Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new transmission mechanism for hybrid optical switching network

Hybrid optical switching network combines the advantages of optical circuit switching (OCS) and optical burst switching (OBS). Traditional parallel hybrid optical switching networks have low resource utilization rate because of the inflexible decision of traffic transfer mode. The paper proposes a new transmission scheme to improve resource utilization rate for hybrid optical switching network. When the traffic arrival rate of a light path is lower than the transmission rate of the light path, edge nodes send message packet along the light path to inform the core nodes the unused bandwidth resource (voids) of the light path and the data bursts can utilize the unused bandwidth resource to improve the resource utilization rate. The simulation results show that new scheme can effectively reduce the burst loss rate and improve the link utilization rate of hybrid optical switching network on the premise of providing service quality guarantee for OCS traffic.
Murine interleukin 7 (IL-7) receptor. Characterization on an IL-7- dependent cell line

A murine cell line (IxN/2b) absolutely dependent upon exogenous IL-7 for continued growth has been obtained that expresses lymphoid precursor and class I MHC antigens and also contains a rearranged mu heavy chain. This cell line has been used to define the binding and structural characteristics of the murine IL-7 receptor using 125I- labeled recombinant murine IL-7. 125I-IL-7 binding to IxN/2b cell was rapid and saturable at both 4 degrees and 37 degrees C. Equilibrium binding studies produced curvilinear Scatchard plots at both temperatures with high and low affinity Ka values of approximately 1 x 10(10) M-1 and 4 x 10(8) M-1, respectively, and a total of 2,000-2,500 IL-7 binding sites expressed per cell. Experiments measuring inhibition of binding of 125I-IL-7 by unlabeled IL-7 also produced data consistent with the existence of two classes of IL-7 receptors. Evidence concerning the possible molecular nature of two classes of IL-7 receptors was provided by dissociation kinetics and affinity crosslinking experiments. The dissociation rate of 125I-IL-7 was markedly increased when measured in the presence of unlabeled IL-7 at both 37 degrees and 4 degrees C, which is diagnostic of a receptor population displaying negative cooperativity. Crosslinking studies showed that under both reducing and nonreducing conditions, the major crosslinked species observed corresponded to a receptor size of 75-79 kD while a less intense higher molecular mass crosslinked species was also seen which corresponded to a receptor size approximately twice as large (159-162 kD). Both types of experiments suggest that the IL-7 receptor may form noncovalently associated dimers in the membrane. The IL-7 receptor was expressed on pre-B cells, but not detected on several murine B cell lines or primary mature B cells. It was also expressed on murine thymocytes, some T lineage cell lines, and on bone marrow- derived macrophage. All cells binding 125I-IL-7 exhibited curvilinear Scatchard plots. No cytokines or growth factors tested were able to inhibit binding of 125I-IL-7 to its receptor. These results define the initial binding and structural characteristics, and the cellular distribution, of the murine IL-7 receptor.
The Correlation Between Social Support,Coping Style and Subjective Well-being of College Students

Objective;To explore college students' relations among social support,coping style and subjective well-being(SWB),and to provide basis for mental health education.Methods;Two hundred and fourteen college students were evaluated with Index of Well-being,Affect Scales,Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire(SCSQ)and Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS). Results;Social support correlated with SWB significantly and positively.Positive coping style was positively correlated with SWB,but negative coping style was positively correlated with negative affect.Positive coping style was positively correlative with social support,and negative coping style was negatively correlative with subjective support.It was found that there were significant differences between different genders in SWB and social support.But no differences of coping style were found between male and female students.There were no significant differences among three grades in SWB and coping style,but students of three grades had significant differences in social support.Conclusion;SWB had significant correlations with social support and coping style.Therefore,good social support and positive coping style helps to increase the SWB of college students.
Retention Load Values of Telescopic Crowns Made of Y-TZP and CoCr with Y-TZP Secondary Crowns: Impact of Different Taper Angles

