Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A random access scheme based on device-to-device communications for machine-type communications

Machine-type communication (MTC) that usually involves a huge number of devices performing small data transmissions introduces serious challenges for mobile communication networks. Through aggregating MTC devices with identical or similar traffic characteristics into a paging group and paging the devices in the group simultaneously by a single paging, group paging can largely reduce the paging traffic caused by the traditional one-by-one paging. Despite this advantage, group paging cannot tackle the problem of overload in the random access network (RAN), when during a short period a large number of devices in a paging group contend for the random access channel (RACH) to transmit their data after receiving a group paging. This paper proposes an improved random access scheme (I-RA scheme) exploring device-to-device (D2D) communications that may be supported in 4G networks, for MTC to address the above problem. Under the I-RA scheme, a MTC device in a paging group transmits its data either directly to a base station or through the relay of a cluster head, which serves as the communication gateway for the cluster that the device belongs to. The I-RA scheme partitions a paging interval into three periods. In the first period, devices that do not join any cluster contend for the RACH to transmit their data; and at the same time the cluster heads of different clusters poll their member devices to gather data. The second period is reserved solely for the cluster heads to transmit their gathered data. The third period is for the devices that failed in the first and the second period. The I-RA scheme can decrease the number of devices that perform direct random access (D-RA) and thus can deal with the RAN overload problem. A simulation shows that the I-RA scheme outshines the traditional D-RA scheme in successful access probability, access delay and RACH utilization.
Effect of Dietary Fat Intake and Exercise on Inflammatory Mediators of the Immune System in Sedentary Men and Women

Objective: Dietary fat intake and exercise affect the immune system. This study determined the changes in inflammatory components of the immune system in response to maximal exercise with three levels of dietary fat intake: 19%, 30%, and 50% of total calories. Methods: Five men and six women were randomly assigned to consume diets with 19% and 50% calories from fat for three weeks each, with a one-week washout. The habitual and washout diets were 30% calories from fat. At the beginning and the end of each diet, body composition and maximal exercise tests were performed. Blood samples were collected before and after exercise to determine the immunological parameters. Results: The subject’s energy intake was balanced to expenditure on the 30% and 50% diets, but was in negative balance on the 19% diet. Exercise led to significant increases in the concentrations of leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, plasma tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, plasma interleukin (IL)-2, plasma soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule (sVCAM)-1, and the production of IL-1β and IL-6 by peripheral blood mononuclear (PBMN) cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), irrespective of diets (p < 0.05). The 19% fat diet resulted in increased plasma soluble intercellular adhesion molecule (sICAM)-1 after exercise. Leukotriene (LT) B4 concentration released by neutrophils stimulated with LPS was higher in the 50% fat diet, compared to the lower fat diets, and the sICAM-1 production of neutrophils stimulated with LPS was significantly increased after exercise only with 30% fat diet. Conclusion: While a short, intense bout of exercise increased pro-inflammatory mediators of the immune system, decreasing fat intake to 19% on a caloric deficient diet caused a greater increase in plasma TNF-α, sVCAM-1 and sICAM-1 concentration than the 30% and 50% fat diets in male and female subjects. Increasing fat calories to 50% with caloric balance did not exacerbate pro-inflammatory mediators compared to a 30% fat diet.
Fatal streptococcus group B meningitis in newborn twins.

AbstractA 23-year-old woman was delivered of twins 10 hours after rupture of the membranes. The infants appeared to be normal at birth. Very soon both developed a respiratory distress syndrome. Culture of CSF from both infants gave growth of beta-haemolytic streptococci group B. Both children died within a few days. Culture of vaginal smears from the mother 3 weeks after delivery also revealed growth of group B streptococci. As far as we know, this is the first time on record that both newborn twins developed fatal streptococcus group B meningitis.
How can non‐nucleated platelets be so smart?

