Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Prioritization Mechanisms for Large-Scale 3D Streaming in Distributed Virtual Environments

Recently, peer-to-peer (P2P) networking has been proposed to deliver contents efficiently in Distributed Virtual Environments (DVEs) without overloading servers. Due to the nature of the real-time communications in DVEs, peers should carefully select neighbors and content pieces with prioritization in order to achieve the best streaming quality. In this paper, we proposed a prioritization framework for progressively transmitting multimedia contents in P2P-DVEs by taking advantages of the spatial relevance of the scalable multi-layer area-of-interests (SMLAOI). Considering various prioritization schemes at different granularity, we introduce the resource computation into the scene partition and the source selection in the AOI (area-of-interest) layer. Instead of querying objects for downloading randomly, these objects are transmitted progressively with prioritization from the nearest peer to the farthest peer in the AOI area. We have implemented this prioritization framework, called the Scheme of Progressive Transmission (SPT), in a simulated DVE platform for P2P-based 3D streaming applications. We have also conducted a comprehensive simulation study to evaluate the performance of the proposed prioritization algorithms. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed prioritization algorithms outperform two other algorithms including FLoD and Enhanced-FLoD with smoother streaming performance and less server utilization.
Establishment and persistence of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) in disturbed soil as a function of an urban–rural macro‐environment

No data are available on whether rising carbon dioxide concentration [CO2] or increased air temperature can alter the establishment and persistence of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) within a plant community following soil disturbance. To determine ragweed longevity, we exposed disturbed soil with a common seed bank population to an in situ temperature and [CO2] gradient along an urban–rural transect beginning in early 2002. No other consistent differences in meteorological variables (e.g. wind speed, humidity, PAR, tropospheric ozone) as a function of urbanization were documented over the course of the study (2002–2005). Above‐ground measurements of biomass over this period demonstrated that ragweed along the transect responded to urban induced increases in [CO2]/temperature with peak biomass being observed at this location by the end of 2003. However, by the Fall of 2004, and continuing through 2005, urban ragweed populations had dwindled to a few plants. The temporal decline in ragweed populations was not associated with increased disease, herbivory or auto‐allelopathy, but was part of a demographic reduction in the total number of annual plant species observed for the urban location. In a separate experiment, we showed that such a demographic shift is consistent with CO2/temperature induced increases in biomass and litter accumulation, with a subsequent reduction in germination/survival of annual plant species. Overall, these data indicate that [CO2]/temperature differences associated with urbanization may increase initial ragweed productivity and pollen production, but suggest that long‐term, multi‐year persistence of ragweed in the urban macro‐environment may be dependent on other factors.
An Approach to Deal with Ambiguity in Requirement Elicitation

Requirements elicitation has received little attention in past and it has been ignored by most of the software engineering research community, the requirements are often ambiguous, incomplete, inconsistent & informal. Out of which the problem of ambiguity at time of requirement elicitation is difficult to deal with. So in order to solve the problem of ambiguity between the stakeholder and client at the time of interview, this paper proposes a method which is to be used, as soon as a new requirements is expressed by the client in natural language the system converts it to the set of production rules, where each rule is corresponding to the particular context. Then the variables of the each production are converted into bipolar representation, which is used as single vector denoting the sentence of the interview session. The stakeholder brain is considered as associative networks of the bipolar vectors. Upon applying the sentence to the network if we get the same output vector as the input vector then there is no ambiguity in the requirement just expressed.
An unbalanced maternal diet in pregnancy associates with offspring epigenetic changes in genes controlling glucocorticoid action and foetal growth

In epidemiological studies, adverse early‐life conditions associate with subsequent cardiometabolic disease. Hypothesized causes include maternal malnutrition, foetal glucocorticoid overexposure and reduced growth factors. Animal studies suggest a role for epigenetic processes in maintaining early‐life effects into adulthood, but human relevance is unknown. We aimed to investigate relationships between an unbalanced maternal diet in pregnancy, neonatal and adult anthropometric variables with methylation at key genes controlling tissue glucocorticoid action and foetal growth.
Antibacterial Activity of Anesthetic Solutions and Preservatives: An In Vitro Comparative Study

Purpose. To investigate the antibacterial activity of topical anesthetic solutions and their preservatives individually in vitro, to determine involvement with bacterial growth inhibition. Material and Methods. Proparacaine and tetracaine (in concentrations of 0.125%, 0.25%, and 0.50%), edetate disodium (EDTA), benzalkonium chloride, EDTA + benzalkonium chloride, and sterile saline solution were used. Five microliters of each solution were applied to standard filter paper disks and placed in Mueller–Hinton agar previously inoculated with known strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Zones of growth inhibition were measured 24 hours later and analyzed. Results. There were no zones of inhibition in the agar inoculated with P. aeruginosa to all tested solutions. Benzalkonium chloride alone and associated with EDTA inhibited growth of S. aureus. All other solutions did not inhibit S. aureus. Conclusion. Preservative-free anesthetic solutions seemed not to interfere with bacterial development in culture media. Benzalkonium chloride alone and associated with EDTA inhibited development of gram positive bacteria, S. aureus, but did not inhibit P. aeruginosa.
Community-based post-editing of machine-translated content: monolingual vs. bilingual