This study aimed to examine and compare the retention load values (RL) of different telescopic crown assemblies (Y-TZP and CoCr primary crowns with electroformed and Y-TZP secondary crowns each) with three different taper angles (0°, 1° and 2°). Thirty Y-TZP primary crowns with electroformed gold copings (Z/G group) and Y-TZP secondary crowns (Z/Z group) and 30 CoCr primary crowns with electroformed gold copings (C/G group) and Y-TZP secondary crowns (C/Z group), each with taper angles of 0°, 1° and 2°, were fabricated, respectively. With the exception of the electroformed gold copings, all specimens were Computer-Aided-Design/Computer-Aided-Manufacturing (CAD/CAM)-milled, then sintered and afterwards manually adapted. In order to stabilize the gold copings, they were fixed in a tertiary structure. The secondary crowns were constructed with a hook, which ensured self-alignment with an upper chain. Afterwards, 20 pull-off test cycles were performed in a universal testing machine under artificial saliva and after weighing the secondary crowns with a 5 kg object for 20 s. Data were analyzed by one-way and two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). C/Z with 1° showed higher (p = 0.009) RL than 0° and 2° tapers. C/G at 1° also showed higher (p = 0.001) RL than at tapers of 0° and 2°. Z/G and C/G at 0° showed lower RL than Z/Z and C/Z (p < 0.001). Primary crowns had no impact on the 0° group. Z/G showed lower RL as compared to C/Z within the 1° group (p = 0.007) and Z/Z in the 2° group (p = 0.006). The primary crown material had no influence on RL. Electroformed copings showed lower RL. Further investigations for 1° as well as for the long-term performance after thermomechanical aging are necessary.
Histofluorescen t and Ultrastructural Identification of Aminergic Processes in the Opisthaptor of the Marine Monogene, Microcotyle sebastis (Polyopisthocotylea: Microcotylinae)

The opisthaptoral clamp region of Microcotyle sebastis Goto, 1894, was examined for aminergic processes by histofluorescent and ultrastructural techniques. Glyoxylic acid-induced fluorescence, indicative of catecholamines, revealed blue/green varicosities and longitudinal processes directly associated with clamp ele- ments. Ultrastructural examination of nerve processes in close histologic proximity to those found by fluorescence microscopy revealed numerous small dense and/or dense-core vesicles within the clamp musculature, as well as processes containing both electron-dense and lucent vesicles in the opisthaptoral neuropil. Two nerve bundles, surrounded by clamp basal lamina and epidermis within the clamp cavity, were found situated on either side of the median clamp sclerite. A nerve bundle was also found on the interior surface of the clamp cavity, approximately % the distance between the median clamp sclerite and the lateral sclerite elements. This bundle was serially sectioned and a single uniciliated receptor was found. Although it is speculated that these receptors exhibit bilateral symmetry, only 1 receptor was found. Other processes within the clamp musculature and in the opisthaptoral neuropil contained vesicle types consistent with cholinergic, aminergic, and peptidergic mor- phology. Nerve location and associated vesicle morphology within the clamp suggest a sensory/neuromodulatory role associated with sensory receptors. A role other than sensory is suggested for nerves containing small dense/ dense-core vesicles and/or a combination of other vesicle types within nerves adjacent to or within the haptoral neuropil.
An Augmented Subspace Conjugate Gradient

Many scientific applications require to solve successively linear systems Ax=b with different right-hand sides b and a symmetric positive definite matrix A. The Conjugate Gradient method applied to the first system generates a Krylov subspace which can be efficiently recycled thanks to orthogonal projections in subsequent systems. A modified Conjugate Gradient method is then applied with a specific initial guess and initial descent direction and a modified descent direction during the iterations. This paper gives new theoretical results for this method and proposes a new version which seems robust as far as loss of orthogonality is concerned. Numerical experiments show the efficacy of our method even for quite different right-hand sides.
Variant of X-Linked Chronic Granulomatous Disease Revealed by a Severe Burkholderia cepacia Invasive Infection in an Infant

