Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectrum Aware Opportunistic Routing in Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio (CR) emerges as a key technology to enhance spectrum efficiency and thus creates opportunistic transmissions over links. Supporting the routing function on top of numerous opportunistic links is a must to route packets in a general cognitive radio network (CRN) consisting of multi-radio systems. However, there lacks complete understanding of these highly dynamic available links and a reliable end-to-end transportation mechanism over CRN. Aspiring to meet this need, we propose novel spectrum aware opportunistic routing (SAOR) algorithm suited for the CRN under wireless fading channels. With innovative establishment of the spectrum map from local sensing information and the derivation of the routing metric for opportunistic links known as opportunistic link transmission (OLT), the opportunistic path metrics, and the CR node metrics, the promising SAOR employs a cooperative scheme to enable multi-path transmissions and maintains the statistical QoS guaranteed throughput for practical applications. Numerical results confirm that SAOR enjoys less delay with guaranteed throughput, not only in CRN, but also in general wireless network.
Performance analysis of the on-the-air activation in LoRaWAN

Long-range low-power communications are starting to replace short-range low-power communications in monitoring applications based on wireless sensor networks, both in rural and urban environments, due to the small deployment cost of long-range technologies. In this paper, we focus on the MAC layer of the recent LoRaWAN (long-range wide area network) standard, and specifically on the on-the-air activation procedure, which defines how nodes join an existing network. We propose a Markov chain model of the on-the-air activation, and we derive the expected delay and the expected energy required to join the network. We analyze the impact of several parameters on these metrics, including traffic conditions, duty cycles, and channel availability. We also discuss the impact of the regional settings of the standard. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the MAC layer of LoRaWAN.
Nervous mechanisms and dark‐adaptation

It is generally accepted that the central fovea has a much higher absolute visual threshold for white light than any other part of the retina (cf. Parsons, 1924). This has been recently confirmed by a number of workers (Crawford, 1940; Pirenne, 1948; Sloan, 1950; Harms, 1950) who measured the absolute threshold as a function of retinal eccentricity. Craik & Vernon (1941), on the other hand, found that the difference in threshold between foveal and extrafoveal regions was greatly reduced when the test-field subtended at the eye an angle of only 10' instead of -2° as used by the other authors. Working with an even smaller field of 2-7', Arden & Weale (1954) found that the thresholds of the central fovea and the parafovea at 8° were very nearly equal. It would be of interest to know how field size affects the relation between the foveal and extra-foveal thresholds, and whether it has any effect on the rate of darkadaptation.
Bmc Developmental Biology Identification and Characterization of a Novel Gene Differentially Expressed in Zebrafish Cross-subfamily Cloned Embryos

Background: Cross-species nuclear transfer has been shown to be a potent approach to retain the genetic viability of a certain species near extinction. However, most embryos produced by cross-species nuclear transfer were compromised because that they were unable to develop to later stages. Gene expression analysis of cross-species cloned embryos will yield new insights into the regulatory mechanisms involved in cross-species nuclear transfer and embryonic development.
ABLATION OF TNF-&agr; RECEPTORS INFLUENCES MESENCHYMAL STEM CELL-MEDIATED CARDIAC PROTECTION AGAINST ISCHEMIA

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) infusion may reduce myocardial ischemic injury. TNF-&agr; is a proinflammatory cytokine produced in large quantities during myocardial ischemia that can exert beneficial or detrimental effects on MSC function by binding to a 55-kd receptor (TNFR1) or a 75-kd receptor (TNFR2) on MSCs. We investigated whether genetic modification with ablation of TNFR1 and/or TNFR2 affects MSC-mediated protection against myocardial ischemic injury. The MSCs were harvested from wild-type mice (WT-MSCs) and knockout mice with ablation of TNFR1 and/or TNFR2 (TNFR1KO, TNFR2KO, and TNFR1/R2KO MSCs). After anesthesia was initiated via inhalation of isoflurane, myocardial ischemia was induced in rats via coronary artery ligation. Hearts were then injected with vehicle or MSCs (1 × 107 cells/mL). Myocardial function was assessed 28 days postsurgery with 2-dimensional echocardiograms and isolated heart perfusion. Myocardial tissue was collected for cytokine analysis and infarct measurements. We found that MSC treatment offered significant protection against myocardial ischemia, namely by decreasing infarct size, improving heart function, and decreasing ventricular remodeling compared with vehicle. Compared with WT-MSCs, TNFR1KO MSCs conferred increased cardiac protection, although TNFR2KO and TNFR1/R2KO MSCs conferred less cardiac protection. In addition, treatment with TNFR1KO MSCs was associated with decreased levels of proinflammatory cytokines and an increased level of vascular endothelial growth factor in the myocardium, whereas treatment with TNFR2KO or TNFR1/R2KO MSCs was associated with increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines and a decreased level of vascular endothelial growth factor compared with treatment with WT-MSCs. We conclude that MSC TNFR1 and TNFR2 play important roles in MSC-mediated cardiac protection after myocardial ischemia.
Secular and Religious Coping by Mothers of Children with Cancer

SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS COPING BY MOTHERS OF CHILDREN WITH CANCER Sarah E. Hall, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2011 Dissertation Director: Dr. Jerome L. Short The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether religious beliefs, coping, and social support explain additional variance in the prediction of psychological adjustment in mothers of children with cancer beyond the variance explained by secular predictors of these constructs. Ninety-four mothers of children with cancer completed standardized measures of anxiety, depression, satisfaction with life, self-esteem, optimism, social support, approach and avoidant coping, religious belief, and positive and negative religious coping. Of the religious coping variables studied, only negative religious coping accounted for variance in the adjustment of mothers beyond the variance accounted for by the secular measures. Specifically, negative religious coping explained additional variance in mother’s satisfaction with life, anxiety and depression. In their responses to open-ended questions, the majority of mothers said that their religious beliefs and practices were helpful to them in coping with their child's illness. These
Paclitaxel (Taxol®): A success story with valuable lessons for natural product drug discovery and development

The discovery and development of paclitaxel, which covered a time span of some 30 years, has provided some important lessons for those involved in natural product drug discovery and development. These include the adoption of novel screens as they become available, the elucidation of mechanisms of action, and addressing the supply issue at an early stage of development. These issues, as applied to paclitaxel, are illustrated. The development of the NCI human cancer cell line screen, and its application to mechanistic studies through use of COMPARE analyses, are discussed, as is the production of the marine‐derived anticancer agent, bryostatin 1, which provides another illustration of a successful approach to solving a supply issue. The history of the development of paclitaxel also illustrates the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, and the various mechanisms used by the NCI Developmental Therapeutics Program for promoting such collaboration are presented. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Med Res Rev, 18, No. 5, 315–331, 1998.
SVD based term suggestion and ranking system

In this paper, we consider the application of the singular value decomposition (SVD) to a search term suggestion system in a pay-for-performance search market. We propose a positive and negative refinement method based on orthogonal subspace projections. We demonstrate that SVD subspace-based methods: 1) expand coverage by reordering the results, and 2) enhance the clustered structure of the data. The numerical experiments reported in this paper were performed on Overture's pay-per-performance search market data.
Towards robots conducting chemical experiments

Autonomous mobile robots are employed to perform increasingly complex tasks which require appropriate task descriptions, accurate object recognition, and dexterous object manipulation. In this paper we will address three key questions: How to obtain appropriate task descriptions from natural language (NL) instructions, how to choose the control program to perform a task description, and how to recognize and manipulate the objects referred by a task description? We describe an evaluated robotic agent which takes a natural language instruction stating a step of DNA extraction procedure as a starting point. The system is able to transform the textual instruction into an abstract symbolic plan representation. It can reason about the representation and answer queries about what, how, and why it is done. The robot selects the most appropriate control programs and robustly coordinates all manipulations required by the task description. The execution is based on a perception sub-system which is able to locate and recognize the objects and instruments needed in the DNA extraction procedure.
Communication strategies for two models of discrete energy harvesting

Energy harvesting is becoming a viable option for powering small wireless devices. Energy for data transmission is supplied by the nature, such that when a transmission is about to take place in an arbitrary instant, the amount of available energy is a random quantity. The arrived energy is stored in a battery and transmissions are interrupted if the battery runs out of energy. We address communication in slot-based energy harvesting systems, where the transmitter communicates with ON-OFF signaling: in each slot it can either choose to transmit (ON) or stay silent (OFF). Two different models of harvesting and communication are addressed. In the first model an energy quantum can arrive, with a certain probability, in each slot. The second model is based on a frame of size F: energy arrives periodically over F slots, in batches containing a random number of energy quanta. We devise achievable strategies and compare the slot- with the frame-based model in the case of an errorless transmission channel. Additionally, for the slot-based model and channel with errors, we provide a new proof of the capacity achieved by the save-and-transmit scheme.
Analysis of Fractal Antenna for Ultra Wideband Application

Aims of this study are to design a simple and compact microstrip-fed Ultra Wide Band (UWB) printed fractal antenna and analyze the performance of the antenna for different iterations. A second iteration of a triangle patch antenna is proposed to perform UWB. Based on the result, the proposed antenna occupies about 6.73 GHz bandwidth covering 3.52-10.24 GHz. The bandwidth is increased about 54.15% for the first iteration of proposed antenna and 69.5% increased for second iteration. A radiation pattern in H-plane and E-plane is also obtained. H- plane of radiation pattern is performed as omni directional and E-plane perfomed like a dipole antenna. Coplanar wave guide is approached to obtain ultra wideband.
Econometric modeling of informal employment in Latin-American countries