We carried out a machine-translation postediting pilot study with users of an IT support forum community. For both language pairs (English to German, English to French), 4 native speakers for each language were recruited. They performed monolingual and bilingual postediting tasks on machine-translated forum content. The post-edited content was evaluated using human evaluation (fluency, comprehensibility, fidelity). We found that monolingual post-editing can lead to improved fluency and comprehensibility scores similar to those achieved through bilingual post-editing, while we found that fidelity improved considerably more for the bilingual set-up. Furthermore, the performance across post-editors varied greatly and it was found that some post-editors are able to produce better quality in a monolingual set-up than others.
Millimeter-Wave Multibeam Antenna Based on Eight-Port Hybrid

A simple and successful design for 1-D and 2-D multibeam antenna on a single substrate is presented at 30 GHz based on the eight-port hybrid. They can generate 4 beams in one plane and 2 times 2 beams in two orthogonal planes, respectively. Substrate integrated waveguide is applied in the construction of these circuits by normal printed circuit board process. The measurements demonstrate good performances of these on-substrate multibeam antennas. They also take the advantages of low loss, low cost, compact size, mass producibility, high reliability, and easily integration, which are very important in the development of millimeter-wave system-on-substrate.
Absence of mitochondrial dysfunction in polymyalgia rheumatica. Evidence based on a simultaneous molecular and biochemical approach.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the molecular and biochemical profile of skeletal muscle mitochondria of patients with isolated polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). PATIENTS AND METHODS We included patients with a recent diagnosis of PMR and as control healthy individuals submitted to orthopedic surgery. Skeletal muscle was obtained from quadriceps, thus was mitochondria immediately isolated. Long polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot transference were performed to detect deleted mtDNA molecules. Mitochondrial oxidative activity using different substrates and individual enzyme activity of respiratory chain complexes were assessed to search for any biochemical dysfunction. RESULTS Fifty-one individuals (PMR=25, controls=26) were included. Mean age was 72 (11) years; 45% were females. We found no significant increase of deleted mtDNA molecules in PMR patients compared to controls. Both groups differed neither on oxygen consumption (p=NS for all substrates) nor enzymatic activity (p=NS for all complexes). CONCLUSIONS Skeletal muscle mitochondria are molecularly and biochemically unaffected in PMR.
Interleukin-8 Stimulates Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Replication and Is a Potential New Target for Antiretroviral Therapy

ABSTRACT Production of the C-X-C chemokines interleukin-8 (IL-8) and growth-regulated oncogene alpha (GRO-α) in macrophages is stimulated by exposure to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). We have demonstrated previously that GRO-α then stimulates HIV-1 replication in both T lymphocytes and macrophages. Here we demonstrate that IL-8 also stimulates HIV-1 replication in macrophages and T lymphocytes. We further show that increased levels of IL-8 are present in the lymphoid tissue of patients with AIDS. In addition, we demonstrate that compounds which inhibit the actions of IL-8 and GRO-α via their receptors, CXCR1 and CXCR2, also inhibit HIV-1 replication in both T lymphocytes and macrophages, indicating potential therapeutic uses for these compounds in HIV-1 infection and AIDS.
Increasing the reliability of indices for power quality assessment in distribution networks

Nowadays power quality, especially voltage quality becomes more and more important for utilities, manufacturers and customers as well as for the regulatory authorities. Therefore a growing number of voltage quality monitoring campaigns with continuously increasing measurement times, considerably longer than one week, are observed. The assessment of voltage quality according to common standards (e.g. IEC 61000-2-x or EN 50160) is usually based on an evaluation interval of one week while the handling of measurements lasting more than a week is not clearly specified. Furthermore the measurement data contain lots of information that is not used by the actual applied assessment methods in the most efficient way. Especially for internal planning purposes within the utilities the knowledge of medium- and long-term trends and variations as well as information about the typical time-dependent customer behavior can be very useful. The paper presents a method that includes medium- and long- term variations (e.g. seasonal variations) of continuous voltage quality parameters (e.g. harmonics) into the calculation of actual levels. The method is based on statistical tolerance bounds and produces more reliable values that can be compared with limits given by actual standards or used for further analyses. After a description of actual assessment methods the paper gives a systematical overview on the variations of voltage quality parameters and typical reasons for that. Next the statistical basics are explained on several examples. Based on the experiences of the authors finally some recommendations for practical application of the suggested method are given.
Religiosity, internalized homonegativity and outness in Christian men who have sex with men

