Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wireless Aggregation at Nearly Constant Rate

One of the most fundamental tasks in sensor networks is the computation of a (compressible) aggregation function of the input measurements. What rate of computation can be maintained, by properly choosing the aggregation tree, the TDMA schedule of the tree edges, and the transmission powers? This can be viewed as the convergecast capacity of a wireless network. We show here that the optimal rate is effectively a constant. This holds even in arbitrary networks, under the physical model of interference. This compares with previous bounds that are logarithmic (e.g., Ω(1/log n)). Namely, we show that a rate of Ω(1/log^* Δ) is possible, where Δ is the length diversity (ratio between the furthest to the shortest distance between nodes). It also implies that the scheduling complexity of wireless connectivity is O(log^* Δ). This is achieved using the natural minimum spanning tree (MST). Our method crucially depends on choosing the appropriate power assignment for the instance at hand, since without power control, only a trivial O(1/n) rate can be guaranteed. We also show that there is a fixed power assignment that allows for a rate of Δ(1/log log Δ). Surprisingly, these bounds are essentially best possible. No aggregation network can guarantee a rate better than O(1/log log Δ) using fixed power assignment. Also, when using arbitrary power control, there are instances whose MSTs cannot be scheduled in fewer than Ω(1/log^* Δ) slots.
Pleural Effusion and Chylothorax in Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia—Risk Factors, Management and Outcome

Background: Pleural effusion and chylothorax are common complications in the treatment of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). We set out to identify risk factors for chylothorax development in patients with CDH and to investigate the association of pleural effusion and chylothorax with neonatal morbidity and mortality. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we included 396 neonates with CDH treated at our institution between January 2013 and June 2019. Preoperative and postoperative chest radiographs and clinical data were evaluated and correlated with morbidity, complications and mortality. Results: Laboratory-confirmed chylothorax occurred in 58 (18.6%) of all CDH cases. Pleural effusion was frequently observed as a postoperative complication but also occurred as a pre-existing condition. Neonates with large defects of size C and D, patch repair, the need for presurgical and/or postsurgical ECMO support, pulmonary hypertension, liver-up phenomenon and lower relative fetal lung volume were associated with higher occurrences of chylothorax. After stepwise logistic regression, larger CDH defects (p < 0.0001) and the need for postsurgical ECMO (p = 0.0158) remained significant risk factors for CTX to occur (AUC 0.71). The same potential risk factors were used to assess their association with both presurgical and postsurgical pleural effusion. After stepwise logistic regression, only the need for presurgical ECMO remained significantly associated with presurgical PE (p < 0.01, AUC 0.65) and patch repair as the therapeutic intervention remained significantly associated with the occurrence of postsurgical PE (p < 0.0001, AUC 0.80). Patients with CTX had longer durations of both MV (p < 0.0001) and subsequent ventilatory assistance with spontaneous breathing (p = 0.0004), increased total lengths of hospitalization (p < 0.0001), increased durations of ECMO (p < 0.01) and increased incidences of CLD (p < 0.0001) compared to patients without CTX. No significant difference could be found for survival in both groups (p = 0.12). Conclusions: Our data suggest that the incidence of chylothorax is associated with large diaphragmatic defects, the need for postsurgical ECMO and the development of chronic lung disease, but not with survival.
Mammalian Staufen Is a Double-Stranded-RNA- and Tubulin-Binding Protein Which Localizes to the Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum

ABSTRACT Staufen (Stau) is a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-binding protein involved in mRNA transport and localization in Drosophila.To understand the molecular mechanisms of mRNA transport in mammals, we cloned human (hStau) and mouse (mStau)staufen cDNAs. In humans, four transcripts arise by differential splicing of the Stau gene and code for two proteins with different N-terminal extremities. In vitro, hStau and mStau bind dsRNA via each of two full-length dsRNA-binding domains and tubulin via a region similar to the microtubule-binding domain of MAP-1B, suggesting that Stau cross-links cytoskeletal and RNA components. Immunofluorescent double labeling of transfected mammalian cells revealed that Stau is localized to the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER), implicating this RNA-binding protein in mRNA targeting to the RER, perhaps via a multistep process involving microtubules. These results are the first demonstration of the association of an RNA-binding protein in addition to ribosomal proteins, with the RER, implicating this class of proteins in the transport of RNA to its site of translation.
FEATURED ARTICLE: The Creative Process in Picasso's Guernica Sketches: Monotonic Improvements versus Nonmonotonic Variants

