Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Probability Based Modulation and Its Application in Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications in 5G

The optimal modulations when the bits are not equally distributed between occurrence of 0 and 1 are studied. According to their probability distribution, the constellation points in our scheme are shaped via the Huffman coding algorithm and we call it a probability-based modulation in this paper. Mathematical analysis proves that, it can increase the minimum Euclidean distance (MED) of the conventional modulation by above 58\% and improves the performance significantly. In addition, its demodulation algorithm is as simple as that of conventional ones thanks to additional design principles proposed in this paper. Consequently, it can be a good candidate modulation for the non-uniformly distributed bits. Based on this observation, we adopt it in the hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) feedback channel for ultra reliable low latency communications (URLLC) in 5G. As one can see that, if 0 and 1 represent acknowledge (ACK) and non-acknowledge (NACK) message, respectively, the payload bits in this channel will be highly unevenly distributed between 0 and 1 due to the high reliability of this service. By use of the proposed modulation, a code division multiplexing (CDM) and repetition coding based design is proposed. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results show that our modulation based method outperforms the conventional modulation based one in terms of performance and power efficiency.
Lack of consistency in the relationship between asymptomatic DVT detected by venography and symptomatic VTE in thromboprophylaxis trials

Summary Asymptomatic deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) detected by mandatory venography, a surrogate outcome, comprises most of the efficacy outcome events in recent thromboprophylaxis trials. The validity of this surrogate to estimate trade-off between thrombotic and bleeding events in these clinical trials requires a consistent relationship between asymptomatic DVT and symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE). In this systematic review of high quality VTE prevention trials, we examined the consistency of the ratios of asymptomatic DVT to symptomatic VTE across a broad range of indications. Studies were identified from citations listed in the chapters on VTE prevention in the antithrombotic guidelines by the American College of Chest Physicians, 2012. A study was eligible if it: 1) was a randomised trial comparing an anticoagulant with standard of care; 2) included at least 500 participants; 3) reported asymptomatic or all DVT rates; and 4) re ported symptomatic VTE rates. Of the 26 eligible trials, 19 trials were conducted in orthopaedic patients, five in general surgery patients and two in general medical patients. The overall median rates (ranges) for asymptomatic DVT and symptomatic VTE were 9.11% (0.75 to 54.87%) and 0.49% (0.00 to 3.10%), respectively. The median ratio was 14.53, with a wide range (2.75 to 103.86). Wide variability in the ratios persisted despite indication- and anticoagulant-specific analyses. In VTE prevention trials of alternative anticoagulants, the wide variability in the ratios of asymptomatic DVT to symptomatic VTE precludes judging the trade-off between thrombotic and bleeding events on the basis of composite outcomes dominated by venographic DVT.
Dominance genetic and maternal effects for genetic evaluation of egg production traits in dual-purpose chickens

ABSTRACT 1. A study was conducted to study direct dominance genetic and maternal effects on genetic evaluation of production traits in dual-purpose chickens. The data set consisted of records of body weight and egg production of 49 749 Mazandaran fowls from 19 consecutive generations. Based on combinations of different random effects, including direct additive and dominance genetic and maternal additive genetic and environmental effects, 8 different models were compared. 2. Inclusion of a maternal genetic effect in the models noticeably improved goodness of fit for all traits. Direct dominance genetic effect did not have noticeable effects on goodness of fit but simultaneous inclusion of both direct dominance and maternal additive genetic effects improved fitting criteria and accuracies of genetic parameter estimates for hatching body weight and egg production traits. 3. Estimates of heritability (h2) for body weights at hatch, 8 weeks and 12 weeks of age (BW0, BW8 and BW12, respectively), age at sexual maturity (ASM), average egg weights at 28–32 weeks of laying period (AEW), egg number (EN) and egg production intensity (EI) were 0.08, 0.21, 0.22, 0.22, 0.21, 0.09 and 0.10, respectively. For BW0, BW8, BW12, ASM, AEW, EN and EI, proportion of dominance genetic to total phenotypic variance (d2) were 0.06, 0.08, 0.01, 0.06, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.07 and maternal heritability estimates (m2) were 0.05, 0.04, 0.03, 0.13, 0.21, 0.07 and 0.03, respectively. Negligible coefficients of maternal environmental effect (c2) from 0.01 to 0.08 were estimated for all traits, other than BW0, which had an estimate of 0.30. 4. Breeding values (BVs) estimated for body weights at early ages (BW0 and BW8) were considerably affected by components of the models, but almost similar BVs were estimated by different models for higher age body weight (BW12) and egg production traits (ASM, AEW, EN and EI). Generally, it could be concluded that inclusion of maternal effects (both genetic and environmental) and, to a lesser extent, direct dominance genetic effect would improve the accuracy of genetic evaluation for early age body weights in dual-purpose chickens.
Breast Conservation Therapy in Patients With Stage T1–T2 Breast Cancer: Current Challenges and Opportunities

