Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reliable and Unobtrusive Inter-Device Collaboration by Continuous Interaction

Currently, there is a lack of support for seamless task migration among devices starting a task on one device and continuing it on another, without the need of manual application state inspection and data transfer. We are solving this problem by employing our framework for application state acquisition coupled with user interface based on an intuitive metaphor: video recording. Our solution utilizes a combination of natural features based detection and marker tracking in order to reliably establish the homography between the screen and the observation of the mobile device’s camera. This allows us to employ a fast and precise continuous interaction even on low-end mobile devices. In every moment, user is given relevant task and content-migration options for selected application. The experimental results show that our solution provides reliable task migration at interactive frame rates.
Medical and Periodontal Clinical Parameters in Patients at Different Levels of Chronic Renal Failure

Aim. To assess the clinical periodontal and medical parameters in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) at different levels of renal disease. Background. CRF is a progressive and irreversible loss of renal function associated with a decline in the glomerular filtration rate. Periodontal disease is a destructive inflammatory disease affecting periodontal tissues that shows high prevalence in patients with CRF. Materials and Methods. 102 CRF patients were included and divided into an early stage group (EG), predialysis group (PDG), and hemodialysis group (HDG). The medical parameters were taken from the patients' records. Results. Periodontal clinical condition differed among the CRF groups. Clinical attachment loss was greater in the HDG and PDG group compared to the EG (p = 0.0364); the same was observed in the Plaque Index (p = 0.0296); the others periodontal parameters did not show any differences. Ferritin levels were significantly higher in the HDG when compared to the EG and PGD (p < 0.0001), and fibrinogen was higher in PDG compared with the others (p < 0.0001); the triglycerides also showed higher values in the HDG compared with the other groups (p < 0.0001). Conclusion. The patients with renal involvement should have a multidisciplinary approach to an improvement in their oral and systemic health.
Coordinating components in middleware systems

Configuration and coordination are central issues in the design and implementation of middleware systems and are one of the reasons why building such systems is more complex than constructing stand‐alone sequential programs. Through configuration, the structure of the system is established—which elements it contains, where they are located and how they are interconnected. Coordination is concerned with the interaction of the various components—when an interaction takes place, which parties are involved, what protocols are followed. Its purpose is to coordinate the behaviour of the various components to meet the overall system specification. The open and adaptive nature of middleware systems makes the task of configuration and coordination particularly challenging. We propose a model that can operate in such an environment and enables the dynamic integration and coordination of components by observing and coercing their behaviour through the interception of the messages exchanged between them. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Improving Performance of Declarative Query Execution in DHT-Based Systems

Peer-to-peer systems based on Distributed Hash Tables face tradeoffs between the performance (latency or availability) and their desired functionality. In fact, lookup latency is affected by the mismatch problem between the overlay hop and the underlying topology. So, applications built on top of such systems can be impacted. A core problem in peer-to-peer systems is the distribution of items to be stored or computations to be carried out by peers in the system. Many works have been done concerning storage and key distribution but little work has been done regarding the distribution of operations carried out by peers in the system. This paper presents a query execution load balancing strategy that allows improving performance of declarative query execution in P2P DHT-based systems. A performance evaluation, using Grid5000 platform, is provided to verify the improvement achieved by the strategies presented.
DWI prediction of symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation in acute MCA infarct.

PURPOSE Symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation is a severe complication of acute ischemic stroke which occurs at a higher frequency after thrombolysis. The present study was designed to analyze whether early DWI can be used for predicting the risk of hemorrhagic transformation with clinical worsening in MCA stroke patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Of 28 patients with a middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarct and proven MCA or carotid T occlusion on DWI and MR angiography performed within 14 hours after onset (mean 6.5 +/- 3.5 hours, median 5.2 hours), 4 developed hemorrhagic transformation with clinical worsening, while 24 did not. For the 2 groups, we compared admission NIHSS score, site of arterial occlusion, volume of DWI abnormalities, and several apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements: ADC(infarct) (mean ADC value of the whole infarct), ADC(core) (peak ADC decrease as calculated in a 57 mm(2) circular ROI, manually centered on the ischemic area with the lowest ADC value on the ADC maps), ADC(superficial) and ADC(deep). Discriminant function analysis was used to determine the most accurate predictors of symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation. RESULTS The best predictor was the ADC(core) (F=5.34, p=2.9%, cut-off value=300 x 10(-6) mm(2)/s). This monovariate model allowed to correctly classify all 4 patients (ADC(core) 300 x 10(-6) mm(2)/s) with subsequent symptomatic hemorrhage, and 17 of the 24 patients without symptomatic hemmorrhage (ADC(core)>300 x 10(-6) mm(2)/s) (100% sensitivity, 71% specificity). CONCLUSION Although preliminary, these results suggest that a simple measurement of minimum ADC values within an acute MCA stroke could be useful in targeting those patients with a high risk of severe hemorrhagic transformation.
Polymorphism of the Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Gene in End-Stage Renal Failure Patients

