Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding churn in decentralized peer-to-peer networks

This dissertation presents a novel modeling framework for understanding the dynamics of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks under churn (i.e., random user arrival/departure) and designing systems more resilient against node failure. The proposed models are applicable to general distributed systems under a variety of conditions on graph construction and user lifetimes. The foundation of this work is a new churn model that describes user arrival and departure as a superposition of many periodic (renewal) processes. It not only allows general (non-exponential) user lifetime distributions, but also captures heterogeneous behavior of peers. We utilize this model to analyze link dynamics and the ability of the system to stay connected under churn. Our results offers exact computation of user-isolation and graph-partitioning probabilities for any monotone lifetime distribution, including heavy-tailed cases found in real systems. We also propose an age-proportional random-walk algorithm for creating links in unstructured P2P networks that achieves zero isolation probability as system size becomes infinite. We additionally obtain many insightful results on the transient distribution of in-degree, edge arrival process, system size, and lifetimes of live users as simple functions of the aggregate lifetime distribution. The second half of this work studies churn in structured P2P networks that are usually built upon distributed hash tables (DHTs). Users in DHTs maintain two types of neighbor sets: routing tables and successor/leaf sets. The former tables determine link lifetimes and routing performance of the system, while the latter are built for ensuring DHT consistency and connectivity. Our first result in this area proves that robustness of DHTs is mainly determined by zone size of selected neighbors, which leads us to propose a min-zone algorithm that significantly reduces link churn in DHTs. Our second result uses the Chen-Stein method to understand concurrent failures among strongly dependent successor sets of many DHTs and finds an optimal stabilization strategy for keeping Chord connected under churn.
Multiple‐Fiber Reconstruction Algorithms for Diffusion MRI

This chapter reviews multiple‐fiber reconstruction algorithms for diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and provides some initial comparative results for two such algorithms, q‐ball imaging and PASMRI, on data from a typical clinical diffusion MRI acquisition. The chapter highlights the problems with standard approaches, such as diffusion‐tensor MRI, to motivate a recent set of alternative approaches. The review concentrates on the software implementation of the new techniques. Results of the preliminary comparison show that PASMRI recovers the principal directions of simple test functions more consistently than q‐ball imaging and produces qualitatively better results on the test data set. Further simulations suggest that a moderate increase in data quality allows q‐ball, which is much faster to run, to recover directions with consistency comparable to that of PASMRI on the test data.
Current uses and future perspectives for conservation biology

Conservation science is a discipline which has been born in response to the simple fact that biodiversity is declining at never before seen rates (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Background extinction rates are being dramatically exceeded, and models of future scenarios predict that this rate will only increase (Fig 2.1), perhaps by an order of magnitude, unless preventative action is taken (Regan et al., 2001). The reasons for this decline are at least well known, if not well understood. Land clearance reduces available habitat; exploitation removes healthy animals from the population; introduced predators and diseases impact ‘naive’ species, and, ultimately, extinction breaks down ecological networks – Diamond’s evil quartet (Diamond, 1989). Increasingly, climate change is enhancing the negative impacts of this list of threats (IPCC, 2002; Thomas et al., 2004). The problem and its effects are so pressing that it has been framed under international legislation, and more than 190 countries signed up to a target set to achieve a significant reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010 (UNEP, 2002), a target that was not met (Butchart et al., 2010). Effective action to achieve such a target requires detailed information, and Floras and Faunas often provide much of the data that underpin priority-setting decisions derived from biodiversity data. While the key taxonomic issue to be faced by biodiversity conservation remains the under-description of species (May, 1988; Wilson, 2003), a growing issue that threatens to complicate, and perhaps undermine, conservation planning is taxonomic inflation (Isaac et al., 2004; Mace, 2004).
Microprocessor-Controlled Binary Inductive Voltage Dividers

This paper describes microprocessor-controlled binary inductive voltage dividers (IVD's) for use in IEC bus systems. Besides a 24-bit binary IVD, a combination of a 12-bit binary IVD and a 12-bit DAC is reported upon. With a smaller expense of windings and circuitry, these dividers distinguish themselves to some extent by characteristics better than those obtained with decade IVD's.
Selective inhibition of alcohol intake in diverse alcohol-preferring rat strains by the 5-HT2A antagonists amperozide and FG 5974.