Objectives:Despite the fact that breast conservation therapy has been established as an effective treatment, a number of issues and controversies currently surround the application of this treatment for patients with stage T1 and T2 breast cancer. Methods:Records of patients with histologically confirmed stage T1 (n = 1172) and stage T2 (n = 349) breast cancer, treated with wide local tumor excision and whole breast irradiation between January 1970 and December 2000, were prospectively registered on our database. Median follow-up was 6.6 years. Numerous publications addressing issues to be reviewed were collected, and data and prevailing controversies are discussed. Results:The 10-year actuarial incidence of ipsilateral breast relapse was 7% for T1 and 11% for T2 tumors. Results with breast conservation therapy were equivalent in white or black women with T1 or T2 tumors. In patients younger than 40 years, incidence of failures was 10% for T1 (in contrast to 4% for other age groups) and 15% for T2 lesions (in contrast to 6% in other groups). The incidence of ipsilateral recurrences in women younger than 40 years was, for T1 tumors, 9% with negative surgical margins and 12% with close or positive margins and for T2 tumors 12% and 22%, respectively (difference not statistically significant). Conclusions:Use of breast-conserving surgical therapy should be optimized to enhance therapeutic outcome. Many developments in the oncological field and refinements in treatment planning and delivery of radiation therapy provide unique opportunities for the radiation oncologist to continue to play an integral role in the management of patients with breast cancer.
Characterization of acute inhibition of Na/H exchanger NHE-3 by dopamine in opossum kidney cells.

BACKGROUND Dopamine (DA) is a principal natriuretic hormone that defends extracellular fluid volume from a Na load. Natriuresis is effected partly through inhibiting the proximal tubule Na/H exchanger NHE-3. Changes in NHE-3 phosphorylation is one mechanism by which NHE-3 activity is regulated. METHODS We used opossum kidney (OK) cells to characterize the differential and synergistic effects of DA receptor subtype-1 (DA1) and -2 (DA2) agonists and the effect of blockade of protein kinase A (PKA) or protein kinase C (PKC) on NHE-3 activity and phosphorylation. RESULTS DA and DA1 agonists inhibited NHE-3 activity, and DA1 antagonist blocked the effect of either DA or DA1 agonist. DA2 agonist alone had no effect, but DA2 antagonist reduced the DA effect on NHE-3 activity. DA1 and DA2 agonists together were more potent than DA1 alone. PKA inhibition eliminated the effect of DA1 agonist and partially blocked the effect of DA on NHE-3 activity. PKC inhibition did not block the DA effect. DA1 agonist and PKA activation phosphorylated NHE-3 on identical sites. Despite lack of effect on NHE-3 activity, DA2 agonists increased NHE-3 phosphorylation. DA-induced NHE-3 phosphorylation was distinct from DA1 and PKA but closely resembled DA2. CONCLUSION We postulate the following: (1) DA modifies NHE-3 phosphorylation by activating PKA through DA1 and by other kinases/phosphatases via DA2. (2) DA1 is sufficient to inhibit NHE-3, while DA2 is insufficient but plays a synergistic role by altering NHE-3 phosphorylation.
Factors affecting financial instruments disclosure in emerging economies