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a primary immunodeficiency characterized by increased susceptibility to bacteria and fungi since early in life, caused by mutations in any of the five genes coding for protein subunits in NADPH oxidase. X-linked variant CGD can be missed during routine evaluation or present later in life due to hypomorphic mutations and a residual superoxide production. The case of a 10-month-old boy who died of pneumonia is reported. The isolation of Burkholderia cepacia from his lung, together with a marginally low nitroblue tetrazolium reduction assay (NBT), made us suspect and pursue the molecular diagnosis of CGD. A postmortem genetic analysis finally demonstrated CGD caused by a hypomorphic missense mutation with normal gp91phox expression. In a patient being investigated for unusually severe or recurrent infection, a high index of suspicion of immunodeficiency must be maintained.
A Quality-Aware and Energy-Efficient Context Management Framework for Ubiquitous Systems

Sensor-rich Context Management Frameworks (CMF) for Ubiquitous Systems should be able to continuously gather raw data from observed entities in order to characterize the current situation. However, the death of independent sensors and monitoring platform reduce the ability of CMF for detecting the current situation, which directly affects the availability of context-aware applications/services. This paper proposes a quality-aware data reduction approach to minimize the amount of sensed raw data sent to CMF, reducing the energy consumption and network traffic. The proposed approach, based on Adaptative Simple Linear Regression (ASLR), rebuilds the gathered raw data that was not intentionally sent to CMF by prediction. Quality requirements defined on gathered data (Quality of Context) are respected by the reduction approach, avoiding the loss of precision (QoCI precision) and timeliness (QoCI up-to-dateness). The proposed data reduction approach has been integrated into our Context Management Framework (CxtMF), which provides context information for two context-sensitive services: beehive and ECG monitoring services. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach reduces the amount of packets sent over network to 3% for the ECG monitoring service, and 12.15% for the beehive monitoring service, respectively.
Analysis of overlapped chunked codes with small chunks over line networks

To lower the complexity of network codes over packet line networks with arbitrary schedules, chunked codes (CC) and overlapped chunked codes (OCC) were proposed in earlier works. These codes have been previously analyzed for relatively large chunks. In this paper, we prove that for smaller chunks, CC and OCC asymptotically approach the capacity with an arbitrarily small but non-zero constant gap. We also show that unlike the case for large chunks, the larger is the overlap size, the better would be the tradeoff between the speed of convergence and the message or packet error rate. This implies that OCC are superior to CC for shorter chunks. Simulations consistent with the theoretical results are also presented, suggesting great potential for the application of OCC for multimedia transmission over packet networks.
The MMPI-2 neurotic triad subscales and depression levels after pharmacological treatment in patients with depressive disorders - clinical study.

BACKGROUND Affective disorders provide for one third of the main causes of psychiatric inpatient care, both in male and female subjects. An early diagnosis of the disease with precise identification of the character of its particular symptoms are key important factors for the efficacy of treatment. The goal of the study was an identification of possible associations between scores of the neurotic triad in the MMPI-2 test (hypochondria - Hs, depression - D, hysteria - Hy), evaluated at initial hospitalization period with remission degree assessed by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), following eight weeks of treatment with SSRI. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A group of 50 subjects took part in the study. The MMPI-2 test and HDRS were used in the study. The HDRS was performed at the therapy onset and reapplied after 8 weeks of its continuation. The MMPI-2 test was applied at the beginning of treatment. RESULTS Higher scores in Hs (p=0.007), D (p=0.021) and Hy scales (p=0.001) are associated with the higher degree of depression, measured by the HDRS at the therapy onset. The highest performance in Hs scale (p=0.003) and Hy scale (p=0.001) evaluated on admission, was associated with the highest depression level after pharmacological treatment. CONCLUSION The higher the degree of hypochondria and hysteria symptoms, measured by the MMPI-2 test at the onset of therapy in patients with depressive disorders, the higher severity of depression is being found after 8 weeks of therapy with SSRI agents, measured by the HDRS scale.
The Challenge of Process Data Warehousing