F . COGNASSE ,*† O. GARRAUD,†‡ B . POZZETTO,†§ S . LARADI*† and H . HAMZEH-COGNASSE† *Etablissement Franc ais du Sang Auvergne-Loire; †Groupe Immunit e des Muqueuses et Agents Pathog enes, EA 3064, Universit e de Lyon, Saint-Etienne; ‡Institut National de la Transfusion Sanguine, Paris; and §Laboratoire des Agents Infectieux et d’Hygi ene, University Hospital of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France
Design of varactor tuned bandpass filter

The tunable bandpass filter is presented. The filter is realized in microstrip technology employing two stepped-impedance resonators tuned with varactor diodes. The filter has constant absolute bandwidth of 30 MHz in the frequency range from 380 MHz to 920 MHz. The insertion loss is lower than 5 dB and return loss higher than 17 dB in the full tuning range. The out of band attenuation is higher than 40 dB at frequencies below the passband and is higher than 50 dB at frequencies above the passband. The first spurious modes are observed at 3 GHz. Absolute bandwidth and the time delay in the full tuning range change by 33% only while center frequency changes 242%.
A variational data assimilation system for soil–atmosphere flux estimates for the Community Land Model (CLM3.5)

Abstract. This paper presents the development and implementation of a spatio-temporal variational data assimilation system (4D-var) for the soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer model "Community Land Model" (CLM3.5), along with the development of the adjoint code for the core soil–atmosphere transfer scheme of energy and soil moisture. The purpose of this work is to obtain an improved estimation technique for the energy fluxes (sensible and latent heat fluxes) between the soil and the atmosphere. Optimal assessments of these fluxes are neither available from model simulations nor measurements alone, while a 4D-var data assimilation has the potential to combine both information sources by a Best Linear Unbiased Estimate (BLUE). The 4D-var method requires the development of the adjoint model of the CLM which is established in this work. The new data assimilation algorithm is able to assimilate soil temperature and soil moisture measurements for one-dimensional columns of the model grid. Numerical experiments were first used to test the algorithm under idealised conditions. It was found that the analysis delivers improved results whenever there is a dependence between the initial values and the assimilated quantity. Furthermore, soil temperature and soil moisture from in situ field measurements were assimilated. These calculations demonstrate the improved performance of flux estimates, whenever soil property parameters are available of sufficient quality. Misspecifications could also be identified by the performance of the variational scheme.
Haissaguerre syndrome--a new clinical entity in the spectrum of primary electrical diseases?

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is an important issue worldwide and occurs at a rate of 0.36 to 1.28 per 1000 persons/year in the US [1]. Approximately 10% of SCD cases occur in patients with no evidence of structural heart disease. Channelopathies are primary electrical diseases that are responsible for the majority these SCD cases. At the end of the 20th century, two new arrhythmic syndromes were identified as channelopathies – Brugada syndrome (BrS) (1992) and short QT syndrome (2000) – and these have received considerable interest in recent years [2, 3]. Although specific electrocardiographic hallmarks are present in channelopathies, often these ECG signs can be transient and difficult to detect. A SCD caused by ventricular fibrillation (VF) in a patient without a specific ECG sign is described as an idiopathic VF (IVF). Recently, some IVF episodes or SCDs have been reported to be associated with the presence of prominent J-waves or J-point elevation in inferior and/or lateral leads [4-15].
4E‐BP1 regulates the sensitivity of human glioma cells to chemotherapy through PI3K/Akt/mTOR‐independent pathway

Drug resistance is one of the most formidable obstacles for treatment of glioma. Eukaryotic initiation factor 4E‐binding protein (4E‐BP1), a key component in the rate‐limiting step of protein translation initiation, is closely associated with poor prognosis in multiple tumor types. However, it is unclear whether 4E‐BP1 is involved in the drug resistance of human glioma. Herein we show that the expression of 4E‐BP1 in human SWOZ2‐BCNU drug‐resistant glioma cells is significantly lower than that of the parent SWOZ2 cell line. Moreover, down‐regulation of 4E‐BP1 by short interfering RNA significantly impaired the sensitivity of SWOZ2 and U251 cells to carmustine (BCNU). Furthermore, overexpression of 4E‐BP1 with plasmid transfection regained this sensitivity. Clinical studies showed that the expression levels of 4E‐BP1 in primary glioma tissues were markedly higher than those of recrudescent glioma tissues. Taken together, our results suggest that 4E‐BP1 is a novel protein that contributes to acquired drug resistance and it may be a potential target for reversing drug resistance in human glioma.
Photosynthetic characteristics and water use efficiency of sweet sorghum under different watering regimes.