: The current study investigates factors affecting Financial Instruments (FI) disclosure for a sample of Jordanian listed companies (82 firms) over two consecutive years (2013 and 2014). An un-weighted disclosure index is used to examine the extent of FI disclosure. In addition, the study employs a number of multiple regression models to examine the determinants of FI disclosure. The findings indicate that the level of FI disclosure provided by the sample firms is relatively low with only 52% of FI-related items being supplied. In addition, the results illustrate that the level of FI-related disclosure has a statistically positive association with firm size, the audit firm employed and corporate governance attributes. However, the current study fails to document significant associations between FI disclosure and firm industry or ownership structure variables. This research provides a number of insights for policy makers. First, the results of the current study could help the IASB when revisiting FI-related accounting standards to consider an emerging country’s perspective. In addition, it provides some insights to accounting regulators in Jordan about how Jordanian listed firms respond to IFRS 7 requirements.
Complications of tibial plateau levelling osteotomy in dogs

Summary The tibial plateau levelling osteotomy (TPLO) is one of the most common surgical procedures used to treat cranial cruciate ligament disease in dogs. Complications occurring during or after TPLO can range in severity from swelling and bruising to fracture and osteomyelitis. Ten to 34% of TPLO surgical procedures are reported to experience a complication and approximately two to four percent require revision surgery to address a complication. Although the risk factors for many complications have not been fully assessed, the best available evidence suggests that complications of TPLO can be reduced with increased surgeon experience, careful surgical planning, and accurate execution of the surgical procedure. Identification of known or suspected risk factors and intraoperative technical errors allow subsequent action to be taken that is aimed at decreasing postoperative morbidity. There is a need for prospective studies with consistent data reporting in order to fully reveal the incidence risk factors for complications associated with TPLO.
The Sox-2 Regulatory Regions Display Their Activities in Two Distinct Types of Multipotent Stem Cells

ABSTRACT The Sox-2 gene is expressed in embryonic stem (ES) cells and neural stem cells. Two transcription enhancer regions, Sox-2 regulatory region 1 (SRR1) and SRR2, were described previously based on their activities in ES cells. Here, we demonstrate that these regulatory regions also exert their activities in neural stem cells. Moreover, our data reveal that, as in ES cells, both SRR1 and SRR2 show their activities rather specifically in multipotent neural stem or progenitor cells but cease to function in differentiated cells, such as postmitotic neurons. Systematic deletion and mutation analyses showed that the same or at least overlapping DNA elements of SRR2 are involved in its activity in both ES and neural stem or progenitor cells. Thus, SRR2 is the first example of an enhancer in which a single regulatory core sequence is involved in multipotent-state-specific expression in two different stem cells, i.e., ES and neural stem cells.
Minimax Probability TSK Fuzzy System Classifier: A More Transparent and Highly Interpretable Classification Model