When exposed to their congregations' negative views of homosexuality, Christian men who have sex with men frequently struggle to reconcile their religious and sexual identities, possibly contributing to negative emotional states and behaviors associated with HIV/STI infection. To examine the influence of religiousity on internalized homonegativity and outness among Christian men who have sex with men, we used survey data from 1165 men who answered questions about their religious beliefs and sexual behavior. We stratified participants based on religious affiliation groupings: Catholic, Mainline Protestant and Evangelical Protestant. After using confirmatory factor analysis to verify that the selected measures of religiosity were equivalent between groups, we used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between religiosity, internalized homonegativity and outness. Among Catholics and Mainline Protestants, religiosity was not associated with internalized homonegativy or outness. However, among Evangelical Protestants – a group more likely to ascribe to religious fundamentalism – increased religiosity was associated with increased internalized homonegativity, which contributed to decreased outness. Our findings suggest that mental health providers and sexuality educators should be more concerned about the influence of religiosity on internalized homonegativity and outness when clients have a history of affiliation with Evangelical Protestant faiths more so than Catholic or Mainline Protestant faiths.
Understanding the Link-Level Behaviors of a Large Scale Urban Sensor Network

We present the first comprehensive link-level measurements in an operational large-scale urban sensor network. By carefully analyzing the performance metrics, we seek to answer several fundamental questions: what are the characteristics of links in a real large-scale network, and what causes link performance degradation? The key findings of this study are that (1) the performance of intermediate links is the most unpredictable and some links exhibit highly periodic patterns, (2) the width of the reception "transitional region" is much larger than those reported in previous experiments, indicating that an outdoor environment might have a larger impact on the link performance and current protocol parameters should be carefully designed, and (3) different from previously reported results, link performance degradation has a relatively weak correlation with the corresponding RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) values fluctuating near the noise floor.
Ubiquitin C‐terminal hydrolase‐L1 interacts with adhesion complexes and promotes cell migration, survival, and anchorage independent growth

Ubiquitin C‐terminal hydrolase‐L1 (UCH‐L1) is a deubiquitinating enzyme of unknown function that is highly expressed in neurons and overexpressed in several human cancers. UCH‐L1 has been implicated in the regulation of phenotypic properties associated with malignant cell growth but the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. By comparing cells expressing catalytically active or inactive versions of UCH‐L1, we found that the active enzyme enhances cell adhesion, spreading, and migration; inhibits anoikis; and promotes anchorage independent growth. UCH‐L1 accumulates at the motile edge of the cell membrane during the initial phases of adhesion, colocalizes with focal adhesion kinase (FAK), p120‐catenin, and vinculin, and enhances the formation of focal adhesions, which correlates with enhanced FAK activation. The involvement of UCH‐L1 in the regulation of focal adhesions and adherens junctions is supported by coimmunoprecipitation with key components of these complexes, including FAK, paxillin, p120‐catenin, β‐catenin, and vinculin. UCH‐L1 stabilizes focal adhesion signaling in the absence of adhesion, as assessed by reduced caspase‐dependent cleavage of FAK following cell detachment and sustained activity of the AKT signaling pathway. These findings offer new insights on the molecular interactions through which the deubiquitinating enzyme regulates the survival, proliferation, and metastatic potential of malignant cells. —Frisan, T. , Coppotelli, G. , Dryselius, R. , Masucci, M. G. Ubiquitin C‐terminal hydrolase‐L1 interacts with adhesion complexes and promotes cell migration, survival, and anchorage independent growth. FASEB J. 26, 5060–5070 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Reminiscence as autobiographical memory: a catalyst for reminiscence theory development

Research on the psychological outcomes of reminiscence techniques has led to equivocal findings. The goal of this paper is to advance current theory guiding research on reminiscence by examining the implications of viewing reminiscence as a type of autobiographical memory. Butler's classic paper on reminiscence as ‘life review’ (1963) is examined, and revisions to this approach are proposed based on research and theory concerning autobiographical memory. Specifically, the process of reminiscence is delineated through a discussion of the partially reconstructive nature of autobiographical memory and the relation of memory to the self. These developments are then used to predict the types of psychological outcomes that can be expected to result from reminiscence, and the types of reminiscence techniques that can be expected to lead to the distinct outcomes of self-acceptance and self-change. Linking the literatures on reminiscence techniques and autobiographical memory also provides a catalyst for future theoretical and empirical work.
A new received signal strength based location estimation scheme for wireless sensor network

The two-step indoor location estimation method based on received signal strength in wireless sensor network is proposed. Measuring the received signal strength (RSS) of radio signals transmitted by multiple training points in wireless sensor network, least-squares approach has been applied to determine parameters of signal propagation model. Consider the estimated parameters of the signal propagation model obtained in the first step, minimum mean squares error (MMSE) method is applied to estimate the position of target node. Experiment results show that the proposed method has good performance.
Adaptive MMSE-based Precoding in Multiuser MIMO Broadcasting with Application to Cognitive Radio

