Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical role of dual bronchodilation with an indacaterol–glycopyrronium combination in the management of COPD: its impact on patient-related outcomes and quality of life

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the result of persistent and progressive pathologic abnormalities in the small airways, most often associated with alveolar loss. Smoking cessation is the most effective intervention to slow down the progression of COPD. Long-acting inhaled bronchodilators are prescribed for the symptomatic relief at any stage of disease severity. For patients whose COPD cannot be not sufficiently controlled with long-acting bronchodilator monotherapy, international guidelines suggest the possibility of associating a long-acting beta2 agonist (LABA) with a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA), ie, dual bronchodilation. This is not a new concept as the combination of short-acting agents has been popular in the past. In recent years, several fixed-dose combinations containing a LAMA and a LABA in a single inhaler have been approved by regulatory authorities in several countries. Among the new LAMA/LABA combinations, the fixed-dose combination of indacaterol 110 µg/glycopyrronium 50 µg (QVA149) has been shown in a series of clinical trials to be as safe as the single components and placebo, and more effective than placebo and the single components with regard to lung function, symptoms, and patient-oriented outcomes. Furthermore, QVA149 achieved better bronchodilation than salmeterol 50 µg/fluticasone 500 µg twice daily. Compared with tiotropium, a well-recognized treatment for COPD, the percentage of patients that exceed the minimal clinical important difference for dyspnea and health-related quality of life measurements was superior with QVA149. Other patient-oriented outcomes, such as daily symptoms, night-time awakening, and use of rescue medication consistently favored QVA149. Finally, QVA149 was significantly superior to LAMAs for reducing all types of exacerbation. In conclusion, several years after introduction of dual bronchodilation, the fixed-dose combination of indacaterol 110 µg/glycopyrronium 50 µg in a single inhaler for once-daily administration via the Breezhaler® device (QVA149) has been demonstrated to be a safe and effective treatment for COPD patients.
Algorithms implementing distributed shared memory

Four basic algorithms for implementing distributed shared memory are compared. Conceptually, these algorithms extend local virtual address spaces to span multiple hosts connected by a local area network, and some of them can easily be integrated with the hosts' virtual memory systems. The merits of distributed shared memory and the assumptions made with respect to the environment in which the shared memory algorithms are executed are described. The algorithms are then described, and a comparative analysis of their performance in relation to application-level access behavior is presented. It is shown that the correct choice of algorithm is determined largely by the memory access behavior of the applications. Two particularly interesting extensions of the basic algorithms are described, and some limitations of distributed shared memory are noted. <<ETX>>
Evolution of the Immune Response against Recombinant Proteins (TcpA, TcpB, and FlaA) as a Candidate Subunit Cholera Vaccine

Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent of cholera and annually leads to death of thousands of people around the globe. Two factors in the pathogenesis of this bacterium are its pili and flagella. The main subunits of pili TcpA, TcpB, and FlaA are the constituent subunit of flagella. In this study, we studied the ability of pili and flagella subunits to stimulate immune responses in mice. After amplification of TcpA, TcpB, and FlaA genes using PCR, they were cloned in expression plasmids. After production of the above-mentioned proteins by using IPTG, the proteins were purified and then approved using immunoblot method. After injection of the purified proteins to a mice model, immune response stimulation was evaluated by measuring the levels of IgG1 and IgG2a antibody titers, IL5 and IFN-γ. Immune response stimulation against pili and flagella antigens was adequate. Given the high levels of IL5 titer and IgG1 antibody, the stimulated immune response was toward Th1. Humoral immune response stimulation is of key importance in prevention of cholera. Our immunological analysis shows the appropriate immune response in mice model after vaccination with recombinant proteins. The high level of IL5 and low level of IFN-γ show the activation of Th2 cell response.
Green-JEXJ: A new tool to measure energy consumption of improved concolic testing