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) has been recognized as an important ethanol crop which can be planted in marginal lands in China, but little is known about its photosynthetic characteristics in this environment. We investigated gas exchange parameters and biomass yield under different watering regimes along the oases chain of the Hexi Corridor in China. The results showed that the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) exhibited a mid-day depression under serious drought stress (SD). However, during the soft dough stage, the diurnal changes in maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II, PSII (Fv/Fm) showed an obvious decline, indicating the existence of photoinhibition. Under normal water (NW) and moderate drought stress (MD) conditions, there was a unimodal pattern except in the jointing stage under MD, and there was no evidence of photoinhibition. The highest water use efficiency (WUE) occurred under MD in the early and middle growth stages, while it was highest under SD in the late growth stage. With increasing drought stress, the light compensation point (LCP) increased, whereas the light saturation point (LSP), the apparent quantum yield (AQY) and dark respiration rate (Rd) declined. The stem fresh biomass was highest under MD (77 t·hm). The main conclusion of the study was that SD caused photoinhibition of sweet sorghum and decreased WUE and stem biomass. Under NW, photoinhibition was avoided and stem biomass increased, however, WUE decreased. As a result, the highest WUE and stem biomass of sweet sorghum was achieved under MD.
120 Gb/s Optical Card-to-Card Interconnect Link Demonstrator with Embedded Waveguides

We report on a card-to-card optical interconnect demonstrator with passively aligned butt-coupled optoelectronic modules onto waveguides embedded into the printed circuit board (PCB). After describing selected building blocks, we will present experimental results obtained with the demonstrator hardware consisting of a parallel 12-channel at 10 Gb/s (120 Gb/s) optical card-to-card link.
Trust in One’s Physician: The Role of Ethnic Match, Autonomy, Acculturation, and Religiosity Among Japanese and Japanese Americans

PURPOSE Trust is a cornerstone of the physician-patient relationship. We investigated the relation of patient characteristics, religiosity, acculturation, physician ethnicity, and insurance-mandated physician change to levels of trust in Japanese American and Japanese patients. METHODS A self-administered, cross-sectional questionnaire in English and Japanese (completed in the language of their choice) was given to community-based samples of 539 English-speaking Japanese Americans, 340 Japanese-speaking Japanese Americans, and 304 Japanese living in Japan. RESULTS Eighty-seven percent of English-speaking Japanese Americans, 93% of Japanese-speaking Japanese Americans, and 58% of Japanese living in Japan responded to trust items and reported mean trust scores of 83, 80, and 68, respectively, on a scale ranging from 0 to 100. In multivariate analyses, English-speaking and Japanese-speaking Japanese American respondents reported more trust than Japanese respondents living in Japan (P values <.001). Greater religiosity (P <.001), less desire for autonomy (P <.001), and physician-patient relationships of longer duration (P <.001) were related to increased trust. Among Japanese Americans, more acculturated respondents reported more trust (P <.001), and Japanese physicians were trusted more than physicians of another ethnicity. Among respondents prompted to change physicians because of insurance coverage, the 48% who did not want to switch reported less trust in their current physician than in their former physician (mean score of 82 vs 89, P <.001). CONCLUSIONS Religiosity, autonomy preference, and acculturation were strongly related to trust in one’s physician among the Japanese American and Japanese samples studied and may provide avenues to enhance the physician-patient relationship. The strong relationship of trust with patient-physician ethnic match and the loss of trust when patients, in retrospect, report leaving a preferred physician suggest unintended consequences to patients not able to continue with their preferred physicians.
Prolactin and estrogen binding sites in the mammary gland of the lactating and non-lactating rat.