The management of organizational knowledge is becoming a key requirement in many engineering organizations. In many cases, it is difficult to capture this knowledge directly, as it is hidden in the way-of-working followed by networks of highly qualified specialists. Moreover, much of this knowledge is strongly context-dependent, so rules to be followed must be augmented by adequate situation analysis. Hardware and software tools used to support these processes are strongly heterogeneous, involving significant effort of usage and very different kinds of data. In this paper, we propose SURFHVV GDWD ZDUH KRXVHV as a means to remedy these problems. A process data warehouse, according to our approach, is centered around a knowledge-based metadata repository which records and drives a heterogeneous engineering process, supported by selected materialized instance data. We follow a concept-centered approach expanding ideas from the European DWQ project and illustrate our solution with a prototypical process data warehouse for chemical engineering design developed within the Collaborative Research Centre IMPROVE at Aachen University of Technology.
Effects of Adoptive Transfer of Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells on Allograft Survival in Organ Transplantation Models: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Objective. To dissect the efficacy of Tol-DC therapy with or without IS in multiple animal models of transplantation. Methods and Results. PubMed, Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for reviews published up to April 2015. Six systematic reviews and a total of 61 articles were finally included. Data were grouped by organ transplantation models and applied to meta-analysis. Our meta-analysis shows that Tol-DC therapy successfully prolonged allograft survival to varying extents in all except the islet transplantation models and with IS drugs further prolonged the survival of heart, skin, and islet allografts in mice, but not of heart allografts in rats. Compared with IS drugs alone, Tol-DC therapy with IS extended islet allograft survival in rats but failed to influence the survival of skin, small intestine, and heart allografts in rats or of heart and skin allografts in mice. Conclusion. Tol-DC therapy significantly prolonged multiple allograft survival and further prolonged survival with IS. However, standardized protocols for modification of Tol-DC should be established before its application in clinic.
Large-core fibre-cavity design for ring-down experiments

A fibre-cavity design based on highly reflective gold coatings, vapor-deposited to the two end faces of a large core multimode waveguide, is presented. In contrast to common fibre-cavity approaches, the laser pulses are not coupled through the reflective coatings into the cavity but through a micro hole in one of the fibre end faces, which reduces the commonly very high coupling loss to less than 1%. Accordingly, lower demands on the source power and the sensitivity of the receiver circuit result in lower costs of ring-down sensor approaches. An estimate of the ringdown time constant of the fibre-cavity is given and the influence of the micro-hole on the reflection loss is discussed.
Comparative analysis reveals that polyploidy does not decelerate diversification in fish

While the proliferation of the species‐rich teleost fish has been ascribed to an ancient genome duplication event at the base of this group, the broader impact of polyploidy on fish evolution and diversification remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate the association between polyploidy and diversification in several fish lineages: the sturgeons (Acipenseridae: Acipenseriformes), the botiid loaches (Botiidae: Cypriniformes), Cyprininae fishes (Cyprinidae: Cypriniformes) and the salmonids (Salmonidae: Salmoniformes). Using likelihood‐based evolutionary methodologies, we co‐estimate speciation and extinction rates associated with polyploid vs. diploid fish lineages. Family‐level analysis of Acipenseridae and Botiidae revealed no significant difference in diversification rates between polyploid and diploid relatives, while analysis of the subfamily Cyprininae revealed higher polyploid diversification. Additionally, order‐level analysis of the polyploid Salmoniformes and its diploid sister clade, the Esociformes, did not support a significantly different net diversification rate between the two groups. Taken together, our results suggest that polyploidy is generally not associated with decreased diversification in fish – a pattern that stands in contrast to that previously observed in plants. While there are notable differences in the time frame examined in the two studies, our results suggest that polyploidy is associated with different diversification patterns in these two major branches of the eukaryote tree of life.
Evaluating ASR confidence score performance in different noisy conditions