Green Computing is a solution for environment sustainability, where any part of computer does not pollute the environment system. The main focus of Green Computing is to reduce harmful material used in computers, boost the energy efficiency and create recyclability of waste. Now a days energy consumption of software is very interesting research area. Green Software Testing deals with applying Green Computing technique on software testing. In this paper, we developed a tool to measure energy consumption of improved concolic testing. We have named our tool as Green-JEXJ (Green JEXNCT JCUTE). We have developed Green-JEXJ in Java language with a nice Graphical User Interface (GUI). The GUI provides 100% augmented testing technique on Green-JEXJ. Our proposed method achieves 7.45% of average increase in branch coverage for some sample programs. The average difference of energy consumption of the sample programs is -75945.1008 Joules (`-ve' shows that our transformation approach is energy efficient).
Spatial Correlation Functions for a Circular Antenna Array and Their Applications in Wireless Communication Systems

SUMMARY In this paper, we derive spatial correlation functions of linear and circular antenna arrays for three types of angular energy distributions: a Gaussian angle distribution, the angular energy distribution arising from a Gaussian spatial distribution, and uniform angular distribution. The spatial correlation functions are investigated carefully. The spatial correlation is a function of antenna spacing, array geometry and the angular energy distribution. In order to emphasize the research and their applications in diversity reception, as an example, performance of the antenna arrays with MRC in correlated Nakagami fading channels is investigated, in which analytical formulas of average BER for the spatial correlation are obtained.
Stochastic protocol modeling for anomaly based network intrusion detection

A new method for detecting anomalies in the usage of protocols in computer networks is presented. The proposed methodology is applied to TCP and disposed in two steps. First, a quantization of the TCP header space is accomplished, so that a unique symbol is associated with each TCP segment. TCP-based network traffic is thus captured, quantized and represented by a sequence of symbols. The second step in our approach is the modeling of these sequences by means of a Markov chain. The analysis of the model obtained for diverse TCP sources reveals that it captures adequately the essence of the protocol dynamics. Once the model is built it is possible to use it as a representation of the normal usage of the protocol, so that deviations from the behavior provided by the model can be considered as a sign of protocol misusage.
A new 94-GHz six-port collision-avoidance radar sensor

A new 94-GHz collision avoidance radar sensor is proposed. The receiver front-end module is based on a six-port phase/frequency discriminator (SPD). The SPD, composed of four 90/spl deg/ hybrid couplers, is manufactured in a metal block of brass using a computer numerically controlled milling machine. Simulation and measurement S-parameters of the SPD are presented in the frequency band. New SPD computer models are generated and used in the system simulations. Preliminary measurements and system simulations performed to obtain the relative velocity of the target and its distance are presented. Statistical evaluations show an acceptable measurement error of this radar sensor.
Exploring cultural differences within a pattern of teaching ‘musics’: An international comparative study of two music lessons on video

This paper outlines a praxiological perspective on classroom practice with the subject matter music, in order to understand two music lessons that were recorded on video, one in Sweden and one in Germany. It introduces a procedure and its methodological implications, in order to reconstruct and compare the characteristics of and the cultural differences between the lessons. The focus of this research was on the teaching structures used along with non-verbal and verbal teacher and pupil actions and interactions. As a first step, the cases were reconstructed by combining thick description, the documentary method and videography analysis. After identifying both cases as a certain type of a music educational practice (making music in the classroom), the teaching structures were compared as a second step. The process was guided by contrasting different practices and forms of interaction, and examining certain aims and functions of the lessons. Both these interests served as a basis for a comparative discussion. The results of the study (1) are derived from the compressed teaching structures in both the cases based on the thick descriptions, and through the comparison (2) of a hypothesis relating to a pattern of teaching ‘musics’, which involves (3) a hypothesis of the aim and function of these lessons. The study concludes with considerations relating to the re-interpretation of the results in the context of specific pedagogical cultural traditions.
Antibacterial activity of glycerol, lactose, maltose, mannitol, raffinose and xylose