The present studies sought to elucidate the role of 5-HT2A receptor antagonists in suppressing alcohol intake by comparing the effects of amperozide and FG 5974 on alcohol, food, and water intake in strains of alcohol-preferring rats: P, Alko Alcohol (AA), and Fawn-Hooded (FH). Both amperozide and FG 5974 have 5-HT2A receptor antagonist properties, but FG 5974 also shows presynaptic 5-HT1A receptor agonist activity. After establishment of stable baselines for intake measures in a two-bottle continuous access paradigm, rats (n = 10) were injected with 1 of 5 doses (0, 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 mg/kg, sc) of amperozide or FG 5974 at weekly intervals. Amperozide dose-dependently reduced alcohol intake, total fluid intake, and alcohol preference in all three strains under continuous access conditions, whereas FG 5974 was less effective. Food intake was also suppressed by amperozide at higher doses, whereas it was increased by FG 5974. Amperozide also dose-dependently reduced alcohol intake when it was available for only 1 hr/day, but FG 5974 tended to increase it. After oral administration, amperozide was also more effective than FG 5974 in reducing alcohol intake. Despite these differences in efficacy in suppressing alcohol intake, both compounds produced taste aversion to a novel saccharin solution. These complex findings suggest that biochemical properties other than 5-HT2A receptor antagonism (e.g., 5-HT1A receptor agonism) may be involved in the effects of amperozide and FG 5974 on alcohol intake and other consummatory behaviors.
Association of polymorphisms in the human surfactant protein‐D (SFTPD) gene and postnatal pulmonary adaptation in the preterm infant

Background. Surfactant protein‐D (SP‐D) is a member of the collagenous subfamily of calcium‐dependent lectins (collectins). Associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the human gene coding surfactant protein‐D (SFTPD) and infectious pulmonary diseases have been established by several groups. As the outcome of very preterm infants is mainly determined by pulmonary morbidity, the aim of the present study was to investigate the potential association between sequence variations within the SFTPD gene and pulmonary morbidity in preterm infants below 32 weeks of gestational age (GA).
Implementation of explicit wireless loss notification using MAC-layer information

TCP is a reliable transport protocol tuned to perform well in traditional wired networks, where most packet losses are due to congestion. In wireless networks, however, packet losses result from wireless link loss in addition to congestion loss. Thus, TCP suffers a significant degradation in performance over wireless networks because it does not distinguish wireless link loss from congestion loss. To overcome this problem, the explicit wireless loss notification (EWLN) scheme is proposed to explicitly inform wireless link loss to the TCP sender. Previous work to deploy EWLN often lacked explicit specification of the interplay between EWLN and link-layer protocols, including error recovery mechanisms. In addition, many systems, or being based on computation demanding functionality of agents at a base station, were designed for the scenario where information is accessed from a mobile station through a wireless-to-wired connection. In this paper, we present an EWLN scheme that deploys the information from the MAC layer and takes into account the interplay with the error recovery mechanism at the link layer. The scheme does not require different implementations for mobile terminals and base stations and hence can support efficient TCP-based data transmission over wired-to-wireless and wireless-to-wired connections as well as ad-hoc networks. We also present EWLN-enabled TCP implementations which, showed significant improvements over the standard TCP-Reno and TCP-SACK protocols, as evidenced by simulation studies over ns-2 network simulator.
Assessment of epithelial cells' immune and inflammatory response to Staphylococcus aureus when exposed to a macrolide