The plasma levels of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) are modulated by the insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism within the ACE gene locus. An association between progressive renal disease, raised cardiovascular risk, and ACE plasma levels has been shown. To evaluate the genotype frequencies of the I/D polymorphism in terminal renal failure, we have enrolled 341 dialysis patients (321 on hemodialysis and 20 on peritoneal dialysis) in a district of southern Italy (Foggia). As controls, 1,307 subjects from the same area have been enrolled. Genomic DNA was obtained from leukocytes, and the ACE I/D polymorphism was determined by polymerase chain reaction. Among uremics, 151 subjects (44.3%) carried the DD genotype, 149 (43.7%) the ID, and 41 (12.0%) the II genotype. In controls, 560 subjects (42.8%) had the DD genotype, 577 (44.1%) the ID, and 170 (13.1%) the II genotype (p = n.s.). Among patients, the frequency of DD subjects was higher in men (48.3%) than in women (39.7%, p < 0.01). A slight different frequency of the DD genotype was found according to the duration of dialysis treatment: 47.5% in patients on dialysis up to 60 months and 41.7 and 40.6% in those with a dialytic age of 60–120 and >120 months, respectively (p for trend: 0.53). Patients with or without cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, coronary artery disease, and chronic cardiac failure, did not exhibit any difference in ACE I/D allele and genotype frequencies (p always >0.05). In conclusion, frequencies of the ACE DD genotype were similar in uremics and in controls and did not differ between patients with and without cardiovascular diseases. A nonsignificant inverse relationship with the time spent on dialysis was observed, suggesting that ACE I/D polymorphism may influence the cardiovascular death rate.
Coordinated response of mammalian Rad51 and Rad52 to DNA damage

Biochemical analysis has shown that mammalian Rad51 and Rad52 interact and synergize in DNA recombination reactions in vitro, but these proteins have not been shown to function together in response to DNA damage in vivo. By analysis of murine cells expressing murine Rad52 tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP)–Rad52, we now show that DNA damage causes Rad51 and GFP–Rad52 to colocalize in distinct nuclear foci. Cells expressing GFP–Rad52 show both increased survival and an increased number of Rad51 foci, raising the possibility that Rad52 is limiting for repair. These observations provide evidence of coordinated function of Rad51 and Rad52 in vivo and support the hypothesis that Rad52 plays an important role in the DNA damage response in mammalian cells.
Intracellular Hyper-Acidification Potentiated by Hydrogen Sulfide Mediates Invasive and Therapy Resistant Cancer Cell Death

Slow and continuous release of H2S by GYY4137 has previously been demonstrated to kill cancer cells by increasing glycolysis and impairing anion exchanger and sodium/proton exchanger activity. This action is specific for cancer cells. The resulting lactate overproduction and defective pH homeostasis bring about intracellular acidification-induced cancer cell death. The present study investigated the potency of H2S released by GYY4137 against invasive and radio- as well as chemo-resistant cancers, known to be glycolytically active. We characterized and utilized cancer cell line pairs of various organ origins, based on their aggressive behaviors, and assessed their response to GYY4137. We compared glycolytic activity, via lactate production, and intracellular pH of each cancer cell line pair after exposure to H2S. Invasive and therapy resistant cancers, collectively termed aggressive cancers, are receptive to H2S-mediated cytotoxicity, albeit at a higher concentration of GYY4137 donor. While lactate production was enhanced, intracellular pH of aggressive cancers was only modestly decreased. Inherently, the magnitude of intracellular pH decrease is a key determinant for cancer cell sensitivity to H2S. We demonstrated the utility of coupling GYY4137 with either simvastatin, known to inhibit monocarboxylate transporter 4 (MCT4), or metformin, to further boost glycolysis, in bringing about cell death for aggressive cancers. Simvastatin inhibiting lactate extrusion thence contained excess lactate induced by GYY4137 within intracellular compartment. In contrast, the combined exposure to both GYY4137 and metformin overwhelms cancer cells with lactate over-production exceeding its expulsion rate. Together, GYY4137 and simvastatin or metformin synergize to induce intracellular hyper-acidification-mediated cancer cell death.
Extended-duration services evaluation: an exploratory study