L'emploi informel est une caracteristique omnipresente des marches du travail Latino-Americains. Meme si sa presence peut avoir des implications positives liees a l'entrepreneuriat, il est fondamentalement lie a de mauvaises conditions de travail, a l'evasion fiscale et au desequilibre des marches du travail. L'informalite est devenue un sujet de recherche important car plusieurs problemes statistiques caracterisent les donnees disponibles, ainsi, cette These presente trois articles traitant de sujets micro et macro-econometriques fondamentaux presents dans la litterature. Le premier s’occupe de la specification d’un modele micro-econometrique qui permet la classification probabiliste des travailleurs informels en ‘exclus’ et ‘non exclus’ (ou ‘volontaires’ ou pas). Le deuxieme, propose une methodologie d’identification et correction des erreurs de mesure implicites dans l’indicateur du travail informel publie para le BIT. Le troisieme estime une relation macro-econometrique micro-fondee entre l’informalite et la liberalisation commerciale, en traitant les problemes d’inference decoulant du modele empirique par une methode semi-parametrique robuste.
Mobilization of a trapped non-wetting fluid from a three-dimensional porous medium

We use confocal microscopy to directly visualize the formation and complex morphologies of trapped non-wetting fluid ganglia within a model 3D porous medium. The wetting fluid continues to flow around the ganglia after they form; this flow is characterized by a capillary number, Ca. We find that the ganglia configurations do not vary for small Ca; by contrast, as Ca is increased above a threshold value, the largest ganglia start to become mobilized and are ultimately removed from the medium. By combining our 3D visualization with measurements of the bulk transport, we show that this behavior can be quantitatively understood by balancing the viscous forces exerted on the ganglia with the pore-scale capillary forces that keep them trapped within the medium. Our work thus helps elucidate the fluid dynamics underlying the mobilization of a trapped non-wetting fluid from a 3D porous medium.
Fast Cross-Polytope Locality-Sensitive Hashing

We provide a variant of cross-polytope locality sensitive hashing with respect to angular distance which is provably optimal in asymptotic sensitivity and enjoys $\mathcal{O}(d \ln d )$ hash computation time. Building on a recent result (by Andoni, Indyk, Laarhoven, Razenshteyn, Schmidt, 2015), we show that optimal asymptotic sensitivity for cross-polytope LSH is retained even when the dense Gaussian matrix is replaced by a fast Johnson-Lindenstrauss transform followed by discrete pseudo-rotation, reducing the hash computation time from $\mathcal{O}(d^2)$ to $\mathcal{O}(d \ln d )$. Moreover, our scheme achieves the optimal rate of convergence for sensitivity. By incorporating a low-randomness Johnson-Lindenstrauss transform, our scheme can be modified to require only $\mathcal{O}(\ln^9(d))$ random bits
Container handling using multi-agent architecture

Container terminals are essential intermodal interfaces in the global transportation network. Efficient container handling at terminals is important in reducing transportation costs and keeping shipping schedules. This paper discusses a multi-agent model to simulate, solve and optimize the amount of storage space for handling container departures within a fluvial or maritime port. The multi-agent model is developed to minimize the expected total number of rehandles while respecting spatio-temporal constraints. Experimental and numerical runs are given and illustrated. These runs carry out the proposed multi-agent model with comparison to the associated centralized version, basing on non-informed search algorithm and informed search algorithm. They show that the multi-agent model reduces rather the number of expected relocation movements especially when basing on informed search algorithm.
Volition and Action in the Human Brain: Processes, Pathologies, and Reasons

Humans seem to decide for themselves what to do, and when to do it. This distinctive capacity may emerge from an ability, shared with other animals, to make decisions for action that are related to future goals, or at least free from the constraints of immediate environmental inputs. Studying such volitional acts proves a major challenge for neuroscience. This review highlights key mechanisms in the generation of voluntary, as opposed to stimulus-driven actions, and highlights three issues. The first part focuses on the apparent spontaneity of voluntary action. The second part focuses on one of the most distinctive, but elusive, features of volition, namely, its link to conscious experience, and reviews stimulation and patient studies of the cortical basis of conscious volition down to the single-neuron level. Finally, we consider the goal-directedness of voluntary action, and discuss how internal generation of action can be linked to goals and reasons.
Towards Scalable and Complete Query Explanation with OWL 2 EL Ontologies