Non-specific (innate) immune response plays a major role in defending the udder from bacterial invasion. Moreover, recent investigations suggest that mammary gland epithelial cells (MGEC) could have a large and important role as a source of soluble components of immune defences. Despite many attempts to find other ways to control/prevent mastitis (i.e. vaccine) antimicrobial therapy is still the most used and effective means of curing clinical and subclinical mastitis. However, drug concentrations and therapy durations are far from the optimal in order to reduce costs. Therefore, efficacy of antimicrobial therapy is dependent not only on the substance activity but also on the positive interactions with the host innate immune response. Surprisingly, information on these interactions is rather scarce in the mastitis field. A simple experimental model was developed based on BME-UV cell line, Staphylococcus aureus as a challenge and a macrolide as an antimicrobial to assess the interactions among epithelial cells, Staph. aureus and the potential effects of antimicrobials on the immune system. The results of this study confirmed that tylosin has good antimicrobial activity against both intracellular and extracellular Staph. aureus in bovine MGEC without affecting cell functions. In this study, a significant down-regulation of IL-1 and IL-6 was observed, while TNF and IL-8 expression rate numerically increased, but differences were not significant. To our knowledge, this is the first paper assessing the concentration of two lysosomal enzymes, lysozyme and N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (NAGase), in Staph. aureus-stimulated MGEC. The results of this study confirmed that tylosin could have a significant effect on the release of these enzymes. Moreover, even if both enzymes have a similar substrate as a target, the results suggest different secretion mechanisms and an influence of antimicrobial treatment on these mechanisms. Successful mastitis cure is the result of achieving the optimal efficiency of both innate immune defences and therapeutical activities, by means of killing bacteria without eliciting an excessive inflammatory response. Therefore, antimicrobials for mastitis therapy should be selected not only on bacterial sensitivity, but also for their positive interactions with the innate immune response of the mammary gland. This study showed that an in-vitro model based on Staph. aureus challenge on MGEC could be helpful in assessing both the intracellular and extracellular activity of antimicrobials and their influence on epithelial cell immune and inflammatory response.
Evolutionary Genetic Analysis Uncovers Multiple Species with Distinct Habitat Preferences and Antibiotic Resistance Phenotypes in the Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Complex

The genus Stenotrophomonas (Gammaproteobacteria) has a broad environmental distribution. S. maltophilia is its best known species because it is a globally emerging, multidrug-resistant (MDR), opportunistic pathogen. Members of this species are known to display high genetic, ecological and phenotypic diversity, forming the so-called S. maltophilia complex (Smc). Heterogeneous resistance and virulence phenotypes have been reported for environmental Smc isolates of diverse ecological origin. We hypothesized that this heterogeneity could be in part due to the potential lumping of several cryptic species in the Smc. Here we used state-of-the-art phylogenetic and population genetics methods to test this hypothesis based on the multilocus dataset available for the genus at pubmlst.org. It was extended with sequences from complete and draft genome sequences to assemble a comprehensive set of reference sequences. This framework was used to analyze 108 environmental isolates obtained in this study from the sediment and water column of four rivers and streams in Central Mexico, affected by contrasting levels of anthropogenic pollution. The aim of the study was to identify species in this collection, defined as genetically cohesive sequence clusters, and to determine the extent of their genetic, ecological and phenotypic differentiation. The multispecies coalescent, coupled with Bayes factor analysis was used to delimit species borders, together with population genetic structure analyses, recombination and gene flow estimates between sequence clusters. These analyses consistently revealed that the Smc contains at least 5 significantly differentiated lineages: S. maltophilia and Smc1 to Smc4. Only S. maltophilia was found to be intrinsically MDR, all its members expressing metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs). The other Smc lineages were not MDR and did not express MBLs. We also obtained isolates related to S. acidaminiphila, S. humi and S. terrae. They were significantly more susceptible to antibiotics than S. maltophilia. We demonstrate that the sympatric lineages recovered display significantly differentiated habitat preferences, antibiotic resistance profiles and beta-lactamase expression phenotypes, as shown by diverse multivariate analyses and robust univariate statistical tests. We discuss our data in light of current models of bacterial speciation, which fit these data well, stressing the implications of species delimitation in ecological, evolutionary and clinical research.
Estimation of the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index cutoff for perceived symptom relief in patients with spondyloarthropathies.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the best Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) cutoff based on patients' perceptions of symptom relief collected in a large population of patients with spondyloarthropathies (SpA), in comparison to the BASDAI cutoff determined by experts. METHODS A survey of patient perceptions about current disease control was conducted among the members of Spondylis, one of the main not-for-profit SpA patient organizations in France. BASDAI was among data collected by the questionnaire. To estimate the best BASDAI cutoff for discriminating between poor and well perceived controlled groups, we plotted the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. We also determined the cutoff separately in male and female patients. RESULTS Of the 1000 mailed questionnaires, 485 were returned without any missing data regarding perceived disease control and the BASDAI. Of these patients, 55.3% perceived inadequate control of their disease. The mean BASDAI in the overall population was 43.5 +/- 22.9, 30.4 +/- 19.9 in the well controlled group and 54 +/- 19.4 in the poorly controlled group (p < 0.001). The best BASDAI cutoff for discriminating between patients in the 2 groups was 39 (sensitivity 74.6% and specificity 72.4%). According to gender, the best cutoff was 44 for women and 36 for men. CONCLUSION The best BASDAI cutoff of 39 based on patients' perceptions was very similar to that selected by international experts, i.e., 40. Gender affected the cutoff for perceived symptom relief in our study. These results need to be confirmed by further studies collecting the opinions of both patients and physicians.
Expression of the Rho‐family GTPase gene RHOF in lymphocyte subsets and malignant lymphomas