In the study antimicrobial activity of adonitol, arabinose, cellobiose, dulcitol, galactose, glycerol, glucose, inositol, lactose, maltose, mannitol, mannose, mellibiose, raffinose, salicin, sorbitol, sucrose, trehalose and xylose was determined on 96 strains of Bacillus anthracoides, 3; Bacillus badius, 5; Bacillus brevis (3), Bacillus circulans (4), Bacillus coagulans (3), Bacillus lentus (6); Bacillus marcerans (3), Bacillus pantothenticus (15), Citrobacter amalonaticus (3), Citrobacter diversus (1), Enterobacter agglomerans (2), Enterobater gregoviae (1), Enterococcus asacchrolyticus (1), Enterococcus avium (4), Enterococcus caecorum (8), Enterococcus gallinarum (2), Enterococcus malodoratus (1), Enterococcus mundtii (1), Enterococcus raffinosus (4), Ervinia ananas (1), Klebsiella oxytoca (2), Microcccus luteus (2), Morganella morganii (2), Proteus mirabilis (9), Proteus vulgaris (6), Providencia rettgeri (3) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1). Of the 19 sugars tested on 96 strains only glycerol, lactose, maltose, mannitol, raffinose and xylose had bacteriostatic effect against 1, 1, 6, 4, 4 and 3 strains, respectively. Of the 18 strains sensitive to one or other sugar none of the strains was sensitive to more than one sugar except a strain of C. diversus sensitive to raffinose and xylose. Sugar sensitive strains belonged to 11 species of Bacillus (5), Citrobacter (1), Enterococcus (3), Proteus (1) and Providencia (1) genus.
A Personalized Recommendation Algorithm Combining Slope One Scheme and User Based Collaborative Filtering

Predicting products a customer would like on the basis of other customers’ ratings for these products has become a well known approach adopted by many personalized recommendation systems on the Internet. With the development of electronic commerce, the number of customers and products grows rapidly, resulted in the sparsity of the rating dataset. Poor quality is one major challenge in collaborative filtering recommender systems. To solve this problem, the paper proposed a personalized recommendation algorithm combining slope one scheme and user based collaborative filtering. This method employs slope one scheme technology to fill the vacant ratings of the user-item matrix where necessary. Then it utilizes the user based collaborative filtering to produce the recommendation. The experiments were made on a common data set using different filtering algorithms. The results show that the proposed recommender algorithm combining slope one scheme and user based collaborative filtering can improve the accuracy of the collaborative filtering recommender system.
Annotating Entailment Relations for Shortanswer Questions

This paper presents an annotation project that explores the relationship between textual entailment and short answer scoring (SAS). We annotate entailment relations between learner and target answers in the Corpus of Reading Comprehension Exercises for German (CREG) with a finegrained label inventory and compare them in various ways to correctness scores assigned by teachers. Our main finding is that although both tasks are clearly related, not all of our entailment tags can be directly mapped to SAS scores and that especially the area of partial entailment covers instances that are problematic for automatic scoring and need further investigation.
Galactic fountains and their connection with high and intermediate velocity clouds

Context. Sequential supernova explosions create supershells which can break out a stratified medium, producing bipolar outflows. The gas of the supershells can fragment into clouds which eventually fall toward the disk producing so-called galactic fountains. Aims. The aim of this paper is to calculate the expansion law and chemical enrichment of a supershell powered by the energetic feedback of a typical Galactic OB association at various galactocentric radii. We study the orbits of the fragments created when the supershell breaks out and we compare their kinetic and chemical properties with the available observations of high – and intermediate – velocity clouds. Methods. We use the Kompaneets (1960, Soviet Phys. Dokl., 5, 46) approximation for the evolution of the superbubble driven by sequential supernova explosions and we compute the abundances of oxygen and iron residing in the thin cold supershell. We assume that supershells are fragmented by Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities and we follow the orbit of the clouds either ballistically or by means of a hybrid model considering viscous interaction between the clouds and the extra-planar gas. Results. Given the self-similarity of the solutions, clouds are always formed ∼448 pc above the plane. If the initial metallicity is solar, the pollution from dying stars of the OB association has a negligible effect on the chemical composition of the clouds. The maximum height reached by the clouds above the plane seldom exceeds 2 kpc and when averaging over different throwing angles, the landing coordinate differs from the throwing coordinate by ∼1 kpc at most. Conclusions. The range of heights and [O/Fe] ratios spanned by our clouds suggest that the high velocity clouds cannot have a Galactic origin, whereas intermediate velocity clouds have kinematic properties similar to our modeled clouds but have overabundances observed for the [O/Fe] ratios that can be reproduced only with initial metallicities that are too low compared to those of the Galaxy disk.
Unsupervised Anomaly Detection Using an Optimized K-Nearest Neighbors Algorithm