Mammary glands from lactating and non-lactating post-partum rats were assayed for prolactin (PRL) and estradiol (E2) binding sites. In lactating animals serum PRL and tissue E2 and PRL binding increased rapidly in the first 2 days post-partum and thereafter declined until day 15 to 20 post-partum. In non-lactating rats in the postpartum period, no comparable changes in the three parameters were observed. Hysterectomy of pregnant rats on day 21 was followed by an increase in serum PRL concentrations but no increase in mammary tissue binding of PRL or E2 was found. Similar results were observed after hysterectomy and oophorectomy except no increase in serum PRL was noted. The administration of estradiol to the mother immediately after birth decreased mammary tissue PRL binding sites, while the administration of hydroxyprogesterone decreased binding of E2 but left PRL binding unchanged. Post-partum suppression of PRL secretion with Bromocriptin decreased PRL but not E2 binding and, in addition, decreased wei.
Activation of cyclin‐dependent kinase 5 by calpains contributes to human immunodeficiency virus‐induced neurotoxicity

Although the specific mechanism of neuronal damage in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) ‐associated dementia is not known, a prominent role for NMDA receptor (NMDAR)‐induced excitotoxicity has been demonstrated in neurons exposed to HIV‐infected/activated macrophages. We hypothesized NMDAR‐mediated activation of the calcium‐dependent protease, calpain, would contribute to cell death by induction of cyclin‐dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) activity. Using an in vitro model of HIV neurotoxicity, in which primary rat cortical cultures are exposed to supernatants from primary human HIV‐infected macrophages, we have observed increased calpain‐dependent cleavage of the CDK5 regulatory subunit, p35, to the constitutively active isoform, p25. Formation of p25 is dependent upon NMDAR activation and calpain activity and is coincident with increased CDK5 activity in this model. Further, inhibition of CDK5 by roscovitine provided neuroprotection in our in vitro model. Consistent with our observations in vitro, we have observed a significant increase in calpain activity and p25 levels in midfrontal cortex of patients infected with HIV, particularly those with HIV‐associated cognitive impairment. Taken together, our data suggest calpain activation of CDK5, a pathway activated in HIV‐infected individuals, can mediate neuronal damage and death in a model of HIV‐induced neurotoxicity.
Regulation of TRAF2 Signaling by Self-induced Degradation*

Receptors belonging to the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNF-R) family utilize cytoplasmic adapter proteins called TNF-R-associated factors (TRAFs) as key elements in their signaling pathways. However, it is not yet clear how individual TRAFs regulate signaling by this large and growing receptor family. Signaling via the TNF-R family member CD40 has recently been shown to result in recruitment of TRAF2 to plasma membrane detergent-resistant microdomains (lipid rafts) as well as to subsequently initiate TRAF2 degradation. As TRAF2 associates with most members of the TNF-R family, we wished to determine how this degradation occurs. We show here that CD40-mediated TRAF2 degradation requires the zinc-binding RING domain of TRAF2 and is preceded by TRAF2 ubiquitination, suggesting that the TRAF2 RING may promote ubiquitination although the RING itself is not a target of ubiquitination. Several approaches show that ubiquitination and proteasomal activity are integral to TRAF2 degradation, and inhibition of this process potentiates CD40 signaling.
A teratological study of lincosamides.

ANDREW E. CZEIZEL, MAGDA ROCKENBAUER, HENRIK T. Se RENSEN and Je RN OLSEN From the WHO Collaborating Centre for the Community Control of Hereditary Diseases ± Department of Human Genetics and Teratology, National Center for Epidemiology, Budapest, Hungary and The Danish Epidemiology Science Centre at the Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Uni×ersity of Aarhus and Department of Medicine V, Aarhus Uni×ersity Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
Assessment of macular function by multifocal electroretinogram before and after macular hole surgery

