Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance of Distributed Algorithms in DTNs: Towards an Analytical Framework for Heterogeneous Mobility

Opportunistic or Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are envisioned to complement existing wireless technologies (cellular, WiFi). Wireless peers communicate when in contact, forming a network "on the fly", whose connectivity graph is highly dynamic and only partly connected. Because of this stringent environment, solutions to common networking problems (routing, congestion control, etc.) in this context are greedy, choosing the best solution among the locally available ones. This shared trait motivates the common treatment of such greedy algorithms for DTNs and raises some interesting questions: Do they converge? How fast are they? Yet, existing models study individual solutions. Moreover, they often assume homogeneous node mobility. The study of real world traces reveals considerable heterogeneity and non-trivial structure in human mobility. While algorithms have been proposed, accounting for this heterogeneity, their analytical tractability is still a challenge. In this paper, we propose a new model for greedy DTN algorithms, supporting the full heterogeneity of node mobility. We provide closed form solutions for crucial performance metrics (delivery probability and delay) and prove necessary and sufficient conditions for algorithm convergence. For illustration, we apply our model to the content placement problem, a variant of distributed caching. We use real and synthetic mobility traces to validate our findings and examine the impact of mobility properties in depth.
Runtime self-adaptation in a component-based robotic framework

The development and maintenance of software for robotic systems is a hard task due to the complexity inherent in these systems. Besides, the resulting applications have to deal with limited resources and variable execution conditions that must be considered in order to keep an acceptable system performance. To address both problems we have integrated a set of dynamic adaptation policies inside CoolBOT, a component oriented framework for programming robotic systems. CoolBOT contributes to reduce the programming effort, promoting robustness and code reuse, while the adaptation scheme provides a dynamic modulation of system performance to meet available computational resources at runtime. In this paper we also present two demonstrators that outline the benefits of using the proposed approach in the development of real robotic applications.
Computerized cognitive training during physical inactivity improves executive functioning in older adults

ABSTRACT The hippocampus is closely tied to spatial navigation, a central component in cognitive functioning, and critically involved in age-associated cognitive decline and dementia. This study evaluated a novel, cognitive computerized spatial navigation training (CSNT) program targeting the hippocampus, with expectation of mitigating possible cognitive decline with bed rest (BR). During a 14-day BR study with 16 healthy, older men (mean age = 60 ± 3, range = 55–65 years), half received CSNT for 12 days in 50-min sessions and half were controls (watching documentaries). This design uniquely controlled diet, sleep, and other personal and environmental activities. Although there were no cognitive declines in controls post-BR, CSNT participants demonstrated significant increases in executive/attention ability and processing speed, and continued spatial navigation testing showed improvement to 400 days post-BR. This intervention may prove useful to mitigate cognitive declines known to occur in long periods of immobilization and could have broader implications in protecting against age-related cognitive decline.
Learning to Rank for Cross-Device Identification

We summarize the 1st place solution of the ICDM 2015 data mining contest and explain how the goal of the contest fits naturally into the learning-to-rank paradigm. We show that learning-to-rank models provide an improvement over the more conventional binary classification models for this task. Finally, we explain our gradient weighting and cookie over-selection strategies which provided some additional lift to our final score.
How to Draw ClusteredWeighted Graphs using a Multilevel Force-Directed Graph Drawing Algorithm

Visualization of clustered graphs has been a research area since many years. In this paper, we describe a new approach that can be used in real application where graph does not contain only topological information but also extrinsic parameters (i.e. user attributes on edges and nodes). In the case of force-directed algorithm, management of attributes corresponds to take into account edge weights. We propose an extension of the GRIP algorithm in order to manage edge weights. Furthermore, by using Voronoi diagram we constrained that algorithm to draw each cluster in a non overlapping convex region. Using these two extensions we obtained an algorithm that draw clustered weighted graphs. Experimentation has been done on data coming from biology where the network is the genes- proteins interaction graph and where the attributes are gene expression values from microarray experiments.
High-Resolution Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Typing of Lactococcus lactis Strains Enables Identification of Genetic Markers for Subspecies-Related Phenotypes