When an intelligent model is used for medical diagnosis, it is desirable to have a high level of interpretability and transparent model reliability for users. Compared with most of the existing intelligence models, fuzzy systems have shown a distinctive advantage in their interpretabilities. However, how to determine the model reliability of a fuzzy system trained for a recognition task is still an unsolved problem at present. In this study, a minimax probability Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy system classifier called MP-TSK-FSC is proposed to train a fuzzy system classifier and determine the model reliability simultaneously. For the proposed MP-TSK-FSC, a lower bound of correct classification can be presented to the users to characterize the reliability of the trained fuzzy classifier. Thus, the obtained classifier has the distinctive characteristics of both a high level of interpretability and transparent model reliability inherited from the fuzzy system and minimax probability learning strategy, respectively. Our experiments on synthetic datasets and several real-world datasets for medical diagnosis have confirmed the distinctive characteristics of the proposed method.
Bacterial diversity in surgical site infections: not just aerobic cocci any more.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the microbial diversity in chronic surgical site infections (SSIs). METHOD Bacterial populations in 23 chronic SSIs were identified using bacterial tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP),which is an universal bacterial identification method.These results were then validated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). RESULTS bTEFAP identified two previously uncharacterised Bacteroidales in all of the SSIs and showed that it was the predominant population in the majority of these chronic wounds. Other bacteria identified included Corynebacterium spp. , Peptoniphilus spp. , Staphylococcus spp. , Staphylococcus aureus, Serratia marcescens, Prevotella spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Rarefaction analysis of the data indicated that, on average, six genera occurred in any given SSI, suggesting that such infections are multispecies. On average, over 60% of the bacteria evaluated in the SSIs were anaerobic bacilli. The previous literature indicates that aerobic cocci predominate in such wounds. CONCLUSION This modern molecular survey indicates that our previous understanding of which bacteria cause SSIs may be faulty. The high prevalence of anaerobic bacilli and the overwhelming predominance of two previously uncharacterised Bacteroidales suggest that such bacteria may be a leading contributor to such infections. Further research on the identification and treatment of such bacteria are warranted.
Distributed energy management in smart grid with dominated electricity provider and multiple microgrids

In this paper, we consider the energy management issues in smart grid with a dominated electricity provider, i.e., the utility company, and multiple microgrids (MGs) and customers. The utility company has much lower electricity generation cost, higher generation capacity, and first-mover advantage compared to MGs. On the other hand, MGs which are based on renewable energy sources have lower pollutant emission cost and higher customer preference. The interactions and interconnections among the utility company, MGs, and customers are taken into consideration. We model the energy management problem as a three-stage Stackelberg game, in which the utility company is the game leader, and MGs and customers are game followers. The backward induction method is used to analyze the proposed game and closed-form expressions are derived. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and the relationships among system parameters.
Plenary Perspective: The complexity of constitutive and inducible gene expression in mononuclear phagocytes

Monocytes and macrophages differentiate from progenitor cells under the influence of colony‐stimulating factors. Genome‐scale data have enabled the identification of the set of genes that distinguishes macrophages from other cell types and the ways in which thousands of genes are regulated in response to pathogen challenge. Although there has been a focus on a small subset of lineage‐enriched transcription factors, such as PU.1, more than one‐half of the transcription factors in the genome can be expressed in macrophage lineage cells under some state of activation, and they interact in a complex network. The network architecture is conserved across species, but many of the target genes evolve rapidly and differ between mouse and human. The data and publication deluge related to macrophage biology require the development of new analytical tools and ways of presenting information in an accessible form. The website www.macrophages. com is a community website that partly fills this niche.
Causes and timing of the European debt crisis: An econometric evaluation

According to the literature, two main factors sparked the European debt crisis: (1) macroeconomic imbalances originated by national governments and (2) institutional design flaws leading to feeble response by European authorities; still, economists disagree on the factors' strength. Using Bai and Perron's technique, we contribute to the debate by identifying break dates in Greece, Italy and Spain daily values of 10-year public bonds’ interest rates and link them to key political and institutional events. Also, employing GARCH and EGARCH models, we investigate how interest rates spreads' volatility reacted to crucial and long-lasting events. Our results uncover the following facts about the crisis: a) it began in May 2010, while the first aid programme for Greece was approved; b) worsened after summer 2011, as the European authorities hastened restructuring the Greek sovereign debt; c) improved only during summer 2012, when the ECB Governing Council approved a programme for the purchase of sovereign bonds. On the whole, our results point at institutional failures as the main cause of the European debt crisis.
Weekly Alcohol Consumption, Brain Atrophy, and White Matter Hyperintensities in a Community-Based Sample Aged 60 to 64 Years