Unsupervised anomaly detection has great utility within the context of network intrusion detection system. Such a system can work without the need for massive sets of pre-labelled training data and has the added versatility of being free of the overspecialization that comes with systems tailored for specific sets of attacks. Thus, with a system that seeks only to define and categorize normalcy, there is the potential to detect new types of network attacks without any prior knowledge of their existence. This paper discusses the creation of such a system that uses a k-nearest neighbors algorithm to detect anomalies in network connections, as well as the optimization necessary to make the algorithm feasible for a real-world system. 1 Unsupervised Anomaly Detection In the Unsupervised Anomaly Detection (UAD) problem, we are given a large data set where most of the elements are normal, and there are intrusions buried within the data set. Unsupervised anomaly detection algorithms have the major advantage of being able to process unlabeled data and detect intrusions that otherwise could not be detected. In addition, these types of algorithms can semi-automate the manual inspection of data in forensic analysis by helping analysts focus on the suspicious elements of the data. UAD algorithms make two assumptions about the data which motivate the general approach. The first assumption is that the number of normal instances vastly outnumbers the number of anomalies. The second assumption is that the anomalies themselves are qualitatively different from the normal instances. The basic idea is that since the anomalies are both different from normal and are rare, they will appear as outliers in the data which can be detected. An example of an intrusion that an unsupervised algorithm will have a difficulty detecting is a syn-flood DoS attack. The reason is that often under such an attack there are so many instances of the intrusion that it occurs in a similar number to normal instances. Thus, UAD algorithms may not label these instances as an attack because the region of the feature space where they occur may be as dense as the normal regions of the feature space.
Studying user-defined body gestures for navigating interactive maps

Since the creation of virtual reality many interaction techniques have been proposed for navigating virtual worlds. Some of them involve the use of body gestures and voice commands, while some others rely on some other interactive mechanisms such as mouse and keyboard. Since the appearance of videogames with body interaction it caught our attention how complex is to navigate in some videogames. As the use of voice commands is absent you just rely of your body or control to navigate. We observed a lot of frustration when you rely just on body gestures. So, natural interaction seems not being so natural. In this paper we examine a user defined body gesture language to navigate virtual worlds. We use the wizard of Oz technique to collect the data related and compare performance with traditional desktop based interaction and analyze the results. As a result we propose a body gesture language to navigate virtual worlds.
Effect of humidity on nitric acid uptake to mineral dust aerosol particles