Since cognitive radio (CR) in conjunction with non-orthogonal multiple access is a candidate techniques for future mobile radio networks, realizing underlay spectrum sharing with high capacity gain is an important issue. In this paper, we propose an adaptive linear precoder design for a CR based multiuser MIMO broadcasting system. The proposed adaptive precoder employs regularized channel inversion based on the minimum mean square error criterion (MMSE). Unlike the conventional MMSE based precoder, the proposed adaptive MMSE based precoding approach develops a new kind of diversity, so-called "precoding diversity" which considerably improves the signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SINR) ratio at the receiver of each cognitive user (CU) while fulfilling the interference constraint at the primary user (PU). Simulation results illustrate that the proposed adaptive MMSE based precoder can achieve good SNR and spectral efficiency gains outperforming the state-of-the-art.
The mRNA Export Factor Human Gle1 Interacts with the Nuclear Pore Complex Protein Nup155*

The protein Gle1 is required for export of mRNAs from the nucleus to the cytoplasm in both lower and higher eukaryotic cells. In human (h) cells, shuttling of hGle1 between the nucleus and cytoplasm is essential for bulk mRNA export. To date, no hGle1-interacting proteins have been reported and the mechanism by which hGle1 interacts with the nuclear pore complex (NPC) and mediates export is unknown. To identify proteins that can interact with hGle1, a genome-wide yeast two-hybrid screen was performed. Three potential hGle1-interacting partners were isolated, including clones encoding the C-terminal region of the NPC protein hNup155. This interaction between hGle1 and full-length hNup155 was confirmed in vitro, and deletion analysis identified the N-terminal 29 residues of hGle1 as the hNup155-binding domain. Experiments in HeLa cells confirmed that the nuclear rim localization of the major hGle1 protein variant (hGle1B) was dependent on the presence of these 29 N-terminal residues. This suggests that this domain of hGle1 is necessary for targeting to the NPC. This work also characterizes the first domain in hNup155, a 177 C-terminal amino acid span that binds to hGle1. The mutual interaction between hGle1 and the symmetrically distributed nuclear pore protein Nup155 suggests a model in which hGle1’s association with hNup155 may represent a step in the Gle1-mediated mRNA export pathway.
MKK3- and MKK6-regulated gene expression is mediated by the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signal transduction pathway

The p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signal transduction pathway is activated by proinflammatory cytokines and environmental stress. The detection of p38 MAP kinase in the nucleus of activated cells suggests that p38 MAP kinase can mediate signaling to the nucleus. To test this hypothesis, we constructed expression vectors for activated MKK3 and MKK6, two MAP kinase kinases that phosphorylate and activate p38 MAP kinase. Expression of activated MKK3 and MKK6 in cultured cells caused a selective increase in p38 MAP kinase activity. Cotransfection experiments demonstrated that p38 MAP kinase activation causes increased reporter gene expression mediated by the transcription factors ATF2 and Elk-1. These data demonstrate that the nucleus is one target of the p38 MAP kinase signal transduction pathway.
Revalidation of the postpartum stress scale.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to test further and validate the postpartum stress scale developed for Taiwanese women. BACKGROUND The postpartum stress scale was developed to measure postpartum stress in Taiwanese women. However, over the last decade, the social context in Taiwan has changed and several items in the scale needed to be re-examined. DESIGN Non-experimental quantitative research with repeated measures at the first and fifth week of the postpartum period was conducted for this study. METHODS A proportional stratified quota was used to sample from the 10 hospitals and six clinics with the highest birth rates in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Participants were 505 and 518 postpartum women at each time point, respectively. RESULTS Factor analysis at two points in time identified three attributes of postpartum stress: (a) maternal role attainment, (b) lack of social support, and (c) negative body changes. The Cronbach's alphas at each time point were 0.94 and 0.92, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The results support the postpartum stress scale as a validated instrument that has been conceptualized, created, and tested with Taiwanese postpartum women. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE This study was done in the hope that women experiencing specific postpartum stressors would be detected and subsequently helped by supportive nursing intervention that provides stressor-specific coping resources.
Statistics of Topological Defects and Spatiotemporal Chaos in a Reaction-Diffusion System.

The transition between rotating spirals and spatiotemporal chaos (``spiral turbulence'') in an excitable reaction-diffusion system is investigated by means of statistics of topological defects of the concentration field. The ratio of the variance and the mean value of the number of defects show a significant deviation from unity at this point. A change of the defect dynamics within the turbulent regime reveals a strong similarity to a liquid-to-gas transition, while a liquid-solid-like transition occurs upon a jumplike return to the region of spiral stability.