There is a lack of research and literature concerned with services which are produced and delivered over substantial, sustained time periods. The growing Leisure Air Travel industry has a major component of extended–duration product (long-haul flights). In the existing literature, there is little or no distinction made between leisure and business travellers regarding their motivation and expectations, the duration of the service encounters and the travellers’ evaluation of the service. The authors propose that leisure and business travellers have distinct and differing motives for travelling which affect their service evaluation. The individual consumers’ characteristics, combined with industry conditions and the complex product component, mean that measuring consumer satisfaction, with leisure air travel, in a useful way is problematic. The authors suggest that a major part of the complexity of the product is that leisure air travel is a high-involvement, high-affect, extended service. In June 2000 and February 2001, exploratory research in the form of focus groups conducted using a total of 110 passengers from a United Kingdom leisure airline, revealed several important criteria used by consumers when evaluating service provision. The criteria are grouped into six factors: Hygiene, Service/Empathy, Psychological, Temporal, Personal Characteristics, and Situation Specifics. A new model for examining the relationships between the factors, the airline and satisfaction evaluation is proposed.
Parametric autopilot design for an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle

This paper presents a parametric autopilot design for an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle. The coupled, nonlinear dynamics necessitates the use of separate pitch and yaw/roll channels, where the cross channel states are treated as exogenous parameters. Then controllers were designed at fixed points using parametric eigenstructure assignment method and a novel gain-scheduled controller design method based on time-varying criterion is proposed upon. The novel method could easily be translated into an optimal problem, the solved controller can have good control performance. Six-DOF Simulation results for an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle show the effectiveness of the method.
Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing

The diverse hummingbird family (Trochilidae) has unique adaptations for nectarivory, among which is the ability to sustain hover-feeding. As hummingbirds mainly feed while hovering, it is crucial to maintain this ability throughout the annual cycle—especially during flight-feather moult, in which wing area is reduced. To quantify the aerodynamic characteristics and flow mechanisms of a hummingbird wing throughout the annual cycle, time-accurate aerodynamic loads and flow field measurements were correlated over a dynamically scaled wing model of Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna). We present measurements recorded over a model of a complete wing to evaluate the baseline aerodynamic characteristics and flow mechanisms. We found that the vorticity concentration that had developed from the wing’s leading-edge differs from the attached vorticity structure that was typically found over insects’ wings; firstly, it is more elongated along the wing chord, and secondly, it encounters high levels of fluctuations rather than a steady vortex. Lift characteristics resemble those of insects; however, a 20% increase in the lift-to-torque ratio was obtained for the hummingbird wing model. Time-accurate aerodynamic loads were also used to evaluate the time-evolution of the specific power required from the flight muscles, and the overall wingbeat power requirements nicely matched previous studies.
Towards Tiny Trusted Third Parties

Many security protocols hypothesize the existence of a trusted third party (TTP) to ease handling of computation and data too sensitive for the other parties involved. Subsequent discussion usually dismisses these protocols as hypothetical or impractical, under the assumption that trusted third parties cannot exist. However, the last decade has seen the emergence of hardware-based devices that, to high assurance, can carry out computation unmolested; emerging research promises more. In theory, such devices can perform the role of a trusted third party in real-world problems. In practice, we have found problems. The devices aspire to be general-purpose processors but are too small to accommodate real-world problem sizes. The small size forces programmers to hand-tune each algorithm anew, if possible, to fit inside the small space without losing security. This tuning heavily uses operations that general-purpose processors do not perform well. Furthermore, perhaps by trying to incorporate too much functionality, current devices are also too expensive to deploy widely. Our current research attempts to overcome these barriers, by focusing on the effective use of tiny TTPs (T3Ps). To eliminate the programming obstacle, we used our experience building hardware TTP apps to design and prototype an efficient way to execute arbitrary programs on T3Ps while preserving the critical trust properties. To eliminate the performance and cost obstacles, we are currently examining the potential hardware design for a T3P optimized for these operations. In previous papers, we reported our work on the programming obstacle. In this paper, we examine the potential hardware designs. We estimate that such a T3P could outperform existing devices by several orders of magnitude, while also having a gate-count of only 30K-60K, one to three orders of magnitude smaller than existing devices.
Fibrin sealant: summary of a conference on characteristics and clinical uses