This study presents the first laboratory observation of HNO 3 uptake by airborne mineral dust particles. The model aerosols were generated by dry dispersion of Arizona Test Dust (ATD), SiO 2 , and by nebulizing a saturated solution of calcium carbonate. The uptake of 13 N-labeled gaseous nitric acid was observed in a flow reactor on the 0.2–2 s reaction time scale at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The amount of nitric acid appearing in the aerosol phase at the end of the flow tube was found to be a linear function of the aerosol surface area. SiO 2 particles did not show any significant uptake, while the CaCO 3 aerosol was found to be more reactive than ATD. Due to the smaller uncertainty associated with the reactive surface area in the case of suspended particles as compared to bulk powder samples, we believe that we provide an improved estimate of the rate of uptake of HNO 3 to mineral dust. The fact that the rate of uptake was smaller at a concentration of 10 12 than at 10 11 was indicative of a complex uptake mechanism. The uptake coefficient averaged over the first 2 s of reaction time at a concentration of 10 12 molecules cm -3 was found to increase with increasing relative humidity, from 0.022±0.007 at 12% RH to 0.113±0.017 at 73% RH , which was attributed to an increasing degree of solvation of the more basic minerals. The extended processing of the dust by higher concentrations of HNO 3 at 85% RH led to a water soluble coating on the particles and enhanced their hygroscopicity.
Closest point search in lattices

In this semitutorial paper, a comprehensive survey of closest point search methods for lattices without a regular structure is presented. The existing search strategies are described in a unified framework, and differences between them are elucidated. An efficient closest point search algorithm, based on the Schnorr-Euchner (1995) variation of the Pohst (1981) method, is implemented. Given an arbitrary point x /spl isin/ /spl Ropf//sup m/ and a generator matrix for a lattice /spl Lambda/, the algorithm computes the point of /spl Lambda/ that is closest to x. The algorithm is shown to be substantially faster than other known methods, by means of a theoretical comparison with the Kannan (1983, 1987) algorithm and an experimental comparison with the Pohst (1981) algorithm and its variants, such as the Viterbo-Boutros (see ibid. vol.45, p.1639-42, 1999) decoder. Modifications of the algorithm are developed to solve a number of related search problems for lattices, such as finding a shortest vector, determining the kissing number, computing the Voronoi (1908)-relevant vectors, and finding a Korkine-Zolotareff (1873) reduced basis.
Metabolic syndrome, C-reactive protein and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients: a cross-sectional study*

Background Psoriasis has been associated with co-morbidities and elevated cardiovascular risk. Objectives To analyze the relationships among metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular risk, C-reactive protein, gender, and Psoriasis severity. Methods In this cross-sectional study, plaque Psoriasis patients (n=90), distributed equally in gender, were analyzed according to: Psoriasis Area and Severity Index, cardiovascular risk determined by the Framingham risk score and global risk assessment, C-reactive protein and metabolic syndrome criteria (NCEPT-ATP III). Results Metabolic syndrome frequency was 43.3% overall, without significance between genders (P=0.14); but women had higher risk for obesity (OR 2.56, 95%CI 1.02-6.41; P=0.04) and systemic arterial hypertension (OR 3.29, 95%CI 1.39-7.81; P=0.006). The increase in the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index also increased the risk for metabolic syndrome (OR 1.060, 95%CI 1.006-1.117; P=0.03). Absolute 10-year cardiovascular risk was higher in males (P=0.002), but after global risk assessment, 51.1% patients, 52.2% women, were re-classified as high-intermediate cardiovascular risk; without significance between genders (P=0.83). C-reactive protein level was elevated nearly six-fold overall, higher in metabolic syndrome (P=0.05), systemic arterial hypertension (P=0.004), and high-intermediate 10-year cardiovascular risk patients (P<0.001); positively correlated to: Framingham risk score (P<0.001; r=0.60), absolute 10-year cardiovascular risk (P<0.001; r=0.58), and age (P=0.001; r=0.35); but not to Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (P=0.14; r=0.16); increased the 10-year cardiovascular risk (R2=33.6; P<0.001), MetS risk (OR 1.17, 95%CI 0.99-1.37; P=0.05) and with age (P=0.001). HDL-cholesterol level was higher in normal C-reactive protein patients (t=1.98; P=0.05). Study limitations Restricted sample, hospital-based and representative of a single center and no specification of psoriatic arthritis. Conclusions Psoriasis, metabolic syndrome, systemic arterial hypertension and age share the increase in C-reactive protein, which could implicate in additional burden for increasing the cardiovascular risk and be an alert for effective interventions.