ABSTRACT A high-resolution amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) methodology was developed to achieve the delineation of closely related Lactococcus lactis strains. The differentiation depth of 24 enzyme-primer-nucleotide combinations was experimentally evaluated to maximize the number of polymorphisms. The resolution depth was confirmed by performing diversity analysis on 82 L. lactis strains, including both closely and distantly related strains with dairy and nondairy origins. Strains clustered into two main genomic lineages of L. lactis subsp. lactis and L. lactis subsp. cremoris type-strain-like genotypes and a third novel genomic lineage rooted from the L. lactis subsp. lactis genomic lineage. Cluster differentiation was highly correlated with small-subunit rRNA homology and multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) studies. Additionally, the selected enzyme-primer combination generated L. lactis subsp. cremoris phenotype-specific fragments irrespective of the genotype. These phenotype-specific markers allowed the differentiation of L. lactis subsp. lactis phenotype from L. lactis subsp. cremoris phenotype strains within the same L. lactis subsp. cremoris type-strain-like genomic lineage, illustrating the potential of AFLP for the generation of phenotype-linked genetic markers.
Max-ratio relay selection for secure communication in amplify-and-forward buffer-aided cooperative networks

It has been verified cooperative communication technology is an effective way to achieve physical layer security. Recently, people paid much attention to the cooperative networks with buffering relay, which can get significantly performance advantage. In this paper, we investigate the secure problem in amplify-and-forward buffer-aided cooperative networks. We modeled the AF secure cooperative network with buffering relay, and proposed max-ratio relay selection criterion, which we call B-AFbMRS for short (Buffer-aided AF based Max-Ratio relay Selection). Simulation results show that, for AF secure cooperative network, buffer aided relay can significantly enhance the secrecy outage probability.
Gender Differences and Cognitive Constructs in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a psychological disorder currently recognized by the DSM-IV-TR, is typically associated with distorted cognitions, particularly in regards to high levels of excessive worry. Accordingly, much research has attempted to better understand these, and other cognitive factors that may predict symptoms consistent with such a diagnosis. One study conducted by Tull and colleagues (2009) found that cognitive factors such as anxiety sensitivity and difficulties in emotion regulation may serve as predisposing factors in the development of GAD. My study continues this line of research by assessing the predictive nature of several cognitive constructs (i.e., worry, rumination, coping styles, and anxiety sensitivity) in accordance with symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of GAD. Undergraduate students (N =285) completed anxiety-related measures on an online anxiety prediction study. Results indicated that women reported more generalized anxiety symptoms than men. In addition, regression analyses indicated gender differences in predictors of GAD. Coping strategies and rumination proved to add to the prediction of GAD.
Survivin and NAIP in Human Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Protective Role of the Association of Serenoa repens, Lycopene and Selenium from the Randomized Clinical Study

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) treatment includes the apoptosis machinery modulation through the direct inhibition of caspase cascade. We previously demonstrated that Serenoa repens (Ser) with lycopene (Ly) and selenium (Se) reawakened apoptosis by reducing survivin and neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein (NAIP) levels in rats. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Ser-Se-Ly association on survivin and NAIP expression in BPH patients. Ninety patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) due to clinical BPH were included in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Participants were randomly assigned to receive placebo (Group BPH + placebo, n = 45) or Ser-Se-Ly association (Group BPH + Ser-Se-Ly; n = 45) for 3 months. At time 0, all patients underwent prostatic biopsies. After 3 months of treatment, they underwent prostatic re-biopsy and specimens were collected for molecular, morphological, and immunohistochemical analysis. After 3 months, survivin and NAIP were significantly decreased, while caspase-3 was significantly increased in BPH patients treated with Ser-Se-Ly when compared with the other group. In BPH patients treated with Ser-Se-Ly for 3 months, the glandular epithelium was formed by a single layer of cuboidal cells. PSA showed high immunoexpression in all BPH patients and a focal positivity in Ser-Se-Ly treated patients after 3 months. Evident prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) immunoexpression was shown in all BPH patients, while no positivity was present after Ser-Se-Ly administration. Ser-Se-Ly proved to be effective in promoting apoptosis in BPH patients.
Post-immunisation gastritis and Helicobacterinfection in the mouse: a long term study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Helicobacter pylori is a major cause of peptic ulcers and gastric cancer. Vaccine development is progressing but there is concern that immunisation may exacerbate Helicobacterinduced gastritis: prophylactic immunisation followed by challenge withH felis or H pylori can induce a more severe gastritis in mice than seen with infection alone. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between immunity toHelicobacter infection and post-immunisation gastritis. METHODS (1) C57BL/6 mice were prophylactically immunised before challenge with either H felis or H pylori. Histopathology and colonisation were assessed one month post-challenge. (2) C57BL/6 mice were prophylactically immunised against H felis infection and gastritis assessed up to 18 months post-challenge. RESULTS Prophylactic immunisation induced a reduction in bacterial colonisation followingH felis challenge which was associated with increased severity of active gastritis with neutrophil infiltration and atrophy. However, immunised mice challenged with H pylori SS1 had little evidence of pathology. Long term follow up showed that post-immunisation gastritis was evident at three months. However, from six months onwards, although immunised/challenged mice still developed gastritis, there was no significant difference between inflammation in these mice and infected controls. Post-immunisation gastritis was not associated with the serum antibody response. Immunisation prevented the formation of secondary lymphoid aggregates in the gastric tissue. CONCLUSION TheH felis mouse model of post-immunisation gastritis is the most extreme example of this type of pathology. We have shown in this model that post-immunisation gastritis is a transient event which does not produce long term exacerbation of pathology.
Expression of Chia4-Pa chitinase genes during somatic and zygotic embryo development in Norway spruce (Picea abies): similarities and differences between gymnosperm and angiosperm class IV chitinases.