Ontology-mediated data access and management systems are rapidly emerging. Besides standard query answering, there is also a need for such systems to be coupled with explanation facilities, in particular to explain missing query answers (i.e. desired answers of a query which are not derivable from the given ontology and data). This support is highly demanded for debugging and maintenance of big data, and both theoretical results and algorithms proposed. However, existing query explanation algorithms either cannot scale over relative large data sets or are not guaranteed to compute all desired explanations. To the best of our knowledge, no existing algorithm can efficiently and completely explain conjunctive queries (CQs) w.r. t. ELH1 ontologies. In this paper, we present a hybrid approach to achieve this. An implementation of the proposed query explanation algorithm has been developed using an off-the-shelf Prolog engine and a datalog engine. Finally, the system is evaluated over practical ontologies. Experimental results show that our system scales over large data sets.
Anoxia/reoxygenation-induced tolerance with respect to polymorphonuclear leukocyte adhesion to cultured endothelial cells. A nuclear factor-kappaB-mediated phenomenon.

Exposing human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to anoxia/reoxygenation (A/R) results in an increase in polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) adhesion to HUVECs. This A/R-induced hyperadhesion is completely prevented by a previous (24 hours earlier) exposure of HUVECs to A/R. This phenomenon has been termed "A/R tolerance. " Exposing HUVECs to A/R induces an increase in nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) in HUVEC nuclei within 4 hours. Interfering with either NF-kappaB activation (proteasome inhibitor) or translocation (double-stranded oligonucleotides containing NF-kappaB binding sequence) prevents the development of A/R tolerance (ie, the increase in A/R-induced PMN adhesion to HUVECs is the same after the first and second A/R challenges). NO production by HUVECs is increased after the second A/R challenge, but not after the first A/R challenge. Inhibition of NO synthase (NOS) during the second A/R challenge prevents the development of A/R tolerance with respect to PMN adhesion. However, while HUVECs contained endothelial NOS protein, no inducible NOS was detected in either tolerant or nontolerant cells. Further studies indicated that inhibition of GTP-cyclohydrolase I (an enzyme involved in de novo synthesis of an important cofactor for NOS activity, tetrahydrobiopterin) prevented the generation of NO in A/R-tolerant cells. Extracellular generation of NO (NO donor) did not effect the hyperadhesion response induced by the initial A/R challenge. A/R also induced an oxidant stress in naive HUVECs, but not in A/R-tolerant HUVECs. Inhibition of NOS during the second A/R insult results in the generation of an oxidant stress similar to that observed after the first A/R challenge. Taken together, the findings of the present study are consistent with a role for NF-kappaB in the development of A/R tolerance (with respect to PMN adhesion), perhaps by transcriptional regulation of GTP-cyclohydrolase. The increased NO production during the second A/R insult reduces PMN adhesion most likely by reducing the intracellular oxidant stress induced by A/R.
Fast Prediction on a Tree

Given an n-vertex weighted tree with structural diameter S and a subset of m vertices, we present a technique to compute a corresponding m × m Gram matrix of the pseudoinverse of the graph Laplacian in O(n + m2 + mS) time. We discuss the application of this technique to fast label prediction on a generic graph. We approximate the graph with a spanning tree and then we predict with the kernel perceptron. We address the approximation of the graph with either a minimum spanning tree or a shortest path tree. The fast computation of the pseudoinverse enables us to address prediction problems on large graphs. We present experiments on two web-spam classification tasks, one of which includes a graph with 400,000 vertices and more than 10,000,000 edges. The results indicate that the accuracy of our technique is competitive with previous methods using the full graph information.
EFFECTS OF EXCESSIVE FLUORIDE INGESTION ON COLLAGEN PROTEIN AND EXPRESSION OF TYPE I COLLAGEN GENE IN SKELETAL MUSCLES OF RATS

The aim of this study was to ascertain the effect of excessive ingestion of F on the metabolism of type I collagen in skeletal muscles of rats. Eight-week-old female rats (n = 36) were divided into two equal groups. Rats of group I served as control and received only tap water while those of group II received 200 mg NaF/L in their drinking water ad libitum for a period of 90 days. At the end of the experiment, the group II rats showed significantly higher concentrations of F in plasma, bone, urine, and faeces. On the other hand, the level of hydroxyproline in skeletal muscles of these F-exposed rats (452.10±22.54 μg/gm) was significantly lower than in the group I control rats (817.51±32.06 μg/gm). Acidand pepsin-soluble collagen concentrations of skeletal muscles, however, were increased significantly (p < 0.05) in the group II rats (10.42±0.57 and 70.33±2.37 μg/mg) compared to the group I control rats (6.48±0.38 and 41.99±1.25 μg/mg), respectively). The expression level of type I collagen (COL1a1) gene in the F-exposed rats decreased by 54% as compared to the control rats. In conclusion, the study found that excessive F ingestion in rats leads to increased degradation and solubility of the collagen protein along with downregulation of the expression of the COL1A1 gene in the skeletal muscles.