A controversy has emerged over whether Picasso's sketches for Guernica illustrate a Darwinian process of blind-variation and selective-retention (i.e., nonmonotonic variants), rather than a more systematic, expertise-driven process (i.e., monotonic improvements). This issue is objectively addressed by having judges (1 pro-Darwinian, 2 anti-Darwinian, and 2 neutral) rank the figural components according to their perceived progress toward the final version of the painting. Besides strongly agreeing on the perceived order (composite progress score alpha = .85), the independent judges concurred that this order was conspicuously nonmonotonic, with minimal tendency to converge on the end result. These conclusions held not only for the sketches as a whole, but also for the sequence of sketches for the separate figural elements of the painting. Hence, Picasso's creative process is best described as producing blind nonmonotonic variants, rather than expert monotonic improvements. The general method used in this study can be extended to other documentary evidence—such as musical sketches, literary drafts, and laboratory notebooks—to determine the extent to which creativity operates in a Darwinian manner.
A technical method using musculoskeletal model to analyse dynamic properties of muscles during human movement

An effective way to avoid invading or injuring the subjects is to use the musculoskeletal model when studying the dynamic properties of muscles in vivo. So, we put forward a joint coordinate system-based method, which mainly focuses on the coordinate's transformation of corresponding muscle attachment points, respectively, in the model and the subject in order to reproduce the movement of the subject on the model. As muscle moment arm is usually used to evaluate the dynamic properties of muscles, the moment arms in elbow flexion for each of the major muscles crossing the elbow in 50 healthy subjects (25 males and 25 females), ranging in height from 1.50 to 1.80 m (mean 1.6542 m) are calculated and compared with the measured data obtained from anatomical studies reported in the literature. The trends of the value basically coincide with each other. So, this novel method can be valid.
A double‐blind, randomized, placebo‐controlled, parallel group study of THC/CBD spray in peripheral neuropathic pain treatment

Peripheral neuropathic pain (PNP) associated with allodynia poses a significant clinical challenge. The efficacy of Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol/cannabidiol (THC/CBD) oromucosal spray, a novel cannabinoid formulation, was investigated in this 15‐week randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled parallel group study.
Institute of Physics Publishing Inverse Problems Image Reconstruction in 2d Spect with 180

This work concerns 2D SPECT imaging with uniform attenuation in the activity region. In this paper, it is shown that exact and stable reconstruction does not require the data to be known over 360 • as has been previously assumed. An angular range of 180 • is sufficient in parallel-beam geometry. A reconstruction formula which uses only data on a half-turn is provided with implementation details. Simulations are performed to support the mathematical result.
Pilot study of nurse-led rheumatic heart disease echocardiography screening in Fiji – a novel approach in a resource-poor setting

Abstract We designed a pilot study of a training module for nurses to perform rheumatic heart disease echocardiography screening in a resource-poor setting. The aim was to determine whether nurses given brief, focused, basic training in echocardiography could follow an algorithm to potentially identify cases of rheumatic heart disease requiring clinical referral, by undertaking basic two-dimensional and colour Doppler scans. Training consisted of a week-long workshop, followed by 2 weeks of supervised field experience. The nurses’ skills were tested on a blinded cohort of 50 children, and the results were compared for sensitivity and specificity against echocardiography undertaken by an expert, using standardised echocardiography definitions for definite and probable rheumatic heart disease. Analysis of the two nurses’ results revealed that when a mitral regurgitant jet length of 1.5 cm was used as the trigger for rheumatic heart disease identification, they had a sensitivity of 100% and 83%, respectively, and a specificity of 67.4% and 79%, respectively. This pilot supports the principle that nurses, given brief focused training and supervised field experience, can follow an algorithm to undertake rheumatic heart disease echocardiography in a developing country setting to facilitate clinical referral with reasonable accuracy. These results warrant further research, with a view to developing a module to guide rheumatic heart disease echocardiographic screening by nurses within the existing public health infrastructure in high-prevalence, resource-poor regions.
Creating Three-Dimensional Computer Models Using Robotic Manipulator and Laser Scanners

Abstract This paper presents scanning system providing three-dimensional models. Use of laser scanner mounted on robotic manipulator provides very flexible device capable of building models of both tiny detailed structures and large object. It could be used in many various applications, especially in health care, where it brings lot of advantages comparing to present scanning systems. Mechanical constitution, interfacing approaches and operating principles of this device are described.
Design and Implementation of a Practical I/O-efficient Shortest Paths Algorithm