This paper deals with the impact of a signal enhancement method on speech recognition confidence scores, in the presence of noise. The speech recognition confidence score reflects the reliability of correctness of the recogniser’s output. This is important since errors in the presence of noise are more frequent and tend to make applications, such as spoken dialogue systems, too cumbersome to use. By recognising enhanced signals not only the word error rate decreases but also the word-based confidence scores decline. Therefore, the role of speech recognition in spoken dialogue systems weakens. The experimentation involves input signal corrupted by coloured noise and cocktail party noise with varying Signal-to-Noise Ratio. A non-linear spectral subtraction method (NSS) will be used in conjunction with the Continuous Speech Recognition system developed for the ERMIS project (IST-2000-29319) to quantify the impact of speech enhancement on confidence score accuracy.
Color Holographic Wavefront Printing Technique for Realistic Representation

This paper presents design and implementation of a color wavefront holographic printer. The printer output is a white light viewable volume hologram composed as a two-dimensional (2-D) array of elemental holograms. The three-dimensional (3-D) input data for the printer are encoded as computer generated holograms (CGHs) displayed in succession on an amplitude type spatial light modulator. The printer optical head extracts and demagnifies the beam with the 3-D object information from the beam diffracted by the modulator to produce a small size elemental hologram. This allows for mosaic delivery of exposures at primary colors with each elemental hologram acting as a single color channel. Computer generation of digital contents is accelerated by design of a phase-added stereogram approach based on partitioning of each CGH. Bright 3-D reconstruction with a motion parallax at saturated colors from holograms of test objects is presented. The holograms are printed on a silver-halide emulsion. The achieved high quality proves feasibility of recording analog color volume holograms from digital contents by mosaic delivery of the primary colors. Two quality enhancement approaches are proposed and tested.
HMM-based automatic visual speech segmentation using facial data

We describe automatic visual speech segmentation using facial data captured by a stereo-vision technique. The segmentation is performed using an HMM-based forced alignment mechanism widely used in automatic speech recognition. The idea is based on the assumption that using visual speech data alone for the training might capture the uniqueness in the facial compo- nent of speech articulation, asynchrony (time lags) in visual and acoustic speech segments and significant coarticulation effects. This should provide valuable information that helps to show the extent to which a phoneme may affect surrounding phonemes visually. This should provide information valuable in labeling the visual speech segments based on dominant coarticulatory contexts.
Adaptive Piecewise Linear Predistorter Based on PSO and Indirect Learning Architecture

This paper puts forward the piecewise linear predistorter based on the PSO and bring out a FPGA implementation scheme based on the look-up table with low complexity when used in the high-speed predistortion system. Memoryless piecewise linear model and memory piecewise linear model are adopted according to the memory feature of Power Amplifiers. After approximating the nonlinear part by a piecewise linear function, its parameters are estimated by using PSO. The adaptive predistortion technique based on PSO is easy to implement. It is proved to be correct through Matlab simulation. Keywordspiecewise linear model ; PSO; predistortion; indirect learning architecture
Epstein-Barr Virus Specific Antibody Response in Multiple Sclerosis Patients during 21 Months of Natalizumab Treatment

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Natalizumab, a humanized anti-α4 integrin monoclonal antibody, is a highly effective treatment approved for MS. An association between MS and an exposure to Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) sustained by the levels of antiviral capsid antigen (VCA) and anti-Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1) IgG has been described. Our goal was to verify the utility of EBV-specific IgG as a marker in Natalizumab treated MS. Twenty patients (17 female and 3 male) in treatment with Natalizumab were enrolled. Serum levels of anti-VCA and anti-EBNA-1 IgG were determined and expressed as arbitrary units (AU) before treatment and every three months for 21 months of therapy. Anti-VCA IgG levels were increased at the 15th month (235410 ± 196712 AU) comparing with the 3rd (98146 ± 47145 AU) and the 6th (109866 ± 52270 AU) months of therapy (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found for serum anti-EBNA-1 IgG levels. Our data indicate that a transient, self-limited, EBV reactivation can occur in MS during Natalizumab therapy but our results do not support the use of serum EBV-specific antibody levels as biomarkers for monitoring therapeutic response to Natalizumab in the course of MS.