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the association between weekly alcohol consumption and brain atrophy in adults aged 60 to 64 years. Methods: Brain magnetic resonance imaging scans from 385 adults recruited through a community survey were analyzed. Automated segmentation and manual tracing methods were used to obtain brain subvolumes and automated methods were used to obtain quantification and localization of white matter hyperintensities. Visual measures of cortical atrophy were obtained as were data on health and lifestyle factors. Alcohol consumption was assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Results: In men, weekly alcohol consumption had a positive linear association with ventricular volume and gray matter and a negative linear association with white matter. In women, weekly alcohol consumption had a nonlinear relationship with cerebrospinal fluid and white matter. Alcohol consumption was not associated with white matter hyperintensities, corpus callosum size, hippocampal or amygdala volumes in analyses adjusting for confounding variables. Conclusion: An association between alcohol consumption and brain atrophy is evident at the population level. In women, detrimental effects of alcohol on the brain appear to occur at lower levels of consumption. It remains possible that low levels of alcohol consumption have neuroprotective benefits but is clear that high levels of consumption are detrimental. AC-PC = anterior commissure–posterior commissure; ACT = Australian Capital Territory; APOE = apolipoprotein allele; ARIC = The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities; AUDIT = Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test; CHS = Cardiovascular Health Study; CSF = cerebrospinal fluid; DNA = deoxyribonucleic acid; FFE = fast field echo; FLAIR = fluid attenuation inversion recovery; FOV= field of view; ICV = intracranial volume; MMSE = Mini-Mental State Examination; MRI = magnetic resonance imaging; NEX = number of acquisitions; NSW = New South Wales; TE = echo time; SPM = statistical parametric mapping; TI = inversion time; TR = repetition time; WMH = white matter hyperintensities.
Twin deficits threat in the European Union

TWIN DEFICITS THREAT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION Marianna Sinicakova, Veronika Sulikova, Beata Gavurova The aim of the contribution was to identify presence and contagion threat of twin defi cits, i.e. simultaneous budget and current account defi cit in the EU countries. Using correlations and Granger causality testing we recorded existence of twin defi cits in most of EU countries. In several countries we confi rmed traditional causality that budget defi cit implies current account defi cit. In several other countries the opposite, known as current account targeting, was true. In two counties (Spain and Hungary) bi-causality was detected. We consider existence of bi-causality as the most complicated situation in practice. Then it is a real vicious cycle. Policy makers must target both imbalances at the same time, to solve this problem, which can be very diffi cult. Persistent macroeconomic problems in these two countries confi rm our assumption.Our paper extends existing literature by determination of two thresholds for public debt-to-GDP which modify occurrence and risk of twin defi cits in the EU countries. These break points were identifi ed via threshold panel data model. Twin defi cits problems are not probable for countries with public debt-to-GDP lower than 30.668%. However, risk of this phenomenon is much higher if public debt is from 30.688% to 98.126%. Countries with public debt over 98.126% suffer from high and persistent twin imbalances. Therefore we suggest reconsideration of Maastricht criterion on public debt and its reduction to 30%. Finally we observe contagion effect of twin defi cits throughout EU countries regardless their economic performance or the euro area membership which is indirectly triggered also in the case of non-euro area members.
China’s Exchange-Rate Regime Reform and Trade Between China and the Eurozone

ABSTRACT This article investigates the effects of China’s exchange-rate regime reform on trade between China and the eurozone. Both the exchange rate between the euro (EUR) and the renminbi (RMB) and exchange-rate volatility are included in the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, and our empirical work also considers the third-country effect. Our findings show that, during the reform period, China’s exports to the eurozone are affected only by the EUR–RMB exchange rate per se and not by its volatility. However, neither the exchange rate nor its volatility significantly influences the eurozone’s exports to China during the reform period. Such asymmetry might be attributed to the discrepancy between Chinese exporters and their eurozone counterparts in the knowledge and ability to manage exchange-rate risk.