The 2‐day conference clearly outlined the formulations of products that are being developed or are commercially available in Europe. The major difference between products in the United States and those in Europe is that US manufacturers are preparing fibrin sealant that does not contain aprotinin, epsilon amino caproic acid, or any other type of antifibrinolytic agent, whereas antifibrinolytic agents are included in all such preparations used in Europe. The conference provided no clear consensus that such agents are essential to the efficacy of the product. Although many investigators believe in the clinical benefit of fibrin sealant, most of the studies to demonstrate efficacy have not been performed in a well‐controlled fashion. However, fibrin sealant, if found in a controlled trial to have clinical efficacy, could be approved by the FDA for a narrow indication. Opportunities remain for greater exploration of different forms of the product, not only as a hemostatic agent, but as an adjunct to wound healing and as a matrix for delivery of drugs and proteins with other biologic activities.
How scenes containing visual errors affect speech fluency in young and older adults

ABSTRACT We compared young and older adults’ speech during an error detection task, with some pictures containing visual errors and anomalies and other pictures error-free. We analyzed three disfluency types: mid-phrase speech fillers (e.g., It’s a little, um, girl), repetitions (e.g., He’s trying to catch the- the birds), and repairs (e.g., She- you can see her legs). Older adults produced more mid-phrase fillers than young adults only when describing pictures containing errors. These often reflect word retrieval problems and represent clear disruptions to fluency, so this interaction indicates that the need to form and maintain representations of novel information can specifically compromise older adults’ speech fluency. Overall, older adults produced more repetitions and repairs than young adults, regardless of picture type, indicating general age-related increases in these disfluencies. The obtained patterns are discussed in the context of the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis and other approaches to age-related changes in speech fluency.
Compensating for irregular sampling and rugged topography

Artifacts arise when irregularly sampled data are input to a Kirchhoff datuming algorithm. The irregular sampling occurs because of uneven sampling of the recording surface and rugged topography. To ameliorate these artifacts, I combine wave-equation datuming with model-space filtering to resample data onto a regular grid. The filtering can be a simple Laplacian operator or a nonstationary prediction error filter with unknown filter coefficients. Synthetic examples demonstrate that the method is successful for unevenly sampled data along a flat datum. The best result is achieved by using a Laplacian filter in the inversion.
Noisy inductive matrix completion under sparse factor models

Inductive Matrix Completion (IMC) is an important class of matrix completion problems that allows direct inclusion of available features to enhance estimation capabilities. These models have found applications in personalized recommendation systems, multilabel learning, dictionary learning, etc. This paper examines a general class of noisy matrix completion tasks where the underlying matrix is following an IMC model i.e., it is formed by a mixing matrix (a priori unknown) sandwiched between two known feature matrices. The mixing matrix here is assumed to be well approximated by the product of two sparse matrices — referred here to as “sparse factor models. ” We leverage the main theorem of [1] and extend it to provide theoretical error bounds for the sparsity-regularized maximum likelihood estimators for the class of problems discussed in this paper. The main result is general in the sense that it can be used to derive error bounds for various noise models. In this paper, we instantiate our main result for the case of Gaussian noise and provide corresponding error bounds in terms of squared loss.
Timing of first alcohol use and alcohol dependence: evidence of common genetic influences.

AIMS To estimate the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on timing of first alcohol use and alcohol dependence (AD) and to quantify the overlap in these influences across the two alcohol-related outcomes. PARTICIPANTS The sample consisted of 5382 twins (2691 complete pairs), aged 24-36 years, from the Australian Twin Registry. MEASUREMENTS History of alcohol use and DSM-IV alcohol dependence were assessed by structured telephone interview. FINDINGS In both sexes, the relationship between age at first alcohol use and risk for AD followed a linear trend, such that the highest rates of AD were observed in individuals who began drinking at an earlier than average age (14 years or younger). Heritability estimates for timing of first alcohol use and AD were 36% and 53%, respectively. Shared environmental factors accounted for 15% of variance in initiation. There was no evidence of shared environmental influences on AD. The genetic correlation between timing of first alcohol use and AD was 0.59. CONCLUSIONS Findings highlight the substantial role of genetics in the development of AD and the early manifestation of that genetic risk in the timing of alcohol use initiation which, unlike AD, is also influenced to a modest degree by shared environmental factors. The considerable overlap in heritable influences-and the virtual absence of overlap in individual-specific environmental influences-on initiation of alcohol use and AD indicates that the association between age at first drink and AD is attributable in large part to common genetic sources of variance.