We have studied the expression of RHOF, a member of the Rho‐GTPase family, in an array of lymphoid cells and tissues. Previous microarray studies demonstrated RHOF upregulation in a subset of transformed follicular lymphomas. Real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction evaluated RHOF expression in lymphocyte subpopulations, and normal and malignant lymphoid tissue. Cells and tissues of B‐cell origin expressed higher RHOF levels than their T‐cell counterparts. Neoplastic cells and tissues of B‐cell origin expressed higher levels of RHOF than their benign cellular counterparts. Relatively elevated levels of RHOF were seen in lymphomas derived from germinal centre origin.
Predictability of sustainable investments and the role of uncertainty: evidence from a non-parametric causality-in-quantiles test

ABSTRACT In this article, we examine sustainable investments returns predictability based on the U.S. Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and a wide set of uncertainty and financial distress indicators for the period 2002:01–2014:12. To this end, we employ a novel non-parametric causality-in-quantile approach that captures non-linearities in returns distribution. Based on our findings we conclude that the aggregate economic policy uncertainty (EPU) indicator and some components have predictive ability for real returns of the U.S. sustainable investments index. Moreover, if we split our sample to before and after the global financial crisis our results suggest that predictors carry causal information for real returns only in the after-crisis period. Finally, some marginal evidence of predictability from sovereign debt is also observed at the lower and upper ends of the conditional distribution of the real returns of sustainable investments. Our results might entail policy implications for investors and market authorities.
Multi-Tweet Summarization for Flu Outbreak Detection

Twitter provides the freshest source of data about what is happening in the lives people across the world. The publicly available streams of status updates available on Twitter have been used to track earthquakes, forest fires and most especially flu outbreaks. Current techniques for tracking flu outbreaks rely on count data for a number of keywords. However, count data alone on the noisy Twitter streams is not reliable enough for health officials to make critical decisions. We propose a semi-automatic outbreak detection system. Rather than providing only alarms backed by count data, we propose a summarization system that will allow health officials to quickly verify outbreak alarms. This will lead to higher levels of trust in the system and allow the system to be used by health organizations around the world. We experimentally verify our summarization system and have found system users to have an accuracy of 0.86 when identifying multitweet summaries.
A comparative study of induction motor current signature analysis techniques for mechanical faults detection

