LT evaluation, the proportion of smoker candidates listed for LT was unchanged after instituting our prohibitive tobacco use policy. However, the time to get on the waiting list for smokers who were eventually listed was significantly longer due to the need to achieve complete tobacco cessation.
Causes and risk factors of reintubation in Shahid Madani cardiac surgery ICU during 2012-2013

Abstract Background: Extubation failure rate is one of the criteria for assessing the quality of care in intensive care unit (ICU) and higher or lower extubation failure rates indicate longer mechanical ventilation or inappropriate weaning criteria of patients, respectively. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the rate and causes of extubation failure in the cardiac surgery ICU of Tabriz Shahid Madani hospital during 2012-2013. Methods: In a cross-sectional study during 2012-2013, all intubated adult patients (over 18 years old) after cardiac surgery admitted to ICU who were re-intubated within 72 hours after extubation were studied. Results: Overall, 31 patients had the inclusion criteria. Extubation failure rate during one year was 2.45%. Extubation failure causes were hypoxemia, cardiopulmonary arrest, sepsis, acute renal failure, re-operation, shock, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia, seizures, decreased level of consciousness, copious secretion, and severe agitation. Re-intubation risk factors included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, renal failure, heart failure, ARDS, pneumonia, intra-aortic balloon pump, acute coronary syndrome and shock. The mean duration of mechanical ventilation before extubation was 2.3±3.1 days. The overall mortality rate of studied patients was 26% with coronary artery bypass grafting surgery as the most common cause. Conclusions: During 2012 and 2013, the extubation failure rate in the cardiac surgery ICU was 2.45%. The most common causes of extubation failure in this setting were hypoxemia and pneumonia. Moreover, the most common risk factors for re-intubation were diabetes mellitus and renal failure. Keywords: Airway Extubation failure; Cardiac surgery; ICU;
Immuno-targeted combinations in oncogene-addicted non-small cell lung cancer

The identification of tumor “oncogenic drivers” and the subsequent development of targeted therapy represented a milestone in the treatment of lung cancer over the last years. Tumor genotyping has been incorporated into therapeutic decision making of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) since has become clear that individuals with actionable molecular alterations receiving a matched targeted agent certainly live longer and better. The recent understanding of biological mechanisms underlying cancer immune evasion has allowed the development of a new class of immunomodulatory agents which are able to reactivate host immune-response, offering the potential for long-term disease control and survival in a significant subgroup of lung cancer patients. The complementary therapeutic effects of these two different approaches suggested intriguing potential for therapeutic synergy with combination strategies. Indeed, immunotherapy could consolidate the dramatic but transient tumor responses achieved with targeted therapy into long-term survival benefit, due to the induction of specific anti-tumor memory. However, the great emphasis and expectations linked to immune-targeted combinations have been mostly disappointed by the initial controversial results of early-phase trials, raising relevant concerns about the use of these combinations for lung cancer treatment. This review briefly summarizes the basis of immunogenicity and immune escape in oncogene addicted NSCLC, providing an updated overview of clinical trials, with the final aim of defining the current unmet needs of immuno-targeted combinations in clinical practice.
The Sub-acute Effect of Lead Exposure on the Auditory Brainstem Response in Male Rats

Background: Lead is a major environmental pollutant and can adversely affect humans and animals. There are conflicting data about the ototoxic effect of lead. This study experimentally examined the association between blood lead levels (BLL) and the subsequent hearing impairment in male rats. Methods: Twenty-two male rats were randomly categorized into experimental (exposed to lead acetate, 4 mg/kg by gavage) and control groups. We evaluated the groups by click and tone audiometric burst tests, comparing the data before and 30 days after exposure to lead acetate (4mg/kg). Also, blood samples were collected from the rats and analyzed for lead levels by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Results: The study findings demonstrated remarkable increase in hearing threshold in the lead-exposed group, compared to the controls (p<0.0001). Also, the blood lead levels revealed a significant association of lead acetate with the hearing loss in rats. Conclusion: This study revealed that exposure to lead acetate can be damaging to hearing. However, future research is recommended to clarify the mechanism of action of lead toxicity on the auditory function at varying blood lead concentrations.
The amelorative effect of L-arginin and omega-3 fatty acid against sodium valproate induced hepatotoxicity

Sodium valproate (VPA) used in epilepsy and has hepatotoxic effect in mammals. This work is to assess the role of L-arginin and omega-3 fatty acid against VPA oxidative stress on liver. This study was carried out on 70 rats divided into 7 groups each of 10 rats treated orally once daily 6days/ week; Group I (control), Group II ( L-arginin): each rat was received 300 mg/kg L-arginin, Group III (omega-3): each rat received 300 mg/kg omega-3, Group IV (VIA): Each rat received 400 mg/kg VPA. Group V (VPA and L-arginin): Each rat received the previous doses. Group VI (VPA and omega-3): as before. Group VII (VPA, L-arginin and omega-3 group): as before. There was a significant increase in the mean values of AST, ALT, ALP and TBL in VPA treated group. Upon supplementation with L-arginin or omega-3 to VPA treated rats there was a significant decrease in the mean values of AST, ALT, ALP and TBL. Microscopic examination of liver section of VPA treated rat revealed vacuolated hepatocytes, focal necrosis, and enlarged portal tract. VPA toxicity induced severe liver damage in rats, and administration of either L-arginin or omega-3 protecting liver tissues. Key words: L-arginin, omega-3 and sodium valproate.
Towards a microstructural view of architectural change in complex systems : the role of design hierarchy and modularity

Despite the large body of technology and innovation management research analyzing how product architectures evolve over time, the debate about what factors shape such evolution is inconclusive. While hierarchy and near-decomposability are argued to enhance the evolvability of complex systems, scant empirical research analyzed the different mechanisms through which design modularity and hierarchy affect product architecture complexity. Leveraging on metrics developed by recent advances in network and graph theories, we apply panel data regression analysis on real data coming from multiple versions of an industrial software application to empirically test the effect of modularity and hierarchy on design complexity change. The results show that both dimensions reduce the degree of complexity of the software. Unexpectedly, however, they also show that design hierarchy impacts design complexity more than design modularity, which is somehow at odds with the current emphasis on modularity as a complexity reduction approach. The absence of correlations and interaction effects suggest that these two dimensions are both needed to capture and contain architectural complexity