AIM To evaluate macular function before and after successful surgical closure of idiopathic macular holes using multifocal electroretinogram (ERG). METHODS 40 patients (40 eyes) with idiopathic macular holes were examined using multifocal ERG both before and after vitreous surgery. The postoperative period was from 1 to 12 months. RESULTS Preoperatively, the electrical retinal response densities in the foveal and the perifoveal area were apparently decreased. After a mean postoperative period of 3–6 months, the foveal and perifoveal area electrical retinal response densities improved to two to four times the preoperative level and the improvement continued to 1 year after surgery. CONCLUSION In macular holes, the decrease in retinal electrophysiological response was not limited to the fovea but involved an area of the perifovea of 1.6 disc diameters. The electrical retinal response density of these areas gradually improved after macular hole closure.
Analysis and visualization of complex macroevolutionary dynamics: an example from Australian scincid lizards.

The correlation between species diversification and morphological evolution has long been of interest in evolutionary biology. We investigated the relationship between these processes during the radiation of 250+scincid lizards that constitute Australia's most species-rich clade of terrestrial vertebrates. We generated a time-calibrated phylogenetic tree for the group that was more than 85% complete at the species level and collected multivariate morphometric data for 183 species. We reconstructed the dynamics of species diversification and trait evolution using a Bayesian statistical framework (BAMM) that simultaneously accounts for variation in evolutionary rates through time and among lineages. We extended the BAMM model to accommodate time-dependent phenotypic evolution, and we describe several new methods for summarizing and visualizing macroevolutionary rate heterogeneity on phylogenetic trees. Two major clades (Lerista, Ctenotus; >90 spp. each) are associated with high rates of species diversification relative to the background rate across Australian sphenomorphine skinks. The Lerista clade is characterized by relatively high lability of body form and has undergone repeated instances of limb reduction, but Ctenotus is characterized by an extreme deceleration in the rate of body shape evolution. We estimate that rates of phenotypic evolution decreased by more than an order of magnitude in the common ancestor of the Ctenotus clade. These results provide evidence for a modal shift in phenotypic evolutionary dynamics and demonstrate that major axes of morphological variation can be decoupled from species diversification. More generally, the Bayesian framework described here can be used to identify and characterize complex mixtures of dynamic processes on phylogenetic trees. [Bayesian; diversification; evolvability; lizard; macroevolution, punctuated equilibrium, speciation. ].
OCAL MINIMA IN TRAINING OF DEEP NETWORKS

There has been a lot of recent interest in trying to characterize the error surface of deep models. This stems from a long standing question. Given that deep networks are highly nonlinear systems optimized by local gradient methods, why do they not seem to be affected by bad local minima? It is widely believed that training of deep models using gradient methods works so well because the error surface either has no local minima, or if they exist they need to be close in value to the global minimum. It is known that such results hold under very strong assumptions which are not satisfied by real models. In this paper we present examples showing that for such theorem to be true additional assumptions on the data, initialization schemes and/or the model classes have to be made. We look at the particular case of finite size datasets. We demonstrate that in this scenario one can construct counter-examples (datasets or initialization schemes) when the network does become susceptible to bad local minima over the weight space.
Women's knowledge about breast cancer risk and their views of the purpose and implications of breast screening--a questionnaire survey.

OBJECTIVES To assess women's knowledge and perception of breast screening, including its benefits and disadvantages, and explore whether demographic and other personal characteristics are associated with accurate knowledge. DESIGN Questionnaire survey of a random sample of 1000 women aged between 49 and 64 years registered with GPs in Oxfordshire. RESULTS Thirty-six per cent of women knew the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, and the interpretation of numeric risks varied among women. There was an association between inaccurate knowledge and lower formal education (P = 0.05). Forty-five per cent of women believed that screening prevents breast cancer. Women were of the opinion that screening helps early detection, could result in less invasive treatment and reassured them. Sixty-three per cent had no concerns about breast screening. The main causes of concern were that they would not be invited for further screening (exclusively women in their 60s), screening is not offered earlier or more frequently, painful mammography and effects of radiation. A minority of women were concerned that the pressure exerted on the breasts during mammography may itself trigger cancer by displacing and spreading cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS Women's knowledge about breast screening was variable and sometimes incorrect, and those with less formal education were more likely to have inaccurate knowledge.