We report on initial experimental results for a practical I/O-efficient Single-Source Shortest-Paths (SSSP) algorithm on general undirected sparse graphs where the ratio between the largest and the smallest edge weight is reasonably bounded (for example integer weights in {1, . . ., 232}) and the realistic assumption holds that main memory is big enough to keep one bit per vertex. While our implementation only guarantees average-case efficiency, i.e., assuming randomly chosen edge-weights, it turns out that its performance on real-world instances with non-random edge weights is actually even better than on the respective inputs with random weights. Furthermore, compared to the currently best implementation for external-memory BFS [6], which in a sense constitutes a lower bound for SSSP, the running time of our approach always stayed within a factor of five, for the most difficult graph classes the difference was even less than a factor of two. We are not aware of any previous I/O-efficient implementation for the classic general SSSP in a (semi) external setting: in two recent projects [10, 23], Kumar/Schwabe-like SSSP approaches on graphs of at most 6 million vertices have been tested, forcing the authors to artificially restrict the main memory size, M, to rather unrealistic 4 to 16 MBytes in order not to leave the semi-external setting or produce huge running times for larger graphs: for random graphs of 220 vertices, the best previous approach needed over six hours. In contrast, for a similar ratio of input size vs. M, but on a 128 times larger and even sparser random graph, our approach was less than seven times slower, a relative gain of nearly 20. On a real-world 24 million node street graph, our implementation was over 40 times faster. Even larger gains of over 500 can be estimated for random line graphs based on previous experimental results for Munagala/Ranade-BFS. Finally, we also report on early results of experiments in which we replace the hard disk by a solid state disk (flash memory).
Rap1 and its effector KRIT1/CCM1 regulate β-catenin signaling

SUMMARY KRIT1, also called CCM1, is a member of a multiprotein complex that contains the products of the CCM2 and PDCD10 (also known as CCM3) loci. Heterozygous loss of any of the genes that encode these proteins leads to cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM), which are vascular lesions that are found in around 0.5% of humans. KRIT1 mediates the stabilization of β-catenin-containing endothelial cell-cell junctions downstream of the Rap1 GTPase. Here, we report that Rap1 and KRIT1 are negative regulators of canonical β-catenin signaling in mice and that hemizygous Krit1 deficiency exacerbates β-catenin-driven pathologies. Depletion of endothelial KRIT1 caused β-catenin to dissociate from vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin and to accumulate in the nucleus with consequent increases in β-catenin-dependent transcription. Activation of Rap1 inhibited β-catenin-dependent transcription in confluent endothelial cells; this effect required the presence of intact cell-cell junctions and KRIT1. These effects of KRIT1 were not limited to endothelial cells; the KRIT1 protein was expressed widely and its depletion increased β-catenin signaling in epithelial cells. Moreover, a reduction in KRIT1 expression also increased β-catenin signaling in vivo. Hemizygous deficiency of Krit1 resulted in a ~1.5-fold increase in intestinal polyps in the ApcMin/+ mouse, which was associated with increased β-catenin-driven transcription. Thus, KRIT1 regulates β-catenin signaling, and Krit1+/− mice are more susceptible to β-catenin-driven intestinal adenomas.
Exploring MBA career success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the meaning of career success in relation to the attainment of an MBA degree, for a group of experienced managers. In so doing, the paper aims to consider the adequacy of MBA career success, defined solely in terms of external criteria.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 36 in‐depth interviews were undertaken with MBA alumni which sought to capture the individual's own account of their career success in relation to their MBA. The study utilised an inductive data analysis approach.Findings – The findings revealed a diversity of meanings given to MBA career success, with success generally being expressed in much broader terms than conventional notions of fast track career advancement. The salience of internal criteria for judging MBA career success is thus highlighted. The findings may be seen to further dispel the myth that MBA students are concerned exclusively with status and salary.Research limitations/implications – The study focuses on the experie.
Graded index substrate integrated waveguide based directional coupler

A novel graded index (GRIN) based substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) directional coupler is proposed for bandwidth enhancement. The suppression of higher order modes in the coupling region of the directional coupler is achieved by reduction in the permittivity in the coupling region by the utilization of GRIN substrate. An enhancement in the fractional bandwidth of 7% is achieved by proposed directional coupler based on GRIN SIW substrate as compared to the conventional SIW based coupler. The proposed coupler prototype bandwidth is 49% (8.5 GHz–14GHz).
Aerospace applications of shape memory alloys