The developmental pathway of somatic embryogenesis in Norway spruce involves proliferation of proembryogenic masses (PEMs), PEM-to-somatic embryo transition and further development of the somatic embryos. It has previously been shown that extracellular signal molecules, including arabinogalactan proteins, lipo-chitooligosaccharides and chitinases, regulate somatic embryogenesis. The Chia4-Pa1 gene from Norway spruce is described here. The Chia4-Pa1 encodes a typical basic class IV chitinase, although the intron-exon organization of this gymnosperm chitinase is different from that in angiosperm class IV chitinases. The Chia4-Pa1 belongs to a small gene family with highly similar members, and the expression pattern of Chia4-Pa1 cannot be distinguished from that of other Chia4-Pa members. Upon withdrawal of plant growth regulators, i.e. during a treatment that stimulates PEM-to-somatic embryo transition and massive programmed cell death, a significant increase in transcription and translation of Chia4-Pa genes takes place. The expression pattern analysis revealed that Chia4-Pa genes are expressed in a subpopulation of proliferating cells and at the base of the somatic embryo. Furthermore, in seeds, Chia4-Pa genes are expressed in the megagametophyte in the single cell-layered zone surrounding the corrosion cavity. Taken together these results suggest that the Chia4-Pa expressing cells have a megagametophyte signalling function and that CHIA4-Pa stimulates programmed cell death and promotes PEM-to-somatic embryo transition.
When Faces Signal Danger: Event-Related Potentials to Emotional Facial Expressions in Animal Phobics

Attentional bias research indicates that specific phobics prioritize the processing of disorder-relevant stimuli, although the time course of attentional allocation to the phobic threat remains unclear. The present study employed event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether a processing bias also exists towards specific facial expressions that are able to signal potential phobic cues in the environment. Fifteen women with snake phobia and 15 healthy controls performed an attention-shifting task in which angry, fearful, disgusted and neutral faces were presented as emotional cues. ERP to facial expressions and reaction times to target stimuli were collected during the task. The P200 amplitude was significantly lower in phobics than in controls, specifically in response to facial expressions of fear and disgust. Such reduction in cortical activity may reflect reduced processing associated with rapid cognitive avoidance. Such an avoidance response would not be determined by the threat value of the face stimuli per se, but rather by the ability of fearful and disgusted faces to avert attention by signaling a possible phobic threat in the surrounding area. In addition, phobics showed relatively greater positivity to negative than neutral facial expressions in the later processing stages, indicating a general hypervigilant processing mode.
Exercise-induced arterial hypoxemia.

Exercise-induced arterial hypoxemia (EIAH) at or near sea level is now recognized to occur in a significant number of fit, healthy subjects of both genders and of varying ages. Our review aims to define EIAH and to critically analyze what we currently understand, and do not understand, about its underlying mechanisms and its consequences to exercise performance. Based on the effects on maximal O(2) uptake of preventing EIAH, we suggest that mild EIAH be defined as an arterial O(2) saturation of 93-95% (or 3-4% 25-30 Torr) and inadequate compensatory hyperventilation (arterial PCO(2) >35 Torr) commonly contribute to EIAH, as do acid- and temperature-induced shifts in O(2) dissociation at any given arterial PO(2). In turn, expiratory flow limitation presents a significant mechanical constraint to exercise hyperpnea, whereas ventilation-perfusion ratio maldistribution and diffusion limitation contribute about equally to the excessive A-a DO(2). Exactly how diffusion limitation is incurred or how ventilation-perfusion ratio becomes maldistributed with heavy exercise remains unknown and controversial. Hypotheses linked to extravascular lung water accumulation or inflammatory changes in the "silent" zone of the lung's peripheral airways are in the early stages of exploration. Indirect evidence suggests that an inadequate hyperventilatory response is attributable to feedback inhibition triggered by mechanical constraints and/or reduced sensitivity to existing stimuli; but these mechanisms cannot be verified without a sensitive measure of central neural respiratory motor output. Finally, EIAH has detrimental effects on maximal O(2) uptake, but we have not yet determined the cause or even precisely identified which organ system, involved directly or indirectly with O(2) transport to muscle, is responsible for this limitation.
Time course of cell death due to acoustic overstimulation in the mouse medial geniculate body and primary auditory cortex