This paper provides a comprehensive comparison of motor current signature analysis techniques for broken rotor bars and air gap eccentricity detection in induction motors. Four characteristic categories of processing methods are investigated, which are Fourier based analysis of the phase currents, parametric and eigenanalysis methods for spectrum estimation of the phase currents, wavelet analysis of the phase currents and current space vector analysis. The analysis is at first performed through simulation of a faulty asynchronous machine in Matlab-Simulink. Subsequent to the simulation results analysis, an experimental fault test rig was designed and implemented for the investigation of the aforementioned malfunctions. In this preliminary investigation, each analysis technique along with its advantages and disadvantages is presented and briefly discussed.
Vascular Proteomics Reveal Novel Proteins Involved in SMC Phenotypic Change: OLR1 as a SMC Receptor Regulating Proliferation and Inflammatory Response

Neointimal hyperplasia of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) plays a critical role in atherosclerotic plaque formation and in-stent restenosis, but the underlying mechanisms are still incompletely understood. We performed a proteomics study to identify novel signaling molecules organizing the VSMC hyperplasia. The differential proteomics analysis in a balloon-induced injury model of rat carotid artery revealed that the expressions of 44 proteins are changed within 3 days post injury. The combination of cellular function assays and a protein network analysis further demonstrated that 27 out of 44 proteins constitute key signaling networks orchestrating the phenotypic change of VSMC from contractile to epithelial-like synthetic. Among the list of proteins, the in vivo validation specifically revealed that six proteins (Rab15, ITR, OLR1, PDHβ, PTPε) are positive regulators for VSMC hyperplasia. In particular, the OLR1 played dual roles in the VSMC hyperplasia by directly mediating oxidized LDL-induced monocyte adhesion via NF-κB activation and by assisting the PDGF-induced proliferation/migration. Importantly, OLR1 and PDGFRβ were associated in close proximity in the plasma membrane. Thus, this study elicits the protein network organizing the phenotypic change of VSMC in the vascular injury diseases such as atherosclerosis and discovers OLR1 as a novel molecular link between the proliferative and inflammatory responses of VSMCs.
Serum-Glucocorticoid Regulated Kinase 1 Regulates Alternatively Activated Macrophage Polarization Contributing to Angiotensin II–Induced Inflammation and Cardiac Fibrosis

Objective—Inflammatory responses play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of hypertensive cardiac remodeling. Macrophage recruitment and polarization contribute to the development of cardiac fibrosis. Although serum-glucocorticoid regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) is a key mediator of fibrosis, its role in regulating macrophage function leading to cardiac fibrosis has not been investigated. We aimed to determine the mechanism by which SGK1 regulates the cardiac inflammatory process, thus contributing to hypertensive cardiac fibrosis. Methods and Results—After angiotensin II infusion in mice, cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis developed in wild-type but not SGK1 knockout mice, with equal levels of hypertension in both groups. Compared with wild-type hearts, SGK1 knockout hearts showed less infiltration of leukocytes and macrophages. Importantly, SGK1 deficiency led to decreased proportion of alternatively activated (M2) macrophages and increased levels of profibrotic cytokines. Angiotensin II infusion induced phosphorylation and nuclear localization of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) whereas SGK1 knockout hearts showed this effect attenuated. In a 3-dimensional peptide gel culture, inhibition of STAT3 suppressed differentiation into M2 macrophages. Coculture of macrophages with cardiac fibroblasts in 3-dimensional peptide gel stimulated the expression of &agr;-smooth muscle actin and collagen in cardiac fibroblasts. However, SGK1 knockout mice with macrophage deficiency showed reduced fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition. Conclusion—SGK1 may play an important role in macrophage recruitment and M2 macrophage activation by activating the STAT3 pathway, which leads to angiotensin II–induced cardiac fibrosis.