Abstract With the increased emphasis on both reliability and multi-functionality in the aerospace industry, active materials are fast becoming an enabling technology capturing the attention of an increasing number of engineers and scientists worldwide. This article reviews the class of active materials known as shape memory alloys (SMAs), especially as used in aerospace applications. To begin, a general overview of SMAs is provided. Their useful properties and engineering effects are described and the methods in which these may be utilized are discussed. A review of past and present aerospace applications is presented. The discussion addresses applications for both atmospheric earth flight as well as space flight. To complete the discussion, SMA design challenges and methodologies are addressed and the future of the field is examined.
Usage of the Fourier transform as an invertible extension to the Radon transform with application to wave front extraction

The Radon transform is used in many applications in order to detect predefined geometrical structures, for instance curves in a given two-dimensional dataset. It is a mapping between a data space and a model space; the coordinates of a point in the latter correspond to the parameters of a geometrical structure in the former. The construction of an inverse operator is usually not straightforward, it is however possible to obtain numerical approximations. In this paper, an extension to the Radon transform is proposed which simplifies inversion by using a Fourier transform along the input curve instead of a line integral. Thereby, the model space is extended by one dimension containing the Fourier coefficients, from which information about the amplitude variation along the input curve can be extracted. The method is successfully applied in order to extract wave fronts from acoustical impulse response measurements taken on a circular microphone array.
Reconstruction of piecewise chaotic dynamic using a genetic algorithm multiple model approach

Reconstruction of chaotic dynamics from its time-series measurement is an important problem for many engineering applications. In this paper, we propose using a novel multiple model (MM) predictor based on a genetic algorithm (GA) to reconstruct piecewise chaotic dynamics. The motivation relies on the observation that conventional single model is usually unable to reconstruct the piecewise dynamics properly because a piecewise map is nonsmooth. In our approach, multiple radial basis function (RBF) neural predictors are used to model the piecewise dynamic in different partition intervals. Switching between different intervals could be estimated by a nonlinear gate model. In particular, a GA is employed here to train the MM and to obtain the optimal RBF parameters. Compared to conventional chaos dynamic reconstruction techniques, the proposed GA-MM method is shown to greatly improve the reconstruction performance for piecewise chaotic dynamics. The superiority is further verified by applying the GA-MM method to model the real-life radar sea-clutter signal obtained from Nova Scotia (NS), Canada, and to predict the electric power pool price time series from Alberta (AB), Canada. Both kinds of real data show that the GA-MM is effective in building a dynamical model. The proposed GA-MM method is also applied to the channel equalization problem of chaos communication systems. Based on the minimum nonlinear prediction error equalization method, it is shown that the GA-MM method has a satisfactory equalization performance even under strong channel effects.
Behavioural defences against sexually transmitted diseases in primates☆


Abstract Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are known to exist in wild and domesticated animals, but little is know about behavioural defences that animals use to reduce the risk of acquiring STDs. Using comparative data and a phylogeny of primates, I investigated whether behaviours hypothesized to reduce STD transmission are correlated with measures of STD risk involving mating promiscuity and life-history traits. Comparative tests revealed no support for genital inspection as a means to identify and avoid infected individuals with genital inspection was performed more commonly by males than females and uncorrelated with mating promiscuity. Primate species characterized by increased promiscuity were not more likely to display genital self-grooming following mating. Similarly, males and females of these species were not more likely to urinate immediately after mating, counter to suggestions that urination flushes microorganisms from the urethra and surrounding genital areas. Finally, monogamy was not correlated with a slow life history, which differs from predictions that monogamy is a response to increased STD risk in long-lived animals. Tests involving monogamy remained unsupported after controlling for potentially confounding variables, and all tests yielded similar results in phylogenetic and nonphylogenetic tests. Few results were significant even before controlling statistically for multiple comparisons, but nonsignificance was unlikely due to low statistical power or poor data quality in all tests. Instead, the comparative patterns were consistent with theoretical models showing that precopulatory behavioural defences to STDs, such as mate choice, are unlikely to be fully effective. In addition, many putative behavioural defences to STDs in primates entail substantial fitness costs in terms of reproductive output, offspring quality and infanticide avoidance. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Dynamic mode decomposition of H-type transition to turbulence

For H-type transition to turbulence in a flat-plate boundary layer, we identify dynamically important features resulting from direct numerical and large eddy simulations (DNS and LES, respectively). Even though LES coupled with a dynamic subgrid-scale model provides an accurate prediction of the transition location, it fails to predict initial overshoot and subsequent turbulent skin friction. Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) is used to quantify the contribution of coherent structures to the total Reynolds shear stress. We show that low-frequency modes, corresponding to the legs of hairpin vortices, account for most of the total Reynolds shear stress gradient. We conclude that LES underpredicts the skin friction because the dynamically important low frequency modes do not attain sufficient amplitude.