It has previously been shown that acoustic overstimulation induces cell death and extensive cell loss in key structures of the central auditory pathway. A correlation between noise-induced apoptosis and cell loss was hypothesized for the cochlear nucleus and colliculus inferior. To determine the role of cell death in noise-induced cell loss in thalamic and cortical structures, the present mouse study (NMRI strain) describes the time course following noise exposure of cell death mechanisms for the ventral medial geniculate body (vMGB), medial MGB (mMGB), and dorsal MGB (dMGB) and the six histological layers of the primary auditory cortex (AI 1–6). Therefore, a terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dioxyuridine triphosphate nick-end labeling assay (TUNEL) was performed in these structures 24 h, 7 days, and 14 days after noise exposure (3 h, 115 dB sound pressure level, 5–20 kHz), as well as in unexposed controls. In the dMGB, TUNEL was statistically significant elevated 24 h postexposure. AI-1 showed a decrease in TUNEL after 14 days. There was no statistically significant difference between groups for the other brain areas investigated. dMGB’s widespread connection within the central auditory pathway and its nontonotopical organization might explain its prominent increase in TUNEL compared to the other MGB subdivisions and the AI. It is assumed that the onset and peak of noise-induced cell death is delayed in higher areas of the central auditory pathway and takes place between 24 h and 7 days postexposure in thalamic and cortical structures.
Learning a Mahalanobis Metric with Side Information

Many learning algorithms use a metric defined over the input space as a principal tool, and their performance critically depends on the quality of this metric. We address the problem of learning metrics using side-information in the form of equivalence constraints. Unlike labels, we demonstrate that this type of side-information can sometimes be automatically obtained without the need of human intervention. We show how such side-information can be used to modify the representation of the data, leading to improved clustering and classification. Specifically, we present the Relevant Component Analysis (RCA) algorithm, which is a simple and efficient algorithm for learning a full ranked Mahalanobis metric. We show that RCA is the solution of an interesting optimization problem, founded on an information theoretic basis. If the Mahalanobis matrix is allowed to be singular, we show that Fisher’s linear discriminant followed by RCA is the optimal dimensionality reduction algorithm under the same criterion. Moreover, under certain Gaussian assumptions, RCA can be viewed as an ML estimation of the inner class covariance matrix. We conclude with extensive empirical evaluations of RCA, showing its advantage over alternative methods.
The average capacitor current method for delay calculation in MOS circuits

The transient response of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) gates is a topic covered in most textbooks on digital integrated circuits and very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) design. One method often used to calculate first-order estimates of gate delays is the average capacitor current method. Using this method, the delay is calculated assuming that the capacitor current is constant and equal to the average of the capacitor current values at the limits of the time interval of interest. In this paper, this method is discussed and compared with other methods of delay calculation using integration and curve-fitting techniques familiar to electrical and computer engineering students. Since the computation of the capacitor current is relatively complicated because it requires the calculation of the MOS transistor currents, for propagation delay calculation there is no benefit in calculating the capacitor current twice. A single current calculation, corresponding to the familiar midpoint integration method, is sufficient to get the same or better accuracy as that of the average capacitor current method. The two-point Gauss quadrature formula is shown to provide excellent results with two capacitor current evaluations.
Combination of microneutralization and avidity assays: Improved diagnosis of recent primary human cytomegalovirus infection in single serum sample of second trimester pregnancy

Estimation of IgG avidity index is a classical serological method. Antibodies with low avidity are detectable at a very early stage of infection whereas high avidity antibodies indicate past infection. Recently, it was shown that the neutralization assay can be routinely used as a reliable method for differentiating between acute primary and non‐primary infection in a single serum sample because the first neutralizing titers (NT) appeared after an average of 13 weeks (range, 10–17 weeks). A low positive NT titer in the presence of specific IgM antibodies, however, still represents a diagnostic problem especially if blood sampling occurred after the 12th week of gestation. To overcome this problem the combination of NT and IgG avidity tests was evaluated. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) IgG avidity indices of 350 serum samples from 227 pregnant women were investigated using 6M urea in the washing buffer. HCMV specific IgG antibodies reached full maturation approximately 20–22 weeks after seroconversion and low IgG avidity is therefore a marker of primary infection. The combined application of the microneutralization and avidity assays was shown to serve as a helpful tool in diagnosis of a recent primary HCMV infection of second trimester pregnancy particularly when previous serological data were not available. J. Med. Virol